Aleph-class starfighter

Aleph-class starfighter "I've played around with Aleph simulators. They've got plenty of speed, but they maneuver like big plugs of duracrete."

- Syal Antilles

The Aleph-class starfighter, originally nicknamed the Pondskipper, but more commonly known as the Aleph or Twee, was a heavy two-seater starfighter designed by Sienar Fleet Systems for use by the Galactic Alliance Navy.

Characteristics
"What the fierfek are those?"

- Han Solo upon encountering Gray Squadron over Tralus

As the nickname "Twee" suggested, an Aleph resembled the head of a Twi'lek with two long, tapering drive units thrust back behind a ball-shaped cockpit pod, similar to that of a TIE/ln starfighter but somewhat larger. To add to the fighter's ungainly appearance, the cockpit was flanked by a quad laser turret on either side, likened by some personnel to a pair of earmuffs. These turrets were usually problematic to operate, and would often either fail to immediately respond or jam altogether.

The pilot and gunner sat side-by-side in a shared cockpit with two forward-facing circular viewports. The gunner sat on the right and the pilot on the left, with an R-series astromech droid set centrally in a socket behind their respective seats.

The Aleph's large hull was very tough&mdash;an armored chassis housed mighty power generators to feed its strong deflector shields. Its main weapons were the aforementioned quad laser cannons, which boasted very wide fields of fire, plus forward-firing proton torpedo and concussion missile tubes.

The fighter also had an impressive top speed, comparable to the Eta-5 interceptor, and was quick in atmospheres&mdash;although its acceleration paled in comparison to that of an X-wing&mdash;but its one major deficiency was a serious lack of maneuverability.

To compensate for this, rows of thruster ports were placed along the dorsal and ventral surfaces and both sides of the hull, allowing the fighter to make lateral sidesteps or vertical jumps and drops in flight. However, many pilots regarded this system as no substitute for the inherent grace and maneuverability of a smaller snubfighter.

History
"Sienar Aleph-class starfighters. Originally called Pondskippers because they were to be countermeasures to coralskippers."

- Wedge Antilles elaborating on the Aleph's design

The Aleph was originally designed in the last months of the Yuuzhan Vong War as a one-on-one match for the Yuuzhan Vong coralskipper, but it would be more than a decade before the Aleph eventually entered limited production, around 40 ABY.

As of 40 ABY, six Alephs were combined in an experimental squadron and based on Blue Diver. Syal Antilles flew as the pilot in an Aleph-class starfighter, although she would have preferred to fly in Eta-5 interceptors. Zueb Zan was her gunner, and would complain with regularity about the turrets, which were often balky.

Alephs were also used to patrol Coruscant's orbit as of 43 ABY; two of these ships directed the Millennium Falcon to the Senate Building.

At least one was assigned to the Starfighter Command contingent on Skifter Station, orbiting Kuratooine. The starfighter was deployed to the planet to support Colonel Kadana Sorrel in her investigation of General Stavin Thaal.

Behind the scenes
The Aleph-class starfighter was introduced in Betrayal by Aaron Allston, the first novel in the Legacy of the Force series. Since then, the fighter has also made appearances in three more of Allston's novels: Fury and the Fate of the Jedi novel Backlash, as well as X-wing: Mercy Kill.

Although likened in Betrayal to the head of a Twi'lek, the name and appearance of the Aleph-class starfighter also reflect the letter Aleph instead of the in-universe Aurek. This represents a new naming convention for starfighters, alongside the existing patterns based on the Latin and Greek alphabets&mdash;the latter of which contains the letter Alpha, derived from Aleph in the Hebrew alphabet&mdash;which continue to be represented in Betrayal by ships like X-wings and Eta-5 interceptors.

In The Written Word Hyperspace article, Hebrew letters are associated with the Sith language. It is stated that the Aleph fighter looks similar to the Myke language letter Aleph. Aleph is also an old Semitic word for ox. This is a fitting description of the slow-maneuvering, but heavy-hulled, snubfighter.

The name "Twee" partially came from Aaron Allston's favorite phony "Darth" name for Jacen Solo, "Darth Twee."

Appearances

 * Betrayal
 * Fury
 * Backlash
 * X-wing: Mercy Kill