ORIGINS
The Kr-41 Tempest is a single-seat gunship trans-atmospheric starcraft designed and manufactured by the Kron and Luna Tech design bureaus based on the factory world of Hellion V. It is primarily used by the Combined Armed Forces of the Strax Ascendancy (CAFSA.)

The shortcomings of the Kr-02 Nightwind (which was the Ascendancy's version of the old Nightwind gunship used by the Straxian Empire) became apparent during the opening of Operation Moonlight, leading to a disastrous planetfall. Several Generals of the CAFSA made an official request to the Grand General for a craft to replace it. This was convenient timing as the Grand General had a draft of the order to do just that already underway at the start of Moonlight following a meeting with his inner circle.

With the incredible success of the Kr-48 Overlord dropship, Kron was tasked with the creation of this new gunship. The requirement by the CAFSA was a trans-atmospheric craft, akin to the Overlord, that could escort troop transports, conduct strike missions, and effectively counter the increasing presence of, at the time more advanced, Union armor units. 

As development went along, Kron realized that their delivery would be too late to make the Ascendancy's high command happy. To rectify this, Kron opened themselves up to more direct assistance from Luna Tech, rather than just use Luna designed engines and subsystems. After approval from the Citadel, Luna Tech joined Kron to finish development. Luna's changes gave the gunship a more unorthodox final design among Ascendancy aircraft. 

Even with the cooperative work, the Tempest was finished too late to have not entered service by the time Operation Moonlight had concluded. However, it would be in full production by the time Operation Behemoth would begin, drawing quick praise from both pilots and commanders alike. 

CREW
The Tempest is controlled by a single pilot which acts also as the craft's gunner.  The designers that worked on the program believed that combining the duties of flying, navigation, target detection, and tracking could be automated to a degree that a single crew member could perform all functions. Further, it was not expected that this would cause an excessive psychological and physical strain on the pilot as the sophistication level of the VTOL technology on Hellion V ensured the building of such automatic systems was possible. A single-person crew would provide the benefits of weight reduction, better flight performance, reduce training costs and reduce the number of possible combat casualties as well.

DESIGN
The internal structure of the Tempest is composed of diffusion-bonded metal composites. Chrome-doped zirconium oxide-reinforced fibers in titanium aluminide make up the bonded metal layer, giving exceptional lightness, strength and oxidation resistance. While the outer hull of the craft is made of a tri-layer system, a inner carbon composite layer bonded to a middle layer of single-crystal carbon (able to withstand the heating of atmospheric re-entry), with a ceramic outer layer provides thermal and oxidation resistance during high-altitude, high-speed flight. All underneath a layer of treated stalkrov armor plating.

With the sheer amount of armor allowed by the extra weight reduced in other areas, the Tempest has proven to be exceptionally rugged, capable of withstanding considerable punishment while still remaining airborne. The base Stalkrov armor layers have sufficient protection against light ground fire and missile fragmentation, and its treatment provides limited ablative properties against pulsed lasers.

Housed within the main fuselage are the craft's main fuel tanks. To the rear in the tail is additional fuel tank and oxidant tanks for extra-atmospheric flight. At the tip the tail is a rear and ground facing sensor suite which acts in tandem with the craft's various sensors and scanners housed in side pods.

PROPULSION
To meet the requirement for the craft to operate in multiple combat environments from VTOL to trans-atmospheric flight, The Tempest is equipped with two LunaTech L-400C SABRE (Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine) drives, one housed in each nacelle at the tips of the craft's wings. Using metastable metallic hydrogen along with liquisol as its primary fuel, these engines are incredibly efficient in both void and atmospheric flight.

For VTOL operation, engine exhaust is ducted through the engine nacelle's bottom nozzles, while for horizontal operation exhaust the thrust generated by the turbines is transferred inside the nacelle and sent through it's rear nozzles.

These turbines, along with various small reaction control thrusters located in specific points around the fuselage of the craft, provide the Tempest with surprising maneuverability in atmospheric flight.
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I had this finished for a while :o I just forgot to post it lol
Sorry most of what I've been posting lately is tech stuff, I got some good other works coming up soon though <3