Nagato
Despite the succes of the Vector, there was still need for a heavier space fighter. The EPA (Earth Protection Alliance) wanted strong fighters that were easy and fast to build incase there was an alien invasion, so far the EPA's fleet only consisted of Vectors and several defense satellites. The Alpha company then designed their Nagato heavy fighter, not knowing that this ship and it's multitude of future upgraded versions was to become the backbone of the human space fleet in the distant future.
The Nagato is most likely the least complex space fighter ever made, it's a pure fighting machine and everything that didn't contribute to it's offensive capabilities was removed from the ship, while the ship is bigger and stronger than the Vector, it's easier to make, but a lot more expensive since it carried specially designed weapons and engines.
This fighter supports 2 crew members, the pilot and the gunman, where the gunman also has access to the ship's navigational controls as it was slightly more complicated to navigate the heavy ship compared to the Vector, also since the Nagato didn't have the navigation computers like the Vectors did. The fact that every aspect of navigation was now in control of the crew and not the computers allowed more complicated manouvres, eventually an upgrade of the ship's bridge was made so it could support a third crew member, but since the EPA already had more ships than pilots almost none of the upgraded Nagatos were sold and Alpha sticked to the original design.
At the time the first Nagatos were build, the Warbird company within Alpha created it's Warbird MK I, an engine that eventually was used in most of the heavier space shuttles and cargo ships by other companies. The Nagato was equipped with 2 of these new powerfull engines and received two extra small thruster engines for extra maneuverability.
Standard weapons include 2 front lasers and 2 extra lasers on each of the wing's tips as well as 2 small rocket launchers mounted on the wingbase. The Nagato was build to allow more weapons or other systems to be added afterwards, hence the fairly great wings, which serve as weapon bays, fully equipped, the Nagato could hold up to another 6 medium-sized lasers on each wing.
The Bridge is mounted on a long neck to give the crew a better view on the battlefield, while the neck itself contains the fuel and air tanks, 2 small rooms and a passage to the engine room, located in the back section of the hull. Probably not the prettiest ship in the current fleet, but definately the most effective and a workhorse.
Dimensions : length = 51 metres, width = 56 metres, heigth = 12,1 metres.
Nagato MK II
The upgraded versions of the original Nagato design, who were first created shortly after the arrival at Xyth, eventually resulted in the MK II. Several engineers, part of the XLG, adjusted the fighter so there were two versions, later to be optimized by Alpha, who took the opportunity to improve several other sections of the ship and give it a new look at the same time. So the Nagato MK II was born, available in 2 versions : the Assault Nagato and the Battle Nagato.
The differences between the 2 versions consisted of different engine types and different standard weapon systems. The Assault Nagato model was equipped with 4 lasers on each of the wings, 2 near the front and a small laser turret on the back hull. This version was optimized so it could deal out massive amounts of damage in a short period of time, thus it was equipped with 8 additional Terminator-5 missiles. These ships were also slightly faster than the Battle Nagato but had a limited ranged, they were made to be used as fighter on board carrier vessels or bases. The idea was to have these ships fire their missiles, inflicting great damage very fast and then have them hurry back to the carrier or base to get new ammo.
The more succesfull Battle Nagato was the favorite fighter ship of the XLG. It had the same lasers as the Assault Nagato model, but instead of the 8 missiles, it had 4 additional heavy lasers. The different engine configuration allowed the ship to fly longer distances, but at reduced speed and the ship's maneuverability was greatly increased. It is the most effective close-combat heavy fighter which was also capable of fullfilling deep space missions thanx to its increased range and not being dependable on bases or other ships for fuel or ammo.
The Nagato MK II was build on the original, but improved frame of the original Nagato and thus it had basically the same dimensions. Combat range and maximum cruise speed were greatly increased.