“Here I walk along the cliff's rim, the abyss seething below me, and should I trip… Into the Void, we go.”

For the WWIII challenge. I stretched the rules a little, so no hard feelings if I get disqualified. This aircraft comes from a timeline of possible interplanetary war. The involved planets are small and newly colonized, so the scale of the war would be roughly comparable to a WWIII-like scenario. This beauty is owned by the Nation of New Portum.
Controls:
Activator 1: Primary weapons online
Activator 2: Sky Mines online
FireGuns: Deploy sky mines, shoot energy shotguns

How to use Cleaver Rocket pods:
- Max range is around 1.5 miles
- When you are in range, you will instantly lock on to a target. Don’t let this fool you though! The missiles are dumbfire.
- Aim at your target, and launch a cleaver.

How to use REFLEX missiles:
- Modified interceptor missiles
- Max range is about 1.5 miles.
- 360-degree lock angle, with instant locking. Fire when you are within range!

Some tips with Sky Mines:
- They are NOT reliable missile countermeasures!
- For them to be reliable against missiles, you still need to throw in evasive maneuvers.
- They are extremely useful in up-close-and-personal AA combat

Shortly after its establishment, the government of New Portum began to develop a strong airborne arsenal for defense purposes. With assets such as the WakeRider, the now-bustling colony was more than capable of defending itself against the average bandit raid. However, military tensions became apparent after the grounding, in which space travel was rendered impossible for about a month. Diminished economic productivity from all nearby planets gave some governments an opportunity to conquer new land, creating the imminent possibility of interplanetary war. New Portum was a rare exception. The colony’s founding ideals dictated that such expansion was unnecessary, if not morally corrupt. Therefore, the colony was tasked to defend itself from possible interplanetary war.
One source of defense came from an independent contractor, whose name has, due to the following events, been lost to history. This contractor, a former SPECorp engineer, sent blueprints for a design of his, the Veterus Class Ground Attacker directly to the New Portum government. However, the contractor would soon be disappointed, because no invasion came, and therefore, no units were made. Land-hungry colonies on other worlds were only willing to fight proxy wars, which, due to New Portum’s spotless history of diplomacy, had no effect on the peaceful colony’s soil. For this reason, and admittedly, the sub-par quality of the design, the Veterus project was scrapped for years.
The design was then appropriated by an interesting individual – a wild card by all metrics. Endowed with a fragmented, yet analytical mind, this individual remains anonymous. “Let [the plane] stand alone,” she proclaims to every publicist in the known universe,” You don’t need to know who revived it”. The design itself is an elegant rendition of its predecessor, and carries itself with power and decision; it yearns for retribution. Returning from its figurative grave, the Veterus Class overcame its burden, but never forgot its losses. Now used by the elite pilots of New Portum, The Onus of Redemption remains.