Wraith

The Wraith was a terran space superiority fighter used extensively across the Koprulu sector. Armed primarily with missiles for air and space combat and equipped with onboard cloaking technology, it earned the nickname "phantom killer" and was lionized among its pilots in a manner similar to destroyer captains. Fielded from the Guild Wars onward by the Terran Confederacy and later the Terran Dominion, the Wraith was a mainstay of terran air power for decades before more specialized craft began to take over its roles. (StarCraft (manual); StarCraft: I, Mengsk; StarCraft Field Manual)

Capabilities#

Wraiths primarily used missiles for their air and space attacks but could also fire lasers at air and space targets, though against ground targets those lasers lacked punch. Their armor offered little protection to the craft, and they relied instead on speed, maneuverability, and stealth. The Wraith's cloaking technology, powered by its Apollo reactor, made it known as a "phantom killer," and in later conflicts the craft was deployed alongside Banshees for cloaked strike forces. Piloting a Wraith was no small task, and aspiring Colonial Fleet Wraith pilots already had to be certified combat pilots before gaining access to the craft. (StarCraft (manual); StarCraft: I, Mengsk; StarCraft Field Manual; Space Fleet (StarCraft official site))

Wraiths were capable of both atmospheric and deep-space flight, could withstand entry through a planet's atmosphere, and could travel at supersonic speeds. Because they could not make jumps through warp space on their own, it was generally a given that Wraiths would be attached to capital ships. Even after they fell out of major use, improvements continued, including upgraded Tomahawk power cells and an advanced displacement field intended to help the craft dodge incoming fire. (StarCraft: Uprising; StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga; StarCraft: I, Mengsk; StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga: Firstborn; StarCraft Field Manual)

History#

The Terran Confederacy used the Wraith in 2485 at the beginning of the Guild Wars, where these early craft carried laser weapons and served as a replacement for the Confederate Avenger. By 2499 the Wraith was still considered the newest in a line of space superiority fighters. Most space battles had traditionally taken place between capital ships and smaller gunships, but Tarsonian technicians found that small, dynamic high-speed fighters could repeatedly damage large ships while evading most defensive batteries. During the Brood War, the United Earth Directorate expeditionary fleet included Wraiths in its arsenal. (StarCraft: I, Mengsk; StarCraft Field Manual; StarCraft (manual); StarCraft: Brood War)

Following the Brood War the Wraith's prominence diminished, as the conflict had revealed critical weaknesses in terran anti-air capability and in the Wraith's own design, with combined Wraith and Valkyrie squadrons proving an unwieldy combination against agile zerg airborne organisms. The Viking was developed as a more versatile anti-air craft to fill the role the Wraith had originally been intended for, and with the arrival of the AH/G-24 Banshee, which was also fitted with Wraith cloaking systems, the Wraith lost its anti-ground role to that dedicated craft. Even so, Wraiths remained in Terran Dominion service after the Brood War, with restrictions placed on the augmentations allowed on privately owned fighters. They could still be found in the Dominion Armed Forces by 2504 despite being older technology, and the mercenary group Raynor's Raiders retained access to them as well. After the Second Great War, Wraiths became a rare sight, though flights continued to be deployed by the Dominion well into 2511, including the elite Royal Guard variant known as the Winged Nightmare. (Viking (StarCraft II official site); Banshee (StarCraft II official site); StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga: Firstborn; StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga: Shadow Hunters; StarCraft II: Flashpoint; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft Field Manual; StarCraft: Evolution; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Variants#

The earliest known model was the CF/A-17 Wraith, an innovative and more maneuverable development over older gunships that was armed solely with Gemini air-to-air missiles and intended primarily to destroy capital ships. The CF/A-17G Wraith was the upgraded standard variant, adding a 25mm burst laser for ground attacks alongside the Gemini missiles, along with the latest ECM and stealth technology, a built-in cloaking field running off the craft's main power supply, and the ability to hover. The DF/A-19 Wraith Mk2 was a further upgrade of the CF/A-17G with greater resilience and more powerful weapons without loss of speed, and was used by the mercenary group "Unholy" Tara's Stalkers. In Co-op Missions set during the End War, elite Asteria Wraiths were fielded against Amon by Terran Dominion pilots under Matt Horner's command, and these could remain cloaked indefinitely and override their trigger mechanisms to increase their rate of fire. (StarCraft (manual); Banshee (StarCraft II official site); Wraith (StarCraft Compendium); StarCraft: Uprising; Mercenaries; StarCraft II: Co-op Missions)