S-930 Pegasus

The S-930 Strike Fighter, colloquially known by the nickname of Pegasus, is an experimental exoatmospheric fightercraft developed by SinoViet Heavy Machinery and Chalybs Defense Solutions as a potential next-generation strikecraft for use by the United Nations Space Command.

Design details
The Pegasus has a broadly similar design to the FSS-1000 Sabre fighter; a strikecraft it was in direct competition with for production during the Emergency Defense Fighter initiative in the late-Human-Covenant War. It employs twin engines on either side of the central axis, with a cockpit located toward the front of the craft.

Given its emergence in the EDF program and direct competition to fulfill the same role as the Sabre, alongside the fighter's general design, it likely uses a similar multi-staged rocket system to launch from the surface of a terrestrial world.

Armaments
The Pegasus is extremely heavily armed compared to other similar fighters of its type. The "stripped-down" variant employed by the Tribute defence forces in the post-war era employs twin M90A 30mm Gauss cannons as its primary armament instead of a more standard machine-linked autocannon, and additionally sports two M11B nonlinear cannons as a secondary armament; a weapon in the Spartan laser family of laser-based directed-energy weapons. The Pegasus also sports two M4370 ST/Medusa missile pods - the same model of Medusa used by the FSS-1000 Sabre fighter - and two multi-mission hardpoints for mounting other various ordnances.

Development history
The Pegasus was created as an entry for the Emergency Defense Fighter initiative, a competition put out by the UNSC in the late years of the Human-Covenant War to produce a new fightercraft for use against the Covenant by adapting technologies reverse engineered from the empire's own interceptors. While Ushuaia Armory and Misriah Armory were paired for the YSS-1000 Sabre program, SinoViet Heavy Machinery (a significant manufacturer of the UNSC Navy's warships) worked to develop the Pegasus as their own candidate for consideration - with Chalybs Defense Solutions joining the program as a junior partner. The project produced sixteen prototypes with nine considered combat-ready by early 2552 - making them ready for use in the Battle for Tribute later that year. All nine combat-ready craft were lost in the fighting.

The Sabre was ultimately selected for use by the UNSC and went on to become a predominant space superiority fighter in the post-war era, with the Pegasus mostly shelved. A "stripped-down" version of the Pegasus did remain in production for "evaluation" by Tribute's defensive forces, with the UNSC Air Force tentatively electing to purchase the fighter with the goal of fully replacing its aging fleet of S-14 Baselards by 2570. The Created uprising put a halt on these plans.

Production notes
The Pegasus originated from an early model revision of the Sabre fighter concepted and modelled by Isaac Hannaford for inclusion in Halo: Reach's famous space combat level Long Night of Solace. While tested in-game, the design was scrapped as it did not have a strong enough profile from the position of the camera that the player would use.

The model for the Pegasus was restored by the Digsite project for use in mods for Halo: Reach, and was officially canonised in a 2023 Canon Fodder article. Many of the initial concept notes labelled by Hannaford in his concept pass on the vehicle were canonised faithfully, such as his notes for "30mm railcannons", a ventral Spartan Laser, missile bays, and a modular multi-mission weapons bay. The vehicle's name of Pegasus was similarly-taken from the early models found in the Bungie archives. The name was seemingly retained in the final release, as "PEGASUS" is printed on the Sabre's hull. Since this decal sheet is reused across other UNSC aircraft, the name is also partially printed on the UH-144 Falcon as "SUS".