Original art: Angus McKie

It was extremely fast for its day and its top speed would not disgrace many of today's military ships, but this performance was only achieved at the expense of range. During prewar Defence Force Manoeuvres there were instances of inexperienced crews maintaining maximum battle speed for a few seconds too long and disappearing helplessly into space with empty tanks. Furthermore, the sight of these massive war machines slinking back to their bases under tow was not uncommon. They were popularly dubbed the 'Nuclear Kites'.

Whatever their shortcomings in operational range their armament was powerful even by today's standards. The main weapon carried was a massive particle accelerator which accounted for almost a third of the ship's mass. Secondary armament was fitted in the form of various laser projectors and nuclear missile launchers.

Protective armour was kept to a minimum as the original view was that the extremely high battle speed attainable would reduce the chance of a hit. As warships in general became faster this concept soon proved optimistic and the. CAM 117s which saw action were forced to rely on their heavy firepower to keep out of danger.

Like so many other craft which were technologically outdated, these ships were thrown into action in the Battle for Mars in the desperate attempt to halt the Proxima offensive. They did succeed in holding the enemy advance until our front-line squadrons could regroup but at a terrible price. In the running fights against modem ships the unfortunate 'Kites' were forced to operate at their maximum speeds for far longer periods than had originally been allowed for. Of the twenty-eight Gunships which fough in this action no less than nineteen were picked of at leisure as they drifted in space unable to reach their bases. The rest were either destroyed in action or simply worn out by constantly having to operate at maximum performance.

One example still exists in the War Museum but it is only a shell and even the outer hull is in need of restoration.