Flying Teapot: The Swordfish II
The Swordfish II is Spike's own, personal plane. Like Spike, it is slim, sleek, fast, and has an...unusual appearance. It's bright pink salmon, for crying out loud.
General
Swordfish is what is called a MONO racer. As the name implies, it was built for speed, unlike Jet's clunky and powerful Hammerhead (MONO boat), and Faye's handy Redtail (MONO carrier). In fact, Spike relies more on his ship's ability to outmanuever other vessels than on its firepower or size. It is very good at evading enemy gunfire and misleading missiles. The wings can also be drawn in and folded up for more compact parking!
Artillery and Features
The Swordfish's big guns seems to be the single-charge plasma cannon right in the middle and beneath the nose of the ship. Spike has to use it sparingly and carefully, as it takes time to recharge between shots - but then, Spike seldom needs second chances. The ship is also designed to carry missiles under each wing and also has the four standard machine/laser guns for run-of-the-mill space brawling. Also, the pilot's pod can detach from the shell of the ship itself as an escape pod of sorts, though Spike only seems to use the pod for blowing things up rather than saving himself.
History
In the very first episode (Session #1: Asteroid Blues), Katrina admires Spike's ship and Spike tells her that he's had Swordfish for ten years. The scratched and battered exterior of the ship proves this more than anything, and it shows that it's certainly been around. Later, in Session #19 (Wild Horses), we learn that Swordfish was given to Spike by a man named Doohan, who repairs and restores ships, shuttles, and all manner of flying machines. Apparently, Doohan gave Spike the ship because he knew that Spike was skilled enough to handle such a subtle, sleek machine. In one of the pictures in Doohan's workshop, one can see a photograph of a much younger Doohan with Swordfish in the background. Despite the fact that the ship is old, Spike hasn't had it altered to make it more modern (its spare parts are no longer widely available, that's how old it is) and mainly it's because Doohan (who fixes it during the only overhaul we see) doesn't seem to want it "modernized."
Spike wrecks his ship a lot but for all that, I don't think he'd rather be flying anything else. Significant Swordfish episodes are - what, it's not a different character? To see the Swordfish II in action, take a peek at Session #4 (Gateway Shuffle), Session #10 (Ganymede Elegy), #13 (Jupiter Jazz 2), #15 (My Funny Valentine), and the aforementioned #19. There are more, but those are what immediately leaped to my mind.
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