The Valkyrie Fighter is the starship used by players in the game. Flying as Ensign Ryan Cooper of the fictional elite Starfleet group "Red Squad", the player flies the ship through 30 missions in both single and two player mode.
Developed by "Warthog", The team based the Type I fighter on a streamlined version of the Federation mission scoutship seen in Star Trek: Insurrection. Called the "Talon Class" in Star Trek Fiction, the scout ship itself was approximately 24m long, had a crew of 1 to 4, and was an intermediate step between the shuttlecraft and the larger Danube Runabouts. Similar to the runabouts, it was sometimes armed with 4x Type-5 Phaser banks, and 3 micro-Photon Torpedo launchers. It was capable of independent scientific operations, with both impulse and warp drive.
In an early scene in Star Trek: Insurrection, Data engaged in a "dogfight" in a Talon-Class with Picard's Shuttlecraft. The registry number was NCC-75227. Although following normal numbering conventions, some have suggested the number was the craft that carried the scoutship to the Ba'ku planet.
6 versions of the Federation's Fighter exist, each available in various stages of the game.
Three versions are "trainer" craft, available in only the 2-player missions. All versions have similar weapons, but different characteristics.
* Orca Space Superiority Fighter: Although visually similar to the baseline Talon scoutship, game data suggest the Orca is lightly shielded, agile, with moderate speed and good hull strength.
* Gryphon Interceptor: A weak hull with very strong shields and increased speed and agility, Designers looked to the Saber-class for inspiration.
* Scarab Heavy Assault Fighter: intentionally resembling the USS Defiant, it boasts improved shields and the strongest hull, at the cost of speed and agility.
Three versions of Valkyrie are available only for single-player missions.
* Mark I: the first version, visually similar to the Talon scoutship, is armed with twin pulse firing Type 10 phaser cannons firing from port and starboard, a single continuous firing Type 9 phaser and a compression phaser from the nose of the craft. Ten Photon torpedoes, ten Quantum Torpedoes and ten Photon mines round out the player's offensive power. At various stages of the game, the weapons can be augmented by advanced technology or power ups.
* Mark II: Called the "Valor", the player gains this fighter after several missions result in capturing more powerful weapons. Visually, the Orca cockpit is attached to twin warp nacelles projecting forward. Pulse Phasers, made famous in Trek canon by the USS Defiant, as well as more powerful Torpedoes are added to replace earlier weaponry such as Photonic missiles, disruptors, and improved mines.
* Mark III: In the final stages of the game, the player flies the UFP's most advanced Valkyrie fighter up to date with biorganic technology derived from the invaders, the Kam'Jathae, who are guardians of the insectile Hur'q. The sleek ship has a rounded cockpit with two thin nacelles arcing around the lower half of the vessel. The weapons include the deadly Trilithium Warheads (a fictional high explosive in Trek Canon) and improved Disruptors (weapons usually used by the Klingon Empire).
All three versions have three directed energy weapons, and three types of explosive munitions, plus a tractor/repulsor beam.
Although capable of Warp travel, it is only used in bursts during gameplay, similar to afterburners in real life fighter aircraft. It is perhaps this reason the player and 25 other Valkyries of the Red Squad are carried into the theatre by the USS Typhon, a four nacelled Mobile Fortress/Carrier armed with Turret-mounted Type 10 Pulse Phasers and Quantum Torpedoes. In several missions the player mans one of the turrets. Since the turret has a 360 degree view of space dorsal to the Typhon, one can assume at least one turret is on the ventral side.