Wraith

"Coordinates locked in... attack formation... roger. Vector locked-in." - Anonymous Wraith-class starfighter pilot

The A-17 Wraith-class starfighter is a fictional starfighter in the StarCraft Universe.

They are versatile one-man subfighters that physically look like a "Y", with all the sides of equal length. They have a bubble cockpit in the center of the triple wings. The top two wings have a burst laser cannon each, and the lower wing has an air-to-air Gemini missile package. They were created for warfare purposes by the Terran Confederacy. Previously in its turbulent history, most space engagements were fought out with sluggish capital ships: large battlecruisers and medium gunships that were powerful and heavily armored, but were slow. The Wraith was the first starfighter in use by the Terran Confederacy, and in fact, all Terran. The Wraith-class is fast enough to evade laser battery blasts, but can gradually damage even the large Behemoth-class battlecruisers given numbers and time.

Upgraded Wraith-class starfighters also have special E.C.M. and stealth technology and have the ability to cloak, which renders them literally invisible (hence the name) to the naked eye and even standard combat sensor arrays. It costs 25 energy to activate, and drains away 1 energy per second that is activated. With the Apollo Reactor upgrade, a Wraith can stay cloaked for 3 minutes and 45 seconds maximum. This gives them a unique advantage compared to other air units. Cloaked Wraith-class fighters can take down enemy starfighters and even capital ships before they are detected! However, advanced sensor arrays installed on Terran missile turrets, Protoss photon cannons, Zerg spore colonies, Terran science vessels, Protoss observers, Terran comsat arrays, and Zerg overlords can detected cloaked Wraiths. It is highly advised for players playing against Terran enemies to keep a detector unit or two with an attack force.

Because of the relative weakness of their air-to-ground burst lasers, Terran commanders often use Wraiths against enemy air units as opposed to enemy ground groups. It is not advised for Wraiths to attack ground units except in dire situations or when the Wraiths heavily outnumber the enemy. Cheap ground units that can take out Wraiths include stimpacked Marines, Protoss Dragoons, and Zerg Hydralisks. Enemy air towers (such as the Terran missile turret or the Zerg spore colony), which are extremely effective against air units and can detect cloaked Wraith-class starfighters, are devastating against Wraiths even when outnumbered. Yet, the respectable 20 damage (26, if upgraded) of the Wraith fighter gives it an edge in air combat against the Zerg mutalisk, and as aforementioned, groups of Wraith-class starfighters, cloaked or even uncloaked, can destroy small groups of enemy capital ships.

In the StarCraft literature, Behemoth-class battlecruisers carry two squadrons (two dozen) Wraith-class starfighters.

Wraith-class fighters are often used in conjunction with Valkyrie-class bombers as escorts.

Quotes

"I'm just curious...why am I so good?" (Quoting Ken Dodd)

"I gotta get me one of these." (From Independence Day)

"You know who the best starfighter in the fleet is?"

"Yours truly."

"Everybody gotta die sometime, Red." (From Platoon)

"I am the invincible, that's right."