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Rogue Squadron: Unit of X-wings Kickstarts in response to Death Star

Not long ago, on a website one click away

A duo of Empire-hating rebels have realised the Kickstarter Death Star is a threat to the Rebel Alliance and they're looking for all like-minded galactic citizens to chip in for a fleet of $11m X-Wings.

Mechanical engineer Simon and his startup-founding buddy Ed reckon gnut.co.uk, the unnamed folks behind the crowdsourcing project to raise $850qn to build the planet-sized ship, is a "subversive tactics unit of the evil Galactic Empire" engaged in an ingenious plot to use the power of the people for nefarious reasons.

"We can't let this new Death Star go unchallenged, so we're raising funds to form a new Rebel Alliance and construct a fleet of proton torpedo armed X-Wing fighters to take down this new Death Star," the pair said on their Kickstarter page.

To start things off, they're looking for $11m, the production cost of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, to finance a prototype X-Wing and train a pilot. The next step is for $4.5bn (the box office total for all films so far) to build a full squadron of the interstellar fighters.

Once the squadron is sorted, a class YT-1300 freighter and a prototype Y-Wing bomber will be well within the Alliance's sights.

At time of writing, the Rebel Alliance was sitting on a potential $117,148 despite its launch just three days ago, while the Death Star has accumulated pledges of nearly twice that, $222,753, with four extra days of fundraising.

Unfortunately, like the Death Star, the X-Wing project is also claiming to be a "joke", leaving both Empire and Rebel forces at a loss as to what to put their money towards and what their galactic future holds. ®

Bootnote

Readers may care to note that the X-wing budgets seem a little unambitious. Even a measly space shuttle would cost $2.8bn in today's money, and a shuttle, though comparatively large, is puny indeed compared to the X-wing. It is barely able to reach orbit - probably its owner would struggle to do so much as bullseye a womp-rat - whereas Luke Skywalker's preferred ride is capable of interstellar voyages travelling faster than light.

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