The Red Tail was a Personal MONO zipcraft owned and flown by Faye Valentine. She used the ship extensively for bounty hunting and was adept at flying and fighting with it.
Design[]
The Red Tail was about 8.6m long/ 7.2m wide/ 5.4m high (including guns), weighing 7.2 tons
Its weaponry, which may surpass the standard features of a MONO Transport, includes Dual Turret-Mounted Machine Guns, a Heat Seeking Missile Launcher, an Autocannon and External Pinchers for grappling other ships and objects in space. Several additional features of the Red Tail include Remote Auto-pilot, Anti-Missile Devices, Enhanced Agility, and the ability to take-off and land in a vertical position. Missiles were AGM/AA missiles.[1]
History[]
While Faye was working for Gordon, she had the Red Tail parked at the casino. Faye had to use her ship to escape the casino security during her incident with Spike, who was there with Jet. Spike and Jet, in turn, jumped onto the ship as she escaped. Afterward, they imprisoned her on the Bebop and planned to sell her ship. She, however, escaped in the Red Tail while Spike and Jet dealt with Gordon. Gordon double-crossed all of them, and Faye used her ship to reverse his rockets, destroying his ship. She then took the money and flew off.[2] She ran out of gas near Jupiter, however, and inevitably was found by the Bebop by chance and taken prisoner. She eventually escaped and returned to the Red Tail, offering to help Jet and Spike with their predicament with the Space Warriors. She entered hyperspace and took on their ship with Spike, but was forced to flee back through the Astral Gate just as it closed the ship inside.[3]
When the crew of Bebop pursued Decker, Faye had found him and chased him, only to run into an explosive he was carrying. The ship was wrecked, forcing Jet to repair it. Later, Faye had to use the Red Tail to take one of his explosives to escape a mine. Faye had to use uncharacteristic care with the ship's robotic arms.[4]
She used her ship to fly around Venus to get information on Piccaro Calvino. She later came to Spike's aid at a cathedral when he was ambushed by Calvino's group. Eventually, she captured Calvino by descending behind him in her ship.[5]
When the crew of the Bebop went after pirates, Faye attempted to capture them with the Red Tail by playing dead until they picked up bait. However, the ship was hit with a virus, causing it to fire randomly and she was immobilized. It was fixed later, with a modification that the computer could be shut off in favor of a satellite-based navigation. It was not needed, however.[6]
Faye used her ship to come to Spike's aid at Space Land when he took on Mad Pierrot. She was shot down.[7]
Faye took the Red Tail to go after a hacker, Lee Sampson, in Alba City driving a truck. The truck exploded, and she observed someone else (Vincent Volaju) exit the truck. The ship was undamaged, fortunately.[8]
When Faye learned that Edward might know where the scene in the mysterious videocassette is, she strapped her onto the top of her ship and headed out on Earth to find it.[9]
Background[]
The ship was called a "MONO carrier" on the Earth Gate screen when Ed first looked up the Bebop arriving.
It was not described as to how Faye obtained the ship or the legalities of its acquisition.
Trivia[]
- This ship may be named after the Redtail butterflyfish, a type of reef fish, or more likely the Redtailed Black Shark, which would fall into the same naming convention of the Swordfish II and the Hammer Head.
- It's also possible that this ship is called the Red Tail after the red-tailed hawk because it takes the form of a raptor: the pincers/guns are in the same position as a hawk's talons, slung underneath the ship, and the tail of the craft is red and similarly positioned to the red-tailed hawk's tail.
