The Jihad left Solaris in ruins, the wreckage of thousands of war machines from lowly vehicles to mighty WarShips smashed across her surface. What little industry she had was devoted to repairing buildings and factories that could, with help from outside souces, jump start Solaris back into the interstellar marketplace. During the half-decade it took to rebuild, Solaris had no construction available for any war machine, whatever the importance of it was deemed.
         But Solaris was home to the most concentrated collection of mad scientists and MacGyvers, often one and the same depending on who you ask, and their mad creations helped to hold the world together. The Nephilim, named for the half-angelic/half-human creatures of ancient times, were one of those mad creations.
         In the years after the Jihad, salvage teams collected every fighter they could, hoping to find ones that they could return to active use. Unfortunately, with no true airfields or DropPorts available for fighter use, the vast majority of their salvage proved impractical for rebuilding. Three classes of Word OmniFighters, used by the Fifty-Third Shadow Division that assaulted Solaris, were another matter.
         Each of them used multi-directional "swing wings" and vectored thrust engines that made them capable of vertical take offs and landings. Solarian efforts soon went to rebuilding them. The Shades and Strigas were used to help create new LAMs, leaving the Rusalkas for the creation of a new Solarian fighter. In 3082 it became the first, and to this day only, mass-produced fighter built by Solaris.

         The Nephilim looks almost exactly like the older Rusalka, though it is far more capable than its ancestor. It is a dedicated dogfghter with excellent speed and armor for dueling other fghters. Capable of sustained bursts of up to fve-and-a-half gees, one of these fighters can be more than enough for an enemy to handle when fown by an elite Solarian pilot. Almost half of the Nephilim’s mass is devoted to firepower. Most configurations focus on energy weapons for maximum combat endurance, enabling this agile fighter to hang in the fight longer.
         The Primary configuration uses a particle cannon and an LRM battery with a large missile load in the nose for primary assault functions, while a series of ER and pulse lasers in the wings give it short range punch.
         The A configuration sports a brace of pulse lasers and twin 9-tube ATMs, backed up by smaller lasers, to crush enemies at any range.
         Configuration B is based on the original Infernus configuration, a mix of ER lasers from large to medium that give it incredible range.
         A forty-tube LRM system headlines the C configuration, with enough ammunition on board to keep it fighting far longer than most fighters. Pulse lasers back up the missiles, allowing it to fight even after the ammunition runs out.
         Configuration D uses a particle cannon and two large pulse lasers to assault the enemy. It also has an extra ton of fuel, making it a preferred configuration for extended ground attack roles.
         Configuration E is the favorite of many AeroSpace pilots, including the test pilot of the first rebuilt Nephilim, Jesse "Spitfire" James. Mounting a massive gauss rifle in the nose backed up by an ER large laser in each wing, it can bring down many fighters before they ever get inside their own weapons range of the Nephilim.

         The Solarian Navy uses Nephilims as their primary strike and space-superiority fighter. Not designed for anti-DropShip or anti-WarShip use, they have often still been pressed into that role when needed. Their ability to perform that duty, even if not as good as a specialized fighter, has kept the Solarians from putting the expense into acquiring another entire design. Trisagion AeroSpace also sells them to member units of the Allied Mercenary Command, though in that market they compete against the capable Wolf's Dragoons designs and the much cheaper light fighter produced by the Northwind Highlanders. Despite the competition, the Nephilim has earned an impressive ten percent market penetration into the mercenary trade, making it one of the more common AeroSpace fighters in use today.