Fire LEO-04 "Rynex"

The Fire LEO-04 "Rynex" is the main protagonist ship featured in the game Thunder Force IV, and serves as the series's titular character, appearing in a majority of the games (Thunder Force IV-VI).

Thunder Force IV
The Rynex was invented as the newest model in the Fire LEO series developed by the Galaxy Federation. In its inital debut, the Rynex was created to combat the residual and omnicidal ORN Empire and its recently befriended allies known as the "Vios". The craft boasted a variety of weapons and was later upgraded to release its ultimate weapon, the Thunder Sword against the enemy. It eventually tracked the source of the enemy down and destroyed it, only to be severly damaged in the process of an explosion caused by the main computer and be left drifting into space, waiting for its damage to heal so that Lightning could rise once more.

Thunder Force V
The ship itself is discovered by the humans, were it is dubbed "Vasteel" or "Vasteel Original", however after a supercomputer called Guardian goes beserk, the spacecraft was manipulated by the ORN supercomputer known as Khaos and fought back against the humans. The craft eventually encountered the RVR Gauntlet, and engaged in a feirce battle with the spaceship. The Gauntlet managed to free the Rynex of Khaos's control, but also destroyed the starfighter in the process.

Thunder Force VI
10 years after the ordeal with the supercomputer, the ORN Empire invades Earth, bringing the same destruction it beared in the previous installments. The humans rediscover the remnants of the once mighty spacecraft and manage to mass produce it in large quantities to fight back against the ORN Empire, alongside the assistance of the Galaxy Federation. The new craft is dubbed the Fire-LEO-04C "Rynex-R", and unlike the original ship, this one had it's signature weapon, the Thunder Sword from the start.

Also, the Orn Faust uses its core to attract various parts to create the "Vasteel Nocht", with one of its forms taking on a larger and evil version of the original Rynex. It is ultimately destroyed however.