Ships of the Cluster

A Terran Navy fortress starbase — a fixed orbital citadel anchoring Federation control of a system. Twin antimatter cores, a wall of all-aspect lance and beam batteries, and shielding no cruiser can crack alone. It cannot run, and it does not have to.

A Terran Navy battleship — the iron spine of a Federation battle line. Twin antimatter cores and a bank of fusion auxiliaries feed redundant cooling and a wall of lance and beam batteries, with a magazine deep enough to bury a squadron. Ponderous, near-unkillable, and built to end engagements rather than survive them.

A fleet carrier — the mobile airbase of a battle group. It fights through its wing of fighters and bombers, not its own guns: heavy shields and a thick belt of point-defence keep it alive while non-capital beams and a pair of missile tubes handle anything that slips the screen. Vast fuel and ordnance reserves keep dozens of sorties in the air.

A Terran Navy guided-missile cruiser — a fleet command ship built to anchor a battle line. A capital-grade antimatter core feeds layered shields, a broadside of beam cannons, lance batteries fore, and a deep missile magazine. Slow to turn, but it dominates everything it points at.

A Terran Navy fleet tender — a mobile repair and resupply base for forward-deployed squadrons. Oversized repair gangs and deep spare-parts holds keep a battle line in the fight; it carries enough guns to discourage a raider but is meant to sit behind the screen.

A Terran Navy guided-missile destroyer — the backbone of a Federation battle line. Heavy lance battery, twin missile tubes, layered point defence, and the reactor and cooling margins to fight them all at once.

A Terran Navy guided-missile frigate — the Federation's workhorse escort. Purpose-built warship with clean power and cooling margins, balanced guns, and a proper missile loadout. Outclasses the converted hulls pirates field.

A Terran Navy corvette — the Federation's light patrol warship, and the hull under your command. Small, quick and lightly armoured, she carries a fore beam battery, twin missile tubes, an aft pulse laser and layered point defence, run off a single compact powerplant with tight but honest power and cooling margins. Outmatched by the battle line, but more than enough to run down pirates and hold a picket.

A slow, heavily-armoured strike craft bristling with launchers — a flying weapons platform. It carries heavy missiles and siege torpedoes to crack capital ships and stations, and enough point defence to survive the run-in. Needs fighter cover. No hyperdrive; carrier-launched.

An armoured utility shuttle kitted for boarding actions and contested landings — heavier plating, a light defensive beam and a marine bay. It can dock under fire to deliver or recover a boarding party. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

A two-seat strike craft built around a heavy torpedo bay. Slow and lightly defended for its size, it depends on fighter escort to reach a capital ship — but a full bomber wing can gut a cruiser in one pass. No hyperdrive; carrier-launched only.

A small utility craft for transport, search-and-rescue and ship-to-ship transfers. Lightly built, unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser, and carried by almost every warship. No hyperdrive; operates within a system from its parent ship.

A dedicated search-and-rescue shuttle with an enlarged survivor bay, medical suite and towing gear. Fast for a utility craft and built to recover escape pods, stranded fighters and downed crews. Unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

A rugged multi-role fighter that trades a little agility for armour and reach. Heavier beams plus a long-range Longbow missile rack let it bully other fighters and harass capital ships from stand-off range. No hyperdrive; carrier-launched.

A single-seat interceptor — fast, nimble and fragile. Light beams and a point-defence laser make it deadly to other small craft and a persistent nuisance to capital ships. No hyperdrive: it lives and dies inside one system, flying from a carrier's deck.

A stripped-down, over-engined interceptor built to run down enemy strike craft. Faster than a standard fighter and armed with rapid light beams and a cluster-missile rack for breaking up bomber waves, but lightly armoured. No hyperdrive: carrier-launched, system-bound.

A Martian Republic Navy fleet carrier — the Republic's mailed fist projected a system away. It fights through its wing of fighters and bombers, screened by heavy shields and a thick point-defence belt, while non-capital beams and a pair of missile tubes handle anything that closes. Vast fuel and ordnance reserves keep the sorties coming.

A Martian Republic Navy battlecruiser — battleship guns bolted to a hull that still wants to sprint. Four heavy lances and a heavy fusion-and-antimatter plant drive it into the fight fast, trading a battleship's armour and shielding for the speed to dictate the range.

A Martian Republic Navy heavy cruiser — Mars doctrine scaled up to capital weight. A wall of heavy lances fore and a fast hull for its size; lighter shields and armour than a Federation cruiser, betting that nothing it lances twice survives to answer.

A Martian Republic Navy strike destroyer built to Mars doctrine: all offence. Faster and harder-hitting than its Federation counterpart, with a punishing lance battery — but lighter armour and thinner shields. A glass cannon that wins fast or not at all.

A Martian Republic Navy fast-attack frigate. Sprint speed and twin beam cannons for hit-and-run strikes on Federation patrols, trading armour and endurance for the first punch.

A Martian Republic Navy gunship. A slow, heavily-armoured weapons platform bristling with launchers — heavy missiles and siege torpedoes to crack capital ships and stations, with point defence to survive the run-in. No hyperdrive.

A Martian Republic Navy assault shuttle. An armoured boarding shuttle with a marine bay and breaching gear, built to cross fire-swept space and put a boarding party onto a hostile hull. A light beam for self-defence. No hyperdrive.

A Martian Republic Navy bomber. Built around a heavy torpedo bay: slow and lightly defended, dependent on fighter escort to reach a capital ship — but a full wing can gut a cruiser in one pass. No hyperdrive.

A Martian Republic Navy shuttle. A utility transport for crew, cargo and dockside errands. Unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

A Martian Republic Navy SAR shuttle. A search-and-rescue shuttle with an enlarged survivor bay, medical suite and towing gear — fast for a utility craft, built to recover escape pods and downed crews. No hyperdrive.

A Martian Republic Navy heavy fighter. A rugged multi-role fighter that trades agility for armour and reach — heavier beams and a long-range missile rack to bully fighters and harass capital ships from stand-off range. No hyperdrive.

A Martian Republic Navy fighter. Fast, nimble and fragile, with light beams and a point-defence laser — deadly to other small craft and a persistent nuisance to capital ships. No hyperdrive; system-bound.

A Martian Republic Navy interceptor. A stripped-down, over-engined chaser built to run down enemy strike craft — rapid light beams and a cluster-missile rack for breaking up bomber waves, but lightly armoured. No hyperdrive.

A Solar Dominion dreadnought - the apex of Dominion doctrine and the largest thing it builds. Quad cores, batteries of the heaviest lances and beams in known space, and armour measured in metres. It is rarely deployed, because rarely is a problem large enough to justify it. When it arrives, the question has already been answered.

A Solar Dominion battleship - the iron word of the Dominion made into tonnage. Twin antimatter cores feed a wall of heavy lances and broadside beams, and a magazine deep enough to reduce a colony to compliance. It is the ship the Dominion sends when it has decided a thing will end its way.

A Solar Dominion fleet carrier — the Dominion's eagle, and the birds it looses. It fights through its wing rather than its guns: heavy shields and a dense point-defence belt keep it alive while non-capital beams and two missile tubes clear anything that slips the screen. Its magazines and bunkerage sustain sortie after sortie.

A Solar Dominion cruiser - an instrument of doctrine made manifest. Heavy lances and broadside beams ringed around a hardened core, crewed by officers who believe order is the only thing standing between humanity and ruin. It anchors a Dominion squadron and expects the enemy to come apart against it.

A Solar Dominion destroyer - the workhorse of the Dominion battle line, built to break formations and hold the breach. Lance and beam batteries fore, a disciplined broadside, and shielding tuned for the stand-up fight the Dominion always seeks. It gives no ground it has been ordered to hold.

A Solar Dominion frigate - the smallest hull the Dominion deigns to field, and already more disciplined than most navies' best. Forward heavy beams, rigid doctrine, and a crew drilled to the point of zealotry. It does not skirmish; it advances, fires on command, and does not retreat.

A Solar Dominion gunship. A slow, heavily-armoured weapons platform bristling with launchers — heavy missiles and siege torpedoes to crack capital ships and stations, with point defence to survive the run-in. No hyperdrive.

A Solar Dominion assault shuttle. An armoured boarding shuttle with a marine bay and breaching gear, built to cross fire-swept space and put a boarding party onto a hostile hull. A light beam for self-defence. No hyperdrive.

A Solar Dominion bomber. Built around a heavy torpedo bay: slow and lightly defended, dependent on fighter escort to reach a capital ship — but a full wing can gut a cruiser in one pass. No hyperdrive.

A Solar Dominion shuttle. A utility transport for crew, cargo and dockside errands. Unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

A Solar Dominion SAR shuttle. A search-and-rescue shuttle with an enlarged survivor bay, medical suite and towing gear — fast for a utility craft, built to recover escape pods and downed crews. No hyperdrive.

A Solar Dominion heavy fighter. A rugged multi-role fighter that trades agility for armour and reach — heavier beams and a long-range missile rack to bully fighters and harass capital ships from stand-off range. No hyperdrive.

A Solar Dominion fighter. Fast, nimble and fragile, with light beams and a point-defence laser — deadly to other small craft and a persistent nuisance to capital ships. No hyperdrive; system-bound.

A Solar Dominion interceptor. A stripped-down, over-engined chaser built to run down enemy strike craft — rapid light beams and a cluster-missile rack for breaking up bomber waves, but lightly armoured. No hyperdrive.

A Helios Combine battleship - a privately-owned capital ship that exists because the Combine decided a navy was a reasonable line item. Twin cores, a wall of lance and beam batteries, and an obscene missile magazine. It does not patrol; it is deployed, like a foreclosure.

A Helios Combine fleet carrier — a privately-owned airbase the Combine fields because air superiority is, ultimately, a line item. It fights through its wing of fighters and bombers behind heavy shields and a thick point-defence belt, with non-capital beams and a pair of missile tubes for leakers. Deep fuel and ordnance reserves keep the deck cycling.

A Helios Combine cruiser and corporate flagship - a statement of how much firepower a board of directors can buy. Twin-grade reactor, heavy lance and beam batteries, and a magazine deep enough to bankrupt a small navy. The Combine sends one when a problem has become an expense worth ending.

A Helios Combine destroyer - the Combine's answer to anyone who mistakes a corporate fleet for a soft one. High-tier yards, layered shields, and a forward beam battery backed by a deep missile magazine let it fight at a range of its own choosing. Expensive to lose, so it rarely is.

A Helios Combine armed clipper - a fast corporate hauler that carries its own protection. To a scanner it reads as a freighter; the concealed beam mounts and missile tube are a surprise the Combine reserves for anyone who tries to take its cargo for free. A Q-ship in a sharp suit.

A Helios Combine security corvette - sleek, expensive, and fast. Corporate yards favour reach over brawling, so it leads with missiles and a pair of beam cannon and trusts its speed to dictate the range. Crewed by contractors who fight by the book and the bonus structure.

A Helios Combine gunship. A slow, heavily-armoured weapons platform bristling with launchers — heavy missiles and siege torpedoes to crack capital ships and stations, with point defence to survive the run-in. No hyperdrive.

A Helios Combine assault shuttle. An armoured boarding shuttle with a marine bay and breaching gear, built to cross fire-swept space and put a boarding party onto a hostile hull. A light beam for self-defence. No hyperdrive.

A Helios Combine bomber. Built around a heavy torpedo bay: slow and lightly defended, dependent on fighter escort to reach a capital ship — but a full wing can gut a cruiser in one pass. No hyperdrive.

A Helios Combine shuttle. A utility transport for crew, cargo and dockside errands. Unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

A Helios Combine SAR shuttle. A search-and-rescue shuttle with an enlarged survivor bay, medical suite and towing gear — fast for a utility craft, built to recover escape pods and downed crews. No hyperdrive.

A Helios Combine heavy fighter. A rugged multi-role fighter that trades agility for armour and reach — heavier beams and a long-range missile rack to bully fighters and harass capital ships from stand-off range. No hyperdrive.

A Helios Combine fighter. Fast, nimble and fragile, with light beams and a point-defence laser — deadly to other small craft and a persistent nuisance to capital ships. No hyperdrive; system-bound.

A Helios Combine interceptor. A stripped-down, over-engined chaser built to run down enemy strike craft — rapid light beams and a cluster-missile rack for breaking up bomber waves, but lightly armoured. No hyperdrive.

The heaviest warship the Coalition can field - a frontier-built cruiser that is the pride of an entire cluster. It cannot match a core-world cruiser gun for gun, but it carries more armour than anything its size and a crew who will not break. When the Coalition has to make a stand, the Bastion is where the line forms.

A Coalition bulk hauler with guns bolted into the cargo racks - the frontier cannot afford warships to escort its freight, so the freight learned to bite. Slow and cavernous, it carries colony supplies in one hold and a militia gun crew in the next. Underestimate it at your peril.

A Coalition destroyer rebuilt from a captured or decommissioned core-world hull, re-plated and re-armed in frontier yards. It runs hot and patched, but it carries a real broadside and the kind of armour that comes from a people who cannot afford to lose a single ship.

A Coalition frigate - the heaviest hull most frontier yards can build from scratch. Slab armour, a forward heavy beam scavenged from a derelict, and enough guns to make a core-world patrol regret straying off the lane. Rugged, ugly, and stubbornly hard to kill.

A Coalition militia corvette - cheap, tough, and built from whatever the frontier yards could weld. It has no finesse and no reach; it closes hard, soaks hits on heavy plate, and hammers away at knife-fight range. Crewed by colonists defending their own rocks.

An Outer Colonies shuttle. A utility transport for crew, cargo and dockside errands. Unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

An Outer Colonies SAR shuttle. A search-and-rescue shuttle with an enlarged survivor bay, medical suite and towing gear — fast for a utility craft, built to recover escape pods and downed crews. No hyperdrive.

A Belt Coalition convoy guard — built thick and practical in outer-system yards. Heavy armour and redundant systems over speed or finesse; the kind of ship that soaks a pirate ambush and lives to dock.

A Belt Coalition patrol gunboat — a converted mining tender with industrial lasers bolted to a stubborn little hull. Short legs and light shields, but it knows every rock in its claim and bites harder than it looks.

A Belt Coalition shuttle. A utility transport for crew, cargo and dockside errands. Unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

A Belt Coalition SAR shuttle. A search-and-rescue shuttle with an enlarged survivor bay, medical suite and towing gear — fast for a utility craft, built to recover escape pods and downed crews. No hyperdrive.

A Free Traders trade hub — a sprawling civilian habitat and market ring where independent crews refit, refuel, and offload cargo. Vast and lightly built, it carries only point-defence and trusts its neutrality and its escorts to keep the peace.

A Free Traders fleet oiler — little more than a flight deck strapped to enormous antimatter and deuterium bunkers. It keeps squadrons fuelled on the long hauls between systems; defenceless beyond a point-defence mount and entirely reliant on its escorts.

A Free Traders bulk freighter — a slab-sided cargo hauler with cavernous holds, a tough but unarmoured hull, and nothing but point-defence to wave off boarders. Slow, civilian-crewed, and entirely dependent on escorts when the shooting starts.

A privately-run armed clipper the Free Traders hire to shepherd convoys. Fast and nimble with a pair of light beams and a point-defence mount — enough to chase off raiders, not enough to trade blows with a warship.

A Free Trader shuttle. A utility transport for crew, cargo and dockside errands. Unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

A Free Trader SAR shuttle. A search-and-rescue shuttle with an enlarged survivor bay, medical suite and towing gear — fast for a utility craft, built to recover escape pods and downed crews. No hyperdrive.

A heavy orbital shipyard — a cage of construction gantries, fabrication bays, and tug cradles around a working drydock. Built to assemble and refit hulls rather than fight, but its sheer mass, deep shielding, and defensive batteries make it a hard thing to pry loose from a system.

A bolted-together extraction outpost — ore processors, fuel crackers, and habitation cans clustered on a captured rock or gas-skimming ring. Industrial, lightly built, and defended by nothing but point-defence and the hope that it isn't worth the trouble.

A deep-space fuel depot — clustered cryo-tanks, a deuterium cracker, and a small habitat ring straddling a transit lane. It keeps freighters and patrols topped up far from any star, and like most civilian logistics it relies on point-defence and good neighbours to stay intact.

A fixed early-warning and listening post — a forest of dish antennae and passive arrays wrapped around a hardened reactor pod. It exists to see, not to fight, but it carries enough teeth to make a scout think twice and enough shielding to scream a warning before it dies.

An automated orbital weapons platform — a reactor, a shield bubble, and a ring of guns bolted to a hardpoint. Cheap, fixed, and unsleeping; colonies and warlords alike seed them around anything worth shooting trespassers over.

An unaligned mercenary frigate — a patchwork of salvaged systems from half the factions in the cluster. Whoever's paying gets a capable, no-questions gun. Reliable enough, loyal exactly as long as the contract.

A small independent courier-scout — fast, cheap, and lightly armed. Favoured by free pilots running parcels and rumours between systems; it survives by being somewhere else when the shooting starts.

An independent shuttle. A utility transport for crew, cargo and dockside errands. Unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

An independent SAR shuttle. A search-and-rescue shuttle with an enlarged survivor bay, medical suite and towing gear — fast for a utility craft, built to recover escape pods and downed crews. No hyperdrive.

A stolen, up-gunned patrol frigate — the workhorse of pirate bands. Decent guns and a missile tube bolted on, but the cooling and armour were never meant for sustained fights.

A slab-sided pirate gunboat built around two salvaged missile tubes. It hangs back and lobs warheads; weak in a knife fight once its magazines run dry.

A light, fast pirate runabout — quick to pounce on a lone freighter, but lightly armoured and easily outgunned by a real warship.

A pirate shuttle. A utility transport for crew, cargo and dockside errands. Unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

A pirate SAR shuttle. A search-and-rescue shuttle with an enlarged survivor bay, medical suite and towing gear — fast for a utility craft, built to recover escape pods and downed crews. No hyperdrive.

A raider warlord's flagship — a captured cruiser hull bristling with mismatched salvaged guns and patched armour. Crude, power-hungry, and badly balanced, but terrifying in numbers: it hits like a capital ship even if it cooks itself doing it.

A raider clan flagship-class destroyer — heavy hull, strong shields, and a mixed beam-and-missile battery. Slow to turn but punishing; the toughest thing a lone patrol ship will meet out here.

A purpose-built raider frigate — heavier armour and a triple heavy-beam battery. Raider clans keep these well-maintained and crewed by veterans.

A raider shuttle. A utility transport for crew, cargo and dockside errands. Unarmed but for a defensive point-defence laser. No hyperdrive; operates from its parent ship.

A raider SAR shuttle. A search-and-rescue shuttle with an enlarged survivor bay, medical suite and towing gear — fast for a utility craft, built to recover escape pods and downed crews. No hyperdrive.