Cruisers

Cruisers were the second largest (between 500,000 and 1 million metric tons) class of ship developed during the Alien War, and ships of that size continued to be useful as humanity expanded through the rest of the galaxy. Initially cruisers were far more analog and labor-intensive than they have come to be. The engineering staff required simply for the upkeep of the Hawking drive was more than 200. When contrasted with the single engineer required to maintain the drive on a DCI frigate, cruisers were positively archaic. The Avenger-class destroyers combined the efficiency of a DCI frigate with the size and fire-power of a cruiser class ship, but were completed too late to see use in the Alien War.

Avenger class cruisers were so advanced, in fact, that they continued to see use through the Interplanetary war and the repulsion of the Terran Empire at Galphus Prime. To that point the focus had been on the development of the far more sexy battlehulks, but with the advent of additional colonies and corporation holdings that wanted their own defense or exploration fleets and didn’t have the finances to support a full battlehulk, there was a need for a redesigned cruiser massed capital ship.

Built around the emerging wormhole drive, the Hypercat cruisers were designed by Core Corp to fill a variety of roles. Depending on how they were outfitted, they could function comfortably as a colony ship, a warship, a science vessel, a personal yacht, a merchantman, etc. With a highly modular internal structure, they could switch roles after construction. Variations of the original Hypercat design continue construction to this day. Modular design meant that the Hypercat cruisers were among the first ships available to be piloted by a Bender, with a Mark 3 Hypercat merchantman serving as the maiden voyage of a Bender piloted ship. They were also easily outfitted for the advent of quantum vacuum cells, and Mark 1 Hypercats still see use as warships with updated weapons and armor. Due to the ease of repair, outfitting, and construction, Hypercats (now on to Mark 5 designs and manufactured by a hundred different corporations) have replaced the legendary varied usefulness of Swiss Army Clocks as the idiom of choice when referring to something that has many uses.

Other cruisers have risen and fallen over the years, though nothing with the staying power of the Hypercat. The Warrior class was a dedicated military vessel, essentially a smaller version of the Mark II battlhulk, intended to act as destroyers had in ancient naval warfare and bring the emphasis away from larger warships. The Warrior, however, was notoriously massive and difficult to move using engine technology of the time. The Harrier class cruiser was created by Core Corp as the supposed “hot older brother” to the Hypercat class. Counting on corporate espionage, the Harrier was given far higher secrecy levels than the Hypercat and executives treated it with much more secrecy. The team working on it thought they were creating a super classified followup to the Avenger class, and though the ship they created was advanced, it had nothing on the variety possible with the Hypercat.

The months preceding the release of the Hypercat and the supposed unveiling of the Harrier saw seven different Harrier clones. Core Corp never built a single Harrier class ship, and with the Hypercat won their first run of government contracts since the early days of interplanetary travel.

The Carl Kravitz class cruisers, dedicated merchant ships, were built to cover the high end of interstellar commerce carrying, and see continued use due to their simplicity. They also became popular refits for luxury yachts for the exorbitantly wealthy. Overall, the size of a cruiser class ship makes it economically unfeasible to produce anything other than the best designs.