¹Upgradeable
to Energy Cannon (22 damage, fire time 2.0 s).
*Burst fire; burst length 0.9 s, burst wait 1.5 s.
The Seeker
class of deep reconnaissance and survey vessels was one of
the first original designs produced by the Kiith Somtaaw
Engineering families. The first priority of the Somtaaw
mining fleet was to find and process the rarest and most
valuable resources to be found in deep space, especially
exotic volatiles and super-stable elements. To this end,
Somtaaw purchased the manufacturing rights to the Heavy
Neutrino scanning array from Kiith S'jet. While the unusual
size of the scanning array means it is usually placed on
research platforms or Frigate-sized explorers, Somtaaw
needed the array to rapidly search entire systems at
relatively close range. To that end, Somtaaw Engineers have
basically wrapped a simple cockpit and maneuver drive around
the array. While the shakedown period for this design was
extensive, due to the unorthodox approach, the result is a
high speed recon platform that has the attributes of a
standard light fighter and the sensor abilities of a ship 20
or 30 times the size and expense.
While the
initial prototype was unarmed, repeated encounters with
Turanic raiders convinced Somtaaw Fleet Command that the
Seeker needed to carry some sort of weapons system. In the
end, a light mass driver was jury-rigged on a belly mount,
which gives the Seeker a limited self-defense capability
that can usually deter raiders until the recon ship can use
its superior speed to escape. While the main function of the
Seeker's array is to scan for minerals and radiation
signatures, it is quickly reconfigured to track vessels.
As a result
of the fact that most recon patrols require spending long
periods of time in a small cockpit, many Seekers pilots are
young, single women of smaller stature. This has led to deep
recon missions being referred to as "Heartbreak
Patrols"…but whether this is more to do with the
stress they put on fledgling relationships or the
disruptions caused by these pilots making up for lost time
upon their return is not known.
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