Your little shuttle swings out around Dreamstar Station. Gleaming before you, you see the graceful lines of the ITG Saluki.
This is a small, aerodynamic, cream colored spacecraft designed to shuttle both small packages and raw data between star systems. While the hull looks rather innocent (if not sporty), the curious addition of a cloaking device may lead you to wonder if she isn't shipping more than cookies from Mom. She is fast and agile, making her the perfect blockade runner. She has a black dog painted on either side. Under the dog on the starboard side is the phrase Make love, not war while the port side reads True excellence is winning the battle without having to fight. The Saluki was just recently modified to sling a small escort fighter under her midsection.
As your shuttle scans the "Saluki" the following information lights up on your terminal:
Class: Courser II courier
Registry: ITG
Length: 36.6 meters
Width: 9.1 meters
Depth: 7.3 meters
Crew: One Pilot/Navigator
Passengers: Three
Cargo: 270 ML
Power Plant: Twin Fusion Reactors Coupled with Ion Collectors
Sublight Locomotion: Redundant Gravitic Thruster Plates
FTL Locomotion: Class 6 (Improbability) Jump Drive
Defenses: Cloak and Shield
Armaments:
The terminal continues to scroll information to you...
The original Courser series of hyperspace capable shuttlecraft were designed to quickly move mail and small cargo between rimward and coreward sectors within its native galaxy. This ship was somewhat unique in that it was designed not only to transport cargo rapidly, but also to be adaptable to the needs of whoever was shipping. The thrusters are oversized, giving more power to lift items "outside" the cargo bay, and its power plants produce more power than needed by the thrusters -- to be used for items such as energy weapons. The sleek, aerodynamic hull is peppered with ports to be used for power and to attach hyperspace nets around riggings, which are also relatively easily welded to or removed from the hull.
The Courser II is a modification of the original Courser series, which includes as standard an integrated cloaking device, and additional ports to hook to riggings so that they also can benefit from the cloaking device. Only twelve Courser II Couriers were built, and it is not yet clear what prompted the manufacturer to modify the original design in this way. The ships were eventually bought by a deep space exploration team and served as subordinates for a much larger vessel. The ships were originally designed to have 2 medium sized cannons mounted, as well as any weapon racks that could be attached to the hull, but after purchase the cannons were removed and more powerful sensor arrays were attached to the nose instead.
The Saluki has been separated from her mother ship. She eventually found her way to FurrySpace by means of a mis-jump which occurred after the ship was stolen by Ivver, in order to avoid said mothership's demise. Since making her way here, the ship has been used for her original purpose (shipping small cargoes), sometimes using her cloaking device to evade local authorities.
The Saluki's major strength, her cloaking device, is also her major weakness. The cloaking mechanism takes up a substantial amount of power, and does not completely render the ship invisible. Instead it makes the Saluki virtually impossible to lock onto with weapons of any kind. While cloaked, the Saluki appears as a transparent, dancing ball of energy.
The Saluki is unable to fire energy weapons and has less speed or maneuverability while cloaked, but is still able to launch missiles or any fighter escort she may have slung in any attached rigging. However, she is also a relatively small ship, and thus loses a substantial amount of engine power when carrying something as large as a fighter escort.
The Saluki is versatile and evasive, being as fast and agile as many smaller fighters. In addition, the cannon ports and the ability to add riggings as easily as Lego[TM] blocks make this ship unpredictable at best. It is advisable to scan this ship before engaging, regardless of whether you have scanned previously or not.
The terminal fades to black...
