Penetrator Class Void Skipper/Destroyer Escort

The Penetrator Class DE was a specialized military craft produced by the Directorate of Hanstone Sector and designed not only to cross the gulfs of that sparse region of space, but also to be able to operate for many months at a time away from any friendly port, 'living off the land'.

For its size, it's under-powered for insystem flight, and a bit over-crewed, with more security, cargo space and small craft personnel than is usual, to help in its general flexibility. Every example of the Penetrator class was eventually modified by order of the captain or by fleet command, sometimes almost immediately after its shakedown cruise.

Notable Examples of the Class:
Penetrator
Not only the first example, but while under its first captain, Vasily Orren, also the first Directorate vessel to make First Contact with sentient species in Amdurstan Sector. Constantly refitted and upgraded with Neu Samara's gradual increase in technology, the Penetrator served at the pleasure of several Executive Directors over a period of almost two centuries before being retired to the mothball orbit of the moon Illusion.

Dauntless
Not to be outdone by its predecessor, the Dauntless made first contact with two sentient species in Holowon Sector for the directorate on its maiden voyage.

Bifrost
Launched in 2214 AD, "all reports of its recovery in a Malorn Sector star system in 2212 AD - two years before its keel was laid down, and aged more than 50,000 years, are utterly false and can be attributed to an elaborate cyber-hoax perpetrated within Neu Samara's worldnet. Stories of the similarly named Penetrator class vessel 'Rainbow Bridge' supposed appearance above the Eggs of Tupijir just after the Triumvirate War hit Adupaha are pure fiction and can be read in lurid detail in Eric Cipher's poorly written Scifi Novel, Ancient Fall from 2213."

The Bifrost was the first Penetrator class vessel to have a Minsk crew member assigned to it.

Khan/Lucifer
Though the Khan served with distinction for many decades, it disappeared and was thought destroyed in the Dade loop circa 2275 AD. Seven years later it resurfaced, plaguing the central Star Rim Trail as a pirate vessel under the moniker of Lucipher. Between it and the many Star Hawk class vessels running up and down the Trail as both pirates and privateerrs, a centuries long period of extreme technological and economic depression developed in the region which lasted well into the Rule of Man.

Venture
First Directorate vessel to travel all the way back to Earth, arriving in 2221 AD and bearing gifts from Hanstone and Malorn Sectors varied races and political groups. It secured a treaty from the Terran Confederation of recognition, friendship, non-interference in the affairs of Hanstone and Malorn - a nominally empty gesture that cost the Confederation nothing in light of its localized concerns and steady assimilation of nearby Vilani worlds.

The month long celebration of Venture's return to Neu Samara in 2223 AD heralded the beginning of a revival of Russian, Czech, American and Polish cultures on Neu Samara. The rest of the Directorate barely noticed, and seemed to care even less.

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Deck Plans to follow.