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The Avarice class of superfreighters were built by the Miao clan of the K'Nes during the brief period of human occupation of the K'Nes colonies prior to the Caal Invasion. They were secretly fitted with a Gravity Drive based on Jurvain technology, and although it is not capable of forming firing ports like military-grade Jurvain gravity drives, it is in many other aspects still superior to human Gravity Drive technology. While the Gravity Drive is capable of both high-acceleration maneuvering and opening a jump point to hyperspace, which is quite useful when smuggling goods along unusual routes not linked by jumpgates, the ship is also fitted with a conventional Ion Drive for use along normal jumpgate-equipped shipping routes when that is desired.
The Avarice and her littermate ships are enormous by civilian starship standards, over two miles in length, and capable of carrying over four million tons of cargo. Nominally unarmed, they can be fitted with a variety of point-defense weapons for self-defense, and even have circuitry installed for potential installation of Hellbore turrets on the ventral surface. Also, several of the outer cargo bays could be fitted with box launchers for missiles or Lance Torpedoes. If fully converted to a warship, it would in effect be a Dreadnought or even pocket Star Control Ship. However, the immense construction cost of these ships mean they are almost exclusively used for revenue-generating commercial enterprises. Still, due to the occasional threat of space pirates, and the need to operate near active war zones, these ships often do operate with at least some armament, even sometimes fairly heavily armed in a Q-Ship role.
Known Ships[]
- KLS Avarice (destroyed at Battle of Purrfang)
- KLS Asset
- KLS Acquisition
Behind the Scenes[]
This class was designed by Martin Hohner at the request of Ed Stasheff. The design was very distantly inspired by the Borg Type 03 starships from Star Trek.