Catalog — Small Craft

About Small Craft

Small craft are Scale 2 vehicles. They operate in the space between personal equipment and full starships: faster than a suited EVA, slower than a cutter, and useful in roles that larger ships cannot perform without embarrassing themselves.

Most small craft cannot make independent Slipstream transits. They travel between systems aboard carrier ships, deploy from hangar bays, dock at stations, and operate within a system's local space. A few larger variants mount Slipstream drives for independent operation, but they are expensive, unusual, and noted in their entries.

Docking Requirements: A ship carries Scale 2 craft in an internal bay or on an External Docking Cradle. Capacity is set by the module rather than by the hull: a cradle holds one craft, a Shuttle Bay two, a Fighter Bay four, an Expanded Hangar eight. A hull carries what its bays and cradles hold and no more. Cradles are available from Scale 3, Shuttle Bays from Scale 4, and Fighter Bays and Expanded Hangars from Scale 6. The modules are in Chapter Ten; launch and recovery in combat is in Chapter Fifteen.

Landing Capacity: Small craft have Scale-appropriate versions of the same systems found on full ships, but scaled down. A fighter's Damage Control system is automated sealant foam, extinguishers, and a cockpit ejection system — not a full engineering team. Life support is measured in hours, not months, unless the entry specifies otherwise.

Stat Blocks: Small craft use the same stat block format as starships with two additions: Endurance notes operational duration without resupply, and Typical Carrier notes what class of ship normally carries the craft.

Fighters

Combat-oriented small craft. Most fighters are single- or dual-seat designs. Their role is aggression, interception, escort, and point defense against incoming threats. They are expendable relative to the ships that carry them.

Fighters are not heavily armed. A fighter carrying one or two Light weapons can threaten any unshielded ship and can saturate the point defense of larger ships when operating in groups. A fighter is not going to destroy a cruiser in a one-on-one engagement. Six fighters can make a cruiser wish it had better point defense.

Dart — Light Fighter

Common design, multiple manufacturers

The Dart is what happens when every shipbuilder independently concludes that a fast, cheap, easily replaceable interceptor is what carriers need most. There are Darts built by Crown Meridian, Kharos, Funtari clan yards, and three manufacturers the League has not officially licensed. They all look similar because the physics agree on what works.

Standard Loadout: Light rotary cannon (forward fixed), point-defense laser (omnidirectional).

Traits: The Dart's Speed 7 is the highest in the catalog. It closes distance extremely fast and is genuinely difficult to target while maneuvering. Its Hull Points 6 means any hit from a ship-scale weapon is a crisis. Designed to work in groups: two or more Darts coordinating an attack count as one degree higher threat level for point defense purposes.

Typical Carrier: Any Scale 4+ ship with a Shuttle Bay. Standard carrier complement is two per Shuttle Bay or four per Fighter Bay.

Acquisition: Open (civilian model). Military models are Licensed and sold only to contractor security forces; armed variants are Restricted. Common second-hand market.

Talon — Heavy Fighter

Safa Celestial Arsenal, Talon Series

The Talon is what happens when Safa decides a fighter should be built with the same assumptions as everything else it makes: more weapon than vehicle, built for a specific purpose, and resistant to being used for anything else.

Standard Loadout: Laser battery (forward fixed), light missile rack (forward), point-defense laser (omnidirectional).

Builder Benefit (Safa): Lock-On weapon attacks add 1 Boon Die; PD treated as Interception +1.

Model Trait — Prototype Mount: A Standard hardpoint has a minimum Scale of 3 (Chapter Eight). The Talon is Scale 2 and carries one anyway, on a forward spine rebuilt for the purpose under an Arsenal prototype programme. The rebuild is why the airframe has no module slots and cannot land except in an emergency. Treat the mount as Experimental for salvage, repair, and resale: the cradle is Safa-pattern, integration into any other hull is one difficulty step harder, and a yard without Safa certification will not touch it.

Traits: The Talon trades pure Speed for heavier armament and better sensors. Its Standard hardpoint allows a laser battery or missile rack, giving it genuine reach against medium-scale targets. At 9 HP it can absorb one solid hit. Used as a strike craft rather than an interceptor: it approaches, fires, and retreats before the target can respond effectively.

Typical Carrier: Scale 4+ with Shuttle Bay. Military Safa carriers operate squadrons of 4–6 Talons.

Acquisition: Restricted. Safa pattern certification required. Standard security contractor channels with appropriate clearance.

Scythe — Interceptor

Shoiyan Concord, Lattice Works production

The Scythe does not fight when it can prevent the fight. Its sensor package and electronic warfare systems often end engagements before they begin: the Scythe identifies the threat, jams its communications, and positions itself so that proceeding becomes inadvisable. When all of that fails, it is fast enough that the enemy rarely gets a second opportunity.

Standard Loadout: Disruption lance (forward fixed), point-defense laser (omnidirectional). Module: ECM suite (1 slot).

Builder Benefit (Shoiyan): Sensors treat detection range as 1 band farther; scan Trial Bane reduction; AI coordination active.

Model Trait — Lattice Intercept: When used as a weapon reaction to intercept incoming missiles or torpedoes, the Scythe's ECM system may attempt to break the ordnance's lock without spending the pilot's action for the round.

Typical Carrier: Shoiyan Concord warships (SC-43K, SC-61R). Rare in civilian hands.

Acquisition: Military. Shoiyan Concord fleet asset. No civilian market.

Bomber — Torpedo Boat

Kharos Forge Cooperative, Hammer Series

The Hammer is not fast, not elegant, and not subtle. It carries three torpedoes, points at a capital ship, and relies on its escorts to keep it alive long enough to fire. What it does to a ship that cannot intercept all three torpedoes is the point of the exercise.

Standard Loadout: Torpedo launcher (forward fixed, magazine 3), light rotary cannon (omnidirectional).

Builder Benefit (Kharos): Maneuvering Bane reduction for evasion; emergency patch Boon.

Model Trait — Prototype Mount: A Heavy hardpoint has a minimum Scale of 4 (Chapter Eight). The Hammer is Scale 2. Kharos rebuilt the spine and rear structure around the launcher rather than scale the weapon down, which is where the hull's module slots, atmospheric rating, and Handling went. Treat the mount as Experimental for salvage, repair, and resale: the launcher cradle is Kharos-pattern, integration into any other hull is one difficulty step harder, and the airframe runs on a shortened structural inspection cycle that no fringe yard is qualified to sign off.

Traits: The Heavy hardpoint on a Scale 2 hull is the Hammer's entire reason for existing. It cannot mount this weapon comfortably; the torpedo launcher is oversized for the hull and the rear section shows it. What it can do is carry three shots that hit Scale 6 capital ships for 12 Hull each. Requires fighter escort to survive the approach run.

Typical Carrier: Scale 6 capital ships with dedicated bomber bays. KR-61 commonly carries Hammer-type bombers.

Acquisition: Licensed (hull). Military torpedo payloads are Restricted.

Shuttles

Personnel and light cargo transfer craft. Shuttles are the workhorses of in-system logistics. Every station, colony, and capital ship needs them. They are not combat vehicles. Some of them have weapons for self-defense. A shuttle that needs to use those weapons is a shuttle in a bad situation.

Standard Personnel Shuttle

Multiple manufacturers, common design

The shuttle is the most used vehicle in known space by volume of trips made. It connects stations to planets, ships to docks, and crews to the places their ships cannot land. Its design has been refined across centuries and the result is something that works reliably without being interesting.

Standard Module: Passenger Berths (1 slot).

Traits: No weapons. No hardpoints. The standard personnel shuttle is not designed for anything dangerous. It carries people from A to B efficiently. Its value is its ubiquity: these shuttles are found everywhere and their paperwork is never questioned.

Typical Carrier: Any Scale 3+ ship. Standard equipment on most commercial hulls.

Acquisition: Open. Available at virtually every port.

Cargo Shuttle

Multiple manufacturers, common design

The cargo shuttle gave up passenger space for cargo capacity and the result is one of the least glamorous vehicles in the catalog and one of the most necessary.

Standard Modules: Expanded cargo hold (1 slot), external cargo frame (1 slot).

Traits: Handling −1 when fully loaded. The cargo shuttle is a pure orbital lighter: no aerodynamic surfaces, no heat shielding, no landing gear. It cannot enter an atmosphere and will not survive the attempt. Every kilogram of structure it saves by never going down a gravity well went into the hold, which is why a Scale 2 hull carries 30 Cargo Units. Moving that cargo to a surface is the atmospheric lander's job, and the two craft are almost always operated as a pair.

Typical Carrier: Scale 4+ ships with Shuttle Bay. Industrial stations universally operate cargo shuttle fleets.

Acquisition: Open.

Executive Shuttle

Viridian Lattice Yards, Serenity Series

The executive shuttle exists to make the person inside it feel that the universe operates at an appropriate standard. Viridian builds these for people whose time is worth more than the ship's purchase price.

Standard Modules: Luxury cabin module (1 slot), counter-surveillance suite (1 slot).

Builder Benefit (Viridian): AI coordination assistance; life support accommodates all species automatically; Extended Sensors.

Traits: Higher System Points than Hull Points reflects Viridian's deep-integrated architecture. Counter-surveillance makes this shuttle harder to track and inspect. Used by corporate executives, diplomatic personnel, and anyone who can afford it and wants to arrive without anyone knowing they left.

Typical Carrier: Corporate capital ships, VN-63C2 vessels, private estates.

Acquisition: Licensed. Viridian dealer network, primarily in Concord space.

Medical Transport Shuttle

Viridian Lattice Yards, Mercy Series

A Mercy shuttle arriving at a crisis means the window for intervention has not closed yet. Viridian designed these for the people who make that window count.

Standard Modules: Medical bay (1 slot), quarantine module (1 slot).

Builder Benefit (Viridian): Medical Trials aboard add 1 Boon Die; life support accommodates all species automatically.

Traits: Marked with universal medical identification. Attacking a marked medical transport is a violation of the humanitarian conventions that all five powers nominally observe. The marking does not prevent attacks, but it creates political consequences. Removing the marking to use the shuttle as a covert transport is straightforward and morally complicated.

Typical Carrier: Any large ship. Standard complement of VN-63C2 hospital ships.

Acquisition: Licensed. Medical supply chains in all territories.

Cutters

Cutters are no longer Scale 2. The three common cutter patterns, independent, inspection, and patrol, were reclassified as Scale 3 light starships and now appear under Common Designs in Chapter Sixteen. A cutter is a starship with a Slipstream Drive, not a carried craft, and it does not fit in a shuttle bay.

Boarding Craft

Ship-to-ship assault vehicles. These are not designed for comfortable transit. They are designed to cross the gap between two ships, survive point defense, and deliver personnel to the target.

Boarding Pod

Funtari Confederacy Warforge, Breacher Series

The boarding pod is not piloted so much as aimed. The crew inside is strapped in, committed, and depending on the pod's ablative exterior and the gunner outside to handle the point defense problem.

Standard Loadout: Breaching charge (forward, single use, replaces hardpoint — used to breach hull on arrival).

Traits: Armor 3 — highest of any Scale 2 craft — reflects the ablative assault exterior. The boarding pod has the most Hull Points of any craft in its category (12). It is a one-way vehicle: it delivers its payload and is abandoned. Point defense must intercept it (it has the Interceptable tag, treated as heavy ordnance requiring a Fire Control Trial). On arrival at Engaged range, it breaches a hull section (the target makes a Hard Craft Trial to maintain compartment integrity).

Typical Carrier: Scale 5+ military ships; FHF-4GA2 cutters carry 2–4. Converted KR-61s sometimes carry them.

Acquisition: Restricted. Military and approved contractor use.

Assault Shuttle

Multiple military manufacturers

The assault shuttle is a boarding pod that wants to come back. It carries the same personnel complement with better survivability, weapons for suppressing a landing zone, and enough systems to reverse-dock after the breach.

Standard Loadout: Light rotary cannon x2 (forward fixed). Module: Barracks module (1 slot, troop carry configuration).

Traits: Unlike the boarding pod, the assault shuttle is crewed and recoverable. Its suppression weapons cover the immediate landing zone while troops disembark. Can also perform conventional surface assault, not just ship boarding. Used for both space and atmospheric assault operations.

Typical Carrier: Scale 5+ military ships; FHF-6HO8 carriers.

Acquisition: Restricted.

Breacher

Funtari Confederacy Warforge, Advanced Breacher

The advanced breacher is the assault shuttle for situations where the target knows you are coming and has prepared for the possibility. It handles the electronic warfare problem before it handles the hull.

Standard Loadout: Ion pulse emitter (forward fixed), cutting beam (forward fixed). Module: ECM suite (1 slot).

Builder Benefit (Funtari): Maneuvering Bane reduction; emergency patch Boon.

Traits: The breacher's combination of ion pulse emitter and cutting beam reflects its purpose: disable defenses with the ion weapon, breach the hull with the cutting beam, insert troops. The ECM module handles electronic countermeasures during the approach. Armor 3 and Deflection 1/0 give it meaningful survivability against point defense.

Typical Carrier: Funtari military vessels, specialized security contractors.

Acquisition: Restricted. Military and high-security contractor use.

Escape and Emergency Craft

When everything goes wrong, these are what remain.

Standard Escape Pod

Common design, multiple manufacturers

The escape pod has one job. It does that job with minimal flair and maximum reliability. Crews that have needed one do not complain about its limited amenities.

Traits: Automated on ejection. Emergency beacon broadcasts immediately and continuously. Not maneuverable in any meaningful sense; the pod is a survival container, not a vehicle. Contains 72 hours of standard life support, emergency rations, a distress transmitter, and a medical kit. Designed to either reach a gravity well for reentry or drift until rescue.

Typical Carrier: Every crewed ship carries escape pods as standard equipment, minimum one per four crew members for compliant vessels.

Acquisition: Open. Required safety equipment at most port standards.

Life Raft — Non-Powered Emergency Shelter

Common design

The life raft is for when even the escape pods did not survive. It is an inflatable pressure vessel with a chemical oxygen generator and a passive beacon. It is the last option before floating in a suit.

Traits: Non-powered. Drifts with local vectors. Passive emergency beacon. Not a vehicle in any functional sense. Its only purpose is to keep people alive long enough for rescue. Stored in compressed packages aboard most ships.

Acquisition: Open.

Emergency Beacon Pod

Common design

The beacon pod is a single-purpose device: it broadcasts your position in as many formats as possible for as long as its power cells hold out. It does not keep you alive. It tells people where to come.

Traits: Broadcasts a standard distress signal on all monitored frequencies. Encrypted identification transmission allows rescue services to identify the registering ship. Power cell lasts 30 days. Mechanically inert once deployed: it simply broadcasts. Used when the ship is disabled and cannot transmit, or when the crew needs to mark a position for later recovery.

Acquisition: Open.

Atmospheric Craft

Orbit-to-ground vehicles and dedicated atmospheric small craft. These are designed for the transition between space and surface, a task that larger ships handle poorly and small craft handle with purpose.

Atmospheric Lander

Multiple manufacturers, common design

The atmospheric lander is the last step of a journey that began in orbit. It is rarely elegant. It is usually reliable. The ones that are not reliable are usually discovered during the approach phase, which is the least convenient moment.

Standard Loadout: None (hardpoint open). Module: Open (1 slot).

Traits: The atmospheric lander is optimized for planet-to-orbit work. Its higher Handling in atmosphere (+1) versus space (−1) reflects aerodynamic design that becomes a liability in zero-gravity maneuvering. Excellent cargo capacity for a Scale 2 craft. Cannot operate independently in deep space; designed for short hops between orbit and surface.

Typical Carrier: Any Scale 3+ ship that expects to land cargo or personnel on planetary surfaces. The KR-41 and Model 20 commonly carry them.

Acquisition: Open.

Survey Skiff

Kharos Forge Cooperative, Prospector Series

The survey skiff is built for the places that do not have ports, the terrain that does not allow docking, and the crew that does not have a bigger ship nearby. It is the exploration vehicle of the frontier.

Standard Loadout: Light rotary cannon (forward). Modules: Workshop (1 slot), open (1 slot).

Builder Benefit (Kharos): Emergency patch Boon; field repair at Hard instead of Severe; maneuvering Bane reduction on confined terrain.

Traits: Extended Sensors and Any Terrain landing capability are the Survey Skiff's distinguishing features. It can set down in conditions that would damage a standard lander, access sites inaccessible to larger craft, and operate independently for five days. The workshop module allows field analysis and light repair work. Used extensively by survey teams, independent prospectors, and frontier emergency response.

Typical Carrier: KR-41, KR-61, Model 20 with open module slots.

Acquisition: Open.

Rapid Descent Vehicle

Funtari Confederacy, military design

The rapid descent vehicle is for situations where arriving slowly is arriving too late. It enters atmosphere at a trajectory that would damage an ordinary lander and decelerates just enough to avoid impact. The crew inside is expected to be fine with this.

Standard Loadout: Light rotary cannon x2 (forward fixed). Module: Barracks module (1 slot, troop configuration).

Builder Benefit (Funtari): Maneuvering Bane reduction during descent maneuvers.

Traits: The RDV's Speed 6 during descent represents the aggressive re-entry profile. Pilot Trials during descent add 1 Boon Die from the maneuvering package but the trajectory itself generates 2 Heat automatically per descent run. Military sensors allow target acquisition during approach. Not designed for extended atmospheric operation; built for rapid insertion and recovery.

Typical Carrier: Military assault ships, FHF-6HO8 carriers.

Acquisition: Restricted. Military and approved contractor access.

Small Craft Comparison Tables

Fighters

Shuttles

Boarding and Emergency

Atmospheric Craft