History

The PLAS Deep Space Scout Frigate is a marvel of automation. Designed to transport a lone scout into the depths of space for extended exploration missions, the earliest versions of this ship saw service starting in GSC 140, but variants of this basic design were in use throughout the remainder of the history of the Planetary League.

First appearance: The Sunset Chronicles / Chapter 1: Exodus

Equipment

The Deep Space Scout Frigate was equipped to support a single scout on missions of indefinite length. This ship could launch salvos of drones, probes and other robotic assistants through a series of ports on the outer hull. These served as additional eyes, ears, and hands for the scout.

Defenses typically included a Pegasus Cybernetics point-defense laser array to deal with micro-meteors and other small obstacles, an Ares Systems medium deflector-shield to protect against larger impacts, and a Danforth-Galactic light anti-capital ship railgun to deal with many of the unknown threats of deep space.

The ship’s wings typically remained folded inside the hull during space flight (to facilitate docking and to present a smaller profile to the hazards of space), but deployed for atmospheric operations. The vertical stabilizer was not retractable, but contained an array of sensors, probes and point-defense systems useful in deep space.

The interior of the DSSF was divided into two decks, with the upper deck used for the scout’s quarters and the lower mainly devoted to storage and life-support. The aft section of both decks was devoted to engineering, and the forward section of the upper deck was the ship’s cockpit with an impressive 2.6 meter high canopy designed for maximum visibility.