Aegis-Class

The Aegis is the third of the Fleet's support classes. Twice the size of a fighter and shaped like something that intends to survive.

It exists because people need to be somewhere, and moving a capital to put them there is the wrong tool. A Cataclysm does not make that trip for five passengers. A Bastion is the quickest capital ship the Fleet operates, and an Aegis halves its transit time. Against anything slower, the gap only widens.

Regulation allows the pilot and up to five. It is not a comfortable ride. That limit was exceeded without issue during the Rylos catastrophe.

There is no armament. The volume a weapon would occupy holds countermeasures instead, in numbers that look absurd until the job is clear. This craft is built to survive an exchange long enough to finish the run. It does not travel alone.

The rest is armor, which is why it also gets used the other way. Flown empty, an Aegis can put itself between a missile and something more valuable. Crews have done it. Doctrine is clear that they should not. A hull spent absorbing one missile is a hull not moving anyone for weeks.

Most runs are a transfer. Somebody needed elsewhere, moved there in a hurry, handed off without a mark on the paint.