Black Ship

A Black Ship is spacecraft operated by the Existential Risks Directorate. Little is known of these vessels beyond low-quality public pictures and a handful of official acknowledgements, though most bear a void-black livery broken only by the Directorate's Omega symbol and appear to be heavily-modified variants of classes in use with the Star Patrol and Exploration Service.

It is thought the Black Ships are reserved only for the most critical missions, with XRD agents traveling disguised at other times. When traveling in controlled space they will emit transponder signals whose registries, when queried, return only a valid operating certificate. On several instances they have been observed firing upon other vessels, likely carrying terrorists or weapons of mass destruction, and more than a few rumors abound in the Frontier of a colony or outpost where a Black Ship's arrival heralded the start of a gap in the residents' memories.

Known or speculated types of Black Ship include the Excisior-class, Bostrom-class, and Oppenheimer-class. Their home port(s) are unknown, perhaps one or more brown dwarf systems or rogue planets connected to the Starweb by a restricted-access gate. Crews are thought to be elite and few in number, and their ships equipped with paleotech devices and weapons considered mythical by everyone else.