Surveyor Ship

Surveyor ships are an increasingly ubiquitious sight throughout Civilized Space, and increasingly in the Frontier as well. Their original purpose was carrying out short term surveying missions for various major agencies. Despite this, they are multirole vessels, with independent actors repurposing surveyors into generalized light couriers carrying messages, and small amounts of cargo through jump space. Though not as fast as express boats, or as capable of carrying cargo as dedicated cargo vessels, they are, as a result of their original mission, capable of going to smaller communities where dedicated services might not go. This makes them the lifeblood of the developing society that exists since the end of the Long Night.
The largest single group which operates surveyor ships is the Galactic Surveyor's Guild, which operates a fleet in the hundreds directly, and with thousands of reserve ships, many of which it loans out to respectable members of the Guild who wish to go into reserve service. However many states especially those with interests in the frontier such as Cincastrella, Yuanjing, and the Dromedary Republic, also operate these craft, and their small size, low cost, and ease of operation makes them one of the more common types to be purchased and operated by independent crews. There are over a dozen of discreet classes of surveyor ship, three of which are operated by the guild, so exact specifications are impossible to discern. However, some commonalities are universal, surveyor ships are typically between one hundred and one thousand tons in size, and are usually capable of making long range jumps, or jumping multiple times, or ideally both in order to facilitate their travels. Surveyor ships usually have modest cargo bays, and are typically designed to be easily modified given the generally long range missions they undertake.

Typical Specifications

Typical Size
100-1,000 tons
Typical Jump Capacity
J-1 through J-6
Typical Manuever Capacity
M-1 through M-3

Price

Typically between MGCr30 and MGCr500

Rarity

Common

Complement / Crew

Usually less than 10

Cargo & Passenger Capacity

Typically between 5 and 100 tons

Image Gallery

A GSG Europa class Surveryor, one of the more
modern designs in service

by tombud