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Somtaaw "Worker"-Class Resource Collector
Mass: 5200 tons
Firepower: -
Armor: 1500
Coverage: -
Maneuverability: medium
Max. Velocity: 425 m/s
Special Action: Harvest, Repair, Salvage

While most Kiith still use the primary Resource Collector design created nearly 50 years ago during the Mothership's construction, Kiith Somtaaw has been forced by circumstance to radically redesign the entire Resourcer concept. Somtaaw fleets often work deep inside dense asteroid fields, where the massive Resource Collector cannot maneuver fast enough to avoid disastrous collisions, and so a completely different vessel design was needed.

While various high-maneuver Resourcer/Frigate hybrids were attempted, none of the prototypes survived actual field testing, as the turn rate was disastrously compromised by the full loads a Resourcer is expected to carry. Then, deep in the Mothership's main databanks, a Somtaaw engineer came across a hull design for a heavy cargo re-entry vehicle. It had been used 120 years earlier on Kharak to haul crews and raw components to and from low orbit during the construction of the Mothership Scaffolding. While the original purpose of the ship was no longer relevant, the shaped, blunt-projectile hull shape that had been crucial to re-entry was now ideal for providing a compact center of gravity. When refitted with modern engines and control systems, this new Resourcer design can haul almost as much as the old one, but can rotate quickly on its center of gravity and easily avoid collision, even in the most congested flight spaces.

The first production model is just now being accepted by Somtaaw mining teams, though there is some resentment about the ship's class name, the "Worker"� as it seems to make an already mundane task seem even less glamorous than it was before. Engineers argue that as they devise new applications for the ship, such as repair or possibly salvaging, the multi-purpose nature of the word "worker" will become readily apparent.

Required Tech	-	None
Upgrade Tech	-	INFECTION VACCINE REPAIR SYSTEMS SALVAGING ABILITY REPAIR BOTS ARMOR LEVEL 2