Darwin

The Darwin is a light freighter captained by Benjamin Stinel. The ship is more heavily armed and faster than most of the Company's other ships with similar capacity, but tends to have a shorter range, making her less suitable for transport than combat. The ship has a high sublight rating with a tight turning radius for a ship her size.

Acquisition
The Darwin was acquired by The Company for the sum of 8,347,535 credits. The Company's business manager Tarin Méran made the acquisition upon Katrylle Morghan's request for an escort vessel with greater firepower than the stock fighters available on the Vextis and Krita, however the ship sat largely unused until the return of Ben Stinel.

Use by Benjamin Stinel
When Ben Stinel returned from his ten year exile in deep space, he struggled to re-find his place in the company. The longer runs made by large ships like the Colorado no longer appealed to him or the other survivors of the Colorado. The Darwin offered the ability to make shorter transport runs or to serve as an escort craft for larger vessels on off-lane shipments.

In most cases the ship is crewed by Benjamin Stinel, Sandra Little, and Jarrid Pallin. Chaz Billith serves as the vessel's maintenance chief, but due to the Darwin's mission profile he tends to service the craft when she's in port more often than not. For combat runs the crew is supplemented by Chico Alvarez and Jeff Cartwright. Marissa and Becky Pallin frequently join Jarrid on safer runs. Marissa will serve if a doctor is needed but the medical facilities on the Darwin are extremely limited.

Cargo Bay
The Darwin's cargo bay is mounted along the forward central axis of the ship. The bay can hold 6 standard 2.75 x 2.25 x 2.3 meter pallet positions and can carry up to 50 metric tons. The bay can serve as a makeshift fighter hanger if the craft wings are foldable, however the small tractor beam on the ship makes capturing anything larger than a snub fighter problematic. Use as a fighter bay is likely to be limited to launch only scenarios.

Defenses
The Darwin is armed with two heavy blaster cannons, mounted dorsally and ventrally on the central axis. These cannons can be directly manned or controlled in tandem by the co-pilot if gunners are not available.

The side mounted weapon pods are equipped with front and aft laser cannons and can be crewed by one or two gunners each. If the weapon pods are not manned the guns are locked in position allowing the ship to fire forward and aft. The pod guns are controlled by the pilot in this case.

The ship has two small torpedo launchers located on either side of the cargo bay doors. Each launcher has a magazine of three torpedoes.

The ship boasts modest shielding and light armor, depending primarily on her speed and maneuverability to keep her out of harms way. The ship can easily hold her own against the weapons of a similarly sized craft or smaller fighters, however she would be unable to withstand more than one hit from the weapons equipped by a capital ship like the Vextis or Krita.

Sensors
The Darwin has a more advanced sensor array than most ships her size, making her well suited for search and rescue missions. The ship's sensor array boasts a wide range of tachyonic and sublight sensors, allowing the ship to perform a wide range of covert detection missions.