LiCorp Cottonmouth-class Raider

== LiCorp Cottonmouth-class Raider ==
A vessel designed primarily for use as a general issue ship for expeditionary operations. It is an ideal platform for skirmishing, raiding, de-claiming sectors and other standard combat and exploration duties. It excels in the anti-pirate/partisan role as well. As a pack hunter this vessel can take down ships many times the size of a teams total mass.
In part to cut expenses but also for tactical purposes, most of the armor on the Cottonmouth resides in the citadel, where the control room and the warp drives are located.
On the other hand, exceptional care was given to the development of advanced thrust-vectoring technologies that could quickly increase the ship capacity for manuevers high speeds without overheating. This makes for a fast combat ship that must rely on agility rather than armor for survival.
While the ship has lost its favor without the support of the LiCorp for a "Power 2.0" update, it is still found in use by pirates, privateers and factions who took up the mission to create their own updated versions with the new reactors.
=== Development ===
The Cottonmouth was developed by the LiCorp after several tours along different clusters such as Elwyn Eternity and Systemhack. The project was first based on the efficient designs observed, such as the Acolyte (At the time used by the Odium Pact). This sparked Project: COTTON, the codename for the prototype first developed by LiCorp.
The vessel would have three key design choices: speed, mass-production capability and multi-role capacity. The first was accomplished by sheeding much of the standard armor used in spaceships as to increase the thrust-to-mass ratio. This in turn helped the mass-production capability, since any faction with enough resources can produce the pre-fab hulls and thrusters from a blueprint from universal metal mesh and crystal composites. Lastly, the multi-role capacity. Equipped with salvager beams, it can even gather materials for research or quickly salvage destroyed ships. It is said that a shipyard or a team of work-drones can refit the Cottonmouth for any mission profile in ten minutes.