C.S.S. Horizon

Some 80 meters long and 40 meters high, the **Horizon** was originally a mobile battle station/command centre for the Yaha navy, lost during the Battle of Tatl, along with its original name. When Navina Tael, a young and down-on-her-luck scrapper, found it in the massive debris cloud that still orbits the Yaha homeworld, she could have sold it for parts and lived off the money for quite some time. Instead, she kept it a secret and, with the help of some close friends at the local shipyard, she repaired it. Or rather, they patched it up until it was barely functional and then got it to limp back to port.

Dreaming of captaining a ship of her own, she took out a number of large loans to fully repair the ship, then begged her friends and family to help her gut the ship of everything that wasn't bolted down. She paid off a few debts by selling the unneeded parts, but then went *further* into debt by having the interior completely remodeled, allowing people of all shapes and sizes to man the ship. Facing increasingly frustrated friends and family, not to mention looming debts, Navina was nonetheless excited to begin her career as an independent starship captain. Having slightly more business sense than many of her relatives gave her credit for, Navina had transformed the ship into a massive (relatively speaking) cargo hauler. Being inexperienced, however, she failed to account for the need to actually *pay* potential crew members.

Reluctant to go even further into debt, she struggled to man the ship by herself, occasionally pressing hitchhikers into service in exchange for a ride, or splitting the profits from the few jobs she could complete with some temporary workers. Serendipitously, while attempting to take a shortcut though poorly-charted space, she came upon a large debris field, whereupon she discovered and promptly salvaged a sophisticated AI core from an old wreck.

While unable to unlock the core's full potential, she integrated it into the ship-board computer, allowing her to automate many of the tasks she would otherwise have to do herself (for short trips, at least). This was a crucial development, as it allowed her to complete more jobs with greater speed and efficiency, enabling her to stabilize her financial situation and take on larger, longer, more lucrative jobs in the process. This, of course, led to a need for a *proper* crew. There was a lot to do, after all, and there was only so much a single Yaha and her trusty salvaged-AI could handle.

Originally intended as a mobile commander centre, the *Horizon* 's ship class was never intended for front-line combat. And once it came into her possession, Navina sold most of its military-grade equipment. Thus, the *Horizon* was left with only minimal armaments and shielding, sporting two basic laser cannons, one on each side, and a single missile launcher, which must be loaded manually. While it was never meant for any serious maneuvering, its ability to do so is further restricted by the fact that much of its engine structure has been retooled with energy efficiency in mind, causing it to accelerate slowly but reach a high top speed at sublight levels.
The ship's armour, however, has remained largely intact, save for a few spots that were destroyed either during the Battle of Tatl or during its many years floating around in the debris field. These sections have been repaired with basic materials, but relative to the total size of the ship, they are quite small. This means that, overall, and despite the age of the armour, the *Horizon* is quite a hardy ship, especially compared to most independent cargo haulers.

The *Horizon* can carry approximately 500 tons of cargo at its maximum, and its powerful engines enable to attach a large “trailer”, of sorts, doubling its cargo capacity at the cost of an even slower rate of acceleration. To save on fuel costs, however, the ship often travels much lighter than this.