One-Stop Rockhopper

The Rockhopper is a medium-sized cargo freighter, designed and manufactured by One-Stop. Marketed aggressively towards aspiring and established merchants with large interplanetary or intersystem cargos. The shape and size of this ship is made to be explicitly compatible with different gate and carrier networks, drawing knowledge from far outside the native Aleph Null System to make it as accessible as possible beyond the immediate market to make it able to get by within and beyond the territory, particularly those adjacent Null's trade corridor with the Acala System.

The Rockhopper consists of three distinct shapes: The blocky central cabin which houses the computing, living, and piloting areas, and the port and starboard cylinders which are responsible for housing the cargo and the engines, with four major thrust nacelles framing them near the rear. The central cabin protrudes a little from between the two cylinders, while the bridge area itself is further away than the sensor window on the front of it. The landing gears rest upon four bifuricated struts, and two cargo ramps protrude from the rear cargo holds contained in cylinders. A personnel ramp extends from the back of the central cabin down to the ground from between the cylinders. The cylinders are also host to the main lift thrusters, 8 of them on the fore and aft edges for landing and taking off from the ground, and making trajectory adjustments in space.

With their entry-level designs taking off from showroom floors and second-hand dealers alike, the demand arose soon for something bigger to buy locally to get more, as having fleets of Faintails couldn't provide interstellar commercial demands. The design which arose from the drawing boards could be described as stout, steady, and spacious. If the spacecraft was going to be moving around space and from station to station rather than hopping from planet to planet, aerodynamics and speed were sacrificed for increased capacity and durability.

As standard, One-Stop issues Rockhoppers with tools to assist any trader: The most prominent is specialised computing systems for commercial transactions, which mail-hooks current trade data from info-buoys dotted across space, space stations, and other Rockhoppers. The second is a gate frequency attenuator for gathering and consolidating data regarding space travel routes and cartography, as well as identifying gate energy signatures. Finally, there is a rear-facing point-defence system designed to travel up and down the back of the cabin to shoot down incoming projectiles from above, below and any side of the ship.

Owners of Rockhoppers who don't use the craft for trade use its generous cargo capacity to retrofit living quarters and other spaces, making them a popular choice for houseboating among wealthier families and individuals. Dedicated merchants may also make changes to carry specialised cargo like fuel, raw materials, processed materials, or personnel. Illicit and back-alley chop-shoppers also enjoy the sheer amount of space available to conceal contraband on a Rockhopper with the right adjustments.