The Ranger Class Heavy Scout was an attempt to create a small ship designed to scout out new planets, asteroid belts or potentially, enemy fleet installations. The ship, therefore, was designed to have a single pilot, but to have a small armada of unmanned craft on-board for planet exploration and testing. The first, and most important of these, was a small unmanned rover that was stored in the rear of the ship in a dedicated bay. The idea being that the pilot could land the ship, deploy the four-wheel drive rover and take off again. Despite being small and light, the rover carried extensive visual scanners to view all around as well as soil sampling equipment. In addition, with the growing possibility of hostile life on exo-plants, the Earth Star Fleet decided to equip the rover with two Gatling guns for defensive purposes. Despite making the rover look more hostile than intended, it was felt that the defensive measure was more important. The second unmanned system carried by the ship consists of two deployable probes designed to float in space or descend very slowly in a planet’s atmosphere on parachutes. Both probes contain the same visual scanners as the rover as well as basic radar and atmospheric instruments. The end result was a ship that proved itself to be an exceptional exploration craft that even had light combat abilities (although that was never its intended role) thanks to two wingtip heavy guns and top mounted rocket launchers. Because of this, the ship also found use in civilian hands; primarily with various asteroid mining companies as well as various human colonization projects. In both cases, the ship’s own senses and native deployable systems made it superb to the task. Controls VTOL down – lower aft section door and ramp. Group 1 – enable main engines the ship flight. Group 2 – Deploy rover once the door is down. This also activates the rover’s systems including the guns. Switch to camera 1 or 2 and drive forward and back with pitch control