The drone cruiser is a highly versatile ship type known only to be employed by the Solean Empire. Having served in the Solean navy since before the founding of the empire, this ancient ship type is an integral part of the navy. Drone cruisers are medium capital ships that effectively combine the abilities of a light carrier with a missile cruiser. They are the smaller cousins of Drone Carrier. Drones come in several types including fighter drones, swarm drones, suicide drones, and kinetic kill drones. All of which can be carried in the millions by your average drone cruiser. Which makes these cruisers significant force multipliers, and a critical component to any Solean battlegroup. Now let's take a look at a few of the ships that have served within the Solean Fleet.

Solean Drone Cruisers:

Neptune Class Drone Cruiser: The Neptune class of Drone cruisers is among the oldest in the fleet. Despite its great age, it is still an effective combatant. Primarily employed for Colonial patrol, and policing missions. The Neptune was among the first drone cruisers to feature vertical drone launching ports, and onboard drone factories. Features that were ultimately added to her larger cousin the Jupiter class Drone Carrier. Allowing it to actively replace drones during and after combat while in the field. Being an old design these ships can be produced cheaply, and are still effective in most mission profiles.

Guardian Class Drone Cruiser: The Guardians are the most famous and well known class of Solean Drone cruisers. Designed for extreme long term deployment, these cruisers are virtually self sustaining. The Guardian class revolutionized and refined the drone launching system first employed on the Neptune. Allowing it to deploy millions of drones in half the time it would have taken the older Neptune class. Key features include onboard drone factories, vertical drone ports, multicore Automated Regeneration Units, Subspace Energy Wells, and an advanced cloaking device. The Guardian is highly effective against most ships, and ships of this class have been known to wipe out entire fleets on their own. Unfortunately the ship class is expensive to produce, and fares poorly against supercapital ships.

Sentinel Class Drone Cruiser: A smaller and cheaper variant of the Guardian class the Sentinel lacks the systems that make the Guardian class self sustaining. The Sentinel is employed primarily for planetary defense, and dozens can often be found defending the skies of Solean controlled worlds. Being intended as a system defense ship, the Sentinel is lacking in FTL capabilities. Having a limited warp drive, and no intergalactic drive. The Sentinels chief advantages are its low production cost, and the fact that its firepower matches that of its larger cousin the Guardian.

Light Carriers are medium capital ships designed to carry starfighters, bombers and other lightcraft in support of the fleet. Being smaller and cheaper than a Carrier they are often employed in larger numbers. Primarily employed for system defense, and deep space patrol. A few however are employed as part of an attack fleet. Most of these ships have little firepower of their own, and often require escorts. Now let's look at a few examples of these ships.

Erali Faction Light Carriers:

Dramari Class: The Dramari is the mainstay light carrier of the Erali people. Outfitted with a handful of light cannons for antifighter use, it relies almost entirely on the wings of fighters and bombers that it carries within its massive hangers. Its high fighter capacity for its size is its greatest advantage. The engineers having managed to outfit her with a dozen wings of strike craft. Drawbacks include high construction cost, limited onboard armament, and a fragile hull.

Firo Class: Often found patrolling their border sectors, the Firo is a small carrier with barely enough space to fit a single wing of fighters and the required support equipment. While not the most impressive ship, these light carriers are more than a match for most pirate ships. Her armaments include several flak batteries, and eight ship to ship particle beam cannons. Giving her a respectable ability to engage ships on her own, or support her own fighters. An escort is still recommended however. Her chief drawback is her small fighter bay.

Neku Faction Light Carriers:

Prowler Class: The Prowler is a new generation light carrier. Outfitted with several light plasma guns and plasma throwers for antifighter use, and four medium plasma batteries for ship to ship. Her two hangar bays each carry two wings of strike craft for engaging enemy ships, and she features strong shields that can protect her fragile hull from most weapons. She is used primarily for system patrol, and defense. However she also features a good sensor array, and is often used as a flagship for task forces assigned pirate hunting duties.