Ok, first off, the 'Mercury's' paint job. A new owner all excited about their new ship is not always in their right mind. They are not thinking' purple bellies' or 'browncoats', more like "YEAIfinallygotmyownshipandpurple ismyfavoritecolorandwouldbegreat!." Oh well, it is a very dark, almost black, purple so maybe no one will notice.
Elric Ratius is the owner / Captain and I, Twitch, am his partner in crime / XO / engineer and general dogsbody.
The 'Mercury' is a 'Harpoon' fast courier class. She only carries 100 tons of cargo but she can get it to a destination very fast. Small, dark, maneuverable, and with some extra goodies on board, she can be hard to spot or catch.
The Mercury's hull is painted in a purple so dark that changes of lighting or shifts in angle of viewing can make her appear black. A picture of Mercury, messenger of the gods from Earth-that-was, is painted on both sides of the hull between the rear-facing cargo ramp and the cargo viewport. She is a sleek, stylish vessel. Streamlined, her smoothly rounded curvature and near lack of angled lines make it more reminiscent of aquatic life evolved to slice through oceans, leery of prey.
A smaller ship, she rises to a modest forty-nine feet tall. The ninety-eight foot wingspan can largely be attributed to the powerful maneuvering thrusters perched high on the starboard and port above the extended cargo hold. Perhaps able to be called 'oversized' or 'overpowered' for the class, those thrusters account for half of the width of the craft and are quite nearly equal to the primary hull’s length. The one hundred and ninety-eight foot length of the Harpoon is bolstered by an elongated tail, ending in a horizontal stabilizer with discreet 'twin tail' vertical fins for atmospheric flight.
When docked, the ship rests on a wheeled, retractable and reinforced landing gear at the nose. Peculiarly, the weight at the rear of the craft is supported by retractable landing struts at the ends of the maneuvering thrusters. Those thrusters, as a result, never tilt beyond forty-five degrees, instead relying on directional aileron duct systems within the cowlings for vertical ascent and descent.
CREW:
Elric ----- Captain, Cargo master, Owner
Twitch -- XO, Engineer, Partner
Odell ---- Security officer, Partner
Aeddan -- Lead pilot
