Saker Mk 3

Saker Mk III
Maximum gross mass	28t
Empty mass	5t
Payload	23t
Main thruster accel	21.1g
Retro thruster accel	10g
Gun mountings	2
Missiles	2
Crew	1
Hyperdrive ranges	Class 1: 10.71 Class 2: 42.85
Standard drive	Class 1
Fuel scoop	No

Overview

The Saker Mk III is a very pleasant craft to begin your Frontier career in. It doesn't pretend to be something it isn't. It's just a fast, manoeuvrable ship with a little bit of spare capacity for moving cargo between systems.

Notable Features

The point of the Saker is that it isn't very notable, it just does all the jobs it's asked to do in a competent and safe manner. It isn't the kind of ship you'd willingly take into a anarchic system because it isn't big enough to carry the kind of weaponry you'd need, but if you ever run into an opportunistic pirate or two, you could be reasonable confident of dealing with them.
Visually, the Saker is quite unusual with its swept forward wings, which are so designed to give it increased stability when flying close to a planet's surface.

Disadvantages

Not many to speak of, save for the problem which afflicts all ships of this size; the fact that although it is fast and can jump good distances in hyperspace, its capacity is severely limited in terms of trading or fighting. If you catch the end of any kind of beam laser, you are going to be in trouble very quickly.

Verdict

It's a common fact amongst all the Frontier ships that you really have to decide what kind of life you're going to lead, and then buy the ship that will enable you to do it. In the Saker's case, ferrying documents and such between systems is a possibility; brief skirmishes with other small craft should be just that and you'll also have a great time exploring safe systems, plunging in and out of planetary atmospheres, round and round gas giants rings, that sort of thing.
A fun ship, not much more than that.