Parthas Class Vessels

Called the workhorses of the Imperium, the Parthas Class interstellar craft was first constructed to honor the wife of Duke Gawdain Tawmerik, a member of a junior branch of the Imperial family and a famed industrialist. The first Parthas Class vessels were built by the Hegemonic Economic Trade Group in an attempt to compete against the Cel-Tainu Astrophysical Research Corporation, and underwritten by the Duke. The Tawmeriks had little desire for this sort of competition, and via legislation forced HETG to sell the Parthas Class vessels, their designs and shipyard facilities to CARC for only a fraction of the investment, leading to a serious rift between the ruling Tawmeriks and the junior members of the family.

CARC engineers made hundreds of variations on the basic design of the two mile long, hammer-head shaped craft. The Parthas-Bs, for instance, were luxury liners, with the vast cargo holds converted into swimming pools, casinos and parks. Another famous example with the Parthas-E subclass, which was a troop carrier, capable of transporting tens of thousands of soldiers.

The single largest use for the Parthas Class vessels was transporting goods. For centuries these vessels carried the bulk of the Imperium’s trade. With its modular design and ease of upgrades, some of the ships still plying the interstellar routes at the beginning of the Imperial Interregnum had been constructed in the original Hegemonic Economic Trade Group shipyards.

This ease of construction became an enormous problem for the Imperium in its latter days. As centralized authority began to breakdown, illegal shipyards began to spring up and beginning Parthas variants. The designs and specifications were so well known that any system with the raw materials, skilled engineers, technicians and zero-g trained laborers could build one. Most of these illicit vessels were used for trade, but the Neo Tawmeriks, seeking to rebuild the honor of their long-disgraced and forgotten family, actually built a fleet of armed Parthas Class vessels, which were quickly dispatched during the Hundred Bloody Days.

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