Overhead

The Overhead-class is what the Federation builds when it calculates the annual cost of piracy against the annual cost of prevention and decides prevention is cheaper. Two pulse lasers provide credible deterrence, the shields keep the asset intact long enough to resolve most engagements, and the oversized cargo hold is officially designated for "evidence processing and contraband seizure." The accounting department approved the hold capacity without asking what evidence typically looks like. Patrol captains appreciate this. The integrated scanner suite identifies cargo manifests, registration discrepancies, and outstanding trade violations at comfortable range. The name appears on the Federation's annual security budget as a line item, which is exactly where the Federation prefers its law enforcement to live.