Syndicate

The Syndicate-class answers a question the Federation's actuaries kept circling back to: what does an escort contract actually buy? Protection, yes — but mostly it buys time, the hours a slow hull spends exposed on a contested route. The Syndicate buys those hours back another way. The hold is deliberately modest, sacrificed for a drive package and fuel reserves that let a captain pick a high-value cargo and simply be somewhere else before a raider can close the distance. The weapons are a courtesy to the optimist who tries anyway. Speed is the margin, and the margin pays for itself every time a Syndicate reaches the buy order while the convoy behind it is still negotiating with its escort.