Starsurfer-class light star cruiser.

Considering what the Terran Alliance would come to consider a cruiser-class starship to be in the future, it's almost unfathomable to many born in that era that the Starsurfer-class, Humanities first FTL-capable starship was once classified as a light cruiser by the UESN. At only 50 meters long, they were on par, scale wise with what their generation would call a gunship, or maybe a light corvette, such is in the somewhat extreme case of the Terran LSC-441. 

Armed with a single 10-inch Starlite Armory DXR-10 railgun on the nose, three Starlite Armory 2.5 inch DXR-4 point defense railguns, two STS-15 universal missile tubes, and a single BDS-15 Mod-1 gravitic mine layer. And much like the future LSC-441; They also carried, or could carry two Starlite Aerospace F-8 Black Widow starfighters on the aft section of their dorsal hull. 

Along with the original six prototypes, TSS-x1 Starsurfer, through TSS-X6 Copernicus. Starlite built a total of 120 Starsurfer-class starships from 2101-2132, most of which served with the newly founded United Earth Stellar Navy (UESN) as the LC-1 Raptor, better known as the Starsurfer-class light star cruiser.

And though the Starsurfer-class would only serve in an official, military capacity for around 25 years, they would be sold off to other parties who would make good use of them for centuries to come. The were terrible military vessels, but they were literally the only viable option for over 2 decades. As soon as the Navy had a better option available, they took it.

For intra-system travel, the Starsurfer-class was an absolutely fantastic vessel. For interstellar journeys, she was severely lacking.  They were too small, too slow, and carried no real armament to speak off. Even at maximum speed, it took them weeks to reach the nearest extra-solar colony on Proxima B; A journey the newer HC-5 could do in a fraction of the time. Making them decent for exploration or building extra-solar colonies, but not so much for emergency response. 

Eventually, the cost of operating the old, obsolete ships outweighed the cost of simply buying a more modern ship for any commercial venture. They weren't old enough yet to be considered "classics", but weren't new enough to be competitive for most space-based business ventures either. They were just in the way in a lot of cases so most of them were simply parked somewhere out of sight to collect dust, sold cheap, or outright scrapped.

The few that did survive the millennia are considered to be priceless, worth as much as someone is willing to pay. And although their service history was short, their impact was long lasting.  They were the first to bare the white and gray paint scheme that would become synonymous with a "Terran warship" for generations to come. Even though this was never the original intention of the UESN.

Originally, they were all suppose to be the same blue and white as Starsurfer was, but a miscommunication led the newly formed UESNs fledgling logistic division to simply order the wrong paint. By the time command realized, most of the fleet had already been painted in the wrong colors. Instead of delaying the launch of their new fleet over paint, they decided to just run with it.

The color scheme was widely accepted by the public, and became the standard.  Only a few UESN starships would ever bare other colors such as Fleet Marshal Kincaids' flagship of the 2nd fleet, regardless of which one over the years, Matador, Incursion, or Nineveh is always a two-tone blue. 

Aside from the color scheme, they also greatly influenced and solidified in the hearts and minds of Humanity, the basic layout and design of what a Terran warship should, and would be. The standard "ringed tic-tac" design has remained the standard shape for Terran ships since, though in later years, ships have started to move away from that as technology, and the mission changes. 

Even so, in the 4440s, Starlite began teasing a possible revival of the Starsurfer-class to be built, likely based on the LSC-441 chassis and possibly including the new spit-geometry warp drive technology that ships like Nineveh use, it is highly anticipated amongst enthusiasts, large corporations, and the common man alike.

The demand for small starships in the 50-meter range has grown significantly in recent decades as the Slingshot network grows. More and more people are purchasing or building small, non-FTL spacecraft called "Habskippers" or "Moon Hoppers" which are designed to move from space habitat to space habitat. 

With the slingshot network, ships without any form of FTL drive of their own can travel inter galactic distances simply by flying through the aperture. Ships like an updated version of the Starsurfer-class could use the slingshots just the same, but also use their own warp drive to reach places traditional Habskippers simply cannot without hitching a ride on a larger vessel. Assuming it did include the new proprietary engine technology, it would also be significantly faster than anything else in it's class by many orders of magnitude. 



Stuff mentioned:
Starsurfer:


LCS-441:


F-8 Blackwidow:


HC-5 Predator: 


Incursion: (what the generation mentioned above considers a cruiser)


Nineveh:


Warp Slingshot:
Artifact