VSY MCX-790. Aarondale-class assault ship.

After the success of the EDHE, militaries across the supercluster took note of the small, but effective hangar-pods which featured two large, fully pressurized and isolated compartments above and below the hangar deck that served as small craft storage and repair facilities.

Each one in effect, a small starship in it's own right with it's own life support and power systems, it's design was highly praised by Naval analysts who praised it's simplicity and effectiveness.

Navies and shipping companies alike across the cosmos are always interested in low-cost, versatile, high efficiency starships that can fulfill a number of roles.

Riding high on the praise, Venusian Ship Yards (VSY) set out on their own to create an extremely simple, multi-role vessel, reusing as many of the components designed for their civilian exploration vessel production lines, which were already well established.

The original design was designated the CX-790 Starcoach, and was billed as a medium cargo transport with an option to preorder put out to the public. Within two hours, they were backed up nearly two years in said pre-orders.

After a few years of service, the Starcoach had already become one of the most beloved cargo transports of all time by it's crews and operators. It was fast, efficient, and because it was built from parts designed for exploration vessels, they were much tougher than a more standard cargo ship and capable of operating in some of the most extreme environments.

It reused the engines, powerplant, focusing deflectors, docking ports, even the bridge module from their exploration vessels such as the EDHE and smaller LRSE which were time tested designs.

AT first, the UESN showed no real interest in the Starcoach as a military vessel outside of it's use in cargo transport. However, on numerous occasions CX-790s were used to ferry multiple fighter squadrons to some of the more remote outposts where tasking full fledged carrier like the Olympic-class would be a massive waste of time and resources.

The UESN hadn't had a light carrier since the ill-fated Casablanca-class of the Terran-Vorla War, which also started it's life as, and is still produced as a civilian freighter.

Instead, the general idea had long since been to have every large warship include a hangar large enough to house it's own starfighter squadron. This works great, but it does have disadvantages. It cuts down on potential ship-based firepower and adds a a layer of complexity.

It also means that more resources need to be expended than may be necessary. The majority of armed conflict within the cosmos don't actually involve ship-to-ship combat. Rather, it's usually the small craft that decide the outcome before it ever comes to that.

Getting them into the AO fast and in large numbers can make the difference between a crushing defeat or absolute victory. In many ways, the MXC-790 was commissioned with the mission profile of a bomber in mind.

Built in large numbers, it's job is to get in and deploy it's payload, which in this case is it's starfighters. If it can get back out, great. If not it's job is basically done anyway.

The MCX-790 is not defenseless though. Along it's ventral spine sit a total of 8 STS-85 micro-VLS tubes, each with 25 cells for a total of 800 shots. These are for small interceptor-type missies, often firing the same AIM-215 and AIM-77 missiles as it's starfighters use.

They're also equipped with 10, Ares Dynamic Systems MD-5 twin barrel railguns configured for point defense as well as a tri-layer Starlite Aerospace A/N/N-7s tri-layered multi-spectrum shield grid.

The first MCX-790 would be deployed with the UESN 282nd Deep Space Patrol Squadron, a small heavy cruiser fleet that operates near the Terran Southern Expansion Zone. (TSEZ)

However, the ship would arrive at the ports of Aarondale due to a clerical error. This mistake would see the ship spending two months there gathering dust in one of the cities births before finally being picked up and to it's proper location.

The ship arrived in the TSEZ with no official name, only a registry number and had been jokingly called by the "TSS Aarondale" by the crew of the 282nd as it seemed it would never leave that city. The name stuck, and became official soon after.

And thus, the Aarondale-class Assault Ship was born. Classified as a medium weight star-carrier by the IGC, and an Assault Ship by the Terran Alliance.

By Alliance naming standards, An "assault ship" is a type of carrier. Generally bigger than a light escort carrier like the Casablanca, but smaller than a true carrier/supercarrier like the Olympic-class.

Almost 75,000 were built before production ceased in 4396, only to be restarted again a few years later in 4407 as the MCX-790B which featured updated engines, powerplant, as well as a slightly wider and taller hangar pod with more internal workspace for maintenance crews.

Sold across the Alliance, various versions of the MCX-790 can be found in use by nearly every space-fairing species due to its relative low cost compared to other Terran warships in it's weigh-class.

This does mean they sometimes find their way into the hands of the less scrupulous. Some have even described it as a "ship made for pirates" and they're not totally wrong.

Plenty of civilian freighters are armed, but the exploration-grade hull of the CX-790 or it's military counterpart make it an absolute beast of a pirate ship. The average freighters defenses can't penetrate the hull, but it's MD-5 main guns very much can punch above their weight class if used properly.

Against something built with a true combat-grade hull on a ship in it's weight class like the DDX-15 Draco or V/CVN-2278 Cryptkeeper the MD-5 cannons would be basically worthless.

It's not going to take on a XiXi Harvester fleet or squadron of Voidrunner pirates on it's own. In fact, against a small frigate it'd be in trouble. It's fighters are it's primary weapon and as a pure fighter carrier, when part of a larger fleet; There are few ships that do it better.