D'ku

The D'ku class combat runabout is a small military craft of Obar design created to defend their minor colonial presence from any threats they might encounter in the great black unknown. Of course, the Obar vastly underestimated how dangerous those threats might be. Rather than rely on their own fleet's paper-thin resilience, they instead elected to find refuge behind the more capable Honiani aegis as members of the Star Kin - and, eventually, as members of the United Federation of Planets itself.

In terms of pure engineering, the D'ku (named after one of the Tobar system's outer planets) is actually a fairly capable ship for the Obar's somewhat primitive technology base. Innovative warp fins provide impressive sprint capability and even the ability to 'bend' local spacetime to increase impulse maneuverability, while its microtorpedo launchers were easily modified to accept more potent warheads of Honiani manufacture. The D'ku's overall hullform branches out in a way that other species' tend to find either beautiful or unsettling, and which serves to make the runabout seem as though it should have a larger displacement to the naked eye.

Although the useful service life of the D'ku is rapidly reaching its end, rumor has it that Obar shipwrights are deeply involved in the design of the next-generation Star-Kin runabout.