Spent Light · Vessel
Multi-role troop and cargo dropship of the Meridian programme, carried by ISV Endurance — one of the means by which the explorer makes surface contact while she stays in orbit. Three crew; 24.8 metres.
Designation
DS-7C dropship (Meridian-program support craft)
Fleet
endurance craft
What her era can carry. Kinetics baseline. Coil and rail accelerators, finite magazines, point defence, interceptors.
The era that fights a war. The boundary-weapon family is FOUNDED here — the lance descends from the coupling in The Quiet Mathematics aimed at a target's harmonic relationship — and is new, rare and barely understood at the close.
Deep explorer. Self-sufficient, long-endurance, heavy stores. Built for absence, not for battle.
⚠ A ceiling, not a fit — what a hull of this class could carry in this era, derived from the capability ladder rather than stated for this ship. She may well carry less; she is never shown carrying more. Source: Era tier T4 — derived from the capability ladder for its era; role inferred from class and description.
The record
Tactical troop/cargo insertion and extraction, evacuation, general support. A standard Endurance planning fit carries one DS-7C alongside two LN-5B landers and one YT-4A tender (planning load, not a fixed per-chapter inventory).
Compiled from the canon file for this hull. Only sections that are settled canon are shown — drafting notes and anything belonging to an unpublished book are held back.
