The Light­ning-class is one of the fast­est ships known to Star­fleet, both at warp and impulse, where these ves­sels have been known to dodge photon tor­pedoes. Its speed is due to its unusu­al drive con­fig­ur­a­tion, con­sist­ing of two counter-rotat­ing quar­tets of sub­space impellers, indir­ectly ener­gising a ring of warp coils. Like many Ori­on classes, the design is ancient, pred­at­ing the form­a­tion of the Fed­er­a­tion by sev­er­al cen­tur­ies, and Star­fleet engin­eers have been unable to suc­cess­fully reverse engin­eer the design. These ves­sels usu­ally sport a tri­ti­tani­um coat­ing which pre­vents sensor scans of their interi­ors, mak­ing them pop­u­lar for both resource scout­ing and smug­gling, although their cargo capa­city is low. The Ori­on pir­ate clans have also used these for cov­ert oper­a­tions, such as their recent attempt to dis­rupt the Babel Con­fer­ence regard­ing Cor­id­an’s admis­sion to the Federation.

Game stat­ist­ics for the Ori­on Scout Ship space­frame can be found in the Star Trek Adven­tures Beta Quad­rant Source­book, p94.

Design: Okuda, Michael. Star Trek (cr. Gene Rod­den­berry, Desilu, 1966, 2007).