Princess Class Fuel Transport ZG5L, known across the Fleet as “The Princess” is an enormous prototype fuel transport ship. Complete with every safety measure the designers thought to include, and built tougher than any ship of its type, this ship was intended for local system fuel deliveries but has since been retrofitted with the Black Box FTL Drive to enable faster than light jumps with an incredibly long spool time.

Importantly, the Princess is the only ship in the fleet capable of carrying more than 3 cores of FTL Fuel. At the time of the exodus of Earth, the fuel transport was filled with ample fuel to get the Fleet to the rendezvous point with the Salvation. Consequently, any ship that docks with the Princess has been given any fuel they requisition (so long as it does not exceed the maximum fuel capacity of their own ship). Such requests are tracked meticulously by the chief officers in order to track just how much fuel the Fleet has left.

The Princess is an incredibly tough nut to crack. Alongside the layers and layers of advanced armour plating protecting the ship, the ship is known to sport several highly advanced security methods to make the ship difficult to board (whether physically or electronically!). The exact details of these methods are known only to the captain of the ship, Alexis Holttman, and those amongst the crew that she has chosen to confide in - but the crew of the Princess believe them to be impregnable.

However, the sheer size of the Princess comes at a cost: it was originally designed without any sort of FTL Jump capability and consequently had to be retrofitted with a modified Black Box FTL Drive in order to move the ship. Because of this, the Princess is structurally incapable of properly withstanding the physical stresses of FTL travel, and minor damage occurs whenever it jumps. After a week of waiting for the drive to cool enough to be serviceable, it tends to take around a week to get everything fixed up back to a working state. On top of that, the sheer scale of the ship means that the FTL Drive takes a further week to spool up, meaning the safe jump cycle for the Princess takes three whole weeks.

One 'upside', if you want to call it that, of the cobbled together FTL Drive is that the Princess leaves behind a sizeable and very recognisable radiation signature¹⁾ after each jump - as such, it is always possible to find your way back to the Princess, wherever it is (so long as you have enough fuel).

Conferences take place just before the spooling process for the Princess begins, using the newly recommissioned cyber-conference system. Once the spooling process begins, however, the crew of the Princess will be unable to communicate with the rest of the fleet until the jump has been executed.

The crew of the Princess would like to remind members of the Fleet of the standard docking procedure for reception of unit(s) of fuel:

1. Contact the Princess with your request and wait to be issued a go-ahead for docking.
2. Having been given a go-ahead, proceed to the docking location and dock with the ship.
3. Turn off your ship's engines while automated fuel loaders transfer the unit(s) of fuel to your ship (to the maximum that your computer communicates is safe.
4. Wait for a go-ahead to detach from the Princess then proceed to fly at a reduced speed until you are well clear of the ship.

We thank you for your continued understanding and patience. Fly well!

– Looping broadcast from the Princess on channel PPP.

Greetings to all ships! ZG5L Chief Engineer Magnus here. Since I keep receiving some queries on the subject, I wish to reassure you all that we have more than enough fuel on board to see the entire Fleet to our destination with plenty to spare. As such, we will continue to honour all refuelling requests - so long as things do not get excessive, of course! Do be sure to let us know what interesting things you find out there on your travels.

– Recent information broadcast from Magnus Hammarberg, sent after the most recent jump.

Alexis Holttman
The no-nonsense captain of the Princess. While not seen in public all that often, she is known to run a tight ship, and takes her responsibility as commander of what is almost certainly the most crucial ship in the fleet deadly seriously.

Magnus Hammarberg
The Princess's chief engineer, and possibly the closest person to a public face the ship has. Magnus is a man of meticulous organisation, though is seemingly somewhat overworked²⁾. Despite his friendly demeanour, it's probably best not to get him started on his pet peeve about how no-one uses his beloved ship's correct name…