SK-1P

The SK-1P was a series of small two-man transport craft that formed a main component of the Wright Andrews Orbital Ferry System, a network built to move personnel between starships in orbit over a planet and through tunnels dug below the surface. The Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces operated them at Tau Volantis, and two centuries later Isaac Clarke crossed the derelict flotilla in one nicknamed the Skip.

Design and purpose#

The SK-1P was a small craft built to carry two people, designed as a workhorse of the Wright Andrews Orbital Ferry System. That network moved personnel between starships stationed in orbit over a planet, and it extended into underground tunnels cut specifically for the craft to run through. The same vessel could therefore serve both as a short-range space ferry between ships and as an underground shuttle along a fixed route.

Service at Tau Volantis#

The SCAF used the SK-1P during the investigation of Tau Volantis from 2311 to 2314. The flotilla orbiting the planet relied on the craft to transport maintenance crews and personnel between its ships and the facilities of the planetside colony. After the Necromorph outbreak doomed the flotilla and its planetside research outposts in 2314, the craft were abandoned where they sat. One SK-1P was left docked near the CMS Roanoke, and two more were left underground below the surface.

The Skip and the Fridge#

In 2514, Isaac Clarke and John Carver used an SK-1P they nicknamed the Skip to travel between the derelict ships of the flotilla, carrying out the work needed to make the CMS Crozier spaceworthy so that they could reach the planet themselves. They also used two further vessels of the same series, nicknamed The Fridge, to move between locations beneath the surface. The railway under the planet crossed the entire colony, running from the supply depot all the way to the waste disposal site beneath the Alien City.