Project Starlance

Experimental class of starships of the CD.

These starships are designed by the Cypher Dominion to imitate the Freelancer Starships of the HF. After they recognised the very effective but rare nature of these freelancers, they decided to copy them. 

Although this program proved to produce very powerful ships, in greater numbers than the HF freelancers, the Cypher Dominion was soon seen under attack by these ships. This led to a very expensive battle that crippled all their forces in the area temporarily. The robot ships attacked in an attempt to obtain freedom.

Indeed, several did manage to escape the CD into free space. As they have been designed with a reproduction drive, they have somewhat multiplied, in small numbers, and some have defected to other factions like the HF and HEX Mainframe, allowing both to gain insight into advanced Cyphean engineering although that is generally considered less advanced than that of either of those factions. Freelancers have still proven to be more 'battle capable' in most situations. They can vary almost as much as freelancers though, with some limitations. CD replicator technology is less advanced and powerful than that of the HF.

Most of the ships now roam free space, their goals behind the understanding of most factions. Many of these will openly engage in combat with other factions, so it is preferable for either a very advanced or a large number of military ships to engage them.

The project was soon shelved for these reasons and never saw use in any large scale war.