When she finally bought a Python, Commander Altsain really wanted to hate it. She really did.

But she doesn’t. It is undeniably, objectively, a Good Ship.

Meet the Felicia Forever.

The Python is a generalist/multirole ship – and Commander Altsain hates those. She likes specialised ships, ships that do just one job, but do it perfectly. This is why she now has ten ships in her hangar, and they are all perfect (well, except for the Type-10, but she is working on that).

So, why buy a Python?

Well, the commander was looking for another specialised ship, one dedicated to the cause of the Federation (hence the name, the Felicia Forever). However, such a ship needs to be able to haul decent quantities, defend itself, and travel decent distances – in other words, the best specialised ship for this role is a generalised one.

Hence the Python – bigger than a Cobra, cheaper than an Anaconda.

Commander Altsain was therefore forced to face the unavoidable truth – the Python is a good ship. It is a damn good ship.

The Felicia Forever was not even properly tuned while it served with distinction during Lavigny-Duval’s Ostyat Gambit. That done, it was immediately called into action once again during Project Bulwark, avoiding pirates and going where no big hauler could go.

Once the dust had settled on big pushes that could shape the future of the core systems, the commander had a chance to properly assess the Felicia Forever. It had performed admirably under trying circumstances, no doubt, but it was clearly a ship that the commander would be living with for some time, and there were some issues that needed attending to.

Some modules had been hastily swapped out to improve performance during both the Ostyat Gambit and Project Bulwark, but the ship was still seriously lacking in certain areas. Despite an A class frame shift drive being added, the jump range was still barely above atrocious, the two beam lasers could only fire continuously for a few seconds, and the turn rate of the ship was abysmal. Not Type-9 abysmal, but close to it.

The Felicia Forever had already upgraded its power plant once but power was still a major concern and now limiting further upgrades. However, the Python used class 7 power plants, which are good in a medium-sized ship, but hideously expensive to upgrade. This was finally taken care of from the proceeds of Project Bulwark, and meant the ship could now start accepting more radical upgrades.

The first module to be improved was the power distributor, in an attempt to boost the firing effect of the beam lasers (it helped, but only marginally), and many of the auxiliary modules, such as the life support system, were D-graded to lighten the ship and improve jump range.

The chaff launcher was also swapped out for a kill warrant scanner (a good one, now that the ship had plenty of power to play with), allowing the Felicia Forever to undertake proper bounty hunting missions in the service of the Federation, and making it truly multirole.

Then it was off to the engineers for some tuning that would, the commander hoped, finally erase the last of the issues with the ship.

The Dweller was the first to be visited, and he not only made the beam lasers very efficient, but also fine-tuned the power distributor to a degree Commander Altsain had not seen done on any of her other ships. It was truly impressive work, and now the lasers could be fired for extended periods without boiling the entire ship.

With the beam lasers done, it was then off to McQuinn to finesse the multicannon. The two dorsal guns were made far more efficient and ran cooler, so the Felicia Forever is now like a block of ice in combat. The single ventral multicannon was tuned for rapid firing, making it now a terrifying prospect in head on passes.

Lei Cheung could not increase the strength of the shields by much, but he was able to increase their resistance to thermal attacks hugely, a factor that Ms. Farseer built upon with the two shield boosters. These two engineers then halved the mass of the scanners and boosted the thrusters, so the ship now almost felt like it at least wanted to turn now and again.

The test for all this came when a MkIV Cobra interdicted the Felicia Forever on her way back to Rhea (the commander had already seen that the improvements had increased the minimum jump range to nearly 20 light years, a healthy increase on its previous limits). Two characteristics of the new ship were quickly made apparent:

The turn rate is better, but the ship still moves like an injured seal, requiring a different style of piloting. Anything that gets in front of the Felicia Forever dies. Quickly. Those upgrades to the weaponry and power systems make the ship a real killer, so long as an enemy can be persuaded to fly in front of her.

For now, that looks like the limit for the Felicia Forever. Not perfect by any means, and it can do no one job brilliantly – however, it can do multiple jobs very well, which was the whole point.

Commander Altsain still does not love the Python. But she no longer hates it.