After being promoted to the fifth rating among the followers of Shadow President Felicia Winters, Commander Altsain began feeling the ships she was using for Federation business were missing… something.

The commander had built the Felicia Forever, a Python-class that could haul a decent 200 ton load while being perfectly capable of defending itself or chasing down enemy merchant vessels.

When conditions allowed, the commander would bring the Type-9 Pachyderm from Heffalump Haulage into play, moving vast quantities of noble Winters propaganda to receptive systems.

However, the territory Winters covered was beginning to expand greatly, necessitating longer and longer trips, and the Pachyderm and Felicia Forever both suffered from the same problem – jump range.

So, Commander Altsain started to plan a new ship. One that could move 400 tons of cargo large distances while being more than capable of fighting when it got there. That could only mean another Anaconda – a Wintaconda, if you like, one capable of doing the work of Ms. Winters.

Now, Commander Altsain already had two Anacondas in her hangar, and she tried hard not to question her sanity as to why anyone would have three. This one, however, would be different.

She could not afford to A rate everything from the beginning, so choices had to be made – an A rated (and grade 5 engineered) frame shift drive was paramount, but in terms of the power plant, thrusters and power distributor, C rating was the order of the day, getting the best balance of cost and performance, while maintaining the same mass as the ship would have when these modules were finally A rated.

Inside, much of the cavernous interior of the Anaconda was given over to 400 tons of cargo space, and the rest was consumed by a small fuel scoop (just large enough to keep the Wintaconda going on long trips), a frame shift interdictor, and a bi-weave shield generator. Multiple shield boosters picked up the slack on the shields, while point defence and chaff would provide additional defence.

As usual for the commander, weaponry was a mix, with two long ranged turreted beam lasers in the small mounts, overcharged gimballed multicannon in the medium, and efficient gimballed beam lasers in the large. The finishing touch was a huge gimballed multicannon, complete with autoloader that meant it would never stop firing.

More than enough to give the Shield of ‘Justice’ ships something to think about.

As for the name? Well, Commander Altsain wanted to create the right impression when the Wintaconda strayed into Imperial territory. So she called it the Winters 4 President…

Watch out for this ship prowling the Imperial border.