Designed to fool Imperial forces into believing them to be Dragon class battleships, the Ghost class
ships have the precisely same profile as Dragon class ships.
However, they are very far from the war machines that the Dragon
class ships are. Built hurriedly from substandard materials, Ghost
class ships often leak vacuum, requiring crew to go spacesuited
when traveling out of their vacuum sealed quarters and duty
stations.
Dragon class ships have huge central cavities, thousands of
square meters in area which are completely unused. However, the
engines of the ships are not powerful enough to keep their speed up
while carrying much cargo, and as the central battle strategy of
Ghost ships is to run like a scared rodent, they seldom carry
anything in those central spaces. The crews of ghost class ships
tend to use the area for recreational functions, like ball games
and hang gliding.
Twenty Ghost class ships were built, and only one of those
twenty has been destroyed. However, Moff
Rulduk himself commanded the fleet that had been chasing those
ships, and he is well aware of their battle incapacity. For that
reason, the Ghosts no longer travel as a single huge fleet.
Rather, they put in appearances where the can expect no opposition,
or in the face of larger fleets, and then lead those fleets into
traps. Crewmen of Ghost class ships put their lives on the line,
parading as targets before massive Imperial fleets, and are known
as being almost suicidally brave, even away from their vessels.
The massive hulls of the Ghost class ships often lure fleet
officials into planning an upgrade of these ships into effective
battle platforms. The problem is, these ships are simply incapable
of handling even the power that they have, as their superstructure
is just so fragile. In order to allow the ship to handle any
significant modifications substantial hull reinforcement is
required, and the cost of that reinforcement outweighs any benefits
that the modifications could provide. The Yaeger government is
trying to keep the existence of Ghost class ships a secret, and
therefore will not be selling any of them.