The inhabitants of the asteroid infested system of Shallit are
known for their love of hunting. Usually, they satisfy that urge
by hunting for the varied wildlife of their home systems, but
almost as often, they hunt the silicone based life that is so
common in their system. Full sized freighters have a hard time
slipping between the asteroids when in hot pursuit of the elusive
tiger Mynock, or the Red finned giant Ythrri, and most starfighters
simply don't have enough internal space to hold the various gadgets
and implements that a space hunter uses. These hunting ships have
solved those problems, though they have a limited market outside of
Shallit.
It is very seldom that a Shallitan will look for game out of
his home system, since compared to Shallit, most of the rest of the
galaxy is devoid of game. Therefore, the designers of the hunting
craft were able to exclude a hyperdrive from their design
specifications, leaving enough space for a large, near absolute
zero freezer that takes 90% of the hunting ship's cargo. The other
space is reserved for the various implements of the hunter's craft,
such as Zero-G suits and hand blasters for single pursuit of
creatures that have taken to ground in tiny caves and crevices,
game finders, and various lures and signals.
While not really designed for the pursuit and capture of the
larger life forms of the system, such as the giant space slugs, the
hunting ships are technically able to do so. Once the Power
Harpoon lodges in the target, the ship can exert a tremendous
amount of pull along that line. Of course, most full grown Space
Slugs can easily exert a greater pull, so the trick is to decide
when to reel it in, and when to give the slug slack line. The
occasional Shallitan who returns with a stripped ship and a 400 ton
Space Slug in tow has given others the courage to try that, though
the usual result is either a snapped line or a wrecked ship.