Hermes class

The Hermes class was a FTL communications drone starship in use by the Union of Sol in the 22 century. The Hermes class was used for both civilian and governmental communications with various star systems.

History
As the Union of Sol was slowly transforming into the Alliance of Systems, the need for interstellar communications kept growing and growing. Aside from growing a more complex bureaucracy, the Alliance of Systems was laying claim to an increasingly large territory of space. As such, a faster line of communication ships was needed to supplement the older Tycho class of the Union of Sol. The Hermes class was designed and constructed alongside the Ward class missile corvette and the Mercury class support ship, all three using a comparable spaceframe for ease of maintenance.

Use
The Tycho Class is an automated communications droneship used to carry information across star systems. Since information can not be sent at FTL-speeds, it has to be carried by a vessel. To optimize this process, these ships were automated as much as possible.

A droneship would often follow a specific route, from solar system A to system B and back again. These ships would warp towards an inhabited planet or designated spaceport, download all outbound messages, would warp back towards the intended solar system, and transmit these messages to its intended recipients. The process would then repeat.