The Condor Frigate

The Condor's method of propulsion is what makes it so unique and deadly. Rather than a fusion drive, it uses something called an Orion drive. Long story short, it shoots thermonuclear blasts behind it to propel itself through space. A shield extends before every blast so that it can protect the hull from the explosion, with the nuclear blast being powerful enough to push it back into a retracted position. This is why the Condor's shield looks like it's constantly pushing back and forth. This is not a new concept, as many spacecraft made for battle use this system, but you will see in a moment how it differs from the rest. This means that the 0.1g to 1.0g of gravity one would experience from constant thrust during the beginning of journey through space is not reliable for a safe walk around the ship, as the blasts aren't some sort of continual burn, but rather evenly spaced explosions. Most don't have a jump drive and rely on jump carriers for interstellar travel.

In a way, the Orion drive is the main weapon. Though the ship itself is quite large and could fit several weapons, most just have a railgun on a hardpoint and nothing else. The Condor's goal is usually to get into close quarters with a ship (close, in this case, being up to a few dozen kilometers at most), flip itself so that the drive and shield are facing the enemy craft, and then slow down with a massive blast. This brake manoeuvre releases a nuclear explosion powerful enough to instantly disable a Class VI spacecraft due to the EMP blast, the radiation killing the crew, and the shockwave possibly knocking the ship off course. Unlike conventional Orion drives, the Condor drive maximizes the range of the explosion. It is not efficient at all, but it does mean that you don't have to get as close to your target to fry them with a nuclear blast. Any other propulsion system, even the original Orion drive, would require getting uncomfortably close to the target to perform such a manoeuvre. This gives the enemy ship an opportunity to do the same with their own engine, resulting in mutually assured destruction.

Most Condor frigates have one point of Hull for extra defense, since they need to get into really close range of the ship. In case they're really far away, torpedoes or the aforementioned railgun can be used for point defense and to strike back.

The standard armament of docked vessels in the Confederation for a frigate is four fighters and a dropship.