Flesh Ripper class

The Flesh Ripper is a short range, patrol/escort fighter of Kzinti design. He (the Kzinti concider their vessels male) is a warp-driven vessel with a 5 to 15 light year range and is armed with two disrupters mounted in the bulges under the nose. The the craft's overall shape is a delta wing design that has the look of a stylized cat head from the triangular navigation deflector in the nose to the enormous oval eye blister windows, one on either side of the vessel. The final feline touch, the long canine tooth fangs that make up part of the mount for the warp nacelles. The boarding hatch is a clam shell design. The pilot enters the craft feet first by way of the hatch, sort of like jumping down a chute. Any creature other than a felinoid would have trouble piloting the craft because in addition to the standard hand and foot controls, the craft uses the pilot's tail movements and facial expressions to get a sense of the intensity of a given situation, and modifies the controls to compensate. For security purposes, the craft ‘sniffs’ the pilot when he boards. If the pilot does not ‘smell’ right, the vessel will not start. To store the initial scent, the felinoid must "mark" the vessel.