peak tiger
Overview
Zephyr-22 or Z-22 is a manufacturing conglomerate known for making the most as the lowest bidder in several fields of technology while still managing to maintain favor with their customer base. Their most famous products, the Baeg and Dinner Bell are fine examples of their ingenuity and their 'Good Enough is Good Enough' philosophy, though their detractors often view it as 'Cutting Corners and Wishful Thinking'
Design Philosophy
Often times their products are made of the cheapest materials, or very nearly such, and they don't often give much leeway to creature comforts in their designs either. Their products are made to be accessible and get the job done at the same time. They're not made to be luxurious, or a one size fits all solution. It'll do what it says on the tin, and as long as you understand its limitations and advantages, it'll serve you well.
The Baeg was designed to be a small, bare bones, 4 meter by 4 meter shuttle, for fast near space exploration, either short term for organics due to a lack of any life support systems, or long term for silicons, either way anyone could get one on a tight budget. The APU system allowed for infinite power generation and recharging for the silicons, while the rear cubby next to the thrusters was intended for users to install their own equipment, such as a borg recharger, ore refiner/crate for short meteor mining operations, storage crate for salvage operations, so on and so forth.
The company found that their customer base not only loved the small shuttle, but often improved upon the design by modifying it heavily. Practically every example of the Baeg in after market condition had been altered heavily in the field. From simple material improvements to increase the crafts durability, additional thrusters to make the craft's already impressive acceleration press upon the absurd, to whole hearted refits into strategic fighter craft by mercenary and military outfits across the Spur. They often found Baeg's on the market going for far more than the original modest sale price.
The latter of these modifications inspired the Zephyr-22 Team to make a cheap fighter while keeping the Baeg's spirit intact, resulting in their newest product, the Dinner Bell named after a USSP officer who swore by its predecessor.
The Dinner Bell is roughly twice the size of the Baeg while remaining amongst the smallest shuttles on the market. The team even partnered with The Pantheon Collective to mount two of their newest weapon platform, the 30mm Draupnir Rotary Autocannon, aka the RAC-30. Unlike most of their competition who would spend valuable space on including numerous unnecessary screens, severs, bells and whistles, the Zephyr team linked the pair of autocannons to the shuttle console in a toggle configuration so that the pilot can focus on flying and outmaneuvering their target, rather than juggling multiple screens in a solo craft. Just start firing, focus on flying. Sadly it is unavailable due to lack of carrier class ships in the sector.
Quick History
Zephyr-22 was founded by an IPC named Blackwall-Exe. Formerly a independent salvage specialist until a series of events sent him rocketing downhill at record speeds that miraculously and brutally he managed to recover from. First he was hired to pick through a debris field in the Colossus sector in an experimental craft by a new client to determine its efficacy as a solo salvage craft. Every system in the craft was unnecessarily complex, expensive and often times tried to do everything but accomplished nothing and it nearly got him killed numerous times. A TEG power system that for some reason had the option to vent plasma into the atmos system, 'advanced jumpdrive' that fused him with a derelict shuttle, a multithreaded IFF system that nearly got him destroyed by all the local military forces thanks to misidentification and an expeditionary system that left him stranded on a planet for a month because of a missing 0.