Gryphon's Personal Starship
No one knows why the YT-1312 Portsider class of light freighters, a variation on the corporation's popular YT-1300 Falcon class, came into existence. The only visible difference between the two ships, from the outside, is the location of the cockpit module. In the YT-1300, it's on the starboard side; in the YT-1312, it's on the port side, hence the class's name. The starship's basic symmetry other than this design feature leads some to believe that the YT-1312 is therefore a completely mirrored version of the YT-1300 design, but closer inspection reveals that this is not the case: the YT-1312's communications and sensor antenna is mounted portside forward, just as in its more famous cousin. The truth of the matter is that, rather than simply reversing the engineering diagrams and tooling accordingly, CEC's engineers took the much more difficult route of moving the cockpit, and only the cockpit, from the starboard side of the ship to port. Their reasons for doing so are lost to history, since CEC's records from that period are, to put it kindly, incomplete.
Even so, the date of Daggerdisc's construction can be pinned down to within a five-year span, because the YT-1312 was only in production between 2011 and 2016. In 2016, the line was converted to the production of the YT-1350, an enhanced YT-1300 - with the cockpit back on the starboard side.
The ship's subsequent lives can only be guessed at, but by the time it came into Gryphon's possession (as a gift from his old friend Sylia Stingray) in 2389, it had undoubtedly seen a lot of hard use. Though Sylia's engineer brother Mackie had done a good deal of work to make it fast, reliable and fairly well-armed, it had been a project ship, so he hadn't had time to do much fit-and-finish work. The interior was shabby, most of the modifications were still in the open, and the hull was patched, blackened, and rusty in spots - in short, Daggerdisc was a perfectly typical YT-1300-series hot-rod.
During his days as an asteroid racer, in the WDF's Golden Age, Gryphon had always been of the opinion that a 1300-series Corellian would, with appropriate (and expensive) modifications, make the ultimate Unlimited Class asteroid racer. The old Falcon class was a good bit bigger than the homebuilt UC racer that had served him so well in those days, Swordfish II (big enough to carry the aforementioned in its forward hold), but Gryphon was convinced that, with enough power, one of the discus-shaped freighters could dominate the asteroids in a fashion so decisive that nobody else should even bother showing up. Unfortunately, though, he'd never made the time to track down a 1300-series spaceframe and develop the technologies for it.
Well, here was his opportunity. Once Gryphon got his errands out of the way and brought the ship home to Zeta Cygni, he used a good part of his spare time over the next few months, and the resources at his disposal at the Utopia Planitia Naval Shipyards, on cleaning up and enhancing it. Systems were finalized, installations tidied up, access panels fabricated and replaced. The cabin appointments were improved considerably. The outer hull was completely overhauled, the pitted, scarred and rusting plates replaced with smooth, polished armor.
Before he had a chance to get started on the really heavy modifications, though, he was called to Asgard to assist in what became known as the Twilight Incident. This brought him back into regular contact with Skuld, the Valkyrie leader and goddess of technology, who was more than happy to help him out with his little shipbuilding project once the crisis was over. As a result, Daggerdisc's rebirth became more of an apotheosis. In the course of their modifications (which also involved WDF engineer Nadia Davion), the ship's cargo-carrying capacity was sacrificed almost entirely her new capabilities, most of which are highly classified.
Daggerdisc serves as Gryphon's personal transport, and is kept either in his private hangar at New Avalon's Mathews Memorial Spaceport or aboard his Experts of Justice command, the starship Challenger.
NAME/MODEL#: YT-1312A-1 Dagger class
DESIGNER/MANUFACTURER: Dagger Team, after Corellian Engineering Corporation
COMBAT DESIGNATION: Unlimited Class asteroid racer
CREW: 1-6 (1 pilot, 1 copilot/navigator, 1 engineer, 1 weapons officer, 2 gunners)
PASSENGER CAPACITY: 0-5 (depending on crew depth)
CARGO CAPACITY: 5 t
POWER SYSTEM: WDF Armory Vigilant-class Reflex microfurnace
PROPULSION SYSTEM: CEC Dynaflux wide-area ion thruster array (rated at 4400 KTU)
SPEED RATING: 225 MGLT
FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM: ExoSalusia FA.4 flight control avionics package (modified)
MANEUVERABILITY RATING: 120 DPF
NAVIGATION: GENOM N-v12 Navcon-MX Multi-Modal computer system
FTL: CEC 2240.402c motivator drive unit (hyperdrive)
WDF Armory Model 3 Mark II Reflex fold drive
WEAPONS: Ten Taim & Bak KX5 blaster cannons
(two quad turrets, twin cockpit chin mount; single fire or fire-linked by emplacement)
Two WDF Armory G-340 strip-collimated phaser arrays
Two 25-weapon WDF-standard missile bays
One WDF Armory Sunblade-class Reflex cannon
SHIELDS/ARMOR: Forward/Rear Projecting WDF Armory shields (rated at 350 SBD)
Composite reinforced titanium hull (rated at 300 RU)
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT: British-AnimeTech CryptoSpec secure-communications system