Retriever

The Retriever is an old-school Neshaten grappler based system that was originally only used on mining ships and freighters to retrieve discarded ore and containers. However, with the recent uptick in combat, the Retriever has seen itself also being utilized in the military application for retrieving broken and damaged ships when a tow ship isn't around.

The Retriever saw first usage by civilians in the early ER 600 but was acquired by the military in EE001-v.

The purpose behind the Retriever is to allow ships to either tow damaged vessels, or to retrieve out of control items such as fighters, crates, and even escape pods. The Retriever can also be used to 'slow' a ship down in the event of an engine failure by firing the grappler into a solid surface such as asteroids.

Multiple tethers can help evenly distribute the weight of a large vessel to make it easier for a smaller one to tow it, although this isn't traditionally needed in space the specification still exists.

The Retriever is made out of a combination of tungsten reinforced nano-fibres which gives it its amazing strength. Gouges in the cable allow it to 'flex' and allow the weight to be more easily distributed. The diameter of the cable varies, there are several different types developed including those used exclusively in stations to those used on tow boats.

There are two ends to this system, one is a six pronged metallic 'claw' that is used to more easily grapple unto non-magnetic objects. While the second is uses gravitic waves to latch onto metallic objects that the claw would have problems grappling onto. Both systems are incorporated into one another, this means that a worker doesn't need to switch out the two, they just need to switch between the two opposing systems.

There is a smaller form of this that can be used by individuals. Ship designed retrievers have a maximum deployment range of three hundred meters. The hand-held version only has a range of just above sixty feet.

The Retriever became standard on ALL military ships in ER001-v; with all ships released before then being required to through a mandatory refit to accommodation the new system.