The Aquilian Starling has a rich history, dating back before the founding of the UPF. She's an antique, the first of the series that left the SCC and entered into service back in pf:-100. A young Captain John Knightrazor (formerly Robert Kitridger) acquired it via a government contract co-signed by Streele, Inc. as a chartered privateer to counter the aggressive Mining Guild that was prevalent in Truane's Star back then. 

Some time after th corporate skirmishes ended, the ship required major renovations after a near fatal encounter during the first Sathar War. The ill-fated Starling unknowingly dropped out of the void into a system that the Sathar Battle Fleet had already entered, and the ship took a severe beating. It would have no doubt been destroyed if not for the timely intervention of Admiral Morgaine's fleet, who arrived and made the unfriendlies feel most unwelcome. The Starling was taken in tow and it's crew began redesigning what they had left to work with. 

When the war was officially over the Starling's crew were finally able to secure dock space for the reconstruction. The entire Chemical Thruster compartment had been destroyed along with the supporting external fuel tankage, and most of the forward starboard mandible was missing. Supplies were short and in demand so rebuilding the missing sections became a timely and costly endeavor, the crew instead opted for sealing up those sections and relocating any salvageable equipment. The original Ion Drives were replaced with Atomic Drives specced for a Class:4 hull. The replacement life support equipment that was destroyed in the fore section ended up on the open machine shop deck, while the new avionics equipment made the abbreviated starboard mandible a nearly impassible area to work in. Jonathan gifted the salvaged vessel to his son Stephen who regifted it as a trust fund to his son Jonathan after nearly ten years of freight hauling in favor of subcontracting a new RT model. Jonathan utlized it briefly after a stint in the StarFighter Corps, and he sold it to the current owner, adventurer Richard Sterling. Captain Sterling still owns and operates it today, with cyber-slave circuits installed so that Sterling's cyborg/wife could control and operate multiple systems from one location, thus allowing for a reduced crew. By this point the ship had gracefully aged to 176 years! It should be noted most of the major compnents were replaced in fy:3 so only the remaining hull is that old...but 73 year old equipment is still vintage by modern standards.

As a result of the salvage/reconstruction, the actual hull displacement ended up dropping from HS:4 to HS:3, but through clever restructuring of the  cargo capacity remained the same, utilizing the original 1.5 unit detachable cargo pods. Maneuverability took a hit by retaining the pods, however much ike the stock Starling model the pods can be dropped to increase MR by one to MR:4. One additional benefit comes with the smaller size, with Class A drives designed to power a size 4 hull now powering the smaller displacement size 3 hull, the ship enjoys increased acceleration rates. In fact current owner Silver has logged some very respectable times in the Zebulon Run with "the Clunker" (as he affectionately calls her). Unfortunately that fame comes with a price for Silver, who prefers to avoid any interstellar attention...