Not long after the Confederacy secured their independence, they recognized that six battlecruisers were not enough ships to really maintain the internal security of Freelancer space. They followed the lead of the Empire and Highland Clusters and commissioned the design team of the Phoenicia Shipyard to produce smaller ships that could serve as the primary force of the Confederacy Defense Fleet. This effort led to the development of the Phouka and the Scorpio.
The design brief on the Scorpio was a very basic one: Give us a multi-role ship that can deal with a variety of threats capably, if not the most effectively. They took this brief to heart and delivered a destroyer that can out class nearly any other destroyer in operation upon her release. However, after nearly two centuries and with several refits and upgrades under their belt, the design is definitely showing its age.
The Scorpio class is a jack of all trades and master of none. Her primary cannon is fully able to deal with small scale threats, but in a strictly artillery role, her punching power is lacking compared to any other artillery-focused design.
Her two squadrons of fighters are typically enough to discourage any uppity pirates but when compared to the four squadrons that most modern ships carry, she comes up short. About the most impressive thing about the Scorpio is her Gravitic Lance, but even that falls short of what it could have been, as it was initially planned as a plasma lance.
On the whole, the Scorpio is absolutely fine for the role of system patrol and not much else.
The Scorpio class are named first after the constellations of the old Earth Zodiac. When those names were all used, they began using the names of the Major Arcana from the traditional Tarot.
TBD. (Optional)