The EX Nihilo has a number noteworthy systems and upgrades that make it unique. These features are what make the ship the perfect companion to it's owner, Lizbeth Locke. She is, through and through, the ship of a Legendary mercenary.
An often misunderstood aspect is what the ship's actual name is. It is "Nihilo" with 'EX' being the universal prefix for experimental ships. (See Ship Prefixes.) However, Liz calls it the 'Ex Nihilo', since that's what she always intended the ship's name to be. The fact that she could get 'ex' from the prefix just amused her. And it also means everyone always gets her ship's name slightly wrong, which she very much enjoys.
The Avenger Class's cockpit was modified primarily to make the ship easier to be managed by a single pilot, as well as to provide more improved sensor and information access. Still, on the surface, most of the changes were stylistic, not functional.
The rest of the interior, however, was completely gutted and replaced with something that would be at home in the most luxurious of high end hotels. Everything is sleek, well designed, and excruciatingly premium.
The left crew quarters were turned into Liz's private stateroom; inside is a huge bed that takes up most of the room, with a decent workstation and desk along the far wall. The bed, however, retracts into the wall, to reveal a jacuzzi tub big enough for two people. The entire compartment has its own backup gravity generators and life support systems. In an emergency, the compartment can be explosively jettisoned and serve as a life pod.
The right crew quarters were maintained, but it was changed into a communal room with two bunks per wall, and a table large enough for four people to sit around easily. A single bathroom/shower combination is installed on the far wall. This room also has its own gravity and life support systems, and can also be jettisoned.
In the center of the ship is the 'common area', which has just a couple of benches and retractible tables. At the far end, flanking the door to the engineering section, are two EV suits. The compartments that contain these suits have their own life support and can be locked from the outside. Liz used these as makeshift containment cells when she needs to.
The Nihilo has both active and passive stealth systems. Both systems are considered 'adaptive', meaning they will monitor their own success rate and make modifications to improve their effectiveness, when possible. The more information the system has about the ships it's trying to work against, the better the stealth is. In theory, given enough time and information, these systems could work against any adversary, no matter how advanced.
One of the oddest additions to the Nihilo is it's computer. Most ships this size have a basic computer with an assistant interface; they are not even the limited AI of other ships. However, the Nihilo has a true AI. This AI, called 'Nil', is the primary security system of the ship. Her job is to prevent unauthorized access to the ship's systems, by any means necessary. She's so effective at this that Liz doesn't even both to lock her ship; Nil is capable of ignoring the ramp button just as easily as if it were locked.
Nil's secondary duties have to do with the security and survival of the Nihilo's passengers. If they are being detained by Liz, she works to keep them contained. However, she attempts to ensure the life and heath of everyone onboard, unless told otherwise. The only exception to this is Liz herself; Nil is sophisticated enough to understand that Liz cannot be permanently killed.
Unknown to Liz, Dr. Rhae Canel designed and built Nil as an organic AI, based off Grey technology, much like Rekonin. Except in this instance, Nil was based off a Lyndri from before the Pandemic. Unlike Rekonin, however, Nil's core does not contain a full body, but rather simply a heavily modified brain in the core, and the whole thing is masked to fit inside of a normal computer core housing for a ship this size. Nil knows what she is, but is content being the Nihilo. She's remarked several times that she has the best stories in the universe; she'd just have to kill you if she told you any of them.
The Nihilo was commisioned by Lizbeth Locke from Corona Noir Ki Manufacturing, Ltd.. She took advantage of their promotional 'free customization' program, and built the ship exactly to her specifications. By the time she was one, it was easily the most expensive "civilian" ship they'd ever built and they still lost money due to the hours of research and custom fabrication required. However, CNK's marketing people are shrewd, and the most sensitive systems are custom designed, meaning only CNK can produce replacement parts. That didn't bother Liz at all, who happily bought dozens of spares to keep stashed in safe locations across League and Terran space.
Liz hired the head of the CNK Institute, Dr. Rhae Canel to design the ship's main systems. Liz simply wanted a tough, stealthy ship that was fast enough to chase down most things, and was impossible to steal. Oh, and by 'tough' she meant, 'can take a few directy hits from a batlecruiser' kind of tough.
Dr. Canel took sixteen months, and delivered exactly what the legendary mercenary was looking for.
The Nihilo is both famous, and infamous. Like the woman herself, the ship has the air of legitimacy about it. Despite how impressive those giant cannons on each side of the ship look, any ship inspector who has cared to try will measure their output at just barely inside the legal civilian limit. The sam goes with every system on the ship. Short of putting it in dry dock and tearing it apart, every test returns the same thing; the ship is, barely, inside of all legal limits and regulations.
The widely know truth, however, is that the Nihilo is anything but legal. In what Liz feels is an ironic twist, the limiter system the ship uses to mask it's systems true outputs is one of the most illegal piece of tech on the ship, second only to the military grade adaptive stealth systems. Neither the League or Terrans currently field anything so sophisticated; Liz didn't ask where Dr. Canel came up with it, and Dr. Canel wouldn't have told her anyway.
Since the ship's illegality is so widely known, she's a favorite ship for inspectors and intelligence officers alike to use as a device to strike fear into new recruits. There are a fair share of copy-cat ships out there, claiming to be the Nihilo (though none can spoof her identity codes perfectly, so even a half asleep customs officer can tell if the ship's the real deal or not). This gives the ship a larger than life feeling because just enough people see something that could be it that stories run wild.
Liz herself actually owns a few knock-offs and more than once has posed as a fake Nihilo to throw her targets off the scent. Hers, of course, run all genuine parts internally so she doesn't have to give up any performance. Still, she is adamant that nothing ever flys as well as the original.