The Orca class was Neu Samara's second freight transport design, and the first to include grav plating and inertial compensators, allowing for a non-tailstanding design as well as much greater comfort in travel.

This last was especially needed as at Jump 1, the transit from Neu Samara to its first major colony at Saknussem would take just under two months. With only two outposts to stop at on the way, the crews of these transports had to invent ways of dealing with the long weeks of jumpspace and the slow, roundabout process of wilderness refuelling, hydrogen cracking/refining, and four month round trip journeys.

Fairly early on, they became Subsidized Merchants, built and maintained by the government, with a percentage of the salaries paid to the crews toward eventual ownership of the ship, over a 40 year period. From this process, the culture of family run starships became common in Directorate Space, and the four staterooms usually reserved for paying passengers would become extra crew rooms, classrooms, rec-rooms, nurseries and the like.

An early, but still fairly common variant of the Orca, the Blackfish Class, was used extensively by the Directorate's then newly founded Orbital Kommandos (Neu Samaran's version of the Space Marines). While no true dropship, the installation of 60 bunks and additional facilities in the cargo bay and upgrade of the ship's computer and communications systems allowed this variant to serve the Kommandos well at relatively low cost for many years.

Detachable 60Dton fuel tanks installed in the cargo bay would also allow a third jump 1 (plus life support), letting the Orca spend additional week bridging the distance between very distant 'fringe' stars within Hanstone sector. As Hanstone is sparse in stars to begin with, this was the only practical way for the frontiers to be pushed back until double jump 2 (Tech Level 11), and eventually jump 3 (Tech Level 12) ships were constructed, many, many years in the future. By the 2220's some Orcas were even venturing into adjacent Malorn sector, or back corward toward much older Terran colonies in search of opportunities beyond the Directorate and its limited markets.

By then however, the golden age of the Directorate was fading and Orcas remained the mainstay of small local freight transport for Neu Samara's first colonies long after the last of the Triumvirate Wars were over.

The ship above is the Singer, the second of the class to be commissioned.