The Whitefish is a Physalia-class colonial vessel of about eight kilometers length made to hold over a dozen thousand crew members. The stated purpose of colonial-type vessels is to maintain imperial influence in regions where it is assigned through interdepartmental expeditions, but also to eventually act as the founding force of a colonization effort on a given planet. The Whitefish has not yet received orders to commit to colonization in its hundred sweeps of service, but it is by no means idle. It typically facilitates trade and development through protection operations.

A vessel such as the Whitefish is almost entirely self-sufficient. It does not need to dock for fuel nor food, usually only doing so as part of an assignment or for the acquisition of medicine, munitions, and materials. It is basically a town of its own, and can be likened to a mobile space station.

The Whitefish is followed by a detachment of lighter military vessels tooled for aerospace combat, mainly fighters of the Cichla class. It is a heavily armed supermassive capital ship capable of broadside combat and orbital bombardment. Among its crew members will be at any given time over two thousand resident soldiers prepared for a boarding conflict or ground incursion.

It is equipped with a warp drive of such power that, in order to perform a jump, ten batteries (psionics, ones serving grave penal sentences) must be sacrificed.