The truth is out there! In honor of Gillian Anderson’s return as Agent Scully on The X-Files this weekend, we’re bringing back the most thematically appropriate Star Citizen concept ship: the mysterious Xi’an Khartu-al scout! This complex alien ship will be available in the pledge store for the next week.

The Khartu is the light attack craft of the Xi’an military. Contrary to Human ship design, the Khartu doesn’t have a traditional main thruster, instead featuring an array of maneuvering thrusters on articulated rigs. This design allows for incredible agility, making them the bane of UEE pilots, who bestowed the nickname ‘Quark’ because when all of the thrusters are firing, the ship looks like a spark flying through space. The Xi’an Aopoa corporation also manufactures an export model, the Khartu-al, for sale to human civilians as a dedicated scout/explorer. The export model features the same Xi’an maneuvering rig, but control surfaces modified for human use and a more limited armament.

The Scout is still a concept ship, meaning that it will not appear in your Hangar today… but we are happy to announce that it is currently in active development and will be one of the next ships added to Star Citizen’s Alpha in a 2.x patch! You can check out the latest WIP graybox images in this post to see how development is progressing.

Remember: we are offering these pledge ships to help fund Star Citizen’s development. The goal is to make additional ships available that give players a different experience rather than a particular advantage when the persistent universe launches. Ship types sold during limited sales will be available to earn in the finished game.