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'''''Pytheas''''' was an exploration ship of unknown class. The story of the ship and her crew is featured in {{Link RSI|text=DISCOVERED: Combat Journals of the Pytheas|int=Comm-Link:Discovered - Combat Journals of the Pytheas|url=https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/15462-DISCOVERED}}

* Lt. Comm. [[Mark Derren]], pilot.

* [[Teague]], flight mechanic.

* McManus, designated pilot, but 'got some kind of stomach flu'.

The ship started on [[2883]]-08-01 for a 3-week-mission from [[Boro]], [[Crion]], [[Caliban system|Caliban System]] to [[Viking system|Viking]]. Its mission was to overhaul the early warning systems and monitoring for Vanduul activities in the system. The ship was stopped at the jump point to Viking by the [[88th Squadron]] because of outdated authorization protocols.

On 2883-08-12 the ship was intercepted by [[Vanduul]] fighters but successfully escaped. Derren's log revealed that the Vanduul were able to determine the range and to circumvent the early warning systems on the UEE-Vanduul border. However, the crew couldn't report these results. They were shot down on 2883-08-16, trying to escape to a jump point.

The recordings of the Pytheas survived and were found after a reconnaissance mission forty years later, in [[2923]].

{{WP|ref=no|Pytheas}} of Massalia was a greek explorer of the 4th century BC. He reached the northwestern borders of the known Hellenic world. Albion (Britain), Thule (possibly Iceland or Norway) and the Baltic. He also documented the existence of drift ice, aurora borealis and the midsummer sun. Phenomena, unknown to the hellenic world. A reason why some of his contemporaries criticised his reports as 'fiction'. His voyage reports only survived as fragments.