Let's add facts to this arguement. I just started playing 15 days ago, but, my Rebel Destroyers stats are as follows:
450 AU (MAX)
120ยฐ Turn (MAX)
355 Accel (MAX)
5 proton cannons
4 proton turrets
4 shield capacitors
Cost: Stolen
The Lightning may be fun. It may be challanging. However, it is not the best ship in the game. Destroyers can take them out with great ease. If I were to rank the best ships it would be so:
Rebel Destroyer
Rebel Cruiser
Corvette
Lightning
Rapier
Argosy
Clipper
Shuttlecraft
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Crime? What crime?... That I killed a vile noxious insect, an old pawnbroker woman, of use to no one! ... Killing her was atonement for forty sins. ... (blood) Which all men shed, which flows and has always flowed in streams, which is split like champagne, and for which men are crowned benefactors of mankind.ย