Cloud Skimmer - Immolation Rider

In the future, space travel is ubiquitous. These ships run upon an economy based upon Helium-3. He-3 is concentrated in the outer layer of stars and in gas giants. The preferred method for collecting He-3 is to build a large cloud mining platform in orbit of a large gas giant as a permanent industrial node. This allows for a stable and efficient mechanism to collect large quantities of He-3. On the downside, cloud platforms require a significant industrial investment and a relatively sophisticated level of industrial maturity.

For systems that do not yet have the industrial maturity or the economic resources to invest in a large platform the next best option is a purpose built set of ships called Cloud Skimmers. These ships make fast low passes through the upper atmosphere of gas giants to collect and process He-3. The lower these ships pass through the gas giant the higher the density of He-3 available. But the lower a ship goes the more resistance, turbulence, and heat is encountered. So there is a balance between getting the He-3 quickly and risk of not returning.

The pdf should be available soon in the scifi area of the downloads section, or you can get it here as well:Model Plans

It is something I cooked up out of my own head after reading some novels that described the scenario.