The Jihad destroyed the Draconis Combine's ability to build most offensive weapons, and shattered its economy. Unlike the other states though, it maintained territorial control and quickly began to rebuild. BattleMechs, vehicles, fighters, and other weapons of war soon began to come out of a handful of rebuilt factories, but it only took months for Coordinator Ricol to realize that WarShips were another matter entirely. The reduced Combine simply did not have the resources to initiate another massive WarShip building program like it had before the Jihad. Rather than attempt to rebuild those massive yards, the Coordinator ordered that the Excalibur be repurposed as an assault DropShip.
         Only a handful of those assault DropShips were ever built though, replaced in 3077 with the modern Neko-te frigate. The Neko-te at first was the primary WarShip of the rebuilding Combine navy, and for a time was seen everywhere in Combine space. It began to lose that role as larger and more powerful frigates began coming out of Combine yards, and the Second Dominion-Combine War destroyed many of them. The Combine lost so many in fact that Coordinator Ricol ordered that the survivors be removed from active duty.
         Midway Shipyards didn't want to lose one of their best cash cows though and arranged for a pirate hunting expedition to acquire one of the Neko-tes. It proved instrumental in destroying a pirate force and its new role became evident. The small WarShip has since become the primary pirate hunter in the Combine, and Midway Shipyards continues to build and sell them to the great liking of their bank account balance.
         The same size and shape as the Excalibur, the Neko-te mounts a similer though beefed up weapons grid. The most shocking part of that grid is the naval autocannon replacing the old standard autocannon in the nose, and numerous enemies have been destroyed by it over the years. It lacks a jump sail, relying entirely on replacement batteries or old-style fusion plant recharging. This limits its operational range. Its greatest weakness though is how slowly it accelerates, and is the reason for most of its losses over the years. Fighting pirates though, that sluggishness is rarely a problem as combat with those dregs does not normally last long enough for manueverability to become a factor.