A Little More About the Eris

Since I've been doing my research...

The Eris was commissioned as a Turian Military Frigate, but was decommissioned after it was determined that the ship did not live up to the strict Turian Military standards, and was simply too much money to get her right. She was turned into a commercial passenger vessel, and sold to help fund the Turian Military.

That's when Aashe bought her for a song at auction. The odd layout of the interior of the ship deterred most luxury buyers.

The vessel was initially outfitted with a command post that ran the length of the upper floor. The bottom floor was designed as the barracks, weapons storage, and had a large War Room off the main Mess. Aashe had a private company gut the entirety of the ship, converting the massive amounts of "wasted" war room space into additional bedrooms. She kept the Med Bay, main Mess, and cockpit in the same places, but had a second kitchen put in, and turned the War Room into a Rec Room.

There were two rooms off the cockpit that housed military battle systems. Both rooms were cleaned out well before Aashe ever bought the ship. She converted the military battle systems rooms into her private bedroom and bath, just off the cockpit itself.

The gunnery stations had been decommissioned, but never removed from the ship, and it didn't take long for Aashe to bring them up to speed. Two years after purchase of the Eris, she became one of the best smuggling ships in the galaxy.

The Eris Attributes:

The Eris employs a DRA Heat Dispersal System, a slightly older model:
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Codex/Ships_and_Vehicles#Starships:_Heat_Management

Diffuse Radiator Arrays (DRA): ceramic strips along the exterior of the armored hull. These make the ship appear striped to thermographic sensors. Since the arrangement of the strips depends on the internal configuration of the ship, the patterns for each vessel are unique and striking. On older ships, the DRA strips could become red- or white-hot. Dubbed "tiger stripes" or "war paint" by humans, the glowing DRA had a psychological impact on pirates and irregular forces.

Strip radiators are not as efficient as panels, but if damaged by enemy fire, the ship only loses a small portion of its total radiation capacity. In most cases, a vessel's DRA alone allows it to cruise with no difficulties. Operations deep within solar systems can cause problems.

* Aashe keeps additional strips in the Cargo Hold, and is versed in making changes to the strips on her own.

The Eris Weapon Systems

The Eris uses a mix of GARDIAN (laser) weapon systems, and simple Disruptor Torpedoes. The GARDIAN system can be operated directly from the cockpit, allowing a single person to both pilot and fire weapons if needed. GARDIAN systems aren't great in long fights, and only serve to cause minor damage, and allow the ship to get away.

There are two Gun Turrets for Disruptor Torpedoes. One is at the nose of the ship, accessible via a ladder in the cockpit. The other is under the back wings of the ship, accessible via a ladder from Engineering. The guns auto-reload, based on a Tommy gun reload system - but absolutely require gunners to be in the Turrets to fire.

* After each firing of a Disruptor Torpedo, the gunner in the Turret would hear the thundering sound of the feed moving over once, and then a disconcerting THUD as the magazine is locked into place, preparing to fire.

The Eris employs three types of sensor systems:

The Active Scanning System used is LADAR:
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Sensors#Starships:_Sensors

Active sensors are radars and high resolution ladars (LAser Detection And Ranging) that emit a "ping" of energy and "listen" for return signals. Ladars have a narrower field of view than radar, but ladar resolution allows images of detected objects to be assembled. Active sensors are useless when a ship is moving at FTL speeds.

Her Passive Systems are a mix of Radio Detectors, and a recent addition of a small Thermographic Sensor - Aashe is still figuring out how to read the Thermographic Sensor, having never been formally taught how to read sensor systems.

The Eris Defenses:

The Eris uses a mix of Kinetic Barriers (effective against Torpedoes) and Ablative Armor (effective against GARDIAN fire). Both are standard to most ships and Frigates, and have seen remarkably few upgrades. This has, so far, been a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" issue - of Aashe generally attempting to avoid major Dog Fight, and having an upgraded Thruster system.

... which leads us to.... The Upgraded Thrusters System
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Codex/Ships_and_Vehicles#Starships:_Thrusters

Consistent with most commercial ships, The Eris uses a Fusion Torch Thruster system for FTL travel. However... rather illegally, Aashe also had a Military standard Antiproton Drive installed in the back of the ship. The Antiproton Drive can be prohibitively expensive to run, even for Aashe. That's not to mention Dangerous considering the size of the vessel, and the size of the Drive. Though the ship had, at one point, been intended as a Military Frigate - the drive had been downgraded for Commercial safety, considering most lone pilots don't have the necessary engineering crew to keep an Antiproton Drive from obliterating the ship.

Aashe has only ever turned the Drive on twice - and in both instances, she's held her breath the entire time the drive was active. The heat that comes off the Antiproton Drive is enough to almost instantly light up the DRA Heat Sink system on the outside of the ship, and anyone in Engineering would find it a very unpleasant place to be while the Antiproton Drive was active.

Provided the Antiproton Drive doesn't completely decimate the ship, getting the fuel for the Drive is absurd. It's a controlled substance available via Fuel Depots - and no matter what the military buys the fuel for, Aashe generally has to pay three times as much, to bribe and hush the proper people to sell her the fuel. She has a handful of stations she trusts to refuel the Antiproton Drive - and getting to any one of those Stations can prove problematic.