The Radiance Explorer is a massively refitted Retribution Battlecruiser. Using the latter’s engine pod and several other modular components, the Radiance is considered an entirely different ship type due to the number of changes made to the basic design during its development and construction.

The most notable addition to the Radiance is a counter-rotational section that provides limited micro-gravity, allowing the ship and its crew to perform longer duration exploratory missions. The ship’s weapons and high power sensor package make it adequately well defended should it run into hostile forces while abroad.

During the Chouka War, Radiance Explorers were typically not drawn into combat, as most were still deployed to the Rim of Known Space at the time of the conflict. One was destroyed at the end of the war when it attempted to seek refuge in Breth, being destroyed by the Sshel’ath force that seized that system. Of the other two that survived the war, one was presumably lost in hyperspace and the other continued to explore uncharted space lanes. The ship and crew had left Chouka only months before the Circasian’s final assault on their homeworld and it was the crew's decision to strike out and find a new beginning for their species and civilization amongst the stars. They eventually reached a fertile world in a system they called Regalo, establishing a colony from which to begin anew. The colony’s location and very existence would remain unknown, even after the last of the Escalation Wars.