Probably Asp outfitted with Class3 drive, 5 shield gens, 4MW beam laser, fuel scoop and all the typical junk, leaving 18 tons free for fuel and cargo.
I usually leave double capacity required for maximum range jump free for fuel and cargo in any ship - it allows me to either pick up some cargo, or perform double jump without the need for refueling - handy if you're in a hurry, or don't fancy sundiving, since not every system has gas giants.
I'm not a big fan of the heavier ships, even though flying properly equipped Boa, Panther, or even Imperial Explorer (best described as freighter-sized fighter) is a safe way to have a lot of fun - they are simply way too sluggish.
Overall I like heavy fighters the best and heavy freighters the second best. I don't really like smaller frieghters and Imperial Courier, as they lack hull capacity required to offset their sluggishness and I'm not much of a fan of small fighters as they lack hull capacity to put in any, but the most essential equipment and put you in big trouble when someone fires a missile at you.
I prefer standard hydrogen drives over military ones for their versatility.
In FE2 I often use pulse laser (5MW or even 30MW one) instead of beam laser due to the reduced bulk of the former, but I don't really like this in FFE - aiming a pulse laser in the heat of battle is way too absorbing in FFE where your life depends solely on your evasive maneuvers (though I did manage to take an Imperial Explorer armed with a plasma accelerator with an Adder with 5MW pulse laser a couple of times).
I usually carry a hyperspace cloud analyzer, but most of the time it collects dust on my ship - I'm not a pirate and not much of an assassin.
I love to fly the Cobra MK III with a military drive, and a hyperspace cloud analyzer, when I'm a hitman. But my favorite is the Asp Explorer, its a good all-round ship. God I miss FE2, can't get it to run anymore.
Ever heard of GLFrontier?
