The Topha-class was a heavy starfighter manufactured by Datopala Industrial during the late 48,800s as an attempted successor to the unsuccessful Codap-class. Following multiple consecutive products in the categories of strike craft with minimal sales and heavy development costs, the Topha-class would be the last strike craft project from Datopala Industrial until the 49,100s. Development of the Topha-class took place primarily at the Datopala Shipyard Complex in the Kaset System, the company's second largest site for design work. Many engineers were transferred from Datopala facilities in Paz Metticta and from the Tuan Shipyard to decrease development time, with a portion of the team having participated on the Codap-class heavy fighter program. Additionally, many engineers were sourced from the Taslov and Tiisal strike craft teams, which would show in the final production model of the Topha. Under pressure from Datopala executives, the engineers took a lot of the work from previous projects and modified structures and systems with the intention of accelerating development of the Topha-class. This would have the opposite effect, with many critical systems - particularly the fuel lines and conduits to the ion thrusters - ultimately requiring complete redesigns to be accommodated in the hull of the Topha. Development was paused through most of 48,871 ACT as the engineering team was restructured and the project almost was cancelled, and would only resume after a significant effort by lead designers and managers to create a plan to focus and complete the Topha-class within a decade. Even after this, the expected completion date of 48,879 ACT was pushed back to 48,882 ACT when it was determined that the DI/SCC 150T-20d-02 ion thrusters selected for the fighter, an improved model of the ion drive system used on the Codap-class, were both not capable of delivering the necessary acceleration despite being fed significantly more power than on the Codap-class and were difficult to integrate with the vessel's structure and reactor. These difficulties with the thrusters led to high maintenance costs and would sometimes completely fail, making them unacceptable for a production strike fighter. Datopala was forced to commission a whole new ion thruster, the DI/SCC 150T-55a, which took two years to develop and test and an additional year to quickly integrate the new thruster into the design and complete the necessary flight tests. A number of engineers left the company during this period due to exhaustion and mental health problems related to the stressful work environment, which Datopala received criticism for from unions, IEHSO, and various media outlets.

The Topha-class was reasonably well armed for a standard strike fighter but lacked the heavy directed energy weapons and expansive ordnance storage typical of current-generation heavy fighters. The ship's primary armament consisted of four DI Xehi-025-ml light laser cannons, the latest iteration of the Xehi-022-m3 light laser cannons used on the Tessin-class. With an approximately 0.06 second longer cooldown but almost 50% higher energy yield per shot, these weapons were very effective against both light and standard model strike craft with their high fire rate, but not particularly good against the defenses of a typical heavy strike craft or gunship. The Topha-class also carried twenty SCI-925 Onalee anti-fighter missiles, each with a roughly ten megaton warhead and high-thrust propulsion for excellent tracking. Although high in yield for a anti-fighter missile, the Topha-class's small number of these missiles when compared to other heavy fighters left the ship poorly equipped in prolonged engagements, or when fighting more evasive strike craft with countermeasures which would require a larger number of missiles to destroy. Critics would later state that Datopala should have dropped the Topha's two anti-ship torpedoes and used the space below the craft to move systems around and enlarge the internal missile racks. In addition to the subpar armament of the Topha-class, the fighter also had only moderate shields and armor, often unable to take the level of fire that something like the Taorith-class from Themix Industries could. These factors combined led to an almost complete lack of interest in the Topha-class on release, so much so that production was shut down after only three years, and Datopala Industrial shortly after cancelled the few other ongoing strike craft development programs it had. The failure of the Topha-class, with its lengthy and costly development following, finally convinced the company's upper management that they would not be able to recreate the success of the Tessin-class, and the company's focus shifted back towards capital ships and commercial vessels such as freighters and transports.