The Mech Touch

5829 Design Your Own Ship

After a bit of discussion with Kezi, Ves quickly gained a basic grasp of what E-66 was capable of. The Rubarthan shipyard had access to a wide range of high technologies that introduced all sorts of interesting possibilities to starships.

However, Kezi quickly cautioned Ves not to put too many items in his wishlist.

"Our approach towards starship innovation is always tempered by the need to preserve a solid enough foundation of a core foundation that consists of solid and proven elements. In our experience, we have found that going too far with trying to revolutionize everything at once usually leads to a cascade of failures. This will delay the completion of our project to an unacceptable degree. It is best to start with a more standard template and selectively add or improve specific elements that will result in targeted performance gains. You can think of it as a rationing system. By limiting the degree of innovation for every shipbuilding project, we can guarantee that the end product can be trusted enough to not collapse and explode when the vessel inquisition undergoes her first trials."

The man's explanation made a lot of sense. It was a common approach in mech design, though Ves all-too-often exceeded the recommended boundaries set by the mech industry.

The disastrous Elemental Lord was the archetypical example of how a design project could drastically go wrong when he completely went off the rails!

Ves had no intentions of repeating this feat in the form of a starship, so he prudently abided by Kezi's recommendations.

It was best to start with a more practical and less ambitious ship design.

The chief shipwright activated his desk terminal and opened up a design suite that was geared towards his profession.

He loaded half-a-dozen recent ship design templates and presented them to Ves.

"These are examples of modern starships that we should readily be able to produce in our shipyard." The man said. "Before we select a template to build upon, it helps if you can give me a list of objectives and requirements. What does your clan require the most? Must you insist on ordering a new fleet carrier, or is it acceptable to produce a non-combat vessel instead? The latter option is considerably faster and more affordable."

Ves immediately shook his head. "I understand the importance of non-combat ships, but this is not the time. We need to strengthen our direct fighting capabilities as much as possible in the next half-decade. A fleet carrier is essential to my plans. I need a vessel that can not only carry a lot of first-class mechs into battle, but also possess enough defenses to accompany them into battle. If you understand support link technology, then you should know that mechs and starships can only synergize with each other if they are not too far apart from each other."

Kezi immediately entered into a professional mindset. "Hmm. I see. That is not a common request in the Rubarthan ship market, but I can understand why your demands are different. We still have ship design templates that should satisfy your requests. They may be 'fantasy' designs that we never intended to realize, but they are theoretically sound designs."

The man quickly removed a lot of projected ship designs while adding a few new ones. They differed a lot in size, shape, mech capacity and more.

"Which parameters do you wish to prioritize the most? Do you want a sturdy vessel that can withstand a large amount of punishment, or do you prefer to own a faster fleet carrier that can outmaneuver enemy fleets?"

That was a good question.

"I want a ship that is balanced and rounded in performance." Ves said after a brief pause. "I may have a need for fleet carriers with more pronounced strengths and weaknesses, but my initial first-class fleet won't be big. I need a ship that is versatile enough to adapt to different circumstances. It also has to be self-sufficient enough to take care of herself when operating behind enemy lines."

"You are asking for much, sir. I hope you understand the consequences of trying to fulfill so many different objectives."

Ves smiled back at Kezi. "I am not stupid or indecisive. I am willing to skimp on mech capacity and other areas. What I cannot accept is a fleet carrier that is too fragile to withstand enemy warship fire or too slow to outrun determined enemy pursuit. I am looking for a fleet carrier that can survive all of the ordeals of a future deep strike operation. While I expect the fleet carrier to operate alongside other first-class starships, it is best to assume that there will not be a lot of external support available. The more self-sufficient the starship, the better."

The two spent several minutes on refining what Ves had in mind. The more he explained his demands, the more Kezi was able to hone in on an acceptable ship design template.

The chief shipwright finally settled for a fairly narrow but well-armored fleet carrier of the right length.

"The unimaginably named Exemplar-class should fit most of your requirements." The Rubarthan said as he magnified the only ship design that remained. "Take a look. One of my ship design teams worked to develop a fleet carrier that was particularly suited for both solo operations and lengthy expeditions. Her cross section is narrow enough to make it more difficult to land attacks on her hull. Her hull is decently thick in every direction, but her prow is notably more stacked with alloy layers in order to serve as a plentiful damage buffer. Due to her fairly narrow hull and large thrusters, her acceleration is fairly high for her length, allowing her to catch up to fleeing enemy vessels or outrun them with greater ease."

This was quite a nice ship design. The overall concept immediately resonated with Ves, though there were still a few areas that seemed dubious.

"How much is her mech capacity?"

"Only 300 mechs." Kezi mentioned. "That is below average when it comes to fleet carriers of this length, but there are good reasons why this is the case. The Exemplar-class can properly service her mechs with the help of her internal workshops and production facilities. She also has enough spare room for the modules required to integrate support link technology in her hull. Her power supply should be adequate enough to satisfy the increased demand for energy."

That sounded acceptable to him. He already knew that first-

class carrier vessels frequently tended to sacrifice mech capacity for additional performance and support functions.

Considering how strong first-class mechs tended to be, being able to field 300 of them while also providing adequate support was already amazing enough!

There was no need for Ves to get too hung up over the numbers.

As he studied the specifications of this ship class further, he soon began to frown.

"What is the matter, sir?"

"I am satisfied with the mobility of this vessel, but… I do not think her defenses are sufficient enough." Ves eventually said. "I am not sure what kind of combat scenarios that your shipwrights have envisioned when they came up with this design, but in my experience space battles are often short but incredibly punishing. It is not uncommon for starships under fire to lose their energy shields fairly quickly before incurring a lot of damage to their hulls. The biggest downside of the Exemplar is that all of her sides aside from her front are not designed to withstand focused fire from multiple warships."

The Exemplar is meant to utilize her superior mobility to rotate her hull and spread out the damage as much as possible if that happens." Kezi explained. "The fleet carrier should ideally orient her prow in the direction where the heaviest attacks come from. It is stacked with as many layers of transphasic armor plating as possible in order to turn it into a wall that can soak up a large amount of firepower."

"That sounds expensive."

"Not as much as you think. We are relying on quantity instead of quality. If the budget for this ship design was higher, my shipwrights would have tried to reduce the amount of layers in order to enhance her mobility further."

Ves studied the armored prow a bit more. The thick V-shaped prow looked so thick and formidable that it looked like it was designed to ram other vessels!

Of course, that was not the case. The prow was merely designed to keep the vessel alive as long as possible when she actively participated in an offensive operation.

"This is not enough." Ves shook his head when he thought about how it would fare in an actual operation. "I am sure that this fleet carrier will fare fine under normal circumstances, but what I am worried about is that she will falter when subjected to more extreme conditions. I have learned the hard way that reality rarely matches our expectations. Imagine a scenario where the Exemplar is operating all alone well behind enemy lines. Imagine that this ship must traverse a huge distance in order to get to the nearest safe harbor. Imagine that she is being actively hunted by the surrounding aliens all this time. Her superior mobility may allow her to evade and sidestep a lot of enemy pursuit forces, but she will eventually run out of luck from time to time. She may possess the defenses to withstand the first few attacks, but what about subsequent engagements?"

Kezi began to frown as he considered these conditions. "I admit that your scenario is much harsher than what my design teams normally consider. We are accustomed to developing starships for the armed forces of the Rubarthan Pact. None of the carrier vessels we have worked upon are meant to operate alone and far away from any support services. They only have to survive a handful of battles at most before they can be brought back to a repair yard where they can easily be restored before her systems deteriorate any further."

That meant that the Exemplar class was not so suitable for lengthy expeditions and deep strike operations at all. They would have to apply targeted modifications to the design in order to increase her fault tolerance.

Ves suddenly thought of a good idea. When he thought back on how his expeditionary fleet managed to fare in past engagements, he focused on one unusual capital ship in particular!

He retrieved the design files from his cranial implant and projected them in front of Kezi.

"Sir? This is… a second-class ship design."

"Yes. Take a look. The Graveyard is an inventive ship class that is designed to tank a lot of damage by cladding her hull with disposable armor plating. What is special about her is that she can constantly renew her hull plating by sourcing them from salvaged wrecks. If this is possible with second-class starships, why can't we do the same with first-class starships?"

Kezi grew more and more impressed with the Graveyard.

"That… is an unorthodox idea. I can easily identify more than a hundred different problems with this ship concept, but… there is no reason why it should not work when applied to the Exemplar Class. I will have to make a large amount of changes and additions to the template. Give me a moment."

Ves and Kezi spent the next hour on trying to work out how they would add the Graveyard's signature capability to the Exemplar-class fleet carrier.

It was not that simple to utilize salvaged materials to clad the hull of the Exemplar. First-class materials were much stronger and more difficult to process. Trying to convert them into starship hull plating took so much time that it was too dangerous to resort to conventional means.

The trouble about operating behind enemy lines was that starships constantly needed to be on the move. They needed to finish whatever they needed to do before fleeing the star system.

They eventually decided to implement a powerful technological application that could literally crush broken wrecks into the armored prow of the Exemplar by relying on overpowering gravitic force.

Out of all of the options available, it was exceptionally fast and convenient to the point where the fleet carrier could readily replenish her defenses in mid-battle!

The only downside was that the new system was so demanding that it could only be applied to the bow of the capital ship.

Ves considered it to be a worthwhile tradeoff as the Exemplar would be virtually unstoppable as long as she wasn't flanked!

Ves and Kezi decided to call this modified ship design the Grave Exemplar.

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