Debaucherous x Division 11 (Patreon)

Commissioned

Debaucherous x Division

Chapter 11

-VB-

Cooperland

3020.01.18

Tina and Wiska’s experience as ship engineers and mechanics. 

Caede Celeste’s template. 

Kelbor-Hal’s template.

Those three assets could help me design and make my own ship, but there was a problem.

I lacked any and all industry needed to manufacture ship parts, ship equipment, and ship superstructures. While the basic tools and experience used in mech design and manufacturing could be used to create ships in theory, things needed for a ship were different from things needed for a mech.

If I wanted to start making ships, then I needed to do the same thing I did so with the Clovers.

I needed to get my hands on a working ship, break it apart, reverse engineer all of its parts, and then make the tools to make the tools to make those ship parts. Which meant more material input, more land for factories, and more automation and workers/clones to manage those factories and automated robots. 

And, of course, I would need a dedicated shipyard to put those parts together. I already had a “mech industry park” between my cave fortress and Tor Town, so I could set up the ship part factories right next door to the industry park and then have the new shipyard adjacent to both of those. 

However, I couldn’t buy any good spaceship from Slutlife Company’s official catalog with just 20 points, which meant that I was back on the Marketplace to look over discounted goods. 

Voidship Listing (filtered list)
Origin Universe - Name - Point Cost - Category 

Elite Dangerous - Anaconda-class Multi-Purposes Ship - 10 pts - New Ship (50+)
Elite Dangerous - Type-9 Heavy - 5 pts - New Ship (50+)
New Eden/EVE - Astero-class Frigate - 20 pts - New Ship (50+)
New Eden/EVE - Tormentor-class Frigate - 5 pts - New Ship (50+)
New Eden/EVE - Inquisitor-class Frigate - 5 pts - New Ship (50+)
New Eden/EVE - Venture-class Frigate - 5 pts - New Ship (50+)
New Eden/EVE - Navitas-class Frigate - 5 pts - New Ship (50+)
Space Engineer - Daria-class Armed Bulk Freighter - 5 pt - New Ship (50+)
Star Citizen - RSI Constellation-class Light Freighter - 5 pts - New Ship (50+)
Star Citizen - RSI Galaxy-class Corvette - 5 pts - New Ship (50+)
Star Citizen - Kraken-class Light Carrier - 5 pts - New Ship (50+)
Starsector - Condor-class Light Carrier - 10 pts - New Ship (50+)
Starsector - Cerberus-class Combat Freighter - 5 pts - New Ship (50+)
Starsector - Ebisu S-class Light Carrier - 20 pts - New Ship (50+)
Starsector - Kant-class Scout Ship- 10 pts - New Ship (50+)
Starsector - Minoria-class Escort Carrier - 15 pts - New Ship (50+)
Starsector - Mule-class Medium Freighter - 20 pts - New Ship (50+)
Starsector - Sekai-class S-Tanker- 15 pts - New Ship (50+)
Starsector - Shark-class Battle Barge - 20 pts - New Ship (50+)
Starsector - Talley-class Standard Merchanter- 15 pts - New Ship (50+)
Starsector - Valkyrie-class Troop Transport - 20 pts - New Ship (50+)
Star Wars - Baryl-class Bulk Freighter - 5 pts - Used Ship (50+)
Star Wars - Galloform Transport - 10 pts - Used Ship (50+)
Star Wars - MB-C1 Medium Transport - 10 pts - Used Ship (50+)
Star Wars - Wayfarer-class Medium Freighter - 10 pts - Used Ship (50+)
Warhammer 40K - Sword-class Frigate - 20 pts - Used Ship, Badly Damaged (7)
Warhammer 40K - Falchion-class Escort - 20 pts - Used Ship, Badly Damaged (5)
Warhammer 40K - Sword-class Frigate - 5 pts - Used Ship, one-half (50+)
X4 Foundation - Minotaur Raider - 15 pts - New Ship (50+)
X4 Foundation - Peregrine Sentinel Gunboat - 15 pts - New Ship (50+)
… (50+)

The Marketplace offered a lot of choices… but every single one of them felt overpriced. 

For example, the Condor-class Light Carrier. It was a light carrier capable of fielding up to twelve interceptor drones if you really pushed it. It was not, however, a good ship by any means. Not bad, yes, and when there was nothing else around or if you didn’t have a lot of money, it was a competent carrier to have as escort. 

But was it worth 10 points? 

10 points could get me a Tier 4 Companion. A Tier 4 Companion were individuals like veteran Pokemon trainers, destroyer/light cruiser/submarine shipgirls, trained mages, and the like. And unlike those Companions, the ship would need to be crewed and piloted initially by people who were unfamiliar with the ship itself. The Slutlife Company offered perks and training for my Companions so that they could pilot the ships, but in the case of the Condor, the skeleton crew size was 90 people.

That was almost a third of all of my clones to operate a subpar light carrier that would need more crew for manned fighters. 

For fuck’s sake, salary for the crew and the officers alone would be ridiculous! 

In comparison… I could get Herring, a submarine shipgirl from Azur Lane’s Eagle Union. She probably couldn’t dish out as much damage as the Condor’s (maximum) twelve drones on top of the escort carrier’s own armaments, but I would only need to take care of one person. 

Hell, I could probably find a discount for mindfucked Herrings on the Marketplace for half the cost, which seemed to be the standard for Used companions. With that price, I could get two Herrings! 

… But I had to remember that I wasn’t getting these ships to pilot and field them myself but to reverse engineer them and make a shipyard for them. I could recruit and train people in the meantime. Mindfuck them into becoming loyal subjects, if I really needed to. 

Which meant that I could not afford to get a ship so powerful that if a few were ever turned against me, I would be ruined. 

Which meant I could not get the most powerful of the punch available like Warhammer 40k frigates.

Not that I would.

Those needed 25,000 crews to operate. ‘I don’t got time to recruit tens of thousands of people to operate a single frigate.’ Tor Town didn’t even have that many people! 

Would it be cool to see ships that can accelerate three times faster than anything the Inner Sphere had to offer prow-ram my enemies? It would be cool and satisfying. But not worth a literal twenty-thousand people’s worth of salary, not when I could do nearly the same with just twenty people aboard a Cerberus Combat Freighter. 

I also needed a ship which could field not just fighters but also battlemechs.

If I took all of my requirements into mind and made the assumption that any smaller problems could be solved by me or the twins, then there were only two choices for me. 

The Drake Interplanetary’s Kraken-class Light Carrier from Star Citizen and the United Auroran Federation’s Minoria-class Light Carrier from Starsector (UAF mod). 

“Why not go for the Kraken?” 

I glanced to my left where Tina sat next to me on the couch in what could pass one of the many living rooms in the underground mountain fortress.

“Why the Kraken?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Because it’s easier to make, isn’t it?” she asked me. “Besides, you don’t need as many crew to fly it, which is good for you. Easy to fix, easy to field.”

I hummed. 

“I don’t think Kraken is good.”

Both of us looked to my right. Wiska sat there, gently holding her round, pregnant belly. 

“But why, Wi?!” Tina whined. 

“Because if it is easy for us to make it, then what happens if the people of the Inner Sphere get their hands on one?”

That made my red haired dwarf raise a finger, open her mouth, and then stop. 

Because if it was easy for us to reverse engineer and produce them, then it wouldn’t be out of the picture for the Inner Sphere to salvage and reverse engineer them, too. They would need to spend an inordinate amount of money and manpower to do so but they would be able to. 

And worse, because it was also easy to make, my current enemy, the Federated Suns, would be able to reverse engineer it as well. 

“It also uses special fuel that we would need to synthesize from scratch,” Wiska added before looking at me. “Assuming that it’s something we can replicate.”

“And the Minoria?” 

“It’s more technologically advanced, but only by a small margin. According to the design data the seller showed us, a Minoria already has the equipment and technology needed to incorporate an artificial intelligence. It also has the standard nanoforge that all of the Persean sector spaceships have, so even if we were to lose a fighter or mech, we can make them on the field.”

That made the two pause and look at me. 

“What?”

I blinked. “What?”

“What do you mean they replace their losses in the field?” Wiska asked with a pair of dead eyes. Resigned exasperation rolled off of her.

“Um, yeah. Persean sector carriers replaced their losses in the field, though there definitely is some time needed to print out the fighters.” I sighed. “But that’s what makes the Minoria so much worse to field.”

“Why?”

“What happens if they, by chance, reverse engineer even a part of the nanoforge? Nanoforges in carriers are specifically designed to be great at making mechs and fighters. It would upend the entire balance of power.” 

They looked thoughtful.

Then Tina shrugged. “That’s just the risk you’ll have to take if you think this Minoria is better than the Kraken. What makes it better anyway?” she asked as she leaned slightly closer to me.

“It’s less about the Minoria and more about the Kraken,” I replied. “The Kraken-class light carrier has a critical flaw.”

“And that flaw is…?”

“It lacks a dedicated fighter bay to shield the fighters. The vast majority of its fighters are all on the top deck, which is exposed to enemy fire after the carrier’s shields go down. This prevents the Kraken’s fighters from taking off successfully while under fire. In contrast, the Minoria has two dedicated fighter bays, which is part of the reason why it is significantly longer and wider than the Kraken. Combined with its nanoforge, this allows the Minoria to readily replace its fighters, manned or unmanned. 

“The Kraken also lacks berths for additional pilots. What happens if a pilot dies? With a maximum of ten crew aboard its nearly 300 meter long frame, it went for maximum alpha strike with the least amount of resources it could get away with. So even if I had additional fighters and attack crafts on its bays and landing platforms, they wouldn’t be used in the field. In comparison, the Minoria can hold up to a hundred twenty crew. Even if I lose thirty fighters, I can still replace them with more fighters, and those fighters won’t be shot down trying to take off.

“Which brings me to my third point. Minoria is fast. Not as fast as dedicated corvettes and patrol ships and definitely not as fast as a fighter, but it can give a bomber a run for its money despite being a warship.”

“Wait, what?” Tina said out of surprise. 

I chuckled before clearing my throat and explaining to the dwarven engineer/mechanics a concept that probably sounded like a heresy to them. Or impossible. Impossible heresy, maybe.

“Minoria is a carrier warship, which is a category of spaceships not known for their speed, but it can match most bombers if you give it a minor speed modification. Doesn’t even have to be a strong one, either. Then you have its SP variant, which is used by their Automata Fleet. Which is exactly what it sounds like: a fleet operated by artificial intelligence of the United Auroran Federation. That variant gives the escort carrier a capital-grade weapon turret and two additional subcapital turrets. Which means that the SP variant of this escort carrier can, if it wants to, become a threat to destroyers and cruisers by itself.” Then I paused. “And the federation’s top end bombers fire homing mini-nukes.” 

Wiska spit out the drink she had in hand. 

Both Tina and Wiska looked at me. 

“And this AI variant…?”

“Outside my budget. The bastard wanted 50 points for just one ship.”

“I mean… it definitely sounds like the variant is a monster.”

“Yeah, but it pays for it by having a shorter combat effectiveness time. With needing to shove in so many things into the same sized ship, most of the components got miniaturized but this also hurt their robustness. It doesn’t help that they shaved off armor to make room for those already frailer components. So the SP variant can’t be used for actual raiding or trade disturbance because it will either need outposts for repairs or eat up too much supplies to make the raids worth it.”

Tina hummed. “... If you put it like that, then Minoria is the best option for you right now, isn’t it? Better fighter bay layout and design, potential for future conversion, better armored, and capable of carrying more people.”

“I guess. I forgot to mention that most destroyer-sized and smaller UAF ships are atmospheric capable warships, which would make raids easier.”

Wiska stared at me with a deadpan. “If Minorias are that great, then it’s barely a competition. Why did you even bother with comparing them?”

“Because on the Marketplace right now, you could get three Krakens for a single Minoria.” 

“Huh. That actually makes it competitive,” Tina muttered. “And you need far fewer crew, too.”

I nodded. “So the gist of it is this. If we do get the Kraken without the intent to keep technological edge, we can reverse engineer, manufacture it to be just outside of the Periphery’s industrial level to manufacture on their own, and sell them to the enemies of the Federated Suns, which only helps me in my benefactor-given mission.

“But if we get Minoria, then we will personally have to operate the carrier into raiding and destroying Federated Suns’ outposts and assets. It is stronger, faster, better protected, better equipped to handle long expeditions, and can replace losses with its onboard nanoforge and factories as long as we keep it fed with supplies and scraps. Losing one would be a massive investment and losing it to any of the powers of the Inner Sphere and the periphery may lead to the technological gap closing. At the same time, nothing but ComStar’s hidden warships can truly threaten a Minoria. It had too many fighters and defense options for anything else to work. Even a nuclear missile will have a hard time going through the fighter screens.” 

Tina and Wiska sat in contemplative silence. 

And then Wiska spoke up.

“Can you afford to man a hundred crew carrier at all times?”

I frowned. “I can afford to… but I would rather not.”

“Then Kraken is the way to go. We outsource harassing the Federated Suns to someone else.”

I thought about it and nodded. 

“Kraken it is.”

Then I bought three of them. 

“Oh, and I think we need to find a way to change the Kraken’s original FTL drive - the quantum drive - with the local’s KF Drive and also find a way to reduce the mass it takes up. Because it takes up around 95% of a ship’s mass.”

Tina and Wiska looked at me in horror. 

“95%?!”

I chuckled. “Yup! And it’ll be our job to make sure we can reduce it. Otherwise, those Krakens aren’t leaving our system. Cuz a giant 10,000 ton carrier that can barely field a dozen fighters isn’t going to be something I make.”