[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 106: Advancement

The Arkon Mark I was 100 meters of pure craftsmanship. As a mech designer, Ves appreciated mechs the most, but he had a decent eye for ships.

The Arkon model had a sleek, curving shape. Her outer plating gleamed in white. A predatory pattern of sky blue accents broke up the monotony. If Ves had to describe it, it looked like a fish with its tail chopped off. Massive thrusters at the aft allowed the ship to traverse space with speed, while its stubby wings helped balance the ship if it descended onto a planet.

The ship did not come with a name. For now, she merely held a numerical designation. Ves could think up a name for the ship and register it later at any Coalition port at any point.

Compared to the gigantic but sluggish passenger ships and the smaller but 'economic' transports, the Arkon Mark I was built to satisfy the vanity of the rich. The designers of this luxury vessel pretty much picked the most expensive options available.

This meant that the Arkon was faster and more resilient than any other ship of her size. In formal terms, the Arkon was classified as a corvette. These vessels ranged from fifty meters to two-hundred meters. They were built for speed, evasion and sometimes stealth.

Compared to a regular corvette, the Arkon featured extensive automation. Leemar even included a complementary navigator bot, so Ves could theoretically operate the vessel without a single crew member.

"Not that it's a good idea. A man should never rely on bots."

A vessel controlled by bots and programs was highly vulnerable to malicious digital intrusion. Ves intended to hire a human pilot in the future.

The luxurious furnishings made up for the cramped interior. Dietrich's eyes widened at the fully stocked bar and instantly swiped a bottle of liquor. "Do you realize how much I can sell this bottle of Doomsday No. 8? It's worth at least a hundred-and-fifty thousand credits back home!"

While Dietrich slobbered all over the complementary booze, Ves inspected the three decks for any other surprises.

The cargo bay was situated at the lower deck. As advertised, it contained enough space to hold four standard-sized containers. The bay came with an integrated lifting system that allowed for effortless loading and unloading of any cargo. For now, Dietrich's refurbished mech took up much of the space, so Ves had no opportunity to test this system.

Other supplies took up the rest of the space in this deck. For example, Ves bumped into large barrels that stored the ship's water, air and fuel. As the Arkon ran on high-density fuel, the designers put a lot of effort into securing the volatile mixture. The protective shell around the fuel tanks could take a dozen hits from a mech-sized weapon.

A lot of compartments operated out of the middle decks. The all-important engineering compartment regulated both the FTL drive as well as the standard thruster engines. It also regulated the power reactor.

Ves could imagine if pirates boarded his ship and wrested control of engineering, they'd practically be in effective command of the entire corvette.

Besides some boring systems such as the air and water recyclers, the middle decks also came with a fully furnished lab and miniature workshop. Leemar generously furnished both compartments with state-of-the-art devices.

Though Ves lacked the expertise to fully utilize the lab, he handed off the chunk of mineral to the lab's expensive lab bot. While it was fairly stupid compared to a human scientist, it was better than nothing. With the ore in its hands, the bot should be able to find out a couple of things about the ore.

While Ves had nothing to do in the workshop area, he still went over all the supplied gear. The workshop enabled him to do some basic maintenance and repair on mechs. The ship's engineer could also borrow the workshop's tools to keep the Arkon running.