The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3389

Chapter 3389: Small Oven and Big Oven

After Ves ended their tour of the Gorgoneion, he was more than pleased at what he saw. While he hadn't been able to see her transform into her wall mode, from what he saw the ship was already a great addition to the Larkinson fleet.

What he valued the most was that her entire design was configured to the specific needs of the Larkinson Army. This granted his clansmen a base where they could truly perform their duties as Larkinsons.

This made a substantial difference as it was rather annoying to deal with all of the Hexer idiosyncrasies on the older Larkinson-owned starships. The Spirit of Bentheim and the many combat carriers bought from the Hexadric Hegemony contained many Hexer-developed ship systems and parts that deviated substantially from the galactic norm.

This was one of the results of the relative isolation of Hexer society. They chose to go their own way in many areas and that led to a lot of stupid choices that were made for the sake of making Hexer technology 'more superior'.

Getting back to working with more universal tech was a breath of fresh air to many Larkinsons. Although it did not sound like a big deal, even a moderate increase in quality of life and ease of use did wonders in making the servicemen feel more at home!

These were ultimately indispensable factors to turning the Larkinson Clan into a true space-faring organization. Although it was impossible for Ves to impart life in any of the starships under his command, he hoped that his clansmen would do their best to make them more personal.

Once he left the Gorgoneion, he paid a brief visit to the Diligent Ovenbird.

The large fleet repair ship looked different from any other capital ship in the expeditionary fleet. One side resembled a large, open tube while the other side looked like a massive C-shaped metal wall!

These were the two primary activity spaces where the Diligent Ovenbird performed her ship repair works.

The crew already started calling the tube the 'Small Oven' as this massive section was devoted to constructing and repairing sub-capital ships.

Though it was currently open, the interior of the Small Oven could be closed and sealed from the outside environment, thereby allowing it to turn into a drydock of some sorts.

A drydock environment was important because many construction tasks were too advanced or delicate to be performed in open space.

While it seemed that space was completely quiet and devoid of disturbing factors, the truth was much different. From roaming space dust to cosmic radiation, there were too many sources of interference to count, and many of them could produce a lot of small faults that could result in major malfunctions if they piled up to an extent!

Therefore, the safest way to build a ship was in a controlled environment with zero gravity. This was why the Small Oven was relatively thick. It had to offer a high degree of protection against external factors and also manipulate gravity, air and other internal conditions without any gaps in coverage.

"The Small Oven can repair any sub-capital ship that fits inside." An naval engineer assigned to serve as a tour guide explained. "Due to its dimensions, the Small Oven is mostly suited to performing work on long and narrow starships. The good news is that most human vessels adhere to this design standard. Only eccentrics own square or spherical-shaped starships these days."

In other words, the best bread that the Larkinson Clan could bake with the Diligent Ovenbird were traditional baguettes.

"The Small Oven also possesses enough construction modules to build new vessels, right?"

"Yes, sir. Our current systems are powerful and extensive enough to construct new hulls up to frigate-class vessels. Don't expect us to build any combat carriers, though. They are much larger, heavier and more demanding to construct."

Ves glanced at the naval engineer. "There is usually a huge safety margin when it comes to specifying these kinds of features. If we loosen our standards and accept a higher degree of risk, is it technically feasible for us to build our combat carrier?"

The man had to think about this question. This was a difficult scenario that would strain the Small Oven's facilities. It would also require the crew to work outside of regular parameters.

"I can't say for certain, sir, but if we are truly desperate, we can do it." He said. "Don't think that we can start making combat carriers right away, though. We lack the heavy-duty construction equipment that allows us to build ships of this scale. We can only do it by improvising a lot of new and unsafe methods and performing a lot of labor-intensive manual work. It would be similar to trying to fabricate a mech with handheld tools."

"I see."

The analogy mentioned by the engineer was a bit exaggerated, but drove the point home.

"Then let's take a step back." Ves suggested. "What if we try to build a smaller and less ambitious starship, say a light carrier or an ever smaller carrier class? What our clan needs the most is the ability to pump out FTL-capable starships that can serve as motherships to as many mechs as possible. Without a sufficient number of capital ships, we won't be able to deploy enough machines in battle. This is why it is critical for me to know what the Diligent Ovenbird is truly capable of in her current state."

Since this was a serious matter, the naval engineer took several minutes of time to compose his answer.

"Combat carriers are demanding ships to build because they need to be able to withstand hostile fire, sir. If it isn't necessary to turn our carriers into mobile strongholds, then our job will be a lot simpler. Maybe it is still a stretch for us to construct a 40-mech light carrier, but a vessel that can accommodate half that number is a lot more doable."

That was good news. Whether the carrier held 20 mechs or 40 mechs was not a huge issue. Being able to field 20 more fully-functional mechs in the Red Ocean was better than fielding no additional mechs at all! It at least gave Ves an alternative, however inadequate it might look, should he fail to close a deal with a shipbuilding company.

After he finished inquiring about the Small Oven, Ves began to move over to the Big Oven.

This enormous, lengthy C-shaped section was designed to service capital ships. Although it wasn't able to offer drydock conditions, the Big Oven still offered a huge amount of convenience, allowing the Larkinsons to perform independent repairs on battle-damaged vessels.

This part of the Diligent Ovenbird was a lot less exciting because the facilities were only sufficient to perform repairs. They were far too inadequate to construct capital ships from the ground up. In fact, the Big Oven wasn't even capable of performing the most difficult and extensive repair jobs.

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