NationStates Jolt Archive

New Haven State-Run News (NHSRN) -

"In another major aerospace deal with Zepplin Manufacturers, the New Haven Socialist Republic will buy five empty hulls and the blueprints for several collossal 'armed traders', which will boost mining and hauling rates dramatically within the next few decades."

""This thing is an absolute monstrosity in the memory of the ocean-going superhaulers New Haven still has on Earth's oceans," Transportation Minister Tony Beckett said in an earlier press conference. "We could strip mine the entire Red Hammer System in decades with a few of these things outfitted for mining duties!""

http://www.deviantart.com/view/12060245/

The worker glared up at the huge insubstantial screen floating in the centre of the noise filled utility bay, staring for a moment at the daily work zones and stock reports before sliding down the huge armoured head piece of his scuffed dull yellow heavy construction suit. Around him echoed the noise of thousands of others preparing for another days work in the vast seemingly anarchic clutter of space stations, free floating construction cradles, and vast raw material stores surrounding ZM’s as yet unnamed orbital megacity(1) project. Today he and the rest of his fellows were with the usual assistance of tens of thousands of engineering drones would finish of the second of five massive Armed Trader(2) hulls for the NHSR.

(1) http://www.deviantart.com/view/12417665/
(2) http://www.deviantart.com/view/12060245/

The first two traders were taken to the Asherton and Stanley shipyard facilities, there they were outfitted with grav drives, the most powerful ion cannons in the fleet, and an array of coilguns and anti-fighter turrets.

The third trader that had been completed was taken to the Red Hammer Mining Station, placed into dry dock, and given the same drives and weapons as its counterparts. However, the docking area was modified to equip mining drones, which would aid the Armed Trader in mining duties. The fourth constructed trader would also share the same modifications.

The fifth trader will be outfitted like the first two, but it will be designated a "Combat Salvage Vessel" or CSV.