Chapter 7: Ship Interior

Doe woke up and was happy yet again to be under real feeling gravity. He would be even happier when it rolled out to stations. Sure there were a lot of spacers and outposters that hated gravity, but the stationers got just enough to always want a little more. Barren rocks with sufficient gravity were popular budget tourist and vacation spots for many people. Settlements and outposts always doted them.

Apex shuttles were only a few hundred credits round trip in system, not much more out of system. Commanders were always willing to take higher paying clients to the ritzyer places in better style. It might kill off an element of the tourism industry, but the advantages to a hot and heavy shower from his custom water system nearly everywhere he docked was worth it. Some preferred to let their suits keep them clean entirely, he did not.

After a cursory dry he was back in his normal suit, most of the armor removed and replaced with some vac rated over clothes. Simple pants and a wanderers coat left open to his maverick flight suit. His utility belt till held all his tools, and his tormentor on his right thigh. Any damp remaining was simply recycled into the suit. He walked back from the commander's quarters and into the cockpit. Just his luck that the smaller group was just walking in.

When they got close enough he waved them down and in, Verity opening the seal on the main airlock. He turned to exit the cockpit and said, "You know the drill."

"I will keep an all seeing eye on them commander. I quite like being an eldritch horror. I scare the children." Verity chimed back.

"Or a wicked witch." Doe smiled as he hit the door, and walked around to the airlock set up into the ship body, and just behind the cockpit. He reached it as they made it to the escalator on the front landing strut.

Just behind him was the cargo hatch and it's associated machinery and ducting up to the cargo deck. The door hissed open and Hood was standing up front in his dress whites looking slightly more rested than he was before. Doe had no helmet as it was his ship, and Hood had a breather on. He did have a nasty looking ballistic on his formal belt however, and turnabout was always fair play.

"Permission to board, commander?" Hood politely asked.

"Permission granted, Fleet Admiral Lord. Twas'ahnne. Imperial for it's/was an honor." Doe smiled back.

Hood scoffed behind his mask, "Just Hood is fine, son."

"Doe, grandpa." Doe said to some chuckles.

"With me I have Dr. Halsey whom you know, and behind her I have who we'll be sending with you. Commander Miranda Keyes." Hood said after moving off to the side in the tighter space. Medium class ships had more space than small class, but only large pads really had room to move in.

Keyes followed in behind Halsey and offered a firm hand and a smile, "Commander."

Doe took it, admiring the deep hazel eyes complimenting that smile, "Commander. Welcome aboard the Tycho Brahe. Apologies for the mess, but I usually don't have guests."

"So you live here full time then?" Halsey asked while analyzing her scan results.

Doe chuckled a couple times, "Yes. Many people do. I have ships to do other things, but this is my ship. It's a little harder to live in the small ships, almost impossible in the fighters, but people do it."

She nodded as she said, "I am detecting biological contaminates, but we are fine with our breathers. We will need vaccines."

"You get a full schedule whether you like it or not when you get a pilot's license, either independent or faction sponsored. Even if you already had them not long before, and I can attest to that fact personally."

Halsey nodded again, some relief in her eyes. Keyes smirked, "Not a fan of needles?"

Doe scoffed with the dominating tattoo on his forehead, "No, actually."

She returned a nod. Hood said, "Real quick, Doe. When you said some would kill me?"

"Imperials, yeah. If you introduce yourself with full title to Admiral of the Fleet Denton Patreus, he one hundred percent will fight you for calling yourself his lord. Other admirals you're at about 70 percent, and they would call themselves Fleet Admiral Lord if you forfeit or lose. They are snobby about their titles. The first female emperor is just that."

"You go girl. How are you Verity?" Halsey said.

"I am well, Doctor. Thank you for asking." She chimed back.

"Would you be able to talk me though the particulars of the Frame Shift Drive?"

"Yes, I would be able to."

"Would you please?" Halsey grinned.

"Commander?"

"We'll drop you off on the field trip. It's the first thing, well second thing I was going to show you. Follow me."

He retreated back into the cargo hatch area, and the catwalk wrapping around it. He went far enough in to give the three plenty of room to look and see. He motioned and said, "This is the cargo chute, attached to the cargo hatch naturally."

"Naturally." Halsey said to Hoods annoyed and Keyes's embarrassed look.

Doe smirked, "Indubitably. Around it are my class three optionals, and a class two optional."

"All of these modules are standardized?" Hood asked before Halsey could.

"Yes. Mostly. Some things really are only for the ship they're made for. Hull plating, thusters, power plants are kind of a pain to swap but doable, and people do do it all the time. I could maybe use the thuster kit on other ships with the same thuster class but then I'd have a bunch of spare parts or need bunch of spare parts to adapt the thuster pack to the ships nozzles. Really much better to just keep some modules with or only for their ship classes. Often times you put thusters on and that's it. You don't really swap them anyway."

"Some limitations." Hood said to Doe's nod.

"And every ship has this module system?" Halsey asked.

"Except the custom designed capitals and standard fleet carriers, yes. Faulcon DeLacy introduced the python like 600 years ago with this system."

"That's an impressive service record." Keyes offered.

Doe nodded, "It was basically the only medium ship for a while, at least for daily drive in the bubble. It was the first ship that independent pilots could actually afford. They licensed out the module system to their competitors for free."

Hood scoffed, "Does everyone around here give up their advantages?"

Doe smirked, "When it's in their interest to do so. The phantom is a Faulcon DeLacy, and one of the first ships designed form the ground up around the FSD along with it's sister the Mk 2. Before that they hadn't been in the business of designing ships in a long time. Just manufacturing the ones they bought the owners of."

"It would make it easier to absorb their competitors when they eventually bought them out if everyone's modules worked with any ship." Halsey stated.

Doe gave a point, "You got it."

"Speaking of, it was actually Whatt and Printny shipyards who designed and originally manufactured the Python." Verity said to Halsey's smile.

Doe did as well, "So they've been doing it even longer than I thought."

"So what modules do we have here?" Keyes asked.

Doe pointed as he spoke, "You have a class 1 detailed surface scanner. Launches probes at either planets or to map rings for resources. It's a waste of a class three slot like that, but my actual class one has my super cruise assist, and my class two over there is an SRV bay, in the slot it was actually meant for. You can put optional modules anywhere, but sometimes it's some work to the internal machinery to make it work like that. Like you said Hood, some limitations. Not a perfect system by any means, just the best one anyone came up with."

They all nodded. Halsey said, "It's still an extremely robust system from what you have described. SRV, I assume that means surface recon vehicle, given the folded up wheels I see sticking out."

Doe nodded, "That's just a buggy basically to collect surface resources, and get around to bio signals without needing to launch and land the ship every couple of kilometers. A small ship can do it easily, but a medium ship not so. That's a scarab with a plasma repeater turret on top, and you can buy a scorpion combat model with stronger shields and missile launchers as well."

"How fast can it go?"

Doe said, "About thirty five, forty meters per second on a flat surface."

"Thirty-eight for the scarab, and thirty two for the scorpion." Verity said.

The group was satisfied with the answer, and Doe said, "Finally we have a shield cell bank, and the operations multi-limpet controller."

"We read what looked like two shielding units, and also two kinds of drives. This is a bank? Not a shield itself?"

Doe shook his head, "No, the they look similar, function similarly, but the shield itself is much bigger. It's one of the biggest modules on the ship, in my class 6 slot. This is just some energy in the bank to keep them up in a pinch. It wont regenerate broken shields either. If if was doing real combat runs I would have one much bigger that could do more than just keep them up. Its engineered for a faster charge, and flow control to contain the power requirements a bit. I'm running an undersized, overcharged power plant to save weight and increase jump range."

"Is that safe?" Keyes asked, and Halsey took particular interest in the answer.

Doe shrugged, "Eh. I haven't run into really times where it was a massive problem. The reactor is safe, just a little less sturdy than if I was running a full size. Its the difference between 40 and 20 tons. It's only class six instead of class seven, and isn't that over charged. You want to save power where you can if your reactor does get hit and start dropping output to compensate, have a buffer, and tons were you can so you can put those tons into something more useful, like other modules or jump range."

Keyes nodded. And so did Halsey, "It seems you have outfitting to an exact science."

Doe nodded, "No me personally, but there are all kind of resources on GalNet. P-fed officially endorses third party tools all the time. They know their system interface sucks, and only really matters for the back end they use to make a mother load. Give themselves power and influence."

"How did this pilots federation start?" Hood asked.

"The python, and all other ships converting the module system or becoming obsolete. Now every ship was affordable for people to own. It started with trade data and mutual protection from piracy."

"How is the piracy situation?" Keyes pressed.

"Could be better, could be worse. There's plenty of money to be made in bounty hunting, but not every system in crawling with pirates, even in lower security states. There is a pirate king though, Archon Delane." Doe spit to show what he thought of them.

"The super powers don't do anything about this?" Hood pressed himself.

Doe scoffed, "Somewhat. There's some token resistance but they all have bigger problems. Like who would take advantage of sending your fleets away to the outer edges of the bubble. There were some punitive expeditions after the FSD made them possible but again, logistics never stopped being a problem for militaries no matter how far your ships can jump. The biggest problem,"

"Is the Thargoids." Hood conceded.

Doe shrugged, "He's not the worst asshole out there actually. I just have personal problems with him, and he's still is one of the biggest. If you pay tribune, you get left alone. Might as well be taxes that everyone else charges. At this point in time, he's a formal power because he forced his way into the Sirius Summit, and Li Yong recognized him. It was a summit for all of humanity to take part in, so he got the same diplomatic protections as everyone else. Then he used his time to demand recognition from everyone else, and everyone else had no choice when he singed the Sirius Treaty. It wasn't formally ratified because terrorist bombings spooked everyone into going home early, but he was literally the first one to sign it, even before Mahon who was the biggest supporter of it. Skipped all the formalities, and just walked up and put his name on the thing after they had all agreed to agree on the terms. He kept his word in terms of Aegis funding if nothing else."

"He never stopped his funding even when the super powers had pulled theirs. He very likely kept the organization from collapsing entirely." Verity offered.

"He's still a pirate king." Hood said.

"Yeah. If you want to take it to him, and I have now and then, play by the rules because he still does even if he bends and breaks some. You can be wanted in every system, but still not black listed. The overwhelming majority of people in his turf aren't them, but us living under them." Doe nodded.

"They don't need UNSC marines shooting their homes in the black to shit when there are other ways." Hood conceded again.

"And there are still a fuckton of them. Kumo Crew. You might not have the strength to take a fully populated station if you fought for it like that."

"Law of large." Halsey echoed.

"So, what kind of operations?" Hood asked.

"And what is a limpet? A drone?"

"Yes. A drone we use for different functions, depending on the module that programs it. The multi limpet controller is actually new within the past couple years. Getting one module to run three different programs for a one ton drone, or universal for the class sevens. For operations they come with collectors, recon or hacking, and hatch breaker limpets."

Keyes rose an eyebrow, "Sounds a little like piracy, commander."

Doe smirked, "Privateering, of rival power goods, like already stolen valuables from Kumo Crew mega ships. There may also be data theft jobs that are technically illegal, but you're doing it for a democracy faction against a dictatorship or corpo faction, running the place into the ground with corruption. Hatch breakers also have legitimate search and rescue uses. Even the dedicated rescue limpet controller has hatch breakers on it. Besides, I mostly use it because it's better than the dedicated collector controller of the same class. It can run four limpets at the same time, double the alternative. Superior range even if the life isn't as long. I do need collectors in the day to day. Might as well get better ones with value added."

She shrugged with a dismissive expression, "An acceptable excuse commander."

Doe chuckled, "Alright, back a little further."

He took them back though the cargo hatch area to the very core of the ship, it's heart even past the reactor. He lifted a folding hatch up set into the top vertex of the box that made the shell of the module. It locked into place and exposed a ladder down into the somewhat well lit space. Halsey almost pushed past Hood to get the first look. She leaned down a bit and eyed into it. She saw a mostly flat device, with a ring a third of the way up from it's front. On the back two thirds, there were prongs jutting from it up at a slight angle. Wires fell from the sides and some of the prongs onto the floor, and either connected to the server and machinery bay itself, or went off somewhere else. The cable management was competent she judged, and reckoned there was certainly custom engineering to it as well.

"And this drive is safe being modified as it is?" Halsey asked.

Doe said, "Yeah. It got me here."

"Yes, but you could be a crazy person." Halsey countered.

Doe snorted, "Felicty Farseer has been tinkering with drives for longer I bet than you've been alive. At least close too. I mean no offense Doctor."

Keyes snorted herself, and Hood smiled. Halsey thought nothing of it, "None taken. She must be competent to be in businesses for that long in a galaxy like this."

Doe nodded, "And she's a real pioneer. We travel in the lap of luxury. Sure she had the same amenities for a medium ship commander's quarters, but a 2b drive that took hours or days to make the jump. That could only exit on the outer system lest you run into a star. Burn for days or more to actually get to where you're going. Leaves a hyperspace cloud that could easily be tracked, and you know that pirate was tinkering with his drive to get to the destination faster than you. Now our signals our transient, you wont find me past the next system, we jump in seconds right onto the main stellar mass. The only exception is particularity energetic black holes like the core."

She shot her eyes to him, Sagittarius A?"

He leaned in, "Star."

Her eyebrows shot up, realizing her foolish error. She shook out of if, deserving the near laugh she was getting from her commander and daughter. She said, "You've been to the galactic core?"

"It's why I bought this ship. I saw pictures of the place and wanted to see it myself. Why would I, a commander, pay another commander to take me there. You don't jump into Sag A*. The system wont let you. If you're dumb enough to supercruise towards it that I guess that's you're business. The accretion disk is light years across, the jet as well."

"I must go there." She said.

Doe smirked, "I would have been back eventually before I ran into you guys. It's not that far from Colonia, and a popular round trip."

"The report said 40 light years. Is that a decent range?" Miranda asked.

Doe shrugged, "So so. It's a little closer to 45. Not the best for exploration. When I took her out the first time I got close to 70, but that's stripping a lot back, and kind of dangerous when your thusters barely push your ship forward, your power plant overcharged to hell and back, your distributor can boost a single time but only on max pips to engines. A class three shield that will only save you from full hull destruction on a light landing bump."

"So you're a crazy person, flying a death trap to the galactic core." Halsey insisted.

"I was more inexperienced, but perhaps I am. Dedicated explorers live out in the black in long range death traps. Only pop into remote stations or carriers to sell data every once in a while. Met one at the core. Let her claim dibs on the system data bonus in a nearby port before I sold mine." Doe smiled at some good memories.

"So you come out here fully outfitted. I imagine taking weapons off, or downgrading shields at least would give you more jump range. Any reason you came out loaded for brute?" Hood asked as he finally got his turn to look at the FSD. The damn thing looked so simple. Faster than than biggest and most complicated goddamned drive his humanity had ever built. If only the commander had jumped to their side of the divide, instead of the other way around he silently lamented.

"To make it a nice long trip, more opportunity for bio and scan data. It's actually pretty profitable to explore, especially as the war escalated and Vista upped the pay for organic scan data for the next mycoid. I also was going to ply trade in Colonia, and didn't want to spend the credits to ship everything, or wait when I got there for more than some sleep would take me. Swap a cargo rack back in that can be bought anywhere and I'm back in business."

Keyes took her turn as well, and though much the same as hood. She almost didn't believe it was a drive capable of FTL. She asked, "And why this ship, an experimental death trap compared to a python. What ship did this Farseer fly?"

Doe smiled, "Typically we say drive. A commander drives their ship. To answer the first question, the python would only get the jump range I casually put out with maximum tuning for long range. It's a good bubble bus, and some people do explore in them, but range is not really the market that ship fills. Farseer flew an AspX, explorer. It is the go to exploration ship, and thirty million credits cheaper than this machine. As for why this ship? I hated the engines on the asp x. The sound of them."

"You spent thirty million extra credits for an engine sound?" Hood asked with a bemused smirk behind his mask.

"Even at 70 light years of range, the distance to the core is roughly 370 jumps. If you take the time to scan the system after each jump, land at whatever planet shows signs of life. It would be a while in your faster than light home. It would be all that you could hear. I would spend any amount credits for a satisfactory engine sound." Halsey said. Hood shrugged and conceded the point.

Doe nodded, "I bought an AspX after some time in a cobra, plotted a course to Li Yong space because he offers a flat ten percent discount to everyone, especially commanders, and as soon as I began a boost away from the station to break mass lock, I turned the thing around, got docking permissions again, and sold the thing back after I landed. The P-fed subsidizes the resale market to support commanders. All ships are 95% on return, any state or configuration, or age. Modules too. I didn't sell my cobra, so I simply kept working until I had the credits for this, and planned outfitting."

"Does engineering effect that at all on the modules?"

Doe shook his head, "No. you could maybe sell it privately to another commander, but there's a bit of a taboo associated with it. There's a parallel barter economy associated with scrap basically. Mats, raw, manufactured, and encoded or data. It's centered around the engineers and their own little club they have going, and P-fed endorses it because one, it gets commanders into search and rescue, salvage and the like. You pick up the mats you also get the escape pods, and two makes upgrading your ship to military specs a matter of more than credits that anyone can mine a ring for. Often times missions, jobs, will offer material rewards in place of credits."

"You have to work the system for it." Keyes stated.

Doe nodded, "Yeah. Playing the game, we say. Even if you want to just mine or explore, or do basic trading, you have to at least check in the with minor factions sometimes to get materials to engineer your ships for that. Even M class traders will run better drives, thusters, or more thermally efficient power plants. So you need to do contracted trade runs instead of doing point A to B whatever is the most profitable at the moment."

"This in turn drives the galactic economy forward." Halsey concluded.

"Yup. Commanders are basically the economic engine of human civilization. Not to brag." He smirked.

"So a middle class." Keyes said with some emphasis on middle.

"Some of us are very rich." Doe shot back.

"Are you?" Keyes returned.

Doe snorted, "No. I wish."

The group chuckled, and he said, "Alright, Dr. Halsey you can have at the FSD, look but don't touch."

Halsey smiled and sowed her pad, immediately taking the ladder down into the FSD module bay. Doe pointed again and said, "Behind and on top is the power plant, to it's left the power distributor. Some modules you only engineer one way except in very specific circumstances. Fast charge with cluster capacitors. That's every military uses as well."

"Why that particular modification? I assume you sacrifice say, capacity." Keyes asked.

"You do. Cluster capacitors give you a boost in capacity even over what you lose. Faster charging is always better. For instance, I can fire my laser weapons all day even on balanced power distribution. Now the lasers are efficient, but I still can keep power into shields and engines without worrying about my weapons running dry. Even drop a pip from them for one or the other."

She nodded, satisfied with that particular answer. Even talking of shields was almost making her angry at the loss of her ship, crew, everything. They obviously could have built something like it, as she doubted most of the ship was simply reverse engineered from alien technology. Technology they obviously had an easier time understanding.

She contained herself with a mask of professionalism as the barely professional commander pointed again, "Back there is the life support on the other side of the plant. It's buried in there and behind the class six slot."

"What happens if that canopy gets popped?" Hood asked. He knew it would.

Doe scoffed, "Wait until you see a Lakon. I've had that particular module A rated, as we say. There's a bunch of little things like that you can do, that aren't officially modules. You just have to look and find where to get them done. I've had my canopy shot to shit since doing it it, but not broken. Sometimes I wish it had so I could at least see in front of me. If it does, the life support feeds oxygen to our suits though our chairs. D rated can go 7 and a half minutes. If you cant get to a station before that, you've made more mistakes than just popping your canopy. After that you're on suit power, which will run out. That's why d rated life support is the top selling module. It works just the same as the others when you're not spaced, and saves weight overall. Seven minutes is seven minutes, but the suits last much longer. I keep a couple extra power regulators to recharge with in an emergency. Haven't needed them yet."

They both nodded, not as satisfied, but accepting it all the same. Their ships would certainly have the maximum that could be outfitted or engineered. Doe said, "Up top. But first back the way we came.

He got passed hood and when back to the main lower deck in front of the cargo hatch. Hood and Keyes followed without getting in each others way. The deck opened up just a bit from the catwalks, and Doe stood just outside while pointing, "To the right is the server racks, and data storage, but that's Verity's domain. On the font bulkhead are ladders to the commander's and co pilot's quarters. If you need it, yours is on the left Commander. I'll be honest, it's a little barren since there usually isn't much reason for a co-pilot. No one puts turrets on a phantom, I can work limpets myself, and there's no fighter bay to fly."

"This ship can launch a fighter?" Hood incredulously asked.

"No. The Mk. 2 can. The Phantom was first and foremost a performance craft. I had to reinstall a food synthesizer because they stripped it out to save weight. So non of the required components are there to install the module, like the bay hatch or it's structural framing."

"But other ships this size can. It would have to be a small fighter." Keyes said.

Doe nodded, "But they can punch above their weight class with their weapons and maneuverability. They're just made of glass. The benefit is that fighters like that aren't usually flown in person. They can use tele-presence. No risk to them, and often you'll get rammed by a SLF if you're about to pop it."

"So it's a remote drone, basically." Hood said to Doe's nod.

"What's the range on that?" Keyes asked.

"Thirty kilometers."

They nodded, and Doe said, "Down the other way is material storage, but I don't enter there without a helmet. Most of it is harmless, but there's some things like heavy elements, radioactive bits, Thargoid bits I've picked up along the way. Not the safest place to be with breathers and nothing else."

"Fair enough Doe. Where's that shield?" Hood said.

Doe smiled, "Up top on the cargo deck, the ladders on the rear facing bulkheads."

He walked for a ladder and took it up to the next deck. It was a little wider initially before tapering into a catwalk before opening some again towards the rear along the power plant casing. Hood and Keyes took the opposite ladders on their side. Keyes won that race, naturally, but Hood was no push over. They both straightened their uniforms some as Doe started talking.

"Not for nothing the material bay also has a synthesis module, standard on all ships. It can restock your ammo, make limpets, repair and refuel SRVs, basic small stuff. It's not a factory or anything. Now. One one side is a cargo rack, as you can see, and the other side is a guardian frame shift booster."

"So it's not a secondary drive." Hood said.

Doe shook his head, "No, the FSD has the two modes, the real space supercruise, and the jump. The Booster is based on guardian hyper drive tech, but not a cracked version of it. Their ranges were much better than ours. Ram Tah was able give people a flat boost. In this case 10 and a half light years for a class five module. Not recommend to be near hot guardian modules, so we wont open that on. It's one of those modules you can only barter for, usually in more guardian salvage for him to pick at and use. mostly I'm just running a cargo rack there like on the other side."

He pointed and they looked over to the more open module, with what looked like standardized canisters in a couple of the thirty two slots. Doe said, "I can haul 64 tons of cargo like that, and 96 tons if I swap out the fuel scoop for a contract or something. Most of it is for the limpets I use, bit of salvage I'm hired to find, escape pods from pirates I blow up. Not real cargo runs. Now the shield is back here."

He turned and walked though the shorter hall and pointed at both sided of the bulkhead as he did, "Maintenance hatches for the large hard points. There are also corridors on the far sides of the ship, a couple different crawlspaces around."

He stopped in the rear of the deck near the middle of the power plant. He said, "This is the official entrance of the power plant. There's hatches on the lower deck, but you shouldn't open a hot reactor either, even on low idle. On this side is the fuel scoop module. Strategically placed to feed into the rear fuel tanks without a bunch of extra work. Now every ship has the scoops themselves, so it's a bit of a misnomer, but the fuel scoop purifies the hydrogen. If you're stupid, you can modify your scoops to run directly into the tanks, but then you get trace heavy elements from stellar reactions, no matter what class you scoop from."

"People do that?" Keyes's asked.

"Space mad racers, yes. You do get a power boost before your already overcharged reactor eventually blows, but they go real fast. All safeties off, hitting kilometers per second off the line fast in a quarter light second drag." Doe said.

Hood chucked, "We'd probably do the same."

"I'd want to watch that actually." Keyes said with a grin.

"How fast can this fine looking ship go?" Hood asked.

Doe smiled, "591 meters per second on the boost. Cruise max speed of 430 with full power to engines. it's not the fastest ship out there, but it's up there. Not many can keep up with or out run me."

"Over half a kilometer per second would out run a banshee even." Keyes shook her head.

"And blow it and Covenant phantoms out of the sky with laser weapons and missiles. What's the specs on those?" Hood said.

Doe said, "Pack hounds. They fire multiple missiles at once in a semi random flight path to defeat point defense, and overwhelm electronic counter measures. Four per rack, armor piercing, and they're a special blend that detonates with a lot of heat to strip shields. I'm pledged to Yuri Grom, personal reasons and some political ones. The powers entice commanders with certain benefits, and that includes module access, discounts, bonuses, credits. Recently they opened the power modules up to every one to level the playing field some. The whole balance of power thing. The games wont stop, but everyone has bigger problems right now."

"The Thargoids." Keyes said.

"Did your homework, and they'll be plenty more on the way back to the bubble. The major impetus for this is the prismatic shield generator. Imperial scientists working under Princess Duval developed it, and they're the strongest shields out there. Take forever to recharge, but when fighting the Thargoids all that matters is raw numbers. Both hull armor and shields."

"So they opened the modules to other powers, remove advantages that could spark out and out wars, and so commanders have a chance to access them without swearing for a power or system they don't believe in. Mostly to get these shields in their hands to fight the Thargoids." Hood reasoned.

"Basically. All that matters now is the order you get them in for the power you swear to. You know the old saying about which way the wind blows? P-fed is the wind. Commanders are the sails. Whatever the UNSC does, get commanders on your side one way or the other. Bribery usually works."

They both scoffed, and hood said, "Thanks for the advice Doe."

"Free of charge. Let's open the shield, because you can do that. You'll just feel a bit of static." Doe said.

He took the quick couple steps over to the class six module bay and opened it's shell to the large generator in side. Hood and keys stepped up and saw a damn simple looking device again, a ring around a core. Every so often cables were attached to the shell and it's base, and ran to one or two server racks inside blinking, and what looked like power packs bolted to to the inside bulkhead of the module. Keyes just peaked before the static she did feel started messing with her hair. Hood had none so he leaned in closer to look at the purple glow of the room.

"That's a class 6C bi-weave shield generator. I don't remember the exact stats of its output, but it punches above it's absolute weight class with thermal resistance, energy weapons, and has capacitors you see to still bump it's total strength up. Bi-weaves have less power, but recharge much quicker. I can go from broken to not in less than a minute and a half. From there another minute and a half to full strength."

"Stronger shields take longer to charge. That's intuitive." Keyes said. Basically what they already knew. These people weren't space wizards obviously, and she kept internally kicking herself that the UNSC didn't develop it before.

Doe nodded, "The prismatic I mentioned, with full reinforcement, can take upwards of ten minutes to recharge from broken. But they're ridiculously strong. Even with my pack hounds I might just cut and run from green shield strikes. I wont get them before they get me, especially if they have shield banks."

"Any way to boost it further? Some kind of module?" Hood asked.

Doe smiled, "Yes, and I have two installed. They're utility modules on the outside hull. One for raw boost, and another for the damage resistances in the shield weave. More thermal, kinetic, explosive. I have comparable numbers against stronger shields for less power consumption, and mine recharge in half the time or less."

Hood took a deep breath, "If we had any kind of shield that let ships survive just one shot from the Covenant, so they could limp away. Would have been a real damn war."

Doe stared off a bit, and Keyes held her head slightly down, "Yeah. Sorry. I'm just showing off the pride of my small fleet. For you I'm kind of rubbing it in. If you were on the back foot the whole time and still built a ship like the Infinity, I don't want to see who you were fighting. The thing would rip holes though anything we've ever built."

"It's alright, Doe. You're just giving us the time of day here, and the UNSC will owe you a debt for what you've told us and shown us alone. Helping us further? Well, thanks I guess. If it's any consolation, the main guns aren't functional. We didn't get to those parts before they had to slip their moorings. I don't know if we'll ever get to finishing them."

Doe shrugged, "That's for you and the powers to decide on. I'm just a commander. Alright, that's about it for the tour. Let's head back down, and then I can grab you a flight suit commander. They help keep you together under high Gs, obviously."

"Obviously." She smirked.

Doe returned it, "And act as an artificial muscle fiber. They give a bit of resistance to keep keep you together under zero G as well, because we aren't space wizards with that technology. They can't make you stronger or anything, without extreme mods to them and some heavy cybernetics, but they do make you work a bit for a step. Mag soles as well to keep you grounded on deck plating.."

"What's the limitation on them? Like suit power that you mentioned." Keyes asked.

"You can stand on the surface of mercury for about half an hour a basic flight suit." He let that hang for a moment, and they were obviously shocked and impressed.

Doe said, "If you have energy packs, or regulators to charge from, as long as you can keep it charged. The suit will yell at you the whole time about the unsafe temperatures, and it will get a little uncomfortable, but I've done it because it's still one of the hottest places we've ever recorded. Just to say I did it. You have to do some work for the fed auxiliary navy to get a sol permit as a commander though."

They nodded, and Jon motioned, and walked back down the cargo hall to the front of the ship. He climbed down, and then back up to the detached part of the upper deck of the commander's quarters to grab his spare fight suit. Keyes and Hood followed, and waited by the airlock. Halsey came though a couple moments later.

A few more moments after that Doe came back out to the platform. He first motioned for Keyes with the helmet, then tossed he down to here which she easily caught. Then he climbed back down himself to the main deck with the rest of the flight suit over his shoulder.

He turned and handed it to here as well, "I'll need that back. It was my original flight suit. One size fits most. They'll issue you one. A new Remlock, and a stock sidewinder. That's how every commander starts, no exceptions."

"They give you a ship?" Keyes asked with a disbelieving expression.

Doe admired the expressive eyes for a moment, "A stock E rated sidewinder, but yes. You get a free spaceship. From your 'mysterious benefactor' which is just P-fed playing up their culture of secrecy as a joke. Their only goal is asses in cockpits, faction pilots and especially commanders. Everything else follows from that for them. With the invention of the FSD that can be put even in a cheap local patrol craft, all the better to give those asses the cockpit as well."

"This pilots federation is really omnipresent it seems like." Halsey said with her data pad clutched as if was now a holy relic, rather than a simple pad.

Doe nodded with a cocky smirk, "Li Yong likes thinking himself a fourth super power, but we're the fourth super power. Not even P-fed. Commanders. And we remember Jameson. Remind whatever shadows you have of that."

Hood returned it, "Admiral Margret Parangosky." Halsey and Keyes started a snicker, "Captain of the Odyssey, and head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, ONI."

"Thanks for the warning, Hood."

"Verity showed me the charts on of her terminals, Admiral. I know exactly where we are." Halsey said.

Hood turned and nodded, "Good. Thanks for the hospitality Commander. We need some time to digest this again, say another 12 hours. Give Keyes here some proper rest before she properly embarks."

Doe took the offered hand, sealing the deal, "Twas'ahnne, Fleet Admiral Lord."

"Doctor. Commander." He nodded to both. Halsey had her pad she would not let go of, and Keyes's was cradling the flight suit and it's helmet like it was the most advanced piece of technology she had ever held. It might have been.

"See you in a few, Commander." Keyes said in return.

The airlock opened and Verity's calling, and the group stepped though. Doe walked into the cockpit and laughed when he saw the decon tents in the bay near the door, with troops in primitive haz suits standing ready to work.

"What to you think Verity?"

"Doctor Halsey will make a competent Engineer, and I recommend letting her work on the Tycho Brahe when the opportunity presents itself."

Doe shrugged, "Alright. You've convinced me."

"I also recommend leaving a care package for them before we leave. We would have to sacrifice some drives and materials. This can include among other things the plans for star ports and outposts, which I believe are within in their ability to rapidly build."

Doe nodded slowly, "Yeah getting at least a medium and small pad up would make things much easier."

"Why are you doing this, commander?"

"That's out of the void."

"I am simply curious. Why help them as you are and will?"

"What reason do I have not to?"

"A fair point commander."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"A goddamned lotion? Are you kidding me, son?" It didn't matter that the CBRN marine was a woman to Hoods ire.

"Yes sir. I mean no sir. I mean wish I was kidding you, sir. It's a full spectrum anti viral and bacterial. It ah, needs to work into the pores. Then the final scrub and rinse...sir…"

Hood huffed indignantly, but accepted his situation. The ship was covered in alien germs from what Halsey said. He was down to his skivvies in the first tent of the pop up decon bay. He turned around and headed into the next tent attached to the first.

"Halsey." He said.

She wasn't even wearing a bra. She said, "Yes I already did this with Miranda. Now someone needs do you. You're going to put the lotion on your skin, and get the hose as well unfortunately."

Hood snickered as he handed her the bottle and took off his shirt, "That's an ancient film."

"But a good one. Now stand still."

She began her work with his back. He asked, "What do you think, Halsey? That ship was something else.

She stopped her work, "Something we could have built. We had all the impetus in the galaxy."

"Yeah. And it's just some civilian hot rod." Hood replied, not disliking her hands on him for whatever damn dumb reason.

"I failed humanity. That's what I think." Halsey said without sobbing.

"We all did." Hood had already cried his few tears. The last ones he had left really.

"Me more so. Sure the drive and booster were derived from alien technology, but ever other bit of it was human. The 2b drive from what Verity showed me was far superior even with it's disadvantages to any drive we built before the Infinity class. Completely human. Hyperspace! Is just! Slipspace!" She pounded not that softly into Hoods strong back.

He left her a moment and asked, "It is?"

"Yes. A higher dimension of it. Slipspace is itself a lower plane. Its why they, the Guardians, the forerunners, the Thargoids even could navigate it so quickly. There are no currents to navigate around because the higher dimensions are actually less complex when viewed as a whole. The math was there the whole time, it was a matter of breaching it. I spent so long trying to reverse engineer alien technology to achieve it, I forgot to develop human technology. I went down the wrong lines, trying to stand on the shoulders of giants, but I forgot we could be giants as well. Even my Mjolnir was simply an inferior version of a forerunner combat skin. It's shields Covenant scrap." Halsey finished her rant with a huff and some deep breaths.

"Only thing we can do now is move forward, Halsey."

She nodded behind him and started her work again, "And thank the gods for that commander."