Space Trucker's Union
The Among the prisoners of New Folsome the head of the largest Space Truckers shipping company was one of the prisoners as well as one of the heads of the company that originally build the space truck. Upon arriving to Dummass they quickly realized their was a boon they needed to lay the foundation on to make a very profitable shipping company as they realized the Raiders would soon be setting up facilities and bases all over the system. So they quickly pulled what influence and help they could and managed to take one of the few still working factories on the planet started to design and construct a new version of the Space Truck with local technology not relying on tech that the Terrans originally have.
The Terran in charge of the development used strictly only tech and equipment found on Dummass and some most people were surprised that their was actually enough stuff to actually build something that can reliable go into orbit and back with little trouble, without using Terran equipment. This was due to both individuals knew that the major ones to do the purchasing will not be from the Terrans even though they will likely purchase alot but the natives. of Dummass even hopping they could somehow get a commission from the queen for a fleet of these. Thus the motivation of profit and making at as tempting to anyone from Dummass as possible. It took about a month or two for the guy to actually manage to build this varient of the space truck using parts and vehicle parts from a wide variety of vehicles on dummass. All perfictly legual as long as you don't look to closely at every single parts registration. And in their defense it would be a bit hard to tell after the pirate raid what was someone's property or just an abandoned car. Now missing it's windows.
The Result is a space capable transport twice the size of a truck but capable of space flight. This is designed for small scale shipping but this did have added benefits of having direct paths for short distances in sub FTL speeds and able to safely go into space and ground and vice versa to the planet and to dry dock much faster than any dropship simply due to the size and much more shipments can be done. Their is also no artifisial gravity in the trucks as a result as well. Thus the need to pit stops is a good idea if the range of the truck is to expand into the greater range of the solar system with sub FTL speeds.
Cargo wise it can't carry near as much as a Dropship but due to it's size it can actually be carried inside of one though which has proven useful.
It's biggest weakness though even if using this as a form of resupply if some mech warriors don't want to spend the time to send the entire dropship onto a planet is that it can't carry most mechs. Only the ultra light or lights could possibly comfortably be placed into the cargo hold unless you fully take a mech appart. This is not really due to tonnage but the shape of the mech.
Suddenly the new Corporation known as the Space Truckers Union had a corner stone in shipping and transports though the system widely they currently can't use FTL they have a major edge in rapidly moving shipments two and from local space as much faster times to gather cargo and ship them off to where the cargo needs to go.
Their also much cheaper than a Dropship. With the amount of money you can get to purchase a dropship you could easily buy 10 to 20 space Trucks. Although that depends on the dropship.
Oddly enough it costs around a forth the price of some medium space aerospace fighters. Making it incredibly cheap to purchase and surprisingly easy to maintain and repair as you can use most off the shelf stuff to keep it in repair and you could keep it in good condition with most mechanics.
Then after the first prototype was build and tested. They had to train pilots for the Trucker job and interestingly enough due to most of the piloting parts came from vehicles the piloting controls resembled a Truck's interior more than a super space craft thus making it surprisingly easy to control, but uncomfortable when entering and exiting the atmosphere.
After many tests and practices and the fleet ready to be in production they now had to pitch this to the governess of a new easy to maintain and build with stuff that can be made by any Dummass Factory without Terran help in production. To say they didn't know how she would respond to this would be an understatement but these two actually each have experience in the highest parts of corporate society so they knew how to pitch a deal with someone important. A fact that turns out to have surprised the Governess apparently due to she already knew they were inmates in a prison but had managed to wrap her around their finger due to how good a sales pitch they have her.
Although their is some arguments between the two that both agree with neither know if they should sell the Trucks outside of Dummass for money or if they should instead extend the Trucker's union and make it a corp that has reach though out the IS employing Truckers for short range deliveries all over the IS. Neither one has really been able to come up with enough benefits and problems for either business venture that they were comfortable with. Mainly due to after their imprisonment they wanted to make sure when they expanded or sold no one could try to do what Mengst did to them.
An odd feature of it is that for some reason a blow horn was included into this design that serve to real practical function.
Later it was discovered that due to how it was configured one could actually swap out the horn with a small laser or a AC5. Several people who learned of this applauded the Union for the unexpected feature and thought it brilliants and a good way to allow a bit of a surprise for pirates if they try something. The Union was just as surprised at this but refrained from saying anything and glad to take credit for the happy accident.
Don't ask about the name it's what the vehicle constructor soft ware kept giving me when I completed this remember this thing is suppost to use very common and primitive tech but also extremely cheap and reliable.
If their is anything to improve with let me know.