Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary - Chapter 434

Chapter 434: Chapter 434 Carrier Ship Tour (2)
‘That was a bit of a risky move from them. What is Dorris planning on doing if I say that I don’t want any shuttles and to have it removed to fit more warships instead.’ Avery thought, his lips forming into a slightly mischievous grin.

He had not asked for a separate shuttle bay to be installed within the main hangar, and it had never been discussed with him.

That meant it was an addition that they had unilaterally decided.

Of course, Avery understood the merits of having dedicated transport shuttles for a craft as big as his carrier ship.

It would making transporting people to and from the vessel a lot easier, and if they ever did pick up any missions that involved transporting passengers, they would almost certainly be more comfortable on a shuttle than one of Avery’s team’s mercenary ships.

Though a part of him did want to joke around a bit and make Ardesen sweat, Avery decided against doing so just for a few laughs.

The man had done a lot for him already. It felt wrong to play around and make him feel that he had made a mistake.

Still, while Ardesen might have been expecting Avery to pursue a deal to buy more shuttles, he instead changed the subject back to touring the rest of the craft.

Right now, he was dangerously low on Krenin considering what unknown expenses might come up at any time.

He only had a few million left, and that supply was dwindling every day. Once everything was squared away here, he planned on immediately looking for a job that could make him and his team a lot of money.

“Um… do you not want to know more about the shuttles?”

“No, not really. I’m thankful for your thoughtfulness in providing something I hadn’t thought of. I’m sure it will be very useful, but I’ll need to discuss with the rest of my team’s leaders before making a decision on what to do.”

“Okay. Then let’s head on.” Ardesen replied, looking a little deflated.

Almost certainly Dorris had forced him to try and secure a sale to make up for his overzealousness during the construction of Avery’s carrier ship.

Except, since Avery was concerned about his funds currently, negotiations had not even started. And Ardesen was not savvy enough to try and bring it up naturally now that the topic had already shifted.

Fortunately for Ardesen, he was about to have two shining lights help him escape from Dorris’ future wrath.

“Avery, we’ve both got some substantial saving. Let us cover the cost of the shuttles. You’ve already done enough for all of us. This is the least that we can do.”

“Yeah, I’ve got so much money right now I hardly know what to do with it all. There are only so many high-end clothes and Nianni Taador albums that I can buy.” Kasandra said jokingly.

Seeing how his two wives were being insistent, Avery relented.

He had already been stubborn in his desire to pay for the entire cost of the carrier vessel despite the rest of his team’s willingness to chip in. There was no reason not to let them do what they wanted now.

“Well take eighteen more, with all of the standard upgrades on them and the two base models that have already been provided.”

Kasandra and Jasmine swiftly looked over the specs and customization available for the Storren Corp. shuttles and went with the most advanced and expensive options.

Still, this only saw each of the shuttles costing around a hundred twenty-five thousand Krenin a piece.

The shuttle model was only about a fourth the size of the Dauntless and they did not have any weapons systems, hyperdrives, lightspeed drives, or most facilities one would need to live on them. The only thing other than seating or cargo space that each shuttle had was a single restroom.

Of course, their only real purpose was for short trips to and from other large vessels or stations. There was no need for them to be equipped with more than the basic necessities of short-distance space travel.

Ardesen looked relieved once the deal was completed. Unlike usual, Kasandra had not tried to negotiate to get the prices lowered. She understood that buying the shuttles at full price and with practically every add-on available would help their good relationship with Storren Corp. strong. That was more important than saving a little extra Krenin.

“Now that that’s out of the way. Follow me, I want to show you to the crown jewel of this ship.” Ardesen said, taking off with a noticeably jovial cadence in his steps.

When their group reached the large doors of the hangar leading into the ship, they opened with a noticeable whooshing sound.

Turning to the left and walking about six meters, Ardesen stopped in front of another door and pressed button on the panel off to the side of it.

The doors opened an instant later and revealed a large room that could fit around thirty people comfortably inside of it.

Along the perimeter there was a solid railing, and there were straps people could use to keep themselves steady.

“This is one of many lifts that serve as the internal transportation system of the vessel. The entire system is interconnected, so once you can get on one lift, you can move to any section on the ship. It will always prioritize the fastest route unless specified otherwise. And that can change depending on how many lifts are in operation at once.”

Ardesen began explaining at length how the transport system worked, and showed Avery, Kasandra, and Jasmine how to pull up the directory for every possible location the lift could go.

Naturally, there were a multitude of different ways to fiddle with the system, such as to make it prioritize one lift over another, or cut off access to parts of the ship to those that did not have authorization to be there.

Nevertheless, that was something for Avery to deal with later. For now, he just clicked on the section Ardesen had indicated.

There was a brief warning before the lift began moving.

At the current setting it was not going at a particularly fast speed, only moving around thirty kilometers per hour.

This was much faster than walking or even the average running speed though. Making it quite convenient for getting around a vessel of this size.

Within just a little under two minutes, the lift came to a stop and opened up into another hallway.

There was very little to distinguish this area from the hallway they had entered after exiting the hangar.

The internal design of the carrier vessel was obviously mostly uniform throughout.

However, close tot eh top of the walls, Ardesen did point out a thin colored stripe. Apparently these were used to help determine what section of the ship one was in so long as they knew what the corresponding color was associated with.

It was pretty simple, but it was a nice feature to have. Avery figured that it would take a while for everyone to get accustomed to navigating the vessel. Truthfully, it was basically a flying town with the number of people that could live on it.

“Here we are. This is the main reactor and generator room where the ship gets most of its power from. There are backups elsewhere, but this is what we used that queen energy lifeform’s core on.” Ardesen said as he entered an access code to disengage the locks on the door.

Walking inside, there was an immediately noticeable difference in temperature compared to the hallway outside.

It was a couple degrees warmer in this room where the carrier’s energy was generated.

Obviously, there were cooling systems in place to make sure that nothing overheated, but it became inefficient to keep the temperature lower than it already was.

“I’m guessing the queen’s core is in there.” Avery said, pointing at the largest of the interconnected pillars spread throughout the room.

“That it is. Figuring out the best design that could incorporate the core without missing out on any of its potential was certainly a challenge. Large ship reactors and generators are my specialty, but this was even my first time working with such excellent materials. Fortunately, with a little help from Vi’ivando, I was able to come up with this design.”

Ardesen continued to praise the output and efficiency of his most recent innovations into ship reactors and generators.

He even bragged that Avery’s carrier likely had the highest energy output of any vessel of its size. Beating out even Alliance Police battleships.

“Of course, for everything else that you wanted installed, you’re going to need as much power as you can get. The weapons, shielding, and all those advanced systems you wanted take a lot of energy. Fortunately, this baby can provide everything you should need. Even if you use all of the most energy intensive systems all at once.” Ardesen said, a proud gleam in his many eyes.

For several minutes he continued to go on about how impressive the reactor and generator were.

It was not until one of the other engineers nudged him and mumbled that they should move on that Ardesen realized just how long he had been talking.

“This was what I wanted to show off the most. Where do you all want to go next?”

“Let’s head to the bridge. I’m dying to see the command center of my new ship.” Avery replied without needing even a moment to consider. He had already figured out a while ago where he wanted to go next while Ardesen had been talking.