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MEC Fighter Assembly Hive (8-Slot Station)

We at the Muthos Engineering Consortium take great pride in our extensive collection of fighters and cargo shuttles. To that end, we are overjoyed to be adding the 'Assembly Hive' to our signature catalogue.

This new factory is a sleek, compact production facility with all the latest amenities! It is essentially a smaller version of one of the MEC's own development labs.

Here are some of the key features of the 'Assembly Hive':

-8 upgrade slots
-Armored internals
-Three large internal frameworks for customization
-A decent-sized cargo bay
-Large production facilities
-Four 'Swarm Pod Variant B' hangar bays
-Three docking ports (one on the main facility, two on the extended docking arm)
-Monorail service between the docking arm terminal and the main factory
-Flight simulators and maintenance training facilities on deck six
-In-house laundry services

Armament:

-4x size 3 heavy gun emplacements
-6x size 1 point defense or weapons hardpoints
-4x size 0.5 point defense hardpoints

The 'Assembly Hive' comes pre-loaded with VPD-1, VPD-2, and VT-2 custom turrets. Additionally, there are two nameplates bearing the logo of the Muthos Engineering Consortium - one on the upper flight deck, the other on the docking terminal. Customers are encouraged (though not required) to replace these with their own logos or heraldry.

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This station was a lot of fun to build. I've been doing fighter blueprints for quite a while now, and it was great to be able to use a whole bunch of them as decorative elements.

One quirk that I will mention is that the docking ports on this station are small and also partially obstructed, which means that fighters may occasionally take two or three passes when trying to dock. Since it's a station and not a ship that has places to be, I thought the aesthetic was worth the trade-off. I tested it with over two dozen different fighter designs, but if you do manage to find a fighter that has much more serious trouble docking, please let me know in the comments and I'll see what I can do about that.

Being a fighter factory, this station has a very large number of different fighters and shuttles on its docking pads.


Side "A," main assembly and maintenence, left to right:

-A Zethina Manufacturing ZF-5 'Cyanea' railgun fighter (propped up for maintenence)
-A previously-unreleased VF-14 'Acadica', see note #1 (with an open crate of missiles)
-A VF-9 'Rufa' attack craft (being lifted by crane)
-A VF-13 'Variana' advanced interceptor (ready to launch)
-Empty pad, cleared for the nearby VF-1 'Simillima' heavy fighter (being brought by lift)
-A VF-3 'Velutina' interceptor (undergoing maintenence, wings in landing configuration)

Side "B," shipping and receiving, left to right:

-Empty pad with a single crate
-A VCS-1 'Atropilosa' cargo shuttle (powered down)
-Empty pad with stacked crates
-A VCS-2 'Flavopilosa' passenger shuttle (powered up, preparing for departure)
-Another VCS-1 'Atropilosa' (undergoing maintenence, next to several crates)
-An HCS-2 'Polar Express' cargo vehicle from the MEC Holiday catalogue (refueling)

Upper flight deck, in no specific order:

-An empty pad with crates, one shown to contain six VD-1 'Omissa' drones (powered down)
-An HWF-1 'Jack-O-Interceptor' Type E from the MEC Holiday catalogue (readying for takeoff)
-An SP Mk. V 'Venombolt' fighter from the MEC Legacy catalogue (awaiting a new tesla emitter)
-A previously-unreleased Zethina ZF-11 'Micado', see note #2 (ready for takeoff)

Docking terminal:

-Three VD-2 'Vechti' cargo drones (idle, on refueling racks)

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Note #1: This was an "elite" repaint and refit of the VF-4 'Vidua' using the newer, hexagonal engines. I decided it wasn't different enough from the original to release separately.

Note #2: This was a repaint/refit of the VF-1 to use the new hexagonal engines, but in Zethina Manufacturing colors. At the time, I hadn't built any Zethina fighters yet, so it made its way into a few screenshots before I did a dedicated fighter for that line.

SeCret Easter Egg Note #3: There is a hidden hangar compartment somewhere on this station that has one more previously-unreleased refit/repaint inside. Keep your eye out for the HCS-2B 'Transcontinental', you may need to knock on some doors.