Subscribe to download
Courier Drone Relay Fabricator

The Courier Drone Relay Fabricator (DRF) is a medium-sized vessel designed to mass produce and deploy Drone Control Relay satellites. It is essential to any long range, drone-based operation.

(If you just want the gist of this description and don't need the details, scroll down to the bottom)

The Courier utilizes a projector-based factory in the rear, which can construct and release one satellite in approximately 15 seconds. Throughout the ship, there are 2 control stations, as well as the main flight seat, that can be used to operate the factory (the rear-facing control station in the cockpit is dedicated to defenses). An alert system and a camera mounted on the rear edge of the ship allow for the factory to be easily used without going into third person.

In terms of weapons, the Courier has enough firepower to make loud noises and destroy a few armor blocks, hopefully alerting its allies to the danger.
Weapons:
~2 rocket launchers
~1 gatling turret

This vessel contains three assemblers, 2 for use in the factory and one directly connected to the rocket launchers. It has no refineries, so required ingots must be sources from other ships or stations.

Factory guide:

The Courier's DRC satellite factory is fully automated, with one exception: It will release a finished satellite, but that satellite will not automatically exit the fabrication bay. The alert system will notify the operator (assuming they are on board and within earshot of the sound block) when a satellite has been completed. The operator must then, slowly, but steadily, fly the ship forward until the satellite is clear of the fabrication bay. Note: The satellite is released by a pair of merge blocks. For some reason, one property of merge blocks is that they tend to push each other apart when unlocking. This can jostle the satellite a bit, but not enough to cause any damage. To avoid the satellite drifting away after it is deployed, one should wait until the satellite has stopped bouncing about inside the bay before proceeding to clear it from the ship.

WARNING: Do not attempt to use any other blueprint in the factory (except for other satellites that I have released). The shape of the factory is designed to exaclty match that of the satellite. However, any ship that does happen to fit inside the factory can be used, so if you want to create your own satellite for the Courier, go ahead. Just make sure it fits.

Sorry, that was a bit long. The main points are:
~Don't try to attack anything with this ship
~After the satellite is released by the factory, wait until it is completely still, then fly forward and away from it SLOWLY AND STEADILY - otherwise, your satellite will drift off into oblivion.
~The satellite is powered entirely by solar, so make sure it's facing the sun (or whatever star that may be).

Enjoy!