Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

Nico and her team of technicians took off the moment that they were given clearance to take a shuttle to the Envoy's ship to do the work on the Warp Drives.

They would be starting with the runabouts and the other smaller vessels which used the same sort of drives so that they could prove their competence and the reliability of the human method of repairing the crystals and tuning the system before they ever laid a hand on the main ship's systems, but that was no deterrent to them.

In fact, Nico might have lost a bit of respect for the Alliance's intelligence if they had let some random technician dive straight into the most sensitive system on their ship, the one that could guarantee their return home and the life support systems of their vessel.

The shuttle landed in a cargo bay at the rear of the spherical ship, modelled after the world ships that the Alliance had sent to this Galaxy in the past, but much smaller, being only a little larger than Terminus in diameter.

All of the humans present were already using their system functions to scan the vessel, gaining new insights into manufacturing and engineering principles for such a unique vessel while they walked from the guest hangar to the docking bay for the runabout used or planetary landings.

To say the runabout was high mileage was extremely generous to this ship's current state. It had suffered a power malfunction during a planetary landing, and the outer hull had taken the full brunt of the thermal and gravitational forces of an entry from orbit.

It was designed to handle it, but not without damage, as the outer surfaces were designed to be ablative in the case of shield failures.

"Would you like us to fully overhaul the ship? We have a very nice modified outer hull design that won't take damage from planetary landings. Unfortunately, it will take significantly longer to cool down than the current outer plating of the runabout." Nico asked the team which was escorting them into the bay.

"It would be great to see her back in her prime, but the leadership hasn't cleared that change, and they haven't allocated resources to refresh the plating that is on the vessel due to the state of the warp drive. I believe that the humans call this state [Mothballed], or placed out of active service." The Giant explained.

"Oh, that makes sense. I had been under the assumption that you were still using this one and did not have a replacement on board with the same capabilities." Nico responded politely.

"We don't have a replacement on board, but we are not currently using it either. That has somewhat limited our capabilities, but we have both larger and smaller vessels on board for secondary duties, and they have been enough to serve the purposes of the damaged runabout while we waited for the overhaul interval. I'm sure you understand it is more cost-effective to do them all at once than to take multiple downtimes."

"Of course, downtime costs everyone on the ship, and this is a rather large ship, even compared to the Colony Ship that we call home." Nico agreed while she brought out her scanners to see what she could do about the engines.

The rest of the team checked the entire hull for hidden damages that might lead to failures or additional issues if the drive was returned online. They didn't find anything of note, the damage was all cosmetic, but they did gather a lot of information about the disc-shaped design that they would have to input into their simulators later to see how it interacted with warp fields and why it was chosen as an optimal design for planetary landings.

"Alright, it looks like the engines won't be too large of an issue to bring back online. I will remove the crystals, replicate a replacement and tune them to the ship in the same pattern as the originals. I can custom-tune them if you like, but I am not sure what your official policy is on outside modifications." Nico informed the staff members who had gathered around to see the humans in action.

"You can really do it right here? Without taking it away or any special repair bays?" The Giant who led their escort asked.

"I can even use your onboard replicators if you prefer. It will just take a little more time to tune them because we have specialized ours for creating new drive crystals for the ships we have custom-made for private customers."

"Then we will let you get to work. Forgive us if we supervise everything. It is a standard security policy for outside contractors, even ones from the Alliance since this ship is currently carrying Envoys. The risk of a politically motivated attack is never zero." The escort reminded them.

That might be the most intelligent thing she had heard anyone say today. A lot of the Alliance members seemed to have their heads in the sand and be oblivious to obvious issues, but the security guard was well aware that all was not sunshine and rainbows in the universe.

"Alright, team, let's get those crystals out and get them repaired. Make sure you don't miss any fragments. My scans say that the crystals have completely shattered in there, and any remnants left in the housing could cause a chain failure later." Nico instructed her team, who all activated the additional arms of the Tech Adept Harnesses.

It was a bit of a flex on the Alliance technicians, who didn't have anything quite as cool for their toolboxes, which were mostly simple chests with drawers and gravity plating to maneuver them where they were needed for the job.

Sometimes it was the little things that brought the most joy, though.

The crystals of the runabout were indeed fragmented and looked more like someone had set off a grenade inside the containment housing than a standard overload event. There were even fragments embedded in the walls that had to be pulled out before they could continue.

"Change of plans, pull the entire containment housing. We will have to replace the security panelling since fragments are embedded in the walls, and they need to be precision machined for proper field generation. Make sure you lay everything out in the standard pattern. I don't want any overlap or walking over each other when it comes time to put this thing back together." Nico ordered the technicians, and the relatively long process of fully tearing down the chamber began.