Hephaestus

Spacecraft Registry

Foundry Hephaestus
Hephaestus crew patch
Spacecraft Characteristics
Base Hull	Ten acres of Alaskan soil, Portland/Handwavium cement substructure, Pseudo-organic pseudo-geodesic air shield
Drive Type	Reactionless thrusters
Drive Rating	Max velocity 0.001c
Owner	Dwarven Mining & Metalsmithing Unltd.
Flag of Record	HSF-000 Hephaestus
Faction	Hephaestian
Registry Number	HSF-000
Launched	September 20th, 2009
Purpose	Mining & Metalworking, Heavy Salvage & Repair, Engineering & Design
Primary Crew	Wire Geek (Notional Captain, Chief of Mining and Salvage) Sparky (Chief of Operations) "Doc" Raven (Chief of Repair and Maintenance) Hermes (AI, Majordomo and Computer Core, De Facto Captain)
Operational Status	Active

Hephaestus, in addition to being difficult to type in a hurry, is a (barely) mobile mining and engineering platform that normally resides in the Asteroid belt. The initial "Ten Acre Chunk", as well as the warehouses and processing facilities, have grown signifigantly since First Flight. As of the end of OGJ, Hephaestus would face significant damage if it was to enter a gravity well.

Operating as a strange cross between the Skunk Works and a Gypsy tinker, Hephaestus is quite possibly the best place in Fenspace to get a tricky engineering problem solved or bypassed, or to get something weird built, or just to order a few metric tonnes of 'waved steel. Whereas the Rockhounds are producing livable structures out of asteroids, Hephaestus is producing bales and bins of bits and bobs.

Known Vehicle Quirks

• Not Invented Here: Hephaestus is a center of design and engineering - but they tend to be hard to convince to do it any way but their own.
• Wait, Dwarves?: The 'crew' of Hephaestus is composed of several dozen dwarves, short stocky miners and ironworkers par excellance. Noone knows where they came from, and neither Hermes nor WG admit to anything.
• It's Cold.. Why is it Cold?: The original Flesh-and-Blood crew hails from Alaska, and keep the ambient at a comfortable 50 degrees Farenheit.
• Crabs, Purza, I'm so BORRRED: Energy production and AI core speed drop noticeably when there is no active production going on. Hermes wants to be doing stuff, but fortunately isn't too picky about whether it's reducing an asteroid, converting a battleship back into battle steel bar stock, or decorating for a bash.

Trivia

• Hephaestus is a semi-mobile mining and refinery platform.
• Hephaestus is also one of the largest producers of raw Handwavium currently extant. Most of it is for internal consumption.
• Hephaestus' most profitable product is Battle Steel, an iron-based Handwavium metal stock that sees common use throughout the Fenspace, and the cutting and welding tools for same.

Stories

Hephaestus is featured in the following stories:

• That's not a shuttlecraft, it's a bulldozer!