Cohost writing prompt: @make-up-a-starship-pilot — Starship pilot whose ship may or may not have started life as three different ships, a hab block, and an agro-mech. Give or take
"See, I get how this started as one of the pre-assembled Modular Vessel System configs, and then after the manufacturer discontinued MVS they added the third-party compatible hab block with the adaptor rings to take DockLock modules instead. And the reactor outriggers, that must have been when the original proprietary drive core end-of-lifed, because those got expensive to like-for-like replace; what are they, off a Sunwalker 850?"
"855, I think, not that the reactors are different."
"Oh, right, yeah. Different coolant routing, though, if I remember right? Must have to watch that, buying parts."
"Such a pain when people can't be bothered to list things accurately! And then everything aft of the original drive section spinal connector is kinda kitbashed. The coupling itself had to be custom fabbed; the module is actually the midsection pressure compartment off a Voidwind."
"Oh, nice! But the expandable cargo bays—"
"Oh, yeah, people get real curious about those. But it makes more sense than people think, you know? Agrimech modules are built tough, and they're already manufactured to connect to industry standard cargo interlocks. With the various crop-handling options, you can get them factory-fitted to hold protective atmospheres, pass stuff through chemical decontamination showers, dust explosion risk suppressant systems —"
"So why the collapsible grain bins? Doesn't that sacrifice some cargo volume?"
"A bit. But a lot of ports out there charge mooring fees on maximum volume envelope — if we're unladen, crunching down our ventral axial measurement is a surprisingly good saving! Lemme show you our onboard cargo management software, we've got it set up to autosuggest when it might be worth rebalancing the cargo to winch the bins in...."