Ships & Tech
Mercer-class
The Open Reach Survey's deep survey ship — laboratory, habitat, node-seeder, provenance authority.
In full
Built at the Mercer Yards and named for the captain who brought the lost Endurance home. Not a warship and not pretending to be one: a Mercer-class is a mobile laboratory, a diplomatic habitat, and — most importantly — a provenance authority, able to seed nodes and make first authenticated observations in a reach that is dark on the ledger. Lightly armed, because the alternative reads as invasion. That decision is honourable, correct, and expensive.
Key facts
- Node-seeder, laboratory, diplomatic habitat, provenance authority.
- Deliberately under-armed — a survey ship cannot win by force.
- Built at the Mercer Yards, Mars.
- Class named for Julian Mercer; the individual ship names are not personal.