The RWI
The extension of the war against the Hostile Exterminator Builders has necessaitated 'dusting off' an old, obsolete, design for a class of warship that can replicate itself, in much the same way as the Exterminators Super Battleships can.

In order to work, a number of RWI are required, ideally in groups of at least 4, since it is not possible to pack everything into one large hyperspace capable spaceframe. The basic design is highly modular and designed to be dismantled, and the ship comes with many shuttles and a lot of maintenance robots (over a thousand). The whole thing is very dense - containing no space for human accomodation, and is controlled by a single 'Bright Slave' class autopilot.

The main limitation of the RWI is that it needs human intervention to be able to build in the optimum configuration. The system is designed to work through a set of priorities and policies set out in advance by humans. Once set it will go off and build things to whatever levels are preset into it.

The Process

On arrival at a system in which the RWI is intended to deploy into Replication Mode, the ship conducts a planetary survey to detect planets with the right geophysical characteristics to be worth checking for necessary raw materials and red mercury.

Once a suitable world is found (and this need not be habitable), the RWI goes into close orbit and searches out ideal resource zones (RZ). A good RZ is one where there is close proximity of a great range of useful minerals in large quantities. A given world might have many suitable RZs.

The RWI then dismantles itself and reconfigues into one of two possible new configurations, a Material Extraction system (MEX) or an Technical Equipment Factory (TEF). A single RWI cannot do both. A single MEX covers and entire RZ - more than one MEX per RZ confers no advantage.

Once a MEX and a TEF are operational, they can use their outputs to construct additional facilities, such as a shipyard, and HSD factory etc. Eventually, a fully functioning automated industrial process is brought into being, and more RWI, or even orbitals can be constructed.

To summarise the build options and pre-requisites:

Construction Options

RWI cost 1 SV, which is payable until the RWI is dismantled. RWI manufactured using the above system cost Zero SV to maintain.

Combat Characteristics

The RWI does not carry missiles or cannon. This is necessary because the production of replacement ammo would complicate the production process beyond the capability of the BS control systems.