Document ID: YARD-BLD-001. People look at a dreadnought and think it snapped together like a toy. I have been running the orbital docks above Mars for twenty years. Building a ship in zero gravity is a nightmare of logistics. Here is how we actually do it.
You never start from the outside. You start with the spine.
We tow a massive tungsten-carbide rod out of the orbital foundry. This is the main keel. Every deck and bulkhead hangs off this single piece of metal. We use heavy tugs to align it within the scaffolding. If the keel sits off by a fraction of a degree, the navigation computers will constantly fight the structural drift.
We lost an entire frigate back in '19 because a rookie eyeballed the magnetic alignment. The ship tore itself apart on its first engine burn.
Once the spine is locked in place, we attach the ribs. Modular bracing goes up next.
I like to send out the spider-drones for this phase. They scurry along the cold metal and lay down the primary structural lattice faster than any human crew. We build the decks outward from the center. Gravity generators go in early. It is much easier for my crews to bolt the interior bulkheads when they aren't floating away from their own tools.
Outer armor is the worst part of the job. Massive sheets of ablative ceramic and depleted uranium.
We call them coffin lids. You have to maneuver a five-ton plate using nothing but micro-thrusters. A bad burn means you crush a maintenance pod against the superstructure. We use cold welding in the vacuum to seal the plates. Two perfectly clean flat surfaces pressed together fuse instantly in space. No heat required. Just pure, terrifying pressure.
This is the last step before we unclamp the scaffolding and tow the hull out.
Dropping the main fusion reactor into the belly of the ship takes precision. We evacuate the entire sector for this operation. If the containment field blinks while we thread the primary coolant conduits, the resulting flash vaporizes the whole dock. I still hold my breath every time the magnetic clamps engage and lock the core into place.
WARNING: Never allow unshielded personnel within two kilometers of the drive bay during final power-up. Secondary radiation flares are common and lethal.