The Time from Before

Cooperation

Allen quickly realized why knowing at least a little Inkling was such a strategic factor in his plans. In order for him to seek out the Orion Facilities, he needs a vehicle.

The Inklings don't seem to be powerful in a militaristic manner, but their economy was flourishing. The Inklings, and by extension the Octolings living here, could potentially have connections that may help Allen in his endeavors.

Not to mention, but Harper has been subtly pushing him to clear the Orion Expedition, so it was only a matter of time before she finds probable cause that Allen isn't fit to be a Sergeant and takes the matter into her own hands. Arctos Doctrine holds no regard for those who don't do their jobs, so she's justified when the time comes.

Back to the language thing, he needs to study more and actually be capable of reading, and more importantly, listening to others using the Inkling language. If he can communicate properly, he could, potentially, find himself in a position of cooperation or trade. The thing is, he hasn't seen a single aerial vehicle the entire time he's been in the city.

Actually, no, he has seen one. A single helicopter. But that was probably for the news or something, and it wasn't what he was looking for.

However, getting a vehicle isn't a one-lane road. He could potentially radio in an order to an orbital station and have it construct and deliver said vehicle. But, a large limitation of this method would be the time, size, and other constraints.

To make a decently sized aerial vehicle that would fit Allen's needs, it would take a few months for a station to construct that vehicle. Assuming it has all the materials it needs. The reason it would take so long is simple. Automatically constructing anything without human support, at least with this level of technology, takes a considerable amount of time. Automating the construction task is one thing, but if the assemblers and other construction bits in the line make a mistake, there is no deconstruction task, and so the entire process will start over again.

Secondly, size. To deliver this vehicle from orbit, it can't be too big. If it was, it would be absolutely destroyed during re-entry. And some designs aren't designed for re-entry anyway. This factor isn't a super big problem, but there is one more massive issue.

Fuel, ammunition, and other parts. Great, you have a vehicle. How are you going to fuel it? Heading off the planet to refuel at a station is less than ideal, and incredibly time-consuming. Not to mention, how would you restock the weapons? Sure, in this scenario you probably won't use the weapons, but that isn't much of a reason to carry around a suite of useless artillery. And other parts being repair parts. If something breaks down, what, or how, are you going to replace that part? You can't just order another vehicle. That would take months. And you can't exactly have a station autonomously deliver parts. You could cannibalize the ship to repair more important parts, but that isn't sustainable.

All of that contributes to the negatives. The positives are, well, endless. But the negatives outweigh those positives by quite a lot.

And besides, having a vehicle built here on Earth by the Inklings is probably going to be more supported by existing infrastructure. Fuel needs would be met depending on the region, ammunition isn't required without weaponry, and repair parts are built either nearby or somewhere else that has the required transportation services to deliver those parts to you.

Of course, capability is another issue. And if these Inklings can even make a vehicle that could satisfy Allen's needs...

Allen mentally sighed as he watched the four Inklings in front of him chat. If he's gleaned anything from this conversation, from the bits he could actually understand, these Inklings in particular–