Intergalactic Summit

It's a given that when our ships have reached the end of their useful lives, they are re-purposed in one form or another. Most people refine and recycle the resulting minerals into new ships, but one of my brothers has taken this repurposement of ships one step further.

Now, he is not a capsuleer, but knows where to buy used ships planetside. Usually from salvage firms that have gotten hold of small hulls that are beyond normal repair. He apparently went to one of these, bought an old, rusting Ibis hull, and then proceeded to prepare land for the delivery. I recall thinking it weird - why would he dig a huge gaping hole on his land? I was puzzled, really.

Until I saw what he had done with that old Ibis. Not only had he restored the exterior, he had fit the ship into that gaping hole, and completely renovated the interior, and now he calls it home. The cockpit area he had turned into an entrance, requiring breaking through the glass. He has converted the cargohold to a completely spacious living area, complete with windows he had carved into the hull. The old drone bay is now a bathroom. He had made a bedroom where the engineering space once was. It's inspiring really.

And all this has made me wonder if there was anyone else that has seen strange uses for old hulls. Has anyone else witnessed something like this, or other odd usage?

Oh yeah, on a related note...

He told me that if anyone from Galnet would be interested, he had to slice the engines off with an industrial-strength laser. He's selling them for 100 ISK each, the tiny thrusters on the side are 25 ISK each. You can find him through my CONCORD file.

I've heard of alternative uses before, in fact a friend once suggested that we convert a ship into a social venue when I mentioned we needed one.

We took a brand new Rokh and had it's interior and combat systems stripped away, converting it into a hotel of sorts for visitors and friends to stay in when they visited our family's system. It also had a deck dedicated to holo-communications where others could "visit" remotely or converse with our pilots when not on duty. The vessel itself sat under our tower's force field where it was tethered to nearby structures.

They are a rather resourceful race, aren't they?

Most surely are, and I'm yet to discover their secrets and properly apply them to my researches. I'll be a richer man when this happens.

Lots of things to do with them. Give them to charities for salvage. Turned a few into temporary stations and houses for refugees. Anchor them in out of the way places and use them for dead-drop locations or covert meeting places. Disguise them as derelicts and load them up with surveillance equipment. Rig it up to send out false RFID signals and lay them as bait. Leave it in an asteroid belt packed with explosives and rig the thrusters to fire by remote, and then ram them into unsuspecting Federation miners. Ect.

You can use a Titan as a surprisingly effective (and technically mobile) space station. The Thukker, in fact, did exactly that.

There are quite a few clubs in the Federation that are made out of old ships. In the case of Opux Luxury yachts, they are still fully functional ships.

Capital ships and even Battleships have always proven to be excellent homes away from home and temporary stations.

If memory serves, Hilen Tukoss - the thieving bastard that he was - converted a Charon hull into a full in-station colony and living environment for some project or another. Complete with fauna and land.

Not exactly as drastic an alternative use as that Ibis, but I have had my Orca extensively modified to house a luxury apartment for myself in a space that used to be an observation deck in the aft tower. The view from there, towards the bow and into space is breathtaking.

As a more temporary measure, I've had part of the old ore bay turned into barracks for my onboard Marine company. Security is important to me.

I've also been to a few bars built into old starships. I remember one in a Rifter. Nice place.

Sometimes i need some time in space ouside of my capsule, so I use an old thorax hull as a luxury liner every once in a while. altough i only operate it in less crowded systems because of the obvous danger to my life if i get attacked by other capsuleers.