DefenseCon 2956 is supposed to begin tomorrow, so we’re going to spend the morning taking a closer look at the Drake Ironclad and Ironclad Assault.If the expo halls are live in the PU, we’ll tour the ships directly and see how they actually feel in person.And if the servers decide to fight us instead, we’ll move over to the investigation board and start mapping the ships out the same way we would during a Factory Service Manual build.I’ve been staring at the layout of these ships for the last couple days and there are a few design decisions I still don’t fully understand yet.Especially around:cargo flowtractor placementinternal accesssurvivabilityand why Drake built two versions that seem so close together on paper but probably behave very differently once operations startWe’ll walk through the layouts, compare the standard Ironclad and Assault variants, and see if the design logic starts making more sense once we slow down and really look at the machine.Ships covered:Drake IroncladDrake Ironclad AssaultFactory Service Manual LIVE is the workshop side of Thrusters & Dust.This is where the assumptions usually get challenged before the final manual gets written.My hangar is always open to you.

Star Citizen Alpha 4.8 may look like a combat patch on the surface.But the deeper we looked into the announcement, the more it started feeling like something else entirely.Fleet sustainment.Forward operations.Ship support infrastructure.Long-duration deployment.Operational persistence.This livestream is not about reacting to the trailer.It’s about stepping back and asking what kind of universe requires systems like these in the first place.We’ll break down the Tactical Strike Groups reveal, hangar services, the Ironclad Assault, support ship functionality, and the growing shift toward fleet-supported operations and sustained deployments.

Viewer comments on the Drake Corsair Factory Service Manual pushed back on some of my assumptions.About survivability.Component choices.Ballistic versus energy load-outs.Radar strategy.Living aboard the ship.And whether the Corsair is actually an exploration ship anymore.This FSM LIVE session exists to work through those questions directly.If you would like to revisit the original Drake Corsair Factory Service Manual beforehand, you can find it here. It provides useful context, though it is not required to follow this session.The Corsair creates a strange reaction in the community.Some pilots see it as one of the best solo ships in Star Citizen. Others think it has drifted too far into combat and lost the identity Drake originally designed it for.This session is built to investigate that tension through live inspection, component comparison, and operational discussion.I’ll be pulling selected viewer comments on screen and working through them using the FSM LIVE workshop format. We’ll compare load-outs, examine upgrade tradeoffs, and test whether the Corsair’s reputation still matches the machine itself.Factory Service Manual LIVE is a workshop format built around investigation, not meta chasing.Each session focuses on a single Star Citizen ship and examines how it’s actually put together. Layout. Systems. Upgrade paths. Operational strengths. Design compromises.The goal is not to tell you what to run.The goal is to understand why the ship behaves the way it does and what the engineers were trying to accomplish.Everything discussed here uses real in-game behavior, testing, and current ship systems.These sessions are built for players who treat ships as machines worth understanding and preserving.Thrusters and Dust is a Star Citizen fan project. Made by the Community.Star Citizen®, Roberts Space Industries® and Cloud Imperium ® are registered trademarks of Cloud Imperium Rights LLC

We ran a recovery ops inside an Onyx ASD facility with reports of a Yormandi in the lower levels. The objective is simple. Go in, assess the site, and decide how deep we’re willing to push.This podcast covers the first two ASD facility contracts, including site inspection, route decisions, and a descent into the lower structure where the Yormandi was waiting for us.The Roughnecks handled ground movement and clearing.The Privateers are ran security and overwatch.Thrusters and Dust is a Star Citizen fan project. Made by the Community.Star Citizen®, Roberts Space Industries® and Cloud Imperium ® are registered trademarks of Cloud Imperium Rights LLC

Live salvage operation and that we opened up to anyone who wanted to join. We were recovering, stripping, and processing wrecks as a crew. Thrusters and Dust is a Star Citizen fan project. Made by the Community.Star Citizen®, Roberts Space Industries® and Cloud Imperium ® are registered trademarks of Cloud Imperium Rights LLC

We’re ran a ship show at New Babbage. Players had brought whatever they want to put on the floor. Rare ships, older ships, daily drivers, anything they choose. We gathered in the Commons garage and opening it up to the server.Thrusters and Dust is a Star Citizen fan project. Made by the Community.Star Citizen®, Roberts Space Industries® and Cloud Imperium ® are registered trademarks of Cloud Imperium Rights LLC

In this live discussion, Dusty Star is joined by members of the Thrusters and Dust org to break down why multicrew often struggles in Star Citizen. While salvaging live in-game, we’re talking through real player experiences and the biggest issues raised in the community.Thrusters and Dust is a Star Citizen fan project. Made by the Community.Star Citizen®, Roberts Space Industries® and Cloud Imperium ® are registered trademarks of Cloud Imperium Rights LLC

Viewer comments on the Drake Vulture Factory Service Manual pushed back on some of my assumptions. Not broadly. Specifically. About salvage workflow. Component tradeoffs. Redundancy. Quantum range. And whether the Vulture is being limited by design or by how we use it.Thrusters and Dust is a Star Citizen fan project. Made by the Community.Star Citizen®, Roberts Space Industries® and Cloud Imperium ® are registered trademarks of Cloud Imperium Rights LLC

Viewer comments on the Drake Clipper Factory Service Manual challenged some of my conclusions. Not in a vague way, but in very specific ones. About what the ship is for. Where it breaks down. And whether some of my weapon and component choices even made sense.Thrusters and Dust is a Star Citizen fan project. Made by the Community.Star Citizen®, Roberts Space Industries® and Cloud Imperium ® are registered trademarks of Cloud Imperium Rights LLC