Makers are part of the Third Imperium setting, note this is the 400s onwards. You really need to read Agent of the Imperium if you intend to write for the Third Imperium setting. Everything that follows is from that novel.
“The siege engines will start building kinetics tomorrow. Are they properly stocked? Tell me the foreseeables.”
“The critical path constricts on flash chips. Everything else can be lasered and
makered [22](footnote Clearly 3D printer technology). They did an exercise last season with excellent results. The chip stockpile is full; that’s just a commodity. We have more than enough.”
Our siege engines reached the belt ahead of schedule and started work immediately. The ships extended their rail guns and prepared for a long campaign.
They harvested FeNi chunks, peeled them of their outer husks, then sliced them into manageable pieces. Lasers engraved them with textures to help them plunge through atmosphere.
Makers processed the shucks into thrusters that they spot welded into place.
In a last step, crew swarmed over the newborn kinetics and inserted their brains: flash-programed chips that knew where and when to strike. Then they launched.
Cleon would gift some trader a hold full of fusion modules and send him out into the Wilds. The trader would
ultimately arrive at a ripe world with a hold full of modules. He sold perhaps a few; he gave away a few more,
Cleon’s gift included
a makershop with templates that could make more and a monopoly on free power.
Many a powerful family knew that the key to its power was the
secret control codes for its makershop and its output.
I addressed our Engineer. “We need a duplicate makershop [59](footnote Based on 3D printing processes.) for delivery planetside. How long?” He estimated a week and I accepted.
Other displays ran loops discussing in broad terms how a
makershop worked and how a portable fusion module worked. It all consumed huge amounts of power. It was meant to make an impression.
Our price was simple: all would swear fealty to the Empire and the Emperor. One of them would become ascendent and
receive a makershop that would create more modules: enough to fuel the recovery of this world and propel it to greater heights than ever before.
“See the cluster of gantry frames. They’re
makering the hull and interior structures in a single pass. No one builds ships like that.”
What if they could reprogram their
maker shipyard to build effective faster-than-light drives?
By the time we emerged from Jump, exactly as plotted in the Whece system, I was recovered. We laid over for a month, repairing damage,
makering replacement panels,
even creating better shielding against emp. I hoped we would never need them.
We were escorted deep into the bowels of the Likiinir, past the drive compartments and
makershops to the auxiliary bridge
If you want to know more about makers and maker shops just ask