warships and troop transports disguised as grapeships

[Drashner1]

Note, btw that what Rynn is describing is modo tech. Transapientech systems would presumably be more capable just on general principles and would also be able to employ self replicating swarms of builders that could spread all over a solar system and build ships in multiple locations at once. Or maybe go into a gas giant atmosphere and replicate such as bubble habs do.

Even with just modo tech, the system initially described could replicate itself and so bootstrap up to really massive production with virtually no Sophont effort required.

Todd