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History: During the last push for galactic expansion and colonial settlement before the 100 year saber war there was a great press of early attempts to bolster long distance galactic infrastructure. For the most part this took the form of distant mostly self-reliant space stations designed to act as way-stations at the end of known hyper routes or near significant and popular planets. These stations were mostly owned by individual companies looking to make money as a way-station or for exploratory sciences and even hubs for outer rim mining efforts. At their peak there were almost hundreds of such stations each able to service a cluster of small ships or even a single ship approaching the high end of frigate size. Many such stations even had a static populations in the thousands. However that was before the war.
Since the war many of these stations were completely destroyed or raided to the point of desolation and abandonment. Only those towards the border of the expansion and mid rim were afforded enough support from their parent companies to prevent being overrun. Now there are only a handful that operate as they were originally designed, now stocked with a small wing of localised fighters or small ships to act in defence. There are many more stations that lie completely abandoned and nonoperational or even little more than scrap to be picked apart by outer rim scavengers. Of the stations that still operate as they once did pre-war, only scant few can still boast similar static population above the hundreds. Most are shadows of what they once were.
Description:
There are three primary designs that were employed in Frontier stations. While they varied more than this, especially when designed for a more specific function, these three designs were the most common.
Ring and Pillar station: Typified by having a series of function rings around a central pillar where most of the station's crew roles were performed and where the stations critical systems are housed. Ring and Pillar stations were the most popular of the original station designs. This is mostly due to their inherent design flexibility. A station could easily be built to certain specifications depending on how many and what kind of rings the station housed. The default for these stations would be to have three rings, one habitation ring (allowing for a large potential on station population), one commerce ring (to allow for both internal and external trading) and one docking ring (both to house small ships and to store excess cargo, anything approaching corvette size would need to be externally docked).
Dome Stations: Often very close to a hemisphere shape they are normally a station built under a large internal dock space. The space below the dock would normally be designed to perform several roles from habitation to refinery if required. Less popular than other designs for stations due to being the most massive and least flexible in design however they saw fairly wide use due to the larger space allowing for internal docking of even Corvette class ships (albeit not many). By default the station area below the dock was split up as 30% critical systems and crew role space, 40% habitation, 20% market and 10% conveyance (corridors elevators etc).
Flower stations: The most specialised of the station designs and most often employed by mining companies or gas refinery companies. The station is comprised of a spherical control centre where the critical systems are housed. and from i there are long winding tubes that look like a flower's stem that normally tail into the atmosphere of a mineral rich planet or gas giant. The tubes act as conveyance for staff and materials to be brought onto and off of the station for the planet. Around the head of the station there are a number of storage container in a ring around it. There are often giant bulbs for gas processing or detachable cargo containers for raw minerals. Above the head is a Flat wide cylinder that acts as an external docking point and as much habitation as possible. Compared to the other two station designs this is the least likely to be useful as a way station as what space there is is required for the crew functions or crew habitation.
Most notably none of these station designs were built with much if anything in the way of defences. They were constructed in an era of peace and exploration. Refitting such stations to support shields or cannons would also tax internal reactors enough to prevent them from fulfilling their roles as autonomous stations. As a result the few that still function under their original company control employ wings of approved or sometimes mercenary ships to keep their stations safe in the now less chaotic but still very wild reaches of outer space.
Intent: The goal of this article, and its associated tech write up(link), is to allow for interesting and fragmented nuggets of a galaxy pre-war to act as staging grounds for all kinds of dramatic and tense "on the borders of the wilderness" stories with all of the problems that come with being essentially trapped on a partially functioning piece of obsolete tech the size of a small town as well as potential points of conflict and acquisition as the galaxy begins to become more populated with characters and stories. They are explicitly designed to be used as story settings rather than "battle stations".
Examples of Stations in the galaxy:
The Needle: A rare Class 5 Ring and Pillar station converted into a powerful Hutt's personal battle arena and slave trading market.
Corellia Systems Way-station 22: One of the surviving Class 3 Ring and Pillar pre-war stations now performing as much of its function as a way station on the fringes of the Corellia Hyperlane run as possible.
The Maw: A gutted Single Dome station taken in the Ravaging of Malastare. It is now used as a base for Exile activity.
The Burning Blossom: A destroyed and still alight Gas refinery Flower station. It's destruction lead to a gout of ignited material from its attached gas giant to be flung out into space like flaming petals.
Captain Dho Jiang's Scrapyard: An abandoned Dual Dome station that is now equal parts scavenging dump and outfitter for pirate junk-ships.
Since the war many of these stations were completely destroyed or raided to the point of desolation and abandonment. Only those towards the border of the expansion and mid rim were afforded enough support from their parent companies to prevent being overrun. Now there are only a handful that operate as they were originally designed, now stocked with a small wing of localised fighters or small ships to act in defence. There are many more stations that lie completely abandoned and nonoperational or even little more than scrap to be picked apart by outer rim scavengers. Of the stations that still operate as they once did pre-war, only scant few can still boast similar static population above the hundreds. Most are shadows of what they once were.
Description:
There are three primary designs that were employed in Frontier stations. While they varied more than this, especially when designed for a more specific function, these three designs were the most common.
Ring and Pillar station: Typified by having a series of function rings around a central pillar where most of the station's crew roles were performed and where the stations critical systems are housed. Ring and Pillar stations were the most popular of the original station designs. This is mostly due to their inherent design flexibility. A station could easily be built to certain specifications depending on how many and what kind of rings the station housed. The default for these stations would be to have three rings, one habitation ring (allowing for a large potential on station population), one commerce ring (to allow for both internal and external trading) and one docking ring (both to house small ships and to store excess cargo, anything approaching corvette size would need to be externally docked).
Dome Stations: Often very close to a hemisphere shape they are normally a station built under a large internal dock space. The space below the dock would normally be designed to perform several roles from habitation to refinery if required. Less popular than other designs for stations due to being the most massive and least flexible in design however they saw fairly wide use due to the larger space allowing for internal docking of even Corvette class ships (albeit not many). By default the station area below the dock was split up as 30% critical systems and crew role space, 40% habitation, 20% market and 10% conveyance (corridors elevators etc).
Flower stations: The most specialised of the station designs and most often employed by mining companies or gas refinery companies. The station is comprised of a spherical control centre where the critical systems are housed. and from i there are long winding tubes that look like a flower's stem that normally tail into the atmosphere of a mineral rich planet or gas giant. The tubes act as conveyance for staff and materials to be brought onto and off of the station for the planet. Around the head of the station there are a number of storage container in a ring around it. There are often giant bulbs for gas processing or detachable cargo containers for raw minerals. Above the head is a Flat wide cylinder that acts as an external docking point and as much habitation as possible. Compared to the other two station designs this is the least likely to be useful as a way station as what space there is is required for the crew functions or crew habitation.
Most notably none of these station designs were built with much if anything in the way of defences. They were constructed in an era of peace and exploration. Refitting such stations to support shields or cannons would also tax internal reactors enough to prevent them from fulfilling their roles as autonomous stations. As a result the few that still function under their original company control employ wings of approved or sometimes mercenary ships to keep their stations safe in the now less chaotic but still very wild reaches of outer space.
Intent: The goal of this article, and its associated tech write up(link), is to allow for interesting and fragmented nuggets of a galaxy pre-war to act as staging grounds for all kinds of dramatic and tense "on the borders of the wilderness" stories with all of the problems that come with being essentially trapped on a partially functioning piece of obsolete tech the size of a small town as well as potential points of conflict and acquisition as the galaxy begins to become more populated with characters and stories. They are explicitly designed to be used as story settings rather than "battle stations".
Examples of Stations in the galaxy:
The Needle: A rare Class 5 Ring and Pillar station converted into a powerful Hutt's personal battle arena and slave trading market.
Corellia Systems Way-station 22: One of the surviving Class 3 Ring and Pillar pre-war stations now performing as much of its function as a way station on the fringes of the Corellia Hyperlane run as possible.
The Maw: A gutted Single Dome station taken in the Ravaging of Malastare. It is now used as a base for Exile activity.
The Burning Blossom: A destroyed and still alight Gas refinery Flower station. It's destruction lead to a gout of ignited material from its attached gas giant to be flung out into space like flaming petals.
Captain Dho Jiang's Scrapyard: An abandoned Dual Dome station that is now equal parts scavenging dump and outfitter for pirate junk-ships.
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