Date: May 17, 3025
Title: DropShips and JumpShips
Author: Clare W. Hess; Art by Steve Venters (cover) and Dana Knutson (ship design and illustration)
Type: Sourcebook (FASA)
Synopsis: While there used to be a plethora of space stations in the Inner Sphere, they were major targets during the Succession Wars, and the ComStar report estimates that no more than 200 survived to 3025. It estimates that new stations are constructed at a rate of one every 2-3 years, just making up for combat losses.
Olympus: The Olympus is the largest station seen in the Inner Sphere, massing one million tons. It is usually found at the zenith or nadir jump points in a system, where it provides support and repair facilities for JumpShips and DropShips, and provides early warning to colonies in the system of any attack. It uses a massive solar sail to power its systems and charge its storage batteries. It can provide nearby JumpShips with quick-charges by transmitting power via microwaves to its jump sail, or via direct connection. Its sensors monitor for infrared radiation to detect inbound JumpShips. It carries 10,000 tons of liquid hydrogen fuel, which can be transferred to visiting ships either via direct connection or via shuttles. It can carry 159,200 tons of cargo, and perform maintenance on ships of up to 50,000 tons inside its dome, while a larger ship can drydock at its forward repair center. Its grav deck is 1,230 meters in diameter, and all crew accommodations, mess facilities, recreation rooms, travel agencies, shops, and businesses are located here. It has sufficient armor plating and weapons to discourage all but major invasion forces from attacking, and typically has a 6-fighter defense force, as well as a complement of six other small craft. Commandos often attempt to slip aboard ahead of an invasion to cripple the long range communications systems, preventing it from warning the planet of their attack.
Bastion: One of the few remaining stations designed for planetary defense, only one or two dozen remain in service at major worlds deep within the boundaries of each Successor State, whereas most major worlds had two during the Star League era. The ball shaped station has eight aerospace fighter launch bays, and it houses 36 fighters, four shuttles, and eight “assault craft.” The upper portion can accommodate smaller DropShips (width < 119 m, length < 151 m) in a pressurized drydock facility. All repair parts for the station can still be manufactured, but the central fusion power core has become LosTech. Its frequency rating is “Unique.”
Alliance: The Alliance is a repair station, designed to repair and construct DropShips and small craft in planetary orbit. It can accommodate up to two DropShips in the major repair facilities, and has another two berths for vessels needing minor repairs at the tail section. These valuable stations are prime targets for capture, and are at great risk for infiltration by commandos. It has eight small craft bays, which can accommodate shuttles, repair craft, and aerospace fighters. It is equipped with an arsenal to repel attackers, but is not a dedicated battle station. Its frequency rating is “Rare.”
Notes:
The sourcebook states flat out that there are no more than 200 space stations left in existence circa 3025. By my count (referencing the database I built for a comprehensive 3025-era campaign), various canon sources have listed 235 (listed below). No source lists the location of any Alliance-class stations, and Bastion-class stations are listed as only being on key “deep interior” worlds. (The Bastion featured in a Jihad-era engagement over Skye is noted to be “newly constructed.”) This list also omits the 18 “Snowden” class mobile mining stations in the Concordat, and the stations at off-map systems, like Dragon’s Field, Hamlin, Ral, and New Cleveland.
I would hazard to guess that the ComStar estimate of 200 isn’t “off by at least an order of magnitude,” but almost certainly is off by a hundred or more.
If the “Unique” Bastion = 12-24 (let’s say 20), and the “Uncommon” Olympus is around, let’s say, 300 (including those in the AFFS off-map express network), I would hazard that the “Rare” Alliance station clocks in at about 50-60 instances, with one being destroyed every 2-3 years, and a new one being built to replace it on that same timescale. Adding in the Snowdens and various other one-off stations here and there, and we’re looking at a total count around 400, roughly double ComStar’s estimate.
Olympus: Looking at the illustration, it would seem that the cargo bays and fighter bays are in the lower section, the 50,000-ton capacity repair yards are in the hollow section under the dome, the large repair yard is at the big door in the front, and the solar sail and batteries are at the tail. That leaves the dome as the location of the huge grav deck. (The stat bloc actually lists it as having two grav decks with a total tonnage of 1,000 tons). I would presume that the main grav deck rotates within the lower section of the dome, with the rotation machinery housed in the upper portion of the dome.
The entry notes that the Olympus is no longer being produced, so does that mean that the one made every 2-3 years to replace combat losses is a Bastion?
The description of the “quick charge” elsewhere in DS&JS suggests that the original FASA intent was for a “quick charge” to take about a day, greatly accelerating JumpShip travel times and making trade routes through systems with recharge stations “express routes” that had great strategic value. The current ruleset makes quick charging only marginally faster than using the solar sail, and the speed gain is mostly from not having to unfurl and retract the delicate sail mechanisms. This interpretation would make the Federated Suns’ chains of recharge stations in uncolonized outpost systems between major worlds a major asset for rapid redeployment of assets to achieve tactical surprise, without needing resource-intensive command circuits (essentially allowing them to reposition assets seven times faster than would be expected traveling one with the standard week-long solar recharges).
Bastion: If the fusion core for the Bastion is LosTech, nobody’s making new Bastions. And nobody’s making new Olympuses either. So, basically one Alliance gets built every 2-3 years?
The Bastion is listed as packing eight “assault craft,” but no “assault craft” are profiled in the rest of the book. The Mark VII landing craft (especially the Capellan “heavy fighter” modification) could fit the bill, as could the Aquarius and Lyonesse escort ships, as well as the later “Battle Taxi,” but I wonder what specific designs the author was thinking of when they wrote this? Were they suggesting that eight Assault DropShips (like the Avenger or the Achilles) could be parked inside the Bastion? (Unlikely, since they assign only 150 tons per bay in the stats bloc.)
Given the parameters (width < 119 m, length < 151 m), DropShips capable of fitting in the pressurized upper bay of the Bastion include the Fury, Gazelle, Condor, Leopard, Avenger, Achilles, Leopard CV, and Buccaneer. I would suppose, given the Bastion’s role, that an Avenger, Achilles, or Leopard CV would be the most common ship types to have tucked away up there.
No height limit is given, but I would suppose that the taller spheroids would be a no-go. Probably a max height of 50 meters if the circular bay is 160 meters across, based on the apparent height/width ratio of the upper dome in the illustration. This would rule out spheroids using this bay, at least when it is pressurized and closed. (The description says that any DropShip – presumably up to and including a Behemoth – can dock with the station, but only the smaller ones can fit inside the pressurizable bay.) Presumably when a larger DropShip docks, the “pop top” hatch remains open, exposing the docking bay to vacuum. Interestingly, the stats bloc lists two DropShip bays. Does the bottom open, too, or is the unpressurized bay large enough to accommodate two ships at once?
The plethora of small lasers on a design introduced in 2584 suggests that Capital Missiles were a major concern to the designers. Of course, the relatively anemic capital scale armor (12 points per facing) means these things would be popped like zits once they got ranged by naval PPCs, autocannon, or lasers. I presume during the First Succession war, standard operating procedure was for an attacked world’s two Bastions to launch their fighters and hope that 72 fighters, 16 assault ships, and 2-4 Assault DropShips would be a sufficient force to at least take out some of the enemy troop ships, making the fight easier for the troops on the ground. (That force composition is pretty much exactly what the “Nightriders” had when they attempted to defend Tikonov against the massive AFFS invasion in the 4th Succession War, suggesting that perhaps Tikonov had two Bastions at that point for the Nightriders to base out of.)
Alliance: Presumably, every firm that makes DropShips and every remaining shipyard has an Alliance in close proximity as part of the cluster of pressurized and unpressurized yards and orbital factories that make up the construction/maintenance site. I would presume that Alliances would also be present at any fleet base (the collections of military JumpShips loaded with fighter carriers and Assault DropShips). The FWL has 12 aerospace fleets under the LCCC’s aegis, so presumably they’d have 12 Alliances assigned to serve as dedicated support for those fleets.
A lot of the station profiles include descriptions of commando attacks, so presumably the author intended that game masters give their players missions of either being the commando team trying to take over/take out a strategic space station, or defending one against an enemy commando team. That being the case, I would have loved it if the book had included deck plans, like “Living Legends” did for the Aegis.
The station is described as being able to manufacture small DropShips, but are they full up factories (able to manufacture fusion engines, interplanetary drives, armor, life support, weapons, etc.), or just assembly shops where they fit together components delivered from factories elsewhere? I would guess the latter, since a big deal was made about the “mobile factories” deployed by the Combine in the latter stages of the Jihad.
Canon Recharge Stations:
Admiral Horusho Kensai Station (Delacruz)
Alarion Zenith
Albiero Nadir
Aldebaran Nadir, Zenith
Alexandria Zenith
Algedi Zenith
Algot Nadir, Zenith
Almach Zenith
Alpheratz Nadir
Altair Nadir, Zenith
Altoona Zenith
Alula Australis Nadir, Zenith
Alyina Zenith
Amity Nadir
Andurien Zenith
Angell II Nadir
Arboris Zenith
Arcturus Nadir, Zenith
Ares Zenith
Atreus Nadir, Zenith
Bad News Station
Barras Nadir, Zenith
Benjamin Nadir, Zenith
Betelgeuse Zenith
Bithinia Nadir
Bjarred Nadir
Blake's Truth Station (Luyten 68-28)
Blue Diamond Zenith
Bountiful Harvest Nadir
Brandenberg Station (Terra)
Brinton Zenith
Brisbane Nadir
Bryant Nadir
Buenos Aires Nadir
Caldrea Zenith
Calloway Nadir
Camlann Nadir
Canopus Nadir
Capella Nadir, Zenith
Carse Nadir, Zenith
Carver Zenith
Chahar Zenith
Chesterton Nadir, Zenith
Claybrooke Nadir
Coventry Nadir
Dante Nadir
Demeter Nadir
Dieron Nadir, Zenith
Donegal Nadir, Zenith
Dormandaine Nadir
Drozan Nadir, Zenith
Elgin Zenith
Epsilon Eridani Nadir, Zenith
Epsilon Indi Nadir, Zenith
Galax Zenith
Galedon Nadir, Zenith
Gallery Nadir, Zenith
Garrison Zenith
Gatchina Zenith
Gibson Zenith
Grand Base Zenith
Great X Nadir
Gronden Nadir, Zenith
Hachiman Zenith
Hall Zenith
Hardcore Zenith
Helen Zenith
Hephaestus Station (An Ting)
Herotitus Nadir
Hesperus Nadir, Zenith
Hoff Zenith
Hsien Zenith
Ingersoll Nadir
Irian Nadir, Zenith
Irurzun Nadir, Zenith
Ishtar Zenith
Jaipur Zenith
Kaifeng Zenith
Kathil Zenith
Kaznejov Nadir, Zenith
Keid Zenith
Kessel Nadir, Zenith
Kirchbach Zenith
Kittery Zenith
Kooken's Pleasure Pit Zenith
Lamon Zenith
Lesnovo Nadir
Lopez Nadir, Zenith
Lushann Nadir
Luthien Nadir, Zenith
Luxen Zenith
Malibu Nadir
Manteno Nadir
Marik Nadir, Zenith
Matar Zenith
Maxwell Zenith
Menke Zenith
Micanos Station
Mizar Nadir
Moritz Zenith
Mosiro Nadir
Murchison Nadir
Nanking Zenith
New Abilene Nadir
New Aragon Zenith
New Avalon Nadir, Zenith
New Delos Nadir, Zenith
New Ganymede Zenith
New Kyoto Zenith
New Olympia Zenith
New Rome Nadir
New Samarkand Nadir, Zenith
New Syrtis Zenith
New Vandenberg Zenith
Ningxia Zenith
Northwind Nadir, Zenith
Nova Roma Nadir, Zenith
Oliver Nadir, Zenith
Oriente Nadir, Zenith
Oshika Nadir, Zenith
Pesht Nadir, Zenith
Port Moseby Nadir, Zenith
Poulsbo Zenith
Principia Zenith
Procyon Zenith
Proserpina Nadir, Zenith
Qandahar Zenith
Quantraine Zenith
Radstadt Nadir
Rahne Nadir
Ramora Nadir
Rasalhague Nadir, Zenith
Regulus Nadir, Zenith
Robinson Nadir
Romita Zenith
Ross 248 Nadir
Ryde Zenith
Ryerson Nadir
Saiph Zenith
Sakhalin Zenith
Santana Zenith
Sarna Nadir, Zenith
Sevon Zenith
Sevren Nadir
Sheratan Nadir
Shimonoseki Zenith
Sian Nadir, Zenith
Sirius Zenith
Skye Nadir
Skye Zenith
Small World Zenith
Solaris Nadir, Zenith
St. Ives Nadir, Zenith
St. Loris Nadir, Zenith
Sterope Zenith
Styk Zenith
Suk II Zenith
Summer Nadir
Tabayama Zenith
Tamarind Nadir
Tancredi Nadir
Taurus Zenith
Terra Firma Nadir
Tetersen Zenith
Texlos Zenith
Tharkad Nadir, Zenith
Thessalonika Nadir, Zenith
Thraxa Nadir
Thuban Nadir
Tikonov Nadir, Zenith
Trondheim Nadir, Zenith
Tsinghai Zenith
Twycross Nadir, Zenith
Vega Nadir, Zenith
Versailles Station (Terra)
Vixen Zenith
Warlock Nadir, Zenith
Wei Nadir
Winfield Zenith
Wolcott Nadir
Xinyang Nadir, Zenith
Zurich Zenith