GDHC301 Small Starbase

Colonial Freightliners (Civilian)

The shape of the DSS-C065 starbase is a familiar one to anyone traveller throughout human space and even beyond. The DSS-C065 is more common towards the outer edges of human space, due to its time of introduction. Closer to Earth (-N), it is less frequent, but by no means rare.

Colonial Freightliners took off as a private company within two decades of the first hyperdrive flight, with their first Amazon-class bulk freighter launching in 2079.

Within a few decades, they had diversified into static infrastructure as well as transport vessels. By the mid-22nd century, their Deep Space Station line quickly became a de facto standard, especially throughout the smaller powers.

The DSS-C065, introduced in 2218, has been particularly successful, hitting the ideal spot between affordability, customisability and durability. It was one of the first types of starbase of its size; at the time, it used state-of-the-art structural technology and had to be assembled in its own special framework. Nowadays, more modern and much larger space stations can produce them in massive factories, which has aided the spread.

The DSS-C065 is a general-purpose space station, serving roles from merchant or trading station outpost, colony station, refuelling depot or even military installation.

Over half of the station is devoted to a mix of cargo holding and crew quarters, the precise mix varying from station to station. The bulk of the crew quarters tends to be located in the upper sphere, the centre of which is often opened out into a recreational centre or park.

At the very bottom of the station is a small ship bay, able to accommodate lighter starships for more extensive repairs. The hangar doors are located on the bottom of the station, and ships enter vertically (relative to the station).

The upper pylons are the primary docking facilities, however, able to accommodate multiple vessels docking. A smaller also serves to house smallcraft and shuttles for the work or the residents.

The DSS-C065 has enough protection to deter a mid-sized raid. It has shields rated to 4200TXq, though no armour, rating an integrity of barely 9TXq. Modern stations are equipped with both short and mid-range point defence lasers. The short-range light turrets total an impressive 2700TXq output, with the two interdiction-range arrays outputting a combined total of 850TXq. Finally, two anti-capital ship laser arrays with an accuracy envelope of 188 000km have a combined output of 350TXq. These defences make attacking the station without significant force quite dangerous. However, like all stations, the DSS-C065 is vulnerable to long-range attacks and even kinetic bombardment, since the minimum station-keeping thrusters do little to enable it to remove itself from harm’s way. The defences thus serve as more of a deterrent, of a delaying tactic to allow local defence fleets to arrive.

Numerous modifications exist, spanning from the split of cargo-to-crew (usually about 60/40), to the modification of the ventral hangar bay, to a more robust defence system.