Omni Scale Orion Base Station (BS) CVN

The Pirates of Orion cover the entire Alpha Octant, but by the time of the General War, few of them were actually Orions. Orion originally joined the Federation as an ally during the First Romulan War. Because the Federation needed Orion technology, ships, and shipyards, the Federation made a deal that gave the Orion province special autonomy. Among other things, this meant that the Orions (not the Federation) enforced Federation law inside Orion space. Pirate organizations based on Orion took advantage of this, becoming the headquarters of a far-reaching criminal operation including piracy, smuggling, and creating illegal mining colonies on unclaimed planets. The territory of the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Gorns, Kzintis, Lyrans, and Hydrans was overlayed by a network of fiercely independent criminal cartels. A crimelord led each cartel, and leased parts of his area to individual pirates as franchises for various criminal operations. One pirate might lease an area in which he had the sole right to attack merchant ships, while another pirate might get the franchise for all smuggling into and out of the Rigelian system. Each of these minor pirates was supported by the cartel network which bought stolen or smuggled goods, repaired damaged ships, bought and sold captured freighters, and traded in intelligence information on shipping schedules and police patrols. Most of the independent ship captains operating piracy franchises used light raiders or raider cruisers; the cartel itself maintained heavy cruisers which it used as enforcers to deal with those who poached without a franchise or failed to pay their franchise fees.

Base stations were originally built to expand the supply and operations network of each empire. As these empires met and established national borders, base stations were deployed to provide sensor networks that could detect any ship crossing the border. Base stations provided supply storage, repair facilities, limited shore leave opportunities, and communication networks. Before the General War, most base stations on borders had been upgraded to Battle Stations, but base stations continued to be built (and added) all over the interior of each empire. Their heavy weapons provided protection for convoys and small service ships operating in the area, much like settlers in the old west would run for the fort when hostiles attacked. Base stations provided district offices for police units, and rented office space to corporations and other entities with operations in the area.

The Base Station is available in a variety of materials. Base Stations are unpainted, use standard flight stands available from many sources, and, while designed for gaming, make fine display pieces.