User:Kermit-old

Interstellar travel is prolific across the Orion Spur since the advent of FTL travel, with hopping planet-to-planet or system-to-system to see friends and dispersed family or to commute to distant jobs. In the current day, it is more uncommon to find someone who hasn't travelled beyond their home system than has. Travel often requires booking tickets with interstellar transport agencies to be ferried, with Idris Incorporated having a monopoly on higher-end interstellar transport.

Critical to interstellar travel are the options for Faster-Than-Light travel, of which there are two known method that operate on different principles: warp drives, the tried-and-true means which humanity spread through the Spur with; the newer bluespace drives, recently discovered and all but superior in their hunger for phoron. Since 2462 and the beginning of the phoron scarcity, the cost of bluespace drives has become prohibitively expensive, seeing a resurgence in warp travel.

Warp Travel

Warp travel works by distorting the space-time continuum around a ship or group of ships - creating a "warp bubble" around them - and aiming to compress space-time at the front and expand it at the rear, which propells the warp bubble and all within it forwards at faster-than-light speeds. Some warp drives go so far as to generate a micro-singularity to further distort the space-time continuum around a ship. Warp travel is a continuous form of faster-than-light travel, whereby a ship continues to exist within and interacts with realspace, and therefore must avoid physical obstacles the realworld presents. Warp travel can be incredibly dangerous for those outside of the warp bubble, as an object moving at FTL speeds can atomise anything it hits - consequently, warp travel is confined to "warp lanes", and warp drives can only be activated within "warp zones" at the edges of star systems (this adds the secondary cost of requiring to travel to sublight for the end of the journey).

Warp drives have no 'special fuel' requirement, unlike bluespace drives which rely upon phoron. However, warp drives have an immense power requirement, necessitating a dedicated fusion reactor to overcome this obstacle. As a result, warp drives are very rarely installed on shuttles and small ships, unlike bluespace drives which can be.

Low-end warp drives reach maximum speeds of 0.10LYD, while higher-end warp drives or those in larger vessels can reach 0.50LYD, still paling in comparison to bluespace drives. Higher speeds are possible to obtain but generally avoided due to safety concerns and lack of necessary power in even the most efficient or over-tuned vessels.

Discovery

The theories behind warp travel saw fruition when Soviet physicists, led by Dr. Evgeniy Aksyonov, designed the first warp drive in 2130 amid Earth's Climate Crisis that threatened humanity. This discovery laid the foundations for humanitys' conquest of the stars, demonstrating the possibility of traversing systems and between systems within acceptable human timeframes. Only 17 years later, the first planet outside of the Sol System would be colonised - Tau Ceti. In the 300 years since then, warp travel has been solidified as the mainstay for interstellar travel, despite the later discovery of bluespace travel threatening to make warp obsolete.

Warp Lanes and Highways

Warp lanes are mapped out routes that avoid planets and stations, dense asteroid fields, and other objects that the Spur doesn't want a warping ship to collide with and de-atomise - they are the lifelines of the Spur. These warp lanes can only be used by one ship at a time, and so "warp highways" exist as a large bundle of warp lanes all connecting the same two locations. It is a frustrating truth that even these warp highways can see traffic jams, as the Spur's commuters, pleasure vessels and logistic vessels all queue to enter or leave via the same common highways. Toll routes and warp lanes accessible only to specific states or megacorporations also exist, ensuring those 'important' need not get stuck in warp traffic. Most drives produced in the current day are locked to these warp lanes, however those utilised by warp cartographers - or those jailbroken - come without restrictions and can freely warp anywhere, at others' and one's own peril.

Warp lanes are all publicised on the Insterstellar Warp Database - the bible for any pilot who utilises warp drives - which additionally indicates when warp lanes are in-use and inaccessible.

Warp Cartographers

For those wishing to avoid warp traffic or for those wishing to make a significant amount of credits or respect, it is possible to explore and chart your own warp lane - those who do this are known as stellar cartographers or, more recently, warp cartographers. This is an incredibly slow and arduous process, requiring a cartographer to meticulously calculate trajectories and velocities for a warping vessel to traverse between two points, then trace the route in their own ship. This can take years and is incredibly dangerous, with one large mistake seeing a cartographer's ship tear through a habited system, end up destabilised by a planet's magnetic field and atmosphere where it will then crashland and be stranded, or warp straight into a star. However, it has been made a lot simpler by sophisticated Cartographer AIs which can handle the brunt of the calculation load in a matter of days, though this still requires a warp navigator to put faith in the resulting route. Alternatively, one can find a skrell to be their cartographer!

Unity Station is also home to the Cartographer's Monument that honours any cartographer who has perished charting a new warp lane - regardless of species, religion, nationalist, etc. It is a large, black obelisk with a shining, golden pinnacle, inscribed with all of the names of those who have given their life in service of other space pilots. Inscribed is the following, "Without their work and sacrifice, the modern Spur would be a collection of isolated systems, alone in the dark."

Dangers

Warp travel is dangerous - a fact drilled into the minds of those across the Spur by NanoTrasen Corporation's bluespace drive ad campaigns. Some of the heavy-hitter messages include:

• Warp Sickness: For those inside of a warping ship, everything appears paused and the journey seems instant: one moment you are in one system, then a flash of light and a trembling of the ship and you are at your destination. For those unaccustomed to warp travel, this can be quite disorienting, resulting in vomiting.

• Warp Collisions: As warp travel involves an object moving at FTL speeds in realspace, there is a massive risk of collisions. Warping ships not beholden to a safe warp lane may rip through stations, ships in subspace, or small habited exoplanets. For those inside of the ship however, warping into a planet or star's magnetic field will destabilise the warp bubble and see the ship plummet into the planet or star, either stranded or incinerated. A study published by NanoTrasen Corporation in 2463 estimated 21,487 deaths per year to warp collisions.

• Singularities: For those warp drives that augment their distortion of the space-time continuum with a micro-singularity, additional dangers are of course incurred, with the rare event whereby a singularity escapes its containment, consumes the ship, then goes on to create a blackhole (hopefully not in civilised space!).

• Warp Bubble Accretion, and Shotgun Warping: When a ship is soaring through space in warp, this warp bubble will 'catch' and accrete other particles caught in the way, be it solid matter, light photons, etc. When the ship then exits warp, these accreted particles and matter - which accumulated immense energy from being propelled at FTL speeds - will explosively disperse in a scatter-ray of ionising radiation or superheated plasma. This is incredibly dangerous for other vessels, and is why Warp Zones are important. They can also be weaponised, with it not being a rare tale to hear of a pirate "Shotgun Warping" someone in an ambush, however this is an incredibly skilled maneuver to pull off.

• Arbitrary Warp Malfunctions, a.k.a Non-Violent NSCP Events: Warp drives have an inherent 'failure chance' when primed for warp travel, with each consecutive warp drive released reducing this chance (in the latest drive models released by Einstein Engines, it stands at 3 times out of 100 the drive will malfunction - actually quite low, compared to models of the previous century that sat around 10 times out of 100!). The malfunctions caused by a warp drive malfunction are usually not major, stacking an already rare occurence with the rare occurence of a ship's warp drive overheating and having its components wear down. This inherent failure chance is attributed to the relationship between FTL Travel and Time Travel, for anything that can be used to travel faster-than-light can theoretically be used to time travel. However, the universe is prepared to smite any attempts at time travel with what is known as the Novikov self-consistency principle (NSCP) - the universe's safeguard against the creation of paradoxes. When someone operating a warp drive thinks of traversing time with the warp drive, that 3% chance to fail will always land on a fail chance despite its statistical improbability, as it must be impossible to time-travel, as that could create a paradox. Not included in NanoTrasen Corporation's marketing material is that this is colloquially known as a Non-Violent NSCP Event as bluespace drives exhibit the same issue, albeit more violently.

The Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive

The Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive was designed in October 2462 by a team orchestrated by Einstein Engines's Chief Research Officer, Dr. Mio Suzuki. At first only fitted into vessels of the Solarian Alliance, a commercial variant of the Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive would be placed on the open market in July 2464. Not quite the ultimate bluespace drive contended it was marketed to be, the Hammer Drive remains a feat of human engineering and is still markedly better than all other warp drives on the market.

Whereas other warp drives are positive energy warp drives, the Hammer Drive utilises a mixture of both positive and negative solitons to distort space-time around the warping ship. This massively reduces the energy upkeep of a warp drive, allowing more power per watt and without the size of the ship having such an impact.

Only affordable by the wealthy or in megacorporate vessels, a Hammer Drive can permit travel up to 0.70 LYDs with none of the phoron cost of a bluespace drive.

Warp Interdiction

Warp travel is quite easy to interdict, unlike bluespace which cannot be interdicted from realspace as the target is in another dimension. Available on the open-market for bounty hunting and military use are warp bubble dissolver or warp interdiction nets, which can be placed into the warp lane someone anticipates their victim to be making use of. When the warping ship collides with the interdiction net or bubble dissolver, it prematurely aborts the warp travel, often causing electrical malfunctions, and allows the ship to be attacked. Interdiction nets are popular with pirates who set them up where warp lanes pass through uninhabited systems, pillaging those they capture in their snare. Interdiction nets are easy to jury-rig and can be produced with inexpensive, modified warpdrives, resulting in their widespread use by rather infamous groups - however, an advanced understanding of engineering and the internal complexities of warpdrives is needed make an improvised interdiction net.

Bluespace Travel

Little is understood about bluespace. It is believed to be an alternative dimension 'overlayed' over our dimension - realspace, materialspace, etc. - where a position in bluespace roughly corresponds to a point in realspace. It also appears to be intrinsically tied to the phoron, with bluespace phenomena and phoron often coinciding: the Romanovich Cloud being the prime example, rich in both phoron and anomalous phenomena connected to bluespace.

Bluespace travel involves piercing a tunnel with a pre-calculated exit point in realspace into bluespace, which the ship then is then pulled into - and any matter around the ship with it. After traversing through this bluespace tunnel for a short duration, the ship spews forth from the exit point. At the core of a bluespace drive is a "bluespace crystal matrix" - a series of blue-tinted phoron crystals, or bluespace crystals, that appear to resonate with forces exerted in the bluespace dimension. Inputting the destination for a bluespace jump will realign the bluespace crystals, then once further energised with an influx of fluidic phoron and a variable moderator, will create the bluespace tunnel.

Like warp travel, bluespace travel must begin and end in designated bluespace egress and ingress zones, as the formation of a bluespace tunnel - entrance and subsequent exit - will displace and suck in nearby mass, spewing them out with the ship when it exits bluespace. These egress and ingress zones align with the warp zones on the edges of star systems and - as bluespace travel occurs in another dimension and poses no collision threat - in high orbit and between planetary bodies.

Bluespace drives were and are generally reserved for military vessels, high-end corporate vessels, and luxury commercial vessels. Limited by the size of any given vessel, bluespace drives vary in their power and precision depending on their design - how much phoron primes them, the fluid moderator choice, the size of the drive. The most powerful of bluespace drives are reserved for flagships of the respective nations and megacorporations within the Orion Spur, reaching shockingly high FTL speeds and with perfect precision.

• Low-end bluespace drives found in shuttles and corvettes tend to reach velocities of .10 lightyears a day, with the highest end reaching .25LYD.

• Mid-range, expensive bluespace drives found in frigates and destroyers tend to reach velocities of .30 lightyears a day, with the highest end reaching .50LYD.

• Heavy-duty, powerful bluespace drives found in cruisers tend to reach velocities of .60 lightyears a day, with the highest end reaching .75LYD.

• Capital bluespace drives found in battleships and larger tend to reach velocities of .85 lightyears a day, with the highest end reaching 1 LYD.

Blue means a solid connection, red means one that has been deconstructed on one or both ends, and yellow means "temporarily" shut down.

History

Bluespace was discovered very recently in YEAR PHORON WAS DISCOVERED by Einstein Engines physicist Dr. Luo Qiqiang, who detected the first indications of bluespace phenomena while studying a particularly large deposit of phoron in the Romanovich Cloud, connecting the two. Following Dr. Luo Qiqiang's revelation in YEAR PHORON WAS DISCOVERED PLUS 2, NanoTrasen Corporation's Dr. Samantha Tigard would go to lay the foundations of bluespace science as it is today, and design the first means of bluespace travel - the same year, the first commercially-viable bluespace drive would hit the market.

Bluespace travel saw rapid adoption after the initial skepticism wore off and saw widespread use among megacorporations, states, and high-cost express transport. Many were quick to begin planning an expansive bluespace gate network, with a gate in each major system, and some scientists were quick to declare warp travel obsolete. However, even before the Scarcity, the costs of both construction, maintenance, and fuel upkeep for both gates and drives became apparent, seeing the bold plans for bluespace gates limited to the 6 constructed today.

In the 2460s, as the Scarcity continues to take its toll, circumstances are appearing to reverse and there are doubts as to whether bluespace travel will remain a viable option. NanoTrasen Corporation and the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate have invested significant amounts into alleviating the Scarcity and locating more phoron deposits, however Einstein Engines continues to undercut the bluespace market with more affordable and reliable warp drives - the Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive being the first of nails into bluespace's coffin. There has been a glimpse of hope though following the discover of the Orchard Moon asteroid in the Valley Hale, now home to the NSS Orchard Moon; this new deposit - being small - has only temporarily increased confidence in phoron and bluespace travel.

Bluespace Gates

The first bluespace gates began construction in 2420, and became operational by 2425.

Bluespace gates are particularly useful for being a highway of interstellar travel for ships that are not outfitted with any kind of drive, or even those that are, due to the cost of fuel. They are massive constructions, taking up a square kilometre, shaped like giant rings which ships pass through to be transported. They are overseen by Gate AIs which permit access based on ship credentials and performs the highly-complex calculations required to transport a vessel thousands of kilometers through a different dimension. To use a bluespace gate, a transmission consisting of everal details is required, which are usually checked against existing records and with the local authority of the entity that the bluespace gate resides within.

Bluespace gates are only capable of hurling a ship towards the egress point of another bluespace gate, however - being so large - they permit near-instantaneous travel with a promised 5 minutes maximum duration.

Originally bluespace gates were expected to be a total replacement to warp gates; this idea was quickly discarded after it became clear how expensive these new gates were. Instead, they were built in only the most traffic-heavy systems of the spur. Still, the construction of the modern bluespace gates, even after the scale of their deployment was toned down significantly, is to this day considered the most ambitious, far-reaching, and expensive construction project in the Orion Spur. The Solarian Alliance shouldered most of the costs, with a majority of the gates being in their territory at the time of their construction. Diplomatic agreements with the Nralakk Federation, Coalition of Colonies, and Serene Republic of Elyra also saw the Alliance allow new lanes to be created between gates constructed within the capital of each respective nation. No new gates have been constructed since 2425. In the modern day, the only systems to possess bluespace gates are Sol, Qerrbalak, Tau Ceti, Konyang, Xanu Prime, and Persepolis. Of note is the bluespace lane between Tau Ceti and Xanu; in 2462, which is said to have “collapsed” due to reasons unknown. It is unclear what exactly happened, and if the lane will re-open, as both governments and the corporations they contract keep their investigations highly classified.

Dangers

Einstein Engines and scientists in the wake of bluespace's discovery had and have a lot to say on bluespace travel. After all, it has never been wise for those to play with what they do not truly understand.

• Bluespace De-Materialisation, and the colloquial Bluespace Sickness: While in Bluespace, everything about you and the ship you stand upon is alien to this dimension, down to your matter. Matter does not like being unstable like it is in bluespace, and to stabilise it must convert into the same 'stuff' that permeates - obviously, this is not good for the ship or those within it. Bluespace drives are able to prevent this from becoming a problem, however particularly long journeys through bluespace will see a bluespace drive falter. Random particles will begin to 'vanish', overtime causing damage or malfunctions to ship equipment, or resulting in an individual developing an acute illness depending on where they have been affected. For this reason, it has always been advised to plot a series of consecutive, mid-range bluespace jumps instead of one large bluespace jump.
• Violent NSCP Events: Travelling along the X and Y planes in bluespace will correspond with locational movement in realspace, however travelling along the Z-plane is believed to correspond with temporal movement - after all, all FTL travel brings with it possibilies for travel. Much like a warp drive's non-violent NSCP events though, even in bluespace the universe is capable of aborting any attempts to travel the Z-plane in bluespace. Much unlike warp drives however, this is handled destructively, whereby any ship that begins traversing the Z-plane immediately dematerialises, never to exit bluespace. NanoTrasen Corporation have kindly set a hard-lock in their bluespace drives preventing Z-plane traversal, though many an aspiring time travel have bypassed this lock only to never be seen again.

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Bluespace Drives

Unlike their gate counterparts, drives are considered unreliable or even dangerous to use within a system’s gravity well, due to the displacement of mass caused by entering and exiting bluespace, a danger that increases with the size and distance a ship jumps. However, this is only a problem for large vessels as the risks of using bluespace drives within gravity wells steeply decreases with the size of the vessel, and the very few shuttles which possess bluespace drives can reliably jump within a gravity well. Still, large ships using their bluespace drives for anything but the shortest of jumps while inside a systems gravity well may suffer any number of damages, or at worst, cause their drive to critically malfunction, potentially destroying the ship; a crew would need to be bordering on suicidal for a drive to get to this point. Instead, large ships using drives will plot travel to the edge of a system, and make their way to their destination under the power of sublight thrusters, or through a series of short jumps, though even this brings risk, as it is possible to collide with unseen objects upon exiting bluespace. Therefore, every system will have many points of ingress or egress that are marked on stellar charts. Those who either independently charter or are contracted to charter new ingress/egress points are often paid incredibly well due to the hazardous nature of their work.

Ships and Stations

Spaceships in the 25th century are a common sight. Different star nations and alien powers use different models, designations, and hull types that makes specifics impossible. There are giant barges, small freighters, huge carriers and battleships, heavily armored cruisers, and more. The primary distinction between all ships is whether or not they are equipped with Bluespace Drives that allow them to use FTL outside the network of Bluespace Gates. Military, research, and scouting vessels typically have bluespace drives while the majority of commuter or civilian traffic must use bluespace gates to go between star systems. Warp drives are also relatively common, being a cheaper, albeit slower, solution to non-gate travel.

IFF Tags
Ships, much like stations, hold a three or four-letter prefix in their name that designates the ownership, type, and classification of the ship. Below is a list of common prefixes in use across the spur.

• Coalition
  • AKPV - Air Konyang Passenger Vessel
    
  • AXSV - All-Xanu Spacefleet Vessel
    
  • CCV - Coalition Civilian Vessel
    
  • FPBS - Frontier Protection Bureau Ship
    
  • GNV - Gadpathurian Navy Vessel
    
  • KASFV - Konyang Aerospace Forces Vessel
    
  • PCV - PACHROM Cargo Vessel
    
  • SFV - Scarab Fleet Vessel
    
• Adhomai
  • ACV - Adhomian Civilian Vessel
    
  • DPRAMV - Democratic People's Republic of Adhomai Vessel
    
  • NKAMV - New Kingdom of Adhomai Vessel
    
  • PRAMV - People's Republic of Adhomai Vessel
    
• Corporations
  • EEV - Einstein Engines Vessel
    
  • EERV - Einstein Engines Research Vessel
    
  • EMV - Eridani Military Vessel
    
  • HCV - Hephaestus Civilian Vessel
    
  • HCS - Hephaestus Civilian Shuttle
    
  • IIV - Idris Incorporated Vessel
    
  • NTV - Nanotrasen Vessel
    
  • OEV - Orion Express Vessel
    
  • PMV - Private Military Vessel.
    
  • SCCV - Stellar Corporate Conglomerate Vessel
    
• Izweski Hegemony
  • HMV - Hegemony Military Vessel
    
  • IHGV - Izweski Hegemony Guild Vessel
    
  • IHKV - Izweski Hegemony Kataphract Vessel
    
• Diona
  • RCS - Rokz Clan Ship
    
  • SCS - Serz Clan Ship
    
• Sol
  • FSFV - Free Solarian Fleet Vessel
    
  • SAMV - Sol Alliance Military Vessel
    
  • SFAV - Southern Fleet Administration Vessel
    
• Other
  • BLV - Biesel Military Vessel
    
  • ENV - Elyran Navy Vessel
    
  • GDMV - Golden Deep Mercantile Vessel
    
  • HIMS - His Imperial Majesty's Ship
    
  • IAV - Interstellar Aid Vessel
    
  • ICV - Independent Civilian Vessel
    
  • IFR - Independent Freighter
    
  • IPV - Independent Passenger Vessel
    
  • NFV - Nralakk Federal Vessel
    

Ships and Sizes

Military Vessels
Class	Average Length	Average Crew Complement	Notes
Corvette	25-100m	16-50 up to 80	These ships are the mainstay of many fleets and serve many purposes. Scouts, patrol ships, search and rescue, and more, the majority are able to conduct atmospheric operations and smaller examples are capable of landing on carriers. These can cost about as much as a house.
Frigate	100-300m	100-150	Larger and more armored than corvettes, these tend to be the largest ships in the small Frontier navies. They pack more armor and guns. Some frigates are of atmospheric operations, for example the Sol Alliance Navy, Valkyrie Class frigate. These can cost somewhere around twice as much to four times as much as an equivalent Corvette.
Destroyer	250-450m	100-500	Heavily armed and equipped with advanced electronic warfare and countermeasures that can wreck havoc on enemy fleet's computer systems and defend against the same. Only a very select handful are capable of entering the atmosphere because of the general size and weight. Destroyers and above are usually capable of long-term, independent operations. They are primarily used to help allied corvettes that bit off more than they could chew. These, and ships of larger classes, are prohibitively expensive for anyone but specialist groups, or people such as rich pirate lords with a group to back up the price.
Cruiser	400-800m	400-1000	It is extremely rare for frontier nations to possess even a single heavy cruiser. Cruisers are used as the gunboats of the galaxy, with the Sol Alliance sending cruisers on patrols in frontier systems to project their power. Many Frontier nations are incapable of even hoping to scratch an Alliance cruiser, so they usually operate in small star nation's space with impunity.
Battleship	750-1200m	up to 2000	Bristling with weapons and armor, the battleship is the bread and butter of space navies. A battleship always serves as the flagship of any star nation that can get their hands on one.
Carrier	500-2000m	750-5000 Crew 500-9000 Air Crew	Vary massively in size and crew build up due to differing roles and craft carried. Drone and Scout Carriers are built to be smaller, faster and more agile, like the Icarus that defends the NSS Aurora
Super-Dreadnaught	1000-2000m	2000 - 5000 Crew	With immense firepower and incredibly thick armor, Super-Dreadnaughts follow the philosophy that "more is better". They are an unusual evolution from previous classes of warships. Only the Izweski Hegemony currently possess ships of this class, with each one serving as the flagship for a fleet. Despite being huge vessels they are still built for ramming actions.

General Purpose Ships

A Shuttle is the smallest of all spacefaring vessels. Shuttles are very common and inexpensive. Many larger ships and carriers often have two or more shuttles for atmospheric operations. These cost just a bit more than a hovercar.

Space Stations

There are all kinds of space stations in orbit of planets or out in deep space. They vary from spaceports where ships dock and crew mingle, sprawling habitats where entire generations live and work, deep space pirate bases, bristling cannons in orbit of planets, giant refineries or factories, and more. Any sort of industry or infrastructure that would make sense to put out into space (and somewhere it doesn't seem to make any sense) is out there somewhere. Many of these stations are worked in by the Spacers.

Civilian/Commercial Vessels

Freighters

The mainstay sight of commercial spacefaring is the freighter vessel, used for the transport of supplies, raw materials, and other goods from pretty much every destination in the known universe. There are further subclasses of Bulk Freighters, Tankers, Barges, etc. These are relatively inexpensive, a small step up from a shuttle, costing around the same as a high-end car, not including secondary expenses. It is not unknown for certain owners to stick with a freighter, simply upgrading them as much as the power source and hull allows.

Ferries/Liners

Used for the transportation of passengers and light goods, as well as vehicles between planets and systems. Ferries are smaller craft but are larger than shuttles. Luxurious ferries are called Star Yachts. Asides from Star Yachts, their price driven up solely due to their target audience, ferries are around the same cost as Freighters, if not slightly cheaper.

Residence Vessels

Residence vessels are a catch-all term for various ships that have been retrofitted or modified for usage as a residential space. Often these are cheaper and older models of ferries and shuttles bought from scrapping zones, retrofitting current models being more expensive. When purchased, these vessels are normally heavily modified to suit the needs of the residents: Bedrooms, botanical gardens, even workshops and pools have been found on residence vessels. They normally have rudimentary and basic ship systems on board, if any at all. While ships maintain a costly investment, to those willing to pay the price, they remain a perfect investment. A small private place to call your own alone is tempting, but the promise of eventually fixing the vessel, updating it, and using it for contracts is a dream many ship buyers hope to fulfill. Megacorporations are always happy to expand their roster of freighters and transports. For the daring, the path to more illegal but lucrative jobs is always open. Stations with permanent residences, such Unity Station and the Odin itself have hangars full of people living communally within residence vessels. They are also popular within newly settled or poorer colonies across space or to form off the grid towns on developed worlds. These generally cost around the same as an equivalent motorhome.

Price

While spacefaring vessels can be quite expensive for the layman, there are several factors that can make the bill less painful. The primary factor is what drive you have, bluespace drives being almost a lifetime investment for anything larger than a frigate, the average price for a functional drive for sub-Destroyer vessels being double the ship’s price, not to mention fuel costs. Warp drives are much cheaper, the best drives costing a quarter of the cost, compounded with not requiring phoron fuel, though buyers will have to keep in mind the additional need for cryogenic storages or good entertainment to combat the very long travel times. Capability of the ship to enter atmosphere or not can adjust the price, often larger starships themselves cannot enter a planet’s atmosphere to reduce cost, relying on secondary landing craft. Another factor that can severely reduce cost is having a crew, many hands making light work. Depending on what jobs the crew carries out, legal or otherwise, it is not unheard of for a crew to own even a Frigate. Any larger ships such as a Destroyer are typically staffed by specialist groups, military, corporate, pirate or otherwise. Only rich independent groups own a Destroyer, only the very rich or militaries/corporations own Cruisers. Other miscellaneous factors can be age of the vessel, group of manufacture, power source, source of parts (and their quality/amount, such as weapons, armament, energy shielding, sensors, etc), and how qualified the crew is to repair it themselves. Naturally, choosing to live aboard ones' vessel rather than owning a second home can help.