User:Kermit-old

Interstellar travel has been 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.

Faster-Than-Light travel is then also separated in Drive and Gate travel. The majority of the Spur will travel via Warp Gates or Bluespace Rings, which can be done without purchasing a drive for your ship and can be done quite cheaply. Purchasing a drive is often seen as a longer term investment, or for those wishing to be self-sufficient, avoid gate traffic, or sight-see along less travelled routes.

Warp Travel

Warp drives, less frequently referred to as Alcubierre-Akysonov drives, work by distorting the space-time continuum around a ship, where space-time at the front is compressed and expanded at the rear, creating a wave-like "warp field" which propels the warp field and all within it forwards at faster-than-light speeds. Some warp drives and gates 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 field, as an object moving at FTL speeds will destroy 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 is unlike bluespace drives which can have ingress/egress zones more central to systems.

Warp travel has no 'special fuel' requirement, unlike bluespace travel which rely upon phoron. However, warp travel has a larger power requirement, necessitating a dedicated power generator to overcome this obstacle: typically fission for smaller ships; fusion for larger ships; a series of fusion generators for gates.

• Low-end warp drives reach maximum speeds of 0.10LYD. Their cost is comparable to that of a car, though require a dedicated power generator to power, often doubling the cost.

• Higher-end warp drives or those in larger vessels can reach 0.50LYD, still paling in comparison to bluespace drives. Their cost is comparable to that of a house, though require a dedicated fusion reactor to power, requiring a larger vessel and doubling the cost.

• The cost of using a warp gate is comparable to that of a train ticket. The Spur's states and megacorporations reserve certain warp lanes for their employees or for regular travellers who have subscribed to avoid warp traffic.

• The cost of constructing a warp gate is immense, requires multiple dedicated fusion reactors, and has a large contractor cost, including cartographers to ensure a route is safe. It adds up to compare to constructing an international airport.

History

The idea of warp drives in the context they are known today began to crop up in the mid-1900s, with Dr. Miguel Alcubierre expanding upon and providing the first equations in which a warp drive may behave and be possible. It wouldn't be until the mid-2130s, amid the Earth's Climate Crisis that threatened humanity, that Soviet physicists led by Dr. Evgeniy Aksyonov would design the first, functional warp drive. 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 2355, the Solarian Alliance would announce the Warp Gate Project, which would aim to connect all of humanity's well populated and profitable systems together with a series of warp gates. Einstein Engines would be contracted to complete this work and, in 2384, they would announce the completion of the last planned warp gate.

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 Gates

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 bundles of warp lanes exist, all connecting the same two locations, for well-trafficked routes. It is a frustrating truth that even these bundled warp lanes 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. Warp lanes accessible only to specific states or megacorporations also exist, ensuring those 'important' need not get stuck in warp traffic - subscriptions are also offered for regular travellers to use these exclusive routes. Warp lanes are all publicised on the Interstellar Warp Database - the bible for any pilot who utilises warp drives and gates - which additionally indicates when warp lanes are in-use and inaccessible.

Since the completion of the Warp Gate Project, many of these warp lanes are now connected by warp gates, negating the need for a warp drive to traverse a warp lane. They are reliably found in every known inhabited system and, in conjunction with warp lanes, form a spider web of connection across the known galaxy. Though expensive to set up initially, they are smaller and cheaper to run than bluespace rings and are seen as the mainstay of interstellar travel, even following bluespace's advent. Warp Gates have simple Gate AIs installed into them to coordinate and log jumps between gates, being simple enough they remain in-usage by groups that reject artificial intelligence, such as the Empire of Dominia. Recently, the Nralakk Federation unveiled an organic alternative to Gate AIs.

Most drives produced in the current day are locked to these warp lanes and gates, 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 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 cartographer 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 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 field 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, but had the unintentional consequence of resulting in greater reliance on Einstein Engines' warp gates.

• 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 Field Accretion, and Shotgun Warping: When a ship is soaring through space in warp, this warp field will 'catch' other particles in the trough-like space-time distortion at the front of the warp field, 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, officially Warp NSCP Events: Warp drives and gates have an inherent 'failure chance' when primed for warp travel. In the latest models released by Einstein Engines, a warp drive or gate will malfunction 3 times out of 100. The malfunctions are usually not major, overloading and damaging components. 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 or gate 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.

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 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 negative warp drives, which generate negative mass particles to distort space-time to create the warp field, the Hammer Drive was the first positive warp drive to be designed. This is an unimportant distinction for mostt but, crucially, it forgoes the requirement for warp drives to come with built-in negative mass particle generators, massively reducing their size and power demand - two of the larger downsides for consumers.

Only available on the open market in 2464, Hammer Drives remain expensive, though not prohibitively so: A Hammer Drive's cost is comparable to an expensive, mid-range bluespace drive (a mansion), and can permit travel up to 0.70 LYDs with none of the phoron cost of a bluespace drive, less power demand than other high-end warp drives, and can fit in ships other high-end warp drives could not.

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 field 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 field 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 warp drives, resulting in their widespread use by rather infamous groups - however, an advanced understanding of engineering and the internal complexities of warp drives 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 bluespace drives and gates is a "bluespace crystal matrix" - a series of blue-tinted phoron crystals, or bluespace crystals, that appear to display piezoelectric-like characteristics by forces believed to be 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. No one quite understands the mechanisms behind this - it just works; normally, this would bar the wide adoption of something, but not something as profitable as bluespace.

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, ejecting them with the ship when it exits bluespace. These egress and ingress zones align with the warp zones on the edges of star systems and also - 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. They cost about as much as a supercar.

• 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. They cost about as much as a mansion.

• Heavy-duty, powerful bluespace drives found in cruisers tend to reach velocities of .60 lightyears a day, with the highest end reaching .75LYD. They are unaffordable to any individual, and are only fielded by megacorporations or the Spur's major states.

• Capital bluespace drives found in battleships and larger tend to reach velocities of .85 lightyears a day, with the highest end reaching 1 LYD. Their price could humble a board of corporate executives.

• The cost of using a bluespace ring is comparable to that of a plane ticket. NanoTrasen Corporation used to offer a subscription for frequent travellers, however it is now only offered to their employees.

• The cost of constructing a bluespace ring is insurmountable and will garner laughs from investors.

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 2352 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 2354, 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 ring network to replace warp gates, with a bluespace ring 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 rings and drives became apparent, seeing the bold plans for bluespace rings 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 discovery 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 Rings

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

Bluespace rings 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 Ring AIs which permit access based on ship credentials and perform the highly-complex calculations required to transport a vessel thousands of kilometers through a different dimension. To use a bluespace ring, a transmission consisting of several details is required, which are usually checked against existing records and with the local authority of the entity that the bluespace ring resides within.

Bluespace rings are only capable of hurling a ship towards the egress point of another bluespace ring, however - being so powerful - they permit near-instantaneous travel with a promised 5 minutes maximum transit time. Minor bluespace rings are not instantaneous, however remain significantly quicker than bluespace drives.

Originally bluespace rings were expected to be a total replacement to warp gates; this idea was quickly discarded after it became clear how expensive these new rings were. Instead, they were built in only the most traffic-heavy systems of the Spur which, even to this day and despite the downscaling, is 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 rings being in their territory at the time of their construction. Diplomatic agreements with the Nralakk Federation, Coalition of Colonies, and Republic of Elyra also saw the Alliance allow new lanes to be created between rings constructed within the capital of each respective nation. No new rings have been constructed since 2425.

In the modern day, the only systems to possess full-sized bluespace rings are Sol, Qerrbalak, Tau Ceti, Konyang, Xanu Prime, and Persepolis. Of note is the bluespace lane between Tau Ceti and Xanu which, in 2462, is said to have “collapsed” due to reasons unknown. It is unclear what exactly happened or 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 Dematerialisation, 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 bluespace - 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, with symptoms ranging from memory loss, to temporary vision impairment, to skin rashes. For this reason, it has always been advised to plot a series of consecutive, mid-range bluespace jumps instead of one large bluespace jump.
• Bluespace Chronology Protection Events (BCPEs): 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 possibilities for travel. Similar to a warp drive's nonviolent NSCP events though instead caused by immense energy build up, even in bluespace the universe is capable of aborting any attempts to time travel. Unlike warp drives however, this is handled destructively, whereby once a ship begins traversing the bluespace Z-plane, the bluespace drive near-instantly explodes, either damaging the ship after it is pulled out of bluespace or - for those even unluckier - simply sees the ship dematerialise in 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 next be seen drifting in a destroyed vessel or not at all.

Ships and Stations

Transponders and IFF Tags

All ships are typically outfitted with a transponder which broadcasts an IFF tag and the ship's name for identification by other vessels. It is often a legal requirement for a transponder to be activated in habited star systems. An IFF tag is a typically 3 letter prefix that denotes which state a ship was registered in or who owns it. Below is a list of IFF tags in use across the Spur:

IFF Tags

• 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
    

Civilian Vessels

Civilian vessels are routinely seen zipping around space, ferrying commuters from one system to another, delivering supplies and commodities across planets, or simply exploring the stars. All manner of hull types exist, from pleasure yachts to rag-tag skiffs, to modular freighters and enormous fuel tanks with rockets strapped to them. The more functional the design, the cheaper; the more elegant and luxurious, the more expensive. Beyond the initial cost of the ship, a number of other factors may affect the price, including: whether or not an FTL drive is installed, with most avoiding this cost by relying on gate travel; whether ammenities and long-term entertainment and forgone for a cryogenics suite; etc.

Civilian Vessels
Class	Average Length	Average Crew Complement	Notes
Shuttles	10-25m	1-2	Typically used by larger ship classes for in-atmosphere operations and transit between vessels. Incapable of FTL, including gate travel. Less frequently used by wealthy individuals for transit around the same planet. Comparible to the price of a car.
Class I: Skiffs, Yachts, Light Freighters, Light Tankers.	40-150m	4-20	These vary in costs depending on size, outfitting, in-atmosphere capabilities, and any ammenities. Rarely come prefitted with FTL drives and rely on gates; they struggle to accomodate the power demands of drives. Comparible to the price of a house.
Class II: Ferries, Freighters, Tankers.	150-400m	20-200	These are quite pricy for the average individual: a family or group of friends can field one; specialist groups often field a few. Unable to enter atmospheres, requiring a shuttle. Sometimes prefitted with FTL drives. 2-4x as expensive as Class Is.
Class III: Starliners, Large Freighters, Large Tankers, Expeditionary Vessels.	400-850m	200-500	Fielded by larger specialist groups, megacorporations, states, and the more wealthy of the Spur. 4-6x as expensive as Class IIs.
Class IV: Cruiseliners, Superfreighters, Supertankers, Large Expeditionary Vessels.	850-1500m	500-1000	Typically fielded for large, state or megacorporate operations. Shockingly expensive.

Military Vessels

Military vessels - especially current-day models - are rarely found in the hands of non-military or non-megacorporate groups (and is illegal to do so in most parts of the Spur). However, outdated models and salvaged military vessels occasionally fall into the hands of the unsavoury. These vessels are all expensive to field and upkeep, equipped with all the latest equipment.

Military Vessels
Class	Average Length	Average Crew Complement	Notes
Corvette	40-100m	16-40	Nimble and versatile ships used as patrols, search and rescue, reconnaissance, etc. The majority are able to conduct atmospheric operations and smaller examples are capable of landing on carriers. A surplus corvette has a cost comparible to that of a mansion, even after being stripped of high-end military equipment; outdated or salvaged models are cheaper.
Frigate	80-200m	40-200	Typically larger than Corvettes, these tend to be the largest ships in the small Frontier navies. In larger navies, they tend to operate as escort vessels, protecting trade routes, or being the smallest component in a battle group. Some frigates are capable of atmospheric operations, for example the Sol Alliance Navy's Valkyrie Class frigate. A surplus frigate costs 4x as much as a corvette, even after being stripped of high-end military equipment; the unsavoury prefer to refit civilian vessels.
Destroyer	180-400m	180-500	Destroyers are the largest ships that would typically fall into an escort role. Today, they tend to be specialised vessels, with most falling into the role of Electronic Warfare, Area Defence, or Missile Warfare vessels, some even have the ability to host a small number of light spacecraft. Very few destroyers are capable of atmospheric operations due to their sheer size, though they make up for this with their ability to sustain themselves for longer periods on long-term independent operations. Surplus destroyers and above are not sold on most open markets. Only prestigious pirate lords would take the effort to splash out on salvaging and refitting a destroyer.
Cruiser	300-750m	400-750	These ships tend to be the smallest class of ship that an average-sized navy might consider their 'flagship'. Their duties typically fall into anti-ship roles, whether that is by using guns, missiles, or a limited number of spacecraft.
Battleship	600-1000m	600-1000	Battleships are very few are far between, with even the largest nations only operating a cherished few. Provided you have advanced-enough guns, and a state of the art ballistics computer, a battleship could engage another vessel from hundreds of kilometres away. The mere presence of a battleship in a frontier system is usually enough to convince them to surrender before the battle even begins.
Carrier	180-1250m	180-1000 Crew 90-500 Flight Crew	Carriers vary massively in size and complement due to the roles they fall into, and the types of spacecraft being carried. Drone carriers, Scoutcraft carriers, and smaller Escort carriers tend to be the smallest, usually the size of a Cruiser, and tend to carry around 100 small drones, or 50 scoutcraft.
Super-Dreadnaught	1000-2000m	1000 - 2000 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.

Space Stations

Space stations are a common sight in orbit of planets and stars, to the dismay of planetbound astronomers, and vary in purpose, from scientific to industrial to military.

Unlike habitable planets which are limited in number and have both financial and environmental obstacles impeding colonisation, space stations can be easier for a group to establish. As a result, space stations are found all across the Spur where those looking to set up their own long-term community have decided to set up, be it a pirate freeport in an unclaimed system or Offworlder Humans setting up in orbit of civilised planets. Stations must be registered with the state who has claimed the system before being set up and, while autonomy may be permitted by certain states, they remain beholden to local laws and regulations.

Stations
Class	Average Pressurised Volume	Average Crew Complement	Notes
Habitats	1000-2000m3	4-16	A common sight in orbit of planetary bodies and similar gravity wells. Resided within by those who are unable to or reject life upon planets; still used for research purposes by states, megacorporations, etc. Their price varies depending on design, ammenities, specialist equipment, and such. They are not self-sufficient, requiring shuttled resupplies. Comparible to the price of a house.
Stations	2000-8000m3	15-800	Typically owned by specialist groups, businesses, or those wishing to setup a small voidbound community. Their price varies drastically depending on size, ammenities, specialist equipment, and such. They are not wholly self-sufficient, but can locally produce most necessities. Prices ranging from a mansion to a manor house.
Large Stations	8000-48000m3	800-5000	Uses for much the same purposes as standard stations, and also the size of a typical military station. Typically self-sufficient and capable of producing excess for bulk sale. Prohibitively expensive for individuals and small groups, and typically the largest station seen in Frontier systems.
Orbital Complexes	48000m-150000m3	5000-15000	Orbital complexes go beyond self-sufficiency and aim to produce everything locally. Jewel World planets typically have one in orbit operated by the local state; they are rarely seen outside of the Jewel Worlds.
Orbital Supercomplexes	150000-300000m3	15000-30000	These go even beyond regular orbital complexes, and are often compared to small cities in the orbit of planets. Few exist around the Spur, with two examples being the NTCC Odin and the Unity Station.