My player wants to play in a series set on a space station, as advocated in the DS9 core book. Does anyone any interesting space stations beyond Deep Space Nine or locations for self-created stations I could use?
------------------ The road goes ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree.
And I must follow if I can.
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
DS5 is coreward, near Romulan space, is used as a testing-area for new ship designs, and just happens to be on the Borg's favorite route to Sector 001.
DS-K7 is a Federation operated trading outpost near the Klingon border.
I made up the name St.Louis Station for a outpost at the edge of newly discovered/newly accesable area. Basicly, a narrow passage through an obstical has been found, and the Federation has put a station at each end of the passage. The near one is a Federation Starbase, but the far one is very multi-cultural and multi-purpose. I chose the name "St.Louis" in honor of St.Louis Missouri, which was the favored place to cross the Mississippi River for settlers heading to the West of the US in the 1800s. Most of the established trails led to their destination (Oregon, Salt Lake, Sacramento, Santa Fe, ...) from St.Louis, which was a major city on the western bank of the Mississippi.
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You're a Starfleet Officer. "Weird" is part of the job.
I should point out though that K7 will be of little use in a TNG-era campaign as it was in TOS and probably decommissioned many, many years ago. And with the Klingon situation no longer hostile, I doubt they'd have replaced it (not that it was a military station in the first place).
I came up with the Farspace Stations (similar to Deep Space Stations but smaller). Farspace 4 was an small station built as a joint peace move between two neighbouring races who had recently fought a war. Five years after construction, the war resumed and one side (for my purposes the "good" guys) captured it. As they had asked to join the Federation during the period of peace, they asked the Feds to come in and take over the outpost to use in mediating a new peace. Both races were less advanced than the Federation (about early TOS-era tech), so the station needed work. Starfleet assigned an Oberth-Class ship to the station as there were also several interesting phenomena nearby. Later in the campaign the bad guys made overtures to the Romulans, and the station got a hefty upgrade much as DS9 did in "Way of the Warrior". They also got an escort ship (not a Defiant but still punchy).
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"Spatial anomalies, energy beings, telepathic echoes. You know, sometimes I really miss the Dominion War. At least then all we had to worry about was where the next polaron beam was coming from...": Capt.Hunter, USS Tempest
Here's one I made earlier. This was a concept I was developing for a future DS9 RPG series.
I call it Deep Space 12, Edge of the Final Frontier - i know it needs work.
Anyway, Deep Space 12 is not a Federation built station. In fact they still not sure who built it. It was found at the edge of Sector 475 by Captain Thierry LeStrang of the USS Purcelle about five years ago orbiting a class M planet which is the remnant of a pre-space civilization which died out not more than fifty years ago.
The station is an odd mix of technology. Its computer core is more advanced than the current Federation experimental models as is its ODN network. However it does not possess transporters or replicators. Its weapons are an odd mix of disruptors (roughly equivalent of current Klingon types) and plasma torpedoes (as used in the TOS era Romulan warbird).
Why built the station and what happened to the populace of New Rouen? All mysteries to be solved.
The station was taken over by the Federation as their base for exploration into Sector 475. The whole sector is unclaimed and unexplored and ships from all major powers have found their way here to explore and exploit Sector 475.
New Rouen is also being colonized with the colonists taking advantage of the buildings and infrastructure left behind by whatever civilization that used to live on the planet.
Some interesting oddities in the area:
1. A semi-sentient nebula cloud - is it a Colour of out Space (ala Call of Cuthulu?)
2. a dilithium crystal mine owned by an honest Ferengi...a supporter of the new Grand Nagus Rom.
3. A benevloent god like being (for a change) who wanders around the sector passing out advice in the most cryptic way possible. Usually with double meaning prophecies.
4. A wrecked Borg scout ship orbiting around a red dwarf star. Who knows where this will lead?
At the risk of appearing to promote my own work, there's a description of a Starbase and the sector in which it's located in LUG's The Players' Guide. The chapter is entitled "Starbase 315 and the BeTau Sector."
Hope this helps,
Lou Prosperi
Author of Starbase 315 and the BeTau Sector
Ok, well in my campaing Stafleet Intelligence has been busy, they realised that the UFP will kill itself if they do not do something about it so they got funding through secret channels and started building Escort Class Vessels with some add-on that would make Romulans change from green to pink
Anyway, do not mistake it with Section 31, this is the official branch of SI and their motto is the old good Edmund Burke's saying
"For evil to triumph it is only necessary for
good men to do nothing."
So here you have a secret space station
hidden in a nebula, running its own escort, what more could you want... well it was all nice and pretty until Borg showed up and the Escort (USS Avatar) had to be deployed prematurely to combat and through things that went not as planned ended up translocated into the future where Federation no longer exists ... but I am getting carried away, sorry ... Yes, secret Space Station, that was the idea
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Commander Alexandra Polanski
Acting captain, USS Avatar
[This message has been edited by Polanski (edited 09-25-2001).]
"I was there, when StarFleet got a bit more aggressiv"
Somewhere on the lower backside of the federation space lies an old mining/colonisation station of the O'Neill type. No longer used it was pressed into use as an outpost and waypoint station for explorers in this rather empty sector.
Set up in the late 2280's it was grapped up by the "Threat analysis and defense design group" (TADDG) (All "real SF" personal shiver and drink a cognac now, to get the taste out) the "cold warriors" that still remain in SF as a post for testing, storing and keeping "almost unacceptable" personell when the "war fleet" division (more cognag for the peacenicks) was disbanded. The initial security complement consisted of the USS Exeter (a late model Constilation) and some impuls fighters.
In 2268 TADDG got their hands on three "Intrepid" class crafts to "analyse the possibilities of up-arming" and send them out to the station. Imagin the shock when a huuge warp echo approached them, totally out of proportion to the Constitution class ship they where told to expect.
Since the arrival of the three Greeks the station has been given a new lease of live with enhanced exploration capabilities and a completely overhauled Exeter as a guard ship. The discovery of some inhabited planets in the nearby area has resulted in a steady trickle of civilian personel and explorers to come into the area.
With the rising tensions in 2270/71 TAADG has managed to get permissions to re-activate additional "enhanced combat ability" crafts and recently USS Exeter finaly stood down from combat duty and was replaced by USS Lysander (Ambassador/C)
The station is a cylinder, about 5000m long with a 800m diameter. It is lightly armed (mostly point defence) and has light shields. Living space is mostly on the inner hull side and the middle is taken up by hangars, arborethums and technical areas. It can house some 10000 personell and has a minimum crew of around 500.
Around the main station is a halo of workshacks, storage installations and docking bays.
Only recently was a Hyperlink network build out to the station.
If you want something really interesting, how about setting your series around a mobile base station.
Built around a core structure that can be broken down and carried by a single Deneva-class transport, the bulk of the base is built around modular systems that can be tailor made for the station's particular mission. The modules range from docking facilities to support ship operations to carrier modules to carry fighter wings for space control missions to sensor modules for border surveillance.
As the base is portable, it can shift its area of operations on a regular basis and can serve as a temporary base until permanent starbases or space stations can be built to sustain fleet operations.
"What do you mean, 13 is an unlucky number? Look, all races have superstitions. The Andorians think "5" is unlucky - a fifth wheel. Ancienct vulcan ledgends talk of the "curse of nines." Binars have this thing about the number 3. And Packleds think 7, 11, and 3498.22 don't 'go.' If we recognized such superstitions, where wouldn't be any numbers left at all!" -- quoted from the irascable Admiral Jeffers, chief of operations (Trans-Outback region)
Construction was uncompleted when the Dominion war began, leaving much of this huge structure as hollow, empty bays. For Outback sector was relatively quiet, a low priority. Located on the frontier region where Federation and Romulan interests dwindled off into deep space, this station was intended to support exploration and colonization on the new frontier. Sure, there was occasional tensions with the Romulans, but nothing serious.
All this changed when the Breen entered the Dominion war. All of a sudden DS13 became a critical focal point. And once the Breen had made significant gains, it was in serious and immediate danger of being destroyed.
DS13 has a spherical main section, with a smaller command section perched atop it. The smooth lines of the station are broken up on top of the command section, which has myriad antenna, instruments and other devices sticking out. The main section has an internal hangar suitable for small to medium size ships. The docking ring is a hoop which surrounds the main section and is connected to it by 4 radial "spokes." Large ships can use the docking ring, which also holds the shields and weapon towers.
[This message has been edited by Diamond (edited 09-25-2001).]
While we're on the subject, what type of ships should be assigned to a space station. I would think that a couple of Runabouts to start but I think in troubled times, Starfleet would assign an escort type vessel to the station to give it a bit more protection. While only the most important stations will get a Defiant, I think some stations in key sectors should be assigned a Mercred or some other small but still significantly powerful ship for additional self defence.
I have been kicking an idea around lately about a space station set near the Tzenkethi/Talarian sector (according to the stdiemnsion maps).
The plot being that both species have been armed up with salvaged Dominion War vessels (probably sold by endeavourous Ferengi). Both are now starting to clash with each oher over disputed colonies or territory.
A neutral world in the area has asked the Federation to help protect them, and sweetens the pot by offering a starbase they built to Starfleet.
The Federation not wanting a full scale war to break out in that area, agrees and dispatches the players to take command of the station and try to keep the peace by presence alone...
Where this can go as a series is only limited by your own creativity
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Captain Zymmer
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