A Cheap and Stealthy outpost built inside stellar debris.
- Cheap and Stealthy Early Warning/Ambush Outpost - Able to hold a small compliment of Star Fighters and Marines.
- Early Warning for System Defense. - Ambush Mission versus System Invaders.
The Frontier Asteroid Base looks like a normal Iron-type Asteroid normally averaging 5 kilometers at the widest point, but can range from 1 kilometers to even the size of a planetoid (roughly 500 Kilometers in diameter). The facilities of a Frontier Base are buried deep beneath the surface of the particular stellar debris of choice but always have a launching facility or multiple disguised as recently-formed craters.
Some of the earliest stations in Jaspis, Frontier Asteroid Bases have been uses successfully since Abwehrans first began to expand into their home solar system. The most recent Frontier Bases can be found orbiting the outer edges of the Jaspis System. Both of them named Frontier I and II, they are the largest objects found in the outer debris belt that surrounds all star systems.
Though those are the most well known, there are dozens of such bases that can be found in the Inner Asteroid Field of Jaspis, including a large planetoid roughly 500 kilometers in diameter known as “Fortress”. The most recent design, the Ay-P4-4a has yet to see service since it is a recent update to a long line of designs.
Class: Ay-P4-4a Type: Asteroid Base Designers: Kaiserlich F&E Manufacturer: Abwehran Imperial Yards Production: Mass-Production Fielded by: Weltraumflotte Cost per Unit: 4,500,000 Credits (1,500,000 KS)
Crew: 565 - 592
Marines: 768
Pilots: 400
Maximum Capacity: There are accommodations for 1760 people. About 5000 people can fit aboard in an emergency, but the ship would be extremely cramped.
Note: These are Average Dimensions, they actually vary between asteroid sizes. Length: 5000 meters (16,404 feet) Width: 5000 meters (16,404 feet) Height: 5000 meters (16,404 feet) Decks: N/A (4 meters each)1) Mass 6,000,000,000 metric tons
Range: In-System Lifespan: 100 years Refit Cycle: Every 20 years
See Damage Rating (Version 3) for an explanation of the damage system.
Since Each Frontier is different from one another, there can be no set Deck Layout. What can be said about the layout is that the deepest facilities will always be the Command Center and Engineering. Facilities in the Middle Layer would normally be Crew Quarters/Recreation, Medical/Science Facilities, and an Agricultural Section. The Upper Layer comprises of the remaining facilities with the Launch Bay disguised as a recently-made Crater.
Like many of the Abwehran's Station designs, the Frontier Asteroid Base is self-sufficient in the fact that is has a huge Agricultural Section dedicated to the production of food and air. It also provides a park-like atmosphere for relaxation when off-duty.
See: Large Armory
Instead of large cargo holds, the Frontier has several storage areas with separate, lockable storage units labeled 1-100 in each area. Large reservoir tanks holding water can also be found in these facilities. Each Storage Area is so large that conveyor belts and trucks are used to transport both goods and personnel. A Frontier normally has an average of twenty such storage units.
The Frontier Command Center is more like a combination of a starship bridge and a Central Intelligence Center with the design comprised of a sphere reaching a radius of 10 meters. In this sphere, ten chairs located on a central platform are placed facing outward with their own consoles. These chairs are for sensor/communications operators, each responsible for a section of space in the Frontier's detection range. A second platform is located just underneath the first with ten more seats which are for intelligence analysts. Above the first platform is a much smaller platform which contains the Base Commander, the Strategic Officer, and the Chief Intelligence Officer.
Though many of the older model Frontiers used multiple CU-23 Computer Systems networked together to perform as one huge supercomputer, the newer Frontiers are actually to be run but a dual-linked system of two CU-24 Quantum Computers. This is also back up by three more pairs of equally powerful systems and again backed up by the usual 20 CU-23's networked into a supercomputer. All of these systems are in moderately large facilities dotting the Frontier's interior.
A frightfully large cylindrical facility with low-gravity that is located deep near the Base's Core, the Frontier's Engineering Section contains the following equipment:
Next to the Engineering Section, the Frontier's Fabrication Center is much like a factory as opposed to a ship-based fabrication room. With automated facilities monitored by expert Machinists, the Fabrication Center can produce vast quantities of repair materials and spare parts if and when necessary.
Large, cavernous facilities that hold squadrons worth of fighters and dozens of shuttle craft at a time. Each vehicle is attached to the cavernous walls via clamps and scaffolds in order to fit as many craft as possible. For some of the large Frontier Bases, it is even possible for Escort-type Warships to dock in these facilities.
Small passageways that technicians have to crawl through, they are large enough for an adult Abwehran male to crawl on his hands and knees.
Standard spartan and utilitarian passageways are used for everyday foot traffic, while transportation between the various facilities is done via high-speed trains.
Planetoids and Asteroids are hardly objects that could be armored easily. Therefore, the outer most armor is the actual crust of these pieces of stellar debris, hence why Abwehrans chose debris of metallic/rocky content as opposed to those made of dust and powder. Facilities in the Frontier Base, on the other hand, all have their own Tri-Layer Armor to protect them in the freak case something should get through the crust of the stellar debris.
See: CU-24
With its mission dealing in ambushing and early warning, the Frontier Base has no escape pods to save its crew. It is compartmentalized in the freak case of a breach, but other than that the crew must rely on rescue ships and its own shuttle complement to save themselves.
The Frontier relies on its own Agricultural Sector to provide its crew with breathable air. Water, however, is delivered initially to create a vast reservoir that could fill a moderately large lake. It is then filtered via an efficient water treatment plant and sent to all facilities via kilometers of pipeline.
(Per Launch Bay)
(Optional)