Stations
The stations
Sixteen sectors have a human space station: a great wheel 232 m across, turning once a minute, with a ring of lit windows, red beacons on its rim and a docking bay in its hub. One is in H8, where you start, and every sector is within three sectors of one. Each sits in the calm eye of an asteroid field, with its bay facing the sector’s center, so arriving there by hyperwarp puts the bay in front of you.
While you’re in a station’s sector, the HUD marks it in yellow, with its hull.
Docking
Eight lines of green guide lights run out 220 m from the bay, with a pulse running down them toward it. To dock:
- Fly into the corridor of green lights.
- Point at the bay.
- Come within 200 m.
- Slow to 20 m/s or less.
Within 800 m, the HUD marks the bay and says what’s still needed: LINE UP ON THE GREEN LIGHTS, POINT AT THE BAY, CLOSE TO 200 m, SLOW TO 20 m/s, then READY TO DOCK. Tap DOCK and the station’s tractor beam draws you in, the bay’s clamps close on your ship, and the station’s screen comes up. Morgons can still shoot at you during the tow.
Rescue: a ship that has run out of energy can’t steer, so the tractor beam reaches out for one drifting anywhere within 400 m in front of the bay, and draws it in without a tap.
Docked
Docking fills your energy and shields, for free. The station’s screen shows the station’s hull, your account, the Thalorite in your hold and your energy. Time doesn’t stop while you’re docked: every Morgon in the sector turns on the station meanwhile, its hull can fall while you trade, and if the station is destroyed, you go with it.
Deliver
Unloads the Thalorite in your hold into your account.
Repair
- Hull: 1 Thalorite for every 2 points.
- Components: each one below 100%, priced by the health missing: 10 Thalorite from destroyed to new, 5 from half.
- Station hull: donate Thalorite to repair the station itself, 4 hull a unit, 10 units at a time.
Every station repairs everything, so damage never strands you.
Refit
Sells the upgrades of the station’s shipyard kind (below). The part you have fitted is traded in, so you pay only the difference: going through Mk II costs no more than going straight to Mk III. Fitting a lesser part is free, with no refund.
Launch and Retire
LAUNCH puts you back out, 40 m from the bay, stopped and facing away, with the throttle where you left it.
RETIRE, under it, ends the run there after asking. It’s rated as retired, which counts for more than being destroyed: the way to bank a good run rather than fly on until something destroys you.
The account
You have one account for the whole system. Thalorite you deliver at any station goes into it, and you can spend all of it at any station. Losing a station loses its services and its shipyard, never the Thalorite you delivered there. The risk is in the trip home: what’s in your hold is lost with the ship. You start with nothing, so mine first.
Shipyards
Every station but H8’s is one of four kinds of shipyard, shown in its header and on the sector map, and sells only that kind’s upgrades. H8’s sells none, so every upgrade means a trip out. The kinds are spread over the system, and the two stations nearest H8 are different kinds, so the first upgrade is a choice.
| Shipyard | Map label | Sells |
|---|---|---|
| Weapons | WPN |
Photon guns and hulls |
| Drives | DRV |
Engines, hyperdrives and fuel cells |
| Systems | SYS |
Shields, tracking computers and sector maps |
| Cargo | CGO |
Cargo holds |
A destroyed shipyard takes its kind’s upgrades out of that part of the system.
Upgrades
Prices are in Thalorite, from the standard part. Stepping up from Mk II costs the difference.
| Upgrade | Shipyard | Standard | Mk II | Mk III |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photon guns | Weapons | 8 damage a photon | 12 damage: 100 | 20 damage: 250 |
| Hull | Weapons | 100 points | 150 points: 75 | 200 points: 150 |
| Engines | Drives | 100 m/s, 1.5 energy a second at full | 115 m/s, 2.5 a second: 60 | 130 m/s, 4 a second: 120 |
| Hyperdrive | Drives | Jumps at full cost | Jumps cost 75%: 50 | Jumps cost half: 100 |
| Fuel cell | Drives | Holds 1,000, recharges 1 a second | Recharges 2 a second: 100 | Holds 2,000, recharges 2 a second: 200 |
| Shields | Systems | 100 strength, 5 a second | 150, 7.5 a second: 100 | 200, 10 a second: 200 |
| Tracking computer | Systems | Aims within 3°, 35% direct | Within 10°, 65%, tracks turrets: 100 | Within 6°, 80%, tracks turrets: 250 |
| Sector map | Systems | Sees 1 sector all round | 2 sectors all round: 50 | The whole system: 100 |
| Cargo hold | Cargo | Holds 50, a quarter slower full | Extended: holds 100, a quarter slower full: 75 | Bulk: holds 200, 40% slower full: 150 |
A full refit to Mk III costs 1,520. A hold too small for the Thalorite aboard can’t be fitted until you deliver.
Defending stations
A station has 1,000 hull and repairs itself slowly. Destroy its attackers to end an attack, and donate Thalorite to repair it faster. Your own fire counts: your photons and rams damage a station just as the Morgons' do, so mind your aim, and your approach. A destroyed station leaves a dark wreck you can’t dock at, and its sector is captured (see The Morgons). Losing every station loses the run.