Fieldberg Station pre-launch tour

Fieldberg Station is now populated by a full compliment crew, who are busy completing the build process ready for launching the station into full operation.

The habitation facility, shielding, energy generation and storage, matter storage and conversion, wharf and logistics facility, control tower, life support, and basically every station system is now fully operational.  The station only needs a few more minor infrastructure and human comfort additions before being totally operational.

It also needs the defense matrix to be built and brought online, relieving FRG Thor to be able to patrol the rest of the Empire.

Matter Conversion Battery uses plasma-suspension ovens to compress and encapsulate matter signatures

Stairwell access to the sub-levels of the matter signature storage cryovats allow inspection while gravity-bound

Habitation facility has it's own dedicated cargo pod bay and docking ramps

Cargo pod bay can store up to 12 standard cargo pods, with access to the maintenance bay up a ramp

 The maintenance bay just up from the cargo pod bay is used primarily for the storage of machinery being operated on, and small manufacture and repair tasks to be done under cover from solar radiation and micro-asteroid bombardment.

An external mesh gangway connects the maintenance bay to the airlock leading into the main habitation facility.

Decontamination (and standard hygiene) shower cubicles within the habitation facility.

A small spartan triple-bunk crew quarters bolsters the personal quarters already located on the original mining outpost, bringing the total crew capacity to 6

A small mess hall and food combinator provides meals and waste disposal services to the crew

Tight hallways and humming servers are something you get used to quickly on Fieldberg

The central AI is one of the most powerful computers in the empire at this point in time

Upstairs in the con tower facility another airlock leads directly into space, with an observation port to the right and the traffic control tower to the left

Traffic control tower is a three man facility, with a Communications Officer, Traffic Monitor, and Master Controller

Master Controller has a separate darkened room that oversees the docking and cargo operating areas

The 180 degree up down view of the cargo docks gives the Master Controller unparalleled views of the station from within a pressurised area

The view allows the Master Controller to see all docking activity first hand, including wharf cranes, containers being docked and unloaded, and any other activity, while keeping all AI-fed relevant data within field of view by a myriad of feeds

Right side of the Master Controller's view shows vessels approaching the docking area.  Here a container dropped by a recent transport vessel waits to be docked by an WDU, containing supplies for the finalisation of the station build

The Shield Dome is a self-contained shield unit delivering both capacity and charge in very large quantities

Two huge matter signature storage cryovats have enough space for mind-blowing amounts of matter signatures, allowing the station to stockpile mammoth quantities of matter

One of the main walkways on the station, looking back between the energy batteries (right) and cryovats (left), towards the mining outpost and connecting gangway

Access to the generators for maintenance is via a series of gangways and stairwells to help protect maintenance crews from both asteroid impact risk as well as drift risk

Generators are lined up with three levels of maintenance access with dividing stairwells

The Pisces-Class generator banks provide huge quantities of energy to the station to drive both the matter conversion as well as the upcoming defense matrix

The station viewed from underneath shows a lot of the underlying structure, cabling, and fluid conduits

Life support, fluid recylcing, and power conduits writhe their way around the superstructure between the critical systems

Top view of the station shows the small connecting gangway between the mining outpost section and the processing plant section

The station is effectively operational, although it is still undergoing systems tests and requires a large defense matrix to protect the sizeable investment this station represents to the empire.

The matrix is said to include a double-redundancy shield, armoured deflection battlements, anti-missile cannon batteries, torpedo racks, several large beam turrets and a compliment of three fighters. Already some citizens have taken residence in local space under the protection of Thor, knowing that this station will represent one of the best protected parts of Dry Empire... Fieldberg Station is likely to therefore fulfill a secondary purpose of forming a commercial hub within the empire.

The Library

As time went on I found that one thing tended to lead to another.

For example the build of FRG Thor required me to use particular types of components (for example shield capacitors), which in turn required particular types of materials (for example Rammet and Sertise capsules).

As I had since breaking free of the now obliterated Gundabadt, I had been purchasing materials and even components from the nearby Trading Guild station, however the station was having supply issues due to pirate blockades in a nearby system, and were unable to provide me any more than I had already purchased.

As a result, I was reaching a point where more and more items were now unable to be built or purchased, and the only way I would be able to build these items for any more vessels and expand my budding empire would be to mine and process the minerals myself.  Or destroy the blockade.  If the Trading Guild couldn't despatch the blockade, then clearly I would have no chance, so really, the only option was to find, mine, and process the necessary minerals myself, and use them to manufacture my own items.

But I was new to this, having been a process slave in Gundabadt I knew nothing about minerals, asteroids, what they looked like, where they could be found, et cetera.

I would need to begin exploring, sampling, and cataloging my discoveries.

I knew this would require a huge amount of processing power, and so the concept for a Library addition to my shipyard station was born.

Databases and servers whir and blink as they wait to absorb, catalog, and as required present compiled information about the discoveries I made.

Everything from asteroids found, mineral content, resources, capsules, refineries, technologies, building techniques, blueprints for ships, research, starbase and asteroid field locations, and a host of other information would be fed into these servers and processed by their AI into a range of useful information.

Connected to the main deck of my shipyard and the basic factory I had previously built, the library is almost as power-hungry as the entire shipyard and factory to date, warranting the addition of another 2 3x3x3 power generators.

To protect the delicate servers from random pirate fire, the Library has a much denser structure than the rest of the shipyard's facilities, and is wired directly into the power grid.

This Library Wing adds a further 10x5x10 structure to the basic factory and power/shield generator grid structure connected to the shipyard, and is helping to form a small station attachment to the entire structure.

With the docking arms (completed with ship maintenance systems and cargo siphons) added to the station some weeks ago, the entire shipyard complex is becoming much more like a small station now.

Dubbed "Dry Station", my shipyard was almost a small port nowadays.

Pirates seemed to give me wide berth these days, although occassionally a sniper or two would sit outside the range of my homing missile turrets and pepper Dry Station with long shots... but they did little more than give me a smirk if one managed to actually strike the base instead of sail by through empty space.

SVG Excavator

SVG Speeder was a good salvaging vessel.  She wore four of my automated homing missile turrets and could soak up a reasonable asteroid in a few minutes.  She had been created from my initial credits which I'd managed to obtain during my escape from Gundabadt Station, and had served me well in digitising asteroids for their mineral content.

However as my need to build bigger and greater vessels increased, so too did my need to digitise minerals (both from defeated pirate vessels, as well as asteroids and comets).

So it became time to replace Speeder with a much more powerful salvaging vessel.

I drafted plans to incorporate the shield technology I had developed for the corvette Alannis, as well as banks of well powered salvaging cannons that would make Speeder's own capacity seem small and insignificant.

I also wanted the new salvager to have much tougher armour as I intended to drop the weight of turrets in favour of shields and armour and simply sit under the umbrella of turret emplacements as I claimed asteroid fields for my own.

And so I began building my new salvager, the SVG Excavator.

SVG Speeder shown to the right of the main salvage cores of SVG Excavator for scale

SVG Excavator has 2614 salvage cannons, compared to SVG Speeder's 240 salvage cannons.  In addition she has 212,000 power storage, with 458,000 e/sec recharge.

SVG Excavator's specifications:
Mass: 820.3 tons
Length: 42m
Height: 16m
Width: 27m
Thrust: 237.9 (-98)
Shields: 28000 (+319/sec)

CRV Alannis and SVG Speeder shown next to shipyard and SVG Excavator for scale.

SVG Excavator is much tougher than SVG Speeder

She has navigation lights for port, starboard, deck and dorsal.

She boasts 1x port, 1x starboard, 2x bow, and 1x stern observation lenses.

She has an armoured open core entrance, and an aligned docking camera.

Her engines are not as powerful as CRV Alannis, but more powerful than SVG Speeder.

SVG Excavator is a big step up from SVG Speeder, and will greatly speed up my mining and salvaging operations.

It was time to take her out for her maiden voyage.