FarStar's decks

[the_darkstryder]

These are the major locations aboard the FarStar, to help players a sense of location and consistency.



UPPER WEAPONS DECK

Sensor Suite

The sensor suite contains the major sensor posts and provides the sensor systems room (on deck two) and the command center (on decks two and three) with detailed sensor scans of the space surrounding the FarStar. Three sensor operators can be found here at all times.

The room is a big circle; a central cluster of sensor array equipment nearly fills the room while computer banks ring the outer walls. The three duty posts are equidistant around the outside of the room.

Lighting is kept very low to allow the operators to read the sensor readout screens. Because it is right above the engineering section, this room tends to be extremely warm.

The sensor array is tied into the large sensor dish which protrudes out into space and constantly rotates to provide information from all directions. While most of the sensor gear is inside this station, the actual sensor instruments are affixed at the base of the dish or integrated into the dish.

The FarStar is equipped with several standard sensor systems, including electro photo receptors (EPRs; they scan the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared spectrums at short range), full-spectrum transceivers (FSTs; they can scan objects for physical data and information on energy output), and dedicated energy receptors (DERs; they can detect electromagnetic emissions, including comlink signals, navigational beacons, heat, laser light, and similar types of emissions).

Turbolaser

This is the bay from which the FarStar's upper turbolaser is controlled. The FarStar has six turbolasers, which are the primary defense for the Corvette. The lighting is kept low, and there is a constant rumbling as the weapons run through testing routines.

The gunner position is a full-time post, with the gunnery seat in the base of the turret. The gunner handles all targeting and firing for the weapon, with targeting data supplemented by the sensor suite readings. Fire control orders are delivered from the command center, although in combat the gunner is often given "full discretion" for selecting targets.

The two turbolaser technician positions are alert status posts; they are vacant when the ship is not on alert. The technicians have computer stations placed amid-decks, only partway into the upper weapons deck.

The first technician handles turbolaser systems monitoring for this weapon and the starboard turbolasers on deck one. With his computers, he can remotely adjust the targeting computers, turbolaser alignment and cooling systems to keep the weapons running smoothly for prolonged periods.

The second technician handles power allocation for this turbolaser and the starboard turbolasers. The turbolasers are powered by the turbolaser power generators but they also receive power from the turbolaser batteries on deck one and the main reactor core.

The turbolaser can still be operated if the technicians are missing, but at reduced effectiveness: in addition to less accurate firing systems, each turbolaser is limited to 20 shots because replacement power is not being properly fed into the weapons.

The FarStar's turbolasers use an incredible amount of energy and can quickly drain their power reserves. Under normal combat conditions, the turbolasers can each be fired roughly 50 times each before depleting the storage batteries. Once the batteries are depleted, the turbolasers must wait a full minute for the power generators to build enough power to fire. This period can be reduced if power is diverted from the main reactor core, although for such a meaningful difference, other vital systems, such as the engines and shields, must be powered down.

Once a battle is finished, the turbolaser power generators are dedicated to recharging the turbolaser batteries. This is normally one of the FarStar's top priorities since the turbolasers are the ship's main defense; completely recharging the turbolaser batteries takes roughly 50 minutes.

Rear Topside Hold

This hold is a standard cargo storage area. A single off-duty post is split between all the holds and storage areas on this deck and deck one, with an additional SE-4 servant droid to assist the crew member.

The aft topside hold is kept locked, and is protected by a simple alarm. The temperature and lighting are kept low to conserve the FarStar’s resources. It contains crates filled with survival gear, breath masks, survival tents, glow rods, and similar emergency gear.

Forward Topside Hold

This locked hold, which is also kept cold and dark, contains comlinks, spare equipment power cells, climbing gear, portable fusion generators, survival tents, and portable shield generators. The portable shield generators provide personal cover for an area roughly two-by-two meters square. They are generally used to protect weapons emplacements and vital posts for planet-side bases.



DECK ONE

Main Reactor Core

The main reactor core is the heart of the FarStar and fills the four decks of the engineering section. The power core provides the energy for the engines, turbolasers, landing bay charging stations (for fighters and shuttles), communications, sensors, shields, life support, computers, and all other systems.

Engine Level A Systems Monitoring

This station monitors and maintains the performance of the four upper row engines. This post is manned at all times by two technicians, a single R3 astromech, and one power droid.

As this room is in the heart of the engineering section it is extremely hot and uncomfortable. The emergency lighting and readout monitors lend a bizarre deep red hue to the whole engineering section.

This station handles the operations of the four engines, including integration with the other engine levels and coordination of the performance of these four engines. The two technicians can reroute power, adjust heat dispersion, handle energy control, and perform emergency engine maintenance from this station.

This station has two turbolifts and an access shaft leading tot he engineering sections of decks two through four (the access shaft also goes to both sensor suite stations). The open air access shafts and simple floor grates mean that virtually every engineering station can hear and see what is going on at all the other engineering stations.

Direct Access Power Distribution

This area has a single technician posted here at all times. This station handles the power distribution to all ships systems except the engines. Based on recommendations from the command center, this officer allocates power to the turbolasers, the landing bay, the many computer systems, communications, sensors, shields, life support, and all other systems.

Power Regulation

This is the station from which the FarStar's main power core is regulated and maintained; a catastrophic malfunction at this station will completely disable the ship and could lead to a core overload explosion, which would destroy the ship. A team of two technicians, three R3 astromechs, and a power droid can be found here at all times.

Turbolaser (4)

Each turbolaser has one gunner, who is present only when the ship is on alert. Each turbolaser receives maintenance at least once a week, with circuits, power regulators, galven patterns, laser barrels, laser actuators, and rotation gears regularly checked and replaced.

These turbolaser turrets are significantly smaller than the upper and lower turbolaser turrets. This is because the turbolasers have an integrated computer fire control system, with most of the hardware mounted in the upper and lower turbolaser batteries. Most technical operations, including power flow and minor recalibrations, are handled from the technician stations in the upper weapons deck turbolaser (for starboard turbolasers) and from the stations in the lower weapons deck (for the port turbolasers).

Turbolaser Storage Batteries

Huge armored cases hold the dozens of storage batteries necessary to power the weapons. Each case holds three one-cubic-meter batteries, each of which can be replaced in about five minutes. Each battery can be charged, drained, and recharged several times, with a working lifespan of roughly 3,000 shots before replacement is recommended.

The cases are armored in the event that the battery overloads and suddenly discharges all of its energy. While the armor won't completely contain such an explosion -- anyone standing adjacent to an exploding battery is likely to be killed -- the armor significantly decreases the likelihood of a single battery overload taking out the entire deck. Thankfully, overloads are rare, although they're not unknown.

Deck One Forward Hold

This large hold contains comlinks, spare equipment power cells, climbing gear, portable fusion generators, survival tents, portable shield generators, and extra storage batteries. This area also holds replacement parts for the turbolifts. Spare turbolaser parts, including turbolaser power converters and couplings, and spare turbolaser battery casings and components are also stored here.

Storage

These two storage areas are similar to the standard cargo holds. They have survival gear, breath masks, survival tents, glow rods, spare medicines, medical equipment, and basic shipboard supplies such as blankets, lighting panels, intercom parts, and emergency hull seal patches. Part of the starboard hold has been converted to bulk food storage, with several large resealable crates.

Computer Control Deck

The computer control deck contains the main storage and processing computers for the FarStar. There are two full-time technicians and four R3 astromech droids here.

While each station on the ship has its own computers, they are used to perform basic computations and to encode calculations and data before they are sent to this station for processing.

This room's computers have several specific station, including engineering, main and backup astrogation computers, communication computers, and sensor control computers.

The maintenance computer station here can perform maintenance diagnostics on other computer stations in this room and throughout the ship. This process takes about an hour per system and requires the station being updated to be taken off-line for the maintenance period. Maintenance is scheduled for each computer once a week, although the intense schedule the FarStar has been under has only meant that maintenance is normally only performed after a major computer system failure.

The forward storage room of the computer control deck contains spare monitors, processors, and other key replacement parts in the event of a computer failure or severe power overload.



DECK TWO

Engine Level B Systems Monitoring

This station monitors and maintains the performance of the three middle row engines. This post is manned at all times by two technicians, one R3 astromech droid, and one power droid.

This station is essentially similar to the engine level A systems monitoring station on deck one; it handles the operations of the three engines, including integration with the other engine levels and coordination of the performance of those three engines. The two technicians can reroute power, adjust heat dispersion, handle energy control, and perform emergency maintenance from this station.

Hyperdrive Systems Control

Two technicians are at this station at all times. Hyperdrive systems control coodinates the functions of the hyperdrive motivators and the engine components within each ion engine. The control station is responsible for keeping the hyperdrive operating by balancing each engine's performance. Some of the duties for this process include modulating power feeds from the reactor core, regulating power output from each engine, and interfacing each engine with the hyperdrive motivators and astrogation computers. Remote maintenance can be conducted from this station, although some duties must be performed by physically crawling to the engine via the engine accessways.

The astrogation computers in the command center and computer control decks can be overriden from this station in the case of a catastrophic failure. The hyperdrive engineers can shut down the engines in case of a power overload or other major failure.

Sublight Systems Control

This station has two full-time ion drive engineers. This station coordinates the operation of each ion engine by balancing power load and fine tuning performance to keep engine operating at peak efficiency. The engineers must modulate the power feeds from the reactor cores, regulate power output from each engine, and interface each engine with the FarStar's drive computers. Remote maintenance can be conducted from this station, although some duties must be performed by physically crawling to the engine via the engine accessways.

Storage

The small storage area near the engineering area holds replacement components for hyperdrive and sublight engines and engineering stations. Everything from spare alluvial dampeners and hyperdrive motivators to wiring clips and core brackets is stored inside this room, although most major engine components are too large for the FarStar to carry replacements.

Unlike the engineering area itself, this storage room is very well organized, with all parts marked and labeled. Datapads store engine diagrams and diagnostics for quick replacement. This organized system guarantees the FarStar's engineers speedy access to parts, enabling them to quickly make repairs and prevent a major shipboard catastrophe.

Hangar Control Room

The hangar control room is situated on deck two, overlooking the main flight deck of the hangar bay on deck three. A flight control supervisor can be found here at all times, but this post is considered an "off-duty" post; shifts are four hours long and served during the off-duty shift. An R3 astromech is here at all times, assisting the supervisor. The unit, R3-K8, has been equipped with an astromech voice box and programmed with Basic so it can communicate directly with the supervisor, although in many cases it is more efficient to feed data to display terminals and hologram projectors. During alert conditions, an additional flight supervisor is here.

The room is fairly large, but it is filled with computer consoles. A large hologram projector fills the room: it is constantly showing the FarStar and any ships within a thousand kilometers of the vessel. The hangar is tuned into the ship's external comms so the supervisor can listen to the command center's communications directives. There are display monitors showing the docking tubes, as well as an internal and external monitor showing each airlock.

Once an incoming vessel has expressed a desire to land in the FarStar's landing bay or dock with its airlocks, landing control is turned over to this room.

The flight control supervisor's job is to coordinate landing, takeoff, and docking efforts for all of the FarStar's vessels. During normal operations, this is not too demanding a job: the supervisor only has to make sure that patrol fighters don't slide into any of the docked ships during landing or takeoff. However, during combat situations, the supervisor must somehow be able to launch all serviceable fighters within a dew minutes. Things can get hectic very quickly.

The flight control supervisor regulates the use of the lift (which goes down one level to the maintenance deck), the operation of the magnetic field and other essential landing bay operations. He or she is also responsible for deploying emergency services (such as fire control or medical officers) in the event of a crash, and deploying security officers and droids when foreign ships dock with the FarStar.

Crew Quarter Clusters with Head/Showers

The three quarter clusters each have five rooms. Each room has two bunks, both of which are used by a different person during each 12 hour shift, for a total of four crew members in a given room.

The rooms are spartan with dark gray walls, but they can be redecorated. Each person has a small storage locker. Each room has a very small storage closet, which must be split four ways. There is a small reading light above each bunk, with a terminal that is tied into the ship's computer systems -- the crew member must supply his or her own datapad.

In order to have a complete crew for its mission, the FarStar has assigned two crew members to each bunk in alternate shifts. This process is known as "hot-bedding", and while it is necessary for this mission, it still has bad psychological effects. Over long periods of time, "hot-bedding" causes reduced morale, discipline problems, and a general feeling of discomfort among the individuals involved. This occurs because each individual's body temperature is slightly different; during a shift change, a person will crawl into a bed which is still somewhat warmed by the other person's body heat and the bed "feels wrong". This causes a general feeling of unease -- the crew members subconsciously feel that they can't be completely relaxed and comfortable even in their own beds.

Some crew members have taken to simply sleeping on the floors on mats. The cold and damp crew's quarters have actually become somewhat of a joke amongst the crew, who often claim they get more sleep at their posts than in their rooms. To conserve power, the rooms are dim and slightly colder than what is considered comfortable to most Humans.

Mess Hall

The mess hall is manned by three off-duty crew members and four SE-4 servant droids. About one quarter of the mess hall's physical space is taken up by the kitchen and prep area.

The rest of the room has simple rows of tables and chairs. The tables are where the crew enjoys their regularly scheduled meals, although half-played games of sabacc, used weapon clips, and empty drink glasses are often left on the tables. During the peak periods, this room can seat almost 40 people, and becomes quite the center of attention. For a short while, the SE-4 droids scurry madly about as they somehow manage to clean tables and prepare meals, while the crew members enjoy a few minutes of relaxation during the meal shift.

Between shifts, the mess hall serves as an impromptu rec room for sabacc games and general conversation if the training room is overcrowded.

Because the sleeping chambers are so uncomfortable, this room doubles as a hang-out for those either too tired to rest, or simply fed up with their bunk mates. Sometimes, there are individuals curled up in the corners with blankets.

Training Room

This area is a physical training and recreation room for the FarStar's crew members. There are variable gravity weight training and running machines, a short marksmanship range with remotes and a small sparring and martial arts mat. There is a melee weapons training cage for honing melee skills, or even just blowing offf steam. It is not uncommong for ship-board squabbles to be settled with a few blows from a padded sparring weapon. The FarStar's crew has even set up an impromptu sparring league as a friendly competition and a way of keeping skills up to par.

There is a small lounge area with two gaming tables along one wall, each one surrounded by a ring of cushions and programmed to provide any of hundreds of different games. There is an entrance to the mess hall for drinks and snacks, and five small tables where off-duty crewmen can enjoy hot drinks and talk with their companions. Asmall library of holovids has been included as well, allowing the viewing of entertainment or training holograms.

Lifeboat

Decks two and three have a single large lifeboat just off the crew quarter clusters. Each lifeboat has room for 20 people, with three weeks' worht of air, food, and water. Survival gear includes four hunting blasters, four survival tents (which can be sealed for dangerous weather), glow rods, medpacs, comlins, flares, and a subspace emergency signal transceiver with a range of five light years. The lifeboat's scanner also homes in on transceivers from the FarStar's other lifeboats.

The lifeboats are simple ships, with just enough fuel to launch and make a couple of redirection maneuviiers. The lifeboat lands by using braking jets and a large parachute.

Whenever a lifeboat is activated, an alarm lights on the bridge. The launch can be manually overridden from the bridge.

Shield and Screen Systems

This station takes directives from the shield control officer in the command center and is responsible for deploying the energy/ray and particle shields around the FarStar. There is one shield technician and one R3 astromech here at all times.

The technician is responsible for allocating power to different shield generators to provide protection for the FarStar's four main facings (front, starboard, port, back). As with most starships, the FarStar keeps its particle shields up almost constantly, lowering them only to launch or receive starships. These shields protect against physical weapons, such as missiles and proton torpedoes, and they also deflect small space debris. Because ray shielding consumes so much power, these shield generators are normally activated only in combat.

Sensor Systems

The sensor station here is tied into the sensor suites in the upper and lower weapons decks and follows the directives of the sensor station in the command center. The rows and rows of computers display data from the numerous sensor arrays. This station is manned full-time by a single sensor technician and an R3 astromech.

This station's main task is to coordinate the efforts of the sensor suite operators, feed data to the computer control dec for processing, andalyze incoming data, and determine what data is worth bringing to the attention of the sensor officer. The sensor officer can remotely peer into any of the data at any time, but this station's main task is to sift the important information from the great stream of useless data.

Captain's Quarters

These are the quarters assigned to the captain of the FarStar. They tend to be a little more roomy than the rest of the crew cabins, but the room is also used as an office, with the addition of a work desk, a computer terminal, and storage space for documents, datadisks, and other important items.

The only major amenity the captain does have over other members of the crew is that these quarters aren't shared with anyone else. Other than that, the room is as spartan as the rest of the crew rooms, from play gray walls to cold floor grating. Even Captain Ciro has volunteered to keep the lighting and heat low to conserve power, following the motion that the best way to lead is by example.

Lifeboat

This lifeboat carries only 12 people but is essentially the same as the 20 person lifeboat above.

Environmental Control

The environmental control station is responsible for controlling life support and other vital functions aboard the FarStar. The station is manned by a single crew member during off-duty shifts.

This area is filled with oxygen and water converters, fed from the recycling center and hydroponics labs. They maintain the ship's air and water supply. This station's computers and machinery also maintain the ship's heat, lighting, and electrical systems. This station also has several large gravity generators, acceleration compensators and inertial dampeners, as well as their control systems. Numerous relays and microgenerators are placed all around the ship to maintain a constant environment in every portion of the FarStar. The gravity generators provide the standard gravity environment aboard the FarStar. The acceleration compensators and the inertial dampeners work together to bleed off the effects of sudden maneuvers by the FarStar -- while the systems aren't perfect, and the ship's crew may feel sudden jerks, shifts, and tumbles, these systems stabilize the ship enough that the crew members are not literally thrown all around the ship.

In theory, this station could be used to alter the atmosphere, heating, and gravity level for every compartment (provided the compartment seals are activated to maintain the environment). However, since the entire crew is composed of oxygen-breathers who are used to near-standard gravity levels, no portion of the ship have been reconfigured in this manner.

Command Center

The command center, called "Cee-cee" by the crew) is the core of operations aboard the FarStar, the central hub around which most command-level decisions are made. It is a crowded two-leveled room filled with computer, read-out screens, technicians, droids, and an impressive elongated transparisteel viewport which faces directly forward.

The panoramic view allowed by the viewport is often ignored by those working on computer stations, as their individual readouts will often tell more than a simple look outside, but the grandeur of the view itself sometimes cannot be ignored.

Between the computer stations and relay consoles is an interconnected network of walkways and steps which wind their way through the confusion.

There are three R3 astromech droids processing data for the tactical, sensor, communications, and engineering stations. There are fitting brackets placed in the floor for the droids to rest in: only their heads stick out of the brackets, making them seem like domes on top of the computer stations.

There are also droid interface connectors along the front of the command center to allow for a dozen R3s to interface with the hyperdrives and astrogation computers. The constant whirring and chirping of the droids as they communicate data to each other provides an electronic feel to the environment, and, when mixed with the dim lighting and the soft glow of the readout screens, makes for an interesting mood.

There are eight full-time posts in the command center, as well as four additional alert status posts. The upper level full-time posts include the Captain's post (Captain Ciro's post), Flight Operations (which directs the facing and speed of the FarStar at sublight, as well as the Tactical Operations, the post responsible for directing weaponry and shield operations post as well as shipboard security; this is Gorak Khzam's normal post.

The lower level (deck three) full-time posts include Sublight Operations (answerable to Flight Operations and responsible for observing and directing sublight engine operation) and Hyperdrive Operations (answerable to Flight Operations and responsible for the smooth operation of the hyperdrive engines and astrogation computers). Shield Operations is answerable to Tactical Operations, and is responsible for precisely directing shield operations. Communications Operations is responsible for sensor and communications duties, and is normally manned by Darryn Thyte. The final full-time post is Computer Operations, which is responsible for coordinating with all other command center operations posts with the computer control deck.

The four alert status posts, which are all on the lower level (deck three), are Sensor Operations (to assist the Communications Operations post), Resource Operations (power allocation for alert situations), Engineering Operations (to assist in the coordination of the command center and the engineering station; Lofryyhn normally sends one of his top assistants to this post during alerts), and the Weapon Operations, which provides additional data to the turbolaser turrets and assists the Tactical Operations posts.

There are two K4 security droids stationed in the command center: one near the access shaft and entrance on deck two (behind the captain's station) and one a level lower on deck three. The access shaft goes up to the computer control deck on deck one and the forward topside hold on the upper weapons deck. It also extends down to the hydroponics labs on deck four and the forward lower hold on the lower weapons deck.

Emergency Quarters With Head/Showers

The emergency quarters are used for long-term alert situations, where crew members have worked extra shifts and need rest but may need to be recalled to the command center and other vital posts immediately. The quarters can accommodate twelve crew members, with four double bunks and four mats on the floor.

Probe Droid Operations

The FarStar's probots and messenger droids are controlled and operated from this station. There are two crew members here part-time, as well as an R3 astromech droid at all times.

This station is responsible for repairing, programming and controlling probot survey missions as well as programming and launching messenger drones. The probots are stored at this station for east of access.

This station also compiles all star maps, astrogation coordinates, and survey data gathered by the probots. The FarStar's astrogation computers and computer control deck computers can access and duplicate this data at any time.

Lifeboat

This lifeboat carries only 12 people, but is essentially the same as the 20-person lifeboat above.



DECK THREE

Engine Levels A-C Power Distribution

This area is responsible for monitoring and regulating the main power feed from the main reactor core and channeling the power to the FarStar's eleven engines. This is one of the single most important locations in the engineering section since a failure at this station could completely disable the FarStar's drive systems and lead to a catastrophic power overload.

This station has two full-time duty posts, an additional three duty powers for alert conditions, three R3 astromechs to handle power rerouting and monitoring, and four power droids for emergency power requirements in case of a power failure. Lofryyhn can normally be found in this duty post, supervising the entire engineering section. There is also a single K4 security droid watching for evidence of sabotage.

Auxiliary Override Control

This system is an emergency override station and serves as a remote headquarters in case part of engineering or the command center is disabled. The computers here can be programmed to reroute control of various ship operations to this post or the two auxiliary control stations on deck four. This station has two full-time duty posts and a single R3 astromech droid, with room for up to six additional duty stations in the event of a major realignment of engineering and command stations.

Heat and Energy Output Control

This station is a containment and control station for power overloads and excess heat energy. Ion engines and the main reactor core generate an incredible amount of excess heat, which must be directed away from the engines and reactor core to keep them in safe temperature limits. This station controls arrays of miniature heat dispersion vents and deflector plates, which draw heat away from these vital locations and into the vacuum of space.

This station also has banks of energy absorption coils which are designed to absorb and redirect energy overloads, which can occur due to an engineering station malfunction; a reactor core disturbance; a computer, shield, or turbolaser overload; or even enemy ion or turbolaser blasts which get through the shields. This station is the last line of defense before an energy surge can blow out a vital system.

This place is manned part-time by two technicians, who double-check the system's operation and perform any necessary maintenance. In the event of a ship alert, the technicians immediately report to this station since heat dispersion and power surge deflection is absolutely vital in combat.

Crew Quarter Clusters with Head/Showers

This cluster of fifteen crew quarter rooms is identical to those found directly above on deck two.

Sick Bay

The sick bay is one of the best-lit locations aboard the FarStar, with ample heating and warm food to boot. The surgical and medical stations are maintained by Doctor Akanseh, his assistants, and three 2-1B medical droids. Three medical personnel can be found here at all times.

The sick bay has ten recuperation beds, four first aid stations, two bacta tanks, and a sealed surgical bay. If the sick bay begins running out of beds, extra patients are assigned to crew quarter clusters down the hall, while those crew members are reassigned to the emergency quarters near the command center or simply tripled up in other crew quarters.

Because of the excellent conditions in this station, the crew often jokes about getting hurt just so they may spend a few pleasant days in sick bay. The room is rarely filled to capacity. The droids do their best to make sure anyone who comes in is out as fast as possible, and the programming of the droids is well-suited for a crew composed of many different species.

Officer's Quarters

These four rooms are slightly larger than the standard crew quarters, but are otherwise pretty similar. Each officer room has two bunks, but they are not double-shifted, so each officer has a private sleeping space. The rooms have a small closet, one large storage locker for each officer, a reading light and data terminal above each bed, as well as two small work stations each with a desk, computer terminal, holographic and datareader, and a small shelving section for datadisk and document storage; personal effects like holograms and souvenirs are also placed in the shelving sections.

Lifeboat

This lifeboat is identical to the 20 person lifeboat on deck two.

Pilot Ready Room

All on-duty pilots are ordered to remain here when not on the main flight deck. This room has several chairs, a holographic projector and several clear "tracking screens" for diplaying vital information, showing battle-tactics and posting Gorjaye's directives to her pilots. The ready room has computer monitors, as well as monitors showing the landing bay and a tie-in to the hangar control room, and the command center comm and intercom systems.

The FarStar has the equivalent of a full squadron (twelve fighters), with eight X-wings and four Defenders. Six pilots are on-duty for each 12-hour shift. Two pilots are on patrol duty -- either in the landing bay near their ships or actually patrolling space around the FarStar when the ship is at sublight and the command center has ordered a patrol -- with the other four pilots in the ready room. Patrols consist of either an element of two X-wings or two Defenders; the different ships are rarely mixed for patrol duty.

In the case of an alert, all pilots are expected to be in the ready room in two minutes for a combat briefing. Gorjaye has been known to run test alerts to make sure her pilots are ready when they are needed.

Landing Bay

The FarStar's landing bay is two levels high and fills nearly half the ship's interior. It is lined with a meter thick blast wall, insulating other portions of the ship from fire or crash incidents which may occur in the bay. There is a thick blast wall extended to protect the turbolifts, the corridor entrance and the access shaft that leads down to the maintenance bay.

There are three full-time maintenance and control posts, as well as five part-time posts and five more alert-status posts. There are three R3 units for operating the landing bay equipment as well as four power droids and four treadwell units. There are also two K4 security droids on duty at all times.

The landing bay is sealed by an invisible magnetic field, which keeps atmosphere inside the bay and keep the vacuum of space out. The field's intensity can be manipulated from the hangar control room to allow ships to launch or land without exposing the bay to vacuum.

The bay has ten starship power recharging ports, which are flush with the floor and covered with blast plates. A blast plate is directly in front of the lift and is raised when launching fighters; the plate absorbs the back-blast from a fighter's ion engines. Emergency equipment includes dozens of firefighting foam nozzles in the ceiling -- they can blanket any section of the landing bay to snuff out a fire. There is also a repulsorlift "crash wagon" in the maintenance bay. In the event of a catastrophic crash which could endanger the entire landing bay, the wagon is brought up to the flight deck to push the wreck out into space.

The maintenance deck also holds two "maintenance pods". These small ships are limited repair vehicles, with three hours worth of air and small rocket engines. They are barely three meters long and have a 150-meter long tether cord that is anchored inside the hangar bay. These units have a small tractor beam, magnetic projectors, and two small manipulation arms for fine repair work. The FarStar's technicans use these vehicles to supervise R3 astromechs during external repairs on the FarStar.

The landing bay can fit four X-wings (one on either side of the turbolife and two in the back corner) as well as an additional X-wing on the lift. Two Defender starfighters can be parked in front of the blast shield protecting the turbolifts and the other two can be lined up nose to tail in front of the corner X-wings.

The landing bay is very cramped and launching fighters can take several minutes because maneuvering the ships for the take-off lane is so tricky. The slightest mistake can result in laser cannons scraping each other, knocking the weapons totally out of calibration and effectively eliminating a fighter's targeting systems. A major mistake could result in a landing deck crash, which could destroy several ships and possibly take the deck out of commission until repairs are completed.

Launch protocols call for the Defender fighters to be launched first (if they are inside the bay). Then the starboard fighter in the rear of the launch deck is launched. While the rear port fighter is moved into launch position, the two fighters near the turbolifts use their repulsorlifts to back into the launch position and launch.

If a fighter needs maintenance or repairs, it is positioned either in the rear port bay or on the lift. During combat or hyperspace travel, a thick blast shield can be lowered over the landing bay entrance to protect it from attacks or debris.

Main Docking Airlock

The main docking airlock runs nearly the entire length of the landing bay and is used for docking with the Aegis combat shuttle and any large vessels the FarStar encounters. The airlock is also mounted with a magnetic field projector in case the doors are punctured during a collision.

The airlock has three retracting doors roughly ten meters wide; they can be opened individually to accommodate different sized vehicles. This docking airlock is used most often to load combat vehicles and large cargoes into the Aegis combat shuttle after they have been brought up from the maintenance bay on deck four.

Emergency Repair Station

This station is routed into the computer control deck and the command center and is designed to keep the FarStar operational even in the event of critical damage. This station reroutes energy and computer links to different stations aboard the ship to get essential systems up and running again. If a major ship station is disabled, computer or operation control can be patched into the computers here, but performance normally suffers significantly. There is one full-time duty post here, as well as four alert status duty posts and an R3 astromech.

Lifeboat

This lifeboat carries only twelve people, but is essentially the same as the twenty-person lifeboat above.

Officers' Lounge

This room is little more than a converted storage bay that has been given over to the officers. Standard crew members are also allowed in this room, but it is understood that the officers are entitled to pull rank and ask all non-officers to leave; in practice, this room serves as an alternate recreation room for those who need a little breathing space and don't want to associate with whoever may happen to be in the training room. This room is also used as a conference room when the tactics room is too busy for meetings.

Each corner and shelf is filled with boxes and crates of spare goods, including computer components, power grids, power feed lines, coolant lines, and oxygen and water tubes. It is small and fairly cramped, but it is one of the few areas aboard the ship to be truly personalized.

Although most of the decorations are non-regulation, Captain Ciro has allowed this room in particular to represent the individual character of the crew. On the walls and shelves can be found a stormtrooper helmet (with a blast hole), a sterile krayt dragon egg, and banners and ornamentation from the homeworlds of the officers. There is a power-net from a little-known bounty hunter draped across the ceiling (a contribution from Gorjaye), along with an empty power-cell supposedly from Darth Vader's own lightsaber -- Loh'khar contributed this item with a wink. There is even a dud thermal detonator that still has working lights which has been used to break in new recruits: tossing the detonator to a green crewman and seeing him or her let out a yelp of panic seems to cause no end of amusement to some of the FarStar's crew members.

There is a small entertainment console with a datadisk reader, a hologram projector, dejarik and other hologram games, a miniature spheroids set, and a few decks of sabacc cards.

Communications Room

The communications room contains the main communication arrays and computers, including the non-external portions of the comm array and the subspace transceiver. There is a communications technician here at all timees, with a second tech reporting for duty during alert conditions.

Most of the room's interior space is taken up by the comm array and subspace transceiver and control computers. From this room, communications can be sent out on any of the thousands of established comm frequencies, and the arrays can be reconfigured to scan for non-standard frequencies in case the FarStar arrives at an unexplored world and is looking for signs of a technological civilization.

This room also has a decryption computer which analyzes scrambled transmissions and attempts to decode Imperial communications. This computer is also used to scramble the FarStar's transmissions when necessary.

Command Center

This is the lower level of the command center.

Tactics

The tactics room is a central strategy and meeting room for the FarStar. There are two posts for off-duty personnel as well as a single R3 astromech droid.

The room is filled with clear plastex sheets which display tactical and strategic information, as well as planetary orbits and navigational hazards. The sheets have woven computer feeds and optical processors to project data anywhere on the sheets. The operator can freeze data in place for projections and strategic planning.

The plastex sheets are often illuminated with green or red glowing readouts, and because lighting is kept to a minimum in the tactics room, the entire place has an eerie, almost haunted aura. Along the walls of the tactics room are several additional readouts which display the ship's condition, crew assignments, and power levels, with the most important information being sent to the holographic display table in the center of the room.

The central hologram table is about three meters across and has a flat display face. While simple two-dimensional images are sufficient for many discussion, the hologram projector is necessary to convey some ideas and the table gets frequent use.

The hologram is useful for rotating displays to allow complete views from all angles. Starship profiles can be listed and analyzed, and holographic messages can be transmitted or received throughout the ship (and ultimate patched into the communications system), making this room an excellent central planning location.

Recycling Center

The recycling center is responsible for air, water, and waste recovery; this is an essential task to extend the FarStar's operating range. There are two technicians here part-time for maintenance and minor adjustments; since this machinery is pretty simple, it rarely breaks down and doesn't need constant supervision. However, a recycling system failure could severely hamper the FarStar's mission since the ship would have to stop much more frequently to replenish air and water supplies.

This room contains several large oxygen and water scrubbers and reprocessors. Unrecoverable (but nutrient rich) waste water and waste gasses like carbon dioxide are sent to they hydroponics lab (on deck four), while freshly-scrubbed water is sent to the fresh-water tanks (also on deck four); air is simply added to the air circulation system in environmental control.

Any recoverable trash is filtered and broken down for reuse in other items -- a broken comlink case might be melted down and reused as an eating utensil for example. Thse recovered resources are sent down to the machine shop and the maintenance and repair bay. Unrecoverable trash is incinerated in the main reactor core.

Science Lab A

Science Lab A has a single full-time scientist and two part-time lab assistants. This lab has zoological, botanical, and xenobiological workstations, with stasis-sealed sample cages, examination and dissection stations and analysis sensors and computers. This station has been primarily charged with examining new plants and animals to determine edibility and potential hazards. The lab also doubles as a toxicology lab.

Science Lab B

Science lab B also has a full-time scientist as well as two part-time assistants. This lab has geological, atmospheric, meteorological, oceanographic, and chemical analysis workstations, with sample cages and detailed scanners.
This lab's scanners can examine a given sample for data regarding toxicology and potential shipboard uses. (For example, can a certain metal sample be used to fabricate replacement parts for the FarStar's ion engines?)

This lab also includes a space sciences lab, for examining asteroid samples and analyzing sensor readings from dust clouds, nebulae, stars, and other celestial objects.

Lifeboat

This lifeboat carries only twelve people, but is essentially the same as the twenty-person lifeboat above.



DECK FOUR

Engine Level C Systems Monitoring

This station monitors and maintains the performance of the four lower row engines. This post is manned at all times by two technicians, one R3 astromech, and a power droid.

This station is essentially similar to the engine level A systems monitoring system on deck one: it handles the operations of the four engines, including integration with the other engine levels and coordination of the performance of these engines. The two technicians can reroute power, adjust heat dispersion, handle energy control, and perform emergency engine maintenance from this station.

Auxiliary Systems

These two stations provide auxiliary control stations for any engineering posts and are directed from auxiliary override control. If one regular engineering station is overloaded, part of the station's function can be fed into the auxiliary computers. In the case of a critical systems failure, an entire engineering station can be routed to either one of these auxiliary stations.

These two posts split a crew compliment of two full-time technicians and a single R3 astromech; during alert conditions, an additional four crew members are split between the two auxiliary systems stations.

Armory

The armory is where all non-personal weapons aboard the FarStar are stored; crew members are allowed to carry personal sidearms at the discretion of the captain. A single crewman is here on a part-time basis, and there is a single K4 security droid to prevent unauthorized entry.

The armory contains 150 blaster pistols, 25 blaster rifles, 400 rechargeable blaster power packs (they take two hours to recharge when hooked up to a portable fusion generator), 50 canisters of blaster gas, 200 standard grenades, 100 smoke grenades, five portable grenade launchers, 30 vibro-axes, 25 vibroblades, 100 blast helmets, five shoulder-launched ion cannons, five PLX-2 portable missile launchers, and five CSPL-12 projectile launchers.

Machine Shop

Lofryyhn has established a heavy machining shop for manufacturing large parts used within the ion engines, repulsorlift vehicles, and the X-wing and Defender starfighters. This shop has two part-time duty posts, a single treadwell droid, and three R3 astromechs.

The shop is limited in that each individual part casing must be custom-tooled from computer designs. Some components require an incredible number of small, detailed parts and if those parts are not in the FarStar's storage areas, the machine shop must construct them. The machine shop has no ability to produce computer control chips or circuitry and similar high tech items, so the FarStar must often pull such sophisticated items from the ship's stores or hope to come across a world where those parts can be purchased.

Main Batteries

Several rows of immense storage batteries contain primary power reserves to supplement the main reactor core. In the event of a reactor core failure, the FarStar can run for six hours from these batteries as long as the turbolasers or hyperdrives are not engaged. If the FarStar jumps into hyperspace, the batteries have enough energy to power the jump and to fly in hyperspace for two hours, after which the FarStar will drop back to realspace -- most likely light years from any known settlement.

The batteries are charged directly from the main power core. They are normally used only in emergencies or in combat situations, but they can provide the FarStar with power at a critical time. When drained, they can be directly recharged in six hours, or if the power core's energies are split between recharging and normal (non-combat) ship operations, the batteries can be recharged in twelve hours.

Reserve Batteries

The reserve batteries perform a duplicate function of the main batteries. The batteries themselves are a more primitive design, and while they take up more space than the main batteries, they only supply the FarStar with four hours worth of power. If the batteries are used for a jump into hyperspace, they can keep the FarStar in hyperspace for only 45 minutes before the ship is forced back into realspace.

Bulk Food Storage

Most of the FarStar's food storage is in this compartment. Special freezing bins keep perishable foods fresh, while common vegetables, grains, and meats have been specially preserved for long-term storage. The foods chosen for the trip are nutritious and positively bland.

The room is a bewildering maze of stacked crates, bins, and cases -- which is exactly how the R-97 quartermaster droid wants things, since it enables the droid to determine how best to allocate resources. A single SE-4 servant droid is here at all times.

Storage

This is the largest storage room on the FarStar and contains a little bit of everything, including spare computer chips, uniforms, plant seeds, sleeping mats, medicines, bacta canisters, repulsorlift drive parts, and even a few cases of spare blaster power packs. Most items the FarStar could need are stored here in bulk.

The storage room is not normally manned and the life support systems are kept low to preserve power; only R-97, the load-lifters, and an SE-4 servant droid patrol the maze of cases and the crates in this room. Lighting is kept low since the droids all have infrared receptors, while the heat is kept down to a chill (by Human standards) 37 standard degrees.

Maintenance and Repair Bay

The maintenance and repair bay is the main starship and vehicle repair area: all manner of starship and repulsorlift replacement parts are stored here, from small repulsorlift coils and X-wing laser actuators to whole spare ion engines for the Aegis combat shuttle.

A mechanic is found here at all times, with two part-time assistants and an additional off-duty assistant who is responsible for finding parts requested by the head mechanic. Two R3 astromechs and the final three treadwell droids are also assigned to this station. This bay is cluttered with parts and tools, as well as the vehicles themselves.

The ground vehicles are normally stored here when not aboard the two shuttles, and T'achak T'andar, the Chadra-Fan repulsorlift chief, can be found pouring over his pet vehicles performing all kinds of unauthorized "improvements". The lift up to the landing bay is used to bring up parts for the X-wings or shuttles, which are too large to be brought down to this level. The Defender starfighters can be brought down to this level for repairs.

Docking Tubes

The FarStar has three docking tubes on the outer hull for securing fighters and the shuttles, as well as for docking with other starships. The tubes are outside the maintenance and repair bay on deck four. Each tube is accessed by an airlock.

The additional mass of tubes and carried ships has been compensated for in the hyperdrive subroutines, so they have no tangible effect on the performance of the ship during hyperspace travel.

The exterior of each tube has three airlocks: one on the end of the tube and on on each side of the tube. Each airlock includes docking clamps and fitting brackets to hold the docked ships in place and form an airtight airlock seal. The pilots simply climb through the tube's airlock and into the cockpit.

Once a pilot straps him- or herself into place, the pilot must flip a toggle switch to activate the release mechanism. The cockpit automatically swings down and locks into place, the docking clamps and brackets release the ship, and the ship is propelled out into space with a small explosive charge. These are the same type of releasing mechanisms used in the lifeboats and there is no chance of damage to the fighter.

The charges are angled to blow the ship "up" or "down" at such an angle as to insure that the vessel does not collide with another docking tube or docked fighter. Still, the launch procedure must be closely supervised by the hangar control room to insure that none of the launching fighters cross flight paths.

Some pilots curse the small delay and try to have their engines running before the explosives release the fighter, but the command staff frowns on this "hotshot" practice because it endangers the ship and the crew. Any pilot making a "hot launch" is reprimanded.

Vehicle Ramp

This ramp is located in the maintenance and repair bay. It extends at a sharp angle down to the ground when the FarStar lands on a planetary surface. The ramp also has an airlock mechanism and takes ten minutes to extend or retract.

Droid Repair Bay

This ship has a full droid repair bay for storing and maintaining the dozens of droids aboard the FarStar. There is a single full-time technician here, as well as two part-time duty posts and a single off-post duty. Much of the maintenance work is performed by DD-19 (the "slavemaster" droid) and his assistant, SE-4-I7, a servant droid with a particularly ominous matte black paint scheme.

The bay has four major repair stations, with spare droid limbs, components, droid brains, vocabulators, and other essential droid components. Various droids are always scurrying about and it's made pretty clear by the droids that the technicians are merely tolerated in this bay.

Fresh Water Tanks

The FarStar has a dozen large tanks for storing fresh water. Each tank has an individual feed into the ship's water distribution system. Each tank has a series of baffles to reduce the motion of water during space flight. The ship has several separate tanks, instead of a single large tank, to prevent contamination and to protect against a single hull puncture causing the FarStar to lose all its water. When the FarStar lands on a new world, flushing old water and restocking with fresh water is a top priority, since the water tends to get stale after just a couple of weeks.

Hydroponic Labs A & B

The FarStar has two large hydroponics labs for growing fruit, vegetables, and other essential plants. The harvested vegetables are a nice change from preserved concentrates and they help extend the FarStar's limited provisions. The hydroponics labs are assigned two part-time duty posts (each), and the three J9 Roche worker droids have also been assigned here.

The labs are filled with watering pipes and growth lamps. Lab A is designed to simulate temperate conditions, while lab B simulates warmer, wetter tropical zones. The droids are capable of actually running the bays entirely by themselves, but the technicians oversee and direct the work.



LOWER WEAPONS DECK

Sensor Suite

Like the upper deck sensor suite, this is a small, cramped room but it is staffed by only one sensor/communications technician.

The lower sensor suite has very sensitive sensor arrays which tie into the upper sensor suite's readings. This sensor suite also provides targeting data for the ship's weapon systems. Finally, this station houses the FarStar's communications arrays, including the comms and subspace transceiver arrays. While most communications are patched into the communications system in the communications room and the command center, this array must be manned for the communications to be sent out properly.

Belly Hold

This hold is used to store additional food (at standard room temperature) as well as spare sensor and turbolaser components. R-97 has an SE-4 servant droid here to keep things orderly. More survival suits and tents, basic shipboard supplies, X-wing and shuttle components, and a seemingly random collection of other goods are stored here. If a given cargo hold is out of a certain item, there is a good chance that a few more "spares" are waiting to be found in a buried crate in this hold.

Forward Lower Hold

The forward lower hold is also used for bulk food storage; an SE-4 droid is here at all times. It also contains additional equipment for the hydroponics lab: growth lamps, piping and even seeds are stored here. There are spare water pumps, gravity generator parts, and heat exchangers for use in the environmental control areas. A small corner of this hold is also used for spare extra droid parts: several old and battered R3 astromechs are here in various stages of disassembly.

Turbolaser

This turbolaser turret is essentially the same as the large turbolaser turret on the upper weapons deck. There is a full-time gunnery post, with the gunner's bay inside the turret.

The two technicians posts are amid decks, midway between deck four and the lower weapons deck. The two techniciansare assigned to the turret during alert situations, and are responsible for systems monitoring and power allocation for both this turbolaser turret and the two port turbolasers on deck one.

Escape Pods (8)

Each escape pod carries four people, but is otherwise identical in function to the lifeboats. Like the other lifeboats, each escape pod carries three weeks worth of supplies for its passengers.