Hidden Asteroid Shipyards.
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB Proposals Board:
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R08: ORION PROPOSALS:
Hidden Asteroid Shipyards.
When the Orions first appeared in print, in general they used normal base stations. But since then, we've had canon asteroid shipyards appearing both with the Jindarians and Magellanic Cloud empires. Would an asteroid shipyard be useful for the Orions, due to their superior ability to remain hidden?
While I'd like to see them too, how many new ships each year would the Orions be making each year, how much will they end up costing, how much piracy will they need to be engaging in to justify that sort of expense, and what will the local authorities say about the geometric increase in piracy as the number of Orion ships increases...
On the other hand, I can see a special "Orion Specific" FRD that's a hollowed out asteroid. Normally unmanned/shut down, if an Orion ship needs an overhaul, it can hide out inside of one while the crew does their work...
(P.S.: I've mentioned a YouTube channel, Chief MAKOi, and he has a multi-video series on his ship in a drydock that is absolutely fascinating for anyone interested. It shows, CLEARLY, that there is DEFINITELY a need for a specialized crew to work those things, so the idea of this Orion FRD being unmanned most of the time, serving as a parts cache more than anything else, and having the regular crew do the drydock work is unrealistic. 
)
Orions need to keep their infrastructure from being destroyed. That means...
inside the Orion enclave
or
strategic portability
or
hidden really well (which can be only temporary)
As asteroid/dock thing would be sublight, very slow, once found, quickly destroyed, hard to get your money out of it in the practical lifetime.
The apparent success of the asteroid shipyards is that they were established by an "empire" which existed and operated totally in space. There was no "logistics" that ran from a planet to the shipyard, which betrayed the location of the shipyard and led to its being a target for the hostile "empire." The Jindarians produced all they needed from asteroids they mined and refineries and product finishers in their home asteroid ships. The Magellanic could not do the same thing to the same scale and only the comparative weakness of the Andromedan "Counter-Insurgency" forces left in the cloud enabled them to survive. The one Federation example of such a shipyard is essentially a hook for future development and not necessarily a successful asteroid shipyard hidden behind enemy lines because it lacks the logistic tail to make the shipyard truly operational.
Another aspect of the (non-Jindarian) use of asteroid shipyards in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud is the way in which stellar geography differs in the LMC compared to the Alpha or Omega Octants of the Milky Way Galaxy - as shown on this hex map.
The Jumokian pirates, the first to acquire asteroid shipyard technology from the Jindarians, primarily operated out of the LMC's Fringe region - which is noted as having significantly lower stellar densities than the "regular" density region in which the Baduvai Imperium and the Eneen Protectorates operated prior to the Andromedan conquest. This made it difficult for Baduvai or Eneen warships to pursue Jumokian raiders out into the Fringe region, beyond their "home" support network.
Once the Magellanic Powers were in turn driven into exile, they too would be obliged to eke out an existence in the Fringe region. The question then would be to what extent the Andromedans would attempt to extend their own logistical network into the Fringe region (beyond the area in the vicinity of the three Desecrator starbases) in order to root out the last of these exile groups - or, perhaps, to see this as a case of diminishing returns, what with the pending invasions of Alpha and of Omega to prepare for.
Now, as noted above by SPP, it is the case that, unlike with the Jindarians, the Magellanic exiles cannot survive on space-based assets alone; they do occasionally need to stop by a larger planet in order to harvest certain key resources. Since such worlds are in comparatively short supply in the Fringe region, this might draw them to launch subsistence raids into more densely-populated map hexes - and, as a result, greatly increase the risk of being caught and destroyed by the Andromedan patrol forces active in these areas.
In the Alpha Octant, there is no real equivalent to the Fringe worlds for the Orions to hide out in; they no doubt have to lean comparatively heavily on the yards "hidden in plain sight" in the Enclave itself (as noted by SVC) and those operating openly over in the WYN Cluster.
While in the Omega Octant, a ship or base has to be built from the keel up to incorporate a Zosman Stealth field. So while Marauder cells have the FRD-like Syndicate bases (as previewed in Captain's Log #52) to support their operations, these have to be carried across the Omega hex map from the Zosmans' "off-map" holdings over in the Phi Sector.
In short, while the existence of the LMC's Fringe region makes the adoption of Jindarian-type asteroid yards somewhat viable for the Jumokians, and later for the Magellanic exiles, the lack of such regions in Alpha or Omega would work against the Orions or Zosmans doing the same in those regions of known space.
Wouldn't Orion BS and BATS suffer from the same disadvantages as the proposed Asteroid Shipyard? How is it any different given that BS/BATS are supposed to be logistics/repair hubs? At least the asteroid shipyard has some camouflage.
Douglas Saldana:
You get into a question of cost. It takes considerable effort to convert an asteroid into a shipyard and it is cheaper to build a base. There is also the ability for the crew to evacuate if the base is found out (one of the apparent reasons the crew size is so small compared to bases of the other powers). And ultimately why they do not have phaser-4s, but enough guns to buy time for the personnel to escape, but not to stand and fight.
Basically an Orion Base is equipped to stand-off the local police ship which stumbles across it, and to allow enough time for the personnel to evacuate the critical functions from the base before the police can whistle up a large enough force (either further police ships or the Navy) to destroy the base. Having been found, the base's existence is limited.
Another thought...
Most (I believe all Canon) Orion ships can land on planets. What about ground bases that're disguised as small mining outposts? The "Open Landing Field" is meant to allow Free Traders to land the supplies the facility can't manufacture on-site and the cover story mine provides the raw materials that the on-site fabricators, ostensibly there to support mining equipment, use to build repair parts.
Size, for teh most part, handling one or two FTs at once is not the same has an LR (or larger) landing ...
After all, if the traffic does pick up to 3+ FTs per, one could still keep the 'overage' in orbit until a pad is cleared for landing ...
Would hollowing out a mountain is about the same as hollowing out an asteroid?
I also didn't take into account the probability that the local Security Forces (Klingon ISF, Federation Police, etcetera) maintain small contingents at these sorts of places.
Mine bad (pun intended)
HOWEVER, I will find SOME way to get a repair unit for the Orions, gosh darn it! Even if I have to rip out half the cargo bay of a Free Trader (Traitor?) to put in a minimal repair shop and parts fabrication facility!! ()
I think the idea, would be to setup in an out of the way asteroid mining operation with a legitimate ship repair facility internal to an asteroid to care for Freighters and other local civilian ship traffic. Which is the front for the hidden internal bay to refit and repair the Orion syndicate ships.
It would be a legitimate ship repair which of course needs a support train and defenses. While allowing the Orion syndicate to support the pirate fleet. Without drawing attention. As they would smuggle in the required parts and supplies for the Orion fleet.
So it would be a "hidden" base but hidden in plain sight
The Orion Pirates have access to repair freighters, owned by the Orions and sometimes doing repairs of freighters to provide cover. Repair parts are provided by freighters owned by the Orions, and otherwise doing legitimate business as the cover for this operation. They are covered by (R8.11). Note that a repair freighter has limited repair capabilities in deep space and if your ship is "shot up" or has "burned its engines" you will need to seek out one of the hidden bases for repairs. (And run the risk of losing your command for allowing such things to happen, as repairs cost MONEY and you are not supposed to be engaging in such activities.) Orion ground bases exist and Orions can land, but Orion freighters cannot land, but can service bases (moving cargo from orbit to the ground is a time consuming tedious process involving shuttles). Free Traitors and other Free Traders can land on planets, and so can Orion Slavers (R8.5), but your typical Orion colony is not going to have much because you do not want to be found, not only by the navy/police, but the neighboring Cartels if there is a "Cartel War" going on (such things are admittedly only "alluded to" in the background, but no one can really trust the others and you never know when your loyal Enforcer will decide to take over your cartel).