Freedom Station

This article is about the secret deep-space installation. For the nearby secret naval base that was often mistaken for Freedom Station, see Luyten 68-28.
Freedom Station
System Information
Spectral classF3

Freedom Station was a deep space installation in or near what was otherwise frequently described as a "nameless" system with an F3-class star 10.72 light-years rimward of Epsilon Indi[1] in the "Epsilon"-Terra Firma-Sheratan triangle[2] (it remains unclear if the reference is to Epsilon Indi or Epsilon Eridani). The facility was effectively destroyed in the Second Succession War, leaving the system uninhabited.

In accordance with the established practice in the BattleTech universe to name systems after their primary inhabited world or construct,[3] the entire system can thus arbitrarily be called Freedom Station.

History[edit]

In response to the Amaris Coup, elements of the Star League Defense Force installed the Freedom Station recharge station and refueling station at a random point in deep space "seventeen million kilometers distant from the nadir of an unnamed F3-class star" (see Notes) to service their "Secret Fleet". Its location was kept secret at least throughout the liberation campaign. The system was not listed on navigation charts because it had never before been used by the SLDF or the Hegemony.[1]

After the liberation of Terra, Freedom Station served as a recharge station for civilian traffic. The Capellan Confederation and the Federated Suns both used it in the First and Second Succession War until the latter destroyed the recharge station, rendering the installation worthless and soon forgotten.[1]

While Freedom Station was located rimward of Terra, a similar facility called Liberty Station was set up coreward from Terra around the same time.[4]

Luyten 68-28[edit]

Luyten 68-28, the much bigger secret SLDF naval base from where the SLDF surveillance vessels operated, is within jump distance from Freedom Station. People not privy to the top-secret facts apparently had a hard time keeping these two distinct secret bases apart, frequently assuming that Luyten 68-28 was the same as Freedom Station.[1] This may have helped in upholding the secrecy of the Luyten 68-28 base.

Notes[edit]

  • The safe proximity limit for an F3-class star, and thus the zenith/nadir jump point distance from the star, is around 5.51 billion kilometers.[5] It is thus possible that the installation's stated distance of 17 million kilometers from star is in error, and meant to read "billion" instead of million (in which case it would be located pretty much in deep space); otherwise, the stated position might refer to the nadir jump point instead of the nadir of the sun proper.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Liberation of Terra I, p. 90: "Freedom Station"
  2. Liberation of Terra I, p. 73: "Voyage of the Damned"
  3. BattleTech: 25 Years of Art & Fiction, p. 47: explained in the "Rosetta" sidebox
  4. Liberation of Terra I, p. 91: "The Secret Fleet"
  5. Strategic Operations, p. 86: "Proximity Point Distance Table"

Bibliography[edit]