The Homebase was inspired by this illustration by Mike Vilardi from
page 26 of Galaxy Guide 8: Scouts. R, TM and C 1997 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL).
All rights reserved. Trademarks of LFL used by West End Games under authorization.
This image may only be downloaded or copied for personal noncommercial
use.
Homebase-class Scout Station
Craft: Republic Sienar Homebase-class Scout Station
Type: semi-mobile scout supply station
Scale: capital
Length: 165m
Crew: 106, gunners:10
Passengers: 234
Cargo capacity: 25,000 tons
Consumables: 6 years
Hyperdrive: X10
Backup X30
Nav Comp: yes (extremely advanced and fast)
Manueverability: 0D
Space: 1
Hull: 3D
Shields: 1D
Sensors: 150/1D; 300/2D; 600/3D; 20/5D+2
Weapons:
2 Turbolaser Turrets
fa: turret
Crew:2
fc: 3D
space
range: 3-15/35/75
damage:
3D
2 Tractor Beam Projectors
fa: turret
crew:
3
fc: 1D
space
range: 1-5/15/30
damage:
3D
capsule: The Homebase scout station was introduced some decades before
the Clone Wars, but is based on a design dating back to the height of Old
Republic expansion and exploration. The idea was to give scouts an advance
resupply base to extend their range farther beyond known space. To this
end the Homebase was equipped with a hyperdrive to allow it to continue
to move forward as the frontier moved. The nav computers of the Homebase
were marvels in their day, being able to calculate jumps extremely quickly
and accurately. Even today the massive computers are above average, adding
+4 to the astrogation rolls of anyone using them to calculate a jump. This
meant that scouts departing from the homebase station wouldn't have to
calculate their own jumps, but could instead rely on the safer calculations
made by the Homebase. The Homebase was equipped with an advanced sensor
suite. The idea behind this was that if an incoming scout had made a slight
miscalculation, and required assistance, the Homebase would have a reasonable
chance of being able to detect this fact, and could send out a shuttle
of some sort to aid the srtiken scout. In its intended use this sensor
suite was the most underused of the Homebase's features. The Homebase featured
only one small interior hangar bay, intended for use in repairing badly
damaged scout ships, but had small exterior docking pylons which could
allow up to 10 small vessels to dock (anything roughly 50m long and smaller),
as well as one larger docking pylon intended for use by the occasional
corvette or bulk freighter which would resupply the station itself.
The Homebase design always had a limited production
run, but was in fairly high demand. Although the primary customer for the
Homebase was the Old Republic Scout Service, some were purchased by independant
scout services, and even by organisations which had nothing to do with
scouting. With the culling of the scout service after the Empire arose
the Homebase was put out of production. Most of the Homebases formerly
used by the scout service were pressed into Imperial Naval service. In
this function they would be placed mostly in out of the way systems, where
they could service light patrol ships, and where their powerful sensor
suites could be used to detect any incoming traffic before the patrol ships
would notice it. The Homebases have served quite well in this function,
and were briefly quite in vogue, as every Moff wanted a few Homebases to
increase the effectiveness of his customs and patrol forces. In Conheav
sector, the Lechar, Pecsus,
Conheav, and Kalpol systems
are all protected by Homebase stations. It should be noted that this is
an unusually high concentration of Homebases to be found in a single sector.
It is suspected that at least one pirate group has made use of a Homebase
station in the past to resupply its vessels, and serve as a command and
recreation facility, capitalizing on the fact that the space station can
jump from system to system when necessary.