Ulysses Anchorage

Ulysses is a base, like one of a dozen scattered across the solar system. It's facilities are not remarkable, nor is it's crew, and neither are the ships it tends. What does matter about Ulysses it where it is. The station sits at the Jovian zenith gravity well, looking down on the entire Jovian lunar system, and the goings on there. The Federation fleet uses the Ulysses Anchorage as it's advance base and fleet tending facilities, and it is frequently visited by the Fleets of a half dozen allied nations.

The Throne of Zeus

The fanciful name of Ulysses reflects the importance of the advance base, and it's lofty perch. The facility is just over 3 kilometers long, and can berth a Federation class Battlestar and it's crew with ease. This is the main use of the advance bases, to tend and repair the deep system fleet without requiring the ships to make the long haul all the way back to Earth or Luna for said repairs.

Ulysses, the great mariner, hero. That is what the base was built around, that mythos, that legacy. To stand on the bridge of Ulysses, and look down at Jupiter, at the ships there, you cannot feel anything but that mythos, that power.

It's a boring job, they won't tell you that. It is dreadfully boring. Almost nothing happens. Ships do use the facility, but visits might be weeks, months apart. The longest period was sixteen months without a ship docking. During the traveling season, when Mars lines up with Jupiter and Terran ships can slingshot around the red planet. Then, it gets busy, but that is once every two years or so. The big battlestars do come through, and the long range cruisers traipse through, and so forth, but it's monotony. The ships park, the Anchorage facilities come online, and we run the diagnostics, service reactors, reload and rearm, and send them on their way.

One of Many

The Atlantic Federation has built a dozen anchorages across the solar system. Hermes (Mercury), Persephone (Venus), Demeter and Atlas (Earth), Vulcan (Mars) Ulysses (Jupiter) and Cronus (Saturn) haven't moved since being built, and sit in either the zenith or nadir gravity wells of their host planets. Atlas sits at Earth nadir, and Demeter at the zenith. Five more anchorages exist, but are mobile, are involved with clandestine operations, or are part of naval reserve groups.

Helios, Hyperion, and Pegasus anchorages are mobile. Most of the time, the anchorages are deployed to Mercury, the Asteroid belt, and generally one in transit. Though mobile, the anchorages are slow. The facilities use extensive automation, and can go months without human oversight.

The Maw Installation is host to Osiris Anchorage, the advance base of the black fleet. Osiris is the newest anchorage, and the largest.

New Seibertron hosts the entirely automated and robot crewed Haephestus Anchorage. The advance base services the Seibertronians fleet of Arche and Decimator ships.