Buckingham class

The Buckingham class of Federation Starbases is a major installation in service with Starfleet in the 24th century.

Overview
The Buckingham class station is the Federation's second largest station in production, next to the Immense class station. Their purpose is to support Federation, Starfleet, and allied vessels within a specific area. This support ranges from refueling and resupply to refit in some cases. These stations also serve a vital economic purpose, with their onboard manufacturing systems.

The stations can also stand in as a seat of government providing control for commerce in the area. As with all Starfleet installations, Buckingham class stations serve a vital defensive & diplomatic purpose as well. Such a large facility can perform support tasks that can keep an entire fleet of starships working against a threat force. At the same time, the actual presence of a Federation installation of this scale within reach of many diplomatic attaches make these stations important centers for diplomatic exchange.

Offensive Systems
Twenty-four Type-11 Main Phaser Turrets spread out in three rows of eight. Sixteen Type-8 Point Defense Phaser Turrets. Four Type-11 Main Phaser Turrets placed at ninety degree in travels. Eight Type-9 Point Defense Phaser Turrets.

There are six torpedo launchers designed into the Buckingham class station. The first four are placed in between the docking bay doors. The remaining two launchers are in the ventral hull at ninety-degree angles from the docking latches for the modules. Buckingham Class stations store an average payload of 1,000 photon torpedo packages, 500 quantum torpedo packages and 250 transphasic torpedo packages, all dedicated for station use outside of emergencies

As a station, the Buckingham class has the materials in storage and the equipment on board to manufacture more torpedo casings than it currently carries in ready stock.

Defensive Systems
As of 2385, the Buckingham class station is protected by a double layer of ablative hull armor and has forty-eight (48) redundant emitters for its regenerative multiphasic shields.

Spacedock
Spacedock is located at the very top of the station. It is among the station's primary responsibilities. Ships enter the bay by two opposing doorways. Spacedock is separated into multiple areas known as tiers. The highest point, just below the Subspace Antenna and Long Range Sensor Array, is called Spacedock Engineering. This is where all the support systems for the docked vessels are located. Extending down inside the bay is a pillar from this point until the bottom. Almost everything is located in this pillar. Just below the Spacedock Engineering area is the Capital Ship Docks, these are specifically designed to service Starfleet vessels, allied fleet vessels, and any diplomatic vessels that visit the station. The next location is the control area for the bay, the Spacedock Control room and the Spacedock Computer Core.

Also located around the edge of the outer wall is a group of platforms. These platforms take up space that isn't needed for maneuvering by the many starships that enter the bay. They are used to store several thousand metric tons of cargo and supplies. This is also a convenient location for freighter docking on the central pillar. During times of low traffic, the freighters will dock and their cargo will be shuttled over to the platforms.

Located within the pillar are temporary residential areas (residency for no more than two weeks), commercial areas, and even a fair amount of recreational activities.

Within the pillar are more cargo and storage areas, usually dedicated to the modular nature of starships and shuttle operations. Outside of that is a large parking lot of shuttlecraft and Anti-grav platforms, more than any ship could hold. Further out from that, between the shuttle landing pads and the exterior wall is storage for starship modules.

Starship modules range from sensor pallets to internal habitat compartments or even the Multi-Mission Modules of the Nebula class (which must be towed out to be equipped on the Nebula class). The modules are arranged by class and module type. This area has no artificial gravity generators. Most stations carry an assortment of modules for each class especially when they can be interchanged with other classes.