Interplanetary relay station

An interplanetary relay station is a station, generally constructed in a vacuum environement, like the surface of a moon or asteroid, which serves as ports for interplanetary relay ships. These stations also harbour smaller system dwelling ships and therefore, relay stations not only serve as gateways between different systems, but also as intermediary points between interstellar travel and interplanetary travel. in the early 28th century, the technology that allowed travel between systems was still relatively new, and generally available for usage in very large freight vessels and passenger vessels. Although they did exist for smaller vessels, they weren't all that common. Installations needed to dock, fuel, load or unload and send off relay ships were extremely expensive to build and maintain, and only a select few existed. The usage of relay stations is politicized: relay stations charge docking tarrifs, which are imposed according to the origin and the cargo of the ships in question as a form of state control over interstellar transit. As relay station are for the most part under the jurisdiction of key states, they will sometimes charge reduced tarrifs to ships flying under the flag of their own respective states, or that of designated allies. Because of that, different peoples will tend to stick to specific relay stations.

RLSA-Venus relay station
By far the largest and most active Relay station, with 23 docks, the Venusian relay station was mostly funded by the various governements of Earth. Unlike most relay stations, RLSA-Venus has no tarifs, being located in the mostly stateless Free Venusian Space. The station only charges a somewhat expensive fee for unloading and fueling, but otherwise does not tax exports and imports, regardless of the origins and the cargo of the ships. This makes it by far the most popular relay station, used mostly by the Terrans and also by the Martians ever since the fall of Ceres.

Ceres relay station
The smallest of the three major relay stations, with 8 docks by the fall of the station to the Lunaregnum Empire. Ceres relay station was funded and built by the colaboration of the Chinese and Martians, and was therefore mostly used by these two people until the Lunaregnum empire took control of it. At this point, it was exclusively used by the Lunars, and believed by many to be held by pirates.

Triton relay station
The Triton relay station was built, funded, managed and owned by the Gas Giant Federation. It had 11 docks. The station was of course almost exclusively used by the Gasan people.