| Officially, "The Yard" does not exist. Really, not a surprise, since it is a Galactic Investigation Services facility.The anomaly known as a "Void Space" is a closed structure in space-time encased in an inert layer of subspace. Within a void, funnels periodically erupt into normal space, creating massive graviton forces which pull in anything unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity smaller than a planet.In 2287 a UGC vessel found a way to escape a void entirely under her own power, and marked the area for future reference for other spacecraft. The information developed in that process, and a follow on Patrol study on the retrieval of spacecraft, allowed the UGC to understand how the anomalies works and how to avoid them... And gave the GIS an opportunity to exploit them.By knowing how to detect and in fact CAUSE a shunt to form as desired, the yard can take ships in and out as desired. Three to five Patrol ships circle the void on a patrol lasting from 2 weeks to 6 months, "disrupting" the shunts before they form; Unseen, however, are GIS shuttles causing shunts to form when and how desired.The yard is technically a beyond top secret research and development complex (actually a series of hundreds of complexes, consisting of over 2,000 space stations, and many more space ships, ranging from one man stunt craft to warships). Unfortunately, with so many ships to research, there simply isn't enough time, and the stations mostly just hold onto the ships waiting for their turn. Unauthorized ships that enter the yard are summarily destroyed, but this hasn't happened in over 200 years.There's a Centurion thought to be 220,000 years old in there; A couple of Arcturan battle cruisers (try not to snicker); A Haydonite sphere ship; An ECLIPSE-Class Battle Station; The BASESTAR-Class Battle Station; A planet ship of utterly unknown origin (thought to be associated with XXT-5K, aka "The Machine-World" currently being used as GIB headquarters); And even the only Star Forge-Class Space Factory known (by the Geh 'Dai and UGC) to exist.Amongst the more notable characters of The Yard is Dr. SHELDON, the engineer behind the Mayflower-Class Multi-purpose ships, the oldest known living Cylon Centurion (and possibly the oldest known living creature in the universe), who's thought to be 220,000 years old, a Zor clone (though an imperfect clone), the Fantome species (although they are commonly seen in voids, so it's probable they aren't native to this void; the Fantome seem not to know), the entire Stargate Project (Dr. MALLORY died and was buried here, Dr. JACKSON lived here until he retired, and General O'NEIL remained until he retired), and three of the 5 current Atorian Queens- Under lock and key. |  |