Ground based installations are military, or at least well defended, bases located on a planetary surface. They must be paid for with points much like a ship is, though there are a few differences.

• They obviously cannot have engines or FTL drives of any kind.
• They have a MASS size similar to a ship, but do not pay points for it.
• They have a Base Integrity, which is similar to Hull Integrity. The cost is 2 per point.

Typical sizes for a base are:

• 50 - Small Outpost
• 100 - Medium Outpost
• 200 - Major base

Ground installations do not have a command and control core system. The life support system is only important on a planet with a hostile environment (such as vacuum, or non-breathable atmosphere).

The ground to orbit laser has a Mass of 3, and costs 6 points. They do 2D6 damage like a beam weapon, and always have 3 arcs of fire (horizon to horizon from the planet's surface). They cannot be mounted on ships.

The range band of a ground to orbit laser (GOL) is 15“. It may be affected by atmosphere (TBD). This is slightly longer than a ship-based beam weapon, to make it harder to sit back and bomb an installation from out of range.

Larger GOL classes double the mass and cost, and increment the damage and range.

Artillery Defence Systems come in Light and Heavy varieties. The latter have a longer range to force invasion forces to land further away.

They can be used as PDS, in which case both are identical in how they work. Heavy artillery has a longer range against ground targets though.

A small military outpost with a single fighter bay, ground to orbit laser and point defence systems. This is typical of forward bases used by many nations, and is meant to be re-supplied on a regular basis. It can defend itself against opportunistic or raider attacks, but has little to stand up to a ground invasion.