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Not so long ago, in the grand scheme of things, there was little to differentiate two ships passing in the void. Then the great galactic transponder upgrade occurred in 3303 where everyone was given the opportunity to express their personalities on the scanners of fellow Pilot’s Federation members. With the arrival of Commander owned and operated capital ships, visible to any pilot in the vicinity regardless of their flight control system, how you chose to name your carrier will undoubtedly end up being one of your biggest personal statements in the galaxy. For the curious of mind, here is the tale of how DSSA #21 got it’s moniker.
Typically, when naming other ships in my fleet, their designations follow the function. In other words exploration ships have an exploration themed name, combat ships have a combat name and so on. This goes some way to solving the problem of remembering which Python is the one with the mining loadout, because you can never have too many Pythons. Ships are, by their nature, versatile due to the variances in their loadout and so you can have the same type of ship perform many different functions.
The same cannot be said of fleet carriers which are really single purpose capital class ships. There is some opportunity to theme the carrier’s named based on the selection of the limited number of services which can be installed. It would certainly help the casually passing commander identify which types of services the carrier has to offer as the service information is not apparent until the docking sequence is completed and the carrier services menu is loaded. In addition other carriers may roam the galaxy, jumping frequently, either for exploration or to provide a base of operations while a system is in a given state. While this may not directly influence the carriers name, I mention it here because D.S.S.A. carriers are intended to stay in one location for a significantly extended period of time.
Having said all that, what to call this fleet carrier of mine? Various incarnations of a name pass through my mind. It would be simple to pick another Douglas Adam’s inspired reference or something inspired from my primary minor faction (which already has it’s fair share of proposed faction inspired fleet carriers). However this is going to be a Deep Space Support Array fleet carrier, and in talking with other D.S.S.A carrier commanders it becomes apparent that the carrier name should start DSSA to signify its official participation in the initiative. This, at least, is a start. But what to call it? Uninspired options abound, including simply ‘carrier #21’ as it’s designation on the initiative’s sign up roster. Must try harder. I throw the creative task at my subconscious self and continue with the job at hand of locating an ideal system to moor the carrier.
Towards the latter part of the expedition to identify a long term location for the carrier, it becomes obvious that the name should reflect an aspect of the region or system which the carrier is to be located. Aquila’s Halo is a curious name for a region and offers a number of different references for source material. The first reference is a northern constellation south of Cygnus containing the bright star Altair. However this is the wrong part of the galaxy for that reference to be applicable, but the eagle reference in Aquila holds promise so I look to expand upon that theme. The first suggestion that presents itself is “Buteogallus Solitarius” or Solitary Eagle but that is too long for the 22 character limit imposed by the Pilot’s Federation. As word play on the region name, the second suggestion is “DSSA Aura Chrysaetos” which is the appropriate length but doesn’t feel quite right when interpreted as Eagle’s Presence.
Eventually, after reviewing many of the station names in the galaxy, a pattern emerges in the use of words such as ‘landing’ or ‘rest’. Thinking on variations of that theme I arrive at ‘refuge’. ‘Aquila Chrysaetos’ is the full scientific name for the golden eagle and is a derived term from the ancient Greek of simply ‘Chrysaetos’ . So there we have it. A name with the right feel, fit and theme for this region of the galaxy.
Welcome Commander. This is your fleet carrier. The ‘DSSA Chrysaetos Refuge‘.
It may look like many other fleet carriers but this one is yours, because you named it.
