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 no engines or FTL drives of any kind.
• They have a MASS size similar to a ship, but do not pay points for it.

These installations do not pay a hull cost when considering points, making them slightly cheaper than an equivalently sized ship.

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 3 points. Larger classes double the mass for each extra size class. They hit and do damage like a standard 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.

Point defence systems come in Light and Heavy varieties. The latter have a longer range to force invasion forces to land further away.

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.