Holonet Relay Stations have a range of exactly one sector. This means they can connect with Holonet Relay Stations in adjacent sectors - you need a receiving Holonet Relay Station to trade by this means. Holonet Relay stations are used when trading through the holonet.

There are two types of basic Holonet Relay Stations: Holonet Relay Base Stations (sometimes called a Base Station) and Holonet Relay Upgrade Stations (sometimes called an Upgrade Station). Both types of station offer . However, you only pay upkeep for Base Stations. Upgrade Stations require a Base Station they can attach to, but do nor require upkeep.

In a sector not controlled by your faction and where no other faction has sovereignty, you maintain sovereignty over your holonet relays, but other factions can freely add their own in the same sector. You cannot build a Holonet Relay Station (either a Base Station or an Upgrade Station) in a sector with one or more systems without permission from the occupants, however only one occupant needs to agree.

Note that finishing construction on any type of Holonet Relay Station counts as a completion. Furthermore, Holonet plays an important part in the consumption of Sector Capacity:

• (1| for the presence of holonet
• and |1) per 5000 (rounded down)
• and another |1) per base station in the sector

Players get one free Holonet Relay Base Station in their sector, which has a capacity of 500 . The maintenance for this station is free.

Purchasing a new Base Station costs 150 Holonet Relays, and the new station has a capacity of 500 . You can have multiple Base Stations in a single sector, but it is much more useful to have at most a single Base Station, and build Upgrade Stations.

A Base Station has a maintenance cost of 25 per .

Purchasing a new Upgrade Station costs 100 Holonet Relays, and the new station has a capacity of 500 . You can have multiple Upgrade Stations in single sector. The Base Stations supporting the Upgrade station does not have to be controlled by your own faction: you can attach your Upgrade Station to any Base Station in the sector, provided its controller allows it.

If you want to attach your Upgrade Station to someone else's Base Station, you must notify them of this. They are allowed to revoke your attachedment at any time by noting this in their turn report.

Upon construction, you can immediately attach the upgrade station to a Base Station. Note this in your turn report. You are free to attach your Upgrade Station to another Base Station, if so, you should note this in your turn report.

An Upgrade Station has no maintenance cost, but to use its it must be supported by a Base Stations.

Duplex Stations are created by upgrading a base station or upgrade stations through the Holonet Universal Base Code Patch. A Duplex Station is an advanced holonet relay station that combines the features of the Base Station and the Upgrade Station in a single station. A Duplex Station can be used in place of both the Base Station and the Upgrade Station.

The Duplex Station has a capacity of 500 . A Duplex Station is capable of acting as a Base Station if needed. If it does so, upkeep is paid as if the Duplex Station is an base station. If the duplex station acts as an upgrade station, no upkeep is necessary.

In the event that a Base Station suddenly becomes unavailable, the Duplex Station can take over the task of base station without downtime (and will require immediate upkeep). By attaching all upgrade stations in a sector to a duplex station that is in turn attached to a Base Station, the Duplex station can act as a fail-over if the Base Station becomes unavailable.

You can always have upgrade stations (or other duplex stations) attached to a duplex station, but note that the top-most station must be a base station or duplex station acting as a base station.

Regardless of its current function, the duplex station always counts as a Base Station for the purposes of Sector Capacity.