The "Orbital Ring" was a massive runway constructed on the exterior of the mothership. Carefully positioned by the Engineering Division, it sat just above the outer edge of the main hull.
Because construction could only begin after the mothership dropped out of sub-light speeds, this colossal project had been saved for last.
According to the blueprints, the ring was approximately 40 kilometers in circumference and 1.3 kilometers in both width and height. Its top surface housed numerous multi-level docking facilities, boasting a staggering total area of 19.47 square kilometers!
Building this true megastructure required nearly 90 million tons of steel and concrete. Moving forward, various large spacecraft would be assembled directly on this orbital ring.
It wasn't just a runway; it was a fully functional, compact shipyard!
The sheer mass of materials ejected to build this ring was the primary reason the mothership's velocity had decreased so rapidly.
