This room (A-219-01C) is located in the Aft Section on Deck 3 along the centerline. This room dominates the entier center line of the deck and is thus the most prominant feature.
The bay houses a number of storage racks for storing a number of Large Survey drones and the Light Recon Drones. At the back of the bay is the launch door and hull hatch. The entire bay must be depressurized in order to open the launch door and the exterior hull hatch to launch a drone. During launch, the AI will activate a drone and fly it off its rack toward the centerline and then out of the ship. Recovery is a reverse of this process.
The room is equipped with several microgravity generators with focused gravity beam emitters. This allows a drone to be manipulated within the bay in the event that the drone is unable to operate under its own power. Near the front of the bay in the floor is a large set of double doors that lead down into the maintenance bay on deck 3.
At the front of the bay are a pair of large freight doors which lead from the bay into the mid-section of the ship and a freight hallway leading to the central freight elevator. This allows drones to be moved between the storage bay, the shuttle launch bay, the hangar, and the lower cargo bay and receiving bay as needed.
A set of heavy duty pressure doors on the side wall near the front of the bay provides access to the bay for the crew from a standard hallway. There is a Lift stop across the hall from these doors.
A ladder in the floor near the front of the bay allows the crew to move seamlessly from the storage bay to the maintenance bay.
During drone launch and recovery operations, the bay can be closed off and sealed from the rest of the ship and the maintenance bay allowing the bay to be depressurized for launch and recovery without interrupting drone maintenance or other operations.
Drones
The Cassiopeia is supplied with 2 types of drones; A large multi-role survey drone with a capacity of 12 drones, and up to 60 light recon drones. Both sets of drones are modeled after their parent ship in appearance with their key differences being their size, and sensor package. They are equipped with a radioactive decay power cell and use a miniature version of the magnetic propulsion system that drives the Cassiopeia. Both are equipped with an advanced computer system and are capable of operating independently following a set objective. When not being directly controlled by the Cassiopeia AI, the drone utilize a basic virtual intelligence program to operate within set guidelines to accomplish their assigned task. When in operation, the drones maintain constant communication with their parent craft providing telemetry and command and control link.
The Light Recon Drone is equipped with a basic set of optical sensors, radar, and lidar. This drone is used primarily for area observance, tracking, and searching functions.
The Survey Drone is equipped with a much more comprehensive sensor suite. Sensors include; advanced optical sensors, lidar and radar, Electromatic sensors, a suite of gas Spectrometer sensors, and a suite of Metallography sensors. This drone is capable of a wide range of scientific functions and measurements including surface mapping and geography scanning.