Very good, once again. I will be interested to see how the different story threads tie in together.
By the way.... one thing I was a little puzzled about- When you referred to the "hyperspace range marker", I assume you meant the navigational buoy? I couldn't imagine them racing all the way to the witchspace marker and then back to the station, but that buoy has nothing to do with hyperspace.
but it also marks the boundary of the no-witchjump zone..
While yes, with the standard stations, this is true, with OXPs, this isn't the case. Gritty Coriolis' for example tend to need about 12 km of clearance before you can hyperspace jump. Torii need significantly more.
Even the Ho0py Casino needs a few kilometers of clearance before you can jump. (I've not tried with any of the other dreadnoughts)
but it also marks the boundary of the no-witchjump zone..
But you can't witchout that close to the planet either, can you? (In which case it would be silly to mark the distance on that side.) Hmm. Actually , I never tried it. I just assumed that since you can't do the (j-key) hyperspeed thing that close to a planet, that you couldn't hyperspace that close to a planet either, but maybe I am wrong?
I am not trying to belabor this point, and it's not like i am getting heated up over such trivia, but if it was for marking the hyperspace boundary, wouldn't there be one on the other side of the station (away from the planet)?
Anyway, it is called the navigation bouy. So there.
The Nav Buoy was created initially as a target for testing out weaponry as I worked onthe early Oolite. I placed it directly outside the station so that I'd have to do no more than launch and fire! Then I realised how useful it was as an aid to docking - so as I neared release I decided to keep it in the game.
In terms of Oolite's milieu I tend to see it as a sensor station (quite possibly manned) used for traffic control around a system's main port.
It was never intended to mark 'safe-distance' for witch jumps (although for the standard Coriolis station it is placed at that distance). Your on-board mass-detectors do most of the work of deciding how far from a given mass you need to be to safely create a wormhole.
HTH
"The planet Rear is scourged by well-intentioned OXZs."