One of the smaller side landing circles, as seen from high altitude
The Round Table is the common collquial name for the gigantic circular starship landing field outside of New Chicago on Avalon, which is one of the largest spaceports in the Holy Terran Empire. The actual official name of the facility has changed several times, as historical personages fall in and out of favor with the current regime in power. Under the Holy Terran Empire, it is known as Ivan Sun Memorial Spaceport, after a pilot who died in the Battle of Avalon against the Caal in 2264.
Originally built in the late 21st century to allow the controlled-crash landing of unmanned cargo pods full of asteroidal metal ores and bulk foodstuffs to support the construction of the massive cities of Avalon City and New Chicago, the Round Table consists of a circular ceramcrete pad several miles in diameter, ringed by multiple smaller pads, shuttle runways, and hangars. The huge size of the field enables even the largest of starships to be brought in for landings, although most starships only do so on very rare occasions for particularly tough maintenance procedures, or for breaking up into scrap at the end of their useful lives.
The vast majority of traffic at the Round Table is either in ground-to-orbit shuttlecraft or smaller atmosphere-capable starships loading cargoes too bulkly for shuttle transport. Some passenger liners also land there to pick up or drop off luxury passengers to allow them to skip the usual shuttle transfer or stop at an orbital space station.
The climactic battle of the Ascension War was fought at the Round Table, as a covert strike team of Federation troopers and Sabbat members tried to assassinate Emperor Vin Dane during a speech broadcast from a communications bunker buried under the central landing pad.
Behind the Scenes[]
The Round Table was of course named after King Arthur's most famous bit of furniture, in keeping with the Arthurian theme of the name of the planet Avalon itself. The pic is of the real-life Spaceport America, home of Virgin Galactic's space-tourism flights.