The first recharge stations were built during the Age of War by the Terran Hegemony when it became clear that they would need to quickly move WarShips around their space to deal with invaders. Within a century, every other major government in space had copied that first design or generated their own, and they have remained in common use ever since.
         Recharge stations can be found at the nadir or zenith jump points of many star systems. These stations deploy massive solar sails similar to those carried by JumpShips. The stations then store the energy collected with these sails in massive energy banks or Lithium Fusion battery cells. The recharge stations then use microwave transmission, direct-feed lines, or the simple modern expedient of transferring charged battery cells to recharge JumpShips at the jump points. Using the old fashioned way a recharge station can charge a JumpShip in 125 hours, approximately five days, cutting two days off the standard recharge time of a jump. The modern transference of battery cells that ComStar first showed to the Human Sphere allows a JumpShip to make a jump approximately one day after arrival if fully-charged batteries are available, greatly decreasing travel time. Unfortunately, the old batteries can't be used for this method and a costly renovation is needed to give any station the ability to transfer the small Lithium-Fusion batteries. Because of this, many recharge stations have not been refitted to this standard, and most that have have only refitted one of their giant banks to it. This is usually sufficient for the traffic that such stations see though.
         Most recharge stations perform secondary roles as well, often acting as cargo way stations or refueling points. Many also act as early-warning systems for the star system they inhabit, using sophisticated sensors to detect inbound hostile craft. Despite this use, attacking forces usually do not target recharge stations, primarily because the attacker can use them to recharge his own JumpShips as well. As a result, most recharge stations survived the Succession Wars. However, many have been the target of a covert operation to neutralize their sensors or communications equipment and negate their reconnaissance value.
         The most common recharge station is half the mass of the Olympus, though they are only slightly smaller in size to that more advanced Star League-era design. The vast majority of their mass is taken up with the massive bank of batteries that makes them run. The standard recharge station can carry almost 70,000 tons of cargo in its holds, and has four docking hardpoints for DropShips to link up with each of them or the recharging links. The basic station also has a pressurized repair bay that can hold a space ship up to 100,000 tons. They can also expand the bay out to encompass a larger ship, but doing so opens it up to space and thus makes the work slower. This bay is generally in constant demand, and usually must be booked many months in advance. They also have a large grav deck where crew and passengers alike can work or rest in comfort.