Escape Pods

It is standard practice to equip at least enough life pods for the crew plus 50%. For example, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a Galaxy class ship has 420 escape pods (each capable of holding 6 people). These are autonomous pods that are launched manually by the occupants. If the command is given to abandon ship, crew members will move to the closest escape pods. Once a pod has 6 people in it, it will eject. If a pod has 1 or more people in it and no-one joins for 1 minute, it will eject. If the ship is about to explode all pods will eject. Ships ejecting during the explosion have a 90% chance of being destroyed.

Pods are capable of moving at 0.01 light speed under their own power. They will move away from the ship, and then begin to cluster together. A recall command from the ship will cause the pods to return to the ship and re-dock.

Power Requirements

The pods all have self-contained power modules and do not require ship power to launch.

Dev Notes

Pods are very heavily armored  but can still be damaged while in the ship. If a pod takes more than 50% damage, then it is not usable.

Once launched the pods will be treated as separate space ships in the same way that shuttles are.