As much as Selen is the beating heart of Arcona, it is also a potential weakness. So much of Arcona’s resources are located on Selen that an enemy assault or occupation could be ruinous for the Clan. To prevent this, Arcona has taken great steps to ensure that Selen remains defended against enemy invasion.
Selen is covered in a complex network of military bases, garrisons, and redoubts which work together to ensure any attack is rebuffed. Front-line bases such as Fort Blindshot are designed to take the full brunt of an enemy assault, while smaller logistics and supply bases ensure that the defense can be sustained. In case of complete military collapse, it’s rumored that Clan Arcona maintains an extensive network of emergency bases and research labs, fully prepared to unleash a desperate counter-attack.
Military Bases
Arconan Military Parade Grounds
By Zujenia
Just outside of Estle City lies a moderately-sized Arconan military establishment known as the Arconan Military Parade Grounds. The Arconan Military Parade Grounds were once used to hold events for the Selen’s denizens. These colorful and skillful displays of military prowess served a dual purpose; to recruit from the surrounding population and improve the natives' opinions towards a foreign military establishment on their doorsteps. After Satsi Tameike ascended to the position of Consul the Parade grounds was repurposed into an additional training base and barracks. Where the once proud color guard had been stationed, grim-faced ‘official’ troops are now housed.
The Parade grounds are mainly comprised of a large field. Its neatly trimmed turf is permanently dyed an array of vibrant colors, the powdered pigments painted into the soil from several seasons of rain and festivals. The rainbow soil unfailingly finds its way onto the uniforms of the soldiers stationed there and is nearly impossible to completely remove. Training equipment and obstacle courses have been installed around the edges of the field in order to condition the endurance, athleticism, and strength of the troops. The bleachers that once sat spectators have been removed, their duracrete foundations providing a base for new barracks and other buildings. The few barracks that already stood on the premises were expanded to increase the number of troops housed there. A meager fence that previously ran around the parade grounds was replaced with something taller and more intimidating, with a solid guard station added to its entrance. The quick renovations to the base have removed much of its former glory, however, nothing will remove the painted canvas of pride and boldness left upon the very dirt.
AEF Logistics Command Center
By Grot
The [Arcona Expeditionary Force| AEF] Logistics Command Center (AEFLCC) or “The Hive” as it is better known by its occupants, is the central storage and distribution center for Arcona’s military forces. While it’s not as glamorous a posting as the front-line bases or garrisons, it is nonetheless vital to the running of Arcona’s military. From this base and smaller depots across the system the wide variety of space-ships, bases, and ground forces owned by Clan Arcona are kept in good supply.
Another function of The Hive is that it acts as a point of contact between the AEF and the manufacturers located in Korda City. Military contracts between private companies are issued from this command, and deliveries from Korda’s manufacturers are made directly to the facility for distribution. Without the business from the AEFLCC, a good number of Korda’s major manufacturers would collapse.
The AEF Logistics Command Center is located directly outside of Korda City, Selen’s largest manufacturing center. The command center has a monopoly on most of the flat land on the city's outskirts, as by necessity it requires significant space room for landing pads and hangar facilities. The city has a dedicated limited-access highway leading from the city into the base, and traffic above the base is heavily restricted.
The area, in general, is highly polluted and paved over in tarmac and concrete to facilitate easy travel. The plant life is wilting and sickly where it does exist, and a thick layer of smog lays over the base on most days. Animal life is similarly scarce, limited to rodents and vermin which thrive in the urban, polluted environment.
The base itself is a massive, sprawling complex with numerous hangers, warehouses, and storage facilities. A large communications tower dominates the center of the base, probably the largest in the system, and is capable of transmitting anywhere within the star system. Attached to this communications tower is a large administrative facility, where a constant flow of bureaucrats and functionaries travel in and out daily.
A constant flow of traffic lands and departs from the pads around the building, each taking or delivering their own load of goods and material. Everything from food rations and clothing, to ammunition and weapons, makes its way through this facility. A strict work schedule keeps this chaotic ballet working day and night.
To guard this constant hive of activity armed guards patrol around the clock around the electrified fence that marks the border of the base. Guard towers are located at regular intervals inside the facility and traffic in and out is very well regulated. The warehouses and landing pads, especially, are tightly guarded.
By Qyreia
Fort Blindshot is a multipurpose post dedicated to the planetary defense of Selen and the maintenance of the planetary garrison. In case of an enemy invasion, the Fort would be the primary center of resistance. Situated on an inactive volcanic island, the variable types of terrain offer a multitude of areas for troops to utilize in honing their skills. The remote location is largely separated from any sort of civilian population and offers easy defense from external forces through the use of turbolaser turrets and interconnected trench and bunker system built across the island. The occupation of the island itself is divided into three basic sectors.
The lowlands that dominate the western portion of the island are dedicated to the housing and basic needs of the troops, with facilities for anything from food to entertainment. Housing is separated into different sectors and provided for the soldiers family, should they have one. This sector is also home to the base’s main starport, which is large enough to handle the logistics shipments needed to supply the base, as well as support the bases fighters, transports, and assault ships
The foothills that comprise the southeastern quarter are dedicated to various firing ranges, anything from small arms to artillery and air-to-ground targetry. Several ranges are large enough to facilitate a whole battalion’s movement through them for live-fire exercises, incorporating various types of droid and holo-targets in both open battlefields and mock villages or cities. ear the habitation district there is a multitude of structures which serve as classrooms and training facilities for the garrison. These facilities include anything from tactical training simulators to mock cockpits for flight training.
The northwestern third of the island, the crater area of the long inactive volcano, is used to familiarize troops with a wide variety of terrain. Active defense positions are camouflaged and scattered around the area as well, filling in what would otherwise be blind spots in the defensive net. Rocky outcrops commingle with trees and soft earthen slopes to create a kaleidoscope of land, inhabited by equally varied wildlife. Mock trenchworks and hidden bunkers are used as fake “enemy” habitations for training, while a few scattered “villages” slumber among the trees and flinty rocks.
Misty Oaks Storage Facility
By Grot
The Misty Oaks Storage Facility, or “Boneyard”, is a storage and recycling facility for Arcona’s vehicles. Rather than fully scrap and recycle outdated vehicles, which can be a long and expensive process, Arcona instead elects to store them here where the arid climate means they do not have to maintain any sort of storage facility. Indeed, Arcona even uses the facility for civilian vehicles, buying broken private transports for cheap and keeping them on hand for scrap. This myriad of vehicles are simply left to sit in the hot sun and are harvested for parts and scrap as needed to maintain Arcona’s fleet and motor pool.
Due to the particular requirements of this facility, it is located on an island far out into Selen’s equatorial oceans. A strange quirk of the ocean currents and weather patterns has rendered this particular island bereft of rain or significant weather. This has left the island barren, dry, and desolate. The island is mostly uninhabited, aside from a few species of lizards and sea-birds. Some hardy brush and weeds grow in the dusty earth, barely able to scrape by on the sparse rainfall. The surrounding oceans are relatively barren, as the lack of a strong ocean current leaves the water lacking in nutrition.
The primary feature of the Misty Oaks Storage facility is a large open field filled with the remains of decommissioned vehicles. Everything from private transports to tanks, to starfighters can be found sitting out in the Misty Oaks backyard. These vehicles are all in various states of disrepair and disassembly.
Adjacent to this field is a small base, consisting of a mechanics workshop, a guard post, a landing pad, and a barracks. Work here is constant, with vehicles being brought in daily to harvest for spare parts or rare materials. Every week, large haulers deliver new vehicles into the storage facility's fields and carry away the newly harvested parts.
Behind this innocuous front, the Misty Oaks base is also a premier testing facility for Arcona’s latest and greatest weapons projects. The predictable weather and lack of a significant ecology mean that weapons testing can be carried out without worry for the local environment. The remote location and convenient front of the storage facility also mean the testing can be carried out in complete secrecy.
Waystation 125
By Anonymous
Located on an undersea plateau, Waystation 125 is a rather small military outpost even in the lean makeup of the Arcona military, but one that is no less important. This outpost is settled at the halfway point between Naruba City and Celeste, and is ultimately charged to patrol the water between Naruba City and Celeste as well as the area around Celeste itself. This protection includes underwater reconnaissance, explosives sweeps, sabotage checks, and even presence patrols in the event of civil unrest. Due to its underwater location, the base has to be kept small, and the personnel manning the Way Station are highly trained in all facets of underwater warfare.
There are three moon pool entrances for submersibles and divers located in a triangle formation These moon pools are the furthest outlying structures of the base and connected by direct hallways that lead to a large, central structure which makes up the main part of the base. All of the base's buildings are pre-fabricated and interchangeable, as the nature of construction on the seafloor means they have to be constructed on the surface and then sunk into place.
As such, all three entrances to the base have the same layout. There is a simple white-washed hallway that breaks off into an equipment room and briefing room, along with a sealed hatch that leads into the base proper. Passing through this second hallway, you will enter the main base, with opens into a T-section hallway able to turn left right or continue straight. All hallways, T-sections, and rooms within the structure are closed off by an electronic door and reinforced junction structures to allow for watertight seals in case of flooding. The base consists primarily of three concentric rings running around the main command center.
The first ring is the outer ring, allowing access to the moon pools and being coated in heavier armor to shield against any external attack. The second ring is where the personnel are housed, with the barracks, mess hall, and medical areas being located in this area. The third and final ring runs around the central command center, which holds various communications and sensor equipment to allow for daily operations of the waystation.
Covert Installations
Camp 88
By Anonymous
Camp 88 is another Arcona base hidden in shadow, out in plain sight with many civilians none the wiser. The entrance is hidden within an actual high-rise in Naruba city. Businesses and everyday occurrences occupy lower floors. However, special access is needed to go above floor 88; floor 88 and above are all the property of the Arcona military, and only credentialed members are able to normally access those floors. Any normal attempt to access these levels will result in elevator stoppage in floor 87 and a plain clothes Arcona military member informing any affected persons that there are renovations going on with the above floors, and access is restricted.
Its purpose is much less combat intensive than most other military bases. Camp 88 is set-up specifically to help combat electronic fraud and economic tampering. This base also has a mandate to protect the financial trading markets of the InterGalactic Banking Clan and the other corporate offices. This mission ensures the stability of the Dajorra system, and thus ensures the stability of the Clan. However, this camp isn’t just meant to serve the rich and powerful. It also serves as a forefront in educating Arcona’s newest electronic infiltrators and hardware engineers. Extensive, complicated drills and alerts are a part of everyday life at the camp. The most important facet of this camp, however, lies in its ability to quickly launch electronic countermeasures at almost any point on Selen in the case of a planetary threat.
Upon arriving on floor 88, there is little to distinguish it from any other high rise office floor. An open floor plan of desks and computers, meeting rooms closed off by glass, piecemeal art pieces, and plant dressing, and small break rooms make up most of the identifiable aspects. This floor plan is copied from floor 88, to floor 94. These office spaces are different in that all electronic/computer equipment inside are high-grade military hardware and electronic tracking equipment.
Floor 95 to floor 100 are a large departure from this aesthetic, as these floors are more in line with a multi-level Arcona military outpost; it is complete with Barracks and mess hall areas on floor 96, offices and medical stations on floor 97, and a small command center and further electronic stations on floor 98. Floor 95 and Floor 100 consist of guard stations in order to defend from any attack coming from above or below towards the actual military post of the building. Floors 95 and 100 also hold a large number of emergency jump packs to ensure that any evacuation order can be fulfilled without needing to wait for transport. A landing pad on the roof of the high rise may also be utilized as a secret drop off point, but the pad also shares its purpose with civilian traffic in the building.
Entar Bastion
By Edema R'uh-Kalinor
The Entar Bastion is an impressive feat of engineering, designed to serve as a last-ditch fortress in case of enemy invasion. The base is built into the core of a massive dormant super volcano and functions primarily as a fighter base, military garrison, and research center. Its internal spaces span kilometers of caverns and tunnels, mostly dedicated to its geothermal power system.
The massive geothermal generators beneath the base are the primary reason for its existence. Protected by kilometers of rock, these facilities can provide an almost limitless supply of power for the base which, when coupled with its groundwater supplies and hydroponics, enables the facility to sustain siege indefinitely. The generators are also capable of powering a series of massive shield generators which render the base impenetrable to orbital and long-range bombardment.
Externally, not much can be seen of this base, other than a small hanger entrance built into the rockface of the volcano. This entrance is carefully hidden and made to look like an outcropping of rock, this entrance is almost completely invisible from a distance. The hanger houses up to two squadrons of starfighters, as well as a small number of support craft. The door is heavily reinforced against assault, and fitted with its own dedicated shielding systems.
The volcano's surface is littered with camouflaged weapons emplacements designed to fight off enemy transports and starfighters. Large numbers of quad laser cannons and concussion missile launcher make the bastion almost unassailable by air. These, coupled with the bastion's multiple layers of shielding, are designed to make a ground attack the only possible method of taking the bastion.
Supporting the base facility is a garrison of several hundred soldiers, picked for their skill and loyalty to the clan. While small in number, the extensive fortifications and multiple layers of defense present in the bastion can make these few hundred men fight like a few thousand. Expertly trained in siege warfare and delaying tactics, these men will make the enemy fight for every inch of ground taken. These troops will fight to the death to defend the bastion and are Selen’s last line of defense.
Located far below even the base’s geothermal generators is a heavily shielded research facility known as the Arconae Laboratory. This highly secret Laboratory is where select members of Clan Arcona can carry out personal research, whether medical, scientific, or more esoteric. It’s said that some of Arcona’s darkest and most ingenious innovations have come from this very facility.
The Snakepit
By Tali Sroka
A lonely island sitting upon a tectonic seam line, the island where FAB Snakepit is located seems rather unassuming to the public eye and that is fully intentional. Instead of trying to mask every facet of its true nature, other means of camouflage have been implemented to masquerade the island as something it is not.
To the casual observer, the island is a luxury resort for the super-rich, with a short private runway for pleasure craft and an extensive, if secluded, hotel built partially within the volcanic mountain that forms the core of the island. Pristine white marble, shaped in the style of neo-Corellian designers, mingle seamlessly with rows of lush palm trees and pools of clear, turquoise water for the island’s occupants to enjoy. A rich bounty of oceanic produce along with fruits from the fertile foothills, grown in the fertile volcanic ash, provide sustenance to the stationed detail, while geothermal power further ensures self-sustainability.
However, hidden behind this thin, yet thoroughly authentic-looking facade are numerous sophisticated weapons and surveillance systems that can detect, warn of, and engage any intruders on the in the air, on the surface, or in the ocean. Concussion torpedoes, quad laser cannons, and turbo-laser batteries all form a tight defensive net which is nearly invisible to all but the most sophisticated of sensors.
If visitors happen to set foot on the island, they would never suspect a thing to be awry.
The occupants, all specialists chosen for their particular sets of skills to serve Arcona and her needs, have been thoroughly trained to assume cover identities and protect the bases secrecy. Once the visitors have departed, however, the base can show its true colors. Hidden behind life-sized paintings of each of the illustrious team members lies a sophisticated ramp and slide system which they can use to swiftly and conveniently be transported to the ship waiting at the bottom of the installation. A number of clothier droids will also exchange their garments during this transport period so as to relieve them of any civilian attire and ensure they arrive upon the vessel in mission-specific clothing.
Sitting upon a reinforced launch-pad, held in a brace cradle that allows the vessel to stand upright is a Charger c70-class warship, codename [REDACTED], which also functions as the team’s base of operations when on a mission. Thanks to the innovative workings and deployment of powerful repulsor fields and heat-shielding, a launch window for the craft may be opened within the core of the volcano itself, allowing it to take off and land in an almost vertical fashion.
Further facilities found within the base are; a squadron of interceptors, launched from the runway via a hidden hangar bay behind the sheer cliff-face to which the runway ends, a state-of-the-art medical facility and containment pens with enough occupancy for the entire [REDACTED]’s crew, a submersibles pen with a selection of watercraft both surface and sub-surface, a high-powered communications and surveillance suite with full holonet broadband access and a dedicated workforce of droids to keep the place running in the absence of the organic masters.