- "The Mirage! A City Within a City!"
- ―Advertising slogan for The Mirage
The Mirage is a luxury hotel in Eden City that once secretly housed the headquarters of both the Reckoners and now defunct Yridian Security Bureau. Owned by Yridian proprietors, it serves as a major center of gambling, multi-class housing, and office space.
History
The Mirage began as the project of an ambitious entrepreneur, who saw profit in building a self-contained tourist attraction, designed to be a place for tourists and habitual gamblers alike to spend their money sheltered from the dangerous streets of Eden City. Ultimately, the entrepreneur left the building half-finished, and Tarentum, seeing the potential in a closed-off tourist center as a way to further control incoming foreigners, picked up the slack through intermediaries, finishing the Mirage with money flow and population control in mind.
In order to blend with the rest of Eden City, the summit of the now-closed House Kaerner decided at the Reckoners' founding that the battleteam's headquarters would be inside the Mirage. Situated in a crossroads between Districts I (the uptown district), IV (called "District Sin" by locals), and V (the slums), its placement has virtually guaranteed its success as a business. Dralin Fortea, under the assumed name Kaiman Sal, acted as proprietor of the casino until 34 ABY when he left the casino as an asset to House Tarentum as a whole. When Dralin became the head of the Yridian Security Bureau, he moved them there, placing their headquarters among the business offices in the Tower of Gold, and placing some of their personnel among Mirage security.
After the Siege of Eden, the Reckoners were disbanded. As the costs of maintaining the team had been heavy, the Tarentum summit decided to sell back the Mirage to the highest bidders, releasing it to the Eden populace and Yridian proprietors. No one, however, can access the former battle team's headquarters, for every key leading to it has been destroyed.
Characteristics
The Mirage is split into two towers that rise off of the main lobby floor. Called a "City Within a City" by advertisements, the building contains everything one expects to find in a small city, which subtly encourages guests to not venture into the greater Eden City area and limit themselves, and their money, to the Mirage itself.
Tower of Glory
In its lower levels, the Tower of Glory consists of the hotel rooms, while the upper floors hosts thousands of condos and apartments, ranging from lower-class studios to upper-class suites. In between the hotel rooms and the apartments lies a large marketplace, catering to the usual needs of a household, with a heavy additional tax for tourists. The very top floors of this Tower hold the most expensive suites in Eden City, one of which is registered to "Kaiman Sal."
Strewn throughout the lower-class levels are "dive bars," which serve cheaper drinks like what one would find out in Eden City, but with far less of the danger usually associated with real dive bars. The upper-class levels hold nicer clubs, the Minos Lounge in particular being a regular meeting place between some of the known criminal elite, as well as the usual place for a lunch pick-me-up for business moguls. Entrance is by invite only.
Tower of Gold
The view of Eden City at night from Itaana Gardens.
The Tower of Gold houses the true commerce center of the Mirage. The bottom-most floors contain the casino, where fortunes are made and, most commonly, lost. The top floors consist of a large, tourist-driven shopping mall, where all manner of things are for sale, with easy access from the casino. The very top floor of the Tower of Gold is home to a high-class restaurant, Itaana Gardens, which has a panoramic view of Eden City.
However, there is a hidden level at the very bottom of the casino. This level was the true headquarters of the Reckoners, and could be accessed via the main turbolift in the casino lobby, as well as secret entrances scattered throughout alleyways in the closest outskirts of the three surrounding districts. All of these entrances could only be accessed via a special code cylinder issued to every Reckoner, while the turbolift in the main lobby would only go down to the hidden level if the code cylinder was inserted into a hidden keyhole. These code cylinders appeared identical to the room key cylinders issued to every hotel guest.
When a Reckoner accessed the headquarters via the main casino turbolift, the turbolift would display that it was going up when it was actually going down. This was very useful when transporting unknowing persons of interest to headquarters for interrogation, execution, or other such business.
Headquarters Areas
The Reckoners' headquarters retained much of the same look and feel as the hotel section of The Mirage, albeit with the amenities of a shared home. There were twelve bedrooms, a library, a large communications station, a training area, a comprehensive armory, a shared living area, and a hallway leading to an interrogation chamber, the hallway itself being lined with holding cells. The hallway, referred to as the Panic Room, was completely isolated from the rest of the level, designed to confuse one's sense of time.
Labeled floor plan of the Reckoners' underground headquarters.
Bedrooms and Living Areas
More than just flourished versions of meager infantry bunks, the living quarters for Reckoners operatives were designed to be fully functional for each agent. Stocked with miniature refrigerators, holovid players, personal communication systems, wardrobes and customizable beds, the rooms were also outfitted with private restrooms and electronic locks. Though the Reckoners, as merciless Dark Jedi, were expected to keep focused on their assignments, the living quarters were intended to offer comfortable housing for those rare moments when Reckoners do have some free time. Though they are a devoted and disciplined paramilitary force, the Reckoners were not mere enlisted men and - as they are the elite - were afforded these slight amenities.
The shared living area, which comprised the bulk of the headquarters, mirrored closely the hospitable, glamorous aesthetic of The Mirage itself. Couches, chairs, end tables, abstract art and even a lone mirror adorned the common room, while a studio kitchen sat against the far wall adjacent to the Commander’s quarters. Dark walls and gleaming silver décor lent both mystery and sophistication to the place, though it was often empty and nothing more than a decoration itself.
Library and Training Area
Modeled after both the first Death Star library and that of the Jedi, the Reckoners library was designed to contain the same volume of content as any public or private institution, providing a Reckoner’s agent nearly unlimited access to information and resources. From holobooks, datacards and holocrons to phonetic lattice and stacks of archaic reader tapes, virtually every bit of documented knowledge was comprehensively catalogued and at the disposal of the Reckoners.
Information intended for less scholarly pursuits, including personal dossiers and criminal records, was accessible to operatives with proper clearance. These databases were limited in availability, with debriefing contingent upon rank and a “need to know” basis.
The training area was a somewhat banal, though effective, array of equipment intended to indoctrinate and maintain fitness at a stripped down aesthetic – with one exception. The exception was the Tarentum Advanced Logistics and Kinetics, collectively known as TALK, program, or “the Black Box.” The machine, developed as part of the Reckoners program, stored complex synthesized algorithms of various opponents and landscapes, resulting in "virtu-real" simulacrums well suited for training exercises based within headquarters. This technology allowed for a fully efficient, though locally and internally based, training program and regimen for each Reckoners operative. If the device was proven effective over time, it would have been implemented in other aspects of Tarentum's military and training programs. However, it never was.
Communications Station
At all times requiring additional clearance, the Comm Room was just as, and perhaps more, important than the Armory. Possessing direct YSC contact capabilities, as well as recently installed transfers to the Tarentum Summit, the communications array was responsible for retrieving, storing, updating and maintaining all collected intelligence. A massive screen on the wall front of the roowa is used for priority transmissions, capable of handling large scale multi-party conferences. Monitors for viewing active surveillance equipment were also located here, strewn between several rows of operating desks, computers, data towers and holofile shelving. Without the Communications Station, the Reckoners simply could not do their job.
Armory
Straightforward and practical, the Armory was built for convenient retrieval of gear and equipment in all circumstances, from routine suiting to emergency scrambles. Personal grated lockers offered private additional weapon storage for each operative, accessible via the same key cylinder used to enter the facility. Weapons were arranged by sort, priority and function, with rarer or specialized pieces of equipment being in limited supply in comparison to “staple” arms and armor.
The Panic Room
Often the first thing a detained individual would see clearly, the Panic Room was a cold, eerie bright white corridor. Isolated supremely from the other sections of Reckoners headquarters, it resembled nothing more than a prison, empty throughout save for the doors to holding cells and the interrogation chamber at the end. Its walls proofed against aural, energy based and other disturbances, the Panic Room was horrifying in its dreadful and void simplicity.
Interrogation Chamber
Designed to inspire solemnity and hopelessness in its unlucky guests, the interrogation chamber was a stark and somber gray. A single table of black marble rested in its center, with only a single, uncomfortable chair to compliment its angles. The purpose for this was twofold; the detainee is forced to remain seated, obedient and vulnerable to the interrogator who was towering over them. Secondly, the interrogator was prevented from resting themselves, instead forced to further the intensity of the interrogation if they were to be allowed a moment’s break from sharing a small room with a miserable prisoner.
The chamber was outfitted with encrypted electronic surveillance, wired independently from any of the Mirage’s other electrical systems. The signals are transmitted to both the Commander’s and Lieutenant’s quarters, viewable from password protected holoscreens within the rooms.
Miscellany
Within the Commander's quarters, on the wall above the desk, was a collection of holophotos potraying the Commanders Emeritus of the Reckoners. There was not intended to be an amount of these overwhelming to the space of that single wall, a nod to the extremely meritorious status of those who ever served in the position.