Template:Featured
- "The Mirage! A City Within a City!"
- ―Advertising slogan for The Mirage
The Mirage is a luxury hotel in Eden City that secretly houses the headquarters of both the Reckoners and the Yridian Security Bureau, as well as serving 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.
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. In between the mall and
However, there is a hidden level at the very bottom of the casino. This level is the true headquarters of the Reckoners, and can 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 can only be accessed via a special code cylinder issued to every Reckoner, while the turbolift in the main lobby will only go down to the hidden level if the code cylinder is inserted into a hidden keyhole. These code cylinders appear identical to the room key cylinders issued to every hotel guest.
When a Reckoner accesses the headquarters via the main casino turbolift, the turbolift will display that it is going up when it is actually going down. This is very useful when transporting unknowing persons of interest to headquarters for interrogation, execution, or other such business.
Headquarters Areas
The Reckoners' headquarters retains much of the same look and feel as the hotel section of The Mirage, albeit with the amenities of a shared home. There are 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, is 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 are designed to be fully functional for each agent. Stocked with miniature refrigerators, holovid players, personal communication systems, wardrobes and customizable beds, the rooms are also outfitted with private restrooms and electronic locks. Though the Reckoners, as merciless Dark Jedi, are expected to keep focused on their assignments, the living quarters are 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 are not mere enlisted men and - as they are the elite - are afforded these slight amenities.
The shared living area, which compriess the bulk of the headquarters, mirrors closely the hospitable, glamorous aesthetic of The Mirage itself. Couches, chairs, end tables, abstract art and even a lone mirror adorn the common room, while a studio kitchen sits against the far wall adjacent to the Commander’s quarters. Dark walls and gleaming silver décor lend both mystery and sophistication to the place, though it is 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 is 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 is comprehensively catalogued and at the disposal of the Reckoners.
Information intended for less scholarly pursuits, including personal dossiers and criminal records, is accessible to operatives with proper clearance. These databases are limited in availability, with debriefing contingent upon rank and a “need to know” basis.
The training area is a somewhat banal, though effective, array of equipment intended to indoctrinate and maintain fitness at a stripped down aesthetic – with one exception.
The exception is the Tarentum Advanced Logistics and Kinetics, collectively known as TALK, program, or “the Black Box.” The machine, developed as part of the Reckoners program, stores complex synthesized algorithms of various opponents and landscapes, resulting in "virtu-real" simulacrums well suited for training exercises based within headquarters. This technology allows for a fully efficient, though locally and internally based, training program and regimen for each Reckoners operative. If the device is proven effective over time, it may be implemented in other aspects of Tarentum's military and training programs.
Communications Station
At all times requiring additional clearance, the Comm Room is 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 is responsible for retrieving, storing, updating and maintaining all collected intelligence. A massive screen on the wall front of the room is used for priority transmissions, capable of handling large scale multi-party conferences. Monitors for viewing active surveillance equipment are 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 is built for convenient retrieval of gear and equipment in all circumstances, from routine suiting to emergency scrambles. Personal grated lockers offer private additional weapon storage for each operative, accessible via the same key cylinder used to enter the facility. Weapons are 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 might see clearly, the Panic Room is a cold, eerie bright white corridor. Isolated supremely from the other sections of Reckoners headquarters, it resembles 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 is horrifying in its dreadful and void simplicity.
Interrogation Chamber
Designed to inspire solemnity and hopelessness in its unlucky guests, the interrogation chamber is a stark and somber gray. A single table of black marble rests in its center, with only a single, uncomfortable chair to compliment its angles. The purpose for this is twofold; the detainee is forced to remain seated, obedient and vulnerable to the interrogator who is towering over them. Secondly, the interrogator is prevented from resting themselves, instead forced to further the intensity of the interrogation if they are to be allowed a moment’s break from sharing a small room with a miserable prisoner.
The chamber is 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, is a collection of holophotos potraying the Commanders Emeritus of the Reckoners. There is 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.