Ice Station Zerek is a small frontier mining spaceport established by Hyperdyne Systems Interstellar in 39 ABY. It covertly operates as a front to cover for the Azorian Citadel built directly below it.
Structure
The structure is essentially a small, pressurized mining port stationed on the icy surface of Cilix. Complete with a canteen, offices, housing, a small store selling general goods, an infirmary, and a recreation facility, the miners and employees live a spartan but comfortable existence. The spaceport includes all the necessary infrastructure needed to support the mining operations below as well as shipping the coaxium. Zerek maintains access to the umbilical lines in segregated sections of the station with separate security protocols, serving to further hide the purpose of the Ventress headquarters residing in the underwater Azorian Citadel.
Within the surface station’s domes, activity centers on the careful handling and transfer of coaxium arriving from the deep-mining facility below the ocean floor. The largest landing bay domes open into expansive hangars where transports dock under strict containment protocols. One of the smaller domes provides access to the subsurface ocean through a lift that can lower vessels down to an aquatic hangar. Within these hangars, shipments of volatile coaxium are loaded by precision cargo handlers aboard outbound freighters as inbound loads of specialized equipment and machine tools are offloaded into storage areas. Pressurized corridors link these bays to administrative hubs, crew quarters, and monitoring stations, each lined with frosted durasteel panels and lit by steady blue-white strips.
Crew accommodations are modest but efficient, gathered around shared mess halls, observation lounges and canteens where personnel can relax, grab a drink or watch the gas giant’s storms churn across the distant horizon. Dedicated labs inspect each coaxium shipment for purity and stability before dispatch, while a medical wing and emergency bunkers stand ready for mishaps. Power conduits beneath the reinforced decks hum softly with geothermal energy, a constant reminder of the molten tides deep below the ice that sustain this isolated waystation on the frozen plains.
Defenses
The station’s formidable defenses safeguard Zerek’s operations and discreetly protect the Azorian Citadel beneath the surface. The structure hosts a relatively wide range of defensive emplacements which include multiple DF.12 Com Turrets, Bp.5 Anti-Aircraft Turrets, XX-10 Turbolaser Towers, and a single LNR Series I Systemary Laser Battery. Though this heavy assortment of defensive power may seem excessive to some, it is easily excused by the high value of the coaxium being mined below.
The spaceport is defended by the Cilix Planetary Garrison Battalion of the Ascendant Legion which is permanently assigned to defend the moon. While on training or active operations, the soldiers are housed in the station. One platoon of the line and scout companies rotate down to the Azorian Citadel below for month-long tours guarding the headquarters. The T-47 airspeeder unit assigned to the base routinely conducts patrols and training outside of the domed spaceport.
All Plagueian soldiers stationed at Zerek adopt the uniforms, insignia, and bearing of the Freelance Mercenary Corps, a corporate-aligned private military outfit known throughout the Outer Rim. By maintaining this facade, the Ascendant Legion ensures that the garrison blends seamlessly into the image of an ordinary hired defense force. To any outside observer—be it traders, inspectors, or rival interests—the spaceport thus continues to present itself as a self-contained, independent mining concern guarded only by its contracted corporate security, rather than a strategic holding quietly overseen and controlled by Plagueis.