Velok the Younger
When I Was A Young Warthog
Name: Fort Elsa
Image Source: SWTOR screencap
Intent: Uplift research facility, secure storage
Classification: Research base
Location: Located on Kelsier, several hundred kilometres from Vanak, Sunwatch and Point Bleak
Affiliation: Rave Merrill/Akure Executive Leatherworks
Population: Guards (40 + 20 GT-F0 droids), qo'saarai tuk'ata (2-400), assistant alchemists (10), medical staff/droids (30), various (20-50)
Defenses: 10 quad laser cannons, light shield generator, emergency shield generator (can operate for 24 hours continuously or withstand one average capital ship bombardment), 20 defense droids, 40 guards, deeply buried hardline tap on the Sunwatch early-warning sensor array.
Points of Interest:
- External hangar, the only portion of the facility which protrudes aboveground, containing a handful of snowspeeders and small personal craft;
- The Dark Forge of Aza'zoth, possibly the most powerful and storied alchemical forge in the galaxy, relocated from Aza'zoth by Rave Merrill (the Dark Forge's keeper) with the assistance of Archangel, and generally contained within walls of nullification resin;
- Surgery/alchemical laboratories, including ten major operating theatres, a handful of Soledadi Spaarti cylinders, some ysalamiri, and various other relevant gear, much of it focused on the process of uplift;
- Velok's Deicide Oculus, generally contained within walls of nullification resin;
- Brachiative acclimatization habitat for qo'saarai tukata in the process of uplift;
- Gene banks and tissue samples of essentially all known Sithspawn and various pathogens in high security;
- Personal quarters for Rave Merrill, including encrypted hypercomm.
Description: Fort Elsa is an L-shaped four-story subterranean facility deep underneath the Kelsieri tundra. Its main purpose is the uplift of the tuk'ata species, focusing the most intelligent subspecies on greater growth, accelerating their maturition, and altering their locomotion and front paws in heritable ways. Charon biotechnology, combined with Sith alchemy, allows Rave to make acquired characteristics (improved bipedal locomotion and opposable thumbs) fully heritable through several generations. Though qo'saarai tuk'ata often go from Fort Elsa to the preserve on Tash-Taral, or to the Tion Hegemony trade nexus, most spend a good portion of their earliest months in Fort Elsa.
Being located underground in a remote part of an essentially unknown world in a sensor-baffling gas cloud within largely uncharted space in the middle of nowhere, Fort Elsa's main defense is pretty obviously secrecy. The most Force-significant elements of the fort are heavily shielded with nullification resin and/or ysalamiri and/or Light Side long-range sense negation (the process that made Yoda and the Dark Side cave cancel each other out to the Emperor's farsight). Rave accomplishes the latter by housing a herd of pleasantly pacifistic Jakobeasts in the vicinity, and offering housing to a couple of Levantine ex-Jedi healers on the AEL payroll. For all intents and purposes, the facility is un-findable via the Force. A handful of freighters have come and gone via roundabout, convoluted routes, but there is no steady stream of traffic now that the facility is in full operation.
History: Fort Elsa began life several years ago as Rave's storage depot, not long after her brother discovered the system. In return for absolute secrecy and various other considerations (including her efforts to cure the genetic effects of small population issues), the Kelsieri Echani granted Rave permission to build a remote facility in an uninhabited region of Kelsier. The facility was expanded in as close to complete secrecy as Rave could manage. Some of her closer associates have visited, including [member="Fable Merrill"] and [member="Cerita Sarova"], but that's about it, and it's likely to stay that way.
Links:
Tracking down and exploring the facility (primary development thread)
Moving the Dark Forge, part one
Moving the Dark Forge, part two
