Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on a Tephrike location. This submission is connected to the Palmyra's Wail location sub. For information specifically pertaining to the nexus, refer to that sub.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, The Republican Guard is the Strongest, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Tephrike, Palmyra's Wail, Mahtara.
SETTING INFORMATION
Military Base Name: Fort Vigilance.
Classification: Fort, Containment Facility.
Location: Palmyra's Wail, Tephrike.
Affiliation: Cinder Guard, Republican Guard, Tephrike.
Population: Sparse
Demographics: Inhabited by members of the Cinder Guard, a Republican Guard formation, as well as civilian refugees and support personnel such as engineers, medical staff, intelligence officers, researchers, and technicians. The Guard is a multispecies movement, and this is reflected in the demographic makeup, so one can find both humans and aliens among the inhabitants. Examples for non-human species would be Twi'leks, Nautolans, Trandoshans, Togruta and Yuuzhan Vong. Without exception, all base personnel are Force Dead.
Accessibility: The base is very difficult to access. For starters, it is located at the edge of Palmyra's Wail, a dark side nexus and essentially a hellscape. The nexus is very powerful, actively seeking to warp the minds of Force-Users, regardless of their alignment, and Non-Force-Users alike. Thus the dangers posed by the Palmyra's Wail Force nexus must also be taken into account. Palmyra has beem contaminated by radiation and is riddled with dangerous creatures and illusionary mirages. Moreover, the weather is also hazardous due to torrential rainfalls and storms. The rain can be acidic.
As for the base itself, it is heavily guarded. The weather makes it difficult to scan, as does the fact that a good portion of it is located underground. Fort Vigilance exists to contain the nexus and prevent access to it. As a result, the occupants do not take kindly to intruders. They will open fire on unauthorised personnel or seek to capture, detain and question them. Only members of the Republican Guard are given access. In order to make access to Fort Vigilance as well as Palmyra's Wail more difficult, the Guard has laid traps such as land mines and booby-traps.
Description: Once upon a time Palmyra was Tephrike's capital. But as the Gulag Virus ravaged the planet, and sent it spiralling into chaos, the Dark Age also caused the city's downfall. Centuries ago, a great battle between the Dominion and the Vaderites devastated the city and turned it into a contaminated, dark Force Nexus. Now it is a tainted, radioactively contaminated wasteland. Mirages and ghosts haunt the ruins. Illusions deceive those desperate, brave or foolish enough to enter the nexus, seeking to compel them to make the fatal step that will cause their downfall.
The nexus is powerful and treacherous, having a remarkable ability to mess with the minds of sentient beings and break them. The ghosts of the dead are still trapped here, and there are all manners of dangerous creatures. Moreover, the land has been tainted by radiation, posing a serious health risk for intruders. Fort Vigilance is located at the very edge of Palmyra's Wail, as the nexus is called. It is manned by the Cinder Guard, an elite formation of the partisan movement called the Republican Guard. These rebels seek to unify Tephrike under a revolutionary republic by Non-Force-Users and for Non-Force-Users and feel strong hatred for Sith and Jedi alike. In keeping with this, the goal of the Cinder Guard is not to harness the nexus, for they view it as cursed. Instead they want to contain it and prevent any Force-Users from trying to access it, for they know this only leads to corruption.
The Cinder Guard holds vigil over the ruins. Some call them the Knights of the Ashes. Every single member of the Cinder Guard is Force-Dead in order to render them immune to the mental temptations of Palmyra's Wail. They are elite soldiers, but the Republican Guard is fighting a total war, so the defenders of Fort Vigilance are underfunded and suffer from manpower issues. While the unit has volunteers, an increasing number of members are deserters, thieves and criminals who have been sentenced and given a second chance by protecting Tephrike from the horrors that lie within the nexus.
It even includes a few Jedi or Sith who were captured by the Guard and stripped of their powers, but given a chance to redeem themselves for their crimes by protecting the world from the horror that their cults brought into being. This has turned it into a bit of a penal unit, but service is not for life. Criminals, deserters and the like who have served a certain number of years without blemish are considered rehabilitated, especially if they have been wounded or distinguished themselves in combat. Thus it is a way for them to clear their name. Of course, many do not make it far, but the prospect gives them hope. The Guard offers incentives to officers from regular formations so that they volunteer to be seconded to Fort Vigilance. At the same time, the punishments for cowardice, desertion or betrayal are draconian.
One thing that distinguishes the Cinder Guards from other Republican Guard troops is that they have permission to wield Force Imbued Blades and similar weapons. For obvious reasons, the Guard is very uncomfortable about anything 'tainted' by the Force, but these weapons can put down darkside spirits and similar Force entities, and the Force-Dead cannot be mentally manipulated by sorcery. The best soldiers have access to suits of power armour. The rebels only have a limited ability to manufacture new suits or replace old ones. Thus each suit is scrupulously maintained and passed down to a deserving soldier once the original wearer falls in battle, is discharged or unable to continue their duties.
A good portion of Fort Vigilance is located underground to protect it against external attack. The base is utilitarian in design and has few creature comforts. Even the officers' quarters are Spartan in nature. The fort has a comms tower, but the frequent storms can make communication difficult. Likewise, this can impede aerial transport, though the Guard prefers to rely on its tunnel network to transport supplies and personnel because its air force is weak compared to that of its rivals. The frontier defence is somewhat haphazard, but solid.
As is typical for their civilian and military installations, the Guard's engineers have dug an extensive tunnel network. This can allow the defenders to retreat if needed, attack unexpectedly or bring in supplies and reinforcements. However, overall life in Fort Vigilance is a rather isolated existence. As a result, the Guard has developed its own culture and its share of idiosyncracies. This includes its own jargon, which can be confusing for outsiders.
Moreover, the Guard had adopted the practice of cremating dead bodies. This is supposed to prevent magic of the nexus from potentially reanimating them as ravenous undead. The ashes of dead allies are placed in urns and put in the crypt. A guardsman who was particularly close to a dead comrade may choose to make a diamond out of the ashes and carry them into battle. It is common practice for the Commander to preside over a cremation, and say a few words to honour the fallen comrade.
Moreover, the Cinder Guards use the crematorium for the purpose of destroying Force arcana they come across, assuming that is feasible. Aside from military personnel, Fort Vigilance is home to support staff. Aside from the usual such as medics, engineers and technicians, this also includes researchers who are supposed to study the Force phenomena produced by the nexus in order to try and determine new threats. However, this research takes place under heavy restrictions. Naturally, the base features the usual facilities such as barracks, medbay, mess hall, kitchen, command centre, armouries and recreational areas. Kalak Kistono, a grizzled Nautolan veteran, is in command of the base. The soldiers call him the Old Squid. Though an old man, he is still an active part of the Guard and can fight alongside his troops.
All personnel wear radiation badges and receive anti-radiation inoculations. Soldiers receive a comprehensive survival skill that includes, among other things, radiation pills, detoxification hypos, a water purifier, a radiation meter and a radiation tent. Their armour protects them from radiation when they venture into the quarantine zone. Radiation detectors have also been set up. It is a rule that all personnel that leave the base must go through decontamination procedures upon their return. The base's aintenance needs are met by a small number of Repair Droids. These are capable of cleaning and servicing the complex, which allows the defenders to keep the staff lean and focused on other tasks. Expedition teams often make use of Villips or Ghostwave transmitters.
Because vast swathes of Palmyra's Wail are contaminated, the soldiers have enviro suits, fully sealed power armour and various gadgets to protect them from radiation. The Cinder Guard uses Fort Vigilance as a launching point to conduct regular forays and patrols into the nexus in order to put down mutated creatures, bandits or Force-Users who have tried to intrude into it. The occupants of the base have some speeders and light vehicles to conduct patrols. However, scarce resources have often forced them to carry out salvage operations. For instance, having access to enough fuel is an issue, which has forced them to ration. By necessity, they have become masters of improvisation and have had to enter into deals with smugglers and other less than reputable individuals. Overall, life in Fort Vigilance is grim. The soldiers need only look outside to see a benighted hellscape. But the cause and, perhaps more importantly, the shared bond between them gives them cohesion.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Cenotaph of the Last Defenders: A memorial to the fallen defenders. To protect it, it is located underground in the crypts. Here the ashes of the fallen are stored in urns. The Cinder Guard honour their fallen comrades with art that details their accomplishments and struggles. Their names are also engraved on a wall.
Cabinet of Oddities: A museum of oddities. It has been set up to explore and document the history of Palmyra's Wail and the horrors and bizarre phenomena inside it. Thus it obviously also serves propaganda purposes. That said, the history is broadly accurate, and several of the errors are the result of ignorance rather than deliberate manipulation.
Furthermore, the Guard also stores mementos from the time before Palmyra was wiped out in an atomic firestorm. This includes various items they came across, but also pictures and books. Visiting rebels marvel at the idea that people used to be able to visit shops and purchase any of the wares they wanted. Some of the books stored here are diaries of dead inhabitants. The Cabinet also contains information about mutated creatures that dwell in the nexus and have been fought by the Guard. The occupants have used taxidermy to preserve some of the bodies for display and study.
People's Armoury: Self-explanatory. The armoury is located underground to protect it against assault and attempts at theft. The quartermaster has their office here. Unsurprisingly, this part of the base is well-guarded.
Towers of Vigilant Sight: The watch towers that ward access to the base. One of the towers has been equipped with thermal sensing. Another features a motion sensor.
Infirmary: The medical facility of the base. Unfortunately, there is no kolto or bacta to harvest on Tephrike. Moreover, the Republican Guard does not utilise Force-Users, so they have to rely on conventional medicine. Firemane has been selling bacta, but it must be carefully rationed and frontline troops receive priority.
Commandary of the Broken Arch: A heavily guarded bunker that serves as the control centre and comms area of the base. A full lockdown can be initiated from here and the Commandaery is used to coordinate the defences of Fort Vigilance during battle, as well as maintain contact with teams dispatched into the nexus and surrounding area.
People's Garrison of Vigilance: The Republican Guard likes flowery names almost as much as its foes, the Dominion of Light and the Vaderites. In their case, they are supposed to empathise its role as a defender of the common people. In any event, this is the barracks. It has its share of amenities, but the interior is extremely utilitarian.
Even the officers' quarters are Spartan. Admittedly this has benefited the esprit de corps since the enlisted and NCOs see that even the officers have to live by the same conditions. The barracks includes a mess hall, gymnasium and recreational facilities. The latter include a common room that can be converted into a cinema hall. There the base personnel can watch propaganda movies, but also films with non-political content that helps them take their minds off the war. The aforementioned room is also used to listen to music. Fort Vigilance has its own band. 'The Republican Guard is the Strongest' is popular, they also listen to less political music. For instance, one team found a couple old Jizz records from a 'more civilised age'.
Decontamination: Since Palmyra's Wail is contaminated by radiation, the base has a side area where people in hazmat suits hose down returning people. It is close to the entrance, but inside the fort. The Guard is low-tech and so it has to utilise more primitive means.
Garage: The motorpool of the base. The occupants of Fort Vigilance store their vehicles here. Most of them are speeders and armoured personnel carriers, though it also has a few light walkers. Most of the heavier vehicles are rather old, but their engineers are good at improvising. It is the rule that a vehicle used in patrol must be decontaminated immediately after returning to base.
Chamber of the Untempered Flame: The crematorium of the base. The Cinder Guard uses it to incinerate corpses so that they cannot be reanimated as undead, and to, if feasible, destroy Force artefacts they come across. For instance, they burnt some 'sacred Jedi texts' that had been discovered by a brave guardswoman called Kybele. She is a former Vaderite who volunteered to join the Guard in order to rid herself of the dark taint.
Generator: An old but working generator, with backup fuel cell power generator. It has been built into the lower levels of the base. Aside from the usual, such as electricity and an emergency shield generator, it fuels the air scrubbers that keep the air clean, as much as that is possible.
Vault of the Malevolent Power: An underground, heavily guarded vault where the Cinder Guard stores Force arcana they have not been able to destroy. Access is heavily restricted and requires personal authorisation from the 'Commander of the Ashes' or the lorekeeper. Aside from heavy blast doors, it is warded by layers of biometric security. The access codes change at regular intervals. The Republican Guard treats manifestations of the Force as malevolent and tainted, and so propagating them is treated as a capital crime. Thus such items must be locked away if they cannot be destroyed.
SECURITY
High
- While low on manpower, the base is guarded by an elite force of Force-Dead soldiers, who are well-trained and devoted to the cause. They are very experienced in combating Force-Users and Sithspawn creatures. Due to the dangerous nature of the location, even the support staff have undergone some form of combat training. The defenders have access to speeders and a few light walkers, but not many.
- A good portion of Fort Vigilance is located underground and the defenders can use tunnels to ambush foes. The base is surrounded by a heavy wall with watch towers. It has heavy anti-infantry and anti-vehicle turrets, flak cannons, mortars, machine guns, missile launchers, and rotary cannons to repel attackers.
- Inside, there is a network of concealed auto-turrets, ray shield traps and cameras. Critical areas are protected by layers of biometric security. A shield generator can protect the base from bombardment in emergencies, though heavy, continuous attacks will eventually pierce it. Moreover, the base features a tunnel system, which the defenders can use to escape, carry out ambushes or lure enemies into traps.
- The proximity to the Palmyra's Wail nexus makes the base difficult to reach. Moving through the tainted hellscape to reach the base is an extremely dangerous proposition. The frequent storms also impede aerial transport. Moreover, the defenders have laid traps such as land mines to block off access roads and booby-trapped ruins. Other traps include monofilament screen guards and nets and stun charges.
Centuries ago, Palmyra was the capital of Tephrike's democratic, federa government. Then the Gulag Virus broke out, causing the Galaxy to fall into a new Dark Age. Cut off from the rest of the Galaxy, Tephrike was ravaged by the plague and civil war. The federal government proved unable to solve the crisis. Warlords and criminal gangs contested it. Many people succumbed to disease, malnourishment or the bloodletting in the streets. Desperate to restore order, Tephrike's Jedi Knights launched a coup with the backing of elements of the military. Palmyra fell under the Jedi's control. However, fierce fighting broke out between the Jedi junta and the Alliance of Democratic Forces. The capital became a war zone. What was supposed to be a temporary dictatorship evolved into a totalitarian theocracy, the Dominion of Light.
Cade Seward, one of the Jedi Knights tasked with suppressing rebels, succumbed to the Dark Side. Visions and fever dreams convinced him that he was the Sword of Vader. He called himself Darth Malitia. Gathering followers, he mustered a Sith army and marched against the Dominion. Supporters of the Dominion and non-humans were massacred en masse. Malitia conducted his campaign as a war of racial annihilation against all those he deemed 'inferior'. In response, the Dominion was driven to radicalise even further. Jedi General Mahtara was one of the Jedi commanders who faced Malitia in the field at the ruins of Palmyra. She received her promotion to Master in the field after holding off a Sith attack. However, the battle was going ill.
Both the Dominion and the Sith troops fought fiercely. Humanitarian conventions had been abandoned. City districts were levelled and chemical weapons were used freely. Dominion troops were forced to fall back after the Sith performed a dark ritual to create a Deadly Field and raised countless dead as zombies. Defectors claimed that their dark lord had gone mad and was using blood sacrifices to power a ritual that would allow him to open a gateway to the depths of Chaos. Either way, the Dominion had been driven to the brink and was desperate. Thus Mahtara was authorised to unleash a terrible weapon Dominion scientists had built.
Troubled by the use of the nuclear weapon, Mahtara insisted on accompanying the bomber crew that would drop the weapon upon Palmyra. It was not possible to evacuate all Dominion troops and Jedi in time, as they were still locked in combat with the Sith legions. Lacking conventional stealth systems, the bomber was concealed by illusions. However, a Sith mentalist managed to see past the concealment and the bomber came under fire. Mahtara gave the order to drop the bomb. Palmyra ceased to exist.
Malitia's forces retreated, going on the so called Arduous March. He was eventually slain by one of his lieutenants. The Vaderites regrouped at Castle Maysaf, but their bid to conquer Tephrike had failed. The loss of life among Dominion followers, Sith and civilians had been staggering. Palmyra had not just been destroyed, it had been irrevocably tainted. Feeling immense guilt about her actions, Mahtara put down her lightsabre and resigned from active service. It soon dawned upon Dominion leaders that the weapon had been even more devastating than they could have anticipated. The cataclysmic battle had spawned a dark side nexus.
Efforts to cleanse the nexus failed, so the Dominion settled for containment. To this end it created a military base called the Shield of Light. The radiation forced the Dominion to set up the base at the very edge of the quarantine zone. Attempts were also made to erect a containment wall to prevent the spread of radiation. However, this effort soon foundered due to lack of tech and funds and so the wall remained flawed.
Vaderites tried many times to take control of and harness the nexus. Successive Sith Lords contested the nexus, for the dark cult considered it holy ground. The psychic energies and the radiation probably hurt both groups just as much - or even more - as the actual fighting between them. Darth Hyperion, more commonly called Darth Impaler by his enemies, once rid himself of a troublesome rival by ordering him to take the base and Palmyra with it with a woefully under-equipped force, knowing that his enemy would be unable to resist the temptation of claiming Palmyra's Wail. Darth Blitz was convinced he could harness the power of the nexus. Hyüeropm used his agents to plant the seeds of the idea into his head. However, though a bloodthirsty tyrant, Hyperion actually understood the nexus better than his subordinate. Blitz never received the promised troops and met his end during the assault on the base.
By the time the Netherworld Event began, the Shield of Light outpost was in a bad shape. The mass raptures strongly diminished its available manpower. The Republican Guard made it a priority target during its Hundred Days' Offensive. In contrast to the Dominion and the Vaderites, the Guard was composed of Non-Force-Users who considered the Force to be a curse. After fierce fighting, the rebels managed to seize the base. Lacking Force-Users, the Guard was obviously unable to even make the attempt to cleanse or contain it. Moreover, their soldiers suffered from the negative effects of the nexus, causing many to get lost, lose their mind or suffer physical deformities.
The Shield of Light was renamed Fort Vigilance. Even after its grand offensive against the Dominion faltered, the Rebels stubbornly clung to the nexus and refused to abandon the fort. The Cinder Guard was born out of disparate militias and partisans. The Republican Guard quickly figured out that Non-Force-Users could not safely withstand the nexus' influence, and introduced the practice of requiring every member of the unit to be Force Dead.
At one stage during the Netherworld War, the disappearance of many members and forced conscriptions back to the regular forces for the Battle of Purity, Palmyra's Wail was left almost unguarded. The result was a demonic incursion. The remaining members of the Cinder Guard died to a man, but were able to throw back the invasion and their bodies were eventually found by their returning comrades, who cremated their bodies. The present-day Cinder Guard remembers them in its songs.
The rebels stubbornly held on to Fort Vigilance, fearful of what could happen if Force-Users took control of the nexus and were corrupted by its power. Manpower issues compelled the rebels to introduce the controversial policy of conscripting convicts, deserters and similar individuals. In return for fighting the forces of hell, they would be given a second chance after their service was complete. Thus Cinder Guard held vigil, while also launching periodic forays into Palmyra's ruins to put down dangerous Sithspawn or apprehend and eliminate intruders.
More recently, a sect of Vaderites tried to break through in order to gain what they believed would be the 'unlimited power' of the exus. This was folly, of course. Most of the attackers were stopped and killed by the Cinder Guard. One managed to get through and reach the epicentre, where he was extremely amped up by the energy of the nexus, but also overwhelmed by it. The soldiers had to put down this even more powerful threat. In present days, the Republican Guard is on the offensive again, having conquered Fortress Purity through an alliance of convenience with Firemane. However, the Cinder Guard continues to man the walls of Fort Vigilance and hold vigil over the ashes. They will continue to do until they are all dead, or the taint has been removed, whichever comes first.
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