Tholon's Rest Station

A satellite location for the Void Walkers Project, donated by Tiatholon and with easy access to Atoll, Sestian and Terran space.

Location

Tiatholon Province, a newly independent portion of the Terran Empire seeking peaceful relations with the Trailward Stars Coalition. Tiatholon remains devoted to maintaining their borders and rediscovering their cultural and political heritage after nearly ten centuries of paying Terran taxes and fighting Terran wars for little in return.

Tholon's Rest lies in the heart of Tiatholon, a node on the once bustling Daryll-Reatinor trade route that now passes through Vur'ata. Trade could emerge again as the province recovers from the war, if permitted - Tholon's Rest is one jump trailward of Vur'ata and should tensions enflame between Tiatholon and the Vaiaelon colonists there, it could plunge the whole region into war. It's possible that this system was chosen for this very reason: to be a stabilising influence in the shadow of yet more conflict.

Facilities

• 6 large (cruiser sized) berths, 8 multipurpose berths, 3 freight terminals with integrated warehousing
• 2 open atmosphere grav cradles for vessel repair and invasive maintenance of all kinds.
• 2 multipurpose habitation blocks, one donated by THLN and one donated by Kitsunes. VWs can choose their preferred decor and amenities.
• Mixed commercial facilities in the transit hub module, multiple restaurants owned by local Terran businesses.
• Compact hydroponics facility with integrated biospheric provision.
• Potential to convert one of the grav cradles into an Awakening Dock capable of creating new VWs. Lord Admiral Germanovich is petitioning to see this done, but security concerns and lack of trust among other Project donors forbids it.
• At present mainly Terran crews and components, including older landing systems. Due for urgent modifications.
• Little to no inbuilt defences, relying on the stationed flotilla for protection.

Description

Spaceport


Tholon's Rest Station consists of a run-down, modular civilian spaceport physically attached to an old asteroid base. Once a pirate and revolutionary hideout that dates back to the birth of the Terran Empire, the asteroid had been maintained as a provincial museum for much of its existence since. The spindly, circular station complex had served for access and amenities in the latter years as neglected equipment in the asteroid's core failed. Instead of floating alongside, several of the station's modular docking spindles were repurposed as anchoring braces and bored into the fabric of the asteroid for stability.

The station complex consists of a central spine, served by run-down yet serviceable tram systems with independent gravity, from which docking spindles radiate and facility modules are securely bolted. A central Transit Hub module contains an old commercial complex, general store, some restaurants serving Terran cuisine, and a commissary that used to be a cheap hotel. The Transit Hub always has a crowd of some kind even when the station as a whole is quiet, and here anyone can (and will) run into anyone. The technology found in the station is a seemingly random combination of venerable Terran-standard civilian hardware, military-grade Tiatholon additions meant to recover lost functionality, and Kitsune surplus from their invasion force as they redeploy to more desperate fronts.

At the caps of the tramway and station spine are two multipurpose habitation modules - one of Tiatholon manufacture that houses the human and atri populations, and one of Sestian manufacture that houses the kitsune and associated populations. VWs brought into the station and personnel assigned here will be brought to one hab or another, and usually get to choose which culture's amenities suit them better. The modules have independent command systems, TeSDiR ansible and independent life support and environmental controls.



Asteroid


Inside the asteroid proper, reached by one of the bracing arms out of the Transit Hub, is a large and almost unused internal area with full breathable atmosphere. Once a chaotic nest of freestanding buildings, long since razed down to bare concrete and empty. It seems empty, and fills with a cathedral-like hush. At the far corners of the internal space are two grav-cradle drydocks and a long-obsolete life support refinery. the towering pressurised tanks and air scrubbers of the refinery are obsolete to the point of dangerous, but removing it safely is a long and complex task for the future. Many treat it as someone might treat unexploded ordnance.

One complete side of the asteroid consists of a set of heavy steel doors, giving drydock access to a complete sub-capital ship. Today large scale envelope shielding supports the doors and eliminates the need to depressurise a whole hollowed-out asteroid, but the shield is of near unprecedented size and is not meant to be relied on for long. In the intervening space are several prefab structures that contain the machine shops and shipyard equipment necessary to support drydock repairs, temporary and fragile in the shadow of great tractor-cranes. Terran and Kitsune work crews stationed here are also tasked with upkeep and upgrades to the station as a whole, keeping Tholon's Rest running day by day.

An unexpected addition is a small barracks and hydroponics stack, where a colony of Cexpiz Bees maintain an intensive and productive garden. Sourced from Tiatholon's Falken Drift cluster, they operate a surprisingly high-tech facility and are competent and well-adjusted to working with humans and Coalition races alike - perhaps unusually so. The garden provides Tholon's Rest with a sustainable food source, an oxygen garden and an active biosphere to keep the occupants' immune systems active. The Bees are petitioning for space to build a park in the asteroid too.

NPCs

General


The station's permanent residents are split between the local humans who have always called Tholon's Rest home, the Tiatholon human and atri fabrication teams who keep the station to a military standard, their rivals in the Sestian kitsune and fennec engineers who keep the station to a different military standard, and the clannish but usually friendly bees. Humans and nonhumans rub shoulders in this station, more than in the rest of Tiatholon or the Empire, and tensions are starting to ease already.

Sometimes the species need to be forced to cooperate, rivalries and old loyalties taking over, but none would ever knowingly put their station in danger.



Local Commander - Wraith Incessant


The first Tiatholon Void Walker, who was Awakened by specific stipulation in the Tiatholon-Coalition ceasefire and preliminary treaty. the Wraith Incessant is the well-preserved and hastily recommissioned flagship of the legendary pirate queen Tifa Tholon. Tiatholon was founded in fire from Wraith's CIC almost a millennium ago, and Wraith remembers it all. She is protective and idealistically nationalistic, and now finds history repeating with a new Province and a suspiciously similar threat from Earth... she knows better than anyone that history is repeating.

Wraith is chaotic and disorganised as a leader, remembering key details or tasks apparently at random, but somehow the whole station runs better when she's managing it. In her free time she devours historical texts, seeking all the past she's "missed" while interred in the Tholon's Rest drydock. To her the Coalition are fellow outcasts united by Earth's contempt and natural allies who can sustain her homeland's independence.

While friendly to nonhumans, Wraith has internalised the bigotry that holds the Terran Empire together and she still considers the barrier between Earth's humanity and the systems beyond to be the barrier between classical civilisation and exoticised barbarism. However she considers Coalition VWs her friends, no matter what words she uses in unguarded moments, and she instinctively respects and values the backwards alien tribesmen who are more advanced and civilised than "Civilisation" will ever be.

Wraith's hull is seeing continuous refits and overhauls, but she's almost always around as an in-system patrol or gate guard for the station.