Deep Blue Sea (Tenloss Expansion to Sekalus)

[Popo]

Sekalus. A world shrouded in shadow and mystery, only recently rediscovered by the galaxy. Sure, it was a bit harder to find even today, but with the right pressure in the right places and enough credits to jog a few spacers' memories, it was relatively simple to track down. While it wasn't quite inside the borders of any one nation, it wasn't exactly without any influences from the outside.

For Popo and Tenloss, this wasn't a problem. Sure, it cost money to set up shop anywhere, really, and permission to purchase land, but therein lay the loophole. He wasn't after land, per se.

A few days of scanning showed the polar ice was sturdy and thick enough to support construction and the ocean floor beneath was perfect for his plans. With the proper materials in place and the right people in charge, Popo ordered the plan in motion.

And just like that, construction began in the coldest region of the shrouded planet.

 

[Popo]

Crews worked around the clock and machines droned on and on constantly at all hours. Most of the work happened underground where excavator droids dug into the bedrock underground. Up at the surface a small structure was set up. For all intents and purposes, the facility would appear to be and function as if it was a mining facility. In fact, a portion of the facility would indeed operate as one, helping with the cover and mining a small amount of phrik from the rock below. The true purpose of the facility, however, was a bit different.

As work continued, Popo reviewed the plans of his new Black Site. The outside world would know only of the place as a mining facility, one of many owned and operated by Tenloss. For those high up in the chain, or those assigned to the site, the new facility was anything but. A facade of miners and excavation equipment, but inside and hidden far beneath ice and rock, covered by an ocean, was where the most sensitive of testing within the corporation would occur.

It was a bold move, but a calculated one.

 

[Popo]

Progress was going well and now actual workers in protective suits could go down to the ocean floor to refine the rough tunnels and caverns the droids had scraped and drilled out of the bedrock. The facility was slowly taking shape bit by bit. It wasn't quite to the point that Popo himself could visit the site and take a tour of the work being done, but it was getting there. The surface facilities were nearly done with only a small number of buildings left as their support structure alone. The access shaft was primarily just that currently: an empty shaft. The column of steel and support structure was still filled with seawater, men and machines requiring environment suits or full seals before being floated to the bottom.

Deep underground, mining facilities were being started and the beginnings of an excavation shaft marked out. Elsewhere, more work was being done as the first tunnels and access points to the Black Site were marked out and drilling started. The facility was to eventually become a massive, nearly city-sized facility, but that would come in time. As the mines expanded, so to would the Black Site. This was to prevent a massive influx of supplies and to hide the overburden or waste from the excavation of the complex, both of which were noticeable to anyone looking for something hidden.

As it was, keeping the construction hidden was the easy part. Keeping the site hidden afterwards was were the problems began.

 

[Popo]

The construction went on and on while the supplies flowed. For now, it was a simple matter to hide the amount of supplies. Or, at least, explain the presence of extra materials. The extra materials and equipment were the easy part. A series of machine failures or material imperfections solved most of it. The rest was easily put to the usual miscommunication of foremen as one ordered something the other already had.

It was a difficult bit of work, but while it might all be a bit suspicious, it was all believable which is what Popo aimed for. Things would get more complicated as the more research oriented equipment and materials had to be shipped in, but that was something for another day. At least, the actual shipping in was. Before Popo could ship anything in with the wrong boxes, first the components had to be 'lost' or otherwise misplaced.

Thankfully, having a personal Private Military Contractor company made things that much easier to operate that end of things. After all, who would notice that the pirates operating in far flung sectors were a little too professional? The trick was to hit other shipping a bit more than his own, or just as equally. It was a delicate balance and a dangerous one.

 

[Popo]

The access shaft of the facility had been finished and the surface structures were wrapping up. Technicians now worked around the clock to install the electrical systems and various sensor suites inside the facilities up top and around the area. The access column was now drained of seawater and deemed not only safe, but sturdy enough for the rigors of the future and the elements it faced. An industrial lift was installed that could handle the weight of mining equipment and mined ore equally. Meanwhile, the construction of a second shaft began, half for redundancy and half for speed of movement between the surface and underground.

As for the facilities underground, the tunnels and compartments dug into the rock had been drained of seawater as well and while workers still worked in protective equipment, it was to protect them from the cold and ice around them as they worked underground in the polar ice cap. The mining facility was nearest to completion while the Black Site had only just started to wrap up excavation. Supplies and equipment specifically for the R&D site was currently being shipped in, disguised as extra supplies. Each crate had been 'lost' or 'misplaced' in some way or form, some even having been 'stolen' by supposed pirates operating in sectors throughout the galaxy.

For Popo, it was a calculate risk, but one that could and would pay off in the long run.