OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
The Three Peaks 0-site was one of the first sites created by the up-and-coming Sovereignty, before they broke into the galactic stage. As the faction continued to gain traction and the operational capacity of the Sovereignty Office of Naval Intelligence expanded, the call was made for "black sites" - or as SONI classifies them, "0-sites" - which was soon answered. SONI.ED-0.001 was the first of the sites made (hence serial 001) and quickly became a key conduit for managing SONI operations not only in the Sovereignty core systems, but also aboard as well. The construction itself was conducted in secret, with contractors who were signed on to construct it quoted describing the project as "the job that'll kill you, with the pay to bring you back." The addition of holding cells was added later, not long before the government made the break into the galactic stage.
Originally, before the SONI directorate policy was revised, the Three Peaks 0-site housed the complete SONI directorate. Following the redesign of the policy, the directorate accomodation was renovated into Directorate Suite Aurek.
- Intent: To create a primarily fluff location for Sovereignty and SONI characters, as well as to add some depth to Eadu as the Sovereignty capital planet.
- Image credit: [Image]; [Krzysztof Luzny via ArtStation].
- Canon: Not applicable.
- Links: [SONI tactical-level operatives]; [SOVSTARF-series Sovereign starfighter "S-Wing"]; [SOVSTARF-series Phi-class Sovereign multi-purpose transport].
- Military base name: SONI.ED-0.001. Decoded, the abbreviation stands for: Sovereignty Office of Naval Intelligence Eadu 0-designated site, serial 001. The base is informally referred to as "Three Peaks", named after the mountains which it's nestled in.
- Classification: Intelligence black site.
- Location: The remote south-eastern mountain ranges of Eadu, namely the "Three Peaks mountains".
- Affiliation: [The Sovereignty], namely the Office of Naval Intelligence.
- Population: Approximately 400 SONI personnel, almost all of which are armed with at least a sidearm. The site is also capable of holding up to 60 additional persons as captives, although the average captive population normally sits at around 15.
- Accessibility: The location and existence of the site is kept as a closely guarded secret, being a "0-designated" site - or rather, a black site. The site is not available to the public, with anyone that isn't identified is engaged with lethal force on sight. It is hidden in the middle of the remote Three Peak mountains, with satellite imagery of the site being altered to show only bare mountains. Accessing the mountains is incredibly difficult without aircraft, requiring would-be infiltrators to scale the sheer Three Peak mountains while evading TLO and aircraft patrols.
- Description: The base is an isolated facility hidden between the three snowy peaks of the Three Peaks mountains, largely decorated with light colored paint to match the surrounds with sporadic orange detailing to reduce the risk of pilots not seeing the facility and crashing into it. While the sites does bore into the mountain, it was what could be described as a "central hub" towering overhead in the center, with several off-shoot facilities connected by walkways and rail systems branching off. Aircraft often often seen circling about the facility.
- Directorate Suite Aurek: Deep in the bowels of the mountain, shielded by several security precautions and obscured by an arbitrary labyrinth of tunnels and elevators, is the first of 11 directorate suites: Directorate Suite Aurek. Members of the SONI directorate are never permitted to meet in person for the risk of what information may escape in a bugged room, nor do they often meet with more than their proxy operatives and select staff; likewise, their safety is paramount, meaning they must be hidden from the galaxy for the sake of both themselves and their cause. To this end, several directorate suites are spread across Sovereignty space, Aurek being only one. The suite features everything a high-stakes intelligence mogul needs to live his life in isolation, including: constant security, living and working facilities, a supply of consumables on demand, a panic room, and assorted escape routes. The directorate suite is easily the darkest corner of the base, with only those the directorate approve of being let so close of the door.
- Captive holding: Whispers only tell of what fate befalls those who make enemies of the office, and while the whispers are hardly accurate, captive holding at a 0-site is surely the worst that could happen. Captive holding is kept in the depths of the mountain in an off-branch of the site. Prisoners are kept bound by the wrists and ankles with black bags over their heads, while encased within a pair of deflector shields inside narrow rectangular blocks that are stored in a manner not entirely unlike books in a bookshelf. Those few targets of SONI who are kept alive are normally kept alive on the merit of intelligence that they have that the office ruthlessly wants - and where better to send them than a site that, by rights, doesn't exist? Captive holding is supported by a suite of supporting facilities, namely pertaining to health and "enhanced interrogation". Almost all captives are "removed from holding" - a cruel bit of slang used by staff on site to describe prisoners being relocated and killed with a cover-up - once whatever they had has been transferred to SONI. There are a few exceptions to this de facto rule, who are captives sharp enough to make the office a deal they couldn't refuse.
- Site control: The site is controlled from the central hub overlooking the brunt of the facility, where staff members near-constantly run through several tedious procedures required for a state intelligence agency that takes itself as seriously as SONI does. Control features several floor beyond heightened security measures, where some of the more influential SONI staff members manage operations across the sector.
- Sector operations control: Contained only a floor below site control is sector operations control: an extensive suite containing all that SONI executives need to manage not only intelligence operations in the sector, but also abroad. Many SONI agents and operatives see the drab grey walls of the Three Peaks briefing room, affectionately dubbed the "Fungus Room" due to the tendency of operation managers to keep operatives "fed manure and kept in the dark".
- Intelligence Database 002: Hidden in the bowels of the mountain beneath site control and sector operations control is an extensive physical database, where a fraction of SONI's sensitive intelligence is stored. The database is subjected to extensive micromanagement and control at the risk of intelligence being stolen or destroyed.
- Staff facilities: The site features its own independent staff facilities, including accommodation, ablutions, rationing, and many other facilities required for comfortable living. Much of the staff are kept on site for at least 3 months at a time, meaning that they live and work out of the isolation of the base.
- Primary Hangar: The primary way in and out of Three Peaks is by air - hence, the base features an extensive hangar accessible by tram, which can accommodate both the patrol craft stationed to the site and a variety of transport craft that the Sovereignty fields. Aircraft kept on site include the SOVSTARF "S-Wing" and the SOVSTARF multi-purpose transport.
- School of Intelligence Infantry Operations: Housed in a branching facility accessible by tram is the School of Intelligence Infantry Operations, where aspiring SONI tactical-level operatives are trained. The school features its own independent accommodation and facilities from the rest of the site, allowing it to act almost independently.
- Automated Anti-Aircraft Installations: Scattered throughout the Three Peaks mountain range are several anti-aircraft batteries, which are operated by simple AI instead of crew due to how remote and difficult to reach their locations are. The installations are controlled from site control. The installations shoot at all vessels that come within range without being flagged by site control as an authorized vessel. The installations are checked daily by way of engineers travelling by aircraft. [x]
- Patrols: Within the closer reaches of the base, granted the weather permits, Sovereign "S-Wings" conduct patrols at randomized intervals searching for any signs of enemy activity. Likewise, around the clock in almost all weather bar a snowstorm, tactical-level operatives - often accompanied by recruits from the school of intelligence infantry operations - will conduct foot patrols around the peaks, often ranging out to the anti-aircraft installations and coming back by set routes.
- Information Technology precautions: To reduce the risk of a digital breach, IT facilities within the base are kept on a series of isolated networks, which are managed and guarded from site control. Due to the sensitivity of data stored on the network, the sites digital security policy is almost suffocating in its regulation.
- Information control: To avoid the site being discovered, the site itself is placed under an information quarantine. Official records mark the Three Peaks range as an incredibly dangerous range that should not be explored due to violent weather, satellite imagery depicts the mountains as bare, and a selection of the staff are transported in and out with bags over their heads.
The Three Peaks 0-site was one of the first sites created by the up-and-coming Sovereignty, before they broke into the galactic stage. As the faction continued to gain traction and the operational capacity of the Sovereignty Office of Naval Intelligence expanded, the call was made for "black sites" - or as SONI classifies them, "0-sites" - which was soon answered. SONI.ED-0.001 was the first of the sites made (hence serial 001) and quickly became a key conduit for managing SONI operations not only in the Sovereignty core systems, but also aboard as well. The construction itself was conducted in secret, with contractors who were signed on to construct it quoted describing the project as "the job that'll kill you, with the pay to bring you back." The addition of holding cells was added later, not long before the government made the break into the galactic stage.
Originally, before the SONI directorate policy was revised, the Three Peaks 0-site housed the complete SONI directorate. Following the redesign of the policy, the directorate accomodation was renovated into Directorate Suite Aurek.
