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Description

Despite technically presenting a lesser challenge than some planets, Saturn’s Titan moon has proven peculiarly resistant to terraforming. Never able to maintain a stable environment, atmosphere generators having to work continuously to force oasis of breathable air inside its noxious, frozen sphere. While resultantly deemed unsuitable for civilian colonisation, the Navy is less picky, and so this otherwise uninhabitable rock was chosen to carry the massive fortress known colloquially as Titan Castle. Officially named Naval Base Gibraltar, the sprawling complex centred on that keep forms Earth’s main out-system stronghold, and primary command and control node for Sol’s forward fixed defensive network: the Tomoe Line.

Humanity’s first encounter with a warp-capable race was not a pleasant one, the Vanshaali offensive pushing a fledgling Terran navy back into Earth orbit itself. Experience, while a hard teacher is however also an effective one, and humanity learned quickly. First proposed by Admiral Genevieve Tomoe in the wake of the ensuing war and named for her thusly, the line is backboned by a network of thirty-five massive space-borne fortresses, plus Gibraltar, stationed equidistant around Saturn’s orbit, taking advantage of Sol’s unusually distant jump-limit. In the event of another full-scale invasion, the outer system would be abandoned, giving the Navy time to regroup and concentrate its defensive efforts along the forts’ surrounding space, protecting the more industrialised inner planets and asteroid belt.

For the sake of redundancy, and to combat the constraints imposed by light-speed communication technology, any fort can technically act as a command node, but Titan Castle, set deep within Saturn’s gravity well, and amongst the complex orbital dynamics set up by the gas giant’s moon and rings, presents a particularly difficult target. Heavily armoured to withstand sustained capital-ship bombardment under siege conditions, and surrounded by ten ultra-heavy surface-to-space defence guns, continued upgrades have ensured the installation remains well able to defend itself against orbital and ground-side assaults.

While the base is corner-stoned by Gibraltar’s keep, continued expansion over the years has seen the surrounding area become littered with landing fields, hangers, training grounds... things not critical to maintenance of the Tomoe Line, but for which Titan provides a convenient home. It has also become home to the Navy’s final-year cadets, sent to learn the fine art of ship handling, safely clear of the major in-system space-lanes.

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Background practise.

Description

Despite technically presenting a lesser challenge than some planets, Saturn’s Titan moon has proven peculiarly resistant to terraforming. Never able to maintain a stable environment, atmosphere generators having to work continuously to force oasis of breathable air inside its noxious, frozen sphere. While resultantly deemed unsuitable for civilian colonisation, the Navy is less picky, and so this otherwise uninhabitable rock was chosen to carry the massive fortress known colloquially as Titan Castle. Officially named Naval Base Gibraltar, the sprawling complex centred on that keep forms Earth’s main out-system stronghold, and primary command and control node for Sol’s forward fixed defensive network: the Tomoe Line.

Humanity’s first encounter with a warp-capable race was not a pleasant one, the Vanshaali offensive pushing a fledgling Terran navy back into Earth orbit itself. Experience, while a hard teacher is however also an effective one, and humanity learned quickly. First proposed by Admiral Genevieve Tomoe in the wake of the ensuing war and named for her thusly, the line is backboned by a network of thirty-five massive space-borne fortresses, plus Gibraltar, stationed equidistant around Saturn’s orbit, taking advantage of Sol’s unusually distant jump-limit. In the event of another full-scale invasion, the outer system would be abandoned, giving the Navy time to regroup and concentrate its defensive efforts along the forts’ surrounding space, protecting the more industrialised inner planets and asteroid belt.

For the sake of redundancy, and to combat the constraints imposed by light-speed communication technology, any fort can technically act as a command node, but Titan Castle, set deep within Saturn’s gravity well, and amongst the complex orbital dynamics set up by the gas giant’s moon and rings, presents a particularly difficult target. Heavily armoured to withstand sustained capital-ship bombardment under siege conditions, and surrounded by ten ultra-heavy surface-to-space defence guns, continued upgrades have ensured the installation remains well able to defend itself against orbital and ground-side assaults.

While the base is corner-stoned by Gibraltar’s keep, continued expansion over the years has seen the surrounding area become littered with landing fields, hangers, training grounds... things not critical to maintenance of the Tomoe Line, but for which Titan provides a convenient home. It has also become home to the Navy’s final-year cadets, sent to learn the fine art of ship handling, safely clear of the major in-system space-lanes.

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Background practise.