November 2017 Post

(from “The Archives of the United Nations Quantum Corps”)

“Backgrounder on Off-Earth Settlements, Bases and Facilities”

Q2 Intelligence Briefing (NOFORN)

UN Quantum Corps could not execute many of its assigned missions without the close cooperation of its sister service UN Frontier Corps and Frontier Corps’ many bases and facilities.  This briefing will look at a few key stations that are important to the joint mission of these two agencies.

Mariner City, Mars

Mariner City is a full-scale multinational settlement located at the western end of Ophir Chasma along the rugged scar of the vast Valles Marineris basin in Mars’ northern hemisphere.  The city is located on a plateau at the very edge of a steep escarpment overlooking the Chasma.  It has spectacular views, as might be expected. 

While Mariner City is nominally governed by MarsFed, the Federal Council of Mars Settlements and Communities, the major tenant is Frontier Corps.  From Mariner City, Frontier Corps exercises security, law enforcement and police missions across the entire planet’s surface.  Everything from permits to leave the city locks to venture outside to tracking down fugitives and  smugglers to rescuing marscat or hopper crews that have crashed or suffered breakdowns falls within the purview of Frontier Corps’ Mariner City detachment.  The mission on Mars is somewhat similar to that of coast guard forces on Earth.  The detachment is headed by a Frontier Corps Colonel who reports directly to UNIFORCE headquarters at the Quartier-General in Paris.

Of course, Mariner City (MC) is a full settlement and Frontier Corps is only the major tenant, not the only one.    Research activities are also a key element of what goes on at MC.   All the operations necessary to sustain a human settlement on Mars…agriculture, environmental control, medical, legal, etc are also resident and in full swing there.  By the end of the 21^st century, MC sustains a population of nearly 8000 permanent residents.  It’s the biggest settlement on Mars.

H    Here’s the location:

Station P: Phobos Station

Located in orbit around Mars, Station P is installed both in and around the moon Phobos. 

Here’s what it looks like:

Station P was built initially as a facility orbiting the moon, but later development added structures such as laboratories and shelters on and inside this small satellite.  Much of Phobos has now been hollowed out in a series of caves, tunnels and warrens which provide working and living space for a crew of about four hundred men and women, most of whom serve in Frontier Corps. 

The principle business of Station P is to function as a space dock.  The space dock is a series of docking ports physically anchored in Phobos’ regolith surface, which provide hard docking points for up to four ships, such as the great cycler ships which regularly ply the spacelanes between Earth, Luna, Mars and Venus.  Space Dock provides a variety of maintenance, repair, depot, logistics and other services for docked ships.  As such, it is a key way station for Frontier Corps vessels heading out toward further destinations beyond Mars and a way station and refit site for ships headed to the inner system. 

Station P is headed also by a Frontier Corps Colonel and reports directly to UNIFORCE Paris.

Additional facilities maintained by Frontier Corps are as follows:

Gateway (Earth-Moon L2 point in Earth orbit) – primary repair and refit station for missions in Earth-Moon space and missions heading into and out of Earth orbit.  Gateway also has significant quarantine and health care facilities for crewmembers who need to be medically isolated and treated before entering Earth (or any) biosphere.

Station T (Titan orbit, around Saturn) -  a principle way station for missions to the outer solar system.

A final word should be said about Frontier Corps’ Sentinel System, the farthest physical system maintained by the Corps, beyond the orbit of Pluto and roughly centered around the position of the dwarf planet Sedna.  Details are currently classified but Quantum Corps Times is working with the Corps’ administrative and security departments to provide at least a minimal description of this critical system and its role in the missions of the Corps.  More on this in a later post. 

The next post to Quantum Corps Times will be available on December 1.  This post will look at a key battlefield in the Corps’ campaign to prepare for and ultimately engage the Old Ones.  This battlefield is the sub-ice ocean of Europa, a moon of Jupiter.  And the adversary was the Keeper, an autonomous robotic advance scout for the Old Ones, discovered and engaged in this ocean by courageous units of both Frontier Corps and Quantum Corps…today known as the Battle of Rathmore Chaos. 

Additional intelligence from our sources will be provided in December as it becomes available and is declassified.  Monitor all comm channels for updates.

See you in December.

Phil B.