Military Bases in Cyberia
The number of publicly disclosed CMBs outnumbers the number of civilian cities by exactly three times; being that there are 33 CMBs compared to 11 cities. To date, there are some 8 million servicemembers occupying CMBs, with an average of 65,000 personnel inhabiting minor bases, and an average of 660,000 in major bases. Each military base in the Antarctic State holds within its borders a myriad of assets that are invaluable to the AS government and the personnel that inhabit these bases, including everything from rations and uniforms, to tanks and jets.
Features and Roles
The average Cyberian Military Base roughly takes up 115 square miles (298 km2) in area. Though cities are much larger than bases, CMBs in general bear some resemblance to civilian cities in that they have much the same accommodations to basic quality of life, such as residential districts and public/private transportation infrastructure. However, the main differences between cities and CMBs are the fact that the workmanship of the public is much more focused on meeting the needs of the government as opposed to meeting the needs of the self, and the facilities with which to exercise such government workmanship take up the majority of the land allotted to these bases. One notable need that the government maintains, is a completely self-sustaining 24/7 operation that is wholly independent of civilian agency, which CMBs have long since come to do very well at.
A large majority of CMBs are owned and operated by the Department of Defense, while a select few are operated by other departments. Beyond this, the Department of Infrastructure builds and maintains the government facilities, and the Department of Energy supplies and maintains electricity.
Castles
Major military bases, otherwise known as "castles", are grandiose pillars of government might, rife with both defensive and offensive power, and stockpiles of resources to fuel those powers. Castles serve as key anchor points in government projection and control the country and its inhabitants, akin to capital cities. Castles are best known as the main bases of operation where departments of the AS government exercise the bulk of their control from, and as such are heavily defended on more than just the physical level.
Most castles bear a particularly glaring feature; an extremely broad and deep dry moat surrounding the inner border to the base proper, akin to man-made canyons. These moats are officially referred to as "standoffs", most of them slope down very steeply about 30 feet (9 m) below surface-level, and most extend no more than 1,100 feet (335 m) from outer border to inner border. These moats are not usually factored into square mileage area calculations. Multiple roads serve to bridge the gap between city and castle, though they are so sparsely placed that it is difficult to see from one to the other with the naked eye. These roads are known to be heavily guarded by Security Forces manning gates at both ends. Standoffs are standalone castle defenses, meaning their area is not factored into the area taken up by the military bases they protect.
Castle Ramiel — the largest base in the country in area and population — has taken their standoff several steps further than other major military bases, in that 1) their standoff extends 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from border to border, 2) it drops down 100 feet (30 m) from surface-level, 3) the standoff floor is riddled with anti-personnel mines, and 4) it is continuously surveilled via both aircraft and ground-based means.
Centered in the middle of standoffs, castles feature tall sturdy exterior walls, and beyond those walls can be seen multiplexes of tall government buildings, showing off their very own skylines separated from the civilian population surrounding them. It is very common to be able to spot incoming and outgoing aircraft within the vicinity of castles, including all from helicopters to jet airliners.
Nearly all castles have been specialized for their particular department's needs. For example, the Agriculture Department operates expansive crop growth facilities within Castle Amundsen-Scott.
Coastal Guards
The majority of minor bases are known to serve the purpose of coastal guard, in that they are dotted along the coast of the country, and generally operate as horizon scanners and rapid naval and aircraft deployment fortifications. Coast guard bases are tasked with keeping a watchful eye on the country's surroundings both above and below sea level, and responding accordingly to threats as soon as they appear, no matter how large or small. Many of the coastal bases are formerly Soviet stations.
Facilitating rapid launch and recovery of interceptor aircraft, many coast guard runways are fitted with electromechanical aircraft catapult systems and crews that operate and maintain them. These ground launch systems are capable of sending out small and even large aircraft upwards of 200 mph (322 km/h; 174 kn) in as little as 400 feet (120 meters) of travel, and as often as once every 45 seconds. For rapid recovery, several lengths of arresting cable are strung at the touch-down zone of the same runways, which assist small planes in coming to a complete stop in a fraction of the runway length needed for a conventional landing.
All coastal guard bases maintain an interconnected array of over-the-horizon radar and other tracking systems dubbed the Missile Early Warning and Defense Initiative (MEWANDI), blanketing the coast and well beyond it in 24/7 surveillance in the pursuit of spotting and tracking a multitude of craft and other items of interest, including its own. All coast guard bases keep one another informed seamlessly through a country-wide tracking system, in which any one base can observe the data or lack thereof securely streamed in from other bases.
Military Prisons
Though the vast majority of military prisons are present inside of a larger military base, there are two prisons that are standalone facilities outside of modern civilization. They are known as the prisons of Komsomolskaya and Storozh. Komsomolskaya is a prison reserved for those found guilty of one or more serious felonies, while Storozh is used for housing death row inmates as well as executing them when the time comes. As opposed to being staffed with Security Forces, military prisons are almost exclusively staffed with personnel of the Riot Control Corps.
Security Forces
- Main article: Security Forces
With the exception of military prisons, all CMBs have an extensive military police organization that is headed by the Department of Justice, dubbed the Security Forces (SF). The SF operate similarly to Section 1 Police in the context that the SF is the first and foremost policing agency when it comes to protecting the peace, order, personnel, and assets present on military installations. This means that they regulate exit and entry, patrol roads and buildings, conduct inspections, issue traffic citations, respond to emergencies, escort high-profile individuals, and more.
Housing Personnel
In the Antarctic State, it is much more common for an enlisted person to live within the confines of a military installation throughout their service time, than it is to live within the civilian population. For commissioned officers, this is even more common.
Trainee personnel — those at the rank of Private (E-1) — who live on-base during basic training, are assigned a living space in a barracks with the rest of their company located in a specifically designated training district.
Lower enlisted ranks Private First Class (E-2) to Junior Sergeant (E-4) are usually assigned a living space in a base's residential district (some of which have multiple), most often together with one or sometimes two roommates of same rank only. In some circumstances, enlisted personnel may be assigned to a residential area outside the borders of a military base.
Non-commissioned officers ranks Sergeant (E-5) to Senior Sergeant (E-10) have more freedom increasing with rank to choose what general areas they are placed in terms of housing on-base, however they do not have any choice in the matter if they are assigned to a place off-base.
If a serviceman commissions into officer ranks Second Lieutenant (O-1) to General (O-10), they are granted by far the most broad choice when it comes to where they reside, with the higher ranks enjoying even more freedom. It is possible for them to choose specific houses that they wish to live in, and may even invite their families to live with them. Commissioned officers may even choose to live off-base, whereby they are given a set amount that they are allowed to put towards housing, rent or otherwise.
Individual Military Bases
List of Cyberian Military Bases
Below is a list of all 33 publicly available Cyberian Military Bases organized by and within the Antarctic State. The list is in alphabetic order with their official names.
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Amundsen–Scott
Amundsen-Scott resides at the geographic south pole of the Earth. The original research station was named after two men who journeyed to the south pole, Norwegian Ronald Amundsen and Britishman Robert F. Scott, in 1911 and 1912 respectively. It is here where the majority of artificial agriculture, agricultural research & development, and food processing is done in the country, by the ASC Department of Agriculture.Due to the fact that the continent of Antarctica is quite infertile in the context of natural plant growth, the AS government has long since set up multiple several-story buildings that take up the bulk of the Amundsen-Scott landscape, chock full of carefully controlled growth floors that operate continuously, growing and harvesting crops at accelerated rates and increased yields compared to many decades prior. Other, smaller facilities take in harvested crops and process them into perishable products to sell, as well as non-perishable products and rations. Smaller buildings close by operate as laboratories for the research and development of new and/or improved agricultural and food processing methods, including the use of modified crops.
Upper echelon faculty closely examine and regulate supply and demand for raw crop resources as well as processed food products. Care is taken as to balance what is preserved and what is sold to the public — government and civilian.
Belgrano
Belgrano is a coastal base that sits at the eastern edge of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. Today it works closely with Crenshaw in bridging the otherwise wide gap in the MEWANDI radar and tracking blanket that would be caused by the size and position of the relatively fragile ice shelf.Bellingshauzen
Bellingshauzen is a small castle, the smallest of the twelve, permanently situated on a far out island near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Bellingshauzen is known to extend its immediate reach to the entirety of what was once known as King George Island and its neighboring lands. The castle is the main base of operations as it pertains to handling South American affairs both offensive and defensive, due to its position closest to Patagonia.Bowmore
Bowmore is a coastal base residing at the western edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. Bowmore works closely with McMurdo in monitoring the otherwise wide gap in radar and tracking surveillance caused by the ice shelf.Casey
Casey is a castle base that is relatively far removed from its root city of Glalie. Being that it resides so far outside city limits, it does not have a dug-out standoff moat, however it is just as well-defended as the average castle.Concorde
Concorde is a castle residing within the city of Koorif. Due to its position close in proximity to multiple major natural resource deposits both in-country and under the sea, Concorde has been made the main base of operations for the ASC Department of Resource Management. It is here at Concorde where the AS government carries out the vast majority of its materiel processing, mass production, and recycling.Crenshaw
Crenshaw CMB resides at the western edge of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, where it operates in conjunction with Belgrano in surveilling the otherwise wide gap between the two bases caused by the ice shelf.Druzhnaya
Druzhnaya is a castle located just south of the Amery Ice Shelf. It is home to the ASC Department of Civilian Affairs, which concerns itself in all things pertaining to assisting and guiding the civilian population, as opposed to the military population. Knowing this, Druzhnaya is known to be the headquarters for Public Security, among other major civilian-oriented services.Halley
Halley is a coastal base that resides just beyond the southern edge of the Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf. Its primary purpose, like many coastal bases, is to monitor the coast and far into the ocean through a plethora of surveillance and tracking means.Herrnardy
Herrnardy is a castle located within the city limits of Texas, which is situated the western end of the Antarctic Peninsula and somewhat inland from the coast. Being a part of the closest city to external civilization beyond the oceanic borders, Castle Herrnardy has been made the main base of operations for the ASC Department of Foreign Affairs, wherein they are the central authority on international relations, trade, customs, immigration, and naturalization.Kieran
Kieran is a coastal base built expressly for the purpose of connecting two existing bases at the time, Casey and Leningradskaya, for better coverage in tracking and defensive efforts.Komsomolskaya
The Komsomolskaya ("Kommy", "Commie", or KMP) Military Prison is an extremely isolated, completely fenced off plot of land, upon which is built a supermax facility for housing military and civilian prisoners alike who have been sentenced to incarceration without the death penalty, but are deemed too dangerous to staff, to the public, to themselves, and/or to national security to be left in a 'regular' prison. It is common for an inmate incarcerated within KMP to be sentenced to serving multiple life sentences, some even consecutive. It is because of this caveat that KMP is sometimes seen as the worse of the two isolated military prisons (the other being Storozh) due to being a "fate worse than death".KMP is situated more than 320 miles (510 kilometers) away from the nearest city, Decatur, and more than 260 miles (420 kilometers) from the nearest military base, Sovetskaya. Furthermore, there are no runways, nor are there roads that lead directly to KMP, thus requiring the use of helicopters for efficient travel to and from prison grounds.
KMP prison grounds are extremely cold, on the order of a −56.4 °C (−69.5 °F) average annual temperature. Inmate quarters are heated, however not as much as as staff buildings. Inmate and staff buildings are separated from each other by flat ground. Inmate blocks confine each inmate in their own solitary, soundproofed cell for nearly 24 hours per day. Staff buildings and prisoner management alike are normally exclusively run by the Riot Control Corps. Staff buildings include barracks for RCs to live in temporarily, along with a cafeteria, gym, and other accommodations beyond military business. Inmate cell blocks and the immediately surrounding grounds are encircled by not only multiple gun towers, but an electrified metal fencing and wide coils of razor wire on both sides of the aforementioned fence. The entire facility is under 24 hour surveillance in multiple spectrums.
Interestingly, KMP is known to stock man-portable anti-aircraft weaponry in its dedicated armory.
Lemarchand
Lemarchand is the third smallest castle in the Antarctic State, situated inside the city limits of Kherson. Since the late 2010's, Lemarchand has been owned and operated by the ASC Department of Justice, and is best known to be the headquarters of the Security Forces as well as the source of many rather heavy-handed antitrust laws. The highest courts and courts-martial (beside the deliberation of the presidents) reside within Castle Lemarchand, where high-profile cases are held under the more direct security and supervision of the military, in the case of civilian or civilian v. government cases.Leningradskaya
Leningradskaya is a coastal base that is actually the closest base to the southern magnetic pole. It is due to this that Leningradskaya is a bit more of a research base than most other coast guard bases.Marels
Marels is an island fortress, similar to Bellingshauzen and other islands, but much smaller than the castle. The island was previously known as Peter I Island, but is now commonly referred to as Marels due to the military base spanning its entire area.Mawson
Mawson is a coastal base stationed at about the midpoint between Ramiel and Druzhnaya. It is for this reason that Mawson is a particularly good restocking point for aircraft and watercraft.McMurdo
McMurdo is a coastal base that resides on Ross Island; at the southernmost end of the Ross Ice Shelf. While the base itself only takes up about 95 square miles (246 square kilometers), McMurdo officially controls the entire island, which is 950 square miles (2,460 square kilometers) in area and is 12,448 feet (3,794 meters) above sea level at its highest point, Mt. Erebus.Mirny
Mirny is a coastal base that was originally used to respond directly to Vostok in times of need; as an extension of Vostok itself. Land transport between Mirny and Vostok was facilitated by a long unpaved road between the two, passing through Komsomolskaya, however this road has not been used in a dozen decades at the very least.Molodyozhnaya
Molodyozhnaya is a coast base that is technically situated inside the city limits of Overcast, the largest city in the country. Molodyozhnaya is actually an extension of Ramiel — the largest military base in the country — and is controlled by Ramiel to take the form of a very large harbor for warships.Nellis
Castle Nellis is the second largest CMB situated in the middle of the city of Articuno. Just like the city itself, Nellis is an often-used hub for flights, small and large. Whereas flights to and from Articuno are generally civilian and commercial, flights to and from Nellis are exclusively military. Nellis has multiple very long runways, more than most bases. Most of the runways are fitted with electromagnetic aircraft launch systems with accompanying arrestor cables. The launch systems were put into place for two reasons, one being the very high elevation thus low air density, and the other being the need for swift take off and recovery.Beyond being a hub for military flights, Nellis CMB is also the mainstay of the ASC Department of Treasury, where the country's finances and monetary stockpiles are more or less centralized, and financial laws are most greatly influenced.
Neumayer
Neumayer is a coastal base positioned between the Riiser-Larsen and Fimbul Ice Shelves. The original German Neumayer station was actually placed much closer to coast than bulk of where Neumayer CMB is now, though the coast is incorporated in the area officially taken up by Neumayer CMB.Novolazarevskaya
Novolazarevskaya, commonly shortened to "Novo", is the third largest castle and main base of operations for the ASC Department of Infrastructure. At Novo, government business revolves almost entirely around materials science, as well as planning, building, and maintaining architecture and the underlying components that keep them operational and serviceable for the long-term.Progress
Progress is a coastal base not far off from the city of Avery. Progress is a popular training ground for Public Security, in the context of non-urban operations, which are actually somewhat rare for Public Security to engage in.Ramiel
Castle Ramiel is one of the two dedicated military bases in the city of Overcast. Placed farther inland than the other, Ramiel is by far the largest military base in the country in moat annulus, square mileage, and population. Ramiel has long since been the home of the oldest Cyberian department, the ASC Department of Defense, and thus came to be known for a very large concentration of military prowess, offensive and defensive. The castle is also the headquarters of the well-known Riot Control Corps, and furthermore, Ramiel is where central command of all minor bases and military prisons is exercised.Born of nationalist and militarist tradition, Castle Ramiel announces its control over the surrounding environment through blatant displays of military might, including but not limited to massive domineering architecture, active and passive defenses both manned and unmanned, and continuous military movement via land and air vehicles. Ramiel's skyline looms high over the surrounding city of Overcast, so much so that aircraft tend to disappear completely behind brutalist, nearly windowless skyscrapers when coming in for landings.
One of the many grandiose features Castle Ramiel displays is its extremely vast moat, stretching a minimum of 3 mi (5 km) out from the inner border, almost fifteen times the widest of the lesser Castles' moats. Given this massive extra space supplementing the officially calculated area, the total area walled off for military purposes is almost twice that; roughly between 475 and 505 mi2 (1,230 and 1,310 km2). Going even further beyond the extreme size, the floor of the moat is known to be riddled with strategically-placed anti-personnel mines.
At both borders of Ramiel, there sit multiple large, scattered, and heavily guarded gates about the perimeters connected border-to-border by straight roads. These gates regulate who and what can and cannot be given access to the roads between borders, let alone the castle proper. Most of the gates are large enough to support the passing of particularly large military vehicles, even heavy battle tanks, even though it is not particularly effective to directly drive them across the moat roads, as opposed to shipping them. Rather, relatively smaller military vehicles like cargo trucks, IFVs, and APCs are more commonly seen crossing Ramiel's borders instead. Understandably, the three mile ride between outer Ramiel and central Ramiel is quite lonely, on top of being eerily quiet and carrying with it the feeling of being watched, which is in fact very true.
Russkaya
Russkaya is a coastal base and, like many others, a former Soviet station. It is located on the southern end of the Getz Ice Shelf, and is an important part in the surveillance coverage of the coast and horizon.Sovetskaya
Fort Sovetskaya is an isolated supply camp that is located between the dedicated military prisons of Komsomolskaya (KMP) and Storozh (SMP). In contrast to the military prisons, Fort Sovetskaya is mostly staffed by ASC Department of Defense support units, as opposed to the usual Riot Control Corps that are a common sight within the prisons.Sovetskaya generally serves two major functions. The primary function involves acting as an extension of the of the military prisons' stocks, meaning the fort stockpiles rations, weapons, ammunition, and more. The secondary function involves housing and training two rapid-response contingency battalions for quick deployment in the unlikely event there commences an extensive or otherwise severe prison breakout, in which supplemental paratroopers are flown in via fixed-wing transport aircraft in a minimum of twenty minutes, given the destination is SMP.
Storozh
Storozh Military Prison (SMP or "Death Row") is one of two extremely isolated and frigid prisons staffed exclusively by the Riot Control Corps in the Antarctic State, the other of which being KMP. Out of the two, SMP is much smaller.Just like its sister prison, SMP is roughly 565 mi (909 km) away from the nearest city, Decatur, and 256 mi (412 km) away from the nearest military base, Sovetskaya. Due to the extreme isolation within inland Antarctica, outside temperatures at Storozh average around −55.2 °C (−67.4 °F) yearly, however interiors are climate controlled to roughly 4.4 °C (40 °F).
SMP takes up a plot of icy land approximately 1⁄6 of a square mile (2⁄5 of a square kilometer) in area, which is completely enclosed by a rather simple fence made of large metal posts lined and connected with razor tape. By completely enclosed, this means that there are no gates nor other purpose-built openings in the fence for anybody or any thing to pass through. The only mode of transportation to and from Storozh is done via helicopter. What visually contrasts Storozh the most from its sister prison is the absence of gun towers, while the cell block interiors are roughly the same.
Despite being a 'military' prison, the prison holds both civilian and military inmates. Inmates that are sent to SMP are exclusively only those who have been sentenced to death for any number of particularly serious criminal offenses. It is because of this that Storozh is colloquially known as "Death Row".
In addition to being the designated placement of those awaiting execution, SMP is also the grounds with which the executions are made, traditionally being death by firing squad. SMP's blocks were designed specifically to let the sound of executions enter inmates' cells, which has long since been criticized and referred to as "undue psychological torture".
Staff buildings are physically separated from cell blocks/execution grounds via a relatively well-kempt schoolyard-esque clearing. These buildings have personnel accommodations including but not limited to a barracks for temporary living, a mess hall, armory, and gym.
Syowa
Syowa CMB (also: Shōwa) is one of very few Cyberian bases that do not have origins as Soviet territories. Syowa is actually of Japanese origin, established in 1957, in the Shōwa period of which the original station was named after. Syowa sits not far off from the city of Overcast, at the corner of a small gulf.Tor
Tor is a formerly Norwegian base that, despite its status as a coastal guard, is actually quite far away from the coast; roughly 112 miles (180 kilometers) away. Despite being so far away, its radar surveillance and tracking ability is not weakened, however its interceptor response time suffers by about five minutes.Upravleniye
Upravleniye is a major military base located in West Antarctica, in the western district of Aurora. Upravleniye is controlled by the ASC Department of Defense, and is actually the only landlocked major military base run by them. This makes it a popular base for large-scale land-based training missions and also large-scale aircraft-over-land training missions.Valkyrie F
Valkyrie F is a formerly Japanese station that has long since been repurposed as a minor Cyberian Military Base under the staff of the ASC Department of Defense. Valkyrie is far inland from the coast, being much closer to Articuno than any of the coast bases, this makes it a rather popular base for small-scale land and aircraft-over-land training missions.Vernadsky
Vernadsky is a formerly Ukrainian station near the end of the Antarctic Peninsula, closest to Castle Bellingshauzen. Whereas Bellingshauzen responds mostly to threats coming in from the direction of Patagonia, Vernadsky responds to incoming threats from either side of the Antarctic Peninsula.Vostok
Castle Vostok is a major military base that is operated by the ASC Department of Energy. Since before Cyberia formed, Vostok has been the center of innovation in power generation, transmission, and distribution in the Antarctic State. Military business on-base at Vostok mostly consists of research and development on energy solutions and the efficient implementation of them on a country-wide scale. Beyond that, Castle Vostok is also the central command from which the public's energy usage is metered, and where the Smart Super Grid (SSG) is continuously monitored, maintained, and improved.In the decades before Cyberia's formation, a small area of land in the fourth quadrant of the Antarctic continent was claimed by the Soviet Union in December of 1957, established as a research station in search of natural resources within the continent. Soon after the establishment of this front, Soviet researchers happened upon a significant natural deposits of uranium deep underneath the ice, leading to the establishment one of the first ever uranium mines, though the dangers of radiation exposure were not well-researched at the time. Having been discovered in the first half of the Atomic Age, the research station of Vostok was used as one of many Soviet grounds with which to secretly test the usefulness of particularly unstable elements, besides using them as a grandiose weapon. Nuclear power was a primary topic within this atomic research, eventually resulting in the building of test reactors with varying degrees of success, however no serious disasters occurred.
The old Soviet research and testing base of Vostok has long since been commandeered by the Cyberian government, and has been expanded greatly since its creation. It has become the main base of operations for the Department of Energy, owing a large part of this to the Soviets' use of the original Vostok base as a research facility for nuclear power among other atomic age devices. Colleges in the city of Decatur tend to serve classes that specialize in large-scale energy production and distribution. This is helped greatly by scholarships and grants offered by the Energy Department in its venture to take in knowledgeable recruits in relevant fields of study.
With the militant takeover of many Antarctic bases, Vostok saw its researchers and other scientific staff captured along with the uranium mining teams being detained as captive workers for a newly emerging government. Vostok's future nuclear reactor plans continued to be researched upon, which ultimately resulted in a large breeder reactor being built within the base. This caused the base to steadily grow a military population surrounding the reaction, forming Vostok CMB and eventually Castle Vostok, and the civilian city of Decatur around it.