Cykranosh Ader-Wissenschaft

theI was quite excited when I was assigned to a Class 0 science and research facility. There are no facilities more secure, or working on more potentially reality altering applications of arcanotech. These sites, they are remote, incredibly remote, so that if something goes wrong that the damage is contained, and if something truly horrific happens, the reflex teams, or the fleet will have time to respond. The incident and the UAC facilities above Huo Hsing proved to some planners that 33 million miles was too close. Those sort of things are kept under wraps, no one back home needs to know that there are really alternate dimensions, and in them there are aliens, and giant ass monsters, or things worse than that.

But that is what Cykranosh is about, it's about looking into those things, those terrible things that mortal man, mundane man, was not meant to know. There are great and wondrous things to be found, immortality, magic, teleportation, reaching other stars, other worlds. There is also madness, and death, to be forgotten, or lost, but these are the risks of the great explorers.

Cykranosh Ader-Wissenschaft Aerostat

The Cykranosh facility is an aerostat floating along the boundary between the stratosphere and mesosphere of Saturn's atmosphere. The facility is shaped roughly like a jellyfish. The upper dome of the facility is approximately 3 kilometers wide and is actually the gas bladder that keeps the facility floating. Inside is a mixture of helium and hydrogen that is under thermic control. It can be heated or cooled to cause the facility to rise or sink into the atmosphere. The actual research centers and habitation sections of the facility are held in the central stalk and the gondola that hangs under the main dome. The gondola hangs almost another kilometer beneath the dome and has facilities to house 200 scientists and engineers, as well as the 100 crew and technicians who keep the facility in working order.

Cykranosh is owned and operated by the New Hanseatic League faction of the Atlantic Federation, and is just one of several Ader-Wissenschaft facilities in the Solar System. The design is largely self sufficient, and the gas dome is dynamic allowing a universal construction model to be built and dropped into almost any atmosphere in the Solar system (except for Mars and Earth, the former having too thin an atmosphere, and the latter having too high a gravity). Roughly half of the facilities remain under the control of the New Hanseatic League, while the other half are owned and operated by corporate interests or Federation allied nations.

Cykranosh has a tandem purpose, it is a science research station working on technology for atmospheric studies, gas extraction, and such, but it is also a listening post for the Federation's Bureau of Intrasolar Communications. A half dozen facility crewmen work for the BiC, and relay coded messages back to Earth, and other listening posts through the solar system. While the Anunnaki and the Glassenheim Foundation are aware of Cykranosh, it is considered beneath their concerns, as it is an industrial research facility, and even a dedicated surveillance facility would struggle to catch even a glimpse of anything going on at Iapetus

Cykranosh is serviced every six months, and this is the standard tour of duty on the station. It is considered a strategic asset by the Federation, along with the Cygnus Gas Harvester Conglomerate (southern region of Saturn) and the Titan Colonies.

The station symbol is a Swan sporting a double halo, resembling Saturn's Rings.