Patronic Proving Grounds

From AuroraWiki

The Patronic Proving Grounds are an island cluster that is an Antaran territorial holding in the central Patronic Ocean that is home to a series of weapons testing and development laboratories and testing ranges. These facilities are operated by the State Department of Engineering & Design and protected by the Munitorum Antara.

History

In the year 1497, Antaran ships came across the Soders Islands while traveling eastward across the Patronic Ocean. They landed there and, after exploring it and finding it unoccupied, established a small community there as a waystation. It was mapped, claimed in the name of the Emperor and added to the Imperial Archives.

From 1497 onward the island cluster served as a quiet by-the-by where Antaran ships would occasionally stop for provisions and rest. The islands maintained their importance also as the location of a modest Imperial trade factor for Patronic trade. When the Empire transitioned into the Dominion in 1800, the Soders were retained as a Dominion Holding. They are Antaran territory and, as such, are protected by a squadron of the Overseas Fleet. At present, this squadron includes two escort carriers that maintain a regular patrol circuit.

In 2111, under orders from then Praetor Cassio Belesarious, a military research and munitions testing complex was built on the largest island in the Soders, known as Elugelab, and the entire island cluster was re-named the Patronic Proving Grounds. It has since become the location of choice for testing of explosives and ordnance, and the test-detonation of high-yield bombs and the deployment of experimental weaponry.

Purpose

As the testing field for weaponry, ordnance, and any experimental system the Dominion wants to give a run, the Proving Grounds are an important site in Antaran weapon development and research. The scientists who live and work there are part of Olduvai Research Facility, and are State employees. A contingent of Marines maintain ground security, and an Overseas squadron maintains air and sea approach security.

The western-most cluster of islands in the entire chain are known as the Kanlep Range. They were for some time home to a large device known only as "Hammertong Alpha". Built in March 2116, its purpose was at first unknown. The laboratories on Elugelab were also the location of the mysterious device referred to by the SDED only as "Hammertong Beta". It was built in 2116. These two systems were under the auspices of the State Department of Engineering & Design. Both items were later proven to be nuclear power generators, each one employing a different design in a test of varying styles methods. By 31 January 2117, both had been shut down following an Etrurian-inspired "White Paper" incident.

Since the end of Hammertong, the laboratories at Elugelab continue to function, albeit along every line but the nuclear ones it had for almost two years pursued in some portiosn of the complex. Kanlep has been emptied of its Hammertong-related structures and materials, and the Navy and Air Force plan to begin re-using it for ordnance testing by mid-2117. Until then, it of all the islands in the western region of the Grounds is left alone.