Station 15

Status

Designation: Station 15

Official Status: Decommissioned. All access points are permanently sealed. Its existence is redacted from all public ship schematics and archives. Mention of it is forbidden.

Unofficial Status: A disposal site for the Council's most dangerous secrets and inconvenient personnel.

History

In the early years of the Authority's rule, Station 15 was the pinnacle of prosperity on The Fortrop, a luxurious residential complex rivaling even The Iris. Its downfall was swift. A pilot from a long-range reconnaissance mission returned carrying an unknown pathogen.

The contagion, dubbed the "Petrification Plague," began subtly with fevers and hallucinations before progressing to paralysis and finally, a horrifying petrification of the victim's body into a stone-like substance. Faced with an incurable, unstoppable plague, the Council of Commanders enacted Protocol 15: the station's bulkheads were welded shut, its life support was disconnected from the main grid, and the entire station and its thousands of inhabitants were abandoned.

Current Purpose

Station 15's existence is a closely guarded secret among the Commanders, who have found a new use for the sealed-off tomb. It now serves as the Fortrop's ultimate dumping ground.

Failed, monstrous experiments from the Iris Institute's Cognitive Studies department are discarded here. Unstable products from botched Alternation Weaves are tossed into its depths.

Most horrifically, it is used as an oubliette. Individuals too troublesome for the Underdeck prisonare not executed. They are quietly escorted to a secret access point and left inside Station 15 to face the darkness, the dormant plague, and the other horrors inside.

State of Decay

Inside, Station 15 is preserved under decades of dust and decay. The air is stagnant and silent. Its once-luxurious corridors and apartments are perfectly preserved: families petrified around dinner tables, individuals frozen in a silent scream, their stone-like forms reaching for doors they could never open.

This is joined by the Council's refuse. Malformed creatures from Weaving experiments hunt in the dark halls, and the station's original automated defenses and Watchers still patrol on internal power, their programming degraded and hostile to any life sign.

Security and Secrecy

The quarantine of Station 15 is absolute.

The main entrances have been plated over with layers of the ship's hull. The exterior is monitored constantly by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Aegis Guard. The most effective security measure, however, is social. The Council has cultivated such a powerful superstition and fear around the station's memory that speaking its name is a taboo.

Any mention of Station 15 is immediately flagged by The Watchers, guaranteeing a visit from The Wardens and an unpleasant line of questioning.