Hollingsworth Hole

Hollingsworth Hole

While not the largest or the busiest of the Federation military bases, Hollingswoth Hole is likely to be the most important and most valuable. The base is located under Staten Island, New York in the Commonwealth of New England. The Hole is a geofront, burrowed deep into the earth. The base is 15 levels, each level separated by armor layers. The structure can withstand low to mid yield nuclear blasts and can survive orbital bombardment. The base is the heart of the Atlantic Federation's special forces, the Command Center for black ops around the world, and the repository of a large amount of classified information. The base is also the location of Argus, the most prominent of the Federation military AISCs.

Staff

Hollingsworth Hole, also just known as the Hole, is typically staffed by a large contingent of high ranking military officers as well as members of the Federation Intelligence community. Beyond the command staff, there are three major staff organizations within the base; cyber ops, special ops, and space ops.

Cyber Ops:

Defending the massive electronic infrastructure of the Atlantic Federation is a staggering task. The Cyber Ops department doesn't do any of that. Cyber Ops is actively engaged in cyber surveillance and cyber attacks on the cyber systems of the enemies of the Atlantic Federation, as well as working against the AISCs of other nations. Cyber ops are easily noted for their yellow and black uniforms and are called Wasps, Yellow jackets, or just Buzzers.

Special Ops:

The Federation Coordinator Project was funded by Hollingsworth Hole, creating physically and mentally exceptional soldiers. Special Ops dislikes the use of parapsychic and psychically augmented soldiers, and makes almost no use of them. Special Ops makes extensive use of cyborgs and armatures, as well as battle suit technology. Special ops don't have a uniform, unless they retain their dress uniform from pre-special ops.

Space Ops:

The pride of the Atlantic Federation is it's space fleet. Coordination of Federation Fleet assets (Near Earth) is handled through Hollingsworth. Fleet assets that leave terrestrial orbit are handed over to Armstrong Command on Luna, and Deep System Ops are routed through Eriksson Base on Phobos, Mars. The Space Ops personnel are recognized by their sky blue and black uniforms, and typically use Naval terminology and ranking.

Not Your Average Base

Hollingsworth Hole dates back to the end of the Resource Wars and the dissolution of the American Federal Superstate. The base was built to deal with potential threats from nuclear naval ships that were not loyal to the not yet consolidated Commonwealth of New England. Paranoia grew as much of the old Federalist nuclear fleet defected to the New Confederacy while the nucleus of the Great Lakes Republic built it's ground forces. It was thought that this would be the command center that oversaw the 2nd American Civil war. That war never materialized, but there remains propaganda plastered on the walls supporting the War Effort, harkening back to the Americana Propaganda that flourished during WWII. This concentration of Americana was a major influence on Commonwealth culture after the base was renovated and restored to service. Big band music, and the patriotic impressionist style caught on. 

The Hollingsworth Social is a staple of Commonwealth military service, the official officer's ball. Being invited to the Social is considered a sign of military potential, and speaking at the Social is a standard for any elected officials of the Commonwealth, and the President of the Atlantic Federation is all but required by law to speak at Hollingsworth within a month of being elected.

Access

Access to Hollingsworth isn't easy. The base is hard to reach as it is a geofront buried in the roots of a large island. The two main modes of access include Hollingsworth Airforce Base, and the wet navy base, Port Flagg. Both of these access points are purely military and are controlled by military police and personnel. The only way to reach the base other than these two points is by covert means, landing a craft on the coast, or swimming to Staten Island. As difficult as this is, it's been attempted three times. The first two attempts met with failure as the defending soldiers were easily able to repulse the attackers. The third attempt was the most successful, and involved infiltrators sabotaging the early warning systems coupled with a guided missile strike fired by terrorists on the New Jersey side of the base.

The counter attack was vicious, and the terrorists, were caught in a crossfire between Federation troops and special forces pouring out of Hollingsworth, fire support from the Federation sky cruiser AFS Intrepid, and security forces scrambled from the UAC base at Newark. A credit to the skill and equipment of the terrorists, the Intrepid was damaged by heavy missile fire, the UAC security forces lost roughly half of their light armored vehicles, and the survivors were able to make their escape before Federation mecha were able to respond.

History

Petroleum Era:

Hollingsworth Hole begins construction as a bunker for Argus, coinciding with the construction of Hollingsworth AFB. The geofront is completed during the early part of the Resource Wars and serves as one of the most important command and coordination centers in the war.

Resource Wars Era:

Hollingsworth is expanded, the AFB is expanded to handle larger and larger craft, as well as the electric rotorcraft. Port Flagg is also constructed, but at the time is known as Port Staten and serves as a secondary base for damaged warships that are going to be scrapped, and salvaged for their nuclear reactors.

The Second Dark Age:

Hollingsworth goes from front line to tertiary importance as the threat of foreign aggression plummets and the real threat to the region comes from banditry, riots, population and food crises. As the Superstate dissolves, the Hole only remains online because of the presence of Argus and that AISC's value to the nascent Commonwealth of New England.

The Second Renaissance:

As the renewed vigor of the 2nd Renaissance surges through the Commonwealth, Hollingsworth is renovated and resumes it's function as a major military base. It is expanded from it's original 6 levels to the current 15 with plans for expanding further to 22 levels. Argus is repaired and receives a major systems and hardware update and the base begins its operations as space ops and cyber ops.

Modern Era:

Hollingsworth is now one of the most valuable bases in the Federation. As such it has passive defenses, such as being isolated on an island, and being buried under a minimum of 20 meters of rock and soil. It also has a working defensive force consisting of the 113th Air Wing, equipped with Orca rotorcraft, the 56th Mobile Infantry (Battle Armor Battalion) and the 17th Mecha Squadron, the Green Sparrows. Port Flagg routinely hosts several wet navy craft as well as 2-3 sky ships. It is also home port to the similarly named AFS Flagg, a Federation mecha carrier.