Iapetus

Ur-Anu, Iapetus, the Moon of Peace, the Death Star

The Moon Iapetus

Iapetus is the 8th moon of Saturn, the planet's 3rd largest moon, and it is the 11th largest moon in the Solar System. It was named after the Greek Titan Iapetus, brother to Cronus. The moon is notable for having a two toned color scheme, a large equatorial ridge, and an exceptionally large impact crater named Falsaron. The Falsaron crater is over 500 kilometers wide. The moon is also suspected of being composed of ice, as much as 80% of it's mass.

Ur-Anu, Fortress of the Anunnaki

Created from the composite Ur and the Sumerian deity of the Heavens, Anu, the installation on Iapetus is over two centuries old. It was originally a depository and vault for the artifacts and oddities that the Glassenheim Foundation had accumulated over their history. Safely off of Earth, these relics could not fall into the hands of the wrong people. The wonders of Imbrian technology could be safely contained until such a time as they were understood, or were deemed too dangerous to leave in place.

The original Ur-Anu installation featured not much more than several geofront dug into the frozen surface of the moon, along with a small surface structure to serve as a landing base for incoming ships. Extremely modest facilities are in place for the most basic and routine maintenance for said ships. Over the decades, the facility has expanded, with research suites added, and residential accommodations for those staffers who care for the relics or wish to research them. Given the relatively long trip from Earth to Saturn space, most visitors plan to stay for at least 6 months to a year, minimum.

Given the small size of the base, and it's limited ability to support staff and guests, access to Iapetus was highly restricted. Being a deep system moon (anything beyond the orbit of Jupiter is Deep System) there was little traffic to worry about, and while the moon had a high water concentration, most prospectors and miners found grabbing small comets to be more effective than attempting to land on a moon and deploying mining equipment for water.

The Glassenheim Foundation

Eventually, the cabals developed within the Glassenheim Foundation, and groups who gravitated towards alien technology and the Imbrian legacies made Iapetus their technological Mecca. The newly appointed members of these cabals, most notably the Sephirot Cabal considered visiting the moon a mandate. This was frowned upon initially, but this demand saw resources allocated to expand the facilities on the small moon. Security was increased, new surface structures were build and concealed with mirage fields. The holdings dug into the moon were likewise enhanced, to the point where tens of thousands could live on the moon, complete with food production, resource recycling, and even a small industrial base to ensure that ships needn't burden themselves with mundane sundry supplies.

As the secrets of Imbria and arcanotech were unlocked, the Sephirot's grip on Ur-Anu increased, along with their paranoia. In the last century, the facilities on the moon were upgraded a third time. The biggest upgrades are military and industrial in nature. Ur-Anu mounts a small defensive militia, composed of home built vehicles and ships, all carrying the cutting edge in arcanotech developments. Many of these are made from pre assembled sub components, but the rest are made on site via advanced AI, materials technology, and polyforges.

The Anunnakus Marduk oversaw the creation of this force. It is not any sort of expeditionary force, as it lacks the numbers required for military conquest. Rather, the forces were created to ensure the security of Ur-Anu and the Glassenheim vaults on the moon. In the event of a dimensional fatigue event, these forces could respond as Reflex Teams to deal with any problems that emerged and assist with closing the event. Finally, these machines and ships could be used for intelligence and surveillance purposes. This force has grown over time, but is still microscopic compared to the leviathan's of Earth based military forces. The Anunnaki fleet consists of just over a dozen small craft, on par tonnage wise, with Federation destroyers, that have spent most of their careers making silent invisible runs from Iapetus to points across the solar system.

Why Not More?

One of the curious things is that Iapetus could be a massive chugging Glassenheim factory/fortress world, pumping out hordes of ships, autonomous war machines, and serving as a great and terrible fortress, but it isn't. There are three major reasons for this. The first is that Iapetus is just shy of being 800,000,000 miles away from Earth. That is a straight line from Earth to Iapetus, not the arcing path a terrestrial ship is going to take to get there. In the Petroleum Era, probes took between 3 and 6 years to make that run. Cosmic Era ships are faster, but it is still a long haul that takes months to complete. The second reason is that Iapetus is still mostly water, and water isn't a good building material. Anything that is built on Iapetus has to have the raw materials shipped in for it. This is time consuming and expensive. Finally, the Sephirot cabal isn't the largest or the most powerful within the Anunnaki. Those who control the purse strings of the organization are loath to expend resources on things like lunar bases 800 million miles away where everything but ice cubes have to be made elsewhere and shipped in.

The Paupers, the grand financiers of the Glassenheim Foundation, only spent what they spent on Iapetus because it literally gave the Sephirot a place to go that was very far away. For the Paupers, more concerned with their economic interests, and century long industrial and technological time tables, the weirdos self exiling to Saturn's orbit, voluntarily, was considered a godsend.

The Peace Moon

To the Glassenheim Foundation, Iapetus and Ur-Anu are installations on the Peace Moon. The other deep system Foundation Holdings are considered more valuable and important, such as the Galactic telescope, or the Thoth AISC that serves it. Given the construction methods and materials on Iapetus, the use of polymer infused ice as structural materials, Ur-Anu has the retro futuristic crystal city crystal spires look to it. When there is an important super clandestine meeting to be held that cannot be held on Earth, Ur-Anu is used. It demonstrates the gravitas of the situation, and makes the meeting remote to the point that there is no potential for spies.

While the Glassenheim Foundation looks to Ur-Anu as it's Tycho City for conventions and severely important meetings, they are sometimes a bit naive when it comes to intelligence gathering. Within the Anunnaki, there are the cabals, and some are taken much more seriously than others. Those that are strong tend to disregard the others out of hand, such is the case with the Ultra and Pauper Cabals. They are correct that there are no foreign agencies involved at Ur-Anu, but they tend to forget that the Sephirot Cabal largely owns and controls Ur-Anu, and is privy to everything that goes on at such meetings.

The Death Star

Iapetus has had the name Death Star placed on it in the past, as the Falsaron crater resembles the planet killing turbo laser of the Death Star from the Star Wars franchise. Despite this name, the Foundation has no plans to do anything of the sort with Iapetus. Instead, the Foundation through the Ultra cabal have invested a great deal of energy and effort into the creation of Anticthon, an artificial planet that sits opposite of Earth, in the same orbit. This artificial world will be smaller than Earth, but it will be the armored fortress of the Anunnaki. The geoengineering is under way, but it will take centuries to complete. This relegates Ur-Anu to the same internal importance as a science station in the Antarctic.

It was discovered that under the ice and dust, Falsaron is the remnant of an Imbrian communications array. This was once a major node for the Imbrian's teleportation and logistics Nebiru array. Now, it houses all sorts of arcane devices, the majority of which are devoted to gathering information, listening in on data channels, and concealing the presence of Ur-Anu and the Glassenheim ships that periodically visit the base.

Ur-Anu, The Sephirot, and the Garden of Eden

The Sephirot have taken it upon themselves to start their own great work. It has the potential to start a schism through the Glassenheim Foundation, and could split entire cabals in half. The Sephirot have concentrated their resources and power around Iapetus, and are pushing hard to break through the remaining mysteries of Imbria. Their security force, with their Invader class vehicles and their handful of sleek destroyers, is intended not to face the Federation fleet, or the even closer space barges of the Seibertronians, but to face the equipment of the Foundation. Should the Foundation discover the Eden Project, they will gather their forces and attempt to destroy the Sephirot. The Eden Project seeks to blast the majority of humanity off the face of the planet, and turn it over to Sephirot control. The remnants of humanity will be forced to seek shelter on vulnerable stations and the offworld colonies. The Sephirot will assume control of the entire planet, and make it into a lush garden world for their entertainment. They will bulldoze human civilization to plant gardens and golf courses.

The final goal isn't so much taking over the world. That is cliche and trope. We intend to cleanse it, to put it back the way it was, the way it should be. Restore it to it's pristine pre-human state and let it return to the rich, vibrant, organic-oceanic world it was. The footprints of billions of humans will be wiped away. The Utopia Initiative will bring back extinct animals and plants, it will cleanse the filth of humanity away. The factories and fortresses will be built on rocks in space, and eventually we will grasp the secret of Imbrian teleportation, of their ability to travel beyond the speed of light, and Earth will be our jewel. It will be the inheritance of ascended humanity. As we stride across the stars, we will have our lush green home to return to, not the great piled up cities, not the oceans clogged with filth, not the continents barren of forests and animals that are trash eating parasites thriving in humanity's waste.

The Black Death wiped away millions of human lives, and then gave birth to the Italian Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. The Second Dark Age, with it's wars and famine, and the death of billions paved the way to the Second Renaissance and the Arcanotech Revolution. The cleansing of the Earth won't kill trillions, it will kill far fewer than that, but it will be the gateway to the Universal Renaissance, and the Galactic Revolution. This is just the way of things.

~ Anunnakus Tiamat