Raketenhaus Ader-Wissenshaft

Raketenhaus Ader-Wissenshaft, the Warwerks of the New Hanseatic League is one of the borrowed jewels of the Atlantic Federation, and one of it's mad scientist repositories. The facility was largely responsible for the development of the Corrosion torpedoes and the groundbreaking Operation Jawbreaker. Not even The Maw Installation can rival the resources poured into the Raketenhaus.

The View from Above

The approach to Raketenhaus is breathtaking, especially the first time. There is technically an asteroid at the center of it, but you can't see it. The big docking ring around the center mass looks like a stainless steel beehive, with dozens of ships around it at anytime. Most of the ships are merchantmen, ore haulers, commercial jobs, but the fleet is there too. The Federation likes to keep a presence at the Hanse' premiere station, and the Hanse like the Federation to remember that they have their own ships. The first time I visited Raketenhaus there were a half dozen massive ships there, the Feds had the Odyssey and the 2nd fleet group there. The Hanse had their own ships there. Bismark and Tirpitz were smaller than the Odyssey, but those two, they aren't battlestars. They don't have any mechs in their guts, they're just armor and guns, and more guns, and some massive engines. But I digress, they all paled next to the Raketenhaus.

The ring, the docking ring is 20 kilometers across, and there are a dozen elevators running from the core to the ring. Above the ring is the 'Raketenhaus' part of the station, dozens of labs, manufactories, high energy research facilities, and it is positively bristling with missile launchers. That's why all the ships are just a show. Those missiles, some of them have black holes packeted in them.

Below the ring is the crown jewel of the Hanseatic League, and one of the prizes that the Federation wishes belonged directly to it. The residential and commercial section of Raketenhaus is a 'reverse' mega-arcology. The tower hangs under the asteroid and is light, airy, and the gleaming crystal and steel vision of what the future was supposed to be. The tower extends down nearly 13 kilometers. It's beautiful.

The Core

The core of Raketenhaus is 433 Eros, a 34 km by 11 km asteroid that was gravity tractored into a stable orbit above Gdansk. The center of the asteroid was hollowed out, initially for the metal content, and the it was filled with several massive dimensional reactors and the largest A-pods built. The four spheres, each 200 meters across, are powerful enough to allow the asteroid base to move with a ponderous grace. Each of Raketenhaus a-pods is powerful enough to lift two battlestars.

The Ring

The main docking ring around Raketenhaus is larger than the JOSH-Annex ring, and can service almost twice as many ships. Unlike JOSH-Annex, the docking facilities at Raketenhaus are constantly busy, with the flow of goods and passengers moving between the Hanseatic League on Earth, and the League's economic and social business holdings across the solar system. The ring is non-militarized, and while military ships can dock and use the facilities, they cannot undergo refit and repair, nor can they be rearmed. Crews and supplies can be handled but that is all. Military vessels instead use the League's Donar Anchorage facility. the facility is similar to the Federation's fleet anchorages. Donar is not as large, but is constantly being improved, and has a Seibertronian contingent present.

Donar Anchorage is named after the Saxon god of the sky and thunder, and is the main anchorage for the fleet of the Hanseatic League and the Kingdoms of Scandinavia. The League doesn't have any battlestars of its own, and there are many in the High Fleet who shared Nippon's Dream of Yamato and desire their own battlestars. While the technological matters are inconsequential, several of the Federation's battlestars were built by Raketenhaus and Donar, the League doesn't have the sheer resources and finances to put their own battlestars in service. Lacking this clout, the League has doubled down on conventional space warships with the Bismark class heavy cruisers, and with conventional aerospace carriers like the Helgoland.

The Tower

The Tower of Raketenhaus hangs under the station, almost 13 kilometers 'tall'. This structure houses most of the civilian population, and the recreation, and commercial zones of the station. While enormous, most of the tower is open space and scaffolding, struts, and strengthening elements. It has a relatively low population density, and is well known for it's staggering amount of open space. The biggest selling point of commercial space on the tower is the view. Facing down, the tower has a God's Eye view of Earth. It is magnificent.

The Tethers

The purpose of the massive size of the Tower, and the equally impressive A-pods is the operation of four tether systems. These massive spools can be lowered into the atmosphere, as the station drops down, letting the tip of the tower rake the super thin air at the very limit of the atmosphere. At this altitude, the tethers can be extended down, following runners along the tower, until they are caught by men on the ground. This allows for Raketenhaus to function as the top of a massive space elevator, with an arcology serving as the base. The tethers are magnetic, and have Magnetic tractors that lift or lower ships, cargo modules, and so forth between the station and the arcology below. The fact that Raketenhaus is fully mobile means that any city in the New Hanseatic League can be the host of the League's space elevator.

The Atlantic Federation is incredibly jealous of Raketenhaus and it's ability to become a space elevator. The function of Raketenhaus, and a few other stupendous league projects, has catapulted the League to the top of the Federation member states, and left them in a position where they can act as equals, sometimes, to the Federation Council. Most of the other states are generally at the mercy of the Federation Council, but these states do not have extensive space holdings, a massive industrial capacity, or their own fleet.

Both the Federation and the League have plans for Raketenhaus. The Federation expects that when the time comes, the Ramiel Battlestation and it's contingent of Communications Cruisers and black ops cyberwarfare frigates, and the 1st Near Earth fleet will be able to disable Raketenhaus and it's defensive fleet of armored warships. Likewise, Raketenhaus and the Hansemarine are prepared for a Federation double cross, and have not disclosed the full potential of the station, or of the weaponry it, and the Hansemarine ships are equipped with.

Secrets of Raketenhaus

Anti-Magnetronic Weaponry - also known as an Anti-Magnetic pulse, AMP weapons disrupt magnetic fields. While considered novel in the lab, the League has further developed the phenomenon into a usable weapon. Used in a warhead on a missile, AMPs explode near enemy ships or combatants and disrupt said magnetic fields. This generally causes magnetic weapons and technology to shut down, or fail catastrophically. Fusion engines generally activate failsafes and vent their plasma before exploding. Plasma and particle weapons kick off, unless they were prepared to fire, and then the failure of the magnetic jar generally slags the inside of the weapon system. Rail and coilguns simply are forced to reboot. Some dimensional reactors will enter a shutdown phase when exposed to an AMP weapon. Like EMPs, AMPs are used as non-lethal deterrents.

GRASER - also known as a Gamma Lance, the GRASER system generates a high coherency high power gamma ray burst, and then using similar technology to a laser, increases and focuses the potential of the beam, and then shoots it down an actual laser beam. GRASERs have proven reliable, if hot, to maintain. They do not match the damage potential of the Higgs cannons and their multi-megaton yields, but there are very few materials able to offer even token resistance to the GRASER.

Geschmeideg Panzer - based on the same technology as the Klein Field system, the Geschmeidig Panzer system is much more effective, and has fewer harmful side effects. Energy and beam weapons are refracted through the GP, sending them off in glancing tangents. The only beams that have a chance of punching through the shield have to hit it perfectly perpendicularly, and then hope that there isn't a 180 degree rebound, sending the beam right back to its source. It does consume a large amount of energy, cannot be shot through from the inside, and is less effective against kinetic weaponry. As the Federation has increasingly put it's eggs into the Higgs and plasma cannon basket, this is consider a minor issue.

Jawbreaker - as the hose of the Federation Higgs Particle Research program, Raketenhaus has a large number of Higgs particle cannons, and their own version of the AFS Kepler. Their 'super graviton' cannon equipped warship, the Mjolner, is cared for the Kingdoms of Scandinavia, where it is a very low key orbital monitor, and considered nothing more than a floating relic. The Scandinavians are in the process of fitting the Gungir with a second super graviton cannon, just to spread the love around.