Ramiel Military Spaceplex

Ramiel has been in service for nearly six decades, and the only thing that eclipses its prominence and importance in the military umbrella over the Atlantic Federation is the monstrous cost of its upkeep. The spaceplex is over four kilometers wide and has the same internal space as eight arcologies, making it easily on par with the cores of first tier Earth cities like London, Paris, or Boston. It's crew numbers in the tens of thousands, even with automation. The station serves as the seat of the Federation Space Force and is the home anchorage of the Near Earth Federation 1st Fleet. At any given time there is a minimum of one Battlestar present at Ramiel, and in the rare instances when there is not, the spaceplex is hosting one of the equally large but far less prestigious heavy aerospace carriers or a destroyer squadron. The spaceplex itself is heavily armored, heavily armed, and a hornet's nest of aerospace fighters and space capable mecha. Attacking it would be literal suicide for almost any other power in the Solar System.

Dimensions

Ramiel is a diamond patterned geometric station, with the core being formed from a pair of square based pyramids joined together at their bases. There are four outriders, one at each point of the equator of the diamond, themselves following the same construction pattern, but being half the size. The 'south' pole of the core is the anchorage of the station and can dock most large ships in the Federation fleet. The 'north' pole is the command information center, and the administration complex, and the housing area of the diplomatic, intelligence, and surveillance corps attached to the Federation Space Force. The core of the station is two kilometers tall, and each of the outriders are one and a half kilometers tall. Together, with perimeter flanges and docking facilities, Ramiel is a few feet shy of being four kilometers wide.

Offensive Capabilities

Ramiel's most important offensive abilities are based around the office of the Navarch and the Ministry of Military Advanced Planning. Navarch Ariana Sterngood is the primary planner for the Federation space force, and the overall commander of Federation ships in Near Earth Operations. The Navarch is supported by the Tribunal, consisting of three military L/AISC systems, which coordinate the Navarchs commands down to the individual fighters, gun crews, warships, and automated systems on the Ramiel and any other vessel connected to the Navarch's command. This command and control system allows the entire Federation space force to operate as a single minded entity of great and terrifying effectiveness.

Ramiel is in no way lacking in firepower. The station has dozens of turrets and gun batteries housing hundreds of naval grade lasers, masers, linear guns, and a cornucopia of missiles ranging from short range interceptors to long range anti-ship torpedoes. The centerpiece of Ramiel was the installation of the Super Space Laser, a staggeringly powerful short range wonder weapon. In military planning, the SSL is expected to be used against surface targets on Earth, asteroid bases, and bombardment of other plantary bodies, and not in ship to ship combat. There is an experimental wide angle emitter that has been designed that would allow the SSL to be fire like a shotgun or flamethrower, likely only useful for evaporating fighters and space debris, but it is projected that the emitter would be destroyed in the firing and it could cause serious damage to the SSL itself.

The spaceplex can easily house three aerospace wings, and their crews and pilots in relative comfort, adding to the already staggering short range firepower of the station.

The station, as mentioned, is never alone, as it is the primary anchorage of the Federation space force so there are always a number of military ships present, most notables the Federation's vaunted Battlestars, and more mundane cruisers, and aerospace carriers. In periods of elevated tension, two Battlestars are stationed at Ramiel, as well as at least one heavy carrier. For each battlestar that is not available, two heavy carriers or a heavy carrier and a pair of cruisers are present.

Defensive Capabilities

Ramiel has impressive armor, as well as the ability to generate phase shielding over certain sections, rendering them invulnerable to energy and beam weapons for a short period of time. The station has extensive electronic countermeasures, multiple spectrum jamming abilities, and the ability to launch brute force cyberwar attacks against enemy smart systems, allowing them to at times simply turn enemy systems off, feed them false information, or actually take over automated systems and add them to the Navarch's roster of available units.

Crew

Normal complement - 12,000

Maximum occupancy - 55,000

Skeleton - 2,200

Behind the Scenes

Ramiel is the keystone and lynchpin of the Federation Space Force, and its combat abilities are legendary and feared.

They are also completely untested. Ramiel has never been used as anything other than a housing unit for the Space Force and the throne of the Federation Sky Marshall. It has been the center of many military operations, but its weapons have never been fired in anger, its armor never tested by anything other than bad pilots and navigation errors. The station itself is aging, and the maintenance costs are impressive. The station is likewise completely unable to support itself. It has no hydroponics, no food production, no polyforges to make and of the daily use sundry goods the thousands who call it home use. Everything has to be imported to the station, and the waste from the station, both sewage and trash, have to been hauled to other stations for processing and disposal. The only thing Ramiel doesn have to import 100% of is water, and thats because the recycling systems are able to reclaim two thirds of waste water, miserable compared to the typical arcology reaching the upper 90s in percentages.

Ramiel has become a white elephant for the Federation, and most of the leadership would dearly like to get rid of it, and relocate its core facilities to smaller stations, and give up the stupendous cost of maintaining an honest to god space fortress. The problem is that it is an iconic part of the Space Force and there isn't a politician or controlling body willing to pull the plug on it and end up the bad guy. The only thing worse would be losing Ramiel in a conflict, the damage in terms of actual material lost and morale lost would likely be devastating to the entire Federation. An Achilles heel to be sure.

Counters to Ramiel

The preeminence of Ramiel has not gone unnoticed and a number of powers have created their own plans and counters to the majesty that is the spaceplex.

The Eurasian Alliance has built the equally massive and impressive Tchernobog War Station. Like Ramiel it has extensive docking facilities, and tons of firepower. Centerpiece to this arsenal is a series of five long barrel linear accelerator cannons. These LACs fire 45 ton projectiles at hypersonic speed, with the full intent of smashing Ramiel to pieces by firing thousands of tons of ammo at it. Tchernobog is decidedly inferior to Ramiel, and it is a collection of giant guns and Neo-soviet space marines barracks, and lacks all of the high end technology present in Ramiel.

The Hanseatic League, technically a part of the Federation, has its eye on Ramiel as a major component in any Federation attempt to overwhelm or dissolve the League. While much less dramatic than Tchernobog, the Hanse have a fleet of armored cruisers and battleships, most of which are armed with austerhagen device equipped missiles and Higgs cannons. These black hole bombs and graviton cannons are expected to make short work of any foe.

The Hanse and the Carolinian factions have joined forces to bankroll the construction of the battlestations Charlemagne and Barbarossa. These will follow a pattern similar to Tchernobog, but will feature Higgs cannons, high energy shield generators, and will be a combination of warship anchorage and battle station, and will not have the administration and intelligence operations headquartered in them.