Void Fortress

Void fortresses, or dark islands, are large interstellar bunker communities created by the during periods of conflict predating the . First conceptualized during the by an unsubstantiated Forerunner faction living in the galactic core, void fortresses mix stellar engineering, void camouflage, and tightbeam Slipspace weaponry into defensive hardpoints in larger defense-in-depth stratagems - establishing no-transit or slow zones, killing fields, and interstellar cloaking around clusters of fortress and garden worlds at risk of invasion within their territory.
The typical void fortress appeared similar to dark nebulae at interstellar distances, using stellar engineering to manipulate or replicate conditions of concentrated cosmic dust and gas around high-gravity objects which obscure visual waves of light and lower ambient stellar temperatures. With further development, external clouds can mimic the visible luminosity of surrounding space similar to . Artificial components of void fortresses include varieties of megastructure, planetary, and stellar formations inside dark nebulae and harmoniously stabilized using precise gravity anchors forming unseen terrestrial-analog habitats beneath said camouflaging nebular clouds. Due to their spread out nature, void fortress formations also had a visual similarity to Bok globules.
The Forerunners reintroduced void fortresses early in the as logistics bases and safe havens as part of a greater . However, like many defenses against the , void fortresses proved insufficient. Intact void fortresses are a rarity in the but known to exist in theory based on efforts to rediscover Forerunner history. Mainstream theories suggest the likeliest locations for void fortresses lie in the visual ambience of the Great Rift dark band looking towards galactic center. The most well-known void fortresses are the Daedalus Pocket, a trio of dark islands visible against the interstellar backdrop between the Orion Spur and Sagittarius Arm and accessible via the pale zone freeport of Meredith. The Pocket has remained lightly explored by the for generations, but witnessed increasing interest during the due to the two-fold arms race for Forerunner technology, and the necessity of new factional, fortress worlds in the recently balkanized galaxy.
LineInstallation2.png|Line installations caught-and-crashed starships in Slipspace transit during the Flood-Forerunner War.
Artemis Nebula.png|A UNSC battlecruiser patrolling the exterior dust cloud of a Forerunner void fortress.
Meredith Freeport.png|Meredith Freeport became the primary, colonial access point to the so-called "Daedalus Pocket."
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==Known Installations==
*Daedalus Pocket: A trio of enfilade, dark islands serving as a stellar command-and-control formation during the late Flood War. From Earth, the pocket is barely visible between the constellations of Aquila and Vulpecula. The installation was rediscovered by the Covenant empire in 1218 and later the Solid Ground Commission during the Created conflict.
**Aegis Shroud: A mostly intact void fortress seemingly active even 100,000 years after the vanishing of the Forerunners. Its Line installations and mine fields remain a Slipspace transit hazard closest to former Covenant territory of the Orion complex. Covenant crypt-breakers spent the better part of the last millenia probing its defenses for blind spots; zero are yet found. But legends and rumors persist.
**Gulf Shroud: A fallen void fortress cleansed of life and parasite abandoned near the Orion Arm's stellar shelf, its discovery and breach by Flood forces turned the megastructure into a embattled chokepoint shredded with interstellar weaponry by neighboring fortresses. Its once invisible cloak ripples with a gaping system-sized hole - a result of a hypothesized pair-instability supernova with Slipspace characteristics leaving no stars in its wake and an interior darker than space itself. Only a few surviving Forerunner structures remain aglow with failing artificial lights and the dim bioluminescence of seeming fossilized Flood forms?
**Perseid Shroud: A proximal, mostly intact void fortress near human space in the direction of the the Perseus constellation. The leak of Created discoveries from the Absolute Record following Cortana's demise generated a gold rush by humans and former Covenant alike to this now-defenseless Shroud but some were quicker than others as armed factions fought over access and control, while other mysterious forces seek to rebuild the defenses for more nefarious purposes. And are those strands of a Star Road?
Category:Forerunner technology
Category:Megastructures
Category:Forerunner