Citadel of the Foregone

## **Description**

A photograph of the Citadel, soon after evacuation and liberation by combined Beatrix and Hindsight forces.

## General Information

### Class

Payotari Vault

The **Citadel of the Foregone** (shortened to **The Citadel**) was a massive scientific and engineering manufacturing space station, reserved for the construction of biological weapons, framework for numerous megastructures, and for infamous starships. A heavy amount of advanced technology was also produced at the Citadel, which turned to be very useful for the Quintet Payotari Association during the War of the Ancients. The Citadel is most infamously known for the production of the Celestial Plague, a threat which has persisted well beyond the WOTA.

Acting as one of the many 'Vaults' employed by the Quintet Payotari Association, the Citadel was very well protected , and was kept in a discrete location in interstellar space. Its high security and expert level of undetectability made it resented by many nations, which saw the Citadel as a high priority target. The Citadel is also known for its highly advanced engineering technologies, which was used to create more artifacts and even extend the reach of POLIKY by allowing it to construct various self replicating drones and similar craft.

The Citadel was one of the last stations to be destroyed by the forces of the combined forces of Hendrerit and Hindsight during the War of the Ancients, and is also known as a place where many of the top engineers of the Quintet Payotari Association were stationed. Further analysis of the station, brought up by physical and artificial search teams, concluded that the Citadel also held servers for a separate version of POLIKY, fine-tuned for mass production and high-quality engineering. This is also concluded to be present in other QPA super stations, such as the Vault of Secrets.

## **Celestial Plague**

Being mostly responsible in the construction of the Celestial Plague, the Citadel is very infamous for its heavy use in biological weaponry. Staying as a modern-day threat to numerous worlds, the Citadel and the QPA/POLIKY are completely responsible for the terror and calamity that has spread in recent years. The creation and construction of various components is not known at the time - but it mostly involves deep genetic editing and creation of so-called 'perfect' life forms. The Celestial Plague and its intention for destruction also caused a heavy number on the Confederacy and the Commonwealth - including surrounding nations like the Lewis Nations. It is told that countless causalities have been brought in my the Celestial Plague, with more happening as of modern day.

Various genetic labs, computation servers, and dedicated storage areas for Celestial Plague components were all spotted during the raid against the Vault of Secrets, with many other components being created near the end of the WOTA. However, all of these specimens were considered to be destroyed after a clean search of the station. However, these components were later reformed by Sydiah's Paragons, and used by them to produce more of the Celestial Plague. several catalogs and digital scriptures from the Vault of Secrets also reveal deeper contingency plans for the Celestial Plague.

The Citadel and the QPA/POLIKY are also known for their use of the Celestial Plague in an attempt to destroy Hendrerit and Hindsight during the War of the Ancients. However, attempts against these forces proved to be in vain considering the trembling amount of numbers that they controlled. Insurmountable drone forces, combined with the regular instability of the Celestial Plague brought on very dirty but decided battles, which proved to be a mere distraction in the length of the WOTA.

## **Engineering Functions**

The Citadel was also known for its use in the construction of drones and various other self-replicating craft, which were used to secure worlds and bring about the threat of the Celestial Plague. These were used in hand with POLIKY to cause a deep and brutal gridlock with Hendrerit and Hindsight, which extended the WOTA to its long length. Self-replicating spacecraft were usually considered to be apart of the Celestial Plague up till the mid-points of the war, where battles and fronts between Von-Neumann POLIKY forces and the Celestial Plague were detected.

With construction of varying megastructures and their parts, the Citadel was also revered by the QPA for its high efficiency. Dyson-class objects and massive energy generators of the like were made by the Citadel on a large but irregular basis. This happened to aid directly in the construction of advanced technology which relied not only on power, but on heavy levels of protection and elusiveness that only megastructures could provide.

Many artifacts were also forged in the Citadel, including one of the most infamous weapons used in the WOTA - the Essence of the Ancients. Numerous other artifacts were used in hand with POLIKY's threatening system of tactics and combat. This proved the QPA to be highly dangerous to all major nations throughout the entire war.

The Citadel is also known for the construction of many of the QPA's most important ships. These include The PWV Reckoning, The New Order, and other notorious ships that are used in the WOTA. These ships were held in the same construction areas as another well-known attribute, POLIKY servers. Mass production of warships and POLIKY servers went indirectly hand-in-hand, as POLIKY utilized its new servers (many of which were self-replicating) and warships together to form massive and coordinated strike forces. These of which made up much of the biological bulk in the QPAs warfleet, and helped in the fine-tuning of deep drone forces. Common types of drones were usually sent out in massive swarms, to be sent through secure wormhole lanes. This made the Citadel one of the many contributors to POLIKY's legion of drones.

## **Layout**

The Citadel was built with many layers, to protect against possible intrusions. Deep defense systems, government-approved personnel, and an overbearing presence of POLIKY made the station almost impossible to capture, especially considering its potential contingency output and storage for countless drones, spacecraft, and devices. The Citadel was built with a very large central spire, with a massive ring cutting deep into its host body. Both of which were the location of the station's main control centers. This was surrounded by the ring of massive storage facilities and factories, as well as many other important structures that made up the interior of the station.

The Citadel was also built with a massive outer hull, which was heavily reinforced and possessed many layers of defense. This outer hull encompassed the ring, as well as the central spire. An inner hull and internal mechanisms are also present, such as automated defense systems and an encompassing selection of layers which formed a thick armor around the Citadel. This armor was highly resistant to any kind of destructive force, especially the use of high energy weaponry.

The Citadel was built with a massive array of defensive weaponry, including but not limited to energy weapons, arc emitters, and other forces which rival that of infamous pieces of technology. The defense around the Citadel was also immense, with a massive habitation network being constructed on the asteroid which it was built in. The station itself, with its hard metallic alloy, as as well as an encompassing defense network which made it very difficult to invade and take control of.

The systems of tactical AI, employed by POLIKY and its deep server network, was also a tumultuous objective to get rid of. It was a main aspect of the station, and one which proved to be more than a formidable foe. POLIKY held major control over almost every major function of the Citadel, and single-handedly aided in the development of its many resented projects. The Citadel, with POLIKY, was built with a massive selection of security systems, including its wide range of automated defense systems. The station also held an encompassing security network which proved to be very difficult to infiltrate, and even more difficult to escape from.

## **History**

Constructed and reformed during the War of the Ancients, the Citadel was created for the sole purpose of offensive weapons manufacturing and defensive technologies. The use of advanced technology during the construction of the station also led to an eventual production of them, which led down to the production of the Celestial Plague in later years. The Citadel was also built in a very remote system, that of a rogue intergalactic star. This was done so that it would be able to avoid capture and destruction by the enemies of the QPA, and it proved to be quite effective.

Throughout the duration of the War of the Ancients, the Citadel was used multiple times in the fields of enigmatic technology production, alongside other important engineering space stations. This gave the QPA an elusive and threatening aura in the scope of conflict, which led to the QPA being feared as a whole. The Citadel was also used as a main base of operations in the construction of the Celestial Plague, as heavily mentioned earlier. These attributes eventually led to the Citadel being a high target in the War of the Ancients, and its anonymity from the greater Local Universe made it all the more infuriating for enemies of the QPA.

Eventually, with great effort and support from Confederate units, Hendrerit special forces surrounded the location of the Citadel, but it was understandably defended to the extreme. The thin chokeholds of the wormhole lanes also made any full-on assault heavily preventable by the QPA. This created a mass operation for stealth and deep strike forces, which were sent through the wormhole lanes. A combined effort by many nations over a period of decades started an underground movement, which went alongside incoming assault forces. Eventually, wormhole gates were severed and the QPA was trapped in their own system, slowly losing a battle that would become very outstretched and bloody.

The Citadel was eventually destroyed by a massive coordinated assault by Hendrerit and Hindsight, which saw the destruction of the entire station, along with its defensive fleet. Deep searches and sweeps of the station were regularly conducted, and news of its defeat reached the QPA, marking a notable victory for the CoB-CUEN.