Echelon

Primary Research Echelon 1, often simply called **Echelon**, is a gigantic satellite constructed by the Coalition of Intelligent Organisms to act as the center of their scientific research for both the Department of Galactic Sciences and Department of Experimental Warfare. A truly monumental construction, rivaling the size of a moon, almost every technology found within the Coalition has gone through Echelon at one point or another.

Echelon was built during the First Coalition Golden Age around the early 3100's. By this point, newly-incorporated Syluxian graviton manipulation was making supermassive celestial structures feasible for the rapidly-expanding civilization, and Echelon was included in the first generation of these structures. Built in orbit around an unassuming gas giant in the Elgare system, Echelon was, for many decades, the pride of Coalition engineers, up until the creation of the Coalition Dyson Spheres during the later portions of the golden age put Echelon to shame. However, its importance within Coalition research initiatives was still immense, as Echelon had allowed the Coalition to centralize its previously uncoordinated science divisions by putting them all in a single location, allowing them to collaborate more effectively and boosting their research efficiency dramatically. This centralization is what allowed the Coalition to make such incredible technological strides during their first golden age, and, though the scientific institutions of the Coalition eventually expanded to gain other major bases of operation, Echelon continued to remain the core of Coalition science for the rest of the Coalition's history. This, of course, means it is a high-value target for the enemy's of the Coalition, as, by destroying Echelon, an opposing civilization can easily cripple Coalition research efforts and gain a huge advantage over them. However, Echelon's location within the Coalition core zones, as well as its proximity to the Coalition capital and powerful security forces provided by the Coalition Galactic Police ensure Echelon is always well-protected from enemy attack. This was put to the test during the Galactic Revolution, when a fleet from the First Myon Empire pushed into Coalition territory and got dangerously close to Echelon. Though they were destroyed before reaching their destination, the event was enough to provoke the Coalition into equipping the space station with a slew of powerful weapons and automated defense systems, further augmenting its resilience.

Externally, Echelon is comprised of three primary sections. Two large pyramidal sections which converge at their apexes to a spherical structure in the center of Echelon. The pyramidal sections are the portions of the station dedicated to the Coalition's two scientific research institutions, the Department of Galactic Sciences and Department of Experimental Warfare, denoted by the large cyan emblem of the departments on their respective sections. Each institution is given full command of the facilities on its section, and can divide up their facilities to accommodate their unique research divisions in any way that they deem necessary. The scientific facilities on Echelon, though very old, have been constantly updated over the course of Coalition history, and likewise, the scientists on Echelon have always had access to the best tools available to their organization. Often, when strange new materials, artifacts or specimens are found by Coalition field scientists, they are immediately collected and shipped to Echelon, as the quality of scientific instruments there ensure Echelon scientists can collect data on these new objects faster and more accurately than the comparatively poorer equipment of Coalition field scientists or minor research colonies. The spherical center of Echelon contains the station's primary administration facilities, including the DGS' and DEW's Maximum Oversight Committees, which handle all upper-level administrative decisions for the Coalition's research departments and their relations with various corporations. The center of Echelon security is also located here, which is regulated by a single presiding Megawarden and six to seven Warden subordinates. The Galactic Police handles Echelon's security details directly, and as a result, the security forces on Echelon use the same equipment as all other GP officers, and operate in the same way. However, there have been a few situations in which the DEW has allowed the security forces of Echelon to use experimental weapons so as to protect valuable research aboard the station, an often controversial event due to the dangerous and unpredictable nature of these weapons. Echelon has numerous spaceports located across its surface that offer easy access to multiple portions of the station from outside, and its extremely powerful tachyon transmission equipment make Echelon the central server of the TIIRNET, helping to direct most of the information flow across the Coalition core zones. In addition to its scientific facilities, Echelon also contains two large cities, Res1 and Res2, which are built on the undersides of the station's two pyramidal sections. These cities, though originally intended to house the station's employees, eventually came to include the families and friends of those that worked on Echelon, as well. Though equipped with much of the same top-notch infrastructure and leisure facilities as Coalition Dyson Spheres, these cities are smaller in scale and less crowded overall, which makes many other inhabitants of the Coalition core zones envious of those that gain the privilege of living on Echelon.

Being the heart of all Coalition science, nearly everything invented within the Coalition has, at some point, made its way to Echelon for further testing or refinement, including numerous controversial, highly-classified projects. While many science divisions within Echelon try their best to be transparent when it comes to the research they do, there are several situations in which the Coalition's scientific departments have gone to great lengths to cover up their research, usually because said research is morally reprehensible, or could pose an immediate danger to the entirety of the Coalition if it ever were to get out of hand. This was notoriously done during the Talos Regiment program, since the candidates used in the program's super-soldier research could have caused numerous problems for the Department of Experimental Warfare if they were to escape. Many alien technologies, including The Last Avatar and the Lapidus Weapon Templates, have been covered up in a similar way, mostly due to the poor understanding Coalition scientists have of them that could make them very dangerous. The Bedlam Society is suspected to be greatly involved in these cover-ups, especially if the technology involved poses a direct threat to their own organization, or can be used for their own benefit. The presence of advanced prototype technologies such as these in the deeper sections of Echelon has often tempted certain dubious corporations into attacking the station so as to steal these technologies, which would allow a corporation to use them freely without first buying them from the Coalition science departments. Often, to protect their reputations, corporations will rely on mercenaries or PMCs to perform this technology theft for them, but the success rate of these thefts is low, due to Echelon's enormous security force and strong defensive countermeasures.