Foehn Space Station

Ancient pict-file of the Foehn Station, depicting the station from ages before the Great Crusade.

## Planet

### Orb. distance

172x106 KM from Croatea-118, orbiting around a gas giant

### Military Forces

Europan Armed Forces
Ostrakan Skitarii Legions
Battlefleet Europa

### Ruler

Governor
Pol Schröder

## Location

### System

Croatea-118

**Foehn Space Station**, officially named ORS-051b Croatea CXVIII (Orbital Ring Station, pattern number 051b, orbiting around a star named Coratea-188). Foehn is an ancient space station in the form of a ring, predating even the Great Crusade. Nowadays, a large portion of the station is inoperable due to extended damage to the outer hull and internal systems, although repair works are in effect. It orbits around a gas giant in the Croatea-118 star system, and it was colonized under the initiative of the Europan Planetary Federation, after the secession from the Imperium of Man.

## History

### Ancient history

The station is known to predate the Great Crusade, and oldest records show it might have been built sometime in the M22, during the Age of Technology. It used to host entire civilization and provide for all their needs with its artificial ecosystem, although at some unknown date during the Great Crusade, the station was attacked and damaged enough to render it uninhabitable. The outer hull of the station has been punctured over a thousand-times, leading to explosive decompressions and critical system damage to the life-support systems. Hundreds of thousands of the people either suffocated, froze to death, or died of hunger or thirst. The station then had been left alone as it was nothing but a dead husk, silently orbiting around its planet.

### 541.M41

When the station was first discovered, patrol fleed decided to approach the station, but swarms of vessels began appearing. They were of unusual design, rather sleek than bulky, agile and maneuverable, with occasional cruiser-sized vessels leading the swarm of the small ones. They immediately opened fire at the patrol causing some damage to the cruisers and destroying two escorts, but as the Europan ships retaliated, most of the defending ships were destroyed or badly damaged. They were poorly coordinated, often crashing into each other as well. Hails and communiques requests were sent by the Europans, but no reply. Later investigation revealed the ships were purely mechanical, with no living crew or captain apart from an AI computer. Luckily, the AI program and hardware running the ship was corrupted and damaged over the millennia, presumably due to lack of maintenance, drastically decreasing their combat affectivity. The station was scanned and examined, with no other hostiles encountered. Location was marked and the fleet left.

### 542.M41 to 808.M41

There were some discussions about the station, should it be captured and repaired, disassembled, sent to its demise into the gas giant's atmosphere or just ignored, although no action was taken, and the whole thing ignored. Only a patrol often passed around to check it, although nothing changed. It was still dead and silent.

### 809.M41 to Present Day

At the beginning of the new century, it was decided that the station would be captured and restored and a fleet of construction ships and thousands of workers departed, to set up a base of operations. Several sectors were left relatively intact and life-support systems were made to function again, to house the workforce. Sector after sector, the station is slowly but surely being cleared out, sealed, repaired and rebuild anew. Due to the distance and overall difficulty, the work progresses slowly and it would take a few more centuries to finish the project. At the end of the 41st Millenium, about two dozen more sectors were cleared and repaired, some of which are able to house permanent residents, mostly construction workers, although food and other supplies are still required to be imported.

During the clearing process, many interesting things have been found, such as grav-vehicles, both civilian-grade, and military-grade exoskeletons, Calladius-pattern hover tank and many more. Everything found is analyzed and send for reverse-engineering and possible large-scale replication.

## Landscape & Nature

* The top-level floor of the station, just below the armorglass ceiling was an artificially created ecosystem, featuring climates ranging from arid Savannah, through humid rainforests, tropical seaside, temperate forests to cold taigas.
* Nowadays, only four top-floor sectors are operational and the biome was restored to the original one, arid and tropical savannah. Only plants are growing there, no wildlife has yet been released. Animal species DNA found in the frozen corpses allow for cloning and found records suggest that some species now long extinct may originate from Holy Terra itself.

## Population, Society & Culture

* Before the destruction, people lived in post-scarcity utopia. From the records found, people were not required to work as the majority of work was done by machines and were given general income to buy food and pay for housing, but those who decided to work anyway lived in much higher standards and enjoyed a better quality of life and usually had mansions on the top floor.
* Nowadays, no particular cultural habits are present as most of the people living here are workers, technicians, security personnel and members of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

## Notable locations

* **Foehn District (Sector 01/01)** - Named in the honor of the first governor, the district hosts the governor's palace and governmental buildings. It was there where the Europans first set their foot and thought Foehn is the name of the station.
* **Sector 44/16** - The very first sector restored to be fully functional.
* **Fallnam District (Sector 42/01)** - One of the top-floor restored sector. Still hermetically sealed from sector 41/01, which is heavily damaged and without atmosphere.

## Notable people

* **Aurelius Foehn** - Patron of the entire station and the very first governor.
* **Octavia Aeliana** - The last known governor before the attack.

## Armed Forces

Security is provided by a company of the Europan Voidborne and two companies from Europan Homeguard regiments.