Watchtower Station

**Watchtower Station** was a space station built by the Colonist Survivors (CSS) prior to the Colony War. It served as their main space base before and during the Colony War until they were forced to evacuate it when the Green Drone War began.

## History

### Construction

After escaping the destruction of their ground base on the Colony Planet, the Colonist Survivors (CSS) led by Captain Jack Roberts began construction on a space station and space fleet. Their original idea for an asteroid base was abandoned in favor of a mobile space station, and Commander Craz began designing a station. The design involved a central tower-like structure as the core of the station, encircled by a ring containing docking ports for the Colonists' rocket and later their stolen corvette, the CSS *Vanguard*, as well as the main armaments of the station, which included 300mm Autocannons, 40mm Bofors Turrets, and M-61 Vulcans. An engine bay with large hydrogen thrusters was added onto the bottom of the station in order to fly it around the system. The station took shape and was completed fairly quickly. Due to its tower-like shape, they decided to name it Watchtower Station.

There were some early skirmishes with the Colonists' enemy, the Drone Reactionary Force (DRF), a faction of militaristic drones, while the CSS lived and worked in Watchtower. Due to the CSS's lack of warships, more turrets, and later a Bubble Energy Shield generator, were added onto the station. Additionally, a Spinal Laser Lance Cannon was outfitted onto the top of the station, and a backup cannon was outfitted onto the engine bay, facing the opposite direction as the primary one.

### Initial Abandonment

After a few weeks in space, the Colonists launched an attack to retake their former ground base from the DRF, who had turned their base into a drone production plant. They left the Watchtower in orbit and brought both of their large attack ships, the *Vanguard* and their rocket, to the surface of the planet. However, the attack went poorly until Captain Roberts transmitted a distress call using the Watchtower's antenna. The signal was picked up by Typhun and his freighter, the *Dawn*, who arrived just in time to rescue the Colonists and bring them back to the Watchtower in orbit.

Unfortunately, the DRF arrived at the station first, but the *Dawn*'s arrival was enough to destroy the drones stationed there, but not before they caused a fair amount of damage to the Watchtower. Later, the DRF attacked again in full force, causing massive damage to both the Watchtower and the *Dawn*. The Colonists were able to jump both vessels away, but ended up emerging from FTL right next to the DRF's Hive Base, which launched another overwhelming attack and caused even more damage. Roberts sent Finchy, Dark Lord, Argo, T-Man, Max, and Death-Dealer to board the Hive and sabotage it, while he, Craz, Venom, Finn, and Typhun evacuated on the *Dawn* to regroup, and Watchtower was abandoned as a result. It remained in the orbit of the Colony Planet for several months, heavily damaged and powered down.

### The Colony War

#### Recovery and Relocation

After the loss of their second ground base and all ground forces on the Colony Planet once again, the new CSS team ventured back into space aboard their new rocket, the CSS *Arrow*. They soon reached the Watchtower, still damaged, and began emergency repairs with what little supplies they had left. Soon after they had resettled into the station, Roberts and Craz attempted to fix the FTL drive.

However, a malfunction resulted in the station jumping to another planet in the system, the desert world of P3-X2, and crashing into an asteroid in an orbital asteroid cluster. The Watchtower also slammed into a passing salvage starship owned by Castle, which broke the ship in half when the Watchtower exited hyperspace, though Castle survived and Roberts convinced him to join the Colonists.

#### Asteroid Expansion

Upon realizing they were in a completely new location, Roberts decided that they should utilize the asteroid and expand the station into it, rather than trying to dig out the buried portion of the ring. A large central hallway was built, continuing on in the same direction from the existing passage leading from the central tower to the ring. Rooms such as a medical/cryo bay and hangar bay were built off of the hallway. On the exterior of the station, a central docking port was built to expand the number of large-ship docking ports, and eventually a long passage leading to other docking ports for ships. Defense turrets were also upgraded and a new pylon was added to defend the station's command center.

Multiple starships began their construction at the new Watchtower Station as well, such as the CSS *Pioneer*, a planetary landing ship designed by Roberts to land on P3-X2 and act as a deployable alpha base. The CSS *Crossbow*, an orbital rotor gun bombardment station, was also hastily built by the Colonists to retaliate against the DRF after the Battle of Pioneer Base. After the entire team had evacuated the ground base and jettisoned the *Pioneer* into space, the Colonists began building several new warships. Roberts began designing a massive dreadnought to serve as their flagship, the CSS *Vengeance*, Craz began building a CNL Cruiser, Venom began designing an escort corvette, and Bashful began building a custom frigate. A few small ships, such as various mining or welding ships, were built and stored either in the station's hangar or on the external landing pad built in the missing section of the ring.

#### Attacks on Watchtower

Watchtower was attacked multiple times during the Colony War when the DRF were encountered on P3-X2, as were the Green Drone Armada (GDA), a shadowy faction of drones who attacked both the CSS and DRF teams in space and on the ground. The first attack was by the GDA, who sent multiple squadrons of A-Bot drones to attack the station from all sides. The second attack was a missile strike by the DRF, who launched four cruise missiles to damage the *Vengeance* and the station, although most of the damage was easily repaired later on. Bashful's ship also accidentally shot at the station, causing further damage and resulting in it being taken behind a neighboring asteroid to avoid future friendly fire incidents.

Later, the DRF would attempt to use the wreckage of a starship as a missile and let it drift towards the Watchtower, although it missed and the attack was repelled. Using the massive cavern on the asteroid containing the Watchtower as a shipyard, the CSS also began building and retrofitting their atmospheric destroyer, the CSS *Dawnbreaker*. Craz also built the "Waffle Iron 2.0", a large vault door that protected the cavern's entrance.

#### GDA Takeover

The most devastating attack on Watchtower would occur when the GDA sent multiple Destroyers and other drone units to attack the station. The *Pioneer* and a handful of small ships were destroyed in the attack, but all of the Colonists' warships were able to escape unharmed. However, upon abandoning the station, the GDA were free to take it over and use it as an orbital base to protect their headquarters on the surface of P3-X2. The GDA also expanded parts of the station, adding a massive Atlas Superlaser cannon on the bottom of the station (where the engine bay used to be), as well as a maintenance shaft running under the corridors and finishing the internal CIC (combat information center) that Finn had begun building shortly before the CSS evacuated the station.

### Green Drone War

During the Invasion of P3-X2 near the end of the Green Drone War, Captain Roberts and his new crew, now serving Red Wood Industries (RWI), ventured back to P3-X2 to scout the GDA orbital defenses before the main invasion fleet arrived. They covertly piloted their starship, the RWI *Eclipse*, into the shipyard cavern, which is when they learned that the GDA had fully taken over Watchtower. Roberts and his crew infiltrated the station using the passage leading from the hangar bay to the cavern, and planted warhead charges in the CIC to disable much of the station's power and defenses. Once the invasion fleet arrived, the station took some damage in the attack, and it is unknown whether or not the station was fully destroyed during the battle or after the Green Drone War.