Andiron Spaceport

(Thought it would be useful to know what we're walking into - NK)

Andiron's first spaceport was built while the planet was a part of the Rim Worlds Republic, then known as Hellbrent. Dating back to the world's colonisation, the port grew slowly over time with the planetary population. It underwent a major expansion during the late 28th century to handle increased traffic by RWA forces, especially after elements of the 6th Republican Guards were stationed to the world. It’s also possible that the world was used as a staging ground for the discrete shuffling of Rim Worlds forces before the coup.

Following the collapse of the Republic, the spaceport fell into disuse and disrepair. Much of its remaining technology was scavenged by the locals to keep more vital life-support infrastructure operational. By the time Andiron was incorporated into the Circrinus Federation, little more than a few gutted buddings and cracked ferrocrete remained. The Federation did little but stabilise the structures, with the facility being used as an occasional staging ground for piracy.

During the 3060s, the Word of Blake began a series of massive infrastructure projects on the world, including construction of an entirely new spaceport. A massive, state of the art facility, the Andiron spaceport was clearly designed to handle a far greater capacity then the world required. It is possible that this was a part of whatever plans the word of Blake had for the Federation as a whole before the dissolution of the Second Star League and the dawn of the Jihad threw them off.

Completed in 3067, the spaceport boasted extensive launch, maintenance and repair facilities. In addition, it featured facilities for supporting a permanent garrison and their supporting personnel, underscoring the idea that it was intended for military use. It also featured conventional launch facilities for on-planet air travel. To support its operations, a high-speed rail link and a highway were built to connect it to the planetary capitol.

49th Shadow Division

During the Jihad, the spaceport was apparently used as a staging ground for attacks on the Lyran Commonwealth by both word of Blake forces as well as their mercenary and pirate allies. Few records exist of which units operated out of it, however, as during the final days of the Jihad the port was bombarded form orbit by the Word's own forces, believed to be the 49th Shadow Division.

The attack was focused and deliberate, aimed as inflicting as much damage as possible on the facility. Virtually everything inside was destroyed, either by their direct weapons fire or through secondary damage from erupting fuel and ammunition storage. About the only thing left standing were the massive walls built around the facility.

Despite the riches it might have presented, the spaceport was not picked over by scavengers. Instead, the runs gave people a good reason to stay away. The attack ruptured fuel tanks and other storage facilities, resulting in the grounds of the spaceport soaking up a mixture of all sorts of chemicals. Beyond things like dropship fuel, coolant, wastewater and the other things you would associate with a spaceport, it also reportedly included a considerable amount of medical waste and, if some unverified reports were true, WMDs that had been stored on-site.

The result was that the spaceport’s grounds were heavily contaminated, enough to make entering them too risky a prospect for even the desperate survivors of the Word's attacks. The result was that instead of being picked apart like its predecessor, the new Andiron spaceport was left to slowly decay.

An explorer outside the ruins

It's still not clear when the Reapers took up residence there. They don’t seem to have been deterred by the stories of the toxic soup lying under the surface, and they certainly don't seem to be all dying of fatal everything poisoning, which leads me to suspect that the level of contamination has decreased over time to acceptable levels. Either that or they were never that risky to begin with, and the whole thing was a story cooked up to scare people away from the port's ruins. Given that again, the Word of Blake and their habit of moving in mysterious ways is behind it all, either is possible.

Regardless, the ruins do make a very good position to operate from, even if it is mostly rubble. It gives them a good supply of parts and materials they can use to support their facilities and dropships,  especially if some of the infrastructure survived or, at least, was repairable. The large walls also make it a fantastically defensible location, hard to get in to while providing those inside with an amazing degree of cover. And that’s assuming they have no passive defences set up like mines or even simple pit traps. Plus its reputation keeps unwanted locals away,