Gatekeeper



Gatekeeper, the headquarters of the Multidimensional Marshalship, was established 80 standard years ago, based very loosely on otherworldly designs. It remains, to this day, the largest dimensional jump capable platform known to the multiverse at approximately 161km (100 mi) from the station's top to bottom, discounting the spacial hood. Slender and cylindrical, Gatekeeper is encircled with manifold rings and topped with a spacial hood. Gatekeeper was built far larger than it actually needs to be; great portions of the station remain empty and unused, ready for expansion. The design of Gatekeeper allows for integral systems to be housed in separate sectors of the station, allowing for the possibility of damage in combat; when one area is damaged, dependence simply moves to an undamaged section of the station to prohibit damage to one sector completely disabling the entire station. Gatekeeper is largely self reliant, with its fuel gathered from stars and space itself, and its materials gathered from asteroids and other recycled materials.

Operations and Control
Operation and control of Gatekeeper is scattered around the station, with navigations, dimensional drive control, weapons stations, and helm all located separately. Gatekeeper is capable of dimensional jumps as fast as any other vessel with d-jump tech, however it takes somewhat longer than most to reach ideal jump points. Gatekeeper standard is to d-jump once every three standard months, but in times of risk that will greatly increase and become diversified. The CoRe Advisory Council is almost always notified before Gatekeeper d-jumps. Other allies and need-to-know parties are notified post-jump.

Hangars and Dry Docks
There are two major dry docks on Gatekeeper; one for ship and mech building, the other for extensive repairs. Gatekeeper also has a great deal of hangars; like many other areas of the station, Gatekeeper is designed around keeping facilities broken up through the body of the station. Therefore, fairly small hangars litter the decks in vast quantity. Some are exclusively for Marshalship assignment vessels, some are for Gatekeeper defensive fighters, and others are for non-Marshalship craft such as CoRe ships and those traveling through the station.

Sciences and Engineering
Gatekeeper has a huge variety of engineering bays and science laboratories. There are sections of both departments dedicated to mechs and spacecrafts, as well as research, development and construction of various new types of gear, weaponry, tactile armors, and other equipment. Both departments come together for the Gatekeeper Robotics Labs, which includes a section devoted entirely to cybernetics.

Resources
Gatekeeper, like other Marshalship craft, grows its own produce, gathers its own fuel, and has a strict recycling procedure to remain as self-relient as possible. The spacial hood atop of Gatekeeper is made to gather both solar energy from light and the power from solar wind, which is stored in Gatekeepers power-cores and used to fuel the entire station.

There are many facilities scattered throughout the station with the purpose of growing organic matter for consumption and recycling. These are known as the Biomatter Interior Oasis Maintaining Environmental Terrain and Resources Interdimensional Conservation System or B.I.O.M.E.T.R.I.C.S. BIOMETRICS are highly controlled areas where fields of fruits, oats, grains and other harvestable foods are carefully grown. Most Marshalship craft have a single BIOMETRICS unit, but Gatekeeper, due to its size, has many.

Gatekeeper also employs a large civilian mining crew and will often station itself near uninhabited planets or asteroids, this is where many of the raw materials used on board come from. Gatekeeper has a large refining facility.

Non-Marshalship Facilities, Offices and Inhabitants
With Gatekeeper's size and the numerous amounts of organizations that are allied with the Interdimensional Marshalship, there are quite a few non-Marshalship facilities on-board Gatekeeper. One of the larges is the CoRe Technology Initiative facility, which takes an entire deck of its own. The CTI facilities contain a large lab with a conference hall and various offices attached to it, as well as larger outset labs for varies departments like the Magitechnological Development Project. More CoRe offices on-board Gatekeeper include quite a few diplomatic and ambassador's offices. Multiple CoRe Reestablishment Teams also reside on Gatekeeper, ready to move in after the Marshalship's planetary audits.

Marshalship Academy
The Marshalship Academy, until recently was where all cadets spent the entirety of their training. The Academy is huge, taking up a full quarter of Gatekeeper itself; the lowest sector of the station. The Academy contains decks specifically for sim training, a full and functional dry dock for engineering training, multiple science laboratories, hangars, barracks, classrooms, its own cafeteria, instructor offices, firing ranges, a library and other facilities important to the training of cadets.

Residential
While cadets have their own barracks in the Academy sector of Gatekeeper, the rest of the population of the station is contained within multiple decks just above the Academy sector. Civilian, marshal, and consultant quarters are mixed together, though larger quarters for family units are always grouped.

There are a few different types of quarters on Gatekeeper.

Single or Couple Quarters: The most common type of quarters on Gatekeeper are usually single or double occupancy - often used by marshals and consultants. Single quarters are predominately a large living room space with a kitchenette. They have one bedroom and one bathroom, which connects to the living area and the bedroom. The bathroom has a luxury two person shower, a separate hot tub unit and a very small steam room. Most quarters come pre-furnished unless by special request. Single quarters have one small materials replication unit and a food replication unit, both of which have a limited amount of output per day, but are free to use to Gatekeeper residents.

Family Quarters: Family quarters are nearly exactly the same as single quarters except larger, with additional bedrooms, bathrooms, an expanded kitchen and a higher amount of replicator output.

Guest Quarters: Guest rooms are much smaller than other quarters, far more like a basic hotel room. Guests quarters have a single room with a large bed and a bedside table. There is a desk worked into the wall with a desk chair and a computer terminal. There is a small closet with a replication unit intended for clothing, and near the desk console there is a single meal food replication unit in the wall, both of which charge per use. Guest rooms also have a small bathroom with a two person shower.

Civilian Areas and Recreation
While the majority of the residents of Gatekeeper are marshals, consultants, and their families, there is still a notable civilian population. Many civilians are business owners who have seen both a safehaven and a big consumer market on Gatekeeper. The civilian zone of Gatekeeper covers three of the more upper decks of the station. These decks contain many shops, bars, restaurants, bakeries, a dance studio, various salons, boutiques, a minigolf course, a bowling alley, and multiple arcades.

With such a large population and little access to planets, Gatekeeper requires a great deal of forms of recreation to keep its inhabitants' morale high. One of the most popular places on Gatekeeper is the observational deck built into the station's spacial hood. This deck is huge and with the transparent spacial hood, gives the illusion of open space above and around the entire deck. The observational deck is marked into sections. One very large section is used for formal events, such as the recent CoRe Advisory Council Ball. Another large section is a public park, including decorative fountains, perfectly pruned hedges, tall trees and flower gardens.

Another popular recreational area is the Gatekeeper public sim-chambers. These chambers are available for a wide variety of pre-programmed simulations, as well as customized sims. The Marshalship also provides public libraries, a multitude of transdimensional vid channels, a Marshalship News Feed, and other valuable resources available to the population of Gatekeeper and by extension, those on Marshalship vessels.

Gatekeeper also contains one of the few dimensional archives and databases in existence - the only other versions of this facility exist on Verorox, under control of the CoRe. The dimensional archive is set up in a large hall filled with soft piped in music, comfortable specialty consoles, and a small regiment of guards, often third rank marshals. The database is designed to help investigate and find a dimension (from archived publicly released Marshalship data) according to a specific list of information markers. Many dimensional refugees will make daily trips to the archive in an attempt to find their homeworlds. Due to the huge demand and use of the Dimensional Archive, sessions are limited to only a few hours.