STARBASE RIJL
With the outset of the MEG WAR and speeds in excess of 200 times Light reachable by SOLAR GROUP Alliance craft the need was felt for a repair/construction yard farther from Earth and closer to the FRONT LINES of the CENTRAL THEATRE.
RIJL Aerospace suggested occupying a system half way to the target border and building a facility there. The Alliance nervously agreed.
Ambitious to say the least STARBASE RIJL was originally little more than a series of space based repair yards near a stable orbit mineral rich planetoid in the New STOCKHOLM system.
What kept it from simply being abandoned following the MEG WAR was the careful planning of the Engineers in charge of the Base.
Knowing that the planetoid would be mined the crews were instructed WHERE to remove material creating anchor hollows for the Space Yards while they mined.
As each of the repair bays had space they were locked into place on the Planetoid.
Only half of the ten bays in what is now the BAY RING were in place when the MEG WAR ended but RIJL Aerospace continued to create the largest manufacturing facility ever known while servicing every STAR COMMAND and BORDER PATROL ship that passed through this sector.
By the time the QUIN'Dax Conflict had resolved the full ten bays as well as the CARGO HOLLOW were installed.
Work proceeded on the LIVING AREA which boasts some of the most sophisticated recreational facilities in the Alliance and the ADMINISTRATION area by the crews stationed there while the Research and Development, PARTS AREA and other manufacturing sectors were built in the empty space after mining.
The Planetoid, about two thirds the size of Mars' moom Deimos, is believed to have once been an Asteroid in the system but broke free of the Asteroid belt at some point assuming a stable orbit around the New STOCKHOLM sun at the 142million Kilometer belt.
This theory is supported by the large number of similarly composed Asteroids which remain in the Asteroid field 55million kilometers farther.
Although this sector ended up on the wrong side of the MEG Border three times during the WAR the MEGS avoided it. The base boasts a complicated array of the most powerful weapons in existence at the time and the SYSTEM was equipped with a series of PERIMETER Defenses that made short work of the first and only MEG FORCE to attempt capture.
Since the conflict STARBASE RIJL has been the primary construction yard and complex of the vast RIJL Aerospace corporation and of late has been manufacturing the LADIS FOUR A Hopper series starcraft, merely another jewel in a long line of successful Aerospace/Aerostar projects.
