Arnarson

Large Arctic Base
Owner: Earth Sphere Alliance
Location: Arctic, Subterranean
Add-Ons:
Surface:
- Airfield
Subterranean:
- Hangar x 10
- Command Center
- Sensor Array
- Factory (Serpent)
- Geothermal Power Plant
Mobile Suits (28):
- L1 Aries x 8
- L2 Aries x 6
- L3 Aries x 6
- L2 Taurus x 4
- L3 Taurus x 4
Mobile Armors (0):
- None
Defenses:
- Antiaircraft Laser x 16
- Missile Launcher x 18
- Heavy Missile Launcher x 6
- Long-Range Antiaircraft Implosion Cannon x 2
- Minefield
Occupants:
None

Built atop the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland, Arnarson is one of the Alliance’s more remote yet nevertheless indispensable bases. It is also quite minuscule, at least to appearances, with only a camouflaged airfield dotting the top of the glacier and steam emerging from vents in the surface. The majority of the base’s facilities are built below surface level.

Thanks to Iceland’s subglacial volcanoes, Arnarson is able to entirely power itself using geothermal energy, allowing the base to be essentially self-sufficient in terms of power demands. However, these also make the glacier quite unstable. The are around the base itself is stabilized by giant metallic stakes, referred to as “pile bunkers” by Alliance personnel, but within a few miles of the base perimeter the glacier becomes very treacherous, with constant shifting of the ground and the sudden emergence (and just as sudden closure) of deep chasms. As a result, no transit to the base occurs overland, the airfield providing the only serviceable method of access.

Because air attack is the only recourse of a sane enemy commander, Arnarson is well defended against the possibility of attack from above. The base complex is built within the glacier; only the airfield exists on the surface. Elevators enable mobile suits to reach the topside complex, and defensive emplacements are similarly kept below the surface and only emerge in the event of an attack. Along with laser batteries and more mundane weapons, a pair of heavy antiaircraft implosion cannons that fire balls of unstable plasma over long range were added to deter large-scale air attacks; the guns function on a similar concept to the Atlantic Federation’s famed Noventa Cannon, though on a significantly smaller (albeit quicker-firing) level.

Due to its out-of-the-way location and abundance of free electrical power, the Alliance chose this base as a suitable location to construct the Serpent, its last manned mobile suit.