Counting House

Code-name for a space station where secret experiments and blakc operations were carried out between the Second Chaotic Period of the Mage Wars and the late Sixth Age.

Headquarters facility

The Counting House itself is an artificial space habitate constructed from the hulls of to retired capital freighters. These hulls(with engines still operational for station-keeping), were attached together and their interior spaces converted to labs, storage, and housing.

The station was placed in a seven-year eliptical orbit around a black hole, with starships only able to dock while at it's highest altitude. Any change in elevation during the rest of it's orbit will result in the station falling into the black hole and being destroyed. However, the station does include a G.A.T.E.-point interface, so access to it by GATE is available at all times.

Origin

The Counting House began almost as early as the Gudersnipe Army began it's campaign, though records do not exist of it before B.G.A. System 197. It was originally formed as an umbrella organization for a large array of projects, mostly having to do with the controll and weaponization of various magical things captured by the troops. The experiments that lead to the Unicorn Trials were carried out under the auspecies of the Counting House.

The name derives from the original nature of the program. Very few records were kept, and all of the projects under it's perview were highly classified and secretive. The term "Counting House" refers to the centralized administration and 'counting' of these programs, and the name itself was chosen to be vague and misleading. It was first organized under the financial services branch of Gudersnipe War machine, and remained under it's administration well into the Foundation era.

Purpose and History

As time passed, the roll of the Counting House began to change. As the Mage Wars drew to a close and the Golden Age began, only projects of the utmost secrecy were placed under the auspicies of the House, which itself disapeared from all public view. The only official record of it's existance after A.Y. 57 is a single budget report entitled "House Expenses", which includes only a single line item and a very large budget.

Officially, the Counting House did not exist after the dawn of the Golden Age. Unnoficially, it carried out a series of dark and cruel experiments, primarilly in the control and weaponization of vampires. This was their primary function, though they occasionally conducted experiments on other non-human magical beings. Most notably, a series of experiments on Unicorns, which lasted for much of the early part of the Golden Age. At the time, Unicorns were not believed to be sentient, however the remarkably vicious nature of the experiments caused over 500 scientists to be put to death. While officially all data gathered on Unicorns durring this time was destroyed, a backup copy remained at the Counting House's headquarters.

As time went on and their methods were perfected, the Counting House's roll changed from study to manufacture, producing and maintaining a large army of enslaved vampires. These were eventually released in what would be called "a minor catastrophy" in the late Sixth Age. This minor catastrophe also resulted in the destruction of the Counting House headquarters and the deaths of many of it's best scientists.

Whether or not the Counting House continued to exist in some form or another after these events remains unknown, however knowing the Foundation it has probably been renamed "The Office of Sewage Affairs" and relocated to some other desolate corner of the verse.

Deployments

The Counting House is able to deploy weaponized Vampires.