Arcturus Station

Location: Milky Way / Arcturus Stream / Arcturus

Description

Lying at the L5 Lagrangian point of Themis are the fused metal fragments of Arcturus Station, destroyed by Reaper capital ships. The station once housed the Systems Alliance parliament and the nerve center of their military armada. Now, it is a cold grave for 45,000 people.

Specifications

Structure

Arcturus Station is a 5-kilometer diameter Stanford Torus-type space station, at the trailing Lagrange point (L₅) of the gas giant Themis. Construction on Arcturus Station began in 2151 and concluded in 2162, utilising many metal-rich asteroids that remain nearby, housing transient populations. Arcturus Station was inaugurated in 2156, and has served as the military and political headquarters of the Systems Alliance since the First Contact War. Arcturus Station currently has a permanent population of 45,000, and is where Joker grew up before joining the Academy.

Function

As the headquarters of the Alliance Navy, Arcturus Station is the command center of the fleet, and is conveniently located at the nexus of several mass relays. Furthermore, it guards the mass relay leading to Earth. Arcturus' centralized location makes it an ideal choke point for defense as well as a jumping-off point for further exploration. It also serves as a shipyard, as the dreadnought SSV Aconcagua was constructed there. Admiral Hackett commands the Fifth Fleet from Arcturus.

History

Mass Effect: Evolution

After the conclusion of the First Contact War, General Desolas Arterius arrives at Arcturus Station to exchange prisoners with General Williams. Jack Harper and Eva Coré are traded for a group of turian soldiers, and then examined in a medical bay. Williams gives Jack and Eva his personal shuttle to track down Desolas and learn more of his plans.

Mass Effect: He Who Laughs Best

In 2183, Arcturus Station is the site of the first test flight of the newly-completed SSV Normandy, an Alliance stealth frigate designed in collaboration with the Turian Hierarchy. Alliance captains David Anderson and Dillard attend the test flight with Hierarchy official General Invectus. The test flight takes an unexpected turn when pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau traps the Normandy's original pilot on the station, locks himself in the ship's cockpit, and hijacks it to prove that he can pilot it far more effectively. Although a patrol of fighters is scrambled to disable the Normandy, Joker evades them and returns the ship to its dock unscathed. Impressed by his skills, General Invectus pressures the Alliance to assign Joker as the Normandy's pilot.

Mass Effect 3

Arcturus Station is the site of a battle between the Alliance's Second, Third, and Fifth Fleets and Reaper forces on their way to Sol. While the Alliance defends the station from a dozen Reaper capital ships, the bulk of the Reaper fleet rushes through the mass relay. Admiral Steven Hackett realizes he can not win, and is forced to abandon the station and sacrifice the Second Fleet to allow the Third and Fifth Fleets to escape.

Sometime afterward, Arcturus Station is destroyed by the Reapers. According to Donnel Udina, the entire Alliance Parliament and Prime Minister Amul Shastri were on the station at the time of its destruction and were killed.

Intelligence from the Battle of Arcturus can be salvaged from the remains of the station.

Trivia

• The fleet stationed at Arcturus was intended to be the First Fleet. Admiral Hackett and the Fifth Fleet were to be stationed out of the Citadel - this is why Rear Admiral Mikhailovich shows up there to annoy Shepard. Due to lack of coordination between the writers, this point was muddled in the final game.