Ara Merquise's Fortress

Ara Merquise's Fortress (also Ara's Ziggurat or simply The Ziggurat) was the headquarters of the Merquise Syndicate, a Nar Shaddaa-based criminal organization, following the destruction of Ara's original palace by the Sith Lord Vegal Ein.

Security
Though aware of his boss's Zeltron sensibilities, Tak Sakaros wanted the facility to be first and foremost a fortress, impregnable against all but the strongest assault. Using the wealth of the Syndicate and his experience as a military officer, the Sith underboss designed a facility that met his needs.

Exterior Security Measures
The fortress was designed as a ziggurat, with its multi-layer construction able to blunt the force of large falling objects. Combined with its ferrocrete structure, laced with durasteel bracing, the building could remain standing if anything smaller than a Star Destroyer crashed into it.

The ziggurat was equipped with military-grade deflector shields, both particle and ray shields, with redundant backup generators and multiple projection domes. The ray shields could withstand bombardment from a small cluster of capital ships, and the particle shields could survive a meteor shower. In addition, the main gate of the ziggurat was guarded by two quad-blaster cannons, and the fortress had three retractable laser cannons and one turbolaser cannon. It also featured a shielded sensor array, able to detect both the nearby surface of Nar Shaddaa as well as near space.

There were only two entrances to the ziggurat: the hangar bay and the main gate. The hangar bay had a thick blast door which could only be opened by code and a secondary ray shield. The main gate featured a double-gate; the first, weighing fifteen tons, rose open like a portcullis. Between the two gates, visitors could be scanned for weapons or contaminants. If they were considered hostile, the middle area could be sealed and purged of atmosphere or flooded with poison. The second gate split open vertically and weighed five tons. The middle space was designed to be able to absorb the explosion of a thermal detonator without damaging the interior of the facility.

Interior Security Measures
The inside of the fortress was no less armed than its exterior, and provided the master of the fortress with a variety of ways to kill those inside or blunt invaders who somehow broke the outside defenses.

Sakaros arranged six guard details to cover the fortress. There were ten guards shifts of eight hours, and one of seven hours, totalling the eighty-seven hour rotation period of Nar Shaddaa. Each guard detail worked two shifts, except one, which worked only one. The shift with one off rotated every day. The guards were provided their own barracks inside the fortress, complete with multiple training areas and a fully stocked armory. In addition to hired guards, Ara and Tak kept assassin droid bodyguards, and Sakaros later kept two Magnaguards.

Air intake and flow through the fortress was controlled, and went through filters so it could be purged of external contaminants or poisons. The VIP Section of the quarters housed the most important members of the organization (initially Ara, Tak, and their four vigos), and was protected by a blast door and code locks on each room. All security measures in the fortress could be monitored controlled from either Tak or Ara's private chambers. Each VIP room also had a short-term life support system and no windows, to keep it safe from external attack.

In emergencies, low lighting could be provided by a backup generator in the underlevels of the fortress. A secret series of escape tunnels accessible in the basement could allow high priority members to escape if need be, and the entire fortress could be gassed with a series of toxins (knockout, paralysis, hallucinogenic, even lethal) if the need arose.

The cafeteria had only serving droids, no sentients, so that food could be scanned and served without the potential of poison entering through corrupted hands.

Ara's office, near the summit of the ziggurat, featured a wide window so she could view the surrounding landscape in three directions. However, the "glass" was actually triple-thick transparisteel, which could be programmed to filter external or internal light. The office itself had a blast door, as well as an emergency energy shield around Ara's chair. The room could generate a stun field upon command, and had a secure and encrypted holotransmitter.

The Throne Room featured other security measures, including a carbonite shield which could drop to cover the throne and another energy shield as well as a control console to electrify the floor or summon guards (or both).

In case of fire, the building was equipped with flame-retardant spray nozzles in all rooms.

The dungeons were controlled by a security station in their center, but could also be locked from the outside to prevent anyone from escaping. The floors here could also be electrified, or the whole place flooded with knockout gas. The dungeon was separated from the rest of the palace by two different durasteel doors, each of which required a separate code card.

Finally, the palace had a medcenter to deal with any injuries or illnesses, staffed with a 2-1B surgical droid, an FX-7 medical assistant droid, and a variety of cures and antidotes, as well as a rudimentary cybernetics kit.

Behind-the-scenes

 * The design of Ara's Fortress is based heavily on the Ziggurat of Ur.