Description: RDA compound on Pandora
Function: Base of operations and housing for all human activities on Pandora
Notes: Properly, Resources Development Administration Extra-Solar Colony 01 (RDA ESC 01) but universally known as Hell's Gate. In constant state of siege because of toxic environment and dangerous animals.
A pentagonal perimeter fence (each side 2.3382 km or 11.69 km--7.264 miles--total) encloses 9.406 sq km (approx. 3.6317 sq miles). Major weapons towers at each apex provide heavy munitions defense against surface and air intrusions by large hostile Pandoran wildlife, while four smaller towers spaced two hundred and fifty meters apart along each side handle intrusions by smaller life forms, including burrowing attacks. A cleared, thirty-meter-wide strip surrounds the base, which is regularly patrolled by automatic plant-clearing machinery that keeps the jungle at bay through regular administration of acidic mining byproducts.
Slightly more than a third of the site is taken up by the shuttle runway, VTOL pads, hangars, equipment storage areas, and garage structures. A similar area is occupied by the armor bay, vehicle storage sheds, and a light industrial plant mainly used for fabricating parts for mining equipment and ammunition for base defense. The unobtanium refinery complex takes up the western side of the facility.
The remainder of Hell's Gate is composed of administrative structures, a barracks for Sec-Ops staff, studio-style apartments for technicians and mine workers, and an airtight condominium for senior staff, as well as Sci Mod that is part of the utilitdor-connected Hab Mod, OPS Center structures.
Recreational facilities such as the base commissary (popularly known as Hell's Kitchen) are shared, except for an unpressurised section between the research labs and the landing zone mainly used by members of the avatar program for athletic training and field sports.
