Mount Jekara
Mount Jekara (Tamashek: ⴻⵙⴰⵓⴰⵍ ⵊⴻⴽⴰⵔⴰ, Esawal Jekara) is an military proving ground and training center operated by the Charnean Army. It was officially converted from a supply depot deep in the Ninva desert in 1956, 37 kilometers northeast of Awakar City, surrounding a 1,000 meter tall granite inselberg for which the facility is named. This vantage point is topped by the radar and communications equipment as well as the observation post corresponding to the military complex below. The elevation of Mount Jekara's peak compared to the flat terrain of the surrounding desert makes it both a highly visible landmark and an excellent vantage point from which to monitor and observe the extensive testing grounds in clear view of the summit. The Mount Jekara campus is served by approximately 5,000 military personnel and 2,000 civilians most of whom live on site due to the isolated nature of the facility, although a number of the staff also live in Awakar City and commute via a direct train line which serves as the primary link between Mount Jekara and the wider Charnean transport network. Mount Jekara is primarily used for the development and testing of military equipment for the Charnean Army but also serves as an important training ground where advanced units experiment with new weapons technology and develop tactics using live exercises.
The sensitive nature of the projects undertaken at Mount Jekara have resulted in a high level of state secrecy surrounding the facility and its personnel, resulting in a number of controversies and a great deal of public suspicion towards Mount Jekara. Some in the Charnean public have referred to the base as an ICA black site where dissidents and suspected terrorists are sent to be interrogated and tortured, while foreign sources have leveled various accusations that the Charnean government has developed biological and chemical weapons at the Mount Jekara facility, spurred on by leaks which confirmed the presence of a depot containing white phosphorous intended for military use at the site. These rumors and conspiracy theories had existed for some time following the construction of the Mount Jekara complex, but grew exponentially in popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s in the wake of the Ninvite War which saw the use of chemical weapons by the ICA. An increase in public interest in the site has also contributed to the rising number of attempted security breaches of the secure military base by members of the public and even foreign visitors to Charnea, which in turn has led to a spate of arrests and even fatal shootings of tresspassers by the Charnean Army security detail assigned to Mount Jekara.
History
Mount Jekara had in the 17th century been a site for salt mining thanks to the significant deposits of fossil salt found in the area. Unlike other salt mines of the Ninva which are able to easily extract the salt from exposed flats on the surface, the extraction at Mount Jekara extended deep underground and required large subterranean galleries to be excavated. In the first decades of the 20th century, the mine was briefly considered as the site for a potential prison alongside a similar mine known as Adhasna, but the latter was selected instead due to its proximity to the city of Ekelhoc and interconnections to the main Charnean rail lines. Instead, Mount Jekara became a convenient supply depot and deep storage site for the ICA to store equipment and supplies which might be used in the wider Awakar region of the central Ninva desert. This came to include a number of purchased, captured and otherwise acquired foreign vehicles and weapon systems which the ICA chose to store in the Mount Jekara supply depot due to its remote location and isolation which would help to reduce any unwanted attention drawn to such sensitive systems in Charnean possession. This included the foreign designs which would be reverse engineered and become the basis of the workhorse A45 Torka scout car, although the development of that vehicle would not take place in Mount Jekara itself. In 1956, it was decided to move the more sensitive development, technology conversion and tactical experimentation programs of the military to the isolated Mount Jekara location to preserve military secrecy, following the embarrassing leak of a Charnean attempt to reverse engineer an Arthuristan aircraft which humiliated a number of top Charnean leaders associated with the project. It was at that point that the underground galleries and tunnels of the old salt mine turned depot became insufficient for the needs of the ICA, which allotted a significant sum to build an extensive above-ground facility for its purposes. The new facility would feature a missile launch site, apartments and amenities for thousands of staff, three major research complexes and an engineering facility housed in an air conditioned geodesic dome for the manufacturing of prototypes and the study or conversion of foreign technologies. The funding package also allowed for the construction of the rail link to Awakar City, providing the only access point to the facility from the outside world besides air travel.