- "Katanga has over eighty years of history. But the interesting bit is from 25 years ago. Its owners, Seegson Company, reported the refinery destroyed. But here it floats, in a system controlled by Seegson's rival, Weyland-Yutani."
- ―Corporal Ibrahim Savane detailing Katanga and its situation (from Aliens: Fireteam Elite)
Katanga was an orbital refinery built by Kinshasa Enterprise d'Etat Miniere. Sold off by its original owners following a resources scandal, Katanga was purchased by Seegson, which outfitted it to refine water from asteroids. The facility was later infested with Xenomorphs following an incident at the colony to which it was assigned; during the cover-up, Katanga was handed to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which harvested the Xenomorphs for study. The refinery was later destroyed by a Colonial Marine strike force to eradicate the Hive on board.
Overview[]
- "These big refineries were supposed to be the future. Park them in orbit, fill them up, then tow them home while it all gets processed en route. They were made to mine metallic asteroids."
- ―Staff Sergeant Han-jae Park on Katanga and facilities of like stripe (from Aliens: Fireteam Elite)
As of 2202, Katanga was a refinery platform built around two main towers, Bashi Tower and Likasi Tower, which were connected via a skyway.
Bashi Tower[]
The larger of the two, Bashi Tower was outfitted to purify water piped from Likasi Tower and break it down into hydrogen and oxygen for ship's fuel and life support respectively. Bashi Tower consisted of three sectors: Sector A held the central mainframe, Sector B contained the water cracking and chlorine extraction apparatus, while Sector C was where the refinery's transfers and exchanges area was located. This sector also contained several hangars sufficiently capacious to hold a D-Series Light Duty Interface Craft.
Likasi Tower[]
Likasi Tower was used for water pumping and bulk fractioning, and also held Katanga's main reactor. Asteroids were towed here and ground into their constituent elements which were then piped to Bashi Tower. The tower's sub-decks contained a sizable cistern.[1]
History[]
Construction, scandal and refit[]
- "Huh—entries stop in 2177. The last ones are about receiving evacuees, and then…some kind of exterior override. Weird."
- ―Staff Sergeant Han-jae Park examining the Katanga's flight recorder (from Aliens: Fireteam Elite)
Katanga was constructed in 2120 by Kinshasa Enterprise d'Etat Miniere, the state mining enterprise of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2170, KinEtat was sanctioned by the United Americas Assembly for selling resources to revolutionary forces during the Hyades Revolts, and sold off its spaceborne assets to stay solvent.[1] Seegson, which at the time was investing heavily in space facilities, purchased Katanga from its previous owner in 2174. Seegson equipped the refinery with pods of proprietary Working Joe synthetics, refit the facility to crack ice, and towed it to the Mid Rim. Two years later, Katanga had been assigned to a terraforming and mining colony. When the colonists encountered Xenomorphs on the planet they were forced to flee aboard Katanga, which became infested as well.[2]
Immediately after, a squad of United States Colonial Marine Corps members from the USS Typhoon, led by Olivia Shipp, defied orders to rescue the survivors. However, a disgruntled employee destroyed the rescue dropships, and took control of the refinery's systems to do away with the survivors and Shipp's team. Members of both parties were led into Xenomorph ambushes, and others were killed by the refinery's machinery. Shipp left her dog tags behind during the debacle, and refused to disclose how the operation ended.[1]
Biostorage facility[]
- "There are no details on the cause or scope of that damage. You'd expect insurers to demand that."
- ―Corporal Ibrahim Savane noting a prominent omission from an official report (from Aliens: Fireteam Elite)
Seegson reported the refinery destroyed, and the Interstellar Commerce Commission logged that Seegson scuttled it due to "irreparable damage", though there were no details given on the scope of said damage. In reality, however, General Delyla Vaughn from the clandestine organization Deep Void falsely claimed that Katanga was scuttled in order to hand it over to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Weyland-Yutani moved Katanga to an unknown location in deep space, far from any shipping lanes, for use as an "ant farm" from which specimens could be harvested.[1] Weyland-Yutani then transferred these specimens[3] to the Pala Station research outpost on LV-895. Weyland-Yutani scientists first tried to collect adult specimens but, when doing so proved difficult, resorted to harvesting their eggs.
Finally, in January 2202, Katanga was towed and placed in orbit around the planet by the vessel San Lorenzo.[4] Shortly after, a group of synthetics from the station docked with the orbiting refinery and retrieved and transported at least one hundred eggs to Pala Station; twelve of these eggs underwent experimentation at the base.[5] Pala Station was overrun by Xenomorphs following a containment breach, and Weyland-Yutani researcher Dr. Timothy Hoenikker managed to escape. Hoenikker boarded the San Lorenzo and escaped onto Katanga, though he was shadowed by the malicious Xenomorph Specimen 3, which had emerged from Hoenikker's former girlfriend-turned-prisoner Monica Enright.[6] Hoenikker outran the creature and barricaded himself in the mainframe hub in Bashi Tower, though Specimen 3 continued to stalk him throughout the refinery, fixated by Enright's personal connection to Hoenikker.
Intervention of the Endeavor[]
- "You're boarding Katanga, a derelict orbital refinery."
- ―Sergeant Alejandra Herrera briefing the fireteam retrieving Timothy Hoenikker (from Aliens: Fireteam Elite)
The UAS Endeavor approaches Katanga
After receiving Hoenikker's distress signal, the Colonial Marine starship UAS Endeavor traveled to the system and sent a fireteam aboard Katanga to rescue Dr. Hoenikker. Once the Marines exfiltrated him from Bashi Tower and brought the refinery back online, the Endeavor placed a stationary garrison onboard. After dealing with a rogue Weyland-Yutani AI and grounding an alien ship on LV-895, the Marines set out to destroy Katanga and eradicate the Xenomorph hive therein. With the Endeavor unable to simply bombard the refinery due to its size, Corporal Molina's Blue Fireteam was tasked with overloading the refinery's reactor in Likasi Tower. However, Blue Fireteam was decimated by an arduous fight against Xenomorphs and Weyland-Yutani security synthetics, and the job of destroying Katanga fell to the first fireteam. The fireteam penetrated deep into the hive, collecting Blue Team's dog tags, and succeeded in rigging the refinery's reactor to explode. Briefly encountering the hive's Queen, the Marines escaped her clutches and managed to evacuate through Likasi Tower's sublevels before Katanga was blown to debris.[1]
Appearances[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Aliens: Fireteam Elite
- ↑ Weston Ochse, Aliens: Infiltrator p. 118 (2021), Titan Books
- ↑ Weston Ochse, Aliens: Infiltrator p. 119 (2021), Titan Books.
- ↑ Weston Ochse, Aliens: Infiltrator, p. 34 (2021), Titan Books.
- ↑ Weston Ochse, Aliens: Infiltrator p. 109 (2021), Titan Books.
- ↑ Weston Ochse, Aliens: Infiltrator p. 293 (2021), Titan Books.