Editing Hilton Head Island

'''Hilton Head Island''' located on South Carolina, [[Terra]], was the site of [[ComStar]]'s headquarters on Terra as well as being the location of the planet's post–[[Star League]] [[HPG]] station.

===History===
== Construction ==
While an important tourist attraction during the latter years of the original Star League, Communications Enterprises Inc. (the sole supplier of HPG hardware and equipment for the League's Department of Communications) spent considerable money to purchase the majority of the island as a site for an upgraded replacement for SLCOMNET's Prime HPG at the [[University of Terra]] just outside [[Unity City]]. As well as the location for the planet's massive HPG transmitter and the computer coordination systems for the entire network, the planned complex was designed to be a model Star League community, providing housing projects, a massive park, a zoo, along with library facilities, museums and tourist attractions. The central HPG complex was an architectural masterpiece of marble and ferrosteel, ensuring it was both immensely beautiful and strong enough to withstand a direct nuclear attack.<ref name=CS-9s>''ComStar'', p. 9: "Hilton Head"</ref><ref name=CS-9>''ComStar'', p. 9: "Hilton Head Complex - Collapse of the Star League"</ref>

By the time of the [[Amaris Coup]] in [[2766]], construction on the Hilton Head Complex was only half-completed. The bulk of the construction crews desperately fled to their homes as the coup unfolded, but those who remained carefully and methodically mothballed the remaining construction materials and equipment, hiding them from the occupying [[Rim Worlds Republic]] troops before abandoning the site. Their efforts were so successful that five weeks after the death of [[Richard Cameron]] when the [[203rd Republican Guards]] landed on Hilton Head Island, the Republican troops found nothing of perceived value and set up camp two kilometers from the central complex, never discovering the buried materials during the length of [[Stefan Amaris]]' reign on Terra.<ref name=CS-9s/><ref name=CS-9/>

In December [[2779]], following [[Operation Liberation]], the SLOCOMNET's lead technician [[Jerome Blake]] visited the half-finished site to see if it was a viable location to replace the now ruined Unity City HPG station, his initial survey discovering the carefully hidden construction materials much to Blake's joy with construction beginning again within a month. As the [[Great Lords]] returned to Terra for the final session of the [[Star League High Council]] in [[2780]], Blake was fully involved in the continuing construction on Hilton Head, overseeing the installation of the complex's primary [[fusion reactor]] when he was nominated for the post of [[Minister of Communications (Star League)|Minister of Communications]] on October 10th.<ref name=CS-9/>
The island was much more than a commands center or an HPG compound; it also was full of research facilities, storage areas and computer archives.
The complex was so heavily fortified than it becomes one of twenty [[Castle Brian]] on Earth.

== ComStar Headquarters ==
In [[2819]], after Jerome Blake's death, [[Conrad Toyama]], his successor, ignored the death's last wish to be incinerated and his ashes scattered over the Court of the Star League. He ordered Blake's body preserved and placed on display on Hilton Head, de facto turning the complex into a sacred place for the newborn religion.<ref>''Historical: Liberation of Terra II'', p. 25</ref>

Hilton Head has been attacked and taken only two times in all his history: the first it was in 3058, when the [[Word of Blake]] launched [[Operation ODYSSEUS]]. They succeed in take the island, but failed to stop the defenders to evacuate Primus [[Sharilar Mori]] and destroy most of the facilities.
The Word of Blake repaired all the damage to the complex, and built a new building: The World Cathedral, his new command center and seat of power, over the ruins of old First Circuit's building. It was a beautiful building, with marble façade, columned portico and even a functional SDS system.<ref>''Dawn of the Jihad Sourcebook'', p. 6</ref>

The second and last attack was in 3077 when [[Task Force SICKLE]], led by [[Devlin Stone]] liberated Terra during [[Operation SCOUR]].
It is known that the task force, led by Stone, attacked the island the 19 August 3078, but failed to reach it initially. After found heavy resistance, his group was forced to retreat.<ref>''Lyran Fire'', in ''Kill Zone'', p. 234</ref>

== Destruction ==
It is unknown if the island was assaulted or not. In any case, on 18 December, at the same time cobalt-laced nukes launched from silos near the island and satellites from orbit, killing 100 million people, at least one warhead in the fifty megaton range (or three, some say) was detonated far below the surface of the island, collapsing the tunnels and great caverns. The island's center imploded even as other weapons, conventional and strategic, blasted the surface.

Hilton Head, once a landmark of beauty and power, 120 km<sup>2</sup> of cultivated forests and a sprawling, modern complex, was reduced to a ring of radioactive, muddy islets surrounding a deep crater in the Atlantic Ocean.<ref>''Jihad Hot Spots: Terra'', p. 173</ref><ref name=ACtA014>''Sword of Sedition'', p. 248</ref>

==Notes==
It remains unknown who bombed Hilton Head, but it had been suggested than the responsible wasn't any member of the Coalition, but a self-inflicted attack, apparently to prevent the most fanatical leaders of the Word to launch [[Operation MEGIDDO]], a plan to raze both Earth and Mars with nukes.<ref>''Jihad: Final Reckoning'', p. 136</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Blaketomb.jpg|Jerome Blake's body preserved at Hilton Head
</gallery>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[ComStar (sourcebook)|ComStar]]''
* ''[[Sword of Sedition]]'' (novel)

[[Category:Places|Hilton Head]]
[[Category:Star League Defense Force Facilities|Hilton Head]]