Waystation X-RAY
Historical information
Built:	12 June 231 CE
Closed:	8 September 2254 CE
Purpose:	Closed communications and data dissemination installation used by the Shadow Broker Headquarters of the Shadow Broker's Private Army (2186 CE - 2188 CE)
Facility information
Affiliation:	Shadow Broker
Armament:	40-120 Shadow Broker private mercenaries
Equipment:	Numerous types of assault rifles, pistols, SMGs, sniper rifles and shotguns
Vehicles:	1 shuttle

Waystation X-RAY was a secret installation based on Alingon used by the Shadow Broker and their colossal information empire as a closed communications outpost and data dissemination facility that was built in 231 CE and operated until 2254 CE. Due to Alingon's high concentration of magnesium, scans and broadcasts, both to and from the planet, are heavily disrupted, and the interference made colonization prospects highly unlikely, especially given the planet's freezing temperature extremes: even many government agencies passed up on the planet's potential for a clandestine, top secret facility due to these problems, as the equipment required for establishing consistent planetary communications would be too costly to produce practical results. However, centuries after the planet's discovery, the Shadow Broker seized on the value of the planet, building a closed communications base from which operatives could operate with absolute discretion, almost completely undetectable from orbit and a lack of communications allowing its secrecy to remain absolute. Waystation X-RAY, as the facility came to be known, was home to dozens of staff and a security contingent of 40 mercenaries from the Broker's private army, with orders to perform total liquidation of the facility and its assets should it ever be irreparably compromised. While proving an effective facility for hiding some of the Broker's more sensitive transactions and business deals, the inability to communicate with the facility via long-range communications, forcing the Broker to send runners to issue orders and vice versa, quickly became a hindrance: however, the Broker would finally solve this problem in 970 CE when they utilized stolen plans for a prototype communications array that, in theory, could be engineered to punch through Alingon's inteference, and had Waystation X-RAY outfitted with his new array as a test of its capabilities, and it was a resounding success, finally allowing the Broker real-time communication with his operatives at the base, removing the need for runners and coming with the added boon of having some of the heaviest encryption available on the market at the time, making hacks unlikely and using numerous ghost relays to bounce off, making it nearly impossible for anyone listening in to pinpoint the origin of the communications or their receiver.

For centuries, Waystation X-RAY was so secret that not even rumors existed for it. A medium-sized installation built on a flat icy plain, it was almost entirely cut off from the outside world, possessing only an external set of heavy bay doors leading to a landing pad for shuttles, as the outside temperatures plunged to a steady -166 degrees celsius, both day and night, living conditions that would kill an organic in a short period of time even with protection, with drones left to perform external maintenance and repairs. The facility itself was designated "closed communications", meaning communications were heavily restricted to a single relay, which could only be accessed by senior staff and only when communicating with the Broker themselves, preventing leaks. It also later became a data dissemination center, managing the massive amounts of information collected and disseminated by the Shadow Broker's information empire, deciding what's significant and what's worth monitoring: this made Waystation X-RAY one of dozens of the Broker's data dissemination facilities spread across the galaxy. On occasion X-RAY would also be used to store artifacts or cargo of value to the Broker to be later sold or kept for blackmail purposes: one such occasion was in 2184 CE when the base was used to store the remains of Commander Shepard prior to it being sold to the Collectors: however, the facility would be discovered by Liara T'Soni and Feron Huul, who had placed a tracking beacon on Tazzik's ship and unintentionally led them to the planet, who proceeded to infiltrate the base, temporarily disrupt its communications and destroy its command center, and escape with Shepard's body, although Feron had to remain behind to buy Liara time to get out. Angered by the intrusion, the Broker did not order liquidation as expected, instead ordering repairs to the command center and doubling facility security. Following the undisclosed successful coup where the previous Broker was overthrown, the new Shadow Broker instituted orders for X-RAY to begin disseminating any and all information pertaining to the Reapers, sorting them by priority and forwarding them to her. In early 2186 CE, the Halcyon, the former home base of the Broker, had to be destroyed via asset denial when its location was compromised by Cerberus. This resulted in the Broker relocating the headquarters of her army to X-RAY, believing its discreet nature would make it nearly impossible for Cerberus to locate, and hide it from the Reapers during their invasion for an extended period of time. X-RAY would remain the headquarters of the Broker's paramilitary forces until 2188 CE, two years after the Reaper War ended, when the Broker moved it to STINGRAY Base on Therum, which was also the Broker's new personal headquarters, and X-RAY resumed its previous operations. When the Broker announced she would be dissolving her organization in 2254 CE, only a year after the Dominion Civil War had concluded, X-RAY was ordered to cease all operations and begin immediate data purge and liquidation. All information was destroyed in the purge, the Broker not wanting it to fall into the hands of the wrong people to fuel more wars, and the base itself underwent controlled demolition, with each section destroyed one by one until only the shuttle bay remained, and once all remaining personnel were evacuated, the last of it was detonated, leaving only a ruin which would subsequently be overrun with snow and ice in only a few short years, leaving no surface-level evidence that it ever existed at all.