In the modern era of galactic strife, with multiple military installations spread across a world, coordination of logistics, manpower and military assets is critical to the defence of a planet. Typically, a planetary government will establish one or more command nodes to manage the complex business of on-world and orbital defence. Command centres combine the functions of military command, intelligence analysis, logistics and warehousing, as well as serving as visible reminders of a planet’s defensive readiness. Due to their high value as targets in the case of an attack by hostile invaders, command centres are also hardened against both energy and explosive attacks, as well as mounting some modest defensive firepower of their own. Despite this capability, command centres are not meant to withstand dedicated bombardment, and would rely more on external defensive facilities, such as orbital defence weapons and short ranged weapon emplacements to deter attackers.

Command centres also serve a political and diplomatic role, and would normally house facilities to conduct briefings to political figures and visiting diplomats. These facilities would be quite separate from the facilities used for day-to-day running of the planet’s military – these are kept closely guarded and secured against any potential espionage due to the highly confidential and secret information being handled. Regular staff working at these critical centres will be allowed access only to those areas that are necessary for them to fulfil their job functions and regular security screenings are conducted to ensure that staff remain uncompromised and pose no security risk.