First Appearance: X-Men 1st series #58
X-Force Base of Operations: X-Force (1st series) #1
Based Destroyed: X-Force (1st series) #13
Location
| The Adirondack mountain base has never been given an official name, though the Sentinels responsible for building the facility referred to it as “Station Alpha.”
The facility’s exact location has never been specified, though it is presumably located within one of over a hundred different peaks of the Adirondack mountain range, some 270 miles north of New York City. |
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Amenities / Facilities
On the northern side of the facility is a hangar bay which opens a secret hatch in the rocky mountainside, allowing aircraft to land. Although there is no path or driveway to enter on this side, it is possible to climb the rock face to enter.
There is another lower entrance via a vent hatch that leads to the same hangar, however it is not clear whether this was added after X-Force refitted the base.
Although there is no known map of the base, there are a number of rooms originally built by the sentinels to assist with processing and containing mutants. These include:
- A central control/monitoring room
- An undisclosed number of steel padded cells
- A chamber full of stasis tubes to store the mutants linked to a computerized system to remove mutant powers for a period of 4 hours
After Cable decided that X-Force would use it as their base of operations, a number of the rooms were refitted using a combination of A.I.M. technology and Cable’s own. As part of the refit, the facility was rearranged to include the following:
- Very basic, cramped sleeping quarters
- A Comms/ready room for mission preparation
- A rec room with satellite TV
- Mess hall/ Kitchen area
- Medi-Lab
- A “Danger Room” similar to the one found in Xavier’s mansion
The team initially used the surrounding forest to train, until the danger room was built, although some members still preferred to train outside.
There is also an entrance on the southern side of the base, however it is not known whether it is similar to the north hangar, or just an access hatch.
Chronology / History
Chapter 1 - Sentinel Mutant Containment Facility
Picking up where his father left off, Larry Trask rebuilt the Sentinels, improving on the original design so that they could almost instantaneously adapt to any attack. Larry was aided in his quest against mutants by a family friend, federal judge Chalmers. Although Larry built a control helmet to override all other commands, the Sentinels operated on their own in built logic systems. Without Larry Trask ordering them to do so, it was the Sentinels themselves who decided to create the hidden mountain base to assist in the task of capturing and eradicating all mutants.
On the orders of Larry Trask, the Sentinels captured a number of mutants, storing them in stasis tubes. However, when it was revealed that Larry was also a mutant, they no longer took orders from him. Cyclops was able to defeat the Sentinels through convoluted logic and they headed into space to find a means to destroy the sun; the source of all mutant life. The X-Men used one of the facilities jets to return to the city whilst Judge Chalmers freed the captive mutants. [X-Men (1st series) #58-60]
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Much later, Dr. Steven Lang spearheaded a US governmental task force to determine why mutants exist, which allowed him access to the estate of Larry Trask, including the Adirondack base. Dr. Lang was convinced mutants should be eradicated and went rogue; setting up Project Armageddon to rebuild the Sentinels using the bases resources. Deciding that the best course of action was to not be located on Earth, Dr. Lang took up residence on an unused SHIELD orbital platform, leaving the Adirondack base abandoned. [X-Men (1st series) #96, 98]
Chapter 2 - X-Force Moves In
After reading Professor Xavier’s files, Cable identified that the Adirondack base would be a suitable headquarters for his newly formed X-Force team. Over several weeks, as Cable trained the team, the abandoned base was slowly refitted with new tech. [X-Force (1st series) #1-2]
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Thanks to intel gained as part of forming an alliance with the Morlocks, Toad's Brotherhood of Mutants attacked X-Force at their mountain base. While Warpath, Shatterstar and Siryn were attacked outside in the forest, Masque, Phantazia and Thornn sneaked in through a vent hatchway, only to be confronted by the rest of X-Force. In the ensuing battle, Phantazia affected the blast field of Cannonball, who was later impaled by one of Sauron’s talon, apparently killing him. A distraught Cable carried Sam to the medi-lab while Boom-Boom held off Sauron. Ultimately, X-Force defeated the brotherhood, with Sauron & Masque apparently killed. As X-Force started to take stock of what had happened, Sam “awoke,” apparently unharmed. [X-Force (1st series) #5-10] |
While the majority of X-Force were away, Deadpool broke into the base, easily defeating Shatterstar in the Danger Room and then moving on to his real target, Copycat, who had been impersonating Domino since X-Force had been formed. Copycat was defeated and Deadpool left after delivering a message from their mutual employer, Tolliver.
X-Force returned and questioned "Domino" about her betrayal. However, instead of killing her, Cable used her to enact his plan. As the location of the base had been compromised, Cable decided to blow up the base and fake the deaths of X-Force so that they could go after Tolliver. So ordered, Copycat contacted Tolliver and arranged for the base to be blown up.
Before the plan could be fully realized, however, GW Bridge and Weapon PRIME made their assault on X-Force’s base. As X-Force fought Weapon PRIME, beating them one by one, Cable left the fight to teleport the equipment within the compound to his Graymalkin base. However, just as X-Force was ready to leave, the explosives they set up started to go off and Cable & Copycat were separated from everyone else as the base exploded. Cable and Copycat survived, having fallen into a river and dragged downstream. The rest of X-Force and Six Pack likewise survived, thanks to Cannonball extending his blast field to protect them, though the base appeared to be completely destroyed. Unbeknownst to Cable, Tolliver had built an override switch so that he could trigger the explosives early. [X-Force (1st series) #11-14]
After being freed, the real Domino was determined to find X-Force and enlisted the help of Grizzly, Hammer and Copycat. Copycat guided them to the Adirondack base which was buried under tons of rock, though eventually, using Grizzly's strength, they found a way in. They connected the bases computer equipment to the ship, which enabled them to track X-Force’s mutagenic energy signatures, eventually tracking them to Camp Verde. [Cable (1st series) #4]
Chapter 3 - Base of Future Past
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After being left two thousand years in the future by Cable, Kane Garrison joined the Clan Chosen Rebellion. General Haight soon took an interest in Kane and sent the Flatliners, a commando elite, to recover him. The Flatliners attacked but Cable returned during the battle, turning the tide against them. With the hideout compromised, Cable took Kane and the Clan Chosen to the Adirondack mountain base, where they stayed for a few weeks, planning how to destroy the Tinex, a Time Displacement nexus, located in Niagara Falls. Kane wished to return to the present, so they planned to use the device to send him home before destroying it. However, in the raid, Cable decided to join Kane and the pair returned together. [Cable (1st series) #1] It is not known if it was subsequently used by the Clan Chosen after Cable and Kane returned to the present. |
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