SK HQ is at bechamel's beauty shop, where he leads the spiral order and cuts the cardboard for more accesories to make.

You know that mineral deposit area in the lab? It's actually a secret entrance to the HQ!

@ Smalltownguy

And what are we going to do about those freakin' SHOOP DA WHOOP lasers that shot us down?

vanaduke doesnt have any advanced technology, the most he has is a mace

the cannons look like the ones at the end of OCH: storming the walls

Oh, I thought that was in San Francisco?

If they haven't changed the lore, then the Skylark crashed long ago and pieces of it are scattered around Cradle, with some parts being scavenged like the auxiliary power core to power the Lab. And he's still alive, because he's apparently given orders since then.

Well, if you look at the graphics of the planet itself, as well as the rare far shots from the surface or uppermost strata, the crust of Cradle is pretty thick. Combine that with the natural presence of literally planet-bearing metal supports, and underground settlement sound pretty likely.

Also, take a moment to consider where the Recon Ranger ready room exists within SK influence... it'd have to be at least near Haven, as the Rangers are elite, highly valuable to any garrison efforts or time-intensive operations. If the Gremlins besieged Haven, for example, the Recon Rangers would be needed to keep the pressure on the enemy force, without getting caught or killed. Back to the point at hand, the Ranger ready room seems very enclosed and without gratings or windows on the walls. This indicates, at least to me, that the place could be underground, potentially right underneath Haven.

If we consider the knight population realistically (less as a game and more as a place) it seems likely that Haven as the Order would know it, would be a fair bit more expansive than what we see. We don't really know what lies between the playable areas-- maybe it looks more like a proper city with alleys and residential areas just outside our sight. Further, with the sudden introduction of a whole populace to the place, some expansions would be needed at a fast rate. Unless, of course, you want to make the argument that canonically only a few thousand knights survived the crash or something. My only defense against that being the Skylark was enormous looking and probably carried most of the Isoran race, considering the business with the Morai War and the dying world.
My point is primarily that to expand, space is necessary, and Haven migh not have had that much horizontal space considering the surrounding terrain appears very uneven. The most logical direction for expansion with that ruled out, is down. Unlike our world, Cradle already has a ridiculous emphasis on downward progression, which'd likely tweak any residents toward the same direction in their building.

Sorry for responding late, was busy the last few days.

In regards to your two points, which seem to be more like two faces of one point (unrealistic proportions).... all I can think of is "A machine the size of a planet, made of continent-sized gears, powered by some kind of god spirit thing, with a bunch of fragments of other worlds suspended inside it, not being torn apart by aforementioned gears despite moving enough to be unpredictable? Are you insane? It's virtually impossible to make a machine that big, let alone based on such rudimentary technology."

Seerusly, the lore isn't about what's impossible when the ultimate threat is some evil sentient nightmare of that giant space baby from 2001, who is also somehow powering the entire planet.

Now as for the placement issues, I don't disagree with you. I think you make fine points there, and am not sure that they are at all inferior to my own thoughts! Thinking about the Garrison structures and such, I might agree that more could be constructed on the surface level. But I do maintain that the terrain of the world could be a hamper to expansion. Big mountains and such. The Arcade is already a structure with the starts of underground construction, so I don't find continued expansion in that direction unreasonable.