There are 9 planets in the Orion System with an asteroid field seperating the fourth and fifth planets and the eighth and Seventh planet's orbits criss-crossing each other. Both the third and fourth planets habitable for humans but the third is only naturally so. The fourth has been completely terraformed. The fifth planet is a large Gas Giant with a large red gas cloud covering almost the entire planet. The Sixth and seventh planet have "rings", the sixth's are more pronounced.
It is on the third planet that the Emperor's Storage Facility is found. The planet show signs of a holocaust, most astonishing is that it seems to have happened only a mere 400 years earlier, possibly only a century and a half before Palpatine located the planet. The planet surface is covered with wild growth and signs of ancient cities are
everywhere.
After the New Republic discovers the planet and the Storage Facility is discovered, in a mountain rising up from the ocean, Star Knight squadron forms a base hidden in one of the dense mountain ranges. In actuality they convert an old base they found there, apparently an old testing facility. A station similar to Centerpoint Station is placed in orbit around the planet and the entire system is placed in an interdiction field to keepout an authorized "guests". It is here that the Macross cruisers, Valkyries, Gladiators, and Warhawks are developed and tested in the prototype stage then mass produced in automated manufacturing facilites at an astonishing rate. {At full capacity it could produce 2 Macross Cruisers [1 FC and 1 BS], 42 Valkyries [24 regular, 12 advanced, and 6 scout] 6 Gladiators, and 36 Warhawks. Of course this is just one such arangement you could swap the numbers around but the New Republic figured this was the most efficient setup.]