They must've screwed up big time to deserve this. UK claims Rockall, He and his body cast were shipped to Pearl Harbor, while you were transferred to Mars, home of the Union Aerospace Corporation. Moral crusaders and other characters that are likely to put Honor Before Reason may be frequently threatened with this sort of reassignment, or will have it really done to them.
Whoever orders it usually hopes to have a "troublemaker" out of his or her hair. If they're disposing of someone who "knows too much" by handing them a dangerous posting in the hopes it will lead directly to their death? That's a different situation. The others there are often a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits at best, since their Back Story will always include things they did in the past to have been sent there too.
This is often the explanation of why a response to a new danger which first appeared at such a remote outpost is so feeble, allowing the threat to swell to the proportions it will later assume: the characters there are a mostly useless and rotten lot.
Of course, sending The Hero there almost always guarantees a Reassignment Backfire. In rarer cases, this is used as a Karmic punishment for antagonists whose actions don't quite merit death or prison, particularly Obstructive Bureaucrats that were Just Following Orders. Expect these to be delivered via offhand mention in a "Where Are They Now? It's also a possible punishment for failure if you're in a bad guy organization and occupy a Volatile Second Tier Position.
You can, however, get reassigned to places that make you wish you were in Antarctica, such as Fort Johnson in rural Louisiana note Fort Polk until it was officially renamed in If the reassignment literally takes the character to Antarctica, expect an Eerie Arctic Research Station. Compare with: Desk Jockey : Someone who works a desk job associated with a more action-oriented profession. Not intended as punishment, but frequently feels like Antarctica when the character was formerly on the frontlines and would still rather be carrying out orders than giving them.
