Aequatio
07-02-2006, 02:40
Arrio Heavy Manufacturing Corporation CEO Travis Black sat in the back of his sleek black and silver painted Agusta personal helicopter as it flew West from San Allimos to where his latest project was undertaking its final construction stage. It had cost his company nearly half a trillion Markes and nearly twelve years of work, but it was guaranteed to yield almost three times as much once they started filling it with eager Aequatians. As it came into view over the horizon, it was not unlike the mountains around Domus he had skied down many times throughout his lifetime. It was Alpha City, the first of the hive-style cities that would soon potmark the nation should this project take off with the population.
Where the structure breaks the surface its broad base spans twenty kilometres from edge to edge. From ground level the man-made mountain rises ever more steeply upwards. Weathered walls of bisplate steel climb through the phosphorescent layer of undercloud, a pall of acidic dust which clings to the surface of the Western Desert like a shroud. The city reaches skywards through ghostly shadow, until it eventually penetrates the cloud base and emerges into the hard light of the sun. At cloud top level the hive walls stand almost eight kilometres above the arid wasteland.
Above the dust layer the hive narrows into a single tall spike, a tower studded with a million lights. It stretches almost vertically above the sickly glowing cloud and reaches towards the stars. The spire is covered with armourplas blisters of many shapes and sizes. Domes on its surface shield carefully nurtured vegetation from the thin and arid air. Slim towers break from the outer shell, palaces of massive and elegant proportions yet barely significant in comparison to the hive. Cantilevered balconies hundreds of metres long jut out into open space forming the base for new construction sites. Broad circular landing platforms hang from the spire walls.
From its dark roots to the glittering tips. The "hive" is a complete, self-contained world as varied and complex as any other city in the vast nation. A man born in the middle-layer of a hive can live and die without seeing the sky or setting foot upon the surface. He can labour in the interior factories or perhaps ply the trade of his family. In this way the vast majority devote their lives and their endeavours to creating the massive wealth of Aequatio.
Black smiled as the helicopter landed on one of the structure's many landing pads, this was truly his legacy to Aequatio and he would certainly be remembered as one of the nation's heros. Within a few month's time, the first of the five hundred million occupants would arrive to begin their lifetime's residency within the steel and ceramite monument to Aequatian engineering.
http://www.nimbacreations.com/Library/Hive%20City%20big.jpg
Alpha City, Aequatius Prime, Aequatio
Where the structure breaks the surface its broad base spans twenty kilometres from edge to edge. From ground level the man-made mountain rises ever more steeply upwards. Weathered walls of bisplate steel climb through the phosphorescent layer of undercloud, a pall of acidic dust which clings to the surface of the Western Desert like a shroud. The city reaches skywards through ghostly shadow, until it eventually penetrates the cloud base and emerges into the hard light of the sun. At cloud top level the hive walls stand almost eight kilometres above the arid wasteland.
Above the dust layer the hive narrows into a single tall spike, a tower studded with a million lights. It stretches almost vertically above the sickly glowing cloud and reaches towards the stars. The spire is covered with armourplas blisters of many shapes and sizes. Domes on its surface shield carefully nurtured vegetation from the thin and arid air. Slim towers break from the outer shell, palaces of massive and elegant proportions yet barely significant in comparison to the hive. Cantilevered balconies hundreds of metres long jut out into open space forming the base for new construction sites. Broad circular landing platforms hang from the spire walls.
From its dark roots to the glittering tips. The "hive" is a complete, self-contained world as varied and complex as any other city in the vast nation. A man born in the middle-layer of a hive can live and die without seeing the sky or setting foot upon the surface. He can labour in the interior factories or perhaps ply the trade of his family. In this way the vast majority devote their lives and their endeavours to creating the massive wealth of Aequatio.
Black smiled as the helicopter landed on one of the structure's many landing pads, this was truly his legacy to Aequatio and he would certainly be remembered as one of the nation's heros. Within a few month's time, the first of the five hundred million occupants would arrive to begin their lifetime's residency within the steel and ceramite monument to Aequatian engineering.
http://www.nimbacreations.com/Library/Hive%20City%20big.jpg
Alpha City, Aequatius Prime, Aequatio