Isaac felt old well before the The Event occurred. Fifty years as a first firefighter and national guard officer do that to a man. He even looks the part despite nano-medicine, bald, sagging jowls, lined face, and shifted weight. But his mind remains sharp, his will strong, and his sense of duty unshakable. If he could get out of the office long enough to march into hell, the other guardsmen would gladly follow him.
Unfortunately - many of the other residents want to send him there as soon as possible.
Colonel Bradbury maintains absolute devotion to the United States first, and to the NEST VIII outpost second. He does not show any great favor to leaving the NEST, and is cool to the notion of stretching the resources by inviting more in. The colonel stands by the military justice system, rather than the jury rigged one of the complex. This also makes him an impartial party in decisions and gains him a great deal of respect.
On the other hand, this makes him an impartial party in decisions where many of the other complex leaders would like to have support. There have already been a few attempts on his life in order to install a more favorable underling.
While none of the attempts have come particularly close to killing him, Isaac has become somewhat paranoid and withdrawn, avoiding contact with people outside the national guard or his hand-picked RATs. He is still one of the most powerful people in the NEST, however, being in charge of the military, most of the RATs and almost all of the armory. In total, he has nearly three hundred soldiers, a dozen light armored vehicles, and about 100 trained scavengers. (Of course, there are others in the complex to fill needs Bradbury will not commit to.)
Strength 4
Quick 4
Tech 4
Wits 4
Range 2
Close Combat 4
Animus: 10
Lucidity: 8
Deadening: 8
Up-Rise: 8 (16 kg in backpack)
Pack: 8 (8 slots/48 kg on hand)
Investigation (Very good at paperwork and logistics)
Access (Firefighter and Soldier)
SA: Rank/Society: National Guard
Equipment of note:
Col. Bradbury has an M-32 PDW in his office and a 9mm pistol on his belt, both of which he can use proficiently - even if his eyesight isn't what it used to be. His office is full of firefighter memorabilia, and he keeps his old turn out gear in his apartment - thought he acknowledges that its for the best to leave the job to younger people (as of 2055 he is 68).
Role in a Game:
Colonel Isaac Bradbury is a major figure in NEST VIII - and more likely than not, is going to be the player characters' boss. He is in charge of the RATs and Military.
Showing posts with label NEST. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NEST. Show all posts
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Monday, October 7, 2013
Hatching a Game in a NEST
A massive hive like structure that can contain and entertain a human for their entire lifespan. Whether its one massive skyscraper, or multiple thirty-story blocks connected by a web of sky-ways, its a construct larger than most towns. It would seem daunting to map all the passageways, to plan out a settlement for thousands of people, and describe a building unlike anything the players have seen.
Yet a NEST - or other arcology megastructure - is probably one of the better places for introducing new players to the world of Dead and Back's Anarchy Zone. Behind the gigantic walls are very familiar settings. Being largely self-contained and decently populated means there are plenty of alliances and conflicts waiting, aside from simply shooting reanimates. People from all walks of life survive inside the halls, so players are free to make characters outside the basic survivalist mold, and can easily replace them as necessary.
While the scale might be huge on the outside, within the NEST is very familiar territory. Medium to small apartments (many of them single room studios), fast food restaurants, school rooms, theaters - it is like any other city, just without sky. Although many places may be dark or dingy after five years of neglect, most of the interior has not fallen to ruin like exposed structures. Interior green spaces look like a mall's atrium or city botanical gardens, just with roof heights of between three and five stories.
A small city is too large for direct democracy, there will be bureaucracy and competition. Should the doors be opened to other survivors, or must some of the current population be expelled due to over crowding? How should the former property of others be divided among the survivors? Leaders will change, either through clever elections or more violent means, and the players can be their to exert influence, either for their bosses, or to gain some power themselves.
Many new stories are possible because many people survived thanks to the buildings inherent disaster isolation elements. Outside, much of the world belongs to raiders, ex-military, survivalists, and the savvy - though the simply lucky make for a good percentage as well. Few people would think of playing "Conan the Barber", cutting hair across the wasteland. But a stylist that maintains their business within a NEST, and over hears the discussions of the powerful because of it, could end up in some political intrigue. A teacher would struggle not for them-self alone, but with the question of what to teach in the new world, and how to keep a classroom as a safe and inspiring place when outside there is so much danger.
Yet a NEST - or other arcology megastructure - is probably one of the better places for introducing new players to the world of Dead and Back's Anarchy Zone. Behind the gigantic walls are very familiar settings. Being largely self-contained and decently populated means there are plenty of alliances and conflicts waiting, aside from simply shooting reanimates. People from all walks of life survive inside the halls, so players are free to make characters outside the basic survivalist mold, and can easily replace them as necessary.
While the scale might be huge on the outside, within the NEST is very familiar territory. Medium to small apartments (many of them single room studios), fast food restaurants, school rooms, theaters - it is like any other city, just without sky. Although many places may be dark or dingy after five years of neglect, most of the interior has not fallen to ruin like exposed structures. Interior green spaces look like a mall's atrium or city botanical gardens, just with roof heights of between three and five stories.
A small city is too large for direct democracy, there will be bureaucracy and competition. Should the doors be opened to other survivors, or must some of the current population be expelled due to over crowding? How should the former property of others be divided among the survivors? Leaders will change, either through clever elections or more violent means, and the players can be their to exert influence, either for their bosses, or to gain some power themselves.
Many new stories are possible because many people survived thanks to the buildings inherent disaster isolation elements. Outside, much of the world belongs to raiders, ex-military, survivalists, and the savvy - though the simply lucky make for a good percentage as well. Few people would think of playing "Conan the Barber", cutting hair across the wasteland. But a stylist that maintains their business within a NEST, and over hears the discussions of the powerful because of it, could end up in some political intrigue. A teacher would struggle not for them-self alone, but with the question of what to teach in the new world, and how to keep a classroom as a safe and inspiring place when outside there is so much danger.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
NEST VIII
Before The Event, Nest VIII was like a Florida retirement community. Pleasant climate, stores, meeting people in open spaces to talk, sports clubs, shuffling about, and at night each retreated to a little box containing little more than a bed, closet, and old TV set. After The Event, it still had that Florida vibe. Now it was the swamps, however. Warm, dark, stagnant. No alligators, but plenty of other predators.
Advertisement spoke of a strangely retro city of tomorrow. Neatly manicured with each person in their place, easy commutes and modern conveniences. Reality was a bit more like a cross between a shopping mall and a prison. Turn out from bed, eat in a cafeteria, walk to work, relax in common area, back to little cell for the night. No parole. The apartment you reserved was generally the one you kept no matter the changes. Overbooked even before construction finished, space to move was lacking.
Not even the dead rising could lessen the crowding. Many apartments now were unowned, but not necessarily unoccupied. If anything, space constraints became tighter with refugees from locked off floors.
Most of the systems that kept the spaces habitable for so many shut down in short order. The great condensers that maintained temperature, the gargantuan banks of lights, and the grand Moloch incinerators that purified organic waste - all silent now.
Residents can't even walk about the floors normally. The once neat layout is in shambles from the haphazard pattern of closed passages. It is a maze of halls and shuttered security doors that separate the dark warrens from the overrun apartment blocks. No one is quite sure how the reanimates remain alive, much less occasionally active even after five years of being locked away. The living inhabitants have set up aquaculture in the fountains and farms in the atrium, but what have the many neighbors been up to?
Advertisement spoke of a strangely retro city of tomorrow. Neatly manicured with each person in their place, easy commutes and modern conveniences. Reality was a bit more like a cross between a shopping mall and a prison. Turn out from bed, eat in a cafeteria, walk to work, relax in common area, back to little cell for the night. No parole. The apartment you reserved was generally the one you kept no matter the changes. Overbooked even before construction finished, space to move was lacking.
Not even the dead rising could lessen the crowding. Many apartments now were unowned, but not necessarily unoccupied. If anything, space constraints became tighter with refugees from locked off floors.
Most of the systems that kept the spaces habitable for so many shut down in short order. The great condensers that maintained temperature, the gargantuan banks of lights, and the grand Moloch incinerators that purified organic waste - all silent now.
Residents can't even walk about the floors normally. The once neat layout is in shambles from the haphazard pattern of closed passages. It is a maze of halls and shuttered security doors that separate the dark warrens from the overrun apartment blocks. No one is quite sure how the reanimates remain alive, much less occasionally active even after five years of being locked away. The living inhabitants have set up aquaculture in the fountains and farms in the atrium, but what have the many neighbors been up to?
Thursday, July 11, 2013
R.A.T.s in the NEST (Part Four)
United States. Library of Congress. Beyond the End Volume II: Survivor Story Archive. By Doctor Howard Remington et al. Edition Two. Nevada: Las Vegas Printing Office, June 2072
Subject: Brian Mixon, subject number 8891-80-10 NEST arcology survivor
So, what was life like when I wasn't out risking my neck? Hot and Sticky. Kind of an eternal - whats the name - Summer of Sam? Zodiac Killer, riot waiting to happen, that kind of stuff.
Electricity might not be free - but before the event, Utility bills were payed for with only a day or two worth of work at an average job, not even that most likely. After the event, power was so limited, that it took most of the month to earn the power credits for running the AC, much less the electric stoves. Yeah, pretty much any apartment that had a kitchen was electric or induction - no contractor was going to run that many miles of vertical gas lines. Most of the cooking ended up communal for that reason. And most of the residents couldn't cook for a damn and would only go insane faster if left to their own devices, though don't complain about the food since that always started a fight or made more work for a RAT...
I'm rambling. Yeah. Um. Electricity. Almost no one was kind enough to remember to turn off the AC and unplug their refrigerators as they were being torn apart by abominations. So every locked off area was drawing a ton of power. There is a pretty big gulf between reduced reliance on the grid, and independence - so yeah, for all the efficiency built into the structure, it was still a struggle. Break into an apartment, hope your're not killed, flip twelve switches, repeat six-thousand times - not a very tenable solution.
No AC, little choice in food, same people day after day, working a job chosen for you rather than what you trained for or enjoyed, surrounded by monsters. Not an impossible situation, not even necessarily as bad as an earlier century. But the people [Sigh] - I don't care if this is going to be a text book - include an otomotopea for that sigh.
People would gamble to pass the time, which lead to cheating and loan sharks. Someone would try to retrieve stuff on their own and compromise security, or pass around bribes to get stuff, which usually came through the chain of command and made our lives harder. Children would get lost in the under-halls and a big search was called. Scavengers would pay no attention to the people living here and break in.
Politics, Polotics, Politics. Do we try to contact the government, should this be a democracy, is it one vote per person, or is there some way to earn multiple votes?
At least in NEST seven, we did have multiple votes - earning extra for various duties or achievements. It turned into a rigged system fairly shortly. RATs got extras, but since our superiors decided if we went on missions at all and what equipment to bring - they held sway over our jobs and possibly lives if we didn't vote their way. They called it a "Roman Patrician" thing, I called it something you're not going to print!
So yeah, gangs, power-blocks, patronage, a mafia even if there wasn't one before (Not that I'll believe there wasn't any organised crime in a project as big as a NEST) - everyone trying to get a little extra for themselves. We usually weren't killing each other like the outside, even Tower Reversed stayed away from our area, and inside you didn't get any aliens. Once we got the irrigation equipment, we were almost set, and the argument came about as to if we should even bother leaving and helping the outside. That was an - unpleasant - debate. With a few guns involved, if you catch my meaning.
Subject: Brian Mixon, subject number 8891-80-10 NEST arcology survivor
***
So, what was life like when I wasn't out risking my neck? Hot and Sticky. Kind of an eternal - whats the name - Summer of Sam? Zodiac Killer, riot waiting to happen, that kind of stuff.
Electricity might not be free - but before the event, Utility bills were payed for with only a day or two worth of work at an average job, not even that most likely. After the event, power was so limited, that it took most of the month to earn the power credits for running the AC, much less the electric stoves. Yeah, pretty much any apartment that had a kitchen was electric or induction - no contractor was going to run that many miles of vertical gas lines. Most of the cooking ended up communal for that reason. And most of the residents couldn't cook for a damn and would only go insane faster if left to their own devices, though don't complain about the food since that always started a fight or made more work for a RAT...
I'm rambling. Yeah. Um. Electricity. Almost no one was kind enough to remember to turn off the AC and unplug their refrigerators as they were being torn apart by abominations. So every locked off area was drawing a ton of power. There is a pretty big gulf between reduced reliance on the grid, and independence - so yeah, for all the efficiency built into the structure, it was still a struggle. Break into an apartment, hope your're not killed, flip twelve switches, repeat six-thousand times - not a very tenable solution.
No AC, little choice in food, same people day after day, working a job chosen for you rather than what you trained for or enjoyed, surrounded by monsters. Not an impossible situation, not even necessarily as bad as an earlier century. But the people [Sigh] - I don't care if this is going to be a text book - include an otomotopea for that sigh.
People would gamble to pass the time, which lead to cheating and loan sharks. Someone would try to retrieve stuff on their own and compromise security, or pass around bribes to get stuff, which usually came through the chain of command and made our lives harder. Children would get lost in the under-halls and a big search was called. Scavengers would pay no attention to the people living here and break in.
Politics, Polotics, Politics. Do we try to contact the government, should this be a democracy, is it one vote per person, or is there some way to earn multiple votes?
At least in NEST seven, we did have multiple votes - earning extra for various duties or achievements. It turned into a rigged system fairly shortly. RATs got extras, but since our superiors decided if we went on missions at all and what equipment to bring - they held sway over our jobs and possibly lives if we didn't vote their way. They called it a "Roman Patrician" thing, I called it something you're not going to print!
So yeah, gangs, power-blocks, patronage, a mafia even if there wasn't one before (Not that I'll believe there wasn't any organised crime in a project as big as a NEST) - everyone trying to get a little extra for themselves. We usually weren't killing each other like the outside, even Tower Reversed stayed away from our area, and inside you didn't get any aliens. Once we got the irrigation equipment, we were almost set, and the argument came about as to if we should even bother leaving and helping the outside. That was an - unpleasant - debate. With a few guns involved, if you catch my meaning.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
R.A.T.s in the NEST (Part Three)
United States. Library of Congress. Beyond the End Volume II: Survivor Story Archive. By Doctor Howard Remington et al. Edition Two. Nevada: Las Vegas Printing Office, June 2072
Subject: Brian Mixon, subject number 8891-80-10 NEST arcology survivor
Surviving the event was luck, surviving the aftermath took some skill. Partly what you knew, and a lot of learning. We started off with some really good people, but we scavenged all wrong. It was too easy in the beginning. By the time we knew what to do right, we'd lost some people, and it had gotten a lot harder.
Moving large appliances takes some strength, even with robots to help, and it stands I'm a big guy, and kept in shape with marshal arts. I could use my foot to open doors most people would need a crowbar for. So lacking a new supply of ovens and water heaters - I stepped up for RAT duty. Besides, volunteering for such a dangerous job would get me a lot of tower credits so my girlfriend and I could leave easy - and of course, the unsaid part about us getting a little extra on the side of what we took from old buildings.
In the beginning, we looked for guns, goods, and gold. Seems right - yeah? Self defense, food stocks, tools, and money for when trade reestablished. But that is all short sighted, and presuming this was going to be a quick thing... interval? Era? Service interruption? Whatever.
Well, all that stuff is interchangeable. Pretty much any nine-millimeter handgun will fire any nine-millimeter and vice versa. Food is food wherever it comes from. Money was kind of worthless, but also available from a lot of different places.
It took a while to realize that the priorities were wrong. Go for industrial tools and seeds for long term agriculture, not a few weeks food. Too many guns amongst quarreling people would be a problem, and they weren't the best weapon all the time anyway. Look for personal effects to help keep morale up and make life in the NEST bearable. An old photo-album or stuffed toy could be worth more than a metric ton of gold, you know.
You can find a gun almost anywhere, if there are a lot of reanimates, search somewhere else. There is only one "Mr. Stuffles", you can't present just any picture of an old lady and call it great grandma. Those things are both harder to find, and only in one location.
By the time we started on the difficult runs, we'd lost a lot of RATs looking for the less important stuff. We were also looking for bigger and harder to transport stuff - medical machines, power tools, military vehicles - which made the man-power troubles worse. And there was a rather hideous policy put in place that forced criminals to work as a RAT in lieu of other sentences. If you're too lazy or untrustworthy in normal situations, and not smart enough to avoid getting caught, you shouldn't be in a scavenger team. I could fill this entire project with stories about people going AWOL, over their head, or trying to double cross the team. Still might.
But yeah, by waiting, a lot of the important stuff ended up already taken, or damaged by the elements, or just plain crawling with reanimates. Other scavengers and treasure hunters were a problem too. Both in the city itself, and in trying to break through the NEST underground to get in. Not only did that take our stuff and damage our equipment, but if reanimates go in behind them - bad news all around.
Citizens were a bit less of a problem, they didn't go too far into the city. But when you did meet them, watch out! They got really paranoid about the thousands of places one could be ambushed in an unfamiliar city - and were really jumpy with the missiles, artillery barrages, and radiation guns. Reaniamates were bad and all - but having your skin melted off by an X-ray cannon through a wall? Yeah. I have more nightmares about that and the friends killed that way than anything else.
Subject: Brian Mixon, subject number 8891-80-10 NEST arcology survivor
***
Surviving the event was luck, surviving the aftermath took some skill. Partly what you knew, and a lot of learning. We started off with some really good people, but we scavenged all wrong. It was too easy in the beginning. By the time we knew what to do right, we'd lost some people, and it had gotten a lot harder.
Moving large appliances takes some strength, even with robots to help, and it stands I'm a big guy, and kept in shape with marshal arts. I could use my foot to open doors most people would need a crowbar for. So lacking a new supply of ovens and water heaters - I stepped up for RAT duty. Besides, volunteering for such a dangerous job would get me a lot of tower credits so my girlfriend and I could leave easy - and of course, the unsaid part about us getting a little extra on the side of what we took from old buildings.
In the beginning, we looked for guns, goods, and gold. Seems right - yeah? Self defense, food stocks, tools, and money for when trade reestablished. But that is all short sighted, and presuming this was going to be a quick thing... interval? Era? Service interruption? Whatever.
Well, all that stuff is interchangeable. Pretty much any nine-millimeter handgun will fire any nine-millimeter and vice versa. Food is food wherever it comes from. Money was kind of worthless, but also available from a lot of different places.
It took a while to realize that the priorities were wrong. Go for industrial tools and seeds for long term agriculture, not a few weeks food. Too many guns amongst quarreling people would be a problem, and they weren't the best weapon all the time anyway. Look for personal effects to help keep morale up and make life in the NEST bearable. An old photo-album or stuffed toy could be worth more than a metric ton of gold, you know.
You can find a gun almost anywhere, if there are a lot of reanimates, search somewhere else. There is only one "Mr. Stuffles", you can't present just any picture of an old lady and call it great grandma. Those things are both harder to find, and only in one location.
By the time we started on the difficult runs, we'd lost a lot of RATs looking for the less important stuff. We were also looking for bigger and harder to transport stuff - medical machines, power tools, military vehicles - which made the man-power troubles worse. And there was a rather hideous policy put in place that forced criminals to work as a RAT in lieu of other sentences. If you're too lazy or untrustworthy in normal situations, and not smart enough to avoid getting caught, you shouldn't be in a scavenger team. I could fill this entire project with stories about people going AWOL, over their head, or trying to double cross the team. Still might.
But yeah, by waiting, a lot of the important stuff ended up already taken, or damaged by the elements, or just plain crawling with reanimates. Other scavengers and treasure hunters were a problem too. Both in the city itself, and in trying to break through the NEST underground to get in. Not only did that take our stuff and damage our equipment, but if reanimates go in behind them - bad news all around.
Citizens were a bit less of a problem, they didn't go too far into the city. But when you did meet them, watch out! They got really paranoid about the thousands of places one could be ambushed in an unfamiliar city - and were really jumpy with the missiles, artillery barrages, and radiation guns. Reaniamates were bad and all - but having your skin melted off by an X-ray cannon through a wall? Yeah. I have more nightmares about that and the friends killed that way than anything else.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
R.A.T.s in the NEST (Part Two)
United States. Library of Congress. Beyond the End Volume II: Survivor Story Archive. By Doctor Howard Remington et al. Edition Two. Nevada: Las Vegas Printing Office, June 2072
Subject: Brian Mixon, subject number 8891-80-10
NEST arcology survivor
***
The big three questions they ask is what did you do before The Event, how did you survive, and what did you do afterwards. One and two are easy - appliance installation and luck. Three is short and complicated - I was a rat, R.A.T.
You could manufacture whatever you wanted in a micro-fac with the proper setup. Getting it to where it was needed and functioning properly once its there, that is another story. Its not a job that requires a lot of education, and certainly not one that gets a lot of accolades. But so long as you need something mechanical put in place, you'll be in dire straits without someone like me. I'd say look what I did there and ask for some checks for free - but chances are none of you listen to the hundred year old music I do. A shame really - there was a lot of experimentation with the medium when music videos first became really popular.
My hobbies might not be on topic, but I've got time to fill, and there really isn't much to say about luck. Other survivors might talk about their great plans or narrow escapes and the brave people who sacrificed themselves so others might live. So far as I'm concerned, its all lies though. You survived because of luck, and nothing else.
Most of the world was was already F-ed up from the aliens' arrival, the EMP, the war, doomsayers and cultists - civil unrest from the electronic shut down, and already simmering feuds. Reanimates were not the straw that broke the camel's back so much as the jackals that stripped the camel's carcass as it lay there. Little communications, difficult commutes, distracted governments - you can't legitimately claim to have had a plan, you just were in the right place.
My right place was NEST 9 in Pennsylvania. Amazingly uninteresting for a thing as awesome as a city in a bottle. Kind of like how the public lost interest in moonshots and later found space shuttle launches too mundane to interrupt TV broadcasts. Wasn't the first, wasn't the biggest, wasn't some sort of helical architect's mad dream - just a couple of interconnected really big buildings to fix urban sprawl.
It wasn't even scary when the reanimates invaded. At least not for me. The solution to the problem was terrifying, no doubt, and probably kind of cruel. They just flipped every switch, and locked every partition in place for 24 hours. No rescuing, no trying to separate infected from clean. Just close everyone up, then go bit by bit to see where people were still capable of responding. People in public areas were obviously up in arms, not sure if they were stuck with reanimates or in the clear. I was alone in my apartment when the magnetic locks engaged. Nothing to do by video chat with my girlfriend two floors down or read. Both I and the person I cared about were safe.
A day later only about 20% of the doors unlocked. Something like fifteen percent of the population remained. Not for very long, since we did a lot wrong in the early days - but far better than the 0% of many other places.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
R.A.T.s in the NEST (Part One)
The hand-outs and advertisements are almost all the same. Emphasizing the natural bamboo floors, sun tubes, and green-spaces spanning multiple floors that make an arcology more than a giant concrete box. They also show the community building, and social services, and shopping. Security gets a footnote at some point, usually under aforementioned social services.
Fact is, the NEST is built like a bloody fortress. They try to hide the prison like structure, and only mention the capacity for lock-down in fine print of the EULA renting policy. But just think about it for a moment. Just the need to support a hundred story tall structure, much less resit the wind-shear they experience requires a sturdy build. Then of course, you need a way of containing disaster. There aren't enough helicopters in the world to get everyone out of the top fifty stories in a timely fashion should a fire start on floor forty-nine. Metal doors and fireproof blocks can spring into action at any time. Halon suppression systems are behind every wall - not so good for people - but imagine trying to pump water up that high at a rate equal to a hydrant - just the normal everyday use requires a system of intermediate reiviours and turbine impellers just short of jet engines.
And then there are the anti-terrorism and riot measures... I'll just give you this one example - look for little orange sort of half-moon designs covering Cog shaped holes. Those are quick connects to pump CS tear gas through the vent system.
Silly as it sounds, there really did run a few simulated zombie outbreaks in a few of the megastructures. Partly as an all up test, partly as a way to make humorous public safety instructions, and in at least one case they edited it all together into a full length movie to try to a few bucks out of it. Its doubtful that particular preparation actually helped, but all the other features certainly did.
Any NEST that didn't get completely overrun can still have between five and twenty thousand people inside of it. Five thousand is probably the upper size for most of the other city states. Or so I would guess. That Tesla place is an arcology itself, and the Government has a lot of stuff in Vegas, but the NESTS are still hands down the biggest.
That size is the great strength of the remaining arcos, though a weakness as well. On one hand, the megastructures never lack for labor, expertise, or services. On the other - keeping that many people fed and happy is a daunting task.
Fact is, the NEST is built like a bloody fortress. They try to hide the prison like structure, and only mention the capacity for lock-down in fine print of the EULA renting policy. But just think about it for a moment. Just the need to support a hundred story tall structure, much less resit the wind-shear they experience requires a sturdy build. Then of course, you need a way of containing disaster. There aren't enough helicopters in the world to get everyone out of the top fifty stories in a timely fashion should a fire start on floor forty-nine. Metal doors and fireproof blocks can spring into action at any time. Halon suppression systems are behind every wall - not so good for people - but imagine trying to pump water up that high at a rate equal to a hydrant - just the normal everyday use requires a system of intermediate reiviours and turbine impellers just short of jet engines.
And then there are the anti-terrorism and riot measures... I'll just give you this one example - look for little orange sort of half-moon designs covering Cog shaped holes. Those are quick connects to pump CS tear gas through the vent system.
Silly as it sounds, there really did run a few simulated zombie outbreaks in a few of the megastructures. Partly as an all up test, partly as a way to make humorous public safety instructions, and in at least one case they edited it all together into a full length movie to try to a few bucks out of it. Its doubtful that particular preparation actually helped, but all the other features certainly did.
Any NEST that didn't get completely overrun can still have between five and twenty thousand people inside of it. Five thousand is probably the upper size for most of the other city states. Or so I would guess. That Tesla place is an arcology itself, and the Government has a lot of stuff in Vegas, but the NESTS are still hands down the biggest.
That size is the great strength of the remaining arcos, though a weakness as well. On one hand, the megastructures never lack for labor, expertise, or services. On the other - keeping that many people fed and happy is a daunting task.
***
"Now see here, this is the problem - you keep going between personal observation and academic disorientation. Pick a voice and keep with it. Furthermore, doesn't everyone know this stuff already?"
"Stuff like the gas hook-ups - nah. You had to really work in one to know that. Not live, work. Which I did. And in turn I ended up as a Rapid Access Technician pulling old tech and clearing abandoned areas to help expand. If I'm going to tell my story, they need to know these things - right? Its not like everyone is going to search the entire Zone archive every time a new character graces the scene - yes?"
"Maybe - but if we're going to run the story its got to be new. Nothing is going to compare to when everyone learned what KC actually stood for, but come on - there has to be something new."
"I can take my story elsewhere."
"And the government can give it out for free as educational materials, or it can be released on the new sphere. Don't get so snippy, we'll work something out. So - to the beginning..."
Thursday, September 27, 2012
NEST Musings
The interior of a NEST is surprisingly bright. That somehow makes it worse. At least if its dark, you're always wary, and searching. During the day you can get complacent - or worse yet, miss something in the shadows that are cast.
A large part of energy efficiency, is not needing energy in the first place. Most of the arcos are not one monolithic block, but a series of smaller inter-linked towers, each of which is narrow enough that natural light can penetrate all - or at least most of - the way into the central core. Some use mirrors, some fiber optics, and there are a few that really are pitch-black in many spots.
Given the massive expense and time it takes to create these things - it becomes evident that shortcuts and stop gaps were made at various times, so be aware that some levels aren't always the most logical.
Anything that can be acquired by a quick "smash and grab" run, probably has. Instead, the endeavor must be approached like climbing a mountain. Clear a base camp, and set up stopping points along the way. If you can, get a guide. Just like on Everest - oxygen tanks might not be a bad idea - there are all sorts of internal pollutants and rot. Rappelling gear can help avoid certain areas for those who don't mind scaling objects two hundred metres or so above ground.
Reanimates can hibernate when no prey is around. It might be hard for the lesser variants to chase people into an arco and navigate the labyrinth, but there are still huge numbers just waiting to wake up.
Given the danger and complications of mounting a several day - or even several week long - expedition into an arco - most of them are still quite full of untouched supplies and artifacts. Food is probably going to be the limiting factor on any given adventure, since anything stocked in the building has probably expired. Aside from that, artifacts in the interior areas, up to and including national guard armories and nano-vac hospital stocks may very well be still in place.
A possible way to start a game is to either have players as survivors who are trying to get out of an Arco, they've been living is, now that all the supplies in nearby apartments have been used up. Another would be a large group of reanimates chasing them into the structure - leaving the players with little choice but to go up and find a way out that isn't blocked.
A large part of energy efficiency, is not needing energy in the first place. Most of the arcos are not one monolithic block, but a series of smaller inter-linked towers, each of which is narrow enough that natural light can penetrate all - or at least most of - the way into the central core. Some use mirrors, some fiber optics, and there are a few that really are pitch-black in many spots.
Given the massive expense and time it takes to create these things - it becomes evident that shortcuts and stop gaps were made at various times, so be aware that some levels aren't always the most logical.
Anything that can be acquired by a quick "smash and grab" run, probably has. Instead, the endeavor must be approached like climbing a mountain. Clear a base camp, and set up stopping points along the way. If you can, get a guide. Just like on Everest - oxygen tanks might not be a bad idea - there are all sorts of internal pollutants and rot. Rappelling gear can help avoid certain areas for those who don't mind scaling objects two hundred metres or so above ground.
Reanimates can hibernate when no prey is around. It might be hard for the lesser variants to chase people into an arco and navigate the labyrinth, but there are still huge numbers just waiting to wake up.
Given the danger and complications of mounting a several day - or even several week long - expedition into an arco - most of them are still quite full of untouched supplies and artifacts. Food is probably going to be the limiting factor on any given adventure, since anything stocked in the building has probably expired. Aside from that, artifacts in the interior areas, up to and including national guard armories and nano-vac hospital stocks may very well be still in place.
A possible way to start a game is to either have players as survivors who are trying to get out of an Arco, they've been living is, now that all the supplies in nearby apartments have been used up. Another would be a large group of reanimates chasing them into the structure - leaving the players with little choice but to go up and find a way out that isn't blocked.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Feathering the NEST (Part One)
The roads looked like brackish water, heat shimmering in ribbons above them. A strange wail descended as the convention currents rose, driving wind through the broken high-rises - the I-Beam Banshee. Yet the torture was still not complete - there was also the fetid breath of the city - hundreds of car interiors, carpets, and other organic materials rotting from five years without cleaning or climate control.
Somehow, RATS were still seen as the lucky ones. Everyone else was confined to the air-conditioned hell of the arcology building, limited space, limited power, and no way to escape the same frustrated people day in and out. "Remote Access Technicians" got to leave, the work ants of the glass and steel hive, bringing back needed supplies from the ruined cities nearby.
Tom Smith was a fairly typical specimen. Formerly a barrister, amateur boater, and avid jogger - he was physically fit, familiar with the local geography, and a volunteer. He'd been with the group since nearly the beginning now, and none of the environments bothered him that much. The type Threes on the horizon - that was a different story.
Many citizen militias were just that - citizens with their own guns, and a local leader - but RATs received training. An obstacle course and regimen of lessons was established early on when when the need for something like the RATS became apparent. Former police officers, and occasionally - former criminals on how to fight, and how to enter buildings.
But nothing carried over from the old world prepared one to fight a Three. Not much larger than a normal human, in fact, usually looking a bit more like a healthy person than a type two or its Beta derivative - they weren't always easy to spot. Yet a second glace would tell you all you need to know - at various points, it seemed metal burst from their seems like a robot stuffed into too small of a flesh covering. Often the hands were completely gone, replaced by five fingered metal manipulators of some strange alloy. Wounds from prior encounters were silver lumps, like they bled molten metal that hardened into strange blisters. Many often carried broken pieces of steel as weapons, or wrapped rebar around body parts. It moved like a human, but punched like an encounter suit.
Somehow, RATS were still seen as the lucky ones. Everyone else was confined to the air-conditioned hell of the arcology building, limited space, limited power, and no way to escape the same frustrated people day in and out. "Remote Access Technicians" got to leave, the work ants of the glass and steel hive, bringing back needed supplies from the ruined cities nearby.
Tom Smith was a fairly typical specimen. Formerly a barrister, amateur boater, and avid jogger - he was physically fit, familiar with the local geography, and a volunteer. He'd been with the group since nearly the beginning now, and none of the environments bothered him that much. The type Threes on the horizon - that was a different story.
Many citizen militias were just that - citizens with their own guns, and a local leader - but RATs received training. An obstacle course and regimen of lessons was established early on when when the need for something like the RATS became apparent. Former police officers, and occasionally - former criminals on how to fight, and how to enter buildings.
But nothing carried over from the old world prepared one to fight a Three. Not much larger than a normal human, in fact, usually looking a bit more like a healthy person than a type two or its Beta derivative - they weren't always easy to spot. Yet a second glace would tell you all you need to know - at various points, it seemed metal burst from their seems like a robot stuffed into too small of a flesh covering. Often the hands were completely gone, replaced by five fingered metal manipulators of some strange alloy. Wounds from prior encounters were silver lumps, like they bled molten metal that hardened into strange blisters. Many often carried broken pieces of steel as weapons, or wrapped rebar around body parts. It moved like a human, but punched like an encounter suit.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Kids in the NEST
I'm kind of surprised we're not killing each other. Actually, I was surprised we weren't killing each other before the event, now I'm absolutely astonished.
Moving into this deathtrap wasn't my idea. My husband thought it would be good for the kids. Close proximity to other children, band new schools, money not spent on the car could be invested in stuff for them. Yeah, we and a few thousand other parents all had the same idea. None of the architects did, however.
Frankly, the argument could be made that a tar-paper shack with no indoor plumbing is better than this. At least there they can go outside and have some idea that the world exists, and they'd have all the guns they want.
Stop Laughing! You think this is funny? That I'm just exaggerating. Let me tell you. Most of the apartments are just designed as a place to sleep, maybe eat a bit or watch some TV. But your living room - that is what the hallway outside is for, they think you can do anything you want in the spaces outside. Well what about homework - you want them to do it in an arcade, a business district, the mall? What if someone gets sick - one kid gets sick and in a tiny little box, they all get sick.
Friendly atmosphere they say, quick police response times they say. No traffic to hold up emergency calls. Bull-- If someone's beating up my kid, I want a response now, not an officer running to the scene five minutes later. I don't care what they say about community and good intentions - when there are that many thousand people around, some of them are going to be deviated perverts and I want a gun to deal with them. But are there firearms allowed in here? No! F-ing national guard has machine-guns and anti-aircraft missiles on floor eighty-five, but I can't have my .38?
You've got hundreds of kids per floor, walking distance or a few stairwells from anything. Both parents are probably working to afford the rent on the tiny little boxes we are stuck in. Not like that isn't a mix leading to a delinquency problem or gangs.
Of course right now, we don't have money - we've got energy credits. Whose idea was that? It was hard enough to keep kids in 500 square feet when they could sit down and play videogames. What are they up to now?
What are they up to now? Janacie! Jake! Where did you go? MotherF-- excuse me. I've got some children to find.
Moving into this deathtrap wasn't my idea. My husband thought it would be good for the kids. Close proximity to other children, band new schools, money not spent on the car could be invested in stuff for them. Yeah, we and a few thousand other parents all had the same idea. None of the architects did, however.
Frankly, the argument could be made that a tar-paper shack with no indoor plumbing is better than this. At least there they can go outside and have some idea that the world exists, and they'd have all the guns they want.
Stop Laughing! You think this is funny? That I'm just exaggerating. Let me tell you. Most of the apartments are just designed as a place to sleep, maybe eat a bit or watch some TV. But your living room - that is what the hallway outside is for, they think you can do anything you want in the spaces outside. Well what about homework - you want them to do it in an arcade, a business district, the mall? What if someone gets sick - one kid gets sick and in a tiny little box, they all get sick.
Friendly atmosphere they say, quick police response times they say. No traffic to hold up emergency calls. Bull-- If someone's beating up my kid, I want a response now, not an officer running to the scene five minutes later. I don't care what they say about community and good intentions - when there are that many thousand people around, some of them are going to be deviated perverts and I want a gun to deal with them. But are there firearms allowed in here? No! F-ing national guard has machine-guns and anti-aircraft missiles on floor eighty-five, but I can't have my .38?
You've got hundreds of kids per floor, walking distance or a few stairwells from anything. Both parents are probably working to afford the rent on the tiny little boxes we are stuck in. Not like that isn't a mix leading to a delinquency problem or gangs.
Of course right now, we don't have money - we've got energy credits. Whose idea was that? It was hard enough to keep kids in 500 square feet when they could sit down and play videogames. What are they up to now?
What are they up to now? Janacie! Jake! Where did you go? MotherF-- excuse me. I've got some children to find.
Monday, June 6, 2011
One Tale of Leaving the NEST
Nala ran the bore brush through the rifle one last time, then slid the bolt forward. " That should do it. This was probably made for a heavier weight petroleum based lubricant, but I think you should be OK, especially considering its manually operated."
"Thanks Miss," Roland replied "Of all the people here, I didn't peg you as the gun expert at first. Model for an ad agency maybe but..."
Jeff stopped stirring the pot and leaned over "Nice try, but the Brazilian girl is already taken. Notice the matching rings we're wearing?"
"I assure you, my intentions were honorable, its just the stereotype still exists that women aren't generally war historians."
"Speaking of honor." Mitch broke in "where are you from, and what are you doing?"
"Wait- we've been traveling for six days, and only now you ask me what I'm doing here?"
"When you're running for your life from things that shouldn't exist, little details like where's your home town kinda get lost in the shuffle. But now that we're out of the suburbs, I would like to know what you were doing wandering a city with just a world war two rifle."
Roland stood up and stretched. He was a bit taller than Mitch, but the other guy was definitely tougher. For someone who looked like one of those "buddy Jesus" posters, Mitch was a holly roller's nightmare.
"Not my choice of firearm by a long shot, but its what I was allowed to take. Our leaders don't want to start a social division with something like a death penalty - bad enough inside without liberal/conservative angst - and just sitting them in jail doing nothing is a waste. So exile is the usual punishment for anything where simply docking wages is not enough. To prevent it from becoming a de-facto death sentence, they give us some equipment - but its usually museum pieces or other crap people don't want."
"Stop. What was the crime?"
"Unlicensed rat-holing, combined with getting blackmailed."
"And in English?"
"There is only so much in the way of supplies and power generation capacity in a NEST structure, and as things break, it only gets worse. We've got a working currency system and regulation going, but well, there was graft and illegal practices even before everything went down the tubes."
"A theif."
"Um no. I never stole from any person. Any living person. And I maintain I'd never do that. I just scavenged without permission."
"I took things that were not mine, because there is a black market. But I'm not a criminal!" Jeff mocked
"That wasn't really the problem. Inginuity is well respeceted,
"And by inginuity, he means sticky fingers"
"Jeff, Knock that off!" Mitch grunted, "Though I still say, this seems a bit odd."
"NEST structures are designed to have large segments locked down - riot control, fire breaks, Ebola outbreak - whatever. But with entire floors sealed up and no exit, that means they contain just as many reanimates now, as when they were sealed. No idea how they don't decompose, starve, dehydrate or die after being stuck in a commercial block for five years, but that's how it is. Everywhere else, the environment or hunters take their toll, and groups disperse looking for prey. So you simply don't open certain doors, lest you run the risk of releasing them into safe areas.
Well, those locked down areas still contain good stuff, and are a lot easier to get to than raiding the surrounding area. But, the decision is - better the rats - NEST slang for our scavenger teams - be put in greater danger, then everyone be at risk. But some people want what is in there any way, and besides, everything that comes through normal channels is generally checked out, and then auctioned off, though government civic projects - power maintenance, the rats themselves, communications, get an inbuilt advantage - depending on the commodity, they get a five to twenty percent discount, or I should say, their bids are counted as worth more and uh... well, we've got a system anyway.
So I was just a work-a-day laborer, picking hydroponics, cleaning, babysitting, when one of my bosses makes the offer to get me some good electronics and a few off the grid batteries, I just need to slip through some vent shafts in a maintenance area. I'm not sure why I said yes, even at the time it seemed like a stupid risk, but it was an adventure that I never had as a retail clerk come janitor.
Luck, reflexes, untapped potential - I made it. And things we're good. But, it was a criminal act. And though she didn't state this at our first meeting, it was apparently a long term deal. So, I essentially got stuck running errands for these people, which began to cut into my legitimate work. Boring as that is, it seemed risky to have stuff without being able to explain it, and I didn't want to alienate my old bosses. I complained, and they decided it was better to sell me out than have me reveal their whole operation.
Somehow my counter arguments that they made me do it got ignored at the tribunal, though the fact that the judge was one of the people who received stuff I found might as been a factor. Out I go. Six hours later, I'm running from reanimates, you're running from reanimates, and we all run in the same direction."
Mitch looked to Nala. "Yeah, that is pretty much how we ran things," she replied "his story seems legit. You don't normally just pick a random person to go retrieve stuff, but everything else seems right."
"Jeff?"
"Its one hell of a sob story to be sure. I don't necessarily trust it, but at least he's not making up adventures whole cloth like that last one we met. If he's got useful skills, he can stay."
"Be ready to repeat yourself and answer some more questions when the others get back... Roland. But, for now, you can be one of us."
"Thanks Miss," Roland replied "Of all the people here, I didn't peg you as the gun expert at first. Model for an ad agency maybe but..."
Jeff stopped stirring the pot and leaned over "Nice try, but the Brazilian girl is already taken. Notice the matching rings we're wearing?"
"I assure you, my intentions were honorable, its just the stereotype still exists that women aren't generally war historians."
"Speaking of honor." Mitch broke in "where are you from, and what are you doing?"
"Wait- we've been traveling for six days, and only now you ask me what I'm doing here?"
"When you're running for your life from things that shouldn't exist, little details like where's your home town kinda get lost in the shuffle. But now that we're out of the suburbs, I would like to know what you were doing wandering a city with just a world war two rifle."
Roland stood up and stretched. He was a bit taller than Mitch, but the other guy was definitely tougher. For someone who looked like one of those "buddy Jesus" posters, Mitch was a holly roller's nightmare.
"Not my choice of firearm by a long shot, but its what I was allowed to take. Our leaders don't want to start a social division with something like a death penalty - bad enough inside without liberal/conservative angst - and just sitting them in jail doing nothing is a waste. So exile is the usual punishment for anything where simply docking wages is not enough. To prevent it from becoming a de-facto death sentence, they give us some equipment - but its usually museum pieces or other crap people don't want."
"Stop. What was the crime?"
"Unlicensed rat-holing, combined with getting blackmailed."
"And in English?"
"There is only so much in the way of supplies and power generation capacity in a NEST structure, and as things break, it only gets worse. We've got a working currency system and regulation going, but well, there was graft and illegal practices even before everything went down the tubes."
"A theif."
"Um no. I never stole from any person. Any living person. And I maintain I'd never do that. I just scavenged without permission."
"I took things that were not mine, because there is a black market. But I'm not a criminal!" Jeff mocked
"That wasn't really the problem. Inginuity is well respeceted,
"And by inginuity, he means sticky fingers"
"Jeff, Knock that off!" Mitch grunted, "Though I still say, this seems a bit odd."
"NEST structures are designed to have large segments locked down - riot control, fire breaks, Ebola outbreak - whatever. But with entire floors sealed up and no exit, that means they contain just as many reanimates now, as when they were sealed. No idea how they don't decompose, starve, dehydrate or die after being stuck in a commercial block for five years, but that's how it is. Everywhere else, the environment or hunters take their toll, and groups disperse looking for prey. So you simply don't open certain doors, lest you run the risk of releasing them into safe areas.
Well, those locked down areas still contain good stuff, and are a lot easier to get to than raiding the surrounding area. But, the decision is - better the rats - NEST slang for our scavenger teams - be put in greater danger, then everyone be at risk. But some people want what is in there any way, and besides, everything that comes through normal channels is generally checked out, and then auctioned off, though government civic projects - power maintenance, the rats themselves, communications, get an inbuilt advantage - depending on the commodity, they get a five to twenty percent discount, or I should say, their bids are counted as worth more and uh... well, we've got a system anyway.
So I was just a work-a-day laborer, picking hydroponics, cleaning, babysitting, when one of my bosses makes the offer to get me some good electronics and a few off the grid batteries, I just need to slip through some vent shafts in a maintenance area. I'm not sure why I said yes, even at the time it seemed like a stupid risk, but it was an adventure that I never had as a retail clerk come janitor.
Luck, reflexes, untapped potential - I made it. And things we're good. But, it was a criminal act. And though she didn't state this at our first meeting, it was apparently a long term deal. So, I essentially got stuck running errands for these people, which began to cut into my legitimate work. Boring as that is, it seemed risky to have stuff without being able to explain it, and I didn't want to alienate my old bosses. I complained, and they decided it was better to sell me out than have me reveal their whole operation.
Somehow my counter arguments that they made me do it got ignored at the tribunal, though the fact that the judge was one of the people who received stuff I found might as been a factor. Out I go. Six hours later, I'm running from reanimates, you're running from reanimates, and we all run in the same direction."
Mitch looked to Nala. "Yeah, that is pretty much how we ran things," she replied "his story seems legit. You don't normally just pick a random person to go retrieve stuff, but everything else seems right."
"Jeff?"
"Its one hell of a sob story to be sure. I don't necessarily trust it, but at least he's not making up adventures whole cloth like that last one we met. If he's got useful skills, he can stay."
"Be ready to repeat yourself and answer some more questions when the others get back... Roland. But, for now, you can be one of us."
Friday, April 22, 2011
Diego on the NESTS
"Good evening wasteland. Mr. Hobbes is feeling a bit ill today, so I'll be taking over. Please excuse the lack of Wolfman Jack impressions.
So, there have been some more questions about NEST structures. Most specifically, how do you break into one? What is inside? Is it worth the effort? If not a NEST, where else?
I need to preface this by saying, neither I nor Mr. Hobbes have been inside one of these structures. Only one or two people we have spoken with have been in, or even near these super towers. Most of the units in the system were either quickly sealed and thus continue to host a population dedicated to fiercely defending them, or quickly hit a critical mass of reanimates, and no longer contain anything alive. Entrance is unlikely.
NEST structures are quite like flakturm. These the giant reinforced concrete anti-aircraft bunkers and air raid shelters built around Germany in the second world war were so tough, that not only did they survive allied bombing, point blank Soviet heavy artillery couldn't scratch them, and after the war, conventional demolition techniques didn't work either. Some were simply buried under the rubble, others continue to stand. I would not be surprised to learn people have started living in them again.
This is where I would complain in his headphones that Mr. Hobbes is off topic, and in turn, he would say it is an educational service. I am not as fast paced as my employer, but I do have some humor.
So given that they are made of extra-tough materials and designed to be locked down to contain emergencies, how do you get in? Well, first of all - you can try the doors. Think a shopping mall or stadium - there needs to be some way to let thousands of people in and out in a reasonable amount of time. The bottom level is often set up like a strip mall on the outside, so there are individual shops where the employee back door has been missed and left unlocked. Or perhaps the entrance was smashed by previous looters, and if you have picked up the rather useful skill of bypassing locks - well, good for you.
Failing the most obvious, the next trick would be one that applies to most multi-story structures. Stand back and find a way to shoot out a window on the second or preferably third story. A ground floor forced entryway will let reanimates and such walk right in - but only a few can climb or jump seven meters.
Few people realize how far the basement of these things really goes. There are probably an extra ten or twenty stories going beneath the structure. If you can find a subway entrance a few kilometers away and make your way through the monster infested underground, you will find yourself in a terminal, and bypassing normal security is an exorcise left to your own discretion.
Another underground possibility is getting in through the grates that cover one of the hydrological systems. At the very least, they have a sewage treatment system, and probably another inlet for drinking water. Heavy machinery like pumps, high-speed elevators, and power generators need coolant - so that may be another inlet.
For those with access to the exotic - a helicopter flown to one of the various helipads is an option. There are usually a minimum of eight heliports - to accommodate landing from various directions - and because there used to be a large amount of air traffic. After-all, they hosted police, fire, medical, and military facilities, all of which used helicopters on a daily basis.
Once inside - well, I don't know how many times this needs to be said - they are a city in a bottle. Whatever you could want is either there, or was there but was looted by a better scavenger than yourself.
You will find an all you can eat buffet of reanimated. And then some. Tons of rats, birds and bats are also rather likely, along with other vermin chewing the electrical and helping themselves to forgotten food stocks. In turn, those are probably preyed upon by the escaped pets of the former inhabitants, maybe some birds of prey in the larger atrium. Given time, these places will become ecosystems unto themselves. But for now you will probably only worry about vicious German shepherds and insect borne diseases - not something evolved specifically for hunting in a super tower.
I would imagine many of our listeners are quite unwilling to take a hundred plus story dungeon crawl lightly. There are a few options,as the Economical Design and Governance Enclosures. An edge - colloquially known as a "NEST Egg" is a similar idea, but on a much smaller scale in an attempt to avoid the massive costs, time commitment, and logistics of making a NEST.
Unlike the NESTs, there are somewhat more hap-hazard. Many were designed in blocks and for adding on as necessary. Some are one structure akin to a large stadium with outliers, and others are more like underground complexes with a few domes on top for agriculture. Population could be as low as three thousand, to perhaps ten times that. Generally speaking, megastructure arcologies were built near the coasts and between major cities to alleviate urban sprawl and take advantage of existing infrastructure. Edges are more likely in places with less capacity to transport materials, farther inland - or in parts of the West Coast where the massive supply chain for NEST building would have crippled the city's services. That is why there is no Los Angles arcology for example.
Unfortunately, we are out of time, and will have to explore this again later. Good night and good luck in the zone.
So, there have been some more questions about NEST structures. Most specifically, how do you break into one? What is inside? Is it worth the effort? If not a NEST, where else?
I need to preface this by saying, neither I nor Mr. Hobbes have been inside one of these structures. Only one or two people we have spoken with have been in, or even near these super towers. Most of the units in the system were either quickly sealed and thus continue to host a population dedicated to fiercely defending them, or quickly hit a critical mass of reanimates, and no longer contain anything alive. Entrance is unlikely.
NEST structures are quite like flakturm. These the giant reinforced concrete anti-aircraft bunkers and air raid shelters built around Germany in the second world war were so tough, that not only did they survive allied bombing, point blank Soviet heavy artillery couldn't scratch them, and after the war, conventional demolition techniques didn't work either. Some were simply buried under the rubble, others continue to stand. I would not be surprised to learn people have started living in them again.
This is where I would complain in his headphones that Mr. Hobbes is off topic, and in turn, he would say it is an educational service. I am not as fast paced as my employer, but I do have some humor.
So given that they are made of extra-tough materials and designed to be locked down to contain emergencies, how do you get in? Well, first of all - you can try the doors. Think a shopping mall or stadium - there needs to be some way to let thousands of people in and out in a reasonable amount of time. The bottom level is often set up like a strip mall on the outside, so there are individual shops where the employee back door has been missed and left unlocked. Or perhaps the entrance was smashed by previous looters, and if you have picked up the rather useful skill of bypassing locks - well, good for you.
Failing the most obvious, the next trick would be one that applies to most multi-story structures. Stand back and find a way to shoot out a window on the second or preferably third story. A ground floor forced entryway will let reanimates and such walk right in - but only a few can climb or jump seven meters.
Few people realize how far the basement of these things really goes. There are probably an extra ten or twenty stories going beneath the structure. If you can find a subway entrance a few kilometers away and make your way through the monster infested underground, you will find yourself in a terminal, and bypassing normal security is an exorcise left to your own discretion.
Another underground possibility is getting in through the grates that cover one of the hydrological systems. At the very least, they have a sewage treatment system, and probably another inlet for drinking water. Heavy machinery like pumps, high-speed elevators, and power generators need coolant - so that may be another inlet.
For those with access to the exotic - a helicopter flown to one of the various helipads is an option. There are usually a minimum of eight heliports - to accommodate landing from various directions - and because there used to be a large amount of air traffic. After-all, they hosted police, fire, medical, and military facilities, all of which used helicopters on a daily basis.
Once inside - well, I don't know how many times this needs to be said - they are a city in a bottle. Whatever you could want is either there, or was there but was looted by a better scavenger than yourself.
You will find an all you can eat buffet of reanimated. And then some. Tons of rats, birds and bats are also rather likely, along with other vermin chewing the electrical and helping themselves to forgotten food stocks. In turn, those are probably preyed upon by the escaped pets of the former inhabitants, maybe some birds of prey in the larger atrium. Given time, these places will become ecosystems unto themselves. But for now you will probably only worry about vicious German shepherds and insect borne diseases - not something evolved specifically for hunting in a super tower.
I would imagine many of our listeners are quite unwilling to take a hundred plus story dungeon crawl lightly. There are a few options,as the Economical Design and Governance Enclosures. An edge - colloquially known as a "NEST Egg" is a similar idea, but on a much smaller scale in an attempt to avoid the massive costs, time commitment, and logistics of making a NEST.
Unlike the NESTs, there are somewhat more hap-hazard. Many were designed in blocks and for adding on as necessary. Some are one structure akin to a large stadium with outliers, and others are more like underground complexes with a few domes on top for agriculture. Population could be as low as three thousand, to perhaps ten times that. Generally speaking, megastructure arcologies were built near the coasts and between major cities to alleviate urban sprawl and take advantage of existing infrastructure. Edges are more likely in places with less capacity to transport materials, farther inland - or in parts of the West Coast where the massive supply chain for NEST building would have crippled the city's services. That is why there is no Los Angles arcology for example.
Unfortunately, we are out of time, and will have to explore this again later. Good night and good luck in the zone.
Friday, February 18, 2011
NEST Formation
They tried to standardize these thing, they really tried. And they did get at least some parts communality in supply and internal redistricting. But, the fact is - none of them are alike. When your dealing with megastructures large enough to hold the Sears tower eight or ten times over - you're going to need to make concessions to the local terrain and supply chain. There's hydrological engineers for pumping everything, geologists for determining bedrock stress, union contractions, architects, gemologists, social planners.
Yes, I said Gemologists. Diamonds are imported - literally by the ton - to be crushed into pure carbon, and mixed with the concrete and sprayed epoxy. Then nano-tech added rebuilds them into strands as its poured. These are not glass and steel like a twentieth century skyscraper - but diamond-fiberglass composite and combined with bulletproof plastics that act as both windows and secondary structural members. In parts thousands of diamond strands weave through cement in just the right way to provide translucent concrete to add to the internal illumination.
Its kind of humbling to think that since they don't contain steal or iron reinforcement - which rusts and expands over time, knocking off the outer material - these things will probably still be standing when the sun burns out.
On the other hand, its this ability to use super-strong materials and transparent yet load bearing ones - that make these structures look like nothing else. They learned from the budget housing complexes built under Khrushchev and Daley and others and tried to make them a lot more people friendly. Apartments may be kind of small, but there are lots of gardens, and two or three story tall spaces scattered through full of mirrors, sun tubes, and good lights - it really is possible to forget you're on the one-hundred fifth story of a building that cost more than an Apollo moonshot.
Yes, I'm off topic again. But I helped build these things! A roman would boast they created an aqueduct, stonemasons take pride in their cathedrals. I sprayed epoxy, laid down floors, put up walls and hung more doors than the Winchester house. Nano can fight viruses mano-a-mano or create super catalyst batteries but it can't do big things like this - you still need people like me.
The pair I worked on were numbers two and six. Number one wasn't all that creative - more a matter of expedience and proof of concept. Its more of several large buildings built in parallel and connected by sky ways.Not bad for what it is, but personally, it seems more like a dozen corn silos made of glass with smaller buildings hanging from the spiderwebs that run between them.
NEST Two - that is a piece of artwork. Showing off exactly what this tech can do. The base is in fact, one solid building with about three times the footprint of a large baseball stadium. After the first ten stories it splits - Each of the four corners continues to go up like its own building, while the center falls away to form a step pediod affair, contracting a bit every - fifteen - no ten, ten I think for about seven terraces. Then it starts to go straight up, but at this point, the corner towers bend in to meet the central pillar for the mothers of all flying buttresses, and it actually expands a bit again before terminating on this giant geodesic dome. It rather reminds me of the settings of a really fancy diamond ring.
Well, between people feeling a little put off by the seemingly unsupported nature of this, and sheer expense, they didn't go so far out for art after that. All of them do have areas with holes going right through the building to help relive wind stresses - but none quite to that same extent.
Except for that one out West. Actually went in reverse, and mostly hollowed out a big hill to make it. Had a contest to name it after some scientists. The final vote was between Wright brothers, Einstein, and Tesla, though I don't remember who won.
Six was haunted. No two ways about it. Probably still is. For all the thousands and thousands of people working on these projects, there were surprisingly few injuries. We actually build the hospitals inside the buildings first and then began everywhere else because in a group that large, just bad luck means a bunch of people are going to be hurt or killed. In one and two, I don't recall any fatalities actually. The others - sad but true.
Six. Carbon fiber elevator cables snapped. Fires broke out. Some guy flipped out and attacked his buddies with a nail gun. There were at least two people thrown through windows - which are made of three inch thick composite that can stop rifle bullets for crying out loud! How do you through someone through that?
From the outside, its a bit like number one, though its thirteen buildings in kind of a star pattern, so their individually smaller and built in parallel but... Haven't seen it from above, but as I say that, I've got to feel like the architect must have been some weird cultist trying to recreate R'lyeh.
But we were professional, and finished it. I didn't take the option granted to workers for first dibs on apartments, but I'm still happy with what I did there. Can you say the same about your pre-event job?
Yes, I said Gemologists. Diamonds are imported - literally by the ton - to be crushed into pure carbon, and mixed with the concrete and sprayed epoxy. Then nano-tech added rebuilds them into strands as its poured. These are not glass and steel like a twentieth century skyscraper - but diamond-fiberglass composite and combined with bulletproof plastics that act as both windows and secondary structural members. In parts thousands of diamond strands weave through cement in just the right way to provide translucent concrete to add to the internal illumination.
Its kind of humbling to think that since they don't contain steal or iron reinforcement - which rusts and expands over time, knocking off the outer material - these things will probably still be standing when the sun burns out.
On the other hand, its this ability to use super-strong materials and transparent yet load bearing ones - that make these structures look like nothing else. They learned from the budget housing complexes built under Khrushchev and Daley and others and tried to make them a lot more people friendly. Apartments may be kind of small, but there are lots of gardens, and two or three story tall spaces scattered through full of mirrors, sun tubes, and good lights - it really is possible to forget you're on the one-hundred fifth story of a building that cost more than an Apollo moonshot.
Yes, I'm off topic again. But I helped build these things! A roman would boast they created an aqueduct, stonemasons take pride in their cathedrals. I sprayed epoxy, laid down floors, put up walls and hung more doors than the Winchester house. Nano can fight viruses mano-a-mano or create super catalyst batteries but it can't do big things like this - you still need people like me.
The pair I worked on were numbers two and six. Number one wasn't all that creative - more a matter of expedience and proof of concept. Its more of several large buildings built in parallel and connected by sky ways.Not bad for what it is, but personally, it seems more like a dozen corn silos made of glass with smaller buildings hanging from the spiderwebs that run between them.
NEST Two - that is a piece of artwork. Showing off exactly what this tech can do. The base is in fact, one solid building with about three times the footprint of a large baseball stadium. After the first ten stories it splits - Each of the four corners continues to go up like its own building, while the center falls away to form a step pediod affair, contracting a bit every - fifteen - no ten, ten I think for about seven terraces. Then it starts to go straight up, but at this point, the corner towers bend in to meet the central pillar for the mothers of all flying buttresses, and it actually expands a bit again before terminating on this giant geodesic dome. It rather reminds me of the settings of a really fancy diamond ring.
Well, between people feeling a little put off by the seemingly unsupported nature of this, and sheer expense, they didn't go so far out for art after that. All of them do have areas with holes going right through the building to help relive wind stresses - but none quite to that same extent.
Except for that one out West. Actually went in reverse, and mostly hollowed out a big hill to make it. Had a contest to name it after some scientists. The final vote was between Wright brothers, Einstein, and Tesla, though I don't remember who won.
Six was haunted. No two ways about it. Probably still is. For all the thousands and thousands of people working on these projects, there were surprisingly few injuries. We actually build the hospitals inside the buildings first and then began everywhere else because in a group that large, just bad luck means a bunch of people are going to be hurt or killed. In one and two, I don't recall any fatalities actually. The others - sad but true.
Six. Carbon fiber elevator cables snapped. Fires broke out. Some guy flipped out and attacked his buddies with a nail gun. There were at least two people thrown through windows - which are made of three inch thick composite that can stop rifle bullets for crying out loud! How do you through someone through that?
From the outside, its a bit like number one, though its thirteen buildings in kind of a star pattern, so their individually smaller and built in parallel but... Haven't seen it from above, but as I say that, I've got to feel like the architect must have been some weird cultist trying to recreate R'lyeh.
But we were professional, and finished it. I didn't take the option granted to workers for first dibs on apartments, but I'm still happy with what I did there. Can you say the same about your pre-event job?
Friday, October 8, 2010
Arcology Apartments
No two arcologies are quite same, not even the NESTs which are semi-standardized. Any building project is going to need to acquiesce to the demands of the environment its built in, and megastrucutres all the more so. However, it can be safely said that any given area of an arco embodies a certain ethic about the role of the home and family.
In the low income areas of a NEST, the standard is "Life is outside the home". Individual apartments are often only four to six hundred square feet, with some beds, closets, a counter with sink and induction stove top, and a tiny bathroom. Most occupants are expected to remain within for a few hours to sleep, and to store their belongings. Otherwise they can expect to socialize in the hundreds of stores, cafes, bars, arcades and parks within the structure. Maintenance staff and police would be very concerned if someone remained in their apartment for an extended period.
Apartments with windows are actually fairly rare. Usually the outer area is reserved as walkways and parkways - with sunlight access for everyone, even on mostly residential floors there are communal dining areas and entertainment parlors. On many levels, there are even plants, landscaping, and grass fed by drip hydroponics to give the appearance of a park wrapping around the entire building. Living areas are set up in blocks of 20-40 grouped together. If one could look through the ceiling and outer structural elements, any given level would look quite a bit like a normal city block, just sectioned off at a three meter level. Hallways are kept quite wide - usually about five meters (14 feet) for ease of access, and to account for people standing outside and talking. Lighting in hallways is dimmed for night time, but does have constant signs. Large doors can be found every few hundred feet and in an emergency the various levels can be locked down tighter than a prison to contain fires, riots, or other problems.
Despite the tiny and seemingly temporary nature of the apartments, they are designed to be very livable, rather than depressing little boxes. Even those in the inner core of the building can receive natural light through fiber-optic "sun tubes". Programmable strips lights are built into the walls at floor, chest, head, and ceiling levels to let the users customize exactly what level of illumination they desire at any given moment. Floors are usually bamboo-hardwood for ease of cleaning and a calming natural appearance - though the occupant can request different coverings. Projectors or screens are often built in to allow entire walls to be used for as a television or monitor.
A great deal of effort has been made to insulate the apartments - both due to the noise of so many things going on in a large building, and efficiency standards. Despite the normal connotations of block housing, sharing walls is often rather rare, as there are a great deal of passage ways between the various living areas. Part of this is structural - each tier is a bit offset to allow structural members through and the massive reinforcement needed for structures over twice as tall as any 20th century building. The other reason is the need for maintenance access for all the electrical tech - and to allow emergency services non-standard ways to move through a crowded building in an emergency. It is actually possible to traverse the entire building without seeing another person even at peak occupancy if one has the right key-cards.
More affluent areas of the NEST (ie Lower Down) are of course, notably larger. They are still not large penthouses, but something that separates the sleeping area from the dining room, or has an actual office in addition to the standard area is worth bragging about. Decoration is often more lavish as well.
Conversely, communities like the Lone Star Complex believe that the home is the center of one's social life. Although the bedroom and kitchen areas are often tiny - open floor plans lead to huge dining and living rooms so that many friends may gather to share food and entertainment. Multiple couches are such a part of this mindset that doors are specifically made wider than the long time 3 foot/90cm standard to ease moving them in. Although there are still nearby blocks of commercial areas, the overall effect is less metropolitan. Much the same lighting and sound amenities are present, but the larger space makes them more of a way to accent the space then a requirement tot make the tiny areas livable.
There are places that take both these elements to other levels. In the underground city of Tesla, most people store what they cant carry in banks and only use coffin like areas for sleeping. Meanwhile, other arcos are designed around traditional homes, but built in rounded or half buried forms for efficiency.
Places that are not arcologies are usually quite similar to 20th century apartments. The big difference is that most are adapted for new technology and living standards. Almost every surface is fitted with induction charging pads so one needs to simply set down a device and it powers up. Even closets contain power supplies as many garments incorporate semi-flexible wearable computers.
The use of electricity is heavily encouraged in future living. natural gas or oil are limited resources, and require special means to pipe them around. Electricity can be produced two thousand kilometers away by the tides or on the roof by the sun and works just the same. Water however, is quite often rationed or highly expensive due to the difficulties of piping and supply.
In the low income areas of a NEST, the standard is "Life is outside the home". Individual apartments are often only four to six hundred square feet, with some beds, closets, a counter with sink and induction stove top, and a tiny bathroom. Most occupants are expected to remain within for a few hours to sleep, and to store their belongings. Otherwise they can expect to socialize in the hundreds of stores, cafes, bars, arcades and parks within the structure. Maintenance staff and police would be very concerned if someone remained in their apartment for an extended period.
Apartments with windows are actually fairly rare. Usually the outer area is reserved as walkways and parkways - with sunlight access for everyone, even on mostly residential floors there are communal dining areas and entertainment parlors. On many levels, there are even plants, landscaping, and grass fed by drip hydroponics to give the appearance of a park wrapping around the entire building. Living areas are set up in blocks of 20-40 grouped together. If one could look through the ceiling and outer structural elements, any given level would look quite a bit like a normal city block, just sectioned off at a three meter level. Hallways are kept quite wide - usually about five meters (14 feet) for ease of access, and to account for people standing outside and talking. Lighting in hallways is dimmed for night time, but does have constant signs. Large doors can be found every few hundred feet and in an emergency the various levels can be locked down tighter than a prison to contain fires, riots, or other problems.
Despite the tiny and seemingly temporary nature of the apartments, they are designed to be very livable, rather than depressing little boxes. Even those in the inner core of the building can receive natural light through fiber-optic "sun tubes". Programmable strips lights are built into the walls at floor, chest, head, and ceiling levels to let the users customize exactly what level of illumination they desire at any given moment. Floors are usually bamboo-hardwood for ease of cleaning and a calming natural appearance - though the occupant can request different coverings. Projectors or screens are often built in to allow entire walls to be used for as a television or monitor.
A great deal of effort has been made to insulate the apartments - both due to the noise of so many things going on in a large building, and efficiency standards. Despite the normal connotations of block housing, sharing walls is often rather rare, as there are a great deal of passage ways between the various living areas. Part of this is structural - each tier is a bit offset to allow structural members through and the massive reinforcement needed for structures over twice as tall as any 20th century building. The other reason is the need for maintenance access for all the electrical tech - and to allow emergency services non-standard ways to move through a crowded building in an emergency. It is actually possible to traverse the entire building without seeing another person even at peak occupancy if one has the right key-cards.
More affluent areas of the NEST (ie Lower Down) are of course, notably larger. They are still not large penthouses, but something that separates the sleeping area from the dining room, or has an actual office in addition to the standard area is worth bragging about. Decoration is often more lavish as well.
Conversely, communities like the Lone Star Complex believe that the home is the center of one's social life. Although the bedroom and kitchen areas are often tiny - open floor plans lead to huge dining and living rooms so that many friends may gather to share food and entertainment. Multiple couches are such a part of this mindset that doors are specifically made wider than the long time 3 foot/90cm standard to ease moving them in. Although there are still nearby blocks of commercial areas, the overall effect is less metropolitan. Much the same lighting and sound amenities are present, but the larger space makes them more of a way to accent the space then a requirement tot make the tiny areas livable.
There are places that take both these elements to other levels. In the underground city of Tesla, most people store what they cant carry in banks and only use coffin like areas for sleeping. Meanwhile, other arcos are designed around traditional homes, but built in rounded or half buried forms for efficiency.
Places that are not arcologies are usually quite similar to 20th century apartments. The big difference is that most are adapted for new technology and living standards. Almost every surface is fitted with induction charging pads so one needs to simply set down a device and it powers up. Even closets contain power supplies as many garments incorporate semi-flexible wearable computers.
The use of electricity is heavily encouraged in future living. natural gas or oil are limited resources, and require special means to pipe them around. Electricity can be produced two thousand kilometers away by the tides or on the roof by the sun and works just the same. Water however, is quite often rationed or highly expensive due to the difficulties of piping and supply.
Monday, October 4, 2010
A Nice Warm NEST
I don't know what it is, but there is just an ass-load of wackos out there that seem to like a broken down society. They keep trying to convince themselves that the NEST arcos are some sort of tenth circle of hell. An overcrowded tower of victims mingling with a few million reanimates.
Just let them keep deluding themselves, no skin off my nose. I'm very comfortable thank you.
That high population everyone complains about is our greatest strength. We have more accredited union pipe-fitters than some outposts have total residents. They need to get the entire town to improvise ditches for irrigation and suffer though water born parasites. We have a working hydroponics farm in the sunlight outer offices. Decorative koi ponds and Olympic swimming pools support aquaculture.
All around is is a gold mine of high tech relics. Tens of thousands of reanimates too, but what does it matter? We have marathon runners and former Olympic athletes amongst our population who can work out in still functional health clubs. The neighbors aren't so dangerous if they can't catch you.
From what I've been told, most settlements are pretty small - the less area they cover, the easier to protect. Our building was created at the height of humanity's golden age. There are soaring four story atrium 600 feet off the ground one third of the way up the structure. Outsiders uses scavenged sheet metal, and we're behind walls of nano-diamond fiber reinforced concrete. We have movie theaters, radio stations, sphere servers, hell this is probably one of the few places where you can get a decent hair cut and a disease free tattoo if that is what you want.
Electricity is rationed, energy chits are often used as currency - but at least we have it. And with that comes power tools and video cameras. There might be literally hundreds of above and below ground entrances to this place, but we've got them covered. Even have trained riot police and national guardsmen to back up the defenses and clear areas once the enemy has been trapped. What you think the best trained, prepared, and equipped people would be the first to go in the event?
Since the population is down from maximum capacity by a bit, most of us can have private apartments if we chose. Quite a few prefer to huddle together in the shops or in the pseudo parks, feeling that being alone in an enclosed box with one exit is a problem. ( I can emphasize with that, but I'll keep my living room and dinette set thank you very much.)
OK, so I don't go outside much, and I'm not reclaiming the abandoned lands of the country in a repeat of manifest destiny. Didn't go out much when society was functioning and there was a lot to see. Kinda counter to the whole point of the arco if you think about it. We're supposed to telecommute or use the stairs rather than thousands of cars.
It might not be a happy little family, but I've got a couch, stove, 600 square feet, a three TVs, a great Eastward vista of the coast, and rent control. You have rocks, a sleeping bag, and a dream about repopulating the world with your own little pioneers.
I've got it good, and you've got delusions.
Just let them keep deluding themselves, no skin off my nose. I'm very comfortable thank you.
That high population everyone complains about is our greatest strength. We have more accredited union pipe-fitters than some outposts have total residents. They need to get the entire town to improvise ditches for irrigation and suffer though water born parasites. We have a working hydroponics farm in the sunlight outer offices. Decorative koi ponds and Olympic swimming pools support aquaculture.
All around is is a gold mine of high tech relics. Tens of thousands of reanimates too, but what does it matter? We have marathon runners and former Olympic athletes amongst our population who can work out in still functional health clubs. The neighbors aren't so dangerous if they can't catch you.
From what I've been told, most settlements are pretty small - the less area they cover, the easier to protect. Our building was created at the height of humanity's golden age. There are soaring four story atrium 600 feet off the ground one third of the way up the structure. Outsiders uses scavenged sheet metal, and we're behind walls of nano-diamond fiber reinforced concrete. We have movie theaters, radio stations, sphere servers, hell this is probably one of the few places where you can get a decent hair cut and a disease free tattoo if that is what you want.
Electricity is rationed, energy chits are often used as currency - but at least we have it. And with that comes power tools and video cameras. There might be literally hundreds of above and below ground entrances to this place, but we've got them covered. Even have trained riot police and national guardsmen to back up the defenses and clear areas once the enemy has been trapped. What you think the best trained, prepared, and equipped people would be the first to go in the event?
Since the population is down from maximum capacity by a bit, most of us can have private apartments if we chose. Quite a few prefer to huddle together in the shops or in the pseudo parks, feeling that being alone in an enclosed box with one exit is a problem. ( I can emphasize with that, but I'll keep my living room and dinette set thank you very much.)
OK, so I don't go outside much, and I'm not reclaiming the abandoned lands of the country in a repeat of manifest destiny. Didn't go out much when society was functioning and there was a lot to see. Kinda counter to the whole point of the arco if you think about it. We're supposed to telecommute or use the stairs rather than thousands of cars.
It might not be a happy little family, but I've got a couch, stove, 600 square feet, a three TVs, a great Eastward vista of the coast, and rent control. You have rocks, a sleeping bag, and a dream about repopulating the world with your own little pioneers.
I've got it good, and you've got delusions.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Directory Assistance
Welcome to NEST Zero Three. You are currently in Level Two, Tiger, Chicago - Five, Concourse. For navigation assistance, please chose your destination from the map.
You have chosen: Directory Location Help.
The ground footprint of North Eastern Seaboard Transfiguration Megastructure number Three is approximately one point two two million square feet (just over 28 acres). For convince it is divided into four sectors named for big cats - Lion, Panther, Tiger, and Cheetah. Each sector is divided into 100 zones, numbered one through ten on the East-West Axis, and named for an alphabetical progression of cities North South. The cities are:
Albany, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Evansville, Frankfurt, Gainesville, Huston, Independence, Jacksonville
Level numbers range from Negative 20 for sub basements, to maximum height of 186. Five digit address numbers can identify a specific shop or apartment within a sector.
Do you require further location help?
Welcome to NEST Zero Three. You are currently in Level Two, Tiger, Chicago - Five, Concourse. For navigation assistance, please chose your destination from the map.
You have chosen Level Fifty Seven Independence One. National Guard Outpost. These areas are not open to the public, please make another selection.
You have chosen Level Thirty Three Panther Evansville Eight. These Luxury Apartments are currently under lock down, please make another selection.
You have chosen Level Negative Five Lion Baltimore Two. Subsurface high speed rail lines. Do you require Travel Itinerary, Booking Assistance, or Temporary Lodgings?
***
"You're just going to walk past it?"
"Do you know how many thousand reanimates are in this place? Kill one and you'll bring ten more in. Its not like the buildings outside where you might be able to safe a couple of corridors. Besides, I think that ones special."
"Special? How so?"
"Every time I come in, one of them is at a directory assistance terminal, pressing buttons. Not necessarily the same one mind you - last time it was female. But there is always one."
"What, are they holding some sort of vigil?"
"That works for the lack of a better explanation. I don't know. Anyway, lets turn here. Cut through a restaurant to the freezer, from there you can get to the maintenance access ways. Fewer people used those than the main halls, so you're pretty safe once you're behind the scenes."
You have chosen: Directory Location Help.
The ground footprint of North Eastern Seaboard Transfiguration Megastructure number Three is approximately one point two two million square feet (just over 28 acres). For convince it is divided into four sectors named for big cats - Lion, Panther, Tiger, and Cheetah. Each sector is divided into 100 zones, numbered one through ten on the East-West Axis, and named for an alphabetical progression of cities North South. The cities are:
Albany, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Evansville, Frankfurt, Gainesville, Huston, Independence, Jacksonville
Level numbers range from Negative 20 for sub basements, to maximum height of 186. Five digit address numbers can identify a specific shop or apartment within a sector.
Do you require further location help?
Welcome to NEST Zero Three. You are currently in Level Two, Tiger, Chicago - Five, Concourse. For navigation assistance, please chose your destination from the map.
You have chosen Level Fifty Seven Independence One. National Guard Outpost. These areas are not open to the public, please make another selection.
You have chosen Level Thirty Three Panther Evansville Eight. These Luxury Apartments are currently under lock down, please make another selection.
You have chosen Level Negative Five Lion Baltimore Two. Subsurface high speed rail lines. Do you require Travel Itinerary, Booking Assistance, or Temporary Lodgings?
***
"You're just going to walk past it?"
"Do you know how many thousand reanimates are in this place? Kill one and you'll bring ten more in. Its not like the buildings outside where you might be able to safe a couple of corridors. Besides, I think that ones special."
"Special? How so?"
"Every time I come in, one of them is at a directory assistance terminal, pressing buttons. Not necessarily the same one mind you - last time it was female. But there is always one."
"What, are they holding some sort of vigil?"
"That works for the lack of a better explanation. I don't know. Anyway, lets turn here. Cut through a restaurant to the freezer, from there you can get to the maintenance access ways. Fewer people used those than the main halls, so you're pretty safe once you're behind the scenes."
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
NEST Logic
Consider for a moment, the Empire State Building. It is in an expensive and crowded part of town so the average person who works there must either live in an extremely expensive condo, or wake up two hours before they go to work to allow for transit, and finding parking. Just getting lunch will require more transit thrugh a busy city, and finding a spot again, and then of course there is the trip home.
Now change the layout a bit. Instead of 85 stories of commercial space, about half of that is offices,and the remainder is split between shops, restaurants, an internal utilities center, hydroponic gardens, a hospital complex, and the rest is apartments. (For more exact numbers, something like 40 stories commercial, 25 stories residential, 13 for a mall, movie theaters etc, five dedicated to wind turbines, water reclamation, etc. and a two story medical center.)
A person who lives and works in the building doesn't need a car. That saves perhaps two hours or so of driving each work day - which adds up to an extra 40 hours of time over a month! Furthermore, that is a savings of perhaps 600 dollars on a vehicle lease, 400 on the auto insurance, plus gas, maintenance, and parking garage fees. This also militates some traffic congestion and pollution for the city as a whole. While rent would in theory be very high, this is offset by the fact at least part of the utilities are self supported, and the building might have its own sales tax on the stores within.
This second concept is very close to what the NEST is built to do, but on a far greater scale. The base of one of these towers is equal to siting together four baseball stadiums, and the central spire rises 150 stories. While the real Empire State Building has 21,000 tenants, a NEST can have over half a million. Dedicated fields of wind farms and wave turbines to assist the panels and regenerative systems (a piezoelectric unit under a floor panel might only put out the voltage of a watch battery, but when 100,000 people step on that spot daily, it adds up) are often built concurrently. Each NEST has its own hospital and outpost emergency rooms, police, fire department, and even a national guard post with surface to air missile batteries internal amusement parks, radio stations...
To put it plainly, if you took all of Seattle Washington, Sheffield UK, or Oslo Norway, and poured it into a giant tube - you would end up with something like like one of these structures.
Amazingly expensive to create of course. But eliminate that many cars, shift all those people out of older less efficient structures, save all that horizontal space that would otherwise be eaten by by a sprawling urban mass... It might take a while, but the rewards would pay for it eventually.
Now change the layout a bit. Instead of 85 stories of commercial space, about half of that is offices,and the remainder is split between shops, restaurants, an internal utilities center, hydroponic gardens, a hospital complex, and the rest is apartments. (For more exact numbers, something like 40 stories commercial, 25 stories residential, 13 for a mall, movie theaters etc, five dedicated to wind turbines, water reclamation, etc. and a two story medical center.)
A person who lives and works in the building doesn't need a car. That saves perhaps two hours or so of driving each work day - which adds up to an extra 40 hours of time over a month! Furthermore, that is a savings of perhaps 600 dollars on a vehicle lease, 400 on the auto insurance, plus gas, maintenance, and parking garage fees. This also militates some traffic congestion and pollution for the city as a whole. While rent would in theory be very high, this is offset by the fact at least part of the utilities are self supported, and the building might have its own sales tax on the stores within.
This second concept is very close to what the NEST is built to do, but on a far greater scale. The base of one of these towers is equal to siting together four baseball stadiums, and the central spire rises 150 stories. While the real Empire State Building has 21,000 tenants, a NEST can have over half a million. Dedicated fields of wind farms and wave turbines to assist the panels and regenerative systems (a piezoelectric unit under a floor panel might only put out the voltage of a watch battery, but when 100,000 people step on that spot daily, it adds up) are often built concurrently. Each NEST has its own hospital and outpost emergency rooms, police, fire department, and even a national guard post with surface to air missile batteries internal amusement parks, radio stations...
To put it plainly, if you took all of Seattle Washington, Sheffield UK, or Oslo Norway, and poured it into a giant tube - you would end up with something like like one of these structures.
Amazingly expensive to create of course. But eliminate that many cars, shift all those people out of older less efficient structures, save all that horizontal space that would otherwise be eaten by by a sprawling urban mass... It might take a while, but the rewards would pay for it eventually.
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