Grand Tesla - The Centrifuge City

"Welcome to the Centrifuge, kid. Nothing but smoke and iron. The higher you go, the shinier it gets, but it's all the same. And down here? This is it's shit hole. We get all the ash and oil and hot air, and it drives even the toughest life far away. You can feel it's reeking breeze clear to the edge of the city. If it doesn't suffocate you, the starving people will over resources. If you've made it this far, though, a quick wit, reflexes, and broad shoulders is all you need to make a living." Sigma patted the boy's shoulders roughly. "It is Hell, after all, and no one writes the rules here."

The biggest city in North America, built on top of an old plain in the midwest. No earthquakes, no droughts, no hurricanes, and safely tucked far away from any of the rising oceans. There are multiple tiers to the city, each stacked upon each other and held together with countless megatons of every kind of metal. The upper level of the city is over two thousand square miles, and the ground level slums stretch even wider. It rises a half mile into the sky, and extends two miles below the ground. In the heart of the city, there is a monumental train station called the Centrifuge that rises like a column of churning gears. Each story accommodates a method of transportation, the subways, mines, and tunnels below ground, the freight locomotives at the slums level, the road ways just above it at the base of the city, the bullet and magnet trains stand even higher, their tracks like bridges webbed across the city. Dozens of stories sit for many other purposes between the roads and the platform at the top that towers higher than the rest of the city. The airport runs from here. Even more fantastic, each level spins, changing courses, opening and closing certain destinations, and earning the attraction it's famous name. The walls of the centrifuge are massive hydraulic columns, some built as lifts between the levels, some built as carriages for cargo exchange. The lifts were originally intended for the populace, but in recent years, whatever tier of the city you were born into, you were usually stuck on. The lifts in the upper city were fully operational and public, but with the wealth that comes with living higher up, there's so little reason to move. In the slums it is impossible for people to go up without leaving and reentering the strictly guarded city.

The highest point of the city and the tallest building in the world at just over 4000 feet. The tower tapers into a spire, just wide enough for control rooms and elevators and to resist the wind at such an elevation. It's always lit up beautifully and it's usually colored to contrast the bleached light of the airports and lower city levels. It is the central communications center, and is wired to all the levels. Dozens of stories between the airport and the top of the spire house operation bases for the city's PA system, broadcast and television networks, internet and wireless dispatchers, and satellite link stations. The spire itself acts as a massive antennae and signal booster, and along with it's access to satellites, can broadcast clearly to the world and override other signals. It's known to play a role in securing the city as well, with a hacking base capable of intercepting nearly every radio or wireless signal. As civilian access is strictly denied, not much else is known yet as to who occupies the tower and for what variety of additional purposes.

The highest inhabited tier is split into an upper and lower level. The lower level accepts cargo and passenger planes, and more civilians are directed downwards immediately into their appropriate district. The upper level is called the Dominion. Major politicians, government officials, and the country's leader and his or her staff reside here. Wealthy visitors, Leaders, and Ambassadors from other countries are offered the finest establishments here. Because flying vessels must come and go without obstacles, this tier is compact and built in long strips adjacent to the runways. There are flight decks, bunkers, and landing pads for choppers between the upper and lower level. There was rumor of a launch pad for space shuttles to be built into the top of the sector, but concern for debris onto the city or failed launches moved the project out of town.

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Coliseum/Arena/Amphitheater (entertainment and tourism, bullet trains bring in distant visitors)

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Civilian District. Largest chunk of the city (above ground) and has mostly roads. This sector is almost entirely enclosed and self contained. From it you cannot see below to any of the levels, and it serves as a roof for the Factory level. Service based jobs thrive. Ranges from lower middle class to upper class commoners.

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While called the factory, it is actually an entire tier of labor-based living. A good chunk of the population here lives well, but just as many are poor and age far too quickly. The living quarters are close together and people know everyone. It's a very social life where relationships are built on understanding. Because every tier of the city has it's own hospitals, markets, an typical services as well, there is plenty of other work, but it's still very much a factory oriented life. The factory is connected directly to the Terminal, where raw materials and supplies are brought into the city by efficient freight trains.

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The Terminal is a lifeless sector separating the Factory and the Gallows. It is all ran by hydraulics and machines and the columns of the Centrifuge are designed to lift train cars full of supplies rather than people. The trains themselves are manned, but people rarely work on the platforms. The machine's exhausts spew steam and smoke below the terminal level and hundreds of massive bellows flush the air outward so it doesn't rise back up into the higher levels of the city. Hanging directly below the turntables in the terminal is the Cradle where the energy reactors lie.

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The Cradle describes the base of the entire city (everything directly beneath the center and the centrifuge), but most upper-level citizens refer to the Cradle when discussing the reactors at the bottom of the Centrifuge (They 'hang' beneath the factory level They are well concealed and protected by the construction of the city's supports and aren't guarded from below.) Everything from the center to the edge of the city on the ground level is called the Gallows. The Gallows extends about 100 miles in every direction from the center before the metal fades to dirt, and it's commonly referred to as slums. The media portrays it as mostly uninhabited, and it's lift system is cut off from the other levels, but that is not at all the case. In fact, a good portion of the Gallows is as fully functional as the rest of the city. It's like a network of towns. The wealthiest portion of the Gallows has apartments and vehicles and a casino and the heaviest concentration of Anima in the city are harbored here.

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