06/08/24 ♦ keys to the bloc

getting around in ultek's modular cities

i've been giving a lot of thought lately to ultek and its place in the current microcosm canon. it's one of the more important locations as it's where most of the development into direct brain-computer interfaces happened in the microcosm (save the viri who were basically doing it in their sleep, but a bunch of them died for no good reason and they didn't share any of their homework with the syndication)

i suppose designing a civilisation has to start from the ground level, like building something. i just haven't been sure where to start... although i do have plenty of ideas, one of which is the topic of today's page.

so - how do you get around the blocs? we should start with...

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all blocs have a rooftop area, but only a small part of them tends to be reserved for landing vehicles. the tallest bloc has a height of around 2-3 kilometres, and the wind gets really bad at height!! only licensed pilots can land on the rooftop, and a strict weight limit reduces the types of ship you can set down up there. an SD-05 can - they're little airhoppers designed for porting light cargo and passengers, with an emphasis on light cargo.

so, where do you land? the majority of the blocs - four in all, so like, one doesn't i guess - have a big section of levelled ground laid a ways out from their foundation, where air traffic can come and go. they have runways too, if ya nasty. Bloc B's the only one with a double runway. the microcosm at large recognises that VTOL is less efficient than glide-to-runway but the ultans only had so much to work with while their climate stopped working cut them some slack

that being said the landing areas are pretty old. they're maintained of course, you won't just fall through the pad and they are built on solid foundations, but refurbishment comes slow and you'll end up finding weirdness here and there like disquietingly-loose walkways and uneven surfaces. if you're landing at Bloc A you'll find a monument assembled from scrap metal near the port authority complex

the monument was built to commemorate the First Landing, the moment when the Syndication made itself known to the Ultans.