The Nexus

The Nexus is the self-proclaimed capital of Thaeta. It was the first city colonized there and has always been the largest, serving historically as the moon’s only space-docking site and the center of commerce and government. Though human populations have spread over the course of a century, the Nexus remains the leading entity of Thaeta due to its military strength and tradition of supremacy. Responsible for organizing interactions between all other city-states, it has gained reputations both as the source of order in chaos and the heart of tyranny, depending on who you ask.

Geography and Climate
Situated at the middle of Thaeta’s largest known land mass, the Nexus was settled more for space shuttle convenience than for the richness of the landscape. Around its constantly expanding walls is a wide stretch of flat, rocky plains that support short-lived growths of wild crops, sown from the ancestors of failed natural harvests. Between the extremely long days and nights, the tons of waste discarded by the city, and the occasional floods after the rains of the late day month, only the most resilient grasses grow in the Nexus’s environs.

Within the city, the most advanced climate control technology keeps the weather moderate. Many lights operate on an artificial 24-hour clock, and windows can equipped with night or day settings. Frequent rains cannot be escaped in poorer parts, but most “outdoor” parks and gardens are encased in high-domes for the health and comfort of the life within.

The Nexus is as much a physical city as it is a technological presence. Nexus-based implants and organs are the most common choice for citizens of low and average income, and the Nexus-based Authority has a stronghold in almost every major city. The majority of the Grid is governed and operated by Nexus officials, as well. Those who are not affiliated with the Nexus must be deliberately so, and even then it asserts its presence as a looming threat to all who oppose it.

Commerce
Though it has recently been surpassed by Mourier as a leader of industry, the Nexus remains the moon’s foremost manufacturer of synthetic parts and weaponry. Because the Nexus serves as the source of Thaeta’s Grid, it is also a major producer of Grid-based software. It houses the headquarters of the world bank and it has a growing advertising sector.

What the Nexus boasts in manpower, technology, and military strength, its lacks in the basic resources required to support its reputation. Geographically distant from most major sources of raw metals and other chemicals, it depends on imports to supply the materials for its massive synthetic parts industry.

Culture
The Nexus is a fast-paced and moderately efficient amalgam of all classifications, specialties, ranks, and lifestyles. Its sheer size and diversity allows for some level of chaos, but the presence of the Council and the Authority keep things running as orderly as possible. From infancy, or the moment they arrive, the residents of the Nexus are taught that it is every individual’s duty to improve the greater whole. This philosophy, combined with the strength of law-enforcement, allows the city to be almost self-governing. Anyone who falls behind or tries to change the mechanism is crushed by it.

For this reason, the Nexus’s class system is incredibly fluid. Jobs are earned and kept by merit, resulting in an underground of poverty-stricken scavengers who could not keep up with their fellow millions. But is almost as easy to rise in the system as it is to fall. With the proper skill and ambition, more than a few have come out of that same underground to become respectable citizens. CEOs share dinners, but rarely the same childhood. It was a middle-class construction worker who joined the Authority and climbed the ranks to become the Joseph Aguilar that rules the most powerful city on Thaeta.

Many Nexans live for this system, living out of their cars and briefcases or in specialized sleeping pods. However, most are content to try and keep what they have, raising families and living modestly. Families with more than two children are allowed some of the largest living spaces available in the packed city, and neighborhoods tend to segregate themselves based on a loose understanding of financial status. Education is paramount to the city where knowledge is the difference between keeping up and falling behind. With lives prolonged by synthetic parts, children are required to attend school until they are 20 years old, and extra studies can last well into the early 30s.

Infrastructure
The Nexus is comprised of six districts, distinguished by major landmarks of government or business. The lines between them are recognized on maps, but little elsewhere. Each contains a residential sector, though residents of each district are not necessarily employed there.

Old Town
The Old Town District (or District 1) is defined by the boundaries of the very first human settlement on Thaeta. It is the former center of government, though many of the buildings have been converted to high-end shops, homes, and halls.

The century-old structures are short and utilitarian, the tallest being the six-story apartment complex that used to be the very first Conclave headquarters, but they are considered elegant in their simplicity and function well for their age. Due to necessary survival precautions in the first years of the Nexus’s settlement, this part of the city is made of a strong, dark-colored titanium-aluminum alloy and remains the second safest area in the Nexus in the event of storm or siege, behind the current Conclave headquarters in District 5. Today, they are decorated with clean and unobtrusive lines of color, following the minimalist fashion of most higher-class Nexans.

With the necessities of life relocated to other section of the city, the Old Town has been allowed to thrive as the city’s cultural hub, where most of its galleries and museums can be found. As such, residences in this district tend to be the most expensive. The Authority commands a greater presence than in most other districts, making crime and poverty all but absent.

International
The International District (or District 2) is known best as the major site for out-of-Nexus transportation. In addition to an airport, spaceport, and rail station connecting to Mourier, it includes the moon’s largest retail mall.

As the first sight of the city encountered by most visitors and tourists, the international district has earned the Nexus a reputation as the City of Lights. Dozens of levels of stores and restaurants glow, day or night, with art and advertisements; even the street signs are made of more light than matter. As well as a center of transportation, the International District is home to most major businesses, and includes a remarkable number of family unit homes who cling to a mostly false sense of stability in the ever-chaning marketplace. Most of the food and art in this district involves the incorporation and combination of now the dead cultures for which the district owes its success.

Industrial
The Industrial District (or District 3) is where the Nexus produces almost all of the hardware that turns its profits. Centers of design and construction both are located here, sometimes even in the same building.

It is visually similar to the uptown International District, made of the same cheap materials and including a somewhat lesser extent of gaudy lights and advertising. Unlike its neighbor, the Industrial District is ever-expanding, mostly disorganized, and less clean. Rates of crime and violence tend to be higher in this area, but so does housing and retail tend to be cheapest. The wealthiest engineers can take high-flying taxis above the chaos of the area, but most are not so lucky. Getting a job or home in this district can push families and individuals into a near endless cycle of poverty.

University
The University District (or District 4) is home to the Nexus’s higher learning colleges: the Logan School of Engineering, the Alma School of Medicine, and the Izzo School of Design. It is also home to the city’s largest domed garden and an extensive athletics facility, where large events and competitions are usually held.

The three campuses snake around and between the Old Town and Mathis Districts, and the spaces between are mostly comprised of university living and cheap eateries. Instead of steel or titanium, the University District is primarily made of old-age brick and marble imported directly from Earth. After shipments ceased, the area began to incorporate more accessible metals as it required repairs, turning it into a sometimes strange but considerably artistic mix of ancient and modern design.

Mathis
The Mathis District (or District 5) is where all government agencies are located, including Conclave headquarters. It is walled away from the rest of the city and all residences within belong to high-ranking government and Authority officials.

This is geographically the smallest of the districts, but only because its private architects were instructed to build up instead of out. The titanium buildings tower dozens of stories above the rest of the city, so that they loom over the world as physically as they do culturally. It is said that the Conclave, who are presumed to convene in the topmost floors, can see the ocean as they discuss matters of state.

Entering and travelling within the Mathis District is difficult especially for non-members of the government, but the Conclave still maintains an official platform of openness and invites any citizen to traverse the red tape and present a problem personally to whoever is able to hear it. Understandably, most citizens leave the bureaucracy to their elected officials.

Agricultural
The “Ag” District (or District 6) includes all of the food-production areas in and around the Nexus. Fields and farms are often enclosed for increased climate control, as well as day-cycle regulated for predominately earth-based plants and animals. Many are stacked stories high and below the ground to save space, but entering any field-room offers the illusion of a sprawling, open-air setting.

Few live inside of field-rooms, though they do contain some sleeping pods for extended-hour workers. Commerical and residential areas are wedged between these giant production halls and are structured much like the other areas of the city. Alongside the International District, the residences in the Ag District are home to many family unit apartments. Though centers of commerce tend to be smaller, they are no less competitive. No one can afford a slow pace in the Nexus.