Thursday, June 20, 2013

Denver 5 Comics: Description Interlude, Pt 01

Last week I mentioned I'd be taking a few weeks off to work on the next storyline. While I was doing that, I wanted to put up some new descriptions of supporting characters and places that would be appearing in various parts of the comic. Next week is more character description, but this week is about the U.N.I.T.Y. Headquarters at 0° - 0° .

Tac-0
U.N.I.T.Y. headquarters is located at 0° Latitude by 0° Longitude, in the Gulf of Guinea, about 600 km (334 nm) away from Ghana. It's considered a world heritage site and is technically administered by the United Nations. Water depth: 5 km.

It is an island centered around a geologically active depression with steam coming out of it. A low, wide semicircular building reaches just over halfway around that depression and spreads from that area to just a few dozen meters from the beach. The building is divided into three regular parts by piping and boilers which are part of the geothermal power system. The three parts of the building each have three more regular breaks, a higher central area with helicopter pads and lower areas that are designed for metas to fly to an from the buildings directly. The walls of those buildings are windowless and flat black, with white struts that run along the inside of the sections which support helicopter pads. Painted in UN powder blue along the exterior of each building is “U.N.I.T.Y.”

The part of Tac-0 which isn't filled with buildings or geothermal vents is the North side, which contains a pair of airstrips which parallel one another and run east/west in opposite directions. It should never come up, but the water is shallow for a considerable distance past both runways, explicitly preventing a dramatic plane crash to send a 747 of people into the depths of the Gulf of Guinea.

The northwestern portion of the main building lacks a helicopter pad, and instead has an elevated control tower. Many average folks who are aware of Tac-0 wrongly assume this is some kind of ominous control center

The real ominous control center of Tac-0 is in the 5 kilometers of building located beneath the surface. In constant, curving corridors lined with layered screens which simulate natural sunlight and a pleasant, tropical outdoor environment. An occasional real plant is brought in to assist with the environment and there are even mild, pleasant odors that are introduced to some areas.

Natural greenhouses and parks are also within the structure which is slightly less than ten times the height of One World Trade Center. Tac-0 is where most meta research and most of U.N.I.T.Y.'s administration is located. It's remote location is partially to assuage fears of the “mad science,” people imagine happens within its walls and mostly to double-box the Pandora's Box of secrets they discover.

Offices and labs are disappointingly similar to those in real life; there isn't much amazing technologies can do for paperwork and desks.

The important thing to remember about Tac-0 is that people within it can apear be almost anywhere, as long as they don't try to go outside.

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