Making some content and grammar corrections...
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Pavonis Arcology
Pavonis Mons in Tharsis is home to not one but several interconnected, quasi-subterranean communities that operate under the banner of the Pavonis Arcology. All of them were built and are still supported and partly managed by the NERV Foundation. They are each a part of the multi-phase plan, Project RED EARTH, that is the main focus of the foundation’s Natural Environment Re-creation Venture. It is worth mentioning that, similar to Canada, Pavonis is bilingual in its signage and education: English and Japanese, reflecting its founders.
Flag of Armitage III Mars, used by Pavonis
Using Binford’s super-hardy construction material vulcanocrete – a ceramic material made up of the lava rock of Pavonis herself mixed with ground-up quartz and something else (generic plaster mixed with pure handwavium, it’s not a very good secret) – the NERV Foundation successfully carved several Martian settlements into the extinct volcano.
While originally rather bare of settlers who didn’t directly work for NERV members, the arcology had a boom in population once construction on RED EARTH Phase Four started in March 2011 when the Elies, at least for the foreseeable future, threw their lot in with Pavonis. It also saw a slight increase during the Boskone War of Belters, but the majority who went to Mars instead of cislunar space went to Port Lowell and Helium, instead. The arcology’ biggest population boom to date was after the opening ceremony for New Port City when a surprising number of Japanese immigrants moved there.
[table]Contents [/table]NERV Foundation
See NERV Foundation article.
Red Earth
Phase One – NERV Headquarters (No First Ancestral Race Lifeforms were Harmed During Construction…): Started in 2010, the western quarter of “the Big Peacock” houses the primary production lines, offices, and labs of the NERV Foundation and SEELE Council members. Declared fully operational in January 2011.
Phase Two – Hollow Fields Plantation (…or any Mad Scientist Students…): More multi-sectioned, enormous greenhouses than plantation, these sources of fresh foodstuffs are run by NERV Section One’s Agro Divisionand were constructed at the same time as NERV HQ to provide local perishables and a source of export revenue. Also like NERV HQ, while operational the moment the first greenhouse was finished, constant improvements and the occasional expansion continue.
Phase Three – H.G. Wells Spaceport (…and Neither were any Tripod-Driving Natives): located in the southern portion of Pavonis Mons’s cone, it was completed in November 2012. Facilities include both slips for ships of various sizes, several large joint hangars, as well as cheaply rentable three to five room apartment flats called The Peacock Arms and simple but comfortable temporary rooms at Hotel California. It was constructed at the same time as and followed closely by…
Phase Four – The Town of Sheffield (“For the last time Kazuo– NO SPACE ELEVATOR!!”): completed in February 2013. Sheffield is built in an ancient (at least 2.2 billion years old) secondary, vertical lava tube of Pavonis that was covered by its latter, more obvious one. Uncovered and excavated during the spaceport’s construction (the precious stones recovered filled the foundation’s joint project coffer quite nicely), the resulting settlement proved amusingly funnel-shaped.
Phase Five – The City of New Port (“Yes, I know the city plan is out of NGE, but using the original name just doesn’t fit.”): After the caldera’s vulcanocrete lining and Genesis-made, pitch black pressure dome were completed in January 2014, construction on Phase Four was carried out in as secret an environment as possible using Cyberdyne’s T-Series non-sapient robots as laborers and with non-disclosure enforced supervision. After a certain fellow with the initials “K.S.” was granted reluctant admission to assure the more paranoid that nothing untoward was happening and agreeing to secrecy so long as this was true (“K.S.” actually seems to get a kick out of just grinning whenever someone asks him what he learned), nothing but rumors about parks and “the first forests on Mars” managed to leak out until the Convention at Coruscant, shortly after the Pan Incident, when the SEELE Council decided that something ‘very positive’ needed to occur at the Convention for morale’s sake... see story “Red Earth Opening Ceremony” [Soon To Come]
New Port City, main district (2029)
Phase Six – The Geofront (“’How did it get hollow?’ Oh, come on – where do you think all the raw material for the vulcanocrete used in Phase Five came from?!”):
An attempt by the NERV Foundation to create a self-sustaining ecosystem, The information gained during its development will hopefully provide useful data to the Mars Terraforming Project.
Rumors that the Geofront serves as the base of operations for a secret section of the NERV Foundation are, of course, complete hogwash.
‘Ecosystem Monitoring Facility’/NERV Section Five Complex
The Sightings: In the countless manmade tunnels and caverns of Pavonis, sometimes the mind plays tricks on you – or does it? Rumors of sightings of a mysterious teenage Japanese boy wearing a bandana and carrying a backpack and umbrella wandering the tunnels lost are told in the bars of Sheffield. And that isn’t all…
Elysium Cooperative
No description of Pavonis can really be given without including a mention of the basics about the Elysium Cooperative. Slayers Fen, Rune Soldier Fen, Zero no Tsukaima Fen, GURPS and Palladium Fantasy Fen… Seemingly all fantasy-minded short of the Wizards and D&Ders decided to band together to claim a homeland for themselves on the Red Planet.
Or, at least, to prepare for a future claiming of said homeland. The “Elies” have decided that, when the time comes once the Mars Terraforming Project reaches that point, the Continent of Elysium and her islands in the Sea of Utopia shall be their Promised Land.
Until then, however, the Elies have hunkered down in Pavonis, some commuting daily to the future sites of their individual or collective settlements to do what work they already can – the (temporarily!) pressure-domed, pan-fandom city of Seiluun and her various white-walled city districts seems to be coming right along – on Elysium, while still others work for NERV or independent Pavonis employers to meet ends meat and save up funds for their own special projects.
Education
Until what became known as the Red Earth Opening Ceremony, the only educational facilities available were those classes available at the Sheffield Community Center. Once Akamatsu-sensei (who requested the Hinata-sou built as a private home for himself in return) and other copyright holders secretly signed off on it, however, Mahora Academy, with mixed and separate gender classes from elementary to graduate (and later post-graduate) curriculums was ready to open following New Port City’s big reveal.
Religion
Reflecting the American and Japanese roots of its founders, religious needs can be met at the non-denominational Travelers’ Chapel in Sheffield and, later, the Tatsumiya Shrine in New Port City. Several alternatives not sponsored by the foundation also exist.
Infrastructure
The four departments of the NERV Foundation and their various divisions handle most public services throughout the arcology.
The Pavonis Arcology Police Department, Pavonis Arcology Fire Department, and their precincts, while started by the NERV Foundation, were immediately decentralized form NERV to private control following completion.
Sheffield and New Port City each possess a mayor and a town and city council, respectively. H.G. Wells Spaceport and Hallow Fields Plantation each have an administrator appointed by the SEELE Council. NERV Headquarters and the Geofront are directly under NERV Foundation control.
At the CorusCon it was announced that a new five-member council, the GEHIRN Council, would be taking over the Oavonis governance duties previously held by the SEELE Council starting that January. The GEHIRN Council is composed of the democratically elected mayors of Sheffield and New Port City, the administrators of H.G. Wells and Hollow Fields (now to be appointed by GEHIRN majority vote), and the SEELE Chairman representing the NERV Foundation.
Entertainment
While nowhere near the totality of Pavonis’ entertainment options, some of them include: various activities at the Sheffield Community Center, the same community’s four-screen Majestic Theatre, various clubs and the sixteen screen Peacock Megaplex on NPC’s Electric Avenue, and, starting in 2022, the fantastic Kaleido Stage.
Food
In addition to several common American and Japanese chain and franchise stores, Pavonis also features: Cheers (an American-style bar based on the one in the television show of the same name; Sheffield), Bar Nonbou (a combination Japanese-style bar and Korean BBQ; Sheffield), The Italian Job (Italian food, obviously; New Port City), My Big Fat Greek Restaurant (Greek cuisine, again obviously; New Port City), Café Relish (a Japanese maid café; New Port City), and The Ministry of Silly Walks (an English-style pub; Sheffield).
Trivia
Due to a bit of secretly purposeful micro-managing by several SEELE Council members, Toyota and Ford each opened shops on the same day at the same time on 24 May 2019 on Copperhead Road in New Port City across from the Rubber Duck Trucking Company –they each claim right of “first car dealership off of Earth.”
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NERV Foundation
The NERV Foundation is essentially a business conglomerate with a board of directors – the SEELE Council – who, while maintaining complete control over their own enterprises, cooperate heavily with one another in various joint projects and philanthropic ventures.
Emblem used by the NERV Foundation
The most ambitious of the foundation’s philanthropic ventures and the plan from which the foundation draws its name is its Natural Environment Re-creation Venture, the natural environment in question being the natural environment for humanity, the current focus project of which is Project RED EARTH (see Pavonis Arcology article).
[table]Contents [/table]NERV Section One
The Pavonis Arcology Support Services (PASS) provide and service electrical utilities, water supply and treatment, life support, running Hollow Fields (Agro Division), and similar work for the Pavonis Arcology.
NERV Section Two
The Special Tactics And Rescue Service (STARS)is a paramilitary organization whose Security Division, Defense Division, Intelligence Division, Emergency Division, Logistics Division, and Hazard Division serve the NERV Foundation and Pavonis Arcology.
Badge prototype; RPD shield and POLICE replaced with Armitage III planet-in-tree symbol and PAVONIS banner in final version
Note: The STARS do not provide regular police and firefighting services.
NERV Section Three
Technological Research And Development (T-RAD)…enough said.
NERV Section Four
Biological Research And Development (B-RAD)… ditto.
Joint Projects
Ongoing joint research and development projects between the NERV Foundation members include:
Project FRAGMENT (Altimit/Heartland project that produced a working version of the DotHack franchise in-series MMORPG, The World [available November 2012])
Project ATF (energy fields and force fields)
Project SUPER SOLENOID (energy generation)
Project EGO BOUNDRY (man-machine interfaces)
Project HEINFLICK LIMIT (FTL technologies)
Project REFRESHER (following Struve Conspiracy, data on biomoding the Boskones considered ‘useless’ recovered during investigation used to offer those getting on in years and otherwise down in health an option of several ‘controlled biomods’ – Antarctic Press Furries [‘too strong and free willed’] and Fantasy Short Folk [‘too limited a customer base’] surprisingly popular, as is the Mischievous Kitsune Biomod)
Project DIRAC SEA (dimensional studies [after Interdimensional Incursion Incident and release of WFC])
Project LONGINUS LANCE (paranormal studies [after Interdimensional Incursion Incident and release of WFC])
Project BLACK MOON (Boskone War development plan for defense programs; discontinued after the war; rumors that some continued under a secret NERV section are, of course, entirely preposterous)
DECA
The Digital Enclave and Cyberspace Archive is the central computer core of the foundation. It is connected, but not integral, to the Pavonis Intranet, and can be isolated at a moment’s notice both manually and automatically.
As one might imagine, it is controlled by the three MAGI – but each MAGI is itself composed of three artificial intelligences. Casper is made up of three based upon several ‘Vagrant AIs’ from the DotHack franchise: Aura, Lycoris, and Macha. Balthazar is made up of Meg, Lou, and Nam from Bubblegum Crisis. Whoever Melchior consists of, however, is classified.
NERV Section Five
***WHITENOISE***
This section of NERV – the U.N. Mars Force (UNMF) – does not exist.
ZotE Bufram Militia flag. Used by the U.N. Mars Force
DETAILS FORTHCOMING
Project WHITE MOON
***WHITENOISE***
STARS Intelligence Division File 1028.4
Investigative Report: Ravenwood (private military contractor)
Cross-Reference IR(s) x4: Jennings & Rall, Incorporated; CyberConnect Corporation; Tricell Pharmaceutical Company; Struve, Harry
DETAILS FORTHCOMING
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SEELE Council
The NERV Foundation is essentially a business conglomerate with a board of directors – the SEELE Council – who, while maintaining complete control over their own enterprises, cooperate heavily with one another in various joint projects and philanthropic ventures.
The seven people presently on the council are: Alex Xanatos, CEO Cyberdyne; Biwa Mishima, CEO Mishima; Mary Gamblin, CEO Altimit; James “Jimmy”Blake, CEO Binford; Kazuo Jenkins, CEO Ajax; Lana Izavia, CEO Heartland; and The O, CEO DeLorean.
Former council members consist of: the late Airi Ikuhara-Xanatos, CEO Ikuhara; and Harry Struve, ex CEO WilPharma, on the run and wanted by Great Justice following the Battle of Serenity Valley.
Council chairmen: Alex Xanatos (founding-January 2019) and Kazuo Jenkins (January 2019-Present)
[table]Contents [/table]
Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, Limited
Producing human-use bionics and non-sapient robots, it originally outsourced a goodly amount of its electrical components from daneside sources and later fellow councilmember Ikuhara Electronics. Following the Battle of Serenity Valley, Cyberdyne absorbed Ikuhara and its product lines in keeping with the prior owner’s wishes.
Its bionics fall under the C-Series of products, which are increasingly customizable by the generation.
Its main line of robots come under the T-Series which, while having an internal computer brain, possesses only a number of AI-designed specialist systems that are designed to be easily modifiable and reprogrammable, o and consist of:
T-100 GASAR (Ground Assault and Support Actions Robot; based on the T-1s/T-10s from the T3 movie; 70 were made for NERV HQ defense; 10 units designated T-110, based on the versions from the Salvation movie, were made and sold to Operation Great Justice, at cost; neither are legally available to the public)
T-200 Maintenance and Repair Robot (made in various chassis configurations, the earliest T-202 model was available to the public on 11 January 2011)
T-300 Specialist Combat Robot Series (Project BLACK MOON programs to replicate the T-325 Mototerminator, T-350 Snowterminator, and T-375 Hydrobot; programs ‘requested’ by Great Justice to be suspended following Boskone War conclusion; see ‘NERV Section Five’)
T-400 Stealth Combat Humanoid Robot (Project BLACK MOON program to replicate the T-HX; program ‘requested’ by Great Justice to be suspended following Boskone War conclusion; see ‘NERV Section Five’; no successful prototype yet produced as of 2020)
T-500 “Harvester” Heavy Construction Robot (customizable heavy labor robot; available to the public 18 March 2012)
T-600 Multi-Function Humanoid Robot (first successful fully-humanoid robot approved for mass production; most noted quirk is that any attempt at disguising a unit as being human fails [often humorously], much like with its rubber-skinned source of inspiration; available to the public 5 November 2013; AI-Avatar capability upgrade package sold separately at same time)
T-700 Heavy-Function Humanoid Robot (essentially a larger and more durable version of the T-600, and available to the public at the same time as its ‘little brother’)
T-800 Advanced-Function Humanoid Robot (available to the public starting on 12 August 2018, the T-800 Series initially comes in the T-801 “Governator” Classic Model, T-825 “Cameron” Customizable Female Model, and T-850 “Cromartie” Customizable Male Model; utilizing WilPharma pioneered CMS-101 Synthflesh, it is half again as expensive as the still-available T-600)
WilPharma Corporation
Initially acting as a middle-man for Earth-made supplies, WilPharma began coming into its own in early 2011 when it began producing its own hospital grade basic materials, and received a hard won victory when the several daneside health organizations certified its products in 2012.
The corporation received a major shake-up following the Battle of Serenity Valley, where evidence recovered by the Roughriders revealed that not only had CEO Harry Struve been supplying the Boskones via daneside intermediaries, but had concocted a plot with the terrorists to kill the other members of the SEELE Council – of the nine members, only he did not attend SerenityCon – and allow him to subsume control of the NERV Foundation and the Pavonis Arcology.
Following these events, with the corporation routed of Boskones and their supporters, control of WilPharma was seized by the SEELE Council until such a time as the surviving seven members could appoint a replacement as CEO. This presents problems (see Ikuhara section).
Mishima Heavy Industries
Your friendly, neighborhood defense concern.
Like many of the original SEELE Council members, Mishima started out supplying Fenspace with products it bought daneside as a middleman. Uniquely to Mishima’s case, and a source of much groaning and headaches once the rest found out about it, a goodly amount of its start-up capital went to purchasing items off of black market arms dealers – partly to keep them out of the wrong hands, mostly because Biwa, being the military otaku she is, just couldn’t help herself. Fortunately, the council members managed to keep any of this from leaking out (they hope), though they now have a secret stockpile of weapons to make any Third World dictator envious.
This being Fenspace, and Ms. Mishima being a Japanese military otaku, one would think her company’s products would include mecha – one would be right.
Following the mobile suit scale MHI-M1 to M3’s failures, a try at arm slave scale produced and admittedly underpowered and unimpressive MHI-M4 “Mistral II” for sale in July 2011. The much improved MHI-M5 “Type-96” was available by April 2013, with a slightly better MHI-M6 “Bushnell” arriving in May 2015.
Rumors of a large, metal container labeled “MHI-M9” and “GERNSBACK” being spotted in transit through a NERV Personnel Only tunnel in Pavonis is denied outright (see‘NERV Section Five’).
Altimit Corporation
Internet service, network setup, software development, specialist programs, computer games – if it needs to speak 010010, Altimit are the folks to talk to –especially as most of the employees are AI themeselves. Starting by purchasing the rights to the DotHack series and its related material, a LINUX-based operating system, ALTIMIT OS, has been in use by the NERV Foundation and SEELE Council members since 2010 (upgraded to ALTIMIT MINE OS following the ‘Struve Conspiracy’).
Binford Tools Company
Producing first hand tools and basic parts, then power tools, and finally actual heavy equipment, an unknown fen working for a building crew at Mars Vegas once famously commented that Binford could be described as “the backbone of any construction project on Mars.” Needless to say, they take great pride in this.
Two of Binford’s earliest successes – so early that the CEO was also sole employee –were also critical to the development of the Pavonis arcology: vulcanocrete and the ultrasonic laser. Vulcanocrete is a ceramic material made up of lava rock mixed with ground-up quartz and something else (generic plaster mixed with pure handwavium, it’s not a very good secret). The ultrasonic laser is more the former than the latter, it is made out of old sonogram and sonar equipment and modeled after the device of the same name from The Core – unfortunately, its not quite as effective as its inspiration and, thus far, all attempts at making unobtanium have proven futile.
In a quirk that alternately annoys and amuses the company’s employees and owner to no end, no handwaved Binford product will work correctly unless it bears a ‘6100 Series’ label.
Ajax Material Supply Company
Growing out of initial obscurity in the early 2010s, whether it’s a product they produce themselves or import from Earth, Ajax as of 2022 is recognized as the largest chemical, wood, paper, plastic, and stone supplier outside of cislunar space.
They’re initially tried to supply metals as well, but there was so much competition there already that they just gave up on it – the main reason that metals of various sorts are now one of Pavonis’ largest imports.
Heartland Play Systems
Handwavium and toys… there exists not the space to encompass the joy and madness conceived.
Note: Never ask about the Chucky dolls… just don’t…
Extra Note: Their Jumanji holographic board game is pretty fun, though.
DeLorean Motor Company
Purchased outright from Stephen Wynne, The O (never forget the ‘The’) now slaps the DMC logo on both waved and unwaved nich-market products both space- and planet-side.
Products include the DMC-12 Classic, the DMC-38 Yako (based Yak 38 Custom jet interceptor in Evangelion; space-capable), the DMC-40 Blue Angel (shuttle based on ‘UN 789’ plane in Evangelion), the DMC-48 AD-Police Interceptor (chiefly exported to Genaros; ‘Car 48, Where are You?’ opening music must be played before starting), and the DMC-50 Peel (based Peel P50; rights purchased 2016).
Ikuhara Electronics
Selling waved, partly waved, and non-waved electronics and electrical components, Ikuhara was a successful business from its start to its end. Following Airi Ikuhara-Xanatos’ death at the Battle of Serenity Valley, the company was absorbed by Cyberdyne, per its late owner’s wishes.
According to the SEELE Council Charter, the membership of the council must remain at nine persons. This means that another business enterprise must be invited to join both the council as well as the NERV Foundation. This also means revealing a number of secrets to said invitee, some still only in the planning stages. The council is debating its choices…
Politics and Goals
While encouraging maintaining ties of various sorts with Earth, the SEELE Council is quite open with its opinion that each settlement on Mars - and in Fenspace in its entirety - should be as self-sufficient at least in the essentials as possible.
The council fully supported the goals of Operation GREAT JUSTICE, and later the organization Ggreat Justice, providing its still internally incomplete joint flagship - an unarmed but heavily armored design based on the carrier submarine from Full Metal Panic!, the SV Tuatha de Danaan (TDD-1) - as a troop transport at the Battle of Boskone Prime. While reclaiming the ship post-battle, a second ship of the class - SV Celestial Court (TDD-2) - was sold at cost to Great Justice in June 2017.
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Pavonis Arcology
Pavonis Mons in Tharsis is home to not one but several interconnected, quasi-subterranean communities that operate under the banner of the Pavonis Arcology. All of them were built and are still supported and partly managed by the NERV Foundation. They are each a part of the multi-phase plan, Project RED EARTH, that is the main focus of the foundation’s Natural Environment Re-creation Venture. It is worth mentioning that, similar to Canada, Pavonis is bilingual in its signage and education: English and Japanese, reflecting its founders.
Flag of Armitage III Mars, used by Pavonis
Using Binford’s super-hardy construction material vulcanocrete – a ceramic material made up of the lava rock of Pavonis herself mixed with ground-up quartz and something else (generic plaster mixed with pure handwavium, it’s not a very good secret) – the NERV Foundation successfully carved several Martian settlements into the extinct volcano.
While originally rather bare of settlers who didn’t directly work for NERV members, the arcology had a boom in population once construction on RED EARTH Phase Four started in March 2011 when the Elies, at least for the foreseeable future, threw their lot in with Pavonis. It also saw a slight increase during the Boskone War of Belters, but the majority who went to Mars instead of cislunar space went to Port Lowell and Helium, instead. The arcology’ biggest population boom to date was after the opening ceremony for New Port City when a surprising number of Japanese immigrants moved there.
[table]
- 1 NERV Foundation
- 2 Red Earth
- 3 Elysium Cooperative
- 4 Education
- 5 Religion
- 6 Infrastructure
- 7 Entertainment
- 8 Food
- 9 Trivia
See NERV Foundation article.
Red Earth
Phase One – NERV Headquarters (No First Ancestral Race Lifeforms were Harmed During Construction…): Started in 2010, the western quarter of “the Big Peacock” houses the primary production lines, offices, and labs of the NERV Foundation and SEELE Council members. Declared fully operational in January 2011.
Phase Two – Hollow Fields Plantation (…or any Mad Scientist Students…): More multi-sectioned, enormous greenhouses than plantation, these sources of fresh foodstuffs are run by NERV Section One’s Agro Divisionand were constructed at the same time as NERV HQ to provide local perishables and a source of export revenue. Also like NERV HQ, while operational the moment the first greenhouse was finished, constant improvements and the occasional expansion continue.
Phase Three – H.G. Wells Spaceport (…and Neither were any Tripod-Driving Natives): located in the southern portion of Pavonis Mons’s cone, it was completed in November 2012. Facilities include both slips for ships of various sizes, several large joint hangars, as well as cheaply rentable three to five room apartment flats called The Peacock Arms and simple but comfortable temporary rooms at Hotel California. It was constructed at the same time as and followed closely by…
Phase Four – The Town of Sheffield (“For the last time Kazuo– NO SPACE ELEVATOR!!”): completed in February 2013. Sheffield is built in an ancient (at least 2.2 billion years old) secondary, vertical lava tube of Pavonis that was covered by its latter, more obvious one. Uncovered and excavated during the spaceport’s construction (the precious stones recovered filled the foundation’s joint project coffer quite nicely), the resulting settlement proved amusingly funnel-shaped.
Phase Five – The City of New Port (“Yes, I know the city plan is out of NGE, but using the original name just doesn’t fit.”): After the caldera’s vulcanocrete lining and Genesis-made, pitch black pressure dome were completed in January 2014, construction on Phase Four was carried out in as secret an environment as possible using Cyberdyne’s T-Series non-sapient robots as laborers and with non-disclosure enforced supervision. After a certain fellow with the initials “K.S.” was granted reluctant admission to assure the more paranoid that nothing untoward was happening and agreeing to secrecy so long as this was true (“K.S.” actually seems to get a kick out of just grinning whenever someone asks him what he learned), nothing but rumors about parks and “the first forests on Mars” managed to leak out until the Convention at Coruscant, shortly after the Pan Incident, when the SEELE Council decided that something ‘very positive’ needed to occur at the Convention for morale’s sake... see story “Red Earth Opening Ceremony” [Soon To Come]
New Port City, main district (2029)
Phase Six – The Geofront (“’How did it get hollow?’ Oh, come on – where do you think all the raw material for the vulcanocrete used in Phase Five came from?!”):
An attempt by the NERV Foundation to create a self-sustaining ecosystem, The information gained during its development will hopefully provide useful data to the Mars Terraforming Project.
Rumors that the Geofront serves as the base of operations for a secret section of the NERV Foundation are, of course, complete hogwash.
‘Ecosystem Monitoring Facility’/NERV Section Five Complex
The Sightings: In the countless manmade tunnels and caverns of Pavonis, sometimes the mind plays tricks on you – or does it? Rumors of sightings of a mysterious teenage Japanese boy wearing a bandana and carrying a backpack and umbrella wandering the tunnels lost are told in the bars of Sheffield. And that isn’t all…
Elysium Cooperative
No description of Pavonis can really be given without including a mention of the basics about the Elysium Cooperative. Slayers Fen, Rune Soldier Fen, Zero no Tsukaima Fen, GURPS and Palladium Fantasy Fen… Seemingly all fantasy-minded short of the Wizards and D&Ders decided to band together to claim a homeland for themselves on the Red Planet.
Or, at least, to prepare for a future claiming of said homeland. The “Elies” have decided that, when the time comes once the Mars Terraforming Project reaches that point, the Continent of Elysium and her islands in the Sea of Utopia shall be their Promised Land.
Until then, however, the Elies have hunkered down in Pavonis, some commuting daily to the future sites of their individual or collective settlements to do what work they already can – the (temporarily!) pressure-domed, pan-fandom city of Seiluun and her various white-walled city districts seems to be coming right along – on Elysium, while still others work for NERV or independent Pavonis employers to meet ends meat and save up funds for their own special projects.
Education
Until what became known as the Red Earth Opening Ceremony, the only educational facilities available were those classes available at the Sheffield Community Center. Once Akamatsu-sensei (who requested the Hinata-sou built as a private home for himself in return) and other copyright holders secretly signed off on it, however, Mahora Academy, with mixed and separate gender classes from elementary to graduate (and later post-graduate) curriculums was ready to open following New Port City’s big reveal.
Religion
Reflecting the American and Japanese roots of its founders, religious needs can be met at the non-denominational Travelers’ Chapel in Sheffield and, later, the Tatsumiya Shrine in New Port City. Several alternatives not sponsored by the foundation also exist.
Infrastructure
The four departments of the NERV Foundation and their various divisions handle most public services throughout the arcology.
The Pavonis Arcology Police Department, Pavonis Arcology Fire Department, and their precincts, while started by the NERV Foundation, were immediately decentralized form NERV to private control following completion.
Sheffield and New Port City each possess a mayor and a town and city council, respectively. H.G. Wells Spaceport and Hallow Fields Plantation each have an administrator appointed by the SEELE Council. NERV Headquarters and the Geofront are directly under NERV Foundation control.
At the CorusCon it was announced that a new five-member council, the GEHIRN Council, would be taking over the Oavonis governance duties previously held by the SEELE Council starting that January. The GEHIRN Council is composed of the democratically elected mayors of Sheffield and New Port City, the administrators of H.G. Wells and Hollow Fields (now to be appointed by GEHIRN majority vote), and the SEELE Chairman representing the NERV Foundation.
Entertainment
While nowhere near the totality of Pavonis’ entertainment options, some of them include: various activities at the Sheffield Community Center, the same community’s four-screen Majestic Theatre, various clubs and the sixteen screen Peacock Megaplex on NPC’s Electric Avenue, and, starting in 2022, the fantastic Kaleido Stage.
Food
In addition to several common American and Japanese chain and franchise stores, Pavonis also features: Cheers (an American-style bar based on the one in the television show of the same name; Sheffield), Bar Nonbou (a combination Japanese-style bar and Korean BBQ; Sheffield), The Italian Job (Italian food, obviously; New Port City), My Big Fat Greek Restaurant (Greek cuisine, again obviously; New Port City), Café Relish (a Japanese maid café; New Port City), and The Ministry of Silly Walks (an English-style pub; Sheffield).
Trivia
Due to a bit of secretly purposeful micro-managing by several SEELE Council members, Toyota and Ford each opened shops on the same day at the same time on 24 May 2019 on Copperhead Road in New Port City across from the Rubber Duck Trucking Company –they each claim right of “first car dealership off of Earth.”
~~~
NERV Foundation
The NERV Foundation is essentially a business conglomerate with a board of directors – the SEELE Council – who, while maintaining complete control over their own enterprises, cooperate heavily with one another in various joint projects and philanthropic ventures.
Emblem used by the NERV Foundation
The most ambitious of the foundation’s philanthropic ventures and the plan from which the foundation draws its name is its Natural Environment Re-creation Venture, the natural environment in question being the natural environment for humanity, the current focus project of which is Project RED EARTH (see Pavonis Arcology article).
[table]
- 1 NERV Section One
- 2 NERV Section Two
- 3 NERV Section Three
- 4 NERV Section Four
- 5 Joint Projects
- 6 DECA
- 7 NERV Section Five
- 8 Project WHITE MOON
The Pavonis Arcology Support Services (PASS) provide and service electrical utilities, water supply and treatment, life support, running Hollow Fields (Agro Division), and similar work for the Pavonis Arcology.
NERV Section Two
The Special Tactics And Rescue Service (STARS)is a paramilitary organization whose Security Division, Defense Division, Intelligence Division, Emergency Division, Logistics Division, and Hazard Division serve the NERV Foundation and Pavonis Arcology.
Badge prototype; RPD shield and POLICE replaced with Armitage III planet-in-tree symbol and PAVONIS banner in final version
Note: The STARS do not provide regular police and firefighting services.
NERV Section Three
Technological Research And Development (T-RAD)…enough said.
NERV Section Four
Biological Research And Development (B-RAD)… ditto.
Joint Projects
Ongoing joint research and development projects between the NERV Foundation members include:
Project FRAGMENT (Altimit/Heartland project that produced a working version of the DotHack franchise in-series MMORPG, The World [available November 2012])
Project ATF (energy fields and force fields)
Project SUPER SOLENOID (energy generation)
Project EGO BOUNDRY (man-machine interfaces)
Project HEINFLICK LIMIT (FTL technologies)
Project REFRESHER (following Struve Conspiracy, data on biomoding the Boskones considered ‘useless’ recovered during investigation used to offer those getting on in years and otherwise down in health an option of several ‘controlled biomods’ – Antarctic Press Furries [‘too strong and free willed’] and Fantasy Short Folk [‘too limited a customer base’] surprisingly popular, as is the Mischievous Kitsune Biomod)
Project DIRAC SEA (dimensional studies [after Interdimensional Incursion Incident and release of WFC])
Project LONGINUS LANCE (paranormal studies [after Interdimensional Incursion Incident and release of WFC])
Project BLACK MOON (Boskone War development plan for defense programs; discontinued after the war; rumors that some continued under a secret NERV section are, of course, entirely preposterous)
DECA
The Digital Enclave and Cyberspace Archive is the central computer core of the foundation. It is connected, but not integral, to the Pavonis Intranet, and can be isolated at a moment’s notice both manually and automatically.
As one might imagine, it is controlled by the three MAGI – but each MAGI is itself composed of three artificial intelligences. Casper is made up of three based upon several ‘Vagrant AIs’ from the DotHack franchise: Aura, Lycoris, and Macha. Balthazar is made up of Meg, Lou, and Nam from Bubblegum Crisis. Whoever Melchior consists of, however, is classified.
NERV Section Five
***WHITENOISE***
This section of NERV – the U.N. Mars Force (UNMF) – does not exist.
ZotE Bufram Militia flag. Used by the U.N. Mars Force
DETAILS FORTHCOMING
Project WHITE MOON
***WHITENOISE***
STARS Intelligence Division File 1028.4
Investigative Report: Ravenwood (private military contractor)
Cross-Reference IR(s) x4: Jennings & Rall, Incorporated; CyberConnect Corporation; Tricell Pharmaceutical Company; Struve, Harry
DETAILS FORTHCOMING
~~~
SEELE Council
The NERV Foundation is essentially a business conglomerate with a board of directors – the SEELE Council – who, while maintaining complete control over their own enterprises, cooperate heavily with one another in various joint projects and philanthropic ventures.
The seven people presently on the council are: Alex Xanatos, CEO Cyberdyne; Biwa Mishima, CEO Mishima; Mary Gamblin, CEO Altimit; James “Jimmy”Blake, CEO Binford; Kazuo Jenkins, CEO Ajax; Lana Izavia, CEO Heartland; and The O, CEO DeLorean.
Former council members consist of: the late Airi Ikuhara-Xanatos, CEO Ikuhara; and Harry Struve, ex CEO WilPharma, on the run and wanted by Great Justice following the Battle of Serenity Valley.
Council chairmen: Alex Xanatos (founding-January 2019) and Kazuo Jenkins (January 2019-Present)
[table]
- 1 Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, Limited
- 2 WilPharma Corporation
- 3 Mishima Heavy Industries
- 4 Altimit Corporation
- 5 Binford Tools Company
- 6 Ajax Material Supply Company
- 7 Heartland Play Systems
- 8 DeLorean Motor Company
- 9 Ikuhara Electronics
- 10 Politics and Goals
Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, Limited
Producing human-use bionics and non-sapient robots, it originally outsourced a goodly amount of its electrical components from daneside sources and later fellow councilmember Ikuhara Electronics. Following the Battle of Serenity Valley, Cyberdyne absorbed Ikuhara and its product lines in keeping with the prior owner’s wishes.
Its bionics fall under the C-Series of products, which are increasingly customizable by the generation.
Its main line of robots come under the T-Series which, while having an internal computer brain, possesses only a number of AI-designed specialist systems that are designed to be easily modifiable and reprogrammable, o and consist of:
T-100 GASAR (Ground Assault and Support Actions Robot; based on the T-1s/T-10s from the T3 movie; 70 were made for NERV HQ defense; 10 units designated T-110, based on the versions from the Salvation movie, were made and sold to Operation Great Justice, at cost; neither are legally available to the public)
T-200 Maintenance and Repair Robot (made in various chassis configurations, the earliest T-202 model was available to the public on 11 January 2011)
T-300 Specialist Combat Robot Series (Project BLACK MOON programs to replicate the T-325 Mototerminator, T-350 Snowterminator, and T-375 Hydrobot; programs ‘requested’ by Great Justice to be suspended following Boskone War conclusion; see ‘NERV Section Five’)
T-400 Stealth Combat Humanoid Robot (Project BLACK MOON program to replicate the T-HX; program ‘requested’ by Great Justice to be suspended following Boskone War conclusion; see ‘NERV Section Five’; no successful prototype yet produced as of 2020)
T-500 “Harvester” Heavy Construction Robot (customizable heavy labor robot; available to the public 18 March 2012)
T-600 Multi-Function Humanoid Robot (first successful fully-humanoid robot approved for mass production; most noted quirk is that any attempt at disguising a unit as being human fails [often humorously], much like with its rubber-skinned source of inspiration; available to the public 5 November 2013; AI-Avatar capability upgrade package sold separately at same time)
T-700 Heavy-Function Humanoid Robot (essentially a larger and more durable version of the T-600, and available to the public at the same time as its ‘little brother’)
T-800 Advanced-Function Humanoid Robot (available to the public starting on 12 August 2018, the T-800 Series initially comes in the T-801 “Governator” Classic Model, T-825 “Cameron” Customizable Female Model, and T-850 “Cromartie” Customizable Male Model; utilizing WilPharma pioneered CMS-101 Synthflesh, it is half again as expensive as the still-available T-600)
WilPharma Corporation
Initially acting as a middle-man for Earth-made supplies, WilPharma began coming into its own in early 2011 when it began producing its own hospital grade basic materials, and received a hard won victory when the several daneside health organizations certified its products in 2012.
The corporation received a major shake-up following the Battle of Serenity Valley, where evidence recovered by the Roughriders revealed that not only had CEO Harry Struve been supplying the Boskones via daneside intermediaries, but had concocted a plot with the terrorists to kill the other members of the SEELE Council – of the nine members, only he did not attend SerenityCon – and allow him to subsume control of the NERV Foundation and the Pavonis Arcology.
Following these events, with the corporation routed of Boskones and their supporters, control of WilPharma was seized by the SEELE Council until such a time as the surviving seven members could appoint a replacement as CEO. This presents problems (see Ikuhara section).
Mishima Heavy Industries
Your friendly, neighborhood defense concern.
Like many of the original SEELE Council members, Mishima started out supplying Fenspace with products it bought daneside as a middleman. Uniquely to Mishima’s case, and a source of much groaning and headaches once the rest found out about it, a goodly amount of its start-up capital went to purchasing items off of black market arms dealers – partly to keep them out of the wrong hands, mostly because Biwa, being the military otaku she is, just couldn’t help herself. Fortunately, the council members managed to keep any of this from leaking out (they hope), though they now have a secret stockpile of weapons to make any Third World dictator envious.
This being Fenspace, and Ms. Mishima being a Japanese military otaku, one would think her company’s products would include mecha – one would be right.
Following the mobile suit scale MHI-M1 to M3’s failures, a try at arm slave scale produced and admittedly underpowered and unimpressive MHI-M4 “Mistral II” for sale in July 2011. The much improved MHI-M5 “Type-96” was available by April 2013, with a slightly better MHI-M6 “Bushnell” arriving in May 2015.
Rumors of a large, metal container labeled “MHI-M9” and “GERNSBACK” being spotted in transit through a NERV Personnel Only tunnel in Pavonis is denied outright (see‘NERV Section Five’).
Altimit Corporation
Internet service, network setup, software development, specialist programs, computer games – if it needs to speak 010010, Altimit are the folks to talk to –especially as most of the employees are AI themeselves. Starting by purchasing the rights to the DotHack series and its related material, a LINUX-based operating system, ALTIMIT OS, has been in use by the NERV Foundation and SEELE Council members since 2010 (upgraded to ALTIMIT MINE OS following the ‘Struve Conspiracy’).
Binford Tools Company
Producing first hand tools and basic parts, then power tools, and finally actual heavy equipment, an unknown fen working for a building crew at Mars Vegas once famously commented that Binford could be described as “the backbone of any construction project on Mars.” Needless to say, they take great pride in this.
Two of Binford’s earliest successes – so early that the CEO was also sole employee –were also critical to the development of the Pavonis arcology: vulcanocrete and the ultrasonic laser. Vulcanocrete is a ceramic material made up of lava rock mixed with ground-up quartz and something else (generic plaster mixed with pure handwavium, it’s not a very good secret). The ultrasonic laser is more the former than the latter, it is made out of old sonogram and sonar equipment and modeled after the device of the same name from The Core – unfortunately, its not quite as effective as its inspiration and, thus far, all attempts at making unobtanium have proven futile.
In a quirk that alternately annoys and amuses the company’s employees and owner to no end, no handwaved Binford product will work correctly unless it bears a ‘6100 Series’ label.
Ajax Material Supply Company
Growing out of initial obscurity in the early 2010s, whether it’s a product they produce themselves or import from Earth, Ajax as of 2022 is recognized as the largest chemical, wood, paper, plastic, and stone supplier outside of cislunar space.
They’re initially tried to supply metals as well, but there was so much competition there already that they just gave up on it – the main reason that metals of various sorts are now one of Pavonis’ largest imports.
Heartland Play Systems
Handwavium and toys… there exists not the space to encompass the joy and madness conceived.
Note: Never ask about the Chucky dolls… just don’t…
Extra Note: Their Jumanji holographic board game is pretty fun, though.
DeLorean Motor Company
Purchased outright from Stephen Wynne, The O (never forget the ‘The’) now slaps the DMC logo on both waved and unwaved nich-market products both space- and planet-side.
Products include the DMC-12 Classic, the DMC-38 Yako (based Yak 38 Custom jet interceptor in Evangelion; space-capable), the DMC-40 Blue Angel (shuttle based on ‘UN 789’ plane in Evangelion), the DMC-48 AD-Police Interceptor (chiefly exported to Genaros; ‘Car 48, Where are You?’ opening music must be played before starting), and the DMC-50 Peel (based Peel P50; rights purchased 2016).
Ikuhara Electronics
Selling waved, partly waved, and non-waved electronics and electrical components, Ikuhara was a successful business from its start to its end. Following Airi Ikuhara-Xanatos’ death at the Battle of Serenity Valley, the company was absorbed by Cyberdyne, per its late owner’s wishes.
According to the SEELE Council Charter, the membership of the council must remain at nine persons. This means that another business enterprise must be invited to join both the council as well as the NERV Foundation. This also means revealing a number of secrets to said invitee, some still only in the planning stages. The council is debating its choices…
Politics and Goals
While encouraging maintaining ties of various sorts with Earth, the SEELE Council is quite open with its opinion that each settlement on Mars - and in Fenspace in its entirety - should be as self-sufficient at least in the essentials as possible.
The council fully supported the goals of Operation GREAT JUSTICE, and later the organization Ggreat Justice, providing its still internally incomplete joint flagship - an unarmed but heavily armored design based on the carrier submarine from Full Metal Panic!, the SV Tuatha de Danaan (TDD-1) - as a troop transport at the Battle of Boskone Prime. While reclaiming the ship post-battle, a second ship of the class - SV Celestial Court (TDD-2) - was sold at cost to Great Justice in June 2017.
“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“They opened up a can’a dumbass!” – Jon Stewart regarding Fox News, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.” – Harvey Fierstein
“They opened up a can’a dumbass!” – Jon Stewart regarding Fox News, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.” – Harvey Fierstein