Adrift City

The Adrift City is the name given to the Zetylian city of Provua, the capital of the colony Drihel, following its displacement into space through the detonation of a Kaeolian Swapper Bomb. During the First Cluster War, the forces of the Kaeolian Empire launched a siege on the colony. They captured many cities on the outskirts of the colony's capital, and, after amassing their forces, proceeded to launch a full-scale ground invasion of the city with orbital support. By taking out Provua, the Kaeolian forces would have been able to cripple the center of Zetylian defenses on that planet, allowing them to conquer the rest of the planet fairly easily. However, Provua turned out to have much stronger defenses than previously expected. It was surrounded by an immense wall outfitted with several automated turrets that deterred Kaeolian ground forces from approaching, and a shield generator in the center of the city protected it from orbital bombardment. The choice was made to use a Swapper Bomb to remove the city, which would have allowed the Kaeolians to focus their efforts elsewhere and repel the incoming Zetylian reinforcements that had come to defend the planet. The bomb was dropped, and the city, along with much of the ground it was anchored into, was immediately teleported a great distance away from the planet, leaving a massive crater in its wake. The Kaeolian forces eliminated the rest of the Zetylian resistance easily, and remained on the planet for a short time afterwards to regroup and resupply, eventually abandoning it to push deeper into Zetylian territory.

Unbeknownst to the Kaeolians, however, the city they had so hastily teleported into space would not be left alone for very long. Though all the Zetylians that once inhabited it had died upon being exposed to the cold vacuum of space, the Zetylian infrastructure and technology contained in the city still remained, drifting through space on a massive chunk of rock. Eventually, it was discovered by a group of nomadic Theltren, who were amazed by the prodigiously advanced Zetylian technology. They wasted no time in occupying the city and bringing its infrastructure back online to serve their purposes, and soon, the Adrift City had become the home of the newly-formed Zetylmi Theltra. With their newfound access to Zetylian technology, this Theltra took to asserting its dominance over the rest of the Theltren species, earning it quite a negative reputation in the process. However, the advanced weapon systems of the Adrift City kept them safe from the infrequent attacks made by other Theltra, up until the city's destruction during the Great Theltra Battle.

The Adrift City has been changed much by the Zetylmi Theltra to allow them more comfortable existences in space. Most of the buildings in the city have been enclosed and sealed, shielding their Theltren inhabitants from the emptiness of space outside. Gravity is maintained on the Adrift City though repurposed graviton manipulation centrifuges located in the mass of rock the city rests on, which were originally used for starship construction in the city's now-defunct ship berths. To propel the Adrift City, the Zetylmi Theltra have constructed massive plasma engines all across its exterior, which draw from the plasma produced by the city's cold fusion reactors. The city is capable of limited FTL travel through the use of a giant makeshift Fold Drive constructed by the Zetylmi Theltra. However, due to the poor state of the Theltren technology used to build the Fold Drive, its range and maximum speed are greatly limited, making most interstellar voyages long and tiresome. Many of the original defenses of the city are still operational, including its shield generator and automated turrets. The Zetylmi Theltra have bolstered the defenses of the city further by adding more plasma cannons, reverse-engineered from Zetylian weapons, and repurposing the construction nanomachines originally used to expand the city and build ships, putting them in the ground the city is anchored in to augment its durability considerably. However, their poor understanding of cyborganic technology has prevented the Zetylmi Theltra from reactivating the cyborganic components of the city's infrastructure and defenses, which has severely limited its capabilities.