The Tropos Skygate

        The Creators tested their first matter-transmission technology here, using first inert matter, and then slave test subjects. The inert matter was relatively simple; if their civilization has lasted any longer, all roads and tracks may have eventually become obsolete. Transporting a living being, however, turned out to be a different matter entirely. So to speak. Even small signal flaws would result in death or terribal aberrations upon reintigration, and so the technology was perfected here, in secret, by both the City Mind and its loyal followers. For all the Creators knew, this technology was meant to help colonize the once-icy moon of Tropos. In reality, the City Mind was testing technology that would assist its planned attack on Rym's second moon, the domain of the gods.

        During the Twilight War, similar gateways were used to send hordes of mechanical troops to the surface of Zunat, bridging a distance the gods though of as uncrossable. Most of these skygates were destroyed during the fighting, though the original testing facility remains, seemingly intact. The ruins lie on the northern coast, surrounded by leagues of unexplored wilderness. The main tower can be seen from miles away, though it is often shrouded in ocean fog. As one draws closer, the rest of the ancient facility can be made out, its outlying buildings little more than overgrown rubble. The main complex is sealed off by adamas blast doors, but the ventillation system is reasonably accessible. Within the complex, onlt a few faint lights remain, bathing everything in an eerie red glow. Several rusting guard Machines stand dead at their posts, and a few moldy Creator skeletons can be found slumped over ruined consoles, but for the most part the interior is empty and untouched.

The Gate Platform

        The majority of the complex is sealed or too badly damaged to enter, though the skygate itself is still working. Like many advanced structures of the Creator era, the controls are laid out in a very simple, almost childish array, allowing the City Mind's zealous followers to interface with technology they couldn't otherwise understand. No longer linked to the UPM network, it may be operated independantly if one has the correct card key (level four). The actual skygate is a circular platform covered in golden tile, with a console cylinder at its center. Normally, the console rests flush with the floor, rising only when approached to present the would-be traveller with a cluster of simple, colorful toggles and a card-key slot.

        When activated, the gate transports everything on the golden dias to the surface of Tropos. The jaunt is instantaneous; travellers feel an immense wrenching sensation and experience a blinding tunnel of light as they are shot through a quarter million miles of empty space, to the warm, wet surface of the ocean moon. The transmission beam can be seen outside the skygate complex as a solid pulse of light that interconnects Rym and Tropos for a fraction of a second, like a flickering silver thread. Travellers may wish to prepare in advance for conditions on the lunar surface; arrival can be quite a shock. The limitation on this gateway is that it can only be activated when Tropos is aligned with the beam emitter, two windows of time, each approximately three hours long and spaced nine hours apart. They vary somewhat with the seasons.

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