Ancilicus Space Elevator

The Ancilicus Space Elevator, or the Aurora Elevator, was an enormous construction project that functioned as a space elevator on the planet Ancilicus. It is the largest known construction in the Galaxy.

History
As the Ancilicans had established themselves firmly in their solar system, they had fully realised that the biggest costs of spaceflight had always been the bridge between ground and space. With the resources of their entire solar system at their disposal, the Ancilican planetary government gave the order to construct a giant tower out of the strongest materials known to Ancilicae. The greatest minds and engineers spent decades to finalise a design that could accomplish this goal. An atmosphere-piercing tower was constructed on the equator of Ancilicus. Meanwhile, a suitably large asteroid was being towed in a synchronous orbit by the Aurora Drive Yards company. After the tower and the asteroid were linked together, and the cable was stablised, Aurora Drive Yards oversaw most of the orbital construction of drydocks and habitats on the spaceside of the elevator. This became known as the Aurora array.

When the elevator became functional, most ground-to-orbit launches and orbit-to-ground drops were dropped. It was simply way cheaper to send stuff up via the elevator. As both the Aurora Yards and the Ancilican government had taxes on the use of the elevator, it quickly became a passive goldmine for both institutions.

On the ground level, a true city arose around the base of the elevator. This city was being built against the massive pylons of the elevator. This interest for urban space around the elevator gave rise to the second megastructure of the Ancilicus Space Elevator, namely the Elevator Pyramid (or the Aurora Pyramid). This pyramid-like structure had a base of 16 kilometers wide and a height of 8 km, with the elevator launch systems embedded deep within the pyramids superstructure.

As the Ancilicans became a part of the Alliance of Systems, the space elevator had run its longest course. Humanity had developed powerful plasma thrusters that were usually powered by clean fusion energy. these improved plasma thrusters could also be used in-atmosphere without sacrificing its thrust, something that was never thought possible with Ancilican thrusters. Newly constructed ships within the galaxy could now land on and lift off planets much more reliably than before. Despite that innovation, the Space Elevator was still one of the cheapest ways to send stuff up into space from the planetside, so the elevator never became archaic.

During the ASF-K'adurbian War, a contingent of K' adurbian soldiers tried to occupy the Aurora array. While they initially succeeded, they were quickly repelled by the Aurora defense forces.

During the Vrox Rampage, there were many initial skirmishes around the Aurora array, and many of the drydocks and habitats were either damaged of destroyed. After the Penthe wormhole was destroyed, the Vrox sent an armada to Ancilicus. While the planet's improved defense systems could repel the invasion, the Vrox had completely destroyed the Aurora array. The elevator itself was still intact.

Elevator Pyramid
The Pyramid was a enormous citystructure, and was the most iconic part of the Space Elevator. The towering height of the pyramid made it visible for more than a quarter of the Ancilicus surface. The pyramid had a base width of 16 kilometers and a height of 8 kilometers. Almost a billion people resided in this superstructure. The pyramid carries several cities worth of housing, offices, shops, markets, leisure of all sorts, scientific laboratories, industry, and food production centers between the 3rd and 7th kilometer of the pyramid. The first 2 kilometers house vast transportation hubs, with hundreds of docks connected to the oceans, continental train stations with tracks and tunnels heading to every major city on the planet, and an airport with several runways, hangars, and hundreds of landing platforms for shuttles. Other space in the first 2 kilometers is used as storage bays and customs offices.

The pyramid makes use of several main dividers between city blocks. These dividers are layered with highly reflective mirrors, reflecting sunlight deep into the pyramid. This sunlight will then be dispersed onto a large plaza, usually the central shopping disctrict of a city block. This way, even residents that live deep inside the pyramid can have access to natural daylight. Despite this, the core of the pyramid is completely dark, as even with the mirrors, the daylight usually can not carry that deep. Only on the brighter summer days can some slimmers of sunlight peek through. This makes for a clear societal divide between the inner core and the outer layers of the pyramid, as the outer layers often have direct access to daylight, while the core gets none of it. The very outer penthouses have windows looking out of the pyramid, allowing for the most breathtaking of views. This makes the outer layers very expensive, with only the richest of society able to live here. The pyramid core in contrast is very cheap to live, and usually only the poor live here. There is also very little law enforcement in the inner core. The only real law enforcement comes from armed maintenance crews tasked with upkeeping and protecting the fusion reactor tower in the very center of the pyramid.

The pyramid is theoretically self-sufficient, as large portions of the middle rim are dedicated to intensive agriculture, aquaponics, vertical farming, and cultured meat production. This agriculture, as well as the extensive leisure parks of the outer layers scrub most of the atmosphere naturally, while the rest is supplemented by carbon scrubbers. The water system is also extremely efficient, with very little intake or waste from the pyramids environment. There are various wild animal species that reside inside the pyramid. These animals are mostly birds, but the inner core also houses wild canines and felines. These creature were mostly likely brought in as pets, but they escaped from their owners and adapted to fend for themselves.

The top kilometer of the pyramid houses Pytop city, a somewhat seperate city as this is mostly a huge economic, leisure, and office area. This was the launching platform for the space elevator, which in itself provided for full-day activity in Pytop. Pytop was effectively locked away from the rest from the pyramid, and access to lower levels would be given by an extensive customs establishment.