The Seven Towers

Seven Towers. The name brings about an emotional reaction in any individual alive in the last quarter of the twenty-first century. It was impossible to remain entirely rational when considering this central structure representing the absolute authority of a tyrannical corporation that had finally grown so powerful it simply swept aside all law and government, ruling all of humanity through raw economic, and eventually physical, power.

Sometime after 2050 The Pleiades Corporation began building a corporate headquarters to serve as both a functional place for corporate functions and a demonstration of the rapidly expanding capability of this economic juggernaut. The structure consists, primarily, of a massive nickel-iron type asteroid hollowed out and fitted with an immense array of large fusion rocket engines as well as massive fusion power generation facilities. The space hollowed out is filled with research labs, secret prisons for special prisoners, massive office blocks, even more massive residential blocks, and a wide array of functional blocks or storage facilities. On the surface of the asteroid the architects placed luxury domes similar to those found on Luna, but smaller to fit within the space available. Surmounting all of this are the eponymous seven towers, seven literal towers that stretch a full kilometer "above" the surrounding domes and provide both an iconic appearance as well as a place to mount some of the massive defensive weapons that defend the facility.

Many assume the towers are intended as egotistical housing for the Seven Sisters, but this could not be further from the truth. The designers built in seven towers simply as a design element when it became apparent that weaponry would be needed, and the most powerful weapons available, mass drivers, require immense long launch channels. The towers arose from the exigencies of building mass drivers capable of accelerating thousand ton projectiles to well over two thousand kilometers per second. The towers simply provide a structure to support the weapon. The number seven was chosen so that the necessary counter-thrusting fusion engines could always be placed opposite the tower while keeping the towers evenly spaced around the facility to minimize any necessary maneuvering. The most important and critical offices and facilities, and the Sisters' residences would be the most important in the solar system to The Corporation, are in the deepest central core of the facility with the largest mass of defense between them and any possible threat.

Where are the Seven Towers

Everyone knows about the Seven Towers. Everyone knows they're corporate headquarters, house millions, and contain the preferred home of The Sisters. What almost nobody knows is where they are. It isn't a secret that the towers are not on Earth, Luna, Mars, Ganymede, or Titan. None of these locations is safe enough, and also secure enough, for the towers. The towers are, in fact, a massive satellite structure built upon a twenty-kilometer wide former Apollo asteroid that was captured and moved into place near the Lagrangian point three of the earth-sun system. Being so far from Earth, but roughly synchronous, makes the location a remarkably safe and secure one. The position opposite Earth in the same orbit, with a small suborbit and occasional corrections required to account for other large masses in the system, prevents any direct observation or communication with Earth, as the sun blocks the line of sight. This forces all communication through relay facilities, which are controlled by the corporation and subject to decryption, inspection, and filtering of all data. The relatively remote location also encourages headquarters staff to live permanently aboard the facility, and the larger population provides more cover and luxury for the executives stationed there. The final aspect of the location, it's slightly unpredictable movements due to gravitational perturbation, and the unplanned thruster maneuvers for station keeping, make it even harder to send any kind of weapon into the vicinity without telltale drive flare to alert the defensive systems.