The Thallaxian Gauntlet
"This map of the place can't be right! It's a rectangle!"
"It's an equirectangular projection, of course it is!"
"It's not right!"
"Yes, it is, this is a built place! Humans made it square-able like that."
"Oh, it's artificial to that degree?"
Covering 76.9% of Thallax III Kappa's surface, the complex known as The Thallaxian Gauntlet is an unusual ecumenopolis. Terraforming the entire planet, which mostly meant giving it a self-sustaining atmosphere in regards to the oxygen/water cycle, then covering it with space-station-derived compartments, each with specific biomes for the intent of training the future soldiers assigned to the moonlet. Adding some open areas, also covered with grasses, swamp, tundra, arctic ice, and they had a perfect training ground for the armies of the Meritocracy.
Anyone visiting Thallax III Kappa needs a permit from the Commandant of the Gauntlet, a dour individual with many demands on their time. On rare occasions, a few Solians were seen on the surface, but no other non-TerMer people were known to get so deep into Meritocracy territory.
Specific areas are covered with tent fields, and are reserved for cadets to get used to pressure suits and even Exoframes. Yes, some traditional-looking buildings were built using traditional techniques to encourage some cadets, but not others, because 'the universe is not fair'.
The symbol map of The Thallaxian Gauntlet deserves special mention.
Originally drawn to mostly indicate places where cadets were expected to be at different times in their curriculum, it took on a life of its own. It is not only not drawn to scale, but it is drawn to anti-scale(larger items, like mountains, are drawn tiny) for lack of a better term, except for the main building of the main campus, which is the largest item on the map, but not quite as large as the mountain ranges.
What is thought to be accurately scaled, however, are the ground distances of the map, fully equal to the task of conveying days walking, should any unit thereof have been included.
Any cadet told by his instructor that 'you've got walking ahead of you' should note that the short side of the map is 500km, and if he is not kidding, you will need provisions for more than a week.
Maps themselves are classified, by the Thallax III Kappa geodesic survey as Red-Xi(the highest classification, only available to staff officers) if they include precision above 10 meters, Vermillion-Sigma for above 100 meters, and Amber-Tau for the rest, this is standard practice in Meritocracy lands, since the Thallax Near-Invasion of 2337 .
As was written previously, the following map, reproduced with permission, is probably the only known planetary map that includes no oceans of any type, as all liquid water was added through terraforming, and the climate/pressure conditions on the planet do not lend themselves naturally to other organic flow cycles.
Astute visitors to the Gauntlet ask for Exoframe training, as that is both rare, expensive, and not currently available without specific licenses elsewhere. Similarly, a cadet training for exoframe piloting is the elite of the elite, and knows it.
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