Power Cable Maintenance

A number of jobs in the Venus undercities were seen as rather undesirable, including the maintenance of the power cables that fed up from the surface of the planet, up to the undercities and then up further to the floating cities. The batteries of the surface gathered their energy from specialized wind turbines, generating more than enough power for every city on Venus. The cables were made to endure the high velocity winds on Venus, though they were not indestructible. The majority of maintenance work on these cables would take place in the undercities. Workers would check the cables, test them to make sure the winds hadn't worn them down to the point of replacement, and cleaned what needed cleaning. This would happen daily. Weekly, a team of at least five workers would be sent down to the planet's surface in mobile elevators that would stop to check on the entirety of the cables section by section as they went down. On the surface, these workers would also maintain the batteries and turbines, repairing and replacing things as needed.
Teams were also sent to the floating cities on a weekly basis as well. This was undoubtably easier than being sent to the surface, and yet it was not preferable. While in the floating cities, workers often reported feeling overlooked, as though they were completely invisible. Or, in some cases, they would be treated as some unsightly thing, the inhabitants of the floating cities acting as if some sort of disgusting creature had invaded their space. It was, by all accounts, a heavily dehumanizing experience. Likely, this treatment was a heavy contributor to the growing class tensions between the floating cities and the undercities on Venus.
When, in 3442, these tensions fully came to a head, the power cable maintenance workers had the ability to cut power to the floating cities. This was key in the events that followed.