New Vance City

Tucked deep within the cracked concrete expanse of the Solar Sprawl, the Hydroponic Nexus is a gleaming sanctuary of growth in a world gone dry. Powered entirely by the Guardians' solar arrays, this towering structure feeds both stomachs and ideology. It’s not just a farm—it’s a temple to radiant discipline, where crops are engineered with brutal efficiency and distributed only to those who serve the grid. Every calorie is tracked. Every sprout, earned. The Nexus doubles as a research facility, experimenting with genetically hardened produce and algae strains that can survive blackouts and ashfall. Overseen by engineers in chrome-plated bio-suits and guarded by exo-armored Sentinels, it’s where food meets faith. No Guardian enclave is sustained without it—and any tampering is met with a solar-flare response. Step out of line, and you don't just starve. You burn.

From the outside, the Hydroponic Nexus resembles a fortified glass cathedral—an angular greenhouse tower stitched together with solar panel scaffolding, reflective shielding, and rust-red insulation from the old world. High-efficiency LEDs blaze through the cracked smog, casting emerald glows on the street below. Armed turrets perch like birds of prey on each tier, while patrolling Guardians move with machine-like cadence along upper catwalks. Inside, vertical crop walls stretch from floor to ceiling—kale, tubers, protein moss—growing in nutrient gel and humming with circulatory pumps. Sunlight is redirected via a lattice of mirrors overhead, focusing beams through automated filters. Between sterile research bays and decontamination chambers, nutrient tanks bubble beside prayer-stamped crates, each labeled with Solar quota stamps. The scent is equal parts ozone, chlorophyll, and antiseptic resolve.