Rachel

Rahcel is a small town on the Bannon Sea coast, near the Ceres sea. Surrounded by forests, crops, rolling hillsides; Rachel was built around a coal mine, originally with 1,289 people in 562 households; as the population was forced into all new areas as a result of the war, the town began to grow, many people couldn’t afford new housing, and so built affordable tiny homes instead; basic architecture made from thin metal and wood, grew chaotically around the edges and empty lots of the town.

Eventually, as shipments by hovering cargo ship began coming in, urban planning got better; actual districts of tiny homes made from cargo containers or prefabricated parts; with compacted dirt roads between them, as the town grew to its present size. The youth find the town to be boring and in the middle of nowhere, though some take pride in how peaceful and relaxing their town is amid rolling pastures, and forests. Disaffected youth form color gangs to find adventure and have fun; spending the day fighting and exploring the area, composed of young adults from 17 to 30.

Many homes are equipped with broadband antennas and solar panels. The town is sustained by factory farming; but isn’t self-sufficient, most of the farmland was only recently tented under greenhouses and lit 24/7/365 by energy collected from giant skyscraper sized light condensing blocks; which use a curved wall of rotating mirrors on a rotating base to focus sunlight down onto a single cheap solar panel at the base.

Rusting mills dot the country roads through the area, but most of the town is within walking distance of anywhere else. The furbas river runs through the center of the town, and kids must cross the floodplain to get to high school up on the hill, the elementary and middle school is built out among the town. Schools are equipped with computers. The town has a small medical clinic with a single autodoctor.

Located in the mountains a few kilometers away from the nearest major city; Rachel is located near the Ceres coast, along the Bannon sea, in the northwest; part of the Russo-American Alliance. The town is within biking distance of a larger city, where many of the kids go for the sights and sounds, and, in another direction, the beach on the Bannon Coast; a popular spot for kids in summer. The town is sustained by drone deliveries and cellphone internet connections.

The town has a single large department store, a new multi-story store built in 2011, with a huge electronics department and food court on the roof; the old shopping district; a bunch of family owned businesses located along a winding road from the train station to the highway east of the river, have been hard hit, but has started to recover.

Half forests; farming, mostly factory farms lit by energy collected from the light condensing blocks, is a primary source of employment, alongside the service sector, with the many tent topped fields surrounding the town providing a large abundance of food. The purple skulls have taken over part of the food mart by the gas station to sell their merchandise; including plushies and clothes, art and photographs.

The Furbas river runs through the town, though in the tropics; Rachel’s climate is dominated by the cold waters of Bannon Sea, circulated down south from the arctic by the Ceres Sea; creating a warm mediterranean climate on the coast and a temperate mediterranean climate in the rolling foothills; located in the mountains; Rachel experiences hot and humid summers with strong heatwaves, and mild winters with rare snowfall.

Rachel has an average temperature of 51.3 degrees, with over four feet of rainfall a year, with September being the wettest month; with August being the hottest at 73 degrees and January the coldest at around 30. Tropical plants from the gulf of mexico have adapted themselves to the local warm mediterranean climate, with bright, exotic, and colorful looking flowers amid the grasslands and coniferous and deciduous forests.

The town experiences rain and fierce thunderstorms in September, and winters are cold to freezing with cloudy skies and bi-yearly or yearly blizzards in January; springs are warm and sunny, and fall is cool with clouds; fog is a common occurrence all throughout the year; especially coming before strong rains. Located on the equator; strong oceanic storms.