Regarding cultural influence on modern infrastructure and architecture from "Progenitor" origins
Seeing as Cube 5219 landed 8 kilometers away from the Ohniakan coastline (and its impact skid stretches for one more), the Liberated Borg Cooperation’s Capitol City is no stranger to the ocean, the edges of its inland horizons blanketed by canyon-like rock formations almost as brutalist as their architecture. While the soil where Progenitors landed was soft, the relatively sturdy bedrock allowed the xBs to build foundations that their augmented strength and Borg technology could still manipulate, thanks to the planet’s relative youth. Four months after landing on Ohniaka III (including ▇▇▇’▇ departure) and the reunification of xBs deprogrammed from his cult-like influence, they burned the Starfleet outpost they used as temporary shelter, and abandoned it to history as the site of the Cubesfall Massacre.
After this communal excision, the Progenitors knew that the crumbling foundations of Cube 5219 could no longer feasibly provide them shelter from the elements. These xBs dismantled and rebuilt regeneration alcoves once power lines were created in newer, simple shelters, routing energy from wind farms, water turbines from a nearby waterfall that emptied into the sea, solar panels, and supplementary power that still lingered in Cube 5219. Still bearing the Collective’s infinite knowledge of civilizations, the Progenitors accessed their records of societal proliferation, and began to build the bones of a harbor, irrigated crops, and planned out the most efficient way a city could spread and grow from a single starting point (even if they had little idea their population would boom so strongly in 23 years).
When descending from the clouds in a shuttlecraft, Ohniaka III’s 7km-wide Capitol City resembles the roots of a tree branching out from a deep slash in the earth. It speaks to the adaptability, determination, and versatility of these first xBs to survive without the guidance of the Hivemind, building a society in which to build others up who were also severed from the Collective. Where the impact site of Cube 5219 cuts deep into the rock and ends in a settled crater, their city starts from those broken ribs of a behemoth vessel and stems into something much more organic: though its city streets and avenues do resemble wafer circuitry if one squints hard enough.
Communal Structures, Living Spaces
While the Capitol City population is a city of 50,000+ that grows every day with continued xB immigration, efficiency and compartmentalization are seemingly interwoven into the bones of the xB society, with Cooperation citizens trying to pursue healthy coexistence with the planet around them to encourage "ecosystem efficiency." xB familial units are extremely decentralized, with individuals in communal housing called "Living Blocks" tending to floor-wide nurseries, daycares, education centers, other and gardening/maintenance upkeep the facility requires. Community centers litter all corners of the Capitol City: dedicated to art, sports, cooking, or different cultural practices— encouraging creative means of functionality through interlinked community (and some areas of the city anchored with different species' diaspora quarters). The Capitol City's northern harbor has become one of the most popular places for citizen trading and fraternization, locals enjoying freshly-caught samples of Ohniakan sealife while frequenting a marketplace made from cubicles of all greebled shapes and sizes.
Living Block Example
Below is an example of the aforementioned Living Blocks: the communal housing spaces where significant chunks of the xB population reside. Though most facilities within a Living Block are similar to Earthen hostels in terms of resource sharing, xBs do have the option of applying for private Living Block apartments should they require personal space, individual solace, or time away from group activities. While there are small numbers of diaspora species-specific Living Blocks found in the city's corresponding diaspora quarters, this provided Living Block dissection was built in the late 2380s: an architectural model capable of housing quality-of-life-compatible species members to keep up with the population boom of that decade.
Community gardens and personal herb planters are extremely common among the Capitol City’s eco-brutalist structures. Most city-dwelling xBs will participate in tending to these gardens to support communal agriculture, though there are handfuls of solitary farmer communes on the Capitol City’s horizons. Along with the plethora of "in-house" services and facilities Living Blocks provide, Living Blocks also have floor-wide nurseries that individuals will take time parenting, interacting with, and enriching children that were either freed from Borg maturation chambers, or were stemmed from xB Forerunners.
Conclusion
Although earlier structures echo the sentinel-like cube on the Capitol City's edge far more than modern buildings, there is a continuous effort to have xB art, architecture, and subsequent crafts tediously balance these brutal extremes. Community centers litter all corners of the Capitol City—dedicated to art, sports, cooking, or different cultural practices— encouraging creative means of efficiency through interlinked community. Some who take to tangible arts and other crafts will offer their personally-made wares for community enrichment; since xBs live with no societal need nor want for money, they will often disburse their creations freely to the public in personal popups, and public discourse forums are held everywhere from cozy Living Block atriums to the pink-hued sands of Ohniaka III's coastlines.
My Progenitor advisor Horus tells me very moving stories, about their early expeditionary journeys from Cube 5219 to the coastline: one where he witnessed the phenomenon known as the “pink flash” for the first time when Ohniaka III’s sun dips below the ocean.
“My orthopedic exo-plating had been removed three weeks earlier,” he told me, “and the physical therapy by which to walk again was tiresome. But the memory of reaching twilight's shore and removing my protective boots, the sensation of sand and water between my toes for the first time... that made the hike much more bearable.”
AN: All illustrations on this page were all masterfully commissioned and created by Jack Friedman (@caba-111) exclusively for the Ohniaka III Project! Please check out the rest of Caba's incredible work!
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