Ocean Turtle

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Ocean Turtle
Japanese	オーシャン・タートル
Romaji	Oshan Tatoru
Location Information
Location	Pacific Ocean, near Izu Islands
Controlled By	«Rath»
First Appearance
Novel	Volume 10 Chapter 2 Part 1

The «Ocean Turtle» (オーシャン・タートル, Oshan Tatoru^?) is a mega-float, located in the Pacific Ocean, somewhere near Izu Islands, about 250km away from Tokyo, that acts as a government research facility for «Project Alicization» in the research of a highly adaptive Artificial Intelligence and is run by Rath.

Background

Funding for the facility was acquired from the government under the name of "Maritime exploration". Officially, it is supposed to be used as a facility for seabed oil extraction and research into AIs used for small submarines to navigate on their own, but in reality, it houses 4 Soul Translators that are used for Project Alicization to develop the first «bottom-up» AI, which Rath plans to use for military purposes of updating Japan's weapon technology.

Officially, the ship belongs to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, but, as the construction was carried out with the co-operation of the Japanese Self-Defense Force (JSDF), its members are constantly aboard the ship, actively guarding it even after the construction was finished. Additionally, the main shaft that stabs through the hull's core is completely under the control of the JSDF and is the place where the top-secret Project Alicization is conducted.

Appearance

The ship takes the form of a large, 4-sided black pyramid with edges of a ratio 2:3. The height of the facility is that of a 25-story building. It is 400 meters long (about 1.5 time larger than Nimitz, the world’s largest ship) and 250 meters wide, with large black solar power panels covering it like a shell. There are projections, which look like legs, from all 4 corners, a command bridge, which looks like the face of an animal, attached on 1 of the sides and an H logo on the roof, designating a helipad. Due to its "shell", the ship looks like a turtle, while the command post looks like the "head" of a pig. The turtle-pig appearance is a reference to the Mome Rath, a creature in Jabberwocky which was described as a turtle or a pig and is also the name that the enterprise behind Project Alicization has taken.

Architecture

The Ocean Turtle is comprised of 12 decks. The 1^st deck from the waterline is the floating deck, the 2^nd is occupied by the engine room, while the 3^rd to 8^th comprise all kinds of research facilities, such as marine biology, deep-sea resources and plate tectonics. The 9^th and 10^th decks hold the cabins, the 11^th is the recreation deck with the lounge, gym, pool and such, while the final 12^th deck is where the radars and antennas are installed, as well as an observation platform.

The central area of the pyramid has a hollow round titanium alloy stabilizing pipe, called the «main shaft», that is 20 meters in diameter and 100 meters in height. This pipe acts as a pillar that supports every floor of the structure, a pressure bulkhead and also acts as a layer of protection for important research facilities. Within this pipe lies the main control systems of the ship itself, as well as the 4 STLs and the Light Cube Cluster. The main shaft is divided into the upper and lower shafts at its central area, which is a wall-like titanium compartment that houses the Light Cube Cluster. Above the compartment is the upper shaft, where the «Second Control Room» («Sub-Con») as well as STLs number 4 and 5 are held, and below the compartment is the lower shaft, where the «Primary Control Room» («Main-Con») and STLs number 2 and 3 are held. Moving from one shaft to another is possible via stairs or an elevator.

Trivia

• The inner areas of the Ocean Turtle are strictly air conditioned due to the intricate machines requiring a constant temperature of about 23 degrees Celsius and humidity under 50%.
• Although the “shell” of the Ocean Turtle is covered in numerous black solar panels, the energy acquired from them is not enough to fulfill even 10% of the base’s energy requirement. Therefore, the main machines use a pressurized water nuclear reactor for electricity.