Federated Grain AgriCenter 217 - George W. Carver Annex

Purpose:

AgriCenter 217 is a farm that was designed, planted, and run almost exclusively by Atlantic Federation synthetic intelligences. The purpose is simple, to effect large scale grain production with maximum efficiency while studying and ensuring the long term (Ten Century Plan) viability of the topsoil to maintain said level of production.

Basics:

AgriCenter 217 covers close to 45 million acres, roughly the size of the state of Missouri. The farm is broken down into a truly astounding number of cells, a number so large that it is only manageable by an artificial intelligence. The central command spire is a demi-arco that is 200 stories tall and wears a full service aerodrome as a hat. The entire facility has a fractal pattern of roads and tracks that the robotic trucks, tractors, and agro-mecha use to facilitate the production, harvest, and transportation of the crops that 217 produces.

In Petroleum Era technology, 217 would require a fleet of 15,000 combines to harvest completely in a two week period. AgriCenter 217 has less than 2000 vehicles, ranging from self-propelled combines, to grain haulers, to seeding and planting machines. There are two rockstars that make 217 possible, the Xeo-Holland 140 Superheavy combine and the FMC 2002 Heavy AgriMech.

The Xeo-Holland 140 Superheavy Combine

Also known as the Apis or the Bull God, or the Bollocks, is a massive rolling factory combine. The machine masses nearly seventy tons and has three times the harvesting capacity of older machines. The glory of the Bull God comes from a variety of reasons. It has a self contained fusion reactor, and a L/AISC control computer, making it on par with a medium mech for computing power and raw power generation. It has a modular loader cell, allowing loading trucks to do cargo swaps in seconds. Finally, being a pure drone, the Bull God requires zero human interaction to run.

AgStation 217 has a full division of Bull Gods, organized into five regiments of sixty superheavy combines. This fleet represents the largest investment of materials in 217, and has a motorpool and support system capable of keeping a minimum of 90% of the machines operational at a time. When 217 is off its heavy harvest time, the combines have been leased to other mega-farms, companies and battalions at a time.

The FMC 2002 Chensey

The Chensey is the centerpiece of Federation Mechanica Corporation. As a thirty ton battery powered agro-mech, the Chesney is in many ways completely unremarkable. Where it shines is in long term reliability, and its ability to mesh with both the L/AISC of superheavy combines, Cargo trucks, and the command AISC that runs 217. Like everything else on 217, the fleet of Chenseys are drones, completely unmanned, and fully automated and slaved to the command structure of 217.

The Chesney has a surprise, the W system gear. When 217 is threatened, and Federation aerospace and fleet assets are not available for rapid response, a Chensey can be outfitted with a variety of basic weaponry in thirty minutes at the mech depots. This is simple gear, heavy autocannons for the most part, but more than capable to defend the station from raiders

WHY DOES THIS EVEN MATTER!!!

If you've made it this far, thank you.

In and of itself, 217 doesn't matter. What it represents does.

There are no small farms in the Cosmic Era, there are no family farms. There are still families outside of the cities who have farms, but these are subsistence farms, boutique farms, quaint things that either keep a small number of people in a small degree of food security or destinations. People from the cities will vacation on these mock farms, and enjoy the raw decadent luxury of non-industrially produced food like fruit, produce, and some meats and eggs.

The real food production in the Cosmic Era is controlled by robots, engineered by artificial intelligences, and most damnably, owned by offworld interests. 217 and the other megafarms are owned by hypercorps and financial amalgamations, and the food they produce on a massive scale, is destined for offworld markets, and the megacities. The farms are huge monocultures: corn, wheat, barley, oats, soy. The same applies to the seacologies and their fisheries and aquaculture, where crustaceans and krill are farmed along with kelps and seaweed. It's all destined for food refineries where it is processed, cooked, extruded, flavored, dehydrated, preserved, packaged and then sent to the network of vendors and the ever present food dispensary.

Giant robots and huge machines hulk and glower over millions of square miles of land reduced to its flattest and most productive, turning space born fertilizers and atmospheric carbon dioxide into raw food stuff.