UNSC Orbital Elevator Mk. II (Vanilla, Wheel Powered)

The Orbital Elevator, also called a space elevator or the tether, is a colossal structure utilized on all major human colonies prior to the Human-Covenant war. It can transport people and goods from planet-side to high orbit (and vice versa).

Once a human colony has become productive and begins to export massive amounts of goods off-world, Orbital Elevators are installed. With tendril rails reaching beyond the major gravitational pull of the planet, the sheer scale of the elevator is an impressive feat of engineering. Harvest had seven such elevators to export food, which also served as vital means for evacuating the planet when the Covenant attacked. However, the elevators are highly vulnerable to attack and, if sufficiently damaged, the tendrils can crash down and cause wide-scale damage.

- Earthside Terminal: Roomy center of ground-side operations. - - Lots of space to move and store vehicles, cargo, and people. - - Heavy security measures llike armored shutters and blast doors.

- Elevator car: Tether-bound moving vehicle to move items to and from orbit. - - 2x large containers, 14x seats, 2x vehicle platforms capable of holding either a tank each. - - (Currently) Requires a pilot to manually move and dock, has two cameras to help this. - - Can lock directly to terminals with merge blocks.

- Orbital station: A civilian space station allowing for ships to dock with.. - - 2x cruiser berths, 2x small cargo ship docks, and a strike fighter hangar. - - 4x Point Defense turrets - - Large internal vehicle garage, multiple rooms, and observation towers, all with artificial gravity.

The elevator is actually quite smooth and safe, using a light armor rail and wheels running on battery power to move the platform. I used a form of subgridding to not only safely increase the length of the tendrils but also eliminate the stuttering problem that a 5km+ long grid would have. The car takes about 3 minutes to make a full trip, and can seat over a dozen people. The model for the Earthside terminal is based on the New Mombasa elevator seen in Halo 3: ODST.

NOTE: Semi-WIP. Can only be manually piloted, not all rooms are properly lit. Elevator has to be converted to ship to leave the orbital terminal after turning off the merge blocks.

TO DO: Automate the cart system. Possibly make the orbital terminal docking area airtight. Add a hangar to offload vehicles from the garage.