The town of Shiftsville exists in its own spherical dimensional
pocket 0.5 miles in radius (for details of how it came to be in this
state, read
Shiftsville - History and Description). Whilst the town exists in this pocket dimension it is freely (well almost) accessable from Rifts Earth.
The River which flows through the town does so no matter which location
the town is in and the town is always accessable from the main river
(See
Shifsville - Local Area Map,
points RA and RB). Exiting Shiftsville by boat along the river (not
flying) always deposits you at RA or RB depending upon the direction
you leave Shiftsville.
Where the land drops into the valley areas the drop is 100% vertical at
the town boundary. Thus if you walk into town at the wrong point, you
drop nearly 200ft between one step and the next, with all the inherent
consequences. Nobody has yet been able to explain why the valley area
exists or where the water for the two mini lakes comes from.
The Valley area is also the weakest point in the Shiftsville defences,
as it is unprotected by the city wall. Had the Chask not arrived in
Septemeber 101 then construction of fortifications at points FA and FB
would have commenced in spring 102PA. They have currently been defered
until summer of 103PA. The additional gun towers for the Southwest
section of the wall will still be built in 102PA.
Each Gun tower is an MDC tower 40ft high and mounts 2,3,or 4
in-tower turrents (at the corners) and 4 roof turrets. The in-tower
turrets mount twin modified NG202 railguns and an 8 tube mini-missile
launcher. The roof turrets above the in-tower turrets mount twin heavy
pulse lasers, a single NG202 railgun, and a 4 tube mini-missile
launcher. The remaining turrets mount quad 4 tube mini-missile
launchers and twin SRM Launchers(See
Shiftsville - Dimensional Effects
for details on why the particular weapon configurations have been
chosen). One of the SRM launchers always carries Anti-Aircraft missiles.
The town itself is devided into three secutity zones, Outer, Level 2,
and Level 1. Whilst it is easy to cross between the zones on foot or by
flying, passage by vehicle is by road only. At the crossing points are
security check points and storage facilities. In the Outer Zone there
are no restrictions on armour worn, weapons carried, or vehicles
(including robots and power armour).
In order to gain entry to the level 2 zone all military and armed
vehicles (including robots and power armour) must be garaged and all
weapons other than pistols must be placed in storage. Borgs with
built-in heavy weapons must agree to them being disabled and they must
also place any borg armour in storage.
Entry to the level 1 zone is only possible in ordinary clothes and
borgs are automatically prohibited. Attempts to by-pass the secutity
checks by flying result in the security towers firing on the
transgressor with
no warning!
The security checkpoints are also MDC structures but are 60ft tall and
can accomodate all but the largest robots within their hangers (the
doors are 30ft but the roof inside is just under 40ft). The checkpoints
are built straddling the road and have 30ft arches. On either side of
the road under the arch are 2 in-tower turrets, whilst over the road
are 3 roof turrets. There are an additional 4 turrets on each hanger
roof, and an in-tower turret either side of the hanger doors.Only one
turret on each of the hanger roofs is fitted with the mini-missile/SRM
launcher combination.
