- For the RWBY: World of Remnant episode of the same name, see Cross Continental Transmit System (WoR episode).
The Cross Continental Transmit System (CCTS or simply CCT) is a communication technology in Remnant which allows instantaneous multimedia communication wirelessly over large distances. Ozpin calls it the most influential technological innovation of all.
Description[]
The CCTS is reliant on four primary relay towers, with one located in each of the four Kingdoms. The first and largest of these towers was located in Atlas. Should any one of them be taken offline for maintenance – or fail for other reasons – the entire system collapses.
With the CCTS towers at Vale and Atlas destroyed, the system has since been rendered useless for communications outside Kingdoms.
Background[]
Before the creation of the CCTS, radio technology was used for short-range communications within the boundaries of the Kingdoms. Communication between separate Kingdoms was difficult due to the constant threat of the Grimm, as messages had to be delivered through physical means, such as railroad couriers.
Numerous attempts to create a worldwide communication system were made. The creation of a network of space-based relay satellites was one such endeavor, but this effort ultimately failed, as it was found that Dust starts losing power as it begins to leave Remnant's atmosphere.
The Cross Continental Transmit System was first developed by the former Kingdom of Atlas and gifted to the rest of the world after the Great War to allow the Kingdoms to remain in communication. The CCTS functions wirelessly, much like radio, but is capable of transmitting a far wider variety of media, including text, visuals and audio. This evolved into an online web of information at mankind's fingertips.
Devices which use the CCTS to communicate with distant locations in other Kingdoms exist in certain homes, public libraries and CCT centers. The CCT center at Beacon has dozens of computer terminals and uses holographic AI assistants to attend to its visitors.
Smaller devices, such as handheld Scrolls, are able to use the CCT to communicate instantaneously within Kingdoms, but signals become less reliable the farther a user is from a CCT tower.
Smaller support towers are located outside of the main cities of the Kingdoms, such as the one in Argus, but they are often at risk from marauding Grimm. Many of these relay towers have cannons and other defenses designed to protect the towers from Grimm and enemy attacks. As seen in "Out of the Woods, Into the Fire!", the towers can also ping telemetry data between each other to check for operational status.
As seen in "Can You Hear Me Now?", some abandoned and decommissioned towers have been converted into small villages such as the tower outside Kuchinashi.
Atlas Tower[]
Atlas was the Kingdom that developed the CCTS and constructed the first CCTS tower. Weiss mentions that it was the largest. Atlas Academy was the highest point on the flying island of Atlas island and likely the location of Atlas' CCTS Tower.
It was later destroyed alongside the Kingdom in "The Final Word".
Vale Tower[]
The CCT Tower in Vale was the base section of Beacon Tower, the most prominent part of Beacon Academy that also doubled as Ozpin's office. The building itself was an enormous cylindrical building supported by four flying buttresses and serviced via an elevator system.[2] The top was surmounted by a number of green spheres or lights (possibly the beacon after which the academy was named), as well as an intricate clockwork mechanism consisting of many interlocking cogs and gears.
During the Fall of Beacon, a Wyvern destroyed the top of the tower and got petrified holding on to Ozpin's office.
With the destruction of Vale in the "Volume 9 Bonus Ending Animatic", the entire tower was likely destroyed as well.
Mistral Tower[]
Haven Academy features two identical CCT Towers on its campus. They are shorter and stockier than the Vale tower. They have a wide base with two levels with the same architecture as the rest of Haven Academy. Four red flying buttresses support the tower. The top features a transmitter and has an observation platform.
While the White Fang attempted to bomb these two towers, their attempt failed when the Faunus of Menagerie arrived to stop them.
Vacuo Tower[]
Vacuo's CCTS Tower is located at the top of Shade Academy, alongside the office of Professor Theodore.
A support CCTS Tower is situated in the settlement of Feldspar. Additionally, the settlement of Gossan had a CCTS Tower, but it was destroyed when the Grimm invaded the settlement.
Argus[]
Argus is the northernmost city on Anima and a major port city, especially between Atlas and Mistral. Above the city, on a cliff, is a CCT relay tower.
The tower itself is an open metallic building with several platforms surrounding a central core.
Amity Communications Tower[]
Amity Communications Tower[3] was a communications satellite re-purposed using Amity Colosseum. It was developed by James Ironwood and Pietro Polendina as a replacement for the Cross Continental Transmit System.
It was used to send out Ruby Rose's message about Salem across all of Remnant. However, Amity shortly fell back to the ground due to the damage caused by Cinder Fall.
History[]
In "A Minor Hiccup", as the first part of Team RWBY's investigation, Weiss and Ruby Rose visit the Vale CCT at the base of Beacon Tower in order to gather data from the Schnee Dust Company records. Ruby expresses an admiration for the tower's immense size and architecture, stating how it's "just so cool".
This tower returns in "Dance Dance Infiltration", this time as the target of an infiltration by Cinder Fall. After incapacitating multiple Atlas Soldiers, she proceeds to the CCT hub room, where she introduces a computer virus represented by a black queen chess piece. The virus proceeds to infect any devices connected to the Beacon network, including the Vytal Festival Tournament's match-up randomizer and James Ironwood's Scroll.
Battle of Beacon[]
Later, after Pyrrha Nikos is seen killing Penny Polendina during the Vytal Festival Tournament, Cinder hijacks the CCTS in order to broadcast her speech to the world, calling for people to question the leadership of the academy Headmasters and the military. Cinder later uses the CCTS to relay images of rogue Atlesian androids (also infected by her computer virus) slaughtering innocent civilians.
During the ensuing Grimm and White Fang invasion of Vale, the CCT tower is destroyed by Cinder and an enormous Wyvern, which perches on the side of the tower. With the CCTS down, communication with the outside world is rendered impossible. As the entire system is dependent on all four towers being active, the failure of the Vale tower presumably also cut off communication between the other Kingdoms as well. The last images sent from Vale before the failure of the CCT are of Atlesian androids attacking innocents, causing mounting distrust to build up between the Kingdoms.
The Fallout[]
Several months following the destruction of the Vale CCT tower, the miscommunication problems associated with CCTS being offline remain at an all-time high. Global distrust towards Atlas is apparent but the extent of it is difficult to confirm, nor has it even been confirmed that the other kingdoms officially declared war in retribution for Vale. The village of Shion was revealed to have been attacked by a bandit tribe, and the panic created from the attack drew the Grimm, annihilating the village. Due to the CCTS being down, the villagers were unable to call for help, and the outside world was completely unaware of the massacre until Team RNJR arrived at the village, but even they had no expectation of finding Shion destroyed.
The people of Menagerie were also unable to learn much about the current condition of Remnant due to not having a CCTS tower on the continent. Later when the White Fang attempted to destroy Haven Academy's CCTS tower during the Battle of Haven, this plan was thwarted by the Faunus of Menagerie that arrived at the academy to stop them. Meanwhile, the people of Vacuo were beginning to lose the CCTS towers they had situated in some of it's smaller settlements. Gossan originally had a CCTS tower, but it was destroyed during a Grimm invasion while Feldspar still had one before the people of the settlement abandoned it.
After Ruby's Group planned on stealing a Manta from the Argus Military Base, they sent Blake Belladonna to disable the Base's CCTS tower so they wouldn't alert the Atlas Military personnel working there. Before she was able to do this however, Adam Taurus attacked her and Caroline Cordovin was alerted to their efforts. Due to this, she attacked them using her Colossus while causing a spike in negativity in Argus.
Amity Communications Tower[]
Amity Communications Tower was a communications satellite Ironwood intended to launch that would reconnect Remnant's communication system. It would be a tall, cylindrical tower that tapered toward the top, with support cables connected to the bottom section. The tower itself would be attached to the top of Amity Colosseum. After Salem's followers Tyrian Callows and Arthur Watts had infiltrated Atlas and started an invasion, Ironwood Later revealed the existence of Amity Communications Tower to the entire Kingdom in order to lure out Watts. He succeeded and the two fight in the communications tower with Ironwood the victor. Later when Ironwood abandoned this plan in favor of raising Atlas out of Salem's reach, Ruby's Group decided to continue with launching Amity Communications Tower themselves with the help of Pietro Polendina and Maria Calavera.
In order for them to launch it however, they needed to infiltrate the Atlas Command Center to obtain the launch codes and managed to obtain them after an encounter with the Ace Operatives. Penny Polendina had one of her swords stolen from her during the fight, which Ironwood would force Arthur Watts to use to hack her. Penny herself Later goes to Amity Communications Tower to help with the launch by detonating bombs in the launch site.
Before they get high enough in the atmosphere, Cinder along with Emerald as Neo go to the communications tower where they fight the group. Due to Cinder's interference, Amity begins to fall out of the atmosphere before reaching the required height, requiring Penny to push Amity high enough herself against Pietro's wishes and manages to reach the required height.
Thanks to this, the CCTS is temporarily restored all around Remnant and plays Ruby's message to the entire world. She revealed the existence of Salem and that Atlas was under attack, asking for assistance. However, the broadcast is cut short as Watts is able to hack Penny, causing her to fall back down to Atlas and Amity to drift out of range. It is unknown what happened to Amity Communications Tower after this along with the whereabouts of Pietro and Maria.
In "Worthy", Team JNR, Oscar, and Emerald recorded a message to tell everyone in Atlas and Mantle that the City of Atlas is falling and about the evacuation to Vacuo, but Arthur Watts shut off the broadcast before they can even finish the message. In the same episode, Winter attempted to contact anyone about the evacuations, but did not receive any response.
In "The Final Word", no help came and both Atlas along with its CCTS tower were destroyed.
Trivia[]
- The holographic CCT assistant was voiced by Megan Castro, who works in sales at Rooster Teeth.
- All the towers seen so far have different shapes and heights to match the designs of the cities they are in.
- The destruction of Beacon's CCTS tower was foreshadowed in the CCTS World of Remnant episode.
References[]
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