Sky City 14 is a small mining colony in the atmosphere of the gas giant Centaurus Prime, primarily used to refine the precious metal zilithium from the planet’s thick atmosphere. The colony is shaped like an inverted Earth mountain and kept afloat by giant turboprops; it has many facilities to make life as pleasant as possible for the colonists, including a thin layer of breathable air and a large, open courtyard that is used as a public park, including such features as colourful, genetically modified trees, spectacular fountains and extensive flower beds.

The majority of the colonists work in the mining facility and are housed in skyscraper-like structures, which are arranged in a circle around the central courtyard. Wealthier residents, such as the colony’s managers and engineers, can afford more luxurious accommodation and live in full-blown residences, which are housed in the colony’s interior and have their entrances at the sides of the mountain, under the main courtyard.

The zilithium refinery, the core of Sky City 14’s economy, operates by sucking in Stealth Prime’s atmosphere through vents that are located near the turbines. The gas is then transported to the colony’s core and subjected to a number of chemical processes, which extract the trace amounts of zilithium and combine them into ingots. The heavily polluted waste, which mostly consists of remnant atmospheric gases and unused chemical agents, is then dumped back into Stealth Prime’s atmosphere and replaced by new, fresh air, so the process can be repeated. While attempts have been made to automate the process, it remains very labour-intensive to this day and requires an entire colony’s worth of workers to operate efficiently.