This article is a work in progress; It is currently not approved as canon.

Designed exclusively to serve as the residential block of the Shil'ashe Megastructure, the Residential Layer contains all of the structures living quarters and cities, along with civilian docking and commercial districts and farming. The segments are also self-contained, meaning if one is breached then it can easily be sealed off to prevent the breach from spreading. Because the segment was designed exclusively for the Megastructure, it entered service in ER 770

The Residential Layer houses all of the living space for the Shil'ashe mega-structure and was designed only for it, this means that the segment can't be used on any other types of megastructures without some serious modifications. Each city has its own dedicated backup power generation and atmospheric systems to help keep them isolated in the event of a disaster, internal containment fields are constructed around each and every building which further improves the protection that citizens receive in the event of a hull breach although these containment fields are not designed to protect people from weapons fire.

Cities are covered in a protective dome which allows citizens to see out into space, these domes have armoured bulkheads that can easily slid over the dome when that segment of the station slides into the suns path - thus blocking sunlight from shinning into the city. These bulkheads are also a protective measure to defend the citizens in the event of an attack, but also, to keep attacks isolated within that particular dome, this is because each dome is designed to withstand a one hundred and forty one megaton nuclear blast which can be contained within to prevent a hull breach. The dome itself is designed out of three separate independent layers of Heu'trane, which makes up almost 34% of the layers construction costs, with the cities themselves taking up 29%, and the remaining structure just to support the cities and the bulkheads taking up the remaining 37% percent. The Residential Layer is actually the least complex of the three layers that make up the Shil'ashe Megastructure and is the quickest to build, this is largely because each city is independently constructed by different trade families, these frees up construction crews to dedicate their services to building the megastructure itself and not having to worry about the residences. During construction though, the residential layer 'is' used by construction crews on a temporary basis as living space.

Each city has its own commercial districts, in order to ensure that there isn't an overflow of businesses, each segment is intended to have a certain kind of business within the city itself - an example is that one Segment might have more entertainment businesses while another may have more educational, or another might have more regular businesses; because all of the segments are interconnected through an underground tram system it is a simple matter of boarding the tram and going to another segment if a person so desires.

While all segments also have farming communities, however a segment that is dedicated to farming is considered an industrial segment.

These segments also maintain their own civilian hangers and docking systems, to easily allow supplies and people to move from one segment to another if needed. Civilian docks are intended to house civilian ships of various shapes and sizes and, like the military segments, can be easily modified to handle much larger vessels.

There are a number of internals that the layer has.

Cities make up the majority of what is inside of the Residential Layer, each city is designed in a sort of pentagonal shape with the areas outside of this pentagon filled in with water or forests. Cities are protected not just by the overhead bulkheads and the containment fields but also by very large city shields along with internal defensive turrets which are disguised as fake buildings to throw off attackers, these turrets can make their presence known in the event of an internal attack or if the cities bulkheads/glass shield is breached from enemy fire.

Scattered throughout the cities are various commercial districts, each one tailored to a specific kind of business.

Where there are cities, there are also towns and villages, both of which are located sporadically throughout the segments lower areas and usually placed inbetween cities. Towns typically serve as places where large areas of farmland are cultivated and food can be grown, while villages serve the same purpose but on a much smaller scale.

Much like the capital of the Kingdom, each city has a large number of underground tunnels that are used by city residents to easily move from one city to another or for use in emergencies, as these tunnels houses fallout shelters in the event of enemy attack along with access to evacuation modules.

Each city is its own separate province, and each province is protected not just from the overhead bulkhead but also on the sides by fifty meters of thick armour plating which helps to isolate it from each other, this is protect it in the event one city becomes breached and that the breach doesn't effect the entire mega-structure. Each province is ruled by its own baron whom is turn is ruled by the halo's lord.

The residential layer is mainly designed for living, but it does have one production area.

Farming is the main source of production within the residential layer, farming is done mainly by towns and villages although cities can also have farms as well. Farmland makes up almost 40% of the available land on the Shil'ashe, if the structure maintains below 50% residential capacity then it can provide ample food supplies for the structure as well as providing food for the planet it orbits; on the other hand if the structure is at full residential capacity then it can only provide up to 80% of the food requirements; although this number does 'not' take into account family owned gardens or farms not directly connected to the structures automated systems, what this means is that if 20% of all residents on the structure own gardens or private farms, then that 80% becomes 100% and the station can be self-sustaining at least in regards to food production. If there is ever a need, an entire segment of the station can easily be converted into farmland.

Farming will always make up at least thirty to forty percent of the land taken within a residential segment.

The Layer has a few industrial services

Located beneath each city are water treatment centres that are used to filtrate the layers water, including sewage from owns, this sewage is then filtered and drawn through organic systems that pulls out waste products and other harmful organisms before it is pumped back into the stations water supply. Water for the station does not come from the planet it orbits, but rather, from ice-asteroids that are melted and provide the needed water.

Stationed throughout each city are Atmospheric Filtration Plants, these plants work on the same principles as life support systems found on ships and stations just on a much larger level. However, unlike the systems found on ships, these particular plants serve another purpose and that is to generate weather within each city allowing for rain and wind storms to occur, although lightning is not possible due to the potential for damage to the structure.

Each city has its own power station that is designed to provide the layer with a limited ten day supply of power for emergencies, while main power is provided by the stations primary reactor. When backup power is online, only essential systems such as containment fields and atmospheric scrubbers are online.

Located below the city districts in what would be considered the 'center' part of the segment. The civilian hanger is where all civilian ships dock to offload supplies, residents, personnel, or even where private citizens can board shuttles to another area of the structure. These docks have containment fields to help keep atmosphere in while also having emergency bulkheads in the event of an emergency. The hangers themselves are wide enough to accommodate a nine hundred meter vessel.

Each residential segment has forty evacuation centers that each have two hundred evacuation_modules's; these centers help ensure that people don't panic and that they board a module for evacuating from the megastructure. These centers also serve as fallout shelters, as they are the most heavily armoured areas of the structure minus the cities which are considered more.

Located between the cities and the hanger areas are the transportation systems, these systems includ the tram and internal road-networks. There are twenty two passenger trams and eight cargo trams designed to ferry people and cargo from one point to another, one tram is designed specifically to go to the opposite side of where it started while others serve to ferry people inbetween. There is a third set of tram lines used exclusively by emergency and military personnel for responding to emergencies.