“When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.” – Richard Fairbanks, CEO & President of Fairbanks LTDRichard Fairbanks was quoting English poet William Blake when he showed his true colors to the then President of the United States of America. That statement, in context, that can be seen as the precursor to the world that Fairbanks and many others like him forged in their image; the rise of new capitalism— the corporatocracy, and the fall of old capitalism.
It has been five hundred years since the planet Earth was struck down by the horrors of a nuclear holocaust, though fortunately for the human race and the planet; both persevered despite the odds. One of the main reasons behind the survival of humanity was the ingenuity of innovators within the nuclear security field, such as Richard Fairbanks, Mikhail Volkov, Yukiya Akahoshi, and many others. Inspired by the archaic novelties of the fallout shelters of the 20th century, these shrewd businesspeople laid down the ground work for massive underground citadels that become known as “Burrows”— the salvation of humankind. But this salvation to those who didn’t wish to be swallowed by the impending nuclear holocaust came at a
price; for as the saying goes, to trust a
corporation is a fool’s gambit— and a fool’s price is what humanity received.
In the two hundred years that humanity was trapped underneath the shadow of the corporations there was much change and a new society began to take shape underground as what was left on the surface was destroyed by nuclear fire. Politicians who had fled into safety found themselves powerless before they became
targets of corporate agents who decided that the “chess pieces” of the old world had to be retired…
permanently. The old regime was deemed “out of date” and not one citizen flinched as prominent people they knew before the war disappeared. As time continued to carry on the citizens who obeyed became the new upper class and received the food rations and medical treatment that came with such loyalty. It seemed that no matter if it was Kings or Presidents or a Board of Directors— the pecking order was more or less the same.
Time carried on until the doors to the surface opened once again in 2340 CE.
The corporations that had started as nuclear security firms expanded, their citizens resettled the land of their ancestors, and began for a time to look optimistic towards life on the once again livable surface. For a time there was peace on Earth— but old habits die hard. Within fifty years of humanity returning to the surface corporations began to recover old world technology from the ruins; one incredible recovery being that of the 22nd century’s bipedal mecha, a humanoid machine controlled directly by the mind. Thus a weapon of mass destruction became the golden standard: The
Neural Combatant. This discovery, unsurprisingly led to the return of war and revolt. Corporations fought one-another as they forced more and more research into Neural Combatants and thus the arms race of the last two centuries was defined.
It is now 2677, and the situation has only gotten exponentially worse. The five major corporations continuously experiment, wage war on smaller corporations, deal with criminal factions ruthlessly, and expand their territorial reach.
As people became more burdened and suffocated on their Earth in the twenty-first century, they once again looked to the stars for answers and hope. However, many people of the time couldn’t imagine what their efforts to save their planet would lead to in the succeeding centuries. Whilst climate change, depleting oil reserves, and tension in the Middle East served as the principal issues that led science along NASA began an initiative that would be called the Terra Nova Program; a program devised in several stages beginning with financial funding from national governments to research technology to reduce the timeline of terraforming Mars with the hopes that a final resort into interstellar colonization and expansion would be fulfilled. This dream would be one not achieved in the creators of the program’s lifetime.
By the mid-to-late twenty-first century developments in new power sources, warfare, eco-technologies, and other technologies. This leads to the development of early nanomachines, experimental power sources, and the tanks evolution into mechs. It would take years for research to make these inventions cost efficient and cohesive but said developments would lead to NASA’s utilization of new power sources to develop new space shuttle designs and expand on nanomachines for their own benefit in their terraforming efforts. These would all come to fruition in the twenty-second century.
Climate change is the biggest concern of the early twenty-second century, but is shelved when conflicts in the Middle East, Eastern Asia, and India occur. As Iraq is swallowed by Israel and Iran after ISIL-affiliated control shifts, North Korea collapses after facing an alliance between Japan and the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation’s continued expansion, and conflict between Pakistan and India reaches a boiling point. As new lines in the sand are drawn the United Nations convenes to ensure a third World War is not on the horizon. Things remain tense and while there is no declaration of war many journalists decree that the world is now living in a second Cold War. Fortunately, this climate causes more nations to invest into technological research; research that leads NASA into developing a technological effort with utilization by an experimental antimatter power generator and state-of-the-art nanomachines.
Due to the fear of a nuclear holocaust in this second Cold War several business professionals create nuclear security firms to profit off humanity’s fears. But unlike the shelters of the 1950s the projects are far more ambitious as Mikhail Volkov develops an underground citadel secure from nuclear threat nicknamed by the public slang as a “burrow”. Other individuals such as Richard Fairbanks, Yukiya Akahoshi, Richard Caine, Josef Ophir, and Waclaw Dokowski followed in Mikhail’s influence— most of them being a part of Volkov Industries in their early careers. This brings the rise of the Nuclear Security Business Firm; a business that would see effective when the second Cold War turns into the third World War and in its finality on the year of 2177 results in the nuclear holocaust that humanity had feared would come true since the twentieth century.
As history will tell you, “Burrows” is the slang for the massive underground cities that served as fallout shelters between 2177 and 2340. Since 2340, these massive citadels have grown upward as the ruins of the old world cities were cleared for the new structures of the neo-metropolises of the modern day. These mega-cities are the center of “society” and are seen as these walled off utopia’s; though those who are born with little often claim they are dystopias instead. Clean energy has made industrial infrastructure minimalized as well as allowing humanity not to repeat the same ecological missteps as their ancestors. The central power source of the day is antimatter and plasma. Nuclear development is a taboo internationally and every corporation agrees that nuclear-oriented technologies are archaic and dangerous so it is fervently outlawed.
Smaller neo-metropolises exist, but for the most part are not as plentiful as the density of the world in the twenty-first century. Old world ruins are used as “scrap factories” and are refurbished into clean metal alloys for tram railways, transits vehicles, weapons, and city upkeep (though nanomachines keeps the need for repair unnecessary in the mega-cities). The further from the corporations one goes the smaller the settlements become and the more prone to independent effects they become. Smugglers, Raiders, Gangs, Slavers, Warlords, and Profiteers are sprawled across these sparsely populated (by comparison) areas— though the corporations who claim the territory still tax them harshly. These criminal factions are rarely fought by the major corporations due to three factors— the first is corporations will only act against them if they view the asset as essential or worthwhile, the second is if these criminals pay “royalties” to operate to the corporations, or third is if the victims have contributed to corporate tax in their area.
