Another PC Interview

The incubus sat on a large rock outcropping, its bird like feet in the stream, and the laser cannon leaning on a nearby tree. Combined with the bright grin like mesh on the front of its head, the image was oddly like a lazy private slacking off from a field march.

Diego and Thomas sat in the afternoon shade on the other side, packing up the remains of lunch and giving their recording equipment a final once over. The sound man gave his thumbs up sign, and the interviewer started immediately.

"Last time we met, you mentioned that your race was somewhat divided on the issues regarding humans."

"Race? We're not running any where."

"You people, the Planetary citizens, the [short whistle]"

"I appre see ate the attempt, but humans can't use our language."

"Religious reasons?"

"No, but accor ding to our scientists, it con tains tones you can not hear, so you will never pro nounce correctly"

"How do you know what tones we can or can't hear?"

"I would guess cutting them apart? Hope fully no one you know."

"I hope so too. Diego! Leave the grenade launcher alone!
"Its ok, its ok, just checking to see if I left the "no-dissecting-me-today" switch on?
"If it wanted to hurt us it would have done so already. They're trying to be friendly - the vocorder has been adjusted to less screechy for one."
"Only three nails on a chalkboard rather than five. If it really wants to be friendly, why doesn't it get out of the robot?"
"you're bigger than me"
"What?" Hobbes asked
"You're bigger than me. And there are two of you."
"Just how tall is a planetary citizen?"
"About half your height"
"Gee and with the size of that robot and gun, they must be really compensating for something.." Diego started
"I'm female by the way"
"How did you pick up that meaning? not from cutting people apart I hope?"
There you go Diego, joke with it, er sorry, her. Though we should probably move back into our planned topic. Is it common for females to pilot these things?"

"Families and guilds divIded, genders not so."

"How do you tell a male from a female citizen?"

"It comes naturally, we have been doing it for thousands of years"

"I meant how can a human tell?"

"Number of antenna segMEnts, tail flared or strAIght, slight color difference, shape of genital slots"

[I didn't need to know that last one whispered Diego." Nor I Hobbes added]
"There is that clans and guilds again, can you explain any better?

"Like minded extended famIL-ies come together, purchAse expertISE from guilds, become self sufficIEnt, begin to fight with other families. just like humans do."

"Are there many of these families on Earth?"

"Representatives from many families, but none abandon home entirely.

"So what is it like to belong to a family?"
"Families vote on family business, most able in an area represent in larger negotiations... don't humans have families?"
"Not as a basis of political representation, not in most places at least."

 "Are humans politics very complex?

"That would be the understatement of the year."

"And you expect ours to be any diffERent?"

"Would the fact that there is roughly a even split between the chances of a Citizen helping, hurting, or ignoring a human be due to these politics?"

"Yes. And Religion. And VengeANce..."

"The other great understatement of the year - our first contact and greeting did not go too well. Perhaps you can tell us where you were during that even?"

"I was... "F--K!"

The incbus sprang to its feet, grabbed the laser cannon, and bolted north It had gotten almost 20 meters before it paused and turned around. "Sorry to cut this short, but I am needed" It then turned and continued sprinting away.
"How did that word make it into the translator's dictionary?"
"I don't know, Diego, but I'm sure it will make for a good story in the next interview."

Directory Assistance

Welcome to NEST Zero Three. You are currently in Level Two, Tiger, Chicago - Five, Concourse. For navigation assistance, please chose your destination from the map.

You have chosen: Directory Location Help.

The ground footprint of North Eastern Seaboard Transfiguration Megastructure number Three is approximately one point two two million square feet (just over 28 acres). For convince it is divided into four sectors named for big cats - Lion, Panther, Tiger, and Cheetah. Each sector is divided into 100 zones, numbered one through ten on the East-West Axis, and named for an alphabetical progression of cities North South. The cities are:

Albany, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Evansville, Frankfurt, Gainesville, Huston, Independence, Jacksonville

Level numbers range from Negative 20 for sub basements, to maximum height of 186. Five digit address numbers can identify a specific shop or apartment within a sector.


Do you require further location help?

Welcome to NEST Zero Three. You are currently in Level Two, Tiger, Chicago - Five, Concourse. For navigation assistance, please chose your destination from the map.

You have chosen Level Fifty Seven Independence One. National Guard Outpost. These areas are not open to the public, please make another selection.

You have chosen Level Thirty Three Panther Evansville Eight. These Luxury Apartments are currently under lock down, please make another selection.

You have chosen Level Negative Five Lion Baltimore Two. Subsurface high speed rail lines. Do you require Travel Itinerary, Booking Assistance, or Temporary Lodgings?

***

"You're just going to walk past it?"
"Do you know how many thousand reanimates are in this place? Kill one and you'll bring ten more in. Its not like the buildings outside where you might be able to safe a couple of corridors. Besides, I think that ones special."
"Special? How so?"
"Every time I come in, one of them is at a directory assistance terminal, pressing buttons. Not necessarily the same one mind you - last time it was female.  But there is always one."
"What, are they holding some sort of vigil?"
"That works for the lack of a better explanation. I don't know. Anyway, lets turn here. Cut through a restaurant to the freezer, from there you can get to the maintenance access ways. Fewer people used those than the main halls, so you're pretty safe once you're behind the scenes."

Observations on Ocupations

I've noticed an interesting pattern in my discussions with people. It hasn't been even a quarter generation since the event, but everyone treats it as different epoch of history, and a nigh mythological one at that. Most are disinclined to speak of their prior jobs in the same way no one speaks of a former life as a priest of Apollo or a Mayan elder.

The only time it ever seems to come up is when they are complaining. No one introduces themselves as "I'm Bill, I was an accountant before the event." But get William hot under the collar while under siege and you'll get an off hand comment like "these things are worse than people asking for refunds on April 15" or some other oddly inappropriate comment.

Perhaps its becasue they don't want to face the past. They had a family, friends, home life and virtual realities back in the same time they have a job. Now... not so much. Even the doctors and surgeons don't tend to mention their expertise up front. Not that I blame them - they were hit the hardest. Physically from being on the front lines trying to figure out what was going on. Inside, well all doctors feel it when they lose a patient, and most of them lost a few thousand...

Of course, for all the nostalgia, it wasn't that great. Infection raters were on the rise as were sea levels. A lot of people were displaced, and when you got a refugee problem like that, people turn. And don't get me even started on that f-ing war down in South America. The closest actual military people were 200 kilometers from any given firefight, and civilian casualties still went through the roof. Use only drones, pull apart the infrastructure, let it collapse, then waltz in. But when its decentralized and the utilities are buying power back from citizens with green energy what do you do? Suddenly, every hacienda with photovoltaics and hotel with windmills is part of the war effort.

And they wonder why tranquilizers sell so well.

Of course, it would be more ghoulish than anything walking around out there to say things have made a turn for the better after the event. There are some enclaves of people who think so, but I'd prefer to give them a wide berth. No, its much, much worse. But its a second chance. A bad second chance is better than none at all.



Prison records, work records, the slate has been wiped clean. And there aren't really the old jobs that let one fall back into the old complacent standards. Some of the people up in one of the NESTS or eeking out in some other arco might try. So long as people have hair, there's going to be barbers, con men to fleece them, and bankers to play off both sides. ha. But most of use are thinking it over.



Even though they've gotten their second chance, its still stuck doing the same ol' same old. It might be digging potatoes rather than data mining - but everyone is still stuck in tasks that don't have individual meaning. It might put food on your plate overall, but that one potato right there or the one left of it - doesn't matter which you pull up first.

I've been going for Keruac's "On the Road" or Walt's "Pioneers O' Pioneers".

My mission is to draw people on out here. We all got to eat, so I can't take every farmer of course, and well some people just have the temperament for it wand wouldn't take to me. But this is the one chance everyone has to be an explorer, to see everything old like new. Five, ten years top things are going to be running like before. Don't you doubt it, people can do some great things when they work together. But I want them to have a taste of the real life beforehand.

Playable Minimalism

I'm writing the anarchy zones setting, because it appeals to me. Future things, like arcologies, nano-tech, planned environments, power-armor - all quite fascinating.

Not so much the lack of government aspects, nor the back to nature angle. Given the medical history of my family and myself, none of use would be alive without 20th/21st century tech.

Unfortunately, all this interest has lead to rather unnecessary levels of detail. I can outline how internal nano works, for how long, and even the fact its pink - but is this really what the players need? My notes contain an outline on how the US army reacted to fuel shortages, and the revised Tables of Organization and Equipment - including powered personal armor. However, why should the TO&E matter when the military is largely non-existent, and finding a cache of equipment could derail a game?

So I'll be attempting every now and then to give a "just the facts" entry to the game. I started a discussion on the 1km1kt.net forums (Detail required for a setting) to help focus my efforts. Please let me know if presentations of this sort are helpful, or if I should continue my information overload style.

Nanotechnology Medicine

• Two types exist SVIA and STAIN - nano vaccine and nano surgeons respectively
• SVIA (Semi-Volitional Internal Agent) prevents infection, stops minor internal bleeding (bruises, not hemorrhaging)
• 500 cc bags of bubblegum pink goo
• Allows characters to generally ignore colds, parasites - though still best to not consume spoiled food or tainted water.
• Supposed to last over a year, and then fairly gradually taper off protection, but constant use reduces it to only 6-8 months before another IV is needed.
• Valuable trade item, and allows players to avoid taking penalties for illness (a slight skill or initiative penalty depending on the disease)
• STAIN (Specific Treatment Active Internal Nanomachines) is for repairing major internal problems.
• 1000 cc "dusty pink" with oil like sheen
• Needs an outside control center to work, unlike pre-programmed vaccine
• An IV bag or two can set and mend bones, remove tumors,  repair organs - generally act as a competent surgeon for most problems.
• A good commodity for those with access to proper hospital facilities, or a reward from a city state agency - it will restore a PC to full health regardless of their prior condition in about six hours. 
• However, those who don't know the difference between nano- surgeons and nano-vac can be accused of using counterfeit product, or or very disappointed to find they are not interchangeable. 
• 
  

Powered Armor

• Three main types exist in the USA, each named after a WWII general officer
• In theory made up around a quarter of most regiments - three suits in a squad of twelve
• Suffered heavily against PC forces as even the strongest are still below the alien "Incubus" armor in capability.  
• Complicated repair and a lack of spares also prevents them from being too common.
•  None make the user superhuman - the mechanics are more towards limiting fatigue and absorbing heavy loads. A PA soldier can't lift a motorcycle, but can march six hours with a 80 kilogram (172 lb) pack and still feel rested.
• Data-links, air-conditioning, and a sensor suite also help combat effectiveness. 
• William Donovan is a stealth unit for special forces
• Numerous built in sensors, automatic temperature control, IR/Radar camouflage
• Actual protection is only on par with a flack vest, and no built in weapons
• Very rare, and generally meant for scouts and forward weapon targeting.
• Some have the Electronic Visual Emulation and Nullification System (EVaNS) system built in - providing adaptive visual camouflage.
• MacArthur (Mighty Mac) is an assault armor
•  Highest level of protection, built in missile launcher on the shoulder, or cylinder fed breech loading motor (looks like a revolver firing artillery shells) on the back, often uses auto-cannons as a rifle, and an over-sized entrenching tool as a melee weapon (and engineering device as intended)
• More piloted than worn, thus less intuitive to use than others.
• Notably larger and heavier than other models (about 3 meters/10 feet) rather than 2m/7 feet for the other suits - making it rather less capable in certain terrain and quite conspicuous. 
• Quite often the first target due to size and threat, thus many prefer to leave it in the rear as fire support than use in the attack. 
• Eisenhower (Ike) is a general purpose unit
•  Most common, looks much like riot gear, but with an opaque helmet and volumetric (accordion like) joints to allow for ease of movement despite internal overpressure (keeps out chemical/biological weapons)
• Although no weapons are built in, its cargo capacity means its often carrying automatic grenade launchers, motors, or ATGM systems for the rest of the squad. 

Micro Factories

• Its not likely that the PCs by themselves can run or repair an entire factory. 
• All of the city-states desire these structures for long term production and material wealth.
• Many jobs a player might receive revolve around these facilities
• Escorting caravans traveling too and from a facility makes for a good introductory level session
• Finding replacement parts or retrieving production templates are all likely jobs for players
• Securing the area for another settlement, and sabotage are missions for those who become really embroiled in city-state warfare.
• Finding ones lost from the grid or setting up a small colony are another focus.
• Even broken down, there can be quite a bit of good salvage - raw materials, welding gases, computer parts, old transports

Second Oppionon

Austin remembered having better facilities even when he was in in the most backwards depths of China and Africa during the drive to bring nanotechnolgical vaccine to the entire planet. In those times they had self-inflating army surgical tents, portable solar panels, and decent sleeping bags. Here they had the basement of a half burned firehouse, finicky generator running on methanol, and some old blankets. At least it was kind of nice next to the fire.

"How are you holding up?"
"Wah... oh, hello Clarice. Good, bad, indifferent. Better than Jeff and James at least. How are they?"
"J number one is sleeping, but still running a pretty high fever. The second has disappeared again, I was hoping he was with you."
"What the hell is his problem. You'd think after the fifth trip to the outhouse he'd figure something isn't right."
"He's got enough nano remaining in his system to take the edge off, and well, these are third world diseases thought to be extinct in this country. He simply doesn't know how bad it is."
"Wrong answer, you're supposed to agree with the doctor he is an ignorant bastard."
 They both laughed. It was a pretty hollow sound.
"I also came out here to tell you, our two scavengers just radioed in. They go the goods and should be arriving presently."
"Thank god. It should help the J's and give the rest of a real boost. When you put the stuff to heavy use, it lasts maybe half the listed time before it meets its half-life."

...

"We go the goods, pulled them right out of the campus nano-lab. Place was pretty clean, and there weren't more than a few dozen reanimates to sneak past. If we can get a couple more rifles, we might be able to move to better digs."
"One thing at a time boys, lets just get this to our..."
Austin stared at the 1000 cc IV bag like he had never observed one before. The fluid was a dusty pink, with a slight oily iridescent sheen glinting under the flashlight. A white label simply read "Oncology - #222973 - 10/23/49"
Austin threw it as hard as he could against the side of the farmhouse. "F--!"
"What the hell? Do you know how much trouble we went through for that?"
"Dammit, its the wrong stuff! Its Stain! F--."
"And you throw priceless "stained" nanotech away because? Isn't it supposed to be pink - some sort of shelf life indication?"
"Bubblegum pink, 500cc is disease fighting nano-vac. One Liter bags are Specific Treatment Active Internal Nanotech."
"So use it to treat our friends specifically!"
"Thats not how it works. STAIN needs specific direction, from a computer hooked up to an MRI machine. It won't work on its own. If we had a f--ing hospital scanner we could cure them. We could remove brain tumors, suture a punctured lung, mend bones, rebuild a heart valve and separate conjoined twins while were at it! But right now it is useless!"
"So think of something that makes it not useless"

Austin opened his mouth, then closed it again, dropping his shoulders. "I don't think we've got much choice. We don't have much juice remaining in the truck, but if we take the batteries out of the other vehicle we can get most everyone to the school. If they were experimenting, they might have the scanners."
"So its either enough power to get the medicine, or leave our friends behind and make the rendevous."
"pretty much."
"What are we waiting for? Those new guns might have been nice, but a good group with old stuff is still better."
"Of course, we need them now to clear the campus"
"I thought it was only experience that showed up after you needed it."

Former Actor on Former People

Back when I was in college, I'd hang around the movie lots on weekends or holidays. Some guy in a blue work shirt would come out carrying a clipboard and say we need "ten walkers, five sitters, and three reaction" or something like that. Show him a picture ID, sign your name, and you'd get to be an extra for the day. Get a T-shirt, or some tchotkie, twenty or so dollars, just for walking back and forth or sitting in a fake cafe pretending to eat.

The Zombie movies were a bit different though, and always the best. Those you got to be more active, sometimes the camera even focused on you, if ya hammed it up a little. Plus the fun of getting all the make up and some actual costume. But the best part was you always got a better brand of people at those ones. No one really thinks about them being the hero on the train, or the gladiator in Rome, but somehow everyone likes to buy into the undead mythos. We'd talk about what would happen, where we would hide from them - those of us who owed guns would boast about our shooting skills (even when we had none...). Of all the odd situations that could crop up in the movies, from aliens to werewolves - it seemed like zombies were the one thing you could handle in real life.

Which is why everyone is so insistent that these things are reanimates. They simply don't behave like they're supposed to.

In the early days, there were absolute tons of them, there were true sieges, waves of former humans crashing upon the malls and army bases, flowing through cities. But ever so quickly, they seemed to get smarter and smarter. Even the dumb ones don't just charge across open fields or walk into flames. Now they seem to stalk us.

I swear its just like combined arms teams sometimes. One of those cybernetic ones will smash through like a tank, others moving alongside to draw fire and flush out ambushes, even acting like polish mine detectors for the traps. Those horrid betas are like commandos, getting behind you in all the commotion. A lot of us are saying someone's "beta'd" instead of died cause thats what it is. Disemboweled by a claw from behind, or dragged up and out from a dark rafter. You lose more from any angle but the front... there are fistfights about who gets to be on the firing line rather than rearguard - because those taking the creatures head on are more likely to survive.

You can dodge them, you can deal with a few. But there are always more. If you don't absolutely destroy the body, it'll probably be the same ones again as well.

They never speak.

Funny fact. You probably know this by now, but it bears repeating. Most of your senses shut off when you sleep. The eyes are off even if someone pries open the lids, smell goes away, even touch - ever notice how hard you need to rock someone to wake them. The only warning that really works is sound - why we have alarm clocks and not shakers in the morning.

Reanimates don't make noise, you need to count on someone staying up all night, keeping an eye open all night and scanning everywhere. The same person that morning you got into a fistfight with over whether they'd be the ones you leave to the betas.

I feel like I'm an extra again. In one of those movies where only one of the principal cast survives the final reel, and I'm not the chaste brunette.

Zone Demographics and Lifestyle

So far I haven't given as much thought to absolute population numbers and named leaders as I should. Actual population mechanics is pretty difficult, and just making up numbers feels unscientific and may come back to haunt me later. I've seen games that come up with some very hard to explain numbers - including one where:

• Advanced front line troops with no support made up 50% of the population
• Only 10% of the people could read in a high tech society
• None of the listed city populations added up meshed with the listed state demographics
• The armory listed enough flying power armors to give everyone in the country two and a half suits.

Furthermore, the question comes as to what exactly are reasonable numbers, and what makes for a good story. On one hand, the idea that even the G-zones are undermanned and desperate is a fitting touch to the genre, but on the other hand, keeping them large means more conflict between them, more oppression to hold together such population, and prevents the frontier from seeming so heavily inhabited.

My base assumption for the world is that the casualty rate between 2050 and 2055 is 90%. Nano-Vac was invented because epidemics were getting worse due to weather shifts, moving populations, and opening up virus reservoirs. So when electricity and most of modern medicine goes down, there are going to be problems. Add to that the inevitable looting, military actions against PCs with orbital bombardment tech, and of course the walking dead - and 10% survival almost seems generous.

Most of the remaining population, from 60-90% will be living in the Anarchy Zones. Most populations are clustered around some form of resource extraction - for a rather inclusive definition of resources. An auto manufacturing plant that can provide parts to return vehicles to working order is a more likely option than a mine. Functional hospitals, university labs that can produce nano-vac, nuclear power plants - "Boom towns" form around old technology rather than silver lodes.

Depending on the risk or the resources, the size of a settlement can vary wildly. A few dozen people might fortify parts of an old skyscraper in the infested Chicago Loop and seek out data files. A less over run area might have a few hundred or even thousand people people starting a commune or restoring an old farming town to agrarian society. Rarely is any non-government area going to run much larger than a town however.

The AZ is not open desert or radioactive wasteland like a nuclear holocaust film, but is overgrown and unmaintained. There are a few places, however, where containment breaches at chemical or nuclear handling facilities have made areas dangerous - but its like the Chernobyl exclusion zone, not B-movie mutants. Its more the absence of state or national level government that defines an A-Zone.

The 1850s are a good metaphor when you think about it. The remaining G-zones are much like the colonial empires of the time (France, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, the USA to a lesser extent). There is a search for coaling stations and other resources, while considering themselves part of something greater and bringing unity to the world. A-zone settlements are more like western homesteads, boom towns, or far flung colonies.

As to some actual numbers, which may be subject to change:

• NEST was a sequence of ten arcologies, at 500,000 apiece.  Presuming three totally lost, and an average of 50% attrition at the others (more like some got through fairly unscathed, while others are 300,000 reanimates separated from 50,000 survivors by a few fire doors and elevators): 4.25 million people - spread across the east coast between Main and Virgina.
• The LasVegas metropolitan area had a population of 1,865,746 in 2010, with about a third in the city proper. I would expect the post crisis numbers to be a little lower than this, but still a problem because the city is obviously not all that independent.
• Central Gulf/Lone Star is an incomplete project, and but is also close to what was once a major facility for refitting nuclear caries and cruisers in the Gulf of Mexico 
• Ruby Ridge and The Free City of Tesla are rather outliers for G-zones, having somewhere around 300,000 combined numbers.
• New Birmingham might have over 2.5 million

All together, the G-zones might account for 8-10 million people in the United States of America. The estimated population of the country in 2050 would is forecast to be around 440 million, so that means 36 million people are in the non government recognized areas.

Moving to matters of life style, things are probably at a 1940's level. There may be central frozen food stocks, but individual refrigerators are rare, and electricity is generally rationed or limited to certain uses. Computers are still rather ubiquitous - low energy requirements of modern machines (remember, they are woven into clothes now and charged by walking or induction from a closet rack) means they are easy to keep charged. Long distance communication, requiring high-powered microwave transmitters or satellites is of course not possible even with wireless networks still running in some places.

Frankly, there isn't so much a danger of society collapsing into "Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdrome" Territory, as there is a standing question of will institutions like the USA return, or will new nations take its place. The machines of industry will run again, but who is at the helm is an open debate.

Caravans might connect villages, but leaving is hardly a casual thing. Most places are still run by what is effectively a provisional government or emergency council. Some are elected, and others have had elections canceled by more despotic leaders.

Food grown in the commune is generally safe.  Civil water systems are only running in the G-zones however, so one needs to be careful about quenching their thirst. Nano-Vac is good against pathogens, whether they be parasites, fungi, prions, virus, or bacteria - but can't really do much about toxins or radiation. Without a boost at some point in the last few years, the average secondary immune system is at 25-30% effectiveness, so even that might be in question.

Life is  not up to the level of leisure expected in the late 20th century industrialized world, and certainly not the mid 21st century. However, there is a general unease about what will come, and political ideas can become uncivilized very quickly. Most places in the AZ are not constantly under siege, and those that are have a reason for it (ie outposts in old cites looking for valuable artifacts)

This is something that is going to need a lot of work in the coming weeks.