Background

Background

The World of Progress

Although the World of Progress is vast, spanning thousands of planets, the players will spend the majority of their time on the SLA capitol of Mort, in the planet's capitol city by the same name. The galaxy at large is a wide and varied place though that influences life even on the back streets of Mort City. Space travel is achieved by Ebon navigated Foldships or Ion-driven capitol ships, both of which are not restricted to SLA industries - Soft Companies and pirates also operate spacecraft and will occasionally attack SLA shipping if the opportunity arises.

Mort

The planet Mort is the flawed jewel in SLA's crown. The giant planet consists mostly of desolate wastelands and dead oceans, scoured by industry and pollution. Giant atmospheric processors keep the planet habitable, and weather control systems keep the cities safe from the worst of Mort's environment. Even so, rain falls on the cities of Mort constantly.

Polo

Polo is the frozen planet from which the Wraith Raiders originate. Its chilly environment appears hostile to humans, but Wraiths and the planet's flora and fauna are tough and well adapted. Survival is by no means easy on Polo, which is why the Wraith Raiders have evolved into such a hardy species, and much of the wildlife that shares the planet is equally dangerous.

War Worlds

Certain planets hold rare phenomenon or resources, or a vital strategic location, and become so heavily fought over by SLA and other companies that war envelops its entirety. Often the thing that was being fought over is destroyed in the process, but more often than not the war rages on regardless. War Worlds such as Dante, Cross and Charlie's Point have been fought over for so long that the average life of a soldier is measured in minutes, and the few who survive their tours are generally tough, dangerous and utterly insane.

Soft Companies

While SLA Industries maintains an iron grip on the world of progress, there are many pretenders to the throne. Rival companies, known by SLA as Soft Companies, work tirelessly to undermine SLA and bring about its downfall. From sprawling subversive organizations, to elite high-tech paramilitaries, to small back-street industries, the enemies of SLA are many and various.

DarkNight

DarkNight are by far the largest of the Soft Companies, and the biggest thorn in SLA's side. They fight SLA in open ground on the War Worlds, battling on planetary scales with huge armies. They own their own spacecraft with which to harass SLA shipping. They produce vast amounts of hardware and their planets home billions of people. Even so, they are small in comparison to SLA and survive mainly by stealth and concealment. To the average SLA citizen, DarkNight are a terrorist organization. They live in the cities, spying and subverting. They supply the illegal weapons and drugs and control the black markets. Rarely will DarkNight operate in the open on Mort, preferring guerrilla tactics and media subversion. SLA Operatives will encounter DarkNight Operatives and agents most often of the Soft Companies, but often the first they know of the encounter is from the impact of a sniper's bullet.

Thresher

Smaller in number than DarkNight, but more direct. The Thresher have powerful weapons and armour that make them difficult to stop, even by SLA's troops. Operatives stand little chance faced with their giant armoured suits and chainguns. Luckily they are rarely seen on Mort, and when they are they prefer hit-and-fade tactics.

Tek Trex

Tek Trex are a Soft Company that specialize in robotics. While robotics and cybernetics died off after the Chrome Age, Tek trex have continued to make security and attack robots for sale on the black market. These robots are often thought of as comical - at less than a meter tall and with a sort of round body and waddling gait they often appear so. They also sport light SMGs though, and are usually deployed in large numbers.

SLA Industries

Mort City

The capitol city of SLA Industries takes the name of the planet it dwells on, visible from space like a great black scar. Covering 76,000 square kilometers of the surface and stretching deep into the earth and high into the atmosphere, Mort is the largest city in the World of Progress.

Central

SLA Headquarters sits directly in the middle of Mort in the Central sector, a great glass pyramid with its upper floors masked by cloud. Around it, open to the sky and the as yet untainted rain, are the shining tower blocks of SLA's bureaucratic heart. It rises from ground level, or thereabouts, from around Central for kilometers into the sky, its skyline made up of every type of architecture from the World of Progress. Central is possibly the most secure public area in the World of Progress, constantly patrolled by Shivers and Dark Finders and surrounded by a patrolled wall with a strict entrance policy.

Uptown

Uptown is the district of Mort that is home to the elite, the rich and the powerful. Secure, disturbingly clean (especially to Ops who have grown up in downtown) and consisting almost entirely of square, grey tower blocks. Most Ops tend to live in Uptown, more often than not in specially designed apartment blocks with armed guards to deter assassins and hardened secure cabinets in the apartments for weapons and equipment. Having Ops segregated also benefits the other residents of Uptown, keeping them safe from both the enemies that Ops attract and the often violent and unstable Ops themselves. Most uptown residents know the locations of nearby Brain Waster blocks or Frother clan buildings and avoid them.

Slayer's Crib

Slayer's Crib is the biggest BPN Hall in Mort. Thousands of Operatives pass through its grimy, smokey corridors every day. Getting a BPN in any hall usually takes hours, but in Slayer's Crib waits of five or six hours are common. The discomfort suffered in the crowded confines are offset by the convenience of having the building close to where many Ops live, and by its reputation for having the best BPNs pass through it.

The Pit

The Pit is the largest nightclub on Mort, with a capacity of around a million people. Loking like a concrete bunker on the outside, the inside of the club delves nine floors into the ground in an inverted cone shape, each level overlooking the last. Each floor is dedicated to a certain race or passtime - live music, video games, even motor racing are available. Drinks are standardised at 1c each on every floor, and thousands of staff are employed on the vast bars that stretch around the club's walls, ensuring that nobody has to wait too long for a drink. Glyph pillars are placed around the floors, and one great glyph pillar stretches through the middle of the club. These are to prevent any fight that break out from getting out of hand, and with all weapons handed in at the door (and armour considered 'jobsworth') it prevents Brain Wasters being able to do too much damage.

• Stasis One

The first floor of The Pit is Stasis One. The biggest of all the floors, it is divided into four massive dance floors and is surroundsd by a continuous bar that is almost 2km long. The dance floors are packed from opening to closing time, and the only people who don't struggle to find space to dance are the Stormers, whose frequent taste of industrial and thrash metal makes them dangerous dancing partners and who can clear a dance floor in seconds.

• The Cave

The second floor of The Pit is called The Cave and is dedicated to live music. The biggest concert venue on Mort, it is divided into two main stages and four smaller stages. Tickets are required for entry over the walkways leading to these stages, and the bars sit inbetween servicing two stages each. Ordering drinks in The Cave can be tricky due to the noise levels, and experienced patrons often write down their drinks orders in advance to avoid confusion.

• The Trof

The third level is called The Trof and is dedicated to feeding the patrons of The Pit. The eight restaraunts here cater for most tastes, from specialist Ebon/Waster, Shaktar and Wraith Raider establishments to all-you-can-eat burger chains.

• The Sink-Hole

The fourth level is the Sink-Hole, and is frequented almost exclusively by Frothers. More alcohol is consumed on the Sink-Hole than on any other level, and the it is generally considered to be a place where Frothers go to fight. Divided into four quarters, each claimed by one of the major Frother clans, the holes that divide them are crossed by hurled abuse and drinks cans. Aside from fighting, other common pursuits in the Sink-Hole are the constant attempts at stealing other clans' tartans, and the competitions to see who can come up with the worst colour combinations of hair and skin using the drug Lumo.

• Virtual

Virtual is the fifth floor of The Pit and is dedicated to video gaming. Hundreds of full 3-D hologramatic gaming booths stand in rows through the level, offering every type of game imaginable. An area is also set aside for gambling, although it is generally only human Ops that venture here, and with a mere 65% payout most leave considerably poorer than when they arrived. Around Virtual there are 96 Ebb-powered virtuality booths donated by Dark Lament. These booths immerse the player in an oxygen-rich plasma and create complete sensory deprevation. The player then enters an Ebb-induced hallucination that is completely indistinguishable from real life, and who can play simulators of various games, sports and combat scenarios. The most popular virtuality game by far is Gygidion - a combat game where the players pilot massive powered suits armed with devastating short-range weaponry. The players compete against each other, and the battle is shown on holographic displays above the booths. Fights between the best players can often draw massive crowds.

• Heretics

The sixth floor of The Pit is known as Heretics, and is the domain of Brain Wasters. The walls, floor, ceiling and decor is uniformly black to suit the patrons, and pictures of skulls, snakes, and naked Brain Wasters adorn the walls. The dancing on Heretics is virtually indistinguishable from a brawl, with thrashing limbs and heads, and while fighting is common it generally goes unnoticed. The staff of The Pit consider a stint on the bar in Heretics to be by far the worst part of their job, and they use any excuse to get out of doing it. As a result the bars are always short-staffed and tempers run high as the Brain Wasters try to cram as many drinks in as possible in as short a time as possible.

• Myrhdrs

The seventh level of The Pit is dedicated to the Shaktar, seven being their sacred number. The atmosphere on Myrhdrs is calm and subdued, and the decor is clean and well looked after. Secluded booths occupy much of the floor to allow the Shaktar there to talk in privacy, and plants and art from their homeworld decorate the area. Generally the only non-Shaktar on the level are the staff, and unusually for The Pit they are usually stationed there permenantly, as the Shaktar like to have familiar staff who can deal competently with their requests. On the rare occasions that other races venture onto their level the Shaktar will be very polite but rather unsociable. Notably on Myrhdrs is the Circle of Justice - a plain sand pit where Shaktar with grievances that can only be resolved in combat can bring them to a conclusion. It is used rarely, but when it is the fight is to the death and using only the combatants' claws.

• Sinokenon

The eighth, and lowest level that is open to the floors above, is Sinokenon. Sinokenon is reserved solely for Necanthropes, and other races are not allowed access. The level is always calm and quiet, and here there is only the central glyph pillar, shielded to allow the patrons the use of their Ebb abilities. This level is the only one where weapons are seen, as Necanthropes are the only patrons exempt from the door policy, but none have ever been used. The level is arranged into eight tiers rising out from the four elevators in the centre, and the more influential the Necanthrope the higher the tier they will sit.

• Treachery

Treachery is the lowest level in The Pit and is exclusive to Operatives and Corporates. It is the smallest of the levels, but also the most diverse. It is famous for its racing track around the outside of the floor, where riders compete for cash prizes and bets are made on the outcome. It is divided into smaller bars that cater for a variety of tastes; sex, drugs, chillout, live music, and motor racing.

Suburbia

While not as safe as Uptown, Suburbia is still by far one of the better places to live in Mort. Most SLA employees live here and life there is generally clean and safe. To keep the streets of the better areas of Mort free from scum and crime, there is a wall surrounding the area that prevents undesirables entering. The wall in theory extends under the district to prevent access from the area of Downtown that resides beneath it, although it is more of a metaphorical wall here, consisting of security doors, thick grilles and vents, and sealed alleyways. It is through the belly of Suburbia that the criminals, subversives and serial killers infiltrate into the heart of SLA industries, as the security is grossly under-funded. Suburbia's stretched security services and sprawling population of employees has created many problems, from abundant serial killers to bored gangs of juveniles.

Upper Downtown

Upper Downtown is where the majority of Mort's population live, and where most of an Operative's BPNs will take them. Most residents of Downtown are unemployed, existing on benefits, free TV, and whatever money they can scrape together. There is little loyalty to SLA in Downtown, but this is more due to apathy than any real hatred. Still, Ops in downtown shouldn't expect much co-operation without offering some kind of incentive. There are plenty of threats for an Operative in Upper Downtown. Shivers aren't as common here as they are inside the wall, and many of them are corrupt. Gangs reign in much of Upper Downtown, and they do not take kindly to being pushed by cocky Slops (gang member slang derived from SLA Op). The larger gangs - the Kiestas, the Johannas and the Krosstown Traffic - can push an Op back pretty hard with black market weaponry and thousands of members, and even the smaller gangs can make life very difficult if they take a squad's interview techniques personally. More dangerous than the gangs are the Soft Companies. A thriving black market and limited SLA presence makes for an environment where small companies producing cheap drugs or weapons can flourish, and it is usually squads of Operatives who have to put them down. DarkNight also has well embedded presence in Upper Downtown, recruiting and subverting. Many Operatives have their careers ended prematurely after failing to realise the strength of a DarkNight presence in a sector and falling to an ambush or sniper. Aside from human dangers, the nearer to the Cannibal Sector walls you get the more creatures from there filter into the city. Carrien raids and roaming pigs are common in these areas, and hundreds of Blue BPNs are issued every day to try and stem the tide of things coming under the wall that separates Downtown from the Cannibal Sectors.