New BeeNCQuest Lore Thread (Being Polished)

Note: As said, Inkarnate gave me permission to run NCQuest on Roleplayer Guild.

|HISTORY|

It is the year 2677, half a millennium after a nuclear war ended the Modern Age and its dreams of a rational and humane future bound by mutual respect and cooperation, at least for a while.

There were two groups of Survivors: First was the Independents, a motley band of unimportant cities, rural towns, and even entire countries that were too unimportant or neutral to be directly targeted by nuclear weapons during the war. The people who lived in them lived a hardscrabble life, filled with hardship and loss but also true freedom and the potential to rebuild what had been lost.

Second were the Burrows, large underground cities filled with advanced technology, where the old elite of the world had retreated, ready to take back the surface once the radiation had died down. Controlled first by the remnants of the Great Powers of the pre-war era, then by the ‘Nuclear Security Firms’ that had built and operated the bunkers, the Burrows became company towns in all but name. This was made worse by the fact that the CEOs of the Nuclear Security Firms were losing the belief that a happy and content populace were more productive or even a worthy objective to attain.

The War was taken as proof that the only values which matter mattered were strength, talent, and power, and that ‘Protecting the Weak’ was a luxury at best, an obstacle to true virtue at most. That the future belonged in the hands of an elite that was automatically better than the common masses of Humanity and that said elite should not be questioned or opposed for any reason. The plutocracy was rich because they were better - If the poor wanted a voice, they should stop being poor.

And so when the Burrows opened to allow the newly-minted Ruling Corporations through, their meeting with the Independents inevitably led to conflict...

During the months of conflict proceeding the launch of nuclear weapons, a new technology, the ‘Neural Net’, had made war machines based on the human form somehow practical, as this mysterious innovation allowed the pilots of said humanoid mechs to call forth feats of impossible prowess, a prowess that cannot just be attributed to perfect communication between man and machine. The name of this type of weapon, the first Mecha, was the Neural Combatant, or NC, and it soon became a name to be feared.

While it was true that even the Burrows and Ruling Corporations cannot duplicate the technology of the NCs’ cores, they can, however, make better bodies for said cores, meaning that whenever the Corps' acquired a stash of them, they can outpower any jury-rigged Mech used by an Independent. But to acquire Cores or stashes of Cores, the Corporations had to play nice at first, offering security, medicine, and a better life before revealing their true face. And so many Independents willingly, but foolishly, bent the knee to the Ruling Corporations. 

But a few, such as Fortress Switzerland and the Underground State of Israel, who had Burrow-like redoubts and the facilities to upgrade their own NCs’ bodies, resisted. These were joined by the Independent Alliance of California, the Guangzhou Clique, and the New Japanese Republic, as well as New Nigeria and the Second Ethiopian Empire, which had enough resources to take the fight back to the Corporations. And so the First NC War started. 

Said war lasted for twenty years, but in the end, the Ruling Corporations cemented their domination of most of the World, with Fortress Switzerland and the Underground State of Israel forced into hiding while the larger Independents were disarmed and dismantled - Those among their people who were willing to collaborate and accept the new order were given privileges and allowed to join the Corporate Elite, while those who refused were punished with the most abject forms of slavery.

In time, however, attitudes slightly softened as the Corporate Elite realized that they cannot rebuild the world with broken tools. Because of this, there was some genuine interest in improving lives and working conditions, but only to make sure that the Elite had capable servants to help them with their grand project of 'progress and development'. But underneath this veneer of conciliation and concessions was the old corruption and brutality, only better-hidden.

Then one day, one Corporation decided to go still further, and actually Invest in the Human Race...

It all started with Katlego Kgosi, the CEO of Tshwane Mining Inc in South Africa. The first one to return his headquarters to the Earth's surface, Katlego saw the broken and shattered landscape around him, a broken and shattered landscape that he wanted to restore to its pristine state for reasons which started out selfish. These efforts to restore the past led him to come into direct contact with the lower masses he had taken for granted back in the Burrows, and it led him to realize once more that his workers were other Humans, possessed of their hopes and dreams.

And he began to think... Were not healthy and happy workers an end in and of themselves? Did they only have to improve lives when there was a direct increase in productivity as a result? Katlego wrestled with these moral questions for a while and decided to do something heretical for a CEO - Follow his heart. And so the philosophy of 'Human Investment' was born, in which Humanity and its happiness were seen as the main objective, and money spent improving the lives of other people was an investment towards its fulfillment.

And so Humanity found respite in the first Ruling Corporation to recover its sanity...

Before The War, the UN Commission for Refugees built its own ‘true’ Burrow in Australia, as an experiment in resettling the increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers across the globe. This Burrow, Haven, was originally meant to be a glorified ‘detention camp’, where the undesired people of the globe were to be kept out of sight and out of mind as they worked for the ‘True Citizens’ above-ground.

But Australia was struck by Nuclear Missiles, and Haven was spared that fate. Even then, things weren’t easy: Resources were short, ethnic tensions were high, and the UN Commission for Refugees’ leadership was more corrupt than ever. For a brief moment, it looked like everything would fall apart. 

Then, a miracle happened; the discovery of a large stash of NC Cores, and three NC bodies, by three idealistic teenagers. These three took on the names of Afrin, Kobane, and Qamishlo; the three Democratic Confederalist cities that had brought light to North Syria, and fought the corrupt UN Commission of Refugees to institute a new and fairer system that diminished suffering.

Haven would reemerge later into the world, and find out that while it had enough NC Cores and NCs to keep itself independent from the Ruling Corps, it did not have enough to attack in turn and spread its philosophy to the surface. So after much debate and deliberation, it offered a deal to the Corporations - They would contribute mercenaries to their wars in exchange for the freedom of Australia and New Zealand. Of course, there was a bias towards Corporations that embraced 'Human Investment' as a philosophy, but that was easily negotiable.

Now, the world shifts - Will this shift lead to greater despair, or to hope?

The Corporations and Haven (To be Revised)


Denver-Vegas Incorporated:

If one can hear George Allen, CEO of Denver-Vegas, talk, one can see that he genuinely believes D-V is the legal and cultural heir to the United States of America and its principles of 'Freedom'. However, that sincere belief does not detract from the fact that 'Freedom' in Denver-Vegas is mostly enjoyed by the wealthy, with the poor receiving only the barest amount of its fruits. While not starving, the lower classes of Denver-Vegas' arcologies are seen as a backward and primitive group that should be kept complacent through bread and circuses. Any form of initiative is swiftly crushed by the corporate establishment, including genuine entrepreneurship - Anyone who develops a new idea or invention is forced to sell it to Denver-Vegas at a lower price, and any new business that grows beyond a Mom and Pop store is swiftly bought by the Corporation to avert competition.
Bread and Circuses typically take the form of 'free television', 'free access to CEO-approved websites', and countless races, professional wrestling events, beauty contests, and lotteries. Little to no breaks are given between every event in order to make sure that the constant surge of entertainment is taken for granted. Bright colors, loud music, and constant spectacle greet those who enter the cities, disorienting them and making it hard to form dissident thoughts.
Outside the Arcologies, Denver-Vegas cements control by giving a surprising amount of power to the smaller towns and hamlets in the new rural America. These smaller towns and hamlets are allowed ‘the right to bear arms’, as long as they have nothing that can bring down an NC, and are also allowed to set their own laws. This, of course, is in exchange for selling their products to Denver-Vegas only, setting their televisions and the internet solely to Denver-Vegas' entertainment network, and giving D-V the rights to any new inventions developed outside the arcologies, even if it is something as simple as an electric windmill made of scrap.
And finally, Denver-Vegas’ CEO is one of the few people left in the world who technically controls two companies, not just one. In a decision made during the surrender of the last Independents on the former Continental United States, George Allen, in his capacity as a private individual, founded a smaller, more private corp on what was once the Independent Alliance of New California. This corp, Paradise Garden Company, was ostensibly meant to research agricultural tech but is rumored to be researching the ‘restoration of biodiversity to Earth’, aka making new forms of mutated life to replace the species Humanity drove extinct...
Denver-Vegas relies on two things: Durability and Firepower. Note however that due to a decree by the President-CEO during one of his days of madness, the Corporation is forbidden from using Energy Weapons, or at least, visible ones. Thus, most forms of offense rely on the use of railguns, missiles, and high explosives, delivered via numerous, durable, vehicles and NCs. However, they do not neglect the need for speed, and a small but notable percentage of D-V NCs are ‘Hunter-Killers’, fast humanoid machines who launch volley after volley of heat-seeking micro-missiles at a target, before closing in with sharp, building-sized blades.


Fairbanks LTD:
Fairbanks rules over the most northern third of the Americas, with a few holdings in Greenland. Believing that the only ‘wrong’ field of inquiry is Nuclear Research (and only because it resulted in the apocalypse), Fairbanks is structured around supporting a ruling class of technocrats and scientists - Descendants of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and similar institutions. This ruling class is supposed to research terraformation, infrastructure, health, and other positive-sounding things, but being sandwiched between Denver-Vegas and Paragon has made sure that much of their budget is spent on ‘super weapons’, some of which include biological weapons and other inhumane means of warfare.
However, all the wonder-weapons in the world would not compensate for lack of resources and manpower, and that is where true pragmatism rules in Fairbanks. Instead of subjugating Independents outright (and thus drawing the suspicion of Denver-Vegas), it instead gives their people a deal; give them resources and volunteers and get medicine and agriculture in return, or have their crops and livestock suffer 'coincidental' plagues. Needless to say, it proves an effective bargain...
Their NC’s are few and far between, making standardization a difficult prospect at best. But there is a focus on the weird parts of 'super-science', such as biological bodies (built around a metallic NC Core) that regenerate wounds in mere minutes and project barriers of 'hard light'. The latter is immensely expensive and is kept only as a weapon of last resort.


Paragon Industrial & Nuclear:

The Aristocratic Corp, Paragon Industrial and Nuclear is ‘Neo-Feudal’ in its outlook and values, materialistic, capitalist, and possessed of a strong belief that if ‘innate superiority’ is nonsense, then ‘artificial superiority’ must not be. And so Paragon uses biological enhancements to make its ‘Middle Management’ better than others, forming a ruling class of aristocrats who are smarter and stronger and better-looking than the ‘gene-serfs’ who make up most of the population, which, despite their name, are just baseline humans.
This ‘class system’ also manifests itself in the allotment of NC Cores and Bodies. Baseline Pilots are allowed to pilot Cores that require a low level of connection between Mecha and Human, for those are seen as ‘useful but expendable’. These ‘Serf-Pilots’ take second-fiddle to the vat-grown ‘Angel-Knights’, who pilot the faster, better mechs. Occupying a position in-between the two are the ‘Agents’, baselines with a high ‘Sync Ratio’ and thus able to connect to very good NCs, but whose ‘low-born’ status prevents them from associating with the ‘Angel-Knights’. These ‘Agents’ are assigned to black-ops jobs all across the globe, in order to act as ‘assassins with mechs’.
Life for an average Paragon citizen is mostly good, with guaranteed protection from the grand majority of diseases. Food security is also seen as important, with Paragon citizens receiving better diets than their peers in other Mega Corps. They also receive secure housing and the right to own personal property, with the more intelligent among them serving as 'Stewards' for the ruling class - Sub-managers who are increasingly doing the actual management instead of the Middle Management.
Of course, the downside is that theoretically, an aristocrat can do anything to them, even torture and murder, and get away with only a minor fine paid directly to the CEO’s office for the destruction of her property. The aristocrats themselves are prone to manipulating, backstabbing, and murdering each other, using their own children as pawns in their schemes and raising said children to backstab, manipulate, and murder as well, all for a slight increase in stock shares...
Their NC’s are sleek and barely resemble actual human beings. Their legs and arms are little more than moving counterbalances, and feather-like heatsinks dominate the standard Paragon NC’s back. This makes them look simultaneously Angelic and Alien, and both impressions are reinforced by the fact that they favor energy weapons - A few even have Fusion Cannons which can fire superheated hydrogen.


Al-Amir Group of Companies:
Urbane, Elegant, and Sophisticated, Al-Amir prides itself on having at last bridged tradition and modernity. Having cast aside past centuries’ reputation of terror and bloodshed, Al-Amir, under its ‘Sultana-CEO’, Raiza Agha Khan, is now as a place for sanctuary, where all those with useful skills are welcome. Governed from the city of Shiraz in Iran, Al-Amir extends its reach from Afghanistan to Thrace, having rebuilt the Middle East in its own image.
However, there is a price to pay for peace and prosperity, and Al-Amir makes it known when it exacts the ‘genius tax’, a requirement for each major city and community, regardless of religion or ethnicity, to hand over to the Ruling Corp’s officials all children who show above-average physical or mental talent. These children are then made ‘property of the corporation’, and educated as warriors or civil servants, before being ‘redistributed’ back to the corporate territories to serve as defenders or administrators.
In other, less savory, but still ‘normal’ ways does Al-Amir remind people that the world is not beautiful, as despite being a Corporation, it bases its economy on exports and high tariffs — the latter which it can afford because it has the Suez Canal — as well as ‘self-sufficiency’. The outcome of this is that foreign goods enter Al-Amir territory less, and local goods are more expensive, thus, despite peace and relative freedom, the standard of living for the average citizen is poorer than in other places, giving them an incentive to give their children away to the Corporation, which gives those who are willing to part with their flesh and blood a hefty pension and other privileges in response.
The life of a child made the property of Al-Amir Group of Companies is materially luxurious, with better treatment than 'ordinary folk'. Though abuse and exploitation exist, children are permitted visits to their family and encouraged to pay for improvements to their home communities like water purifiers, grain mills, hospitals and houses of worship (reflecting the tradition of Mamlukes and Janissaries paying for Churches in their home communities despite converting to Islam - Such a conversion is not required for current Al-Amir 'property').
Al-Amir is a Ruling Corp that relies on defense-in-depth, not just lines of static defense. Behind the borders lie networks of fortresses, behind the fortress networks are heavily-entrenched cities, and behind the cities lie a hostile countryside where every mountain, forest, or stream hides landmines or punji sticks or even just rows of IEDs. All the while, Al-Amir’s main armies shadow the enemy forces, waiting for a decisive battle against worn-out and decimated foes.
As for their NCs, Al-Amir specializes in reliable Mecha that can be refitted to run in the desert, the mountains, and even the steppe and undersea. In short, they are the all-terrain specialists who can fight anywhere without engine or electronics failures. As for armor and armament, Al-Amir focuses on light but strong armor that can blend into the desert sands, as well as digital camouflage, assault rifles, obsolete Volkov rocket designs, and grenades.


Tshwane Mining Inc:

Led by Katlego Kgosi, the transhuman CEO of the South African Corporation, Tshwane, also called the ‘Blacks and Whites’, rules directly over the southern half of Africa, and has taken the Independents of the northern half as its protectorates, with the exception of Egypt which is ruled by Al-Amir Group of Companies, their ally. Actually and actively benevolent thanks to years of ‘therapy’ on the open surface, Katlego rules over Tshwane with a fair hand, investing in his workers in the belief that keeping them healthy improves productivity.
However, not all is well. Not all approve of the alliance that Katlego forged with the African Independents, where they are essentially liberated as their own 'states' as long as they accept Tshwane’s ‘diplomatic protection’. Basically, the African Independents count as part of Tshwane in legal terms, meaning that the other Ruling Corps cannot invade them willy-nilly. But in exchange for this, the obligations by the African Independents to Tshwane are very low, just permission for Tshwane to buy supplies and recruit volunteers in their territory.
And of course, there is factional warfare within Tshwane’s main structure itself, with two dominant factions jockeying for power. The first one is the 'Human Investment Faction', which believes that happiness is the goal and that profit must be used to serve Human wellness, physical and mental. The other is the 'Hybrid Vigor Faction', which was formed as a hostile reaction to the idea that one race should rule over everything. Instead, the Hybrid Vigor Faction advocates that the best way to prevent apartheid or post-apartheid racial divides is to elevate Mixed-Race people to positions of power. Katlego Kgosi sees this movement as dangerous, but as he himself is Mixed-Race, he allows it to exist.
Tshwane Mining Inc’s most fearsome weapons are 'Artificial Diamond Munitions', which use Tshwane's mastery of material sciences to mass-manufacture diamonds for use as armor-piercing weapons. These weapons are provided to the NCs of Tshwane en masse, allowing each Tshwane NC armor-piercing capability. For melee range, Tshwane NCs also keep chainsaw blades with teeth made up of the finest artificial diamonds that the company can provide.


Bahadur Raj Corporate Pact:
India has had a long and storied history, and the Bahadur Raj Corporation of Sovereign India reflects it. Actually a conglomerate made up of three ‘lesser’ companies; the manufacturing giant Tata, the energy company Bharat Power (formerly Bharat Petroleum), and the Corporate Bank of India (formerly the State Bank of India), the Pan-Indian Corporate Pact is bound together by a complicated series of guarantees and agreements that make sure that every part of the larger whole makes a contribution while remaining autonomous. Or at least, it’s supposed to work that way.
In practice, whenever the CEOs of the Pact — three brains-in-jars that count as one member of the Cabal for counting purposes — aren’t giving things their direct attention, corruption and cronyism are rife, with the ranks of Middle Management hoarding luxuries from all over the world while exploiting the workers. These workers are plentiful thanks to the rapidly growing population of the Subcontinent, and although the Tata section of the Pact still remembers to treat them well, the other sub-companies are far less caring. Nevertheless, if one ended up with the right Middle Manager or in Tata, there is a real chance at a better life.
The Pan-Indian Corporate Pact can field NCs just like any corporation, but the underlying theme of their military is not centered around said NCs, but rather on their NC Carriers, vast flying/hovering fortresses that can carry wings of Mecha and Aerial Drones.
Not to say that Pan-Indian Mecha don't have a unique theme; almost all of them have antigravity engines that allow them to fly, and those that don't have other ways of being launched from the air and surviving the drop. Thus, most NC weapons are either light railguns and coilguns or energy weapons and blades, with heavy weapons being confined to 'deep strike' Mecha or support naval ships.


Red Star Shelter Solutions:

"As the People's Republic of China showed, there is no contradiction between Capitalism and the State, Free Enterprise and The Party. Collective unity is the best environment for worldwide security, and security is the backbone of the business." This was a statement from Red-Star's Board of People's Directors when asked about the contradictions within their ideology and its fusion of Communism and Capitalism.
Red Star controls the majority of Mainland Asia, Japan, and until Haven became a trusted provider of mercenaries to other Corporations, held a claim over Australia. They are a proud collective where the people at the bottom rung are supposedly happy with their lot in life, kept in line through brainwashing or peer pressure - Their ideal is that the individual should not exist and that all are part of one larger organism. Thus, below the executive 'nobility' and military officers, they are effectively a communist ‘state’, ironic for a Corporation.
They are highly interested in Neural Nets’ very nature, and if any strides are being made in the Neural portion of NCs, they are the most likely source. Their pilots have a superb connection with their NCs, which have the highest number of melee weapons in any Ruling Companies’ NC forces. Their Neural Combatants resemble ancient warriors or demons, with these terrifying forms made less impractical by their pilots' high Sync Ratios. And because of their focus on capturing enemy pilots, they also carry stun rods, EMP weaponry, or even electrified nets that can paralyze an entire Mech.


Volkov Nuclear Security Systems:

Volkov Security. The very strongest of the Ruling Companies, nothing goes on without them interfering in some form, either openly or secretly. They make certain that everything in their territory is used, as they have control of the world in their sights at all times.  The Board of Directors is constantly infighting, seeking to please their mysterious C.E.O. who has been controlling them from outside any Burrow or installation, away from prying eyes. Nobody knows where exactly he is, but he makes sure his direct inferiors know who’s in charge, in charge of rebuilding civilization and setting it in the path of progress.
Life in Volkov is harsh, but those who prove themselves to be of value are not discarded for as long as they show their value. Harsh punishments and cruelty are rife, same for inhumane experiments that break all rules of scientific ethics. Happiness is ignored and put to the side in favor of 'progress', which is defined as an increase in strength and technological power and sophistication, and the ability to overcome obstacles through optimization and brute force, with lateral thinking and approaching the problem from another point of view being seen as weakness, along with cooperation outside one's small group of compatriots and the larger corporation.
Their NCs are all highly specialized machines, making an overview moot. However they’re constructed, they have one ultimate goal in mind and are built to be as best suited for that purpose as possible. Note that Volkov Mecha have every technology that all the other MegaCorps have, whether Fairbanks' biological bodies, Paragon's energy weapons, or Red-Star's Melee weapons and EMPs. The only designs it hasn't acquired or duplicated yet are Haven's, and that's because Haven hasn't developed a standardized style of NC Combat yet.


Haven/Free Australia:

Haven City is a Burrow underneath Sydney, Australia where much-lost knowledge and technology remains, ruled over by the Federal Assembly of Haven, which in turn is elected by lesser councils that are in turn voted into power through direct democracy. The 'Three Idealists' who had taken control from the UN Commission of Refugees; Afrin, Kobane, and Qamishlo, managed to set up a system based on the legendary 'Old Rojava', which from their view was a bastion of gender equality, equal rights for all ethnic groups, and coexistence between religions that had been ruined only by outside intervention. And their system not only continued to work for centuries, but also caused a flowering of art, thought, and discovery that emulated the best aspects of the Old World.
After an intelligence campaign meant to gain information about the surface, Haven built up a network of secret allies among the various techno-barbarian tribes, independent settlements, and warlord states of the Australian Continent, slowly unifying the territory around a shared dream, a dream of cooperation and compassion. Red-Star, the 'owner' of Australia during that era, would have retaliated, but Haven offered their services and that of their NCs as mercenaries to Red-Star's competitors, granting them protection from an immediate attack.
Now, organizing themselves into a series of Federal Cantons and Communes, Haven has become a land of rebuilt cities sporting mud-brick meeting houses and cafes, along with bathhouses, hospitals, and urban farms. Energy is provided by power plants that use human and animal waste, as well as the natural power of the sun and wind, while the defense is provided for by the people themselves, who are both armed and disciplined in the use of arms.
There are also special 'all-female' units of Mecha Pilots and conventional troops, the Havenite Women's Protection Forces, whose job it is to act as a memory of 'Rojava's Glorious Days'. For in Haven, Old Rojava, the stronghold of democratic confederalism and limited capitalism born in the Syrian Civil War, was an exemplar of Humanity's best attributes.
Haven Mechs are made from designs stolen from various MegaCorps, as well as ‘Original Generation’ blueprints crafted for their Aces - These are specialized for each Ace’s personal psychology and skills. Basically, anything you want.
Note, however, that despite all this, Haven is torn between two desires; the need for the egalitarianism of worker-owned businesses, small but prosperous peasants and communes, and the necessity of defending this revolution and spreading it abroad (as a buffer against invaders). To do the latter, Haven's Federal Government uses the structure of Limited Capitalism to build the economies of scale necessary to build the small but professional force which the paramilitaries of Australia can rally around. But due to this, Haven has developed what it abhors most; a small concentration of elites with increasing wealth and economic privilege. This 0.1% poses a problem in the future...


Minor Organizations and Groups
New Rojava (Kurdish State in West Syria)
Fortress Switzerland
The Underground State of Israel

New BeeNCQuest Lore Thread (Being Polished)

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