Functional info for living or working in the CZThe Conditions: There's a difference between a place which hasn't been kept up for 15 years and a place which has been continuously trashed for 15 years. Chicago is the latter. First off, let's take a look at the wall. The containment zone wall, stretching for over 50km, was formed in a little over a month. How did a weak, inept government like that of the UCAS manage this amazing feat of engineering? They blew up all the buildings along the perimeter and used the rubble to form a wall. The cleared out area from the destroyed buildings even made for some good open ground to shoot anyone trying to escape. Welcome to the CeeZee, folks. There's basically no power in the Zone as well, since the site of the atomic blast, Cermak, was the local power plant. Luckily for residents, there is running water, but it hasn't been maintained, and leaks will fairly quickly result in serious destruction of property. Therefore, most buildings have had their mains turned off by one faction or another, usually the Black Crescent, and so people will go to a designated spot for water, run by the local gangs, and fill up buckets for their daily ration. Food is equally scarce, with arable land at a premium after the pure tonnage of KE IV insecticide sprayed by Ares in an earlier attempt to kill bug spirits. Most buildings will be covered with personal gardens, and those who can consistently produce crops are quite valued in the community. Don't be surprised if you see a burro or two, since bio-fuels are so costly that even the most organized raider gangs, like the Horde, have a hard time keeping their vehicles running.
A little look into the
Special Period in
Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union might give you an idea of what happens to a modern culture which is suddenly denied the conveniences of electricity and fossil fuels. Just imagine that situation, but with a lot less cooperation and a lot more guns... Also trolls and giant bug-creatures that want to eat your soul. Okay, so it's not so similar. Some areas did manage that sort of cohesive community survival instinct though.
The Locals: As you might have surmised from the use of Capital Letters to describe Some Groups up above, there are a significant number of factions running around in those roughly 375 square kilometers of the Zone.
The Human Brigade isn't particularly tough to deal with, despite their Humanis stance. They don't particularly harass metas, so long as those metas are in the process of leaving. They have a separatist-type belief on race and a strong sense of community. Just watch out for their patrols. Everyone in the zone knows that global Humanis chapters send kids to train in urban warfare with the Brigade, and they form kill squads to go out and tangle with other local gangs.
The Horde is slightly less stable in its dealings. Consisting of a collection of Ork and Troll gangs, there is no real central leadership, so who you deal with on Hoard turf is a matter of where you are. It's quite possible to have good relations with one Hoard gang, but get shot at for waving to another. Much less community spirit is seen in hoard turf, leaving the general populace there fractured and fending for themselves if they don't join up. Hoard riders are generally veteran raiders who push out into other communities and into the Corridor between the CZ and the sub-sprawls of living Chicago.
The Union is another collection of gangs, but this time, not divided on racial loyalties. They control a lot of action in the Corridor and nearby waterways. Speaking of water, the Union itself is in the water business, since they've pretty much based their power around their uncontested control of the local water treatment plant. So, rather than trying to squeeze the roads like the Hoard does, they squeeze the locals for a supply of fresh water. They have a reputation as being generally moral for a pack of gangs run by a tyrant.
The Destroyers are as the name would suggest. They're like the nihilistic thrill-kill biker gangs of the Seattle sprawl, but turned up to 11 and with more than three times as many members. A traveling parade of death that sprang out of the CZ when the quarantine fell and now travels the Corridor doing as they please. Pretty much the only thing that could make them worse would be if they were actually working with the bugs.
The Chicago Anarchist Collective consists of two basic groups, The ABC or Anarchist Black Crescent, who run medical supplies and help communities maintain self-sufficiency, and The Black Star which is a loose collection of old-school anarchist Shadowrunners who make it their business to fight off corporate advancement into the Zone. While the ABC is generally accepted by the communities of the area, the Black Star is almost a boogy-man contingent which has so far kept the logos of the AAAs out of Chicago.
Naturally, there's more to Chicago and the CZ than these groups, however that is more specialized knowledge for those of you with a bit of local Knowledge Skills, and will be given to you as appropriate. This is simply the kind of info that can be gleaned from a 15 minute conversation with anyone familiar with the CZ and surrounding areas. In other words, everyone knows this shit.
Buying your way in a Post-nuyen economy: Naturally, when you're cut off from the rest of the world, money is only good for kindling, and digital money isn't even good for that. As such, the CZ is a barter town... except with out the Master-blaster vs. Tina Turner thing. Well.. maybe a little of that. But still, it's only goods for goods and favors for favors in Chicago's shitty city center, though, sometimes you can buy favors. One of the northside gangs that's spilled out into the Corridor, the True Chicagoans has implemented a form of currency which has taken hold in most of the area. The currency is called Hours, and is more of a way to barter services rather than goods. You need a guy to watch your van for a couple hours, pay him in Hours.. Or canned meat.. or phosphorous for cooking betameth.. it's not really all that hard to grasp.
Most of the city's income comes from smugglers and illegals labs setting up in town. Criminal types will fly in raw materials, stripped-down guns and precursor chemicals, then they'll assemble cook and build all the forbidden gizmos, bombs and military-grade firearms the shadows can hold. Naturally, these operations are well guarded and well hidden, since there's a whole world of people who'd want to put a stop to their operations.
