Sprawl Overview

#DaedalusX: The Free City of Chicago is a hub of independence and slavery, playground of the ultra-rich and completely destitute. Read on to find out its secrets.

Chicago
The massive sprawl spreads out around the greater Chicago area. Around its perimeter was erected the Wall. Inside the Wall, most never leave the sector they are born in. Any who wish to travel outside the city have to take boat across the lake, the space elevator into the stars, or find the heaviest armored convoy they can to survive driving into the wastes.

The Council rules over Chicago with manufactured virtual representatives. No one knows who really pulls the strings, but it is most likely the megacorps. Most of the sprawlers hate centralized authority, so they mostly ignore the official government. This leads to many areas having little to no actual government control.

The Chicago Defense Force (also known as the Chicago Militia) serves as a last line of defense for the city. They are made up of volunteers and conscripts that help police the city and man the Wall.

North Side
The North side of Chicago contains the Loop, which is a two mile strip that is home to HQ facilities of every megacorp worth their salt. It is also home to the Gold Coast, where the 1% of the 1% live. Nortec Tower, the largest skyscraper in the world, is the center piece of this part of the city. They also control the old Navy Pier, giving them a stranglehold on a goodly amount of the city's trade.

This zone is known for the good life. Anyone with enough crypto can find any manner of vice they are looking for in the innumerable lounges here. Chief among them are the Cult, the Glitter Lounge, and Club Vortex. The Cult is a club that makes fun of all religious beliefs, with the employees dressed as gurus, nuns, and priests. Any sin imaginable is available here. The Glitter Lounge is staffed exclusively by hybrids and chimeras, and it draws a large number of those types. It has a feakshow atmosphere. Club Vortex subtlety shifts its appearance and theme constantly by using hyper reality objects. It is nearly unrecognizable from one week to the next, which has made it one of the hottest spots in the city.

Central
The smallest of the zones, this is a hotbed of organized crime. The Ukranian, Italian, Korean, and Chinese mafia operate here. It is also home to the largest number of non-corp establishments in the city. The York Town Shopping Center is two million square feet of vendor stalls of all types. Pretty much anything can be bought here. The Underground in the number one destination for unsanctioned medical operations in the city.

In the middle of all this corruption stands the O'Hare Milsec and the Chicago Spaceport. Here is where the main military of Chicago is stationed, along with UN Forces numbering some 20,000 strong. Any who seek to explore space do so only after getting through a gauntlet of firepower and red tape.

Coffin City is an oddity of the zone. Hailed as being the wave of the future, this massive structure was built underneath the city, the only prime real estate left. However, the project failed miserably, and it is now a labyrinth of hellish crime.

West Side
There are three main products produced by this zone: sims (vat-grown humans), entertainment, and food. The massive arcologies produce sims at a break-neck pace, making the corps filthy rich with their slave labor. Various production studios produce and circulate innumerable numbers of content for the bored sprawlers. The Flesh Pot is the premier brothel in the city, where all meat-space vices can be handled. The North Aurora Agrofacs are a series of agricultural factories that keep the nutrient slime running to the starving masses.

Galaxy Entertainment has significant holdings in this zone, and they can cater to any fantasy, so long as the cryptos are good.

South Side
This is the least secured of the zones, and most of it is hell on Earth. Gangs run the majority of this area, since it is mostly comprised of sprawling slums. The Gary Hell Zone is the most dangerous area of the city, where life is brutal and deadly, little better than the wastes.

Amid all the gangs, however, is Burbank. This area serves as the premier destination for those looking to acquire something other than nutrient paste (although really it is just nutrient paste dressed up to look more palatable and loaded with spices). Hundreds of restaurants blanket the area, providing every cuisine imaginable.

The Gary International Airport (GYY) is the fastest way for international travels to enter the city. It is mainly used by diplomats and foreign agents, though they must take great care since all the surrounding area is gang controlled.

The Maze is a popular destination for jump-bike racing and any other illegal motorized carnage. Death races are common in the streets of this snarling labyrinth.

Sim City is a massive community of emancipated sims who have somehow gained their freedom. Many efforts have been made to help the area flourish, but most of them have failed. The sims are especially taken advantage of by the neighboring gangs.

The Sprawl
In every zone of the city, the Sprawl winds its way through. Even the rich districts are adjacent to hellish, towering tenements of misery. Every inch of usable land has been used to build towering monstrosities of architecture that pack in as many people as humanly possible and then some. Life is hard in the Sprawl, and any sense of privacy is typically eradicated except for the extremely wealthy. Crime is common, and law enforcement is sparse at best.

The Wall
The wall is a massive undertaking that serves to protect Chicago from the boundless wastes outside. Standing 150 stories tall and covering around 121 miles, the Wall serves as a great deterrent to the unwashed masses looking to get inside. Getting through the wall requires waiting years for the chance at getting a citizenship pass. Of course, for the right amount of crypto, a helping hand can smuggle you inside. Some have also taken their chances with the festering cesspool that is the Gary Port of Entry. Many criminal elements unlawfully entry through this port, and they find themselves immediately in the Gary Hell Zone.

The Wastes
All around the Wall outside of Chicago are shanty towns that stretch off into the horizon. These are full of starving, desperate people trying to get into the city. These areas, save for the official ports of entry, are completely lawless. Various gangs and other organizations control these areas and reign with terror. The Barbarians at the Gate are the largest of these groups, and they have an iron grip on the fates of those living in the Wastes.