Chicago, the Capital of Crime

In the late 21st century, with the election of big business lobbyist Steven Fuller, the already engorged corporations of America grew even more bloated with various tax cuts and "special allowances" that led to a downward spiral of corporate corruption and political subterfuge. By the time the "Big 2-1" rolled around, the corporate landscape had transformed into a small group of incredibly powerful megacorporations controlling various aspects of the private sector from water and power management to military presence.

Chicago, home of the prestigious Halcyon Corporation, became a location of economic rebirth, with both politicians and CEOs promising new job opportunities, increased wages, and every other honeyed whisper the desperate middle class had come to hang on. With their immigration to the city, sky-scraping arcologies were built, and people were given free housing by the Halcyon group in exchange for their participation in the trials of various nanotech experimentations, giving birth to what became known on the street colloquially as "Augments."

The atrocities behind the Halcyon Corporation's closed doors went unknown for decades, until now. With the reveal of previously undisclosed documents about human testing, Halcyon has begun a political movement of its own, claiming Chicago as an independent territory from the United States government and claiming extraterritoriality. The normal, fairly peaceful neighborhoods quickly grew into slums and tenement districts with Halcyon strictly beginning to control every aspect of the outlying area, and eventually Illinois as a whole.

Characters enter the city of Chicago in any number of ways, from growing up in the slums and witnessing Halycon's rise to power, to those who work loyally for the company, or simply thugs and gang members looking to take advantage of the chaos and despair rampant in the street beneath the corporate monoliths.