====== Sergeant of A.R.M. ====== {{:timeline.png?nolink}} Sergeant of A.R.M. takes place on Earth in the 2160s.You play as agents of A.R.M., an overseeing branch of the international police forces. Your primary targets are organleggers, psychotic skindroids, and organized crime. This document is a reference of important things in the setting. This setting is heavily influenced by [[wp>Beneath a Steel Sky]], blatantly rips core elements of [[wp>Blade Runner]], and outright steals most of its timeline from Larry Niven’s [[wp>Known Space]] series. I have bastardized a lot of the content so it isn’t the same as in the source materials. ===== Amalgamated Regional Militia ===== {{ :arm.png?nolink|}} ARM began as a confederation of civil-defense organizations from every nation of Earth. The A.R.M. then evolved into an enforcer of United Nations regulations, especially technology control. Their current position has resulted in them becoming the overseeing police branch of Earth, equivalent to 20th-Century USA FBI agents. ===== Belt, The ===== The Belt is an independent conglomeration of bases, stations, and mining platforms. They are based on Luna (The Earth’s Moon) and operate in the [[wp>Main Asteroid Belt]]. They peacefully seceded from the UN at the start of the 22nd century, under the stipulation that Mars would remain under UN control. The government runs as a ‘meritocracy’, where leaders are chosen by a rigorous set of ‘aptitude tests’, and then must work their way through promotions. ===== Blade Runners ===== {{ :bladerunner.png?nolink|}} Blade Runners are special police operatives, whose mission it is to hunt and destroy any Replicant who has disobeyed the law and returned to Earth. ===== Citizens Protection Bureau ===== A prosecuting committee formed explicitly to run class-action lawsuits against mega-corporations on the behalf of humanity. Though they do not do any investigating themselves, they will regularly use evidence collected by A.R.M. in their cases, and the results of their prosecutions can result in laws being passed. For example, the CPB sued Tyrell Corporation shortly after The Tanhauser Incident, collecting several billion dollars in damages, and enacting a new law prohibiting the manufacture or selling of androids on Earth. ===== Freezer Bill ===== A set of laws stating when it was legal to terminate those who had been cryogenically frozen. The first bill affected "Corpsicles" (hopefuls who had themselves frozen in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries) lacking funds or investments to support themselves. The laws dictated they would be thawed and dumped straight into the organ banks for parts. ===== Gang, Anubis ===== {{ :anubis.png?nolink|}} A gang with a theme based around Ancient Egypt, primarily focussed on organlegging. Though they are not distributors, they have been indicated in many instances of organ theft, and often leave obvious calling cards. ===== Interpol ===== {{ :interpol.png?nolink|}} The International Criminal Police Organization, or INTERPOL, is a United Nations organization facilitating international police cooperation. It is the administrative branch that oversees organizations such as A.R.M. and The Citizens Protection Bureau, as well as the organization of National Police. ===== Organ Bank ===== The organ banks were formed in conjunction with new laws about their use. All individuals given the death penalty will be killed via pleasant asphyxiation, and their organs harvested for the bank. This law was first passed in the United States of America, beginning with the state Vermont and eventually the rest of the Southern States. The banks themselves are state-run or state-sponsored facilities which house organs for later medical use, in massive freezer warehouses. ===== Organlegging ===== Organlegging is the practice of taking, distributing, and selling organs outside of the legal market. Often enabled by gang activity. One of the primary targets of ARM investigations.   ===== ‘Psykers’ ===== Slang for police or agents who possess psychic abilities. A.R.M. has been known to recruit people with psychic abilities, if even just to keep tabs on them. Although psychic abilities are incredibly rare, they have sometimes proven astonishingly powerful. A.R.M. agent Gil Hamilton was known to have a Telekinetic Arm that could grasp at about 1/10th of his actual strength, yet with the range of his normal arm. Psychics who can read minds, and telepaths who can talk over long distances, have been employed several times as desk agents. ===== Replicant ===== A bioengineered or biorobotic android meant to mimic real humans. The Nexus series—genetically designed by the Tyrell Corporation—are virtually identical to an adult human, but have superior strength, agility, and variable intelligence depending on the model. Because of their physical similarity to humans, a replicant must be detected by its lack of emotional responses and empathy to questions posed in the Voight-Kampff test. Some more advanced models of replicants have been evolved that are capable of full human empathy. Despite this, as 94% of replicants have been shown to commit at least 5 criminal acts in their lifetime, they have remained heavily prosecuted. This has resulted in most “moral replicants” to remain in Belt territory, where they are allowed on several colonies in the Main Asteroid Belt. ===== ‘Skinborgs’ ===== Slang to refer to full-body cyborgs, who have covered their metallic parts with transplanted skin. This is often done to maintain a look of ‘humanity’. It can be cheaper to transplant metal parts with human skin, than to get a suitable organ, especially if you have rare blood types. ===== ‘Skindroids’ ===== Police slang to refer to androids engineered to use human skin as an outer shell. Often created as knock-off Replicants, they are far less effective than actual bio-androids, but a lot cheaper. Like regular androids, they are illegal on Earth, and primarily exist in The Belt. ===== Transfer Booth ===== It’s like a phone booth, but it can instantly teleport you to any other booth, anywhere in the world. Different areas can be travelled to at different price rates, and an advanced passport system is used to determine where you’re allowed to visit. They are about as present as helicopter pads were in 2010; Large cities have many, small cities will have a few, a town may have one. Most large corporations offer direct access to employers via transfer booths. Billionaires may have them installed in their homes; they are about as expensive to build as a private jet, and their cost per-use is equivalent to about $123 USD in 2010.   ===== United Nations ===== {{ ::un.png?nolink|}} Due to several technologies and political issues resulting in fast approach of the Singularity, the UN decided to begin phasing in more controls as of 1990. Over the next few years, experimental investigative task forces were launched across the world. After successfully squashing plans by the Muslim terrorist qroup Al Queda to bomb The United States of America, the world governments agreed that the new task forces should be increased. As the Singularity hit and off-world colonization became a real possibility, the UN announced that it would be the new World Government. This announcement was backed by the combined military strength of The European Union, The United States of America, The British Commonwealth, Russia, Japan, and the United Arab Region. ===== Wire-heads ===== Slang referring to individuals who become addicted to virtual reality. They will spend days on end inside virtual reality, often neglecting their physical bodies. The addiction can be so severe for some that, while in a pleasant virtual experience, they actually die from starvation. Although most virtual reality mostly exists as sensory feedback, spinal augmentation to interfere with motion feedback has started to become problematic. A spinal ‘aug’ allows one’s brain to think they are doing an action, when really their body stays still. It is illegal to produce spinal augs without a timer; this is set-up as a failsafe to prevent people from getting stuck in virtual reality. However, several black markets have cropped up with new ‘unlimited’ spinal augs. These augs often allow interference on more ‘sensitive’ body parts as well.