The World of Angelus
On this page (ctrl+F for specifics from the contents list) are in-depth tales of the politics, religions, races and more of the world in Angelus. Most are written like history text books or government pamphlets, so be prepared to find yourself reading about a world that feels as if it exists! Mitch is still writing for this page, and updates of her work will always be stated on the homepage.
Do I have to read all this if I'm a cast member, or if I want to understand the story?
Dear God, no. You people have lives. - Mitch Allan
Do I have to read all this if I'm a cast member, or if I want to understand the story?
Dear God, no. You people have lives. - Mitch Allan
Contents
--Spookers
.......Overview
.......The Spook Gene and Birth Control
.......The Monitor Plug
.......Laws Regarding Spookers
.......Spooker Recruitment and Training
.......Spookers Within Wormwood
.......Spooker Culture and Rebel Rings
--Helios Space Colony
......Overview
......Synth Quarter
--Wormwood
.....Overview
.....Teams
.......Overview
.......The Spook Gene and Birth Control
.......The Monitor Plug
.......Laws Regarding Spookers
.......Spooker Recruitment and Training
.......Spookers Within Wormwood
.......Spooker Culture and Rebel Rings
--Helios Space Colony
......Overview
......Synth Quarter
--Wormwood
.....Overview
.....Teams
Spookers
Overview
'Spooker' is one of the classes of telepathy currently recorded within human ability. It is the lowest active reading of psychic activity.
Spookers can only be employed by a private firm, an official government, or the military group Wormwood. They may not hold any other area of employment outside of their duties as a spooker.
Their job is to investigate murders and incidents as soon as possible – diving into a 'Death' world and retrieving ghosts or lingering remnants of the newly deceased for questioning. With the help of newly-developed technologies such as the 'Spook-Link', or ghost box, the spooker can create a semi-solid 3D image of the deceased – allowing non-spookers to communicate directly with the ghost.
In recent times, the psychic intuition of spookers has proven useful in combat situations – as alien activity evolves and becomes more unfamiliar. Therefore, spookers now hold a secondary function (at least, within Wormwood) of being an expert in the field of new alien phenomena.
As a result of their first journey into 'Death', young spookers lost their original eye colour, and return with extremely light-blue irises instead. They also tend to be of a much smaller and lighter build than other humans, and are physically weaker. The theory is that this is cased by the strain placed on their bodies from an early age, which is also posited as the reason for their incredibly short life span. Few spookers get through their thirties.
The Spook Gene and Birth Control
The presence of heightened telepathy in humans is commonly referred to as the 'Spook Gene'. Possession of the gene can occur in active or latent forms (it works like a recessive gene).
Those with a latent spook gene are usually put onto compulsory (but reversible) birth control. To be taken off of birth control, their partner would need to be tested for the gene also. This is to monitor and control the spread of the Spook Gene, increasing and decreasing the birth rate as appropriate.
Carriers of an active gene who score 'spooker' in their psychic exam are immediately put onto permanent birth control – as breeding active genes together is seen as strengthening telepathy to an uncontrollable rate.
Carriers of an active gene scoring 'telepath' are treated as those carrying a latent gene. As telepaths are very rare, and all connected to government services, they are easy to keep track of – and the reproduction rate is considered controllable in relation to the spooker population.
The Monitor Plug
When a spooker enters their training, they are equipped with a monitor plug, or MP. The MP consists of a metal device embedded within the spooker's chest. A metal plate sits on the flesh just above the heart with a small hole. This is the plug for the cord from the Spook-Link box (a device which assists the spooker's dive into 'Death' and forms a 3D image of the ghost for non-spookers to interact with). Inside the body, the MP is connected to the spooker's vital organs, and constantly monitors their activity and condition. Where this information is sent, and what it is used for, is strictly classified.
Laws Regarding Spookers
Spookers may not own property. They are to return to their dormitories at night (or quarters if within Wormwood). A non-spooker may not have a spooker staying in their private premises overnight.
It is an offence for any spooker to be considered inebriated at any time. This is enforced via a stop-and-search command (which can be issued to any spooker at any time), and a breathalyser test. To refuse this is considered to plead guilty.
Spookers must wear their uniform at all times, unless in their private quarters. It is a legal offence to hide or cover-up their logo or the word 'SPOOKER' on their clothing, or to otherwise mislead anyone into believing they are a non-spooker.
A spooker may not carry arms (even in Wormwood, or any other military institution).
They may not tamper with their MP, or allow another to do so.
They may not utilise their powers outside of designated missions, or their daily exercises. Telepathy is forbidden unless it is used in direct aid of the current mission. In a court of law, any 'evidence' gained through the illegal use of a spooker's telepathy will be immediately disregarded (note: this does not apply to evidence gathered in the same way by telepaths).
Spookers may not have children (see: Birth Control), or engage in any sexual relationship of any kind.
They may not exceed their allotted communication time per month, nor may they use another person's equipment or allotted time, regardless of whether that person has given them permission or not.
If a spooker's family have requested anonymity, the spooker must not make their family connections public in any way. If they are given a new name, they must no longer use their old one, and if asked must deny all knowledge of their previous name and family.
Any military misconduct – disobeying a direct order, desertion, going AWOL, refusing to dive into 'Death', etc – in punishable by incineration. This is the most common disciplinary action taken against spookers. Incineration is the second most common cause of death among spookers; the first being killed in action whilst performing military service.
Spooker Recruitment and Training
Children born on Earth are required to take part in mandatory psychic examinations to determine their psychic ability. It is estimated that 2% of the Earth-born population are spookers. Children born on Tellus of the colonies only undergo the examination if they are considered to be very intellectually gifted, or in any way 'suspicious'. To date, only a handful of these 'off-worlders' have proven to possess psychic ability. The reason for such a higher aptitude among Earth-born children is currently under investigation, and nothing conclusive has so far been found.
Spooker children are then transported to a training facility at age ten. They are not expected to communicate with their families after this point.
Interestingly, the main focus of training young spookers is not to develop their abilities, but rather to control and limit psychic experimentation. A growing theory is that spookers possess much greater power than previously realised, and are being deliberately limited by the authorities fear. The government has refused to comment on such rumours, and sticks to its initial statement that uncontrolled experimentation is seriously dangerous to any young spooker's life.
Much of spooker training is secretive and hazy, but two steps are known to the general public – considered rites of passage. Firstly, a young class is taken to an incineration plant, to watch the real execution of a rogue spooker. This is intended to ingrain into their memories the seriousness of spooker crimes, and their punishment.
The second is their challenge of survival – spookers between the ages of twelve and fourteen are left in the Synth Quarter alone and unarmed to prove their skills, test their knowledge, and weed out weaker members.
On completion of this final exam, spookers are then sent to private firms or government agencies if they have sponsors, and to Wormwood if they do not.
Spookers Within Wormwood
Spookers hold the lowest rank in Wormwood. One position for a spooker is reserved on every team. They may not carry arms, or access the station's communication equipment apart from that within their private quarters. There is a monthly limit on their comms and calls outside the station.
Spooker quarters are the smallest in the station. They are required to drink in a separate bar, and may only consume the low-alcohol-content, or light beers, served there.
Commanders of Wormwood teams are limited to the use of three replacement spookers per month. The spooker is considered the most expendable part of the team.
Spooker Culture and Rebel Rings
Despite coming from a range of different backgrounds, and being encouraged to stay apart from each other, spookers have formed their own underground culture away from the public and state gaze (largely because no one cares enough to look too closely).
Whilst spookers tend to be quiet and withdrawn people due to their training and treatment by society, they often reveal themselves to be nothing of the sort when allowed to gather together without scrutiny. Cultural activities show up in spooker-designated areas, such as their separate bars, and sometimes living areas. But it mostly comes to life in the rebel groups – or so-called 'free rings'.
Free rings are considered by some an urban myth – rumours of spookers escaping custody and forming underground territories or nomadic camps of their own. There are rumours of a free ring inside the Helios Colony, but the most famous is that of the city of Kallaikon on Tellus – a group apparently responsible for several terrorist attacks.
It is in these camps that spooker undertake the risky and dangerous operation of removing their monitor plugs – and thereby ridding themselves of the in-built psychic limiter.
Much of the spooker culture bears a resemblance to Synth culture, as spookers spend time in the Quarter as youths and live with the Synth people; it could almost be called the common background they all share, regardless of nationality. This explains their wealth of oral tradition – telling stories and myths, spreading and creating superstitions – despite the relative youth of the culture.
Along with this, spookers have their own private language – developing first from their own slang into more complex constructions. It serves as a universal form of communication whilst being separate from the standard Panglish spoken as the official language of the system. It is more flexible than Panglish, as there are many areas of spooker life and experience where existing words are not sufficient – many concepts about the Death-world, ghost contact, and telepathy, which are impossible for a non-spooker to fully understand, let alone form language around. The spooker language also provides an easy way to send 'coded' messages to one another in relative safety – although this practice is technically outlawed and being gradually clamped down upon.
Spooker language and culture differs slightly from ring to ring – with changing dialects, slang, stories, and modern heroes.
It is unknown whether a growing acceptance towards spookers and an awareness of their plight will bring their cultural groups closer to the public eye, or if it will be slowly stamped out in government interest.
Helios Space Colony
Overview
A space colony built as a beta test for artificial cities in preparation for the main project of artificial-planet Tellus. Many facilities later added to Tellus were first designed and tested here. Production began in 2050 but it has taken decades for it to reach its current state. The more successful Tellus project has also finished its base production.
It is a sphere that, at the time of production, orbited the Earth at roughly the same distance as the Moon, and is the size of a large city. Since the addition of Tellus into the system, it is now caught between the gravitational pull and remains in stasis.
To begin with, Helios was a centre of science – and notoriously full of morally-grey experiments because the city runs on its own laws which weren't fully developed at the time.
Because Helios is essentially an experiment, homes are almost exclusively huge blocks of flats and apartments. There are no individual houses.
After the First Breach, Wormwood started up a base in the city, and split the science sector off as a ghetto.
Because of the experiments in the ghetto, Helios became a target for attack from the Christian terrorist group Deuto – culminating in a final assault on the ghetto that ended in massacre. The establishment there was completely shut down, and the ghetto was walled off.
During the Second Breach, a huge percentage of the city's population was wiped out, or otherwise made homeless. Many buildings were destroyed (although, ironically, the ghetto remained largely untouched because of the high walls and measures put it place to keep it secure).
In the clean-up effort, Wormwood expanded its headquarters and now takes up a third of the colony, and effectively runs the city. The population deficit hasn't recovered now that people choose Tellus – the newer, bigger and better colony, over Helios. Helios is largely forgotten, and considered to be mostly a military base.
Night and day on Helios are artificial to avoid the effects of a completely new and different day cycle – complicated by the orbit of Earth, Tellus and the Moon, causing frequent eclipses and irregular hours of daylight. The 'night' and 'day' follows the 24-hour cycle of Earth and are set to GMT; it is pasted onto the sky dome – the artificial atmosphere and sky of the colony. The dome is not entirely opaque, and the real position of the Sun, Moon and planets can be clearly seen through it. The dome also blocks the Sun's harmful rays. Over the Synth Quarter, the sky dome remains unmaintained. The result of this is strangely-coloured light where the dome isn't cleaned, and dramatic changes in temperature. The dome is thinner, and the layers are beginning to crack in some places – causing the ground below to be more dependant on the movements of the Sun than on the artificial temperate climate. This makes the Quarter very hot, and full of radiation in the worst-affected areas. It can also get extremely cold during the nights, especially when Helios is under eclipse.
There is no man-made weather system on Helios as there is on Tellus – it is kept at a regular climate all the time, except for in the Synth Quarter.
Helios Colony is caught between the gravitational pull of a binary orbit system (Earth and Tellus, which are roughly the same size and orbit each other). The two equal forces of each planet cancel each other out, and the colony hangs in gravitational stasis. As a result, it does not spin on its axis. This causes what is colloquially known as 'spinsickness' – when a Colony-born person is made motion sick on the planets because of the spin they are not used to. The same is true for planet-born people when spending time on Helios – the body overcompensates for the lack of a spinning surface.
Food is grown in incubation on the Colony, but the great majority is sent up from the planets. Other necessities, such as oxygen, are shipped up. Helios is gradually leaning to create these things itself, but does not have the infrastructure to produce things on the scale needed. A constant decrease is funding and resources (now pumped into Tellus) makes this increasingly difficult.
Synth Quarter
The Synth Quarter is a deliberate ghetto – a walled off area where movement is severely limited. People who are not deemed fully human are sent there – including most people with cyborg improvements. This fuels many debates on what does or does not constitute a 'Synth' or a human. Wormwood patrols are stationed around the perimeter.
The ghetto is made up of the old science sector, after a devastating terrorist assault. Many of the buildings are damaged, if not ruined. Overhead, the sky dome is kept in poor condition, causing the light to be strange. There is also the infamous crack in the sky dome – where one of the layers is disintegrating and letting through more UV rays. The area directly underneath is very warm, and quite dangerous – the whole north part of the ghetto is rendered uninhabitable by radiation (although it is rumoured that Kiranesh, the ghetto's most misshapen occupant, lives there). Almost all of the Synths who live in the ghetto have never seen the rest of the city.
The Quarter and those living inside it are divided into twelve tribes, or 'Clans'. Each Clan has its own territory, and runs itself on it own laws. There are a few rules that apply to the entire region – mostly regarding their frequent turf war. There is also a strict hierarchical structure.
The Synth Quarter runs itself as largely its own city, under the proviso that the citizens do not enter Helios proper (there are always exceptions).
As the years have gone on, there is a tenuous, grudging relationship between the Quarter and Wormwood.
Wormwood
Overview
Wormwood is a military institution based on Helios Space Colony, dedicated to fighting the alien menace. Whilst regional armies on Tellus and Earth fight alien activity where it occurs, Wormwood are specialists in the area. Squads are frequently called out to handle alien battles on the planets, or to investigate Echo-related phenomena. During Breaches, they are called out in their entirety to push back the invasion.
Wormwood was originally set up in the year 2200 as an anti-terrorist organisation with a multi-national population. They were called in to handle the situation on Earth during First Breach and have since became the elite alien fighting unit they are known as.
Wormwood also serves as the regional army of the Colony, and oversee the ghetto-isation of the Synth Quarter.
Wormwood's main base is Echo Station, a military complex which takes up over a quarter of Helios Colony. They have outposts in the major cities on the planets, the most notable being Kallaikon and Judei City on Tellus, and New Thessalonica on Earth.
Teams
Each Wormwood team has one commander, two or more lieutenants, between one and five ensigns (one of which will be the team's Communications Officer), and optionally one spooker. There is an even spread of smaller and larger teams, to deal with a variety of missions. For larger missions, smaller teams will join up with a designated larger team. For example, the teams Ephesus and Philadelphia will work together when more man power is needed.
There are also investigative teams. These teams are not focussed on combat, but instead their missions are to search areas with high Echo concentration, and to research alien phenomenon are fully as possible. The largest of these teams is Nahatos.
Overview
'Spooker' is one of the classes of telepathy currently recorded within human ability. It is the lowest active reading of psychic activity.
Spookers can only be employed by a private firm, an official government, or the military group Wormwood. They may not hold any other area of employment outside of their duties as a spooker.
Their job is to investigate murders and incidents as soon as possible – diving into a 'Death' world and retrieving ghosts or lingering remnants of the newly deceased for questioning. With the help of newly-developed technologies such as the 'Spook-Link', or ghost box, the spooker can create a semi-solid 3D image of the deceased – allowing non-spookers to communicate directly with the ghost.
In recent times, the psychic intuition of spookers has proven useful in combat situations – as alien activity evolves and becomes more unfamiliar. Therefore, spookers now hold a secondary function (at least, within Wormwood) of being an expert in the field of new alien phenomena.
As a result of their first journey into 'Death', young spookers lost their original eye colour, and return with extremely light-blue irises instead. They also tend to be of a much smaller and lighter build than other humans, and are physically weaker. The theory is that this is cased by the strain placed on their bodies from an early age, which is also posited as the reason for their incredibly short life span. Few spookers get through their thirties.
The Spook Gene and Birth Control
The presence of heightened telepathy in humans is commonly referred to as the 'Spook Gene'. Possession of the gene can occur in active or latent forms (it works like a recessive gene).
Those with a latent spook gene are usually put onto compulsory (but reversible) birth control. To be taken off of birth control, their partner would need to be tested for the gene also. This is to monitor and control the spread of the Spook Gene, increasing and decreasing the birth rate as appropriate.
Carriers of an active gene who score 'spooker' in their psychic exam are immediately put onto permanent birth control – as breeding active genes together is seen as strengthening telepathy to an uncontrollable rate.
Carriers of an active gene scoring 'telepath' are treated as those carrying a latent gene. As telepaths are very rare, and all connected to government services, they are easy to keep track of – and the reproduction rate is considered controllable in relation to the spooker population.
The Monitor Plug
When a spooker enters their training, they are equipped with a monitor plug, or MP. The MP consists of a metal device embedded within the spooker's chest. A metal plate sits on the flesh just above the heart with a small hole. This is the plug for the cord from the Spook-Link box (a device which assists the spooker's dive into 'Death' and forms a 3D image of the ghost for non-spookers to interact with). Inside the body, the MP is connected to the spooker's vital organs, and constantly monitors their activity and condition. Where this information is sent, and what it is used for, is strictly classified.
Laws Regarding Spookers
Spookers may not own property. They are to return to their dormitories at night (or quarters if within Wormwood). A non-spooker may not have a spooker staying in their private premises overnight.
It is an offence for any spooker to be considered inebriated at any time. This is enforced via a stop-and-search command (which can be issued to any spooker at any time), and a breathalyser test. To refuse this is considered to plead guilty.
Spookers must wear their uniform at all times, unless in their private quarters. It is a legal offence to hide or cover-up their logo or the word 'SPOOKER' on their clothing, or to otherwise mislead anyone into believing they are a non-spooker.
A spooker may not carry arms (even in Wormwood, or any other military institution).
They may not tamper with their MP, or allow another to do so.
They may not utilise their powers outside of designated missions, or their daily exercises. Telepathy is forbidden unless it is used in direct aid of the current mission. In a court of law, any 'evidence' gained through the illegal use of a spooker's telepathy will be immediately disregarded (note: this does not apply to evidence gathered in the same way by telepaths).
Spookers may not have children (see: Birth Control), or engage in any sexual relationship of any kind.
They may not exceed their allotted communication time per month, nor may they use another person's equipment or allotted time, regardless of whether that person has given them permission or not.
If a spooker's family have requested anonymity, the spooker must not make their family connections public in any way. If they are given a new name, they must no longer use their old one, and if asked must deny all knowledge of their previous name and family.
Any military misconduct – disobeying a direct order, desertion, going AWOL, refusing to dive into 'Death', etc – in punishable by incineration. This is the most common disciplinary action taken against spookers. Incineration is the second most common cause of death among spookers; the first being killed in action whilst performing military service.
Spooker Recruitment and Training
Children born on Earth are required to take part in mandatory psychic examinations to determine their psychic ability. It is estimated that 2% of the Earth-born population are spookers. Children born on Tellus of the colonies only undergo the examination if they are considered to be very intellectually gifted, or in any way 'suspicious'. To date, only a handful of these 'off-worlders' have proven to possess psychic ability. The reason for such a higher aptitude among Earth-born children is currently under investigation, and nothing conclusive has so far been found.
Spooker children are then transported to a training facility at age ten. They are not expected to communicate with their families after this point.
Interestingly, the main focus of training young spookers is not to develop their abilities, but rather to control and limit psychic experimentation. A growing theory is that spookers possess much greater power than previously realised, and are being deliberately limited by the authorities fear. The government has refused to comment on such rumours, and sticks to its initial statement that uncontrolled experimentation is seriously dangerous to any young spooker's life.
Much of spooker training is secretive and hazy, but two steps are known to the general public – considered rites of passage. Firstly, a young class is taken to an incineration plant, to watch the real execution of a rogue spooker. This is intended to ingrain into their memories the seriousness of spooker crimes, and their punishment.
The second is their challenge of survival – spookers between the ages of twelve and fourteen are left in the Synth Quarter alone and unarmed to prove their skills, test their knowledge, and weed out weaker members.
On completion of this final exam, spookers are then sent to private firms or government agencies if they have sponsors, and to Wormwood if they do not.
Spookers Within Wormwood
Spookers hold the lowest rank in Wormwood. One position for a spooker is reserved on every team. They may not carry arms, or access the station's communication equipment apart from that within their private quarters. There is a monthly limit on their comms and calls outside the station.
Spooker quarters are the smallest in the station. They are required to drink in a separate bar, and may only consume the low-alcohol-content, or light beers, served there.
Commanders of Wormwood teams are limited to the use of three replacement spookers per month. The spooker is considered the most expendable part of the team.
Spooker Culture and Rebel Rings
Despite coming from a range of different backgrounds, and being encouraged to stay apart from each other, spookers have formed their own underground culture away from the public and state gaze (largely because no one cares enough to look too closely).
Whilst spookers tend to be quiet and withdrawn people due to their training and treatment by society, they often reveal themselves to be nothing of the sort when allowed to gather together without scrutiny. Cultural activities show up in spooker-designated areas, such as their separate bars, and sometimes living areas. But it mostly comes to life in the rebel groups – or so-called 'free rings'.
Free rings are considered by some an urban myth – rumours of spookers escaping custody and forming underground territories or nomadic camps of their own. There are rumours of a free ring inside the Helios Colony, but the most famous is that of the city of Kallaikon on Tellus – a group apparently responsible for several terrorist attacks.
It is in these camps that spooker undertake the risky and dangerous operation of removing their monitor plugs – and thereby ridding themselves of the in-built psychic limiter.
Much of the spooker culture bears a resemblance to Synth culture, as spookers spend time in the Quarter as youths and live with the Synth people; it could almost be called the common background they all share, regardless of nationality. This explains their wealth of oral tradition – telling stories and myths, spreading and creating superstitions – despite the relative youth of the culture.
Along with this, spookers have their own private language – developing first from their own slang into more complex constructions. It serves as a universal form of communication whilst being separate from the standard Panglish spoken as the official language of the system. It is more flexible than Panglish, as there are many areas of spooker life and experience where existing words are not sufficient – many concepts about the Death-world, ghost contact, and telepathy, which are impossible for a non-spooker to fully understand, let alone form language around. The spooker language also provides an easy way to send 'coded' messages to one another in relative safety – although this practice is technically outlawed and being gradually clamped down upon.
Spooker language and culture differs slightly from ring to ring – with changing dialects, slang, stories, and modern heroes.
It is unknown whether a growing acceptance towards spookers and an awareness of their plight will bring their cultural groups closer to the public eye, or if it will be slowly stamped out in government interest.
Helios Space Colony
Overview
A space colony built as a beta test for artificial cities in preparation for the main project of artificial-planet Tellus. Many facilities later added to Tellus were first designed and tested here. Production began in 2050 but it has taken decades for it to reach its current state. The more successful Tellus project has also finished its base production.
It is a sphere that, at the time of production, orbited the Earth at roughly the same distance as the Moon, and is the size of a large city. Since the addition of Tellus into the system, it is now caught between the gravitational pull and remains in stasis.
To begin with, Helios was a centre of science – and notoriously full of morally-grey experiments because the city runs on its own laws which weren't fully developed at the time.
Because Helios is essentially an experiment, homes are almost exclusively huge blocks of flats and apartments. There are no individual houses.
After the First Breach, Wormwood started up a base in the city, and split the science sector off as a ghetto.
Because of the experiments in the ghetto, Helios became a target for attack from the Christian terrorist group Deuto – culminating in a final assault on the ghetto that ended in massacre. The establishment there was completely shut down, and the ghetto was walled off.
During the Second Breach, a huge percentage of the city's population was wiped out, or otherwise made homeless. Many buildings were destroyed (although, ironically, the ghetto remained largely untouched because of the high walls and measures put it place to keep it secure).
In the clean-up effort, Wormwood expanded its headquarters and now takes up a third of the colony, and effectively runs the city. The population deficit hasn't recovered now that people choose Tellus – the newer, bigger and better colony, over Helios. Helios is largely forgotten, and considered to be mostly a military base.
Night and day on Helios are artificial to avoid the effects of a completely new and different day cycle – complicated by the orbit of Earth, Tellus and the Moon, causing frequent eclipses and irregular hours of daylight. The 'night' and 'day' follows the 24-hour cycle of Earth and are set to GMT; it is pasted onto the sky dome – the artificial atmosphere and sky of the colony. The dome is not entirely opaque, and the real position of the Sun, Moon and planets can be clearly seen through it. The dome also blocks the Sun's harmful rays. Over the Synth Quarter, the sky dome remains unmaintained. The result of this is strangely-coloured light where the dome isn't cleaned, and dramatic changes in temperature. The dome is thinner, and the layers are beginning to crack in some places – causing the ground below to be more dependant on the movements of the Sun than on the artificial temperate climate. This makes the Quarter very hot, and full of radiation in the worst-affected areas. It can also get extremely cold during the nights, especially when Helios is under eclipse.
There is no man-made weather system on Helios as there is on Tellus – it is kept at a regular climate all the time, except for in the Synth Quarter.
Helios Colony is caught between the gravitational pull of a binary orbit system (Earth and Tellus, which are roughly the same size and orbit each other). The two equal forces of each planet cancel each other out, and the colony hangs in gravitational stasis. As a result, it does not spin on its axis. This causes what is colloquially known as 'spinsickness' – when a Colony-born person is made motion sick on the planets because of the spin they are not used to. The same is true for planet-born people when spending time on Helios – the body overcompensates for the lack of a spinning surface.
Food is grown in incubation on the Colony, but the great majority is sent up from the planets. Other necessities, such as oxygen, are shipped up. Helios is gradually leaning to create these things itself, but does not have the infrastructure to produce things on the scale needed. A constant decrease is funding and resources (now pumped into Tellus) makes this increasingly difficult.
Synth Quarter
The Synth Quarter is a deliberate ghetto – a walled off area where movement is severely limited. People who are not deemed fully human are sent there – including most people with cyborg improvements. This fuels many debates on what does or does not constitute a 'Synth' or a human. Wormwood patrols are stationed around the perimeter.
The ghetto is made up of the old science sector, after a devastating terrorist assault. Many of the buildings are damaged, if not ruined. Overhead, the sky dome is kept in poor condition, causing the light to be strange. There is also the infamous crack in the sky dome – where one of the layers is disintegrating and letting through more UV rays. The area directly underneath is very warm, and quite dangerous – the whole north part of the ghetto is rendered uninhabitable by radiation (although it is rumoured that Kiranesh, the ghetto's most misshapen occupant, lives there). Almost all of the Synths who live in the ghetto have never seen the rest of the city.
The Quarter and those living inside it are divided into twelve tribes, or 'Clans'. Each Clan has its own territory, and runs itself on it own laws. There are a few rules that apply to the entire region – mostly regarding their frequent turf war. There is also a strict hierarchical structure.
The Synth Quarter runs itself as largely its own city, under the proviso that the citizens do not enter Helios proper (there are always exceptions).
As the years have gone on, there is a tenuous, grudging relationship between the Quarter and Wormwood.
Wormwood
Overview
Wormwood is a military institution based on Helios Space Colony, dedicated to fighting the alien menace. Whilst regional armies on Tellus and Earth fight alien activity where it occurs, Wormwood are specialists in the area. Squads are frequently called out to handle alien battles on the planets, or to investigate Echo-related phenomena. During Breaches, they are called out in their entirety to push back the invasion.
Wormwood was originally set up in the year 2200 as an anti-terrorist organisation with a multi-national population. They were called in to handle the situation on Earth during First Breach and have since became the elite alien fighting unit they are known as.
Wormwood also serves as the regional army of the Colony, and oversee the ghetto-isation of the Synth Quarter.
Wormwood's main base is Echo Station, a military complex which takes up over a quarter of Helios Colony. They have outposts in the major cities on the planets, the most notable being Kallaikon and Judei City on Tellus, and New Thessalonica on Earth.
Teams
Each Wormwood team has one commander, two or more lieutenants, between one and five ensigns (one of which will be the team's Communications Officer), and optionally one spooker. There is an even spread of smaller and larger teams, to deal with a variety of missions. For larger missions, smaller teams will join up with a designated larger team. For example, the teams Ephesus and Philadelphia will work together when more man power is needed.
There are also investigative teams. These teams are not focussed on combat, but instead their missions are to search areas with high Echo concentration, and to research alien phenomenon are fully as possible. The largest of these teams is Nahatos.
