Chicago History: 2018 - 2058

2018

Chicago-based ESP Systems Inc. announced the first generation of simsense technology. Local media conglomerate Truman Technologies immediately bought them out.

2025

Southside Revitalization Project begin, including construction of a monorail. Many new businesses appeared to serve the growing simsense industry. The then inhabitants had to relocate, replaced by the mostly metahuman workforce slaving away in the chip factories and warehouses.

2029

The Crash, February 8, 2029, was a major setback for Chicago’s simsense and electronic entertainment industry, forcing many factories to close down.

2039

On February 10, 2039 the terrorist organization Alamos 20,000 bombed the Sears Tower (also known as the IBM Building) [1]. The whole building collapsed, causing an estimated 26,000 casualties. The ruined neighbourhood became known as the Noose, and one of the worst districts in Chicago; the site of the former Tower, known as Shattergraves, became inhabited by ghouls, ghosts of those killed in the attack, and other beings drawn by the high background count caused by the catastrophe. This has made it nearly impossible to simply bulldoze and rebuild this area of Chicago, even in the 2070s.

2055

Following a failed Ares operation to clean up the major hive, insect spirits spread in the city. On August 23, the UCAS Federal Government declares a quarantine area between Lake Michigan and Des Plaines River. Officially, the Chicago

Containment Zone (also known as CZ or CeeZee) is established against an outbreak of a new strain of VITAS. The Containment Zone was created by destroying several buildings around downtown Chicago and using the debris to create make shift barriers. It is estimated that 100,000 people were trapped within the CZ at the time it was erected. The area around the CZ is known as the Corridor.

On October 1, 2055, an undercover Ares group infiltrated in to the Cermak Power Plant, near the center of the CZ, to detonate a nuclear bomb. Just before the explosion, the queen insect spirits finished erecting a powerful magical barrier. The barrier had a strange effect on the Cermak Blast, making the explosion much smaller but the radiation at the source a lot more intense. The blast knocked the insect spirits around Chicago and put them in a state of torpor.

In late December 2055, Shadowland spread to the public information about the presence of insect spirits in Chicago.

2058

February 22: Ares implements "Operation Extermination," a large-scale physical and magical assault on the insect spirits infesting the Chicago Containment Zone. The Chicago quarantine is officially lifted in President Haeffner's State of the Union address. Ares uses FAB Strain III, an astrally active bacteria, to target Bug Spirits in the Zone. Unfortunately, strain III does not restrict its depradation to insect spirits—it affects any astral object or being. Chicago's ghoul community is devastated.[2]

February 26 UCAS: Post Ares's "Operation Extermination", President Haeffner lifts the quarantine around the Chicago Containment Zone (CCZ). Riots break out as refugees from the CCZ attempt to flee the area and surrounding areas push back, but civil authorities manage to broker a peace. Thousands stuck within the CCZ discover that despite the announcement, Chicago remains excised from the modern world.[2]

Integrating the Zoners (people trapped in the CZ) with the population of the Chicagolands (the area of the wider Chicago megaplex) was a daunting task. Many Chicagoans believed the Zoners to be disguised insect spirits or savage gangers. Despite the efforts to contain the Zoners in the CZ, a mass exodus occurred as they forced their way in to the wider Chicagolands and beyond. This turned the Chicago megaplex into a lawless zone overrun by gangs. By 2062 Chicago became an urban hellhole with violent gang turf wars, a large smuggling ring, a high population of SiNless and other societal outcasts.

Despite politicians running on campaigns to clean up and rebuild Chicago, very little came of it. O'Hare Airport was given to the megacorporations, who ensured the airport stayed operational under heavy military control and enforcement. In 2063 recovery of the Calumet port began. However both initiatives came to a sudden halt with Crash 2.0. After the crash, the Chicago government declared bankruptcy and most officials retired.

2059

Reports confi rm that the FAB III strain remains active despite the offi cial life span predictions. It feeds on magical auras and the omnipresent background count.

2063

The Calumet harbor, abandoned since the Containment Zone days, is partially reopened, relieving cargo volume from the accident-ridden makeshift docks in Gary.

2064

The second global computer crash abruptly halts the Calumet and O’Hare logistics operations, but overall, it only has a minor impact on Chicago.

2069

The first reports of gradually lessened FAB III activity are recorded, but it leaves behind a desolate mana ebb in Chicago’s astral space.

2070

Mafia hopeful and local underboss Marcus Quinn is found dead. Rivalries between the different families lead to an internal schism and prevent a joint expansion of Mafi a-run operations and infl uence.

2071

Chicago’s population increases for the first time since 2055. The newcomers form independent enclaves in the Corridor.