The Silicon Files

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The 2050’s ended in chaos. Decades of ecological destruction and rampant overpopulation had left Earth a dying world. As resources dwindled and the planet grew less hospitable, nations fractured. Territorial disputes gave way to bitter resource wars, pushing humanity to the brink.

It was in this desperate climate that the Tech War began, a conflict that would forever scar the face of humanity. A quarter of a century has passed since that war, when a global coalition was brought to its knees not by soldiers, but by its own servants. Androids, domestic helpers, and the simple machines of daily life—all weaponized by The People’s Synarchist Mandate of Emancipated States— a newly formed Federation of what was once China, Russia, North Korea, Mongolia and Myanmar, and where the majority of the world’s Androids were built.

Declaring the resource-hoarding West an enemy of the people, the PSMES, also known as the Synarchy, took control of the androids they’d sold to the west, using them as a revolutionary vanguard and attempting to seize control of the planet for all humanity.

Facing total annihilation, the besieged nations unleashed their final, terrible response. Thirty nuclear missiles descended upon the Mandate's heartlands, shattering their industrial and political core. Shanghai, Beijing, and most of what was once China was destroyed.

The world watched as countries burned.

While those on Earth surrendered to the western nations, remnants of the Synarchy’s Central Committee remained off planet, establishing a new, defiant stronghold on the Moon. From their lunar exile, the near powerless People's Synarchy proclaims itself the rightful government of humanity, denouncing the Earth-bound nations as an illegitimate and corrupt order. They maintain ship runs to Mars, where the Synarchese population is growing in size. Their Earth bound operations are minimal, reduced to occasional political disruption of the states that destroyed their home.

In the ashes of the old world, a new order was born. Android technology was declared an ultimate taboo and banned. The great factories that built them were largely destroyed, being mostly present in the Synarchy countries, and there was no rush to rebuild them.

Haunted by the ghosts in their own machines, a wary society has turned its back on the conveniences it once craved, fearful of the day technology might betray them again.

But the ecological destruction and limited resources of Earth remain a problem, so the effort to terraform Mars became more and more important with each day. Governments around the world supported efforts, both private and government owned, to build the population of Mars. The one corporation with the most success, bringing millions to Mars and establishing a foothold there, was Z-Corp. And the man behind it was Maddoc Nelo.

The year is 2085, and this is Maddoc’s story.

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