Chicago, IL 2075 (https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=201375040006088778489.0004dc233c3f9a36e7362&msa=0)<br/><br/>In the middle of the lifeless urban sprawl of what once was the Windy City, the sounds of the old CZ echoed over the land as gangs, degenerates, psychopaths, criminals, and sociopaths lived out their lives in the Z-zone that the CZ had become (which technically was a step up from what it was ten, and especially twenty years ago).  Outside of the shoddy barriers now covered in Ancients or Human League graffiti to mark their 'territory', the rest of the city's remains continued, especially in Dreamland just south of the city this time of night with every imaginable vice up for grabs.  UIC was silent, it's mages and 'student's long gone for the day, and even Haven was strangely silent due to the regulated brownout at the current time.  It wasn't unusual for Southside and the CZ to be more active than Northside, though one part of the Southside was immune to this: the Core.<br/><br/>The Core, home to the emplacements of Fuchi, Aztechnology, Ares, and many other Megacorps with their many blocks of extraterritorial land to their names and control.  However, with the urban decay pervading the surrounding land, limited their expansion, so their land - and their citizens - were limited, forcing them to 'outsource' to UCAS citizens for meager jobs, low end stuff really, with all of Ares personnel relegated to higher-paid managerial positions of power.  That's why Vesper was where she was in the dead-silent still-as-death ground floor of the Ares Tower...<br/><br/>...and why she was bored out of her mind with five minutes left on he shift, her partner - an ork named John Smith - who was desperately trying not to fall asleep behind the security desk.  He sighed, head moving and colliding with the desk in his boredom, then he glanced up as Vesper approached from her trip from the upper floors.<br/><br/>"So?  Any intrusions?  Anything at all?" he grumbled, trying to compose himself best he could as the attractive security guard approached "Been over a year since we've had a problem, the hell they even need us here for?"