Hope

This is a world of science but the science works a little differently here than it does on Earth. It
is a little more flexible than would normally
be expected. There are technologies that are
ineffective on Earth that just work better here and
theories that just can’t get off the ground over
there which blossom into wondrous reality here.
Last Hope gained its name because its discovery
came only a decade after human scientists
declared that Faster Than Light travel was a real
impossibility.

Instead they found a way to cross
through inter-dimensional space to find other
universes whose laws behaved in an unpredictable
fashion. Some of those shuttles never returned
-- perhaps because those universes were inimical
to human life or perhaps because technology just
couldn’t work there.
When they eventually found a habitable world
they officially called “Hope” and unofficially
called “Last Hope” because it was humanity’s
last hope to explore and colonise a world filled
with life.

Due to higher background radiation
and a multitude of foreign diseases, human
colonists either had to survive on a diet of
medication and hide from the great outdoors
or were bio-engineered with a nanite gland that
could help repair the damage. For over a century
they imported more colonists until they reached
a population of 67 million inhabitants before
something went terribly wrong.

An unknown event called the Incident led to a tearing in the fabric
of reality itself and allowed an interdimensional
body, known as the Writhing One, to be seen in
the sky for precisely 4.79 hours (aka 4 hours 47
minutes and 24 seconds).
The colonists, desperate to save Earth, shut
down all conduits between their worlds and set
their satellites to destroy any incoming shuttles so
that their world could remain in quarantine.
Those who saw the Writhing One, glimpsing
it in the skies or even studying instruments that
studied it, went insane - injuring themselves and
others in a horrific manner.

When their bodies
fell, the nanites raced to repair the damage but
they could not repair damage done to the cerebral
cortex by both the Writhing One and the injuries
they had sustained.
When their bodies rose, they were different.
They were cunning, primal and terribly hungry.
They roamed in packs of three to a dozen and
would not harm each other but would hunt down
wastelanders, in particular, with a single-minded
devotion.

They were also capable of rapidly
regenerating damage to their bodies. Over time
they developed new strains -- each more cunning
and resourceful than the last.
The military were largely wiped out, but enough
remained to take control of the robotics factory,
pumping out basic robots who would kill anyone
not implanted with a special beacon implanted
beneath the skin (AI not being sufficiently
advanced to tell the difference between a
wastelander and a Zed-Synth on sight).

Unfortunately the fact the disease was
infectious meant that eventually some of those
who had been implanted succumbed to the
infection. One of the robot factories sent out a
programming update so that the robots would
slay anyone -- regardless of beacon. In their last
transmission, they apologised and stated they
would reverse their decision once their factory
was clear of Zeds but they never did.
That was just over seventy years ago.

People
have rebuilt since then but civilisation is still small,
spread out and under siege.
The survivors are genetically engineered to be
better at surviving, but with increased metabolic
rates, high adrenaline responses and a more
aggressive (though not necessarily violent).

The main difference between a human and a
wastelander is their nanite gland.
Hope is a deadly world these days.
approach to life.
Their nanite gland also allows them to survive
a higher level of background radiation such as
that found on Last Hope without taking special
medication. This has no effect on areas of
exceedingly high radiation (i.e. where there are
radiation indicators).

Nowadays there are a number of important locations on Hope that have sprung up since the Incident.