Helix City

### **Summary**

Helix City is located in the Crimson Hills Crater, safely tucked among iron-rich mountains. The City is run by the mega-corporation known as Helix Co., one of the first companies to establish a mining base on Mars. While now mostly automated, they maintain a workforce in Helix City's more secure sectors. Local police are mostly for their protection, and rarely involve themselves in the common squabbles of the citizens living in the lower city. This lack of security has left the people to take their protection into their own hands in the form of firearms, blades, and advanced combat training through simulations.

Violence and crime in Helix are seen as daily work and opportunities for employment.

### **Early Days**

Helix City was initially known as MC-1720-A, a Mining Colony based in a protected crater and kept under tight security during construction, which both began and finished in 2042 with the help of bots and R.P.R. (Remotely Piloted Robot) or "Rippers". Little was known about the site until HelixCo announced job openings in December of 2049.

### **Settlement and Growth**

In October of 2050, Helix City announced the first residential district openings and began taking applications for citizenship. Colonists were promised fair wages and freedom to build a future for themselves. With most of Mars still a vast wasteland of hostile land-grabbers and criminal miscreants around this time, millions of Terrans jumped at the chance at a Martian existence behind the safety of HelixCo's towering walls and defensive platforms.

Soon ships packed full of families, tradesmen, explorers, prospectors and everything imaginable that could be useful in colonizing a planet began to arrive from all over Earth, with some colonists even coming from other Martian settlements in hopes of finding a safer place to call home.

### **Modern Helix City**

Helix City continues to thrive and grow, operating with all districts sealed save for District 1, the port entry for arriving and departing ships. This location has become popular for criminal elements and those wishing to lay-low from the eyes of galactic authorities, and while the police presence is minimal, it is brutally unforgiving.

Many shops and business ventures have come and gone in recent years as various factions fight over territories, harassing local business owners and demanding protection money or outright servitude. Organized crime from Terra also maintains a presence in Helix City, with groups like the Mafia and Yakuza holding large claims via powerful businesses serving as fronts for illicit activity.

Work is abundant in Helix City for all types. Mercenary work is most common with positions in personal security promising steady work, while the occasional side-job offers opportunities for large payoffs for those who can handle themselves well and keep their questions minimal. Service jobs are mostly done by bots, but human oversight is common. Some jobs are specifically seen as needing a human touch, such as food preparation or prostitution, thus while these actions can and often are performed by robots or some form of machine, there is a high demand for living, breathing attendants in many fields.

For most citizens the nature of life in Helix is the betterment of one's position and the gain of allies in the pursuit of wealth and power. While a small few are content to live peacefully in the city, keeping their heads down and tolerating some measure of abuse by local thugs in exchange for a generally safe life, the majority of those attracted to Helix City are adventurous, self-reliant folk who mean to build themselves the future they want no matter the cost. Few places provide the same personal freedom and independence offered here, and the hope for a better tomorrow has become the foundation on which the city now grows.

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