Neal Darts

Neal Darts (ニール・ダーツ, Nīru Dātsu) was the area located between Ceres and Diedo. Once part of Ceres, it had become an entity of its own where even slum mongrels hesitate to enter.

## History

Midas’s reputation as a no holds barred pleasure palace naturally attracted a certain type of clientele, mostly those whose sexual predilections would land them in trouble anywhere else. However, Amoi’s strict immigration policy and the fact that visas were hard to get and granted only to those who could afford such luxury meant that not all those who wanted to visit or stay, could do so.

Illegal immigrants and off-world refugees, known as sinkers, would risk their lives by staying on the planet, and given that Midas was entirely under Tanagura’s thumb, their best bet was to settle elsewhere.

The east part of Ceres saw the highest influx of Commonwealth off-world refugees, criminals, hackers and even the likes of wannabe cyborgs. Eventually, the area was no longer recognisible as Ceres and became known as Neal Darts. With time, they earned their notoriety as profit-plundering parasites who stole the bad reputation of the adjoining Area 5 (Diedo) and became a place where no self respecting mongrel would set foot willingly.

## Description

For the Midas citizenry, Neal Darts, where even the police was at a loss and felt powerless, was a place that they absolutely abhorred. In the slums, this melting pot of perverts, freaks and junkies was known as the Danger Zone or the Air Pocket of Ceres.

King’s Road lead from Ceres to the entrance to this maze of illegally constructed, conglomerated buildings of various sizes. Beyond the eerily still, black towering walls of buildings, complete darkness ruled. Not one dim light marked the way in the pitch-black darkness of Neal Darts nights, thus the twin moonlights stood out even more than usual.

It was impossible for ordinary people to navigate the giant maze of Neal Darts in daylight, but even more so in the dark. Without a map and night-vision goggles, outsiders that crossed the boundaries of Neal Darts would have been stuck and at the mercy of those who called this their home.

## Society

Even by Ceres standards, Neal Darts was a messed up place. A den of psychopathic hackers, failed cyborg experiments, crazed junkies, even Robby, known as God’s Grim Reaper didn’t want anything to do with it. Occasionally, people came here out of curiosity, to get an adrenaline fix, only to never emerge again.

Slum mongrels even had special names for deviants that roamed its streets, such as Luthers for perverts and degenerates, or Chromers for abhorrent criminals.

Social norms, loyalty, righteousness. Everything there was easily toppled by the power of money and one’s own rules. Do the bare minimum required for business and see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil: this is the ironclad rule to survive in Neal Darts.

The Midas Division of Public Safety had no jurisdiction here as they were simply outclassed and outpowered by the chaos they couldn’t navigate. However, among the MDPS, it was strongly suspected that there were undercover Sleepers operating in Neal Darts under direct control of Tanagura, because they would occasionally get valuable and well timed tip-offs. Only based on this intel was the police able to conduct its large-scale raids on the area.

These suspicions were correct. In fact, Tanagura didn’t eradicate Neal Darts solely because it was more convenient to monitor the Commonwealth spies mixed among the sinkers and criminals. Observing only from the sides would not be enough. But having men on the ground in what is a magnet for anyone not wanting to be found by Tanagura was a tactic that paid off.

One of the major police raids on Neal Darts happened when the dirty affairs of the long-standing, preeminent shop that created and distributed illegal content involving minors, including extremely small children were exposed. The entire shop was seized, and the children were rehomed in Guardian.