Phobos/Wauxhall

Phobos
(From p. 126-27 Sunward)
"Phobos orbits Mars about every 7 hours and would
have destroyed the space elevator within a week of
it going up if they hadn’t done something about this
sucker’s chaotic orbit. Now Phobos orbits the straight
and narrow and is crawling with Cognite employees.
Cognite has a controlling interest in Phobos, sharing it
with with several other corps, including Direct Action,
ComEx, and Eng/Dilworth, an IT firm specializing in
automation and security for orbital stations.
Phobos is where the project that created the
Lost generation got its start; the first crèche servers
were located here. Cognite’s Wauxhall Institute was
involved in the Lost project and is also rumored to be
taking part in experiments with the Watts-MacLeod
strain of the exsurgent virus."

Phobos is similar in composition to a D-type asteroid, with numbers of silicates, carbon and oxides with organic chemicals, and sub-surface deposits of water ice. Phobos also has a very low density, as it is a “rubble pile”, not a singular body of rock but many smaller ones held together by gravity, though colonization efforts have taken great pains to stabilize the asteroid.

Cognite’s primary outpost here is Wauxhall, home of the touted “Wauxhall Institute”, a dome settlement built into the massive Stickney crater on the surface of Phobos. The dome features many arcology structures which span the entire height of the space, with gaps between individual structures for air vehicles, trams and walkways. Wauxhall features a high degree of open space for a microgravity habitat. Rumors say that Cognite originally planned to utilize utility fog in the hab to simulate gravity, but after the Fall such technologies are highly restricted. Wauxhall is host to Cognite’s major central “offices”, and most of their more public industries - such as nootropic and cognitive enhancement research, while their more secretive projects are hidden away either in deep interior labs or on other outposts. All in all, several thousand Cognite employees and contractors and their dependants live in Wauxhall or it’s connected interior structures. Also, due to the volume of complaints and controversy directed at Cognite - as well as their own aloof and concealed nature, Wauxhall is host to a branch office of Oversight, staffed round the clock by tactical response teams of auditors and security contractors who keep an eye on Cognite, along with a small team of PR officials who work to prevent frivolous slander against a major player in the Hypercorp Council.

Wauxhall is an interesting habitat. It’s interior structures are designed with a very “Neo-Victorian” aesthetic, combining classical European neo-gothic or neoclassical architecture with Middle Eastern or Asian influences. Structures are artistically reinforced with visible cast iron or steel, various spires and columns are visible as accents, and many facades are covered in a reddish “brick” made from materials from Phobos. Ornamentation is everywhere, with tightly packed designs which verge on cluttered. Elitism is a large part of the corporate culture within Cognite, and verticality plays a large roll in Wauxhall. The higher “up” you live or work, the more important you are in the company. The core employees of Cognite (execs and scientists) also are very showy about their intelligence and creativity, littering their casual conversation with technical and philosophical jargon to appear more intelligent, and public displays of art are highly common and encouraged by the company. Contractors and support staff are less caught up in this particular aspect. Almost everyone in Wauxhall, however, projects as air of austerity and gravitas. People are aloof, polite and avoid open displays of emotion or even most body language. In Wauxhall, you never know if you’re being studied or analyzed, which creates a sense of social propriety (and paranoia). Social or mental problems are also kept under wraps, as it could end up with a quick trip to psychosurgery under orders of the company - something many employees are paranoid about. Emotional dampers are highly common.

Wauxhall is broken up into several broad districts and neighborhoods, typically by function and facilities, though some of these areas may be striated along the vertical axis.

• Undertown is the colloquial name given to the lowest levels of Wauxhall and the warren of tunnels dug into Phobos beneath it. This area houses most of the distributed infrastructure of Wauxhall such as water reclamation, power distribution and other vital components. Many sectors of undertown are poorly sealed or even open to vacuum. This area is home to the synthmorph indentures who serve as vacworkers and support staff to Cognite. Contracts with Cognite are a double-edged sword: they almost always feature mandatory (albeit “temporary”) behavioral modification with open clauses for further psychosurgery, and the Muses the company provides are loaded with behavioral spyware like a Monitor AI - but on the other hand Cognite offers great mental health coverage and access to recreational simulspace. They also respect company loyalty, the most talented and loyal indentures can end up hired into better contractor positions within Wauxhall itself. 
• Londinium, Germania and Gallia are the three primary arcology towers, arranged in a rough triangle around the crater, reaching from the floor all the way to the surface of the dome. The outside of these circular structures is adorned with various accents in the style of the rest of the hab. Apartments ring the outside of the building, with the center being a mostly open area layered with transportation methods and zero-g gardens and art installations. Occasionally floors of housing space are replaced with rows of shopping arcades containing basic necessities and supplies sold through Cognite after strict screening, or other recreational facilities. The quality of the housing sharply increases based on the height in the buildings, with the lowest floors little more than single-occupant capsules, and the upper layers having single apartments which constitute one apartment for a senior executive or researcher and their family and personal staff. The very top levels aren’t housing, but rather extravagant dining destinations which extend above the layer of the dome to give a breathtaking view - many high-powered Cognite meetings take place in these locales. 
• Metaversal Studios started as a nickname, but became a semi-official title for Cognite’s VR division after a partnership with Experia. This tower focuses on the design and programming of various cutting-edge recreational and educational simulspaces, which push the limits of modern hardware for more realistic experiences. Simulspaces are coded, tested and fixed here, before being mirrored to Experia media servers for mass consumption. Cognite employs small legions of infomorph indentures as beta testers and QA contractors. Due to the highly advanced nature of the simulspaces being constructed here, Cognite also experiments in high end computer hardware. The lower levels of Metaversal are dedicated to less “advanced” jobs in “edutainment” vids and vidgames, or development of skillsofts. This zone has a volume of Experia contractors and representatives, who often bring their own flair to the compound.
• The Candy Factory is another colloquialism. Officially, it is Cognite’s “Pharmaceutical Research and Design Division”. This section of the company is responsible for one of Cognite’s biggest sellers, nootropics. Built of several structures, this area of the hab is a study in contrast. The pharmacists, chemical engineers and research doctors developing or testing new drugs work in sterile, white-walled labs, while the upper layers are staffed by many of Cognite’s overworked marketing and public relations employees, trying to develop new tactics and plans to sell the drugs once their blueprints are encoded to be distributed. Experimental AR graphics and displays run wild on the upper floors, and it is a common joke among the scientists that the guys “upstairs” consume most of their products in order to stay on top of their game. 
• Teatown is the name for Cognite’s “Cognitive Enhancement and Morphological Development” department, with the name coming about after the Fall and the rise of the “Black Kettle” morph growing operations on Mars. Here, Cognite develops and updated a number of cognitive implants and genelines, including their original variant of the popular Menton morph. Cognite is also feverishly trying to reverse-engineer the Hyperbright morph after Acumenic “embarassed” them with the Bright habitat. It is also known that Cognite also produces a modernized version of the Futura morph used by the original Lost project here, for “internal uses”. 
• The Think Tank is one of the most centralized and secured structures on Phobos. The building has a dark, bleak exterior at odds with much of the other architecture on the station. It is insulated from many external mesh sources, and has a large airgap. This is because this is where Cognite does it’s “public” AI research, developing the latest templates for Muses and other specialized AIs, while they leave their more advanced (and secretive) research to other stations. Think Tank additionally works on forking work-groups and hives, especially the “autocratic” style which is currently popular with Cognite’s executives. The Think Tank has also been experimenting heavily with cyberbrain emulation states, and Infomorph/Eidolon designs - including Cognite’s special “edits” for Infomorphs to encourage productivity in indentures. 
• The Morgue has no official name. It is Cognite’s cold storage center. After the Fall, Cognite was one of several corporations who began to buy up the massive stockpiles of Egos in dead storage, and begin processing them for indenture contracts. In addition to the massive racks of cold storage servers, there are also a number of Simulspace servers to process prospective indenture candidates. Most people find Cognite’s particular practices of indentureship particularly unpleasant, so this structure is heavily secured and secretive, with security personnel watching the location around the clock. Cognite doesn’t just store infugees here, they have several contracts to hold criminal Egos in some very secure servers at the heart of the Morgue. Due to secrecy, rumors abound about the Morgue, even among employees; possible ego trafficking with the ID Crew or Nine Lives, imprisonment of captured Egos of Lost Project subjects, or even that the Morgue contains a boxed pre-TITAN Seed AI.
• St. Dymphna Mental Health Research Center is a pyramidal building built as a kind of miniaturized arcology. Here Cognite performs much of it’s psychosurgical and psychotherapy research. They also develop therapeutic simulspaces to help patients. Most of the work here is oriented on research, and so Cognite takes on a limited number of “patients” but is known to occasionally work on high-profile mental health cases for the publicity. In the lower levels of St. Dymphna are the Infolife and Uplift wings, which experiment on cognitive development, modelling and treatment for non-human cognition, with tales of unethical experiments often thrown around in Mercurial circles. Cognite also is known to dabble in psychosurgical loyalty modifications and interrogative simulspace and psychosurgery techniques for the Planetary Consortium here. 
• Youth Cognitive Excellence Center (YCXC) is a private educational institution run by Cognite. Here Cognite specializes in the teaching of young people to best stimulate their development and maximize aptitude potential through a variety of experimental educational techniques. The YCXC was popular among Hyperelites and upper class Martians in the immediate aftermath of the Fall, but business waned after the Lost Generation fiasco. Now a majority of the student body are children of Cognite employees or contractors, who get a large discount on enrollment. Some of the students are also Cognite “projects” also. The YCXC was responsible for the rough educational planning of the Lost and some of their creche server environments, but had little to do with the execution.
• Phobos Circus is the name of the circular district which rings the perimeter of the dome, and is home to what passes for the larger scale entertainment and recreation in Wauxhall. The Phobos Circus is also host to “embassy” or branch offices of affiliated hypercorps and Cognite subsidiaries. Here, there are a number of restaurants, cafes and teahouses, and large scale physical entertainment or exercise - such as zero-g soccer and racquetball. Independant shops sell goods imported from other locations, typically Mars, though at significant markup due to Cognite fees. There are several art galleries and museums here, all sponsored by Cognite, and it also contains the Wauxhall Theater, with a Cognite sponsored troupe who perform microgravity versions of many classic plays - though it is also host to other experiments in performance art, especially performances made possible through the kinds of technologies Cognite works with. 
• Wauxhall Institute is the center of Wauxhall, located in the smaller Limtoc Crater inside Stickney. Here, Cognite’s scientists conduct their most advanced and bleeding edge research, though almost the entirety of these projects are strictly theoretical. Actual practical research is done on other Cognite stations. This is also where Cognite’s executives, including their board of directors, meet - either remotely or in person. The Wauxhall Institute is linked to all other Cognite “offices” around the system. Also contained in this region is Wauxhall House, which is the administration center for the station, and contains many primary infrastructure functions, such as Ego Casting and Resleeving, and is where the Oversight branch office is based.
• The Dimondium Palace is the nickname for the orbital tether cluster held in orbit directly above Wauxhall as a spaceport and redundant communications hub. The nickname comes from the variety of windows and viewports to observe both Mars and Phobos as well as the space traffic. Dimondium also has a couple of rotating clusters and rings for certain kinds of work which must be done in “simulated” gravity. Shuttles to Mars and other stations on Phobos are most common here, but there are also regular movements to other major martian orbital habs. 

Burroughs Crater

TerraGenesis is not the only corporate entity working on reviving and studying extinct animals. Tucked away in Burroughs Crater in the southern highlands of Mars is a corporate facility where no expense is spared to attempt to recreate that which is extinct and market it to the people. Affectionately called the "Lost World" by visitors and marketing, the official name of this facility is "Burroughs Crater Wildlife Conservation and Revivification Center", a lab and research park covering large sections of the 100+ km area of the crater.

Pioneered by Edgar Kingsley, a venture capitalist who was a student of genetics in his early life, the "Lost World" center is part research project, and part an ongoing attempt by the Consortium elite to keep up with the actions of TerraGenesis. Sky Ark is a bountiful planet with a wide area where TerraGenesis' scientists are able to recreate all kinds of wildlife and their natural environments - Burroughs is a bit more limited in scope but still has some promise. Kingsley was interested in such developments on Earth to resurrect extinct large animals, but space and resource limitations prevented such ventures from getting beyond early research and planning phases. A healthy grant by the Hypercorp Council has allowed the Lost World center to flourish on Mars.

Primary habitation for workers and staff are in several arcology towers clustered in one edge of the crater, with access to a skyport and the local rail line. Guests have similar accommodations in a "hotel" arcology which is connected to but not actually with the other areas. The crater itself is mostly covered over in special materials which can absorb solar power and govern light levels and act as a "soft" seal for temperature and air pressure, with individual compounds, labs and sectors being isolated and environmentally controlled as needed. Navigation inside the facility is handled via buggies, a small tram system, or personal air transport. While the center does have multiple environments, terraforming is not its primary purpose - genetics research is. Tourism is only a secondary result to raise funding, and keep awareness of the project - to deter people from taking expensive vacations to Sky Ark.

The Center is run by a board of directors, which Kingsley chairs, and several high-ranking members of the center staff also sit on, with the rest being filled by investors, business associates and several other interested corporate heads. Due to the funding and land offered by the Council, Burroughs Crater falls firmly under the jurisdiction of the Planetary Consortium - though they also interact with the Tharsis government. While clearly a rival to TerraGenesis, the Center also openly works with them to collaborate on certain revival projects and share materials within the constraints of the Consortium's IP laws - ostensibly for the sake of preserving and reviving animals lost in the Fall. Kingsley himself is said to be deeply interested in this (though otherwise Reclamation holds no interest to him) but most of his corporate backers are only interested in keeping up with Sky Ark.

Burroughs Crater and its facility have several branches and departments working on various projects. Some focus on revivals based on extant DNA samples, other on mimicking long extinct animals using transgenic or neogenetic constructs. Other groups focus on tracking, behavioral mapping and even behavioral controls of the products. The veterinary unit is quite advanced, focused on the physical health and wellness of products which are created and often doing hands-on research in the "field" as new products are developed. The Center has corporate offices of course, who handle marketing to upper middle class tourists in the Hellas region, and the uber-rich out of places like Elysium to come see the products. Some creations of the Center are even marketed to corps as usable smart animals. Due to the sophisticated and technical nature of the park, very few indentures are employed, and they mostly in digital or customer-facing tasks. Repair work is done by AIs in bot units which are "unappealing" to any wandering products. Kingsley and his corporate backers do not prefer indenture when hiring primary staff such as scientists, but instead contracts with long NDA agreements and harsh penalties to breaking them to encourage workers to remain with the company while still maintaining the idea they have conventional freedom.

While not as extensive as Sky Ark, the Lost World center has made some strides in animal research and resurrection. They have managed to produce before TerraGenesis a number of animal lines, including Terror Birds, Anaconda, Glyptodonts, Argentavis, Giant Otters and Hyaenodons. They have also compiled several structures of various "raptors" (Dromaeosauridae) to create a morph which resembles them and several Neo-Avian strains - a "Neo-Raptor". Researchers at the Center have also collaborated on or developed in parallel several species now found on Sky Ark, with a focus on the long extinct ones. Unconfirmed rumors persist that in an attempt to one-up TerraGenesis' scientists, the Lost World has begun developing a Giganotosaurus subject to rival Tyrannosaurus forms.

Despite their scientific successes, not everything is ideal at Burroughs Crater - with the limited size the center can never truly rival Sky Ark and there has been some talk of finding an appropriate plot of land on an Exoplanet to move the work to, which would unfortunately require the destruction of many subjects too large to safely transport and would cost a great deal of money. Burroughs Crater is also in the middle of what is seen as Barsoomian territory. Nomads used to frequent the region and some groups still persist, and the Hellas region is a hotbed of Barsoomian terraforming politics. While the center keeps a response team to deal with all kinds of threats, the possibility of sabotage or terrorism still exists. This is compounded by the relative isolation of the center. The southern uplands are too uneven to support a wealth of high-quality roads, and rail lines are expensive to run in that area. If they were to be blocked or destroyed, the only way to leave the facility is by air - and the Center itself only keeps a small number of utility helos, aircars and a small jet to transport staff and sometimes visitors.

Martian Bike Gangs

Mars presents a somewhat unique environment in many respects for people. With the Earth lost, it is one of the largest bodies in the solar system one can reasonably expect to travel on. While Titan has ground-roads and highways, they do not have the surface area and distance of Mars to cover, nor the population levels who utilize these roads. This leaves Mars as one of the few places in the Solar System where those who have appreciation for the "open road" or the "need for speed" to thrive and grow. Unfortunately, subculture development is somewhat limited by vehicle selection - groundcars are notoriously small and compact, though urban street racing (illegal as it subverts the traffic control grids) often utilizes modded ones, and while the Martian Buggy can get some speed going, the vehicles are not the most aesthetically pleasing - though "post-apoc" rigs of buggies with extraneous armor plates, spikes and chains are not uncommon in rebellious rednecks.

This means that the traditional cycle has some of the best availability and style for those who seek to feel the independence and power of owning a vehicle. In urban centers, you may find traditional bike clubs and authentics "retro-Mod" cultures who focus on riding and customizing cycles. These make great venues for recent immigrants or ex-Indentures within the hobby to socialize with others and get back into the swing of post-Fall life, and act as an element of a social network. While there are still some wider popcultural implications of a "cycle club", the ratio of the urban ones which engage in criminal activity is low - and in these cases they mostly act as a slightly more mobile street gang, engaged in vehicle theft, extortion and drug dealing to gain additional money for the members or the club and may clash with more established neighborhood gangs. However, the high presence of surveillance and traffic control makes these criminal actions harder.

It is outside the major cities, on the distant highways and their attached communities, where you find groups one can really call "motorcycle gangs". Many of these these resemble rebellious youth and racing subcultures, such as Japanese bosozoku or Maylay Mat Rempit. The backbone of these communities are in local youths, usually areas which have a concentration of similar ethnic cultures (though multicultural gangs exist in areas which are sufficiently diluted) and have little else to do, except perhaps help parents with work or attend virtual schooling. Far from Mars' urban centers, traffic controls get less strict, surveillance gets less comprehensive, and the ease of building a serviceable cycle or trike out of some fabs in a prefab garage gets much higher. This means that many bike gangs are also technically skilled, able to do basic subversion of DRM and licensing, and can handle their own maintenance and assembly of bikes - some gangs even take building your own ride as a bar to entry. While historically there may have been some element of gender separation or roles in bike gangs, the modern gangs rarely make anything of it including active members ("riders") of any gender identity - though some of the most established may comport themselves as a "brotherhood" or "sisterhood". Though, of course, bike gangs are often hotbeds for casual dating and sex in their communities, and it's not uncommon for a date (sometimes called a "bitch" or a "squeeze" usually not intended to be derogatory) of any gender who is not a member to ride with the gang.

Activities for these outback gangs are pretty standard. At their basis, they engage in running (usually friendly) races on highways and access roads, bike parades and other rabble rousing usually just for their own amusement. Particularly adventurous or skilled gangs will travel on major arterial highways, subverting the traffic grid or otherwise operating in manual to travel at high speeds interspersed with regular traffic (though this occasionally draw the attention of the Martian Rangers). Those who feel particularly strong or delinquent might engage in common youthful crimes such as vandalism, extortion or bullying of locals, petty thefts and even robberies. Others might engage in drug distribution and smuggling, illegal courier jobs or act as a hub for illegal fab operations. While sometimes this is selfishly for profit, mostly it is an act of youthful rebellion or a quest for more thrills - many of these gangs' members live ordinary lives otherwise and engage in activities for the adrenaline high. This is reflected in their outfitting; almost no-one uses an enclosed cabin on their cycle or trike, they only wear lightly shielded clothing or crash suits for protection, and the only people wearing helmets or masks are those who do not have respiration implants. This means that while often dangerous and violent, gangs are rarely consistent in their operations beyond the basics. Only the longest established and largest gangs tend to have steady operations which go hand-in-hand with various codes of conduct and strict membership rules.

While high-speed and danger seeking are critical to these cultures, so is rebellion. Gang colors and symbology are often drawn from their cultural or ethnic heritage (a subversion of the Consortium's insistence on Mars as the new home of humanity), others use anarchist symbols or rhetoric in how they operate and may even comport themselves as "lacking hierarchy". However, some gangs will focus on subverting their own cultural expectations operating like "Authentics" in Urban Mars modeled after cultures which are not their own - or deliberately anachronistic stylings such as American "cowboys" or late 20th century "cyberpunks". Some cyclists are brave enough even to chance the outskirts of the TQZ. Culturally, cycle gangs are split between cycles and trikes - with trikes being larger, more durable and better at rough terrain, but the cycle being faster and the lighter frame more customizable. Membership in these gangs is usually youths in their mid to late teens at the low end and early-mid 20s at the high (as opposed to urban cycle clubs, which have a broad age range). Some members naturally mature out of the club, or their older age and legal status makes the risks of the lifestyle less appealing. Those who engage in criminal activities may be recruited by local crime gangs, triads or militant Barsoomians as members. Others may pursue dangerous contract jobs such as PMC work, ego hunting or bodyguarding, or become professional athletes or X-casters engaging in other extreme sports. Very rarely, bikers will "go straight" and join government jobs with the Tharsis League doing infrastructure or surveying and some will even "betray" the gang by becoming Martian Rangers. Some don't ever properly grow out of it, remaining in the local culture to support new blood and keep the gang revitalized while going on with their own lives.

Occasionally, two gangs' territories will meet or abut. This is rare, as very few rural communities have a large enough population spread out to form multiple gangs - though rivalries and falling outs can cause a gang to split or fork. Typically, both being driven rebels, this will result in low-key gang warfare with brawls, vandalism, taunting and very rarely serious fighting over the contested area. This ends either when the local authorities have to step in, or one gang loses the will to hold the territory, causing them to fall back. Occasionally, gangs are mature enough to negotiate, and will split territory up, or one will pay concessions to the other for the space. Exceedingly rarely, gangs might merge to form a new gang with combined membership - this usually only happens if a third party (such as Rangers or local criminals) is present, or in the non-zero chance that gang leadership really just wants to bang and have a weird way of showing it. Combined gangs tend to be volatile, but much stronger and more daring.

Lastly, there are a couple ways gangs might settle things in event of a fight, or some other dispute. Races and related wagers are common, especially in gangs with younger membership who aren't dead set on fighting (and may not have access to weapons). But another common way is jousting, where a champion of each gang will engage in almost ritualized fighting utilizing simple shields (or no shields at all) and carefully crafted lances made with self-balancing materials to be easy to handle - and with smart material heads which can be blunt or sharp depending on the conflict.

Jousting Lance: Lance used in ritualized jousting of Martian Bike Gangs, and occasionally reenactors on horseback. Has a bluntable tip and powerful balance correction for high accuracy. It is designed to be used in motion, and thus has no penalty to make a Charge Attack, but all attacks while not charging takes a -20 penalty. Uses the Exotic Melee Weapon: Lance skill. [Low]
AP -3 1d10+3+DB DV (Half DV when blunted)

Black Eden

Tucked into the Littleton crater in the south reaches the Utopia Planitia on Mars is a curious collection of hab domes and outbuildings which has come to be called "Black Eden". Officially named "Littleton Nanoecological Center", this settlement west of Elysium at AMT +8 is an interesting focus for a community which blends nano-ecology with primitivism. The settlement was founded by Andrew Lau, a name in several nanotech startups who after the Fall seemed to have a bit of a break, and decided to work on nonprofit applications of his technology for a simple lifestyle. Rumors abound his friends and business partners helped him set up the venture as a way to let him relax and also keep him in a single, easy to access location if needed.

Black Eden is described as "nanoprimitivist" - the settlement (for it is hardly organized enough to be called a town or village) allows it's several thousand transhuman residents to live relatively simple lives of comfort. Environmental conditions mimic a pleasant lightly wooded forest or plain and keep everything at a completely tolerable level, so there is no need for shelter or clothing. Gardening nanotech keeps the soil healthy and tends to plants so they can rapidly yet sustainably grow food all year round - a human simply walks up to a plant and eats it. Water is drawn and purified from the massive subsurface ice stores under the Planitia. Should a human require a tool or other object to do a task for for their own entertainment, fabricators or simple-tool Protean swarms can assemble it for them, and break it down when they are done, or they can craft it for themselves from the surrounding materials (as some prefer to do). Injuries are healed by medichines or readily accessed nanobandages - and healing vats are held in infrastructure sections. Several smart animal breeds (primarily Wolves, Raccoons and Hawks) live as companions, helpers and guardians, and several breeds of animals (such as a couple of species of deer) are cloned in small herds to sustainably hunt as prey animals for those who wish to obtain their nutrients normally rather than through artificial supplements.

Politically Black Eden is technically a member of the Tharsis League. They are a settlement which can elect a representative to the League Council and nominally operate in line with Martian laws and regulations - however this is mostly a tactic to prevent the settlement from being steamrolled by Martian or Hypercorp interference, as Littleton is held and operated by Lau privately, which means not a lot of direct influence can be done. Culturally, the internals of Black Eden are basically autonomist. The population are by and large pacifist, community-minded people who operate either on an individual basis, or by consensus. Because the dome theoretically provides all basic needs in excess, basic resource scarcity is pretty low - so most people share or immediately use anything they gather and do not need to hoard them. Learning, love and space are all generally pretty "free" in the center as well - though they do allow for some sentimentality of personal items. Lau's philosophy is that humans should be in harmony with nature and nature should be in harmony with us. So long as cruelty or harm is not done to nature, resources taken from it will be put back and rebalanced.

The population of Black Eden is mostly nano-ecologists like Lau, living "the dream" of a contained nanite controlled environment, but has several other smaller groups. A number of autonomist leaning Barsoomians or other anti-corporate groups have moved in to live a simple lifestyle away from corporate interference. Due to proximity with Elysium another big internal faction are bored and stressed out socialites - they come to Black Eden as almost a kind of rehab after serious stress issues with their connected media life, most leave after a few months, but several like the style and stay. There is also a non-zero number of Hominid and Neanderthal uplifts who have come to Black Eden to try and live in harmony with nature - the Neo-Neanderthals in particular find Black Eden very symmetrical to their own lives as once simple species harmonized with the times via technology. Most of the time, people just relax and live, doing simple tasks, learning crafts and skills eating, sleeping and making merry as they choose. But Black Eden has a strong community of arts, and so much time is spent swapping stories over literal campfires - contrasted with exotic art pieces made using nanotech. The name "Black Eden" is kind of a mystery, nobody can track down exactly where it came from, but it stuck. Many assume it to be a deliberate alteration on the TTO's "Red Eden" initiative of terraforming, or an appropriation of an insult from bioconservatives and primitivists in regards to their use of nanotech. A smaller group who are more in the know wonder at possible connection to the former militant x-risk group "Black Mars", who were purged after the Fall.

There are a couple notable names in Black Eden: Andrew Lau, of course, the founder of the colony and head of the project. While legally speaking Andrew owns the property, he does not exercise this authority without support from the people living there. Lau is seen as a thought-leader, who influences the direction the settlement goes both culturally and technologically. Min-Ji Choe is the nominal leader of the local Barsoomians, a martian nationalist in an on-again-off-again relationship with Lau. Scuttlebutt on the darknets is that Choe is an alias of an operative who escaped the Black Mars purge and is lying low. Cam Van is Lau's first ex-wife, who remained in business with him and moved to Black Eden a local year or so back in order to monitor his project. While very much interested in the applications in terms of technoprogressivism, most members of the community consider her a hypercorp apologist. She's also interested in the business applications of Black Eden itself. Lowland-Bear is the most prominent Neanderthals in Black Eden. A musician and story-teller by trade, he originally came to Black Eden to spread the story back to Moustier, and now he serves an almost "embedded reporter" capacity. Arza Katranjiev is the Argonaut's consultant who helps manage elements of Black Eden's infrastructure - and is widely thought of to be part of ISET, the equivalent of the Argonaut's intelligence win.

The primary hab dome of Black Eden is the size of a couple football stadiums, and completely covered over in solar paneling which provide a large portion of the power. The interior is lit by artificial lighting which cycles through comfortable patterns for humans and plants - often lending a mystic air to the lighting. The terrain is dual - approximately one half is rolling, hilly uplands with grasses and low shrubs, with the other have a light wood/garden of trees and foodstuff plants, split by a sizable river. Several smaller domes or structures ring the primary one, used for testing new technology, or acclimating new residents or animals. Currently there are plans to expand and assemble a second dome with new biome(s), such as a tiered "hanging garden" structure, or a savannah or river delta type one. Interior structures tend to be oddly geometric or arranged in fractal patterns by their guiding nanoswarms. The infrastructure of Black Eden is coordinated by a habitat ALI called "Eden", who operates as a direct coordination and management system to keep various sub-AI computer systems working in concert to keep everything harmonized. Technicians regularly service the system to prevent any errors which could disrupt the fragile environment. Black Eden supports itself via a mixture of Lau's extensive investment profile (run out of Luna) and the fact that he owns or co-owns several valuable patents or other IP in the Planetary Consortium, and occasionally the scientists there consult on various projects - their latest example being the Dryad. Other raw materials are gathered by very slow collection of drones or nanoswarms from the Utopia Planitia region as needed. Black Eden also sees regular visits from passing Nomad clans, who trade raw materials for food, entertainment or technical assistance.

Plot Hooks:

• Cam Van succeeds in talking Lau into turning Black Eden into a partial resort in order to fund expansion to a second dome. This leads to cultural clashes between new temporary visitors and many of the long-term residents, including ex-militant Min-Ji Choe. 
• Eden is not actually an ALI, but is an AGI system whose complexity is not known to the wider world. They may even be a TITAN or Promethean fork running an unusual social experiment on the residents.
• An expert on TITAN nanotech has gone on the run and decided to hide out in Black Eden - now one or more covert groups must infiltrate the settlement to interrogate or capture them. 
• Neanderthal purist organization "Wrong Turn" has infiltrated Black Eden with weapons and is planning to stage an attack to prove their "superiority" over Homo Sapiens. 
• A Barsoomian "terrorist"/zone runner/defaulted indenture or some other form of "criminal" has hidden out at Black Eden, prompting a confrontation with the local Utopia Rangers - who may be varying levels of friendly or corrupt.