Alpha State
This game system, and the setting in which it takes place, are both in active development. Everything on this site is subject to change. Please hard refresh pages when you visit to ensure you're viewing the latest versions.3.2 - Shelby
One of the oldest exterior districts on SB65, one of the most legendary free zones in the cyberstar wastes, Shelby is a place of contrasts. Here is one of the places where you're free to be yourself, but you might be more vulnerable to power because of it. Technically anyone here can earn their way to a better life, but most die in the process. It's glittering darkness; one of the last places you can find some kind of freedom, and it'll probably eat you alive.
Shelby is easily one of the largest free zones ever, and it's got plenty of different places between its borders. Most of them are fairly standard for any free zone, but like any other Shelby also has famous places that stand out. Places where famous or infamous things happened, places built by people that everyone knows, places that built their own reputation one cycle at a time. Almost anybody who lives in Shelby knows about these places.
Armitage Canyon
Near the outer edge of Shelby, there's an empty space of three missing habhexes. Fifteen years ago the space was just another part of Shelby, just as densely packed and teeming with life, until a systems analyst named Trevor Armitage saw an anomoly on his morning datasheet. He recognized a power fluctuation caused by locals tapping into the grid. So Trevor, per his job description, purged the malfunctioning habhex so it could be replaced. When he saw the malfunction was affecting two adjacent habhexes, he purged them too.
Inside all three habhexes, airlocks slammed shut and anchors unlatched. The entire structure groaned. Shelby being Shelby, the interconnected latticework of civilian construction up top held for a little while as people ran screaming for safety, but it only held for so long. Within minutes, centrifugal force of SB65's rotation ripped the flimsy construction apart as the habhexes were pulled down and out. They slid free of their moorings and out into space, still mostly full of people, including the civilian construction still on top of them.
That was the start of the Armitage Riots.
At first people wondered if something had gone wrong, but when they found out it was just some low-level exec's morning data check before he'd even had his coffee, they snapped. Most of the district was on fire by the end of the day, and the riots spread into surrounding corporate districts. SBPI initially tried to contain the rage, but then gave up and let it burn itself out for a while, until they came rolling back in full force to put the crowds down. In the meantime, some enterprising cyberpunks had found Trevor Armitage, brought him to the site, and tossed him down into the canyon after his victims.
The riots lasted weeks, even once they were contained to Shelby. Cyberpunks and gangsters fought cops openly in the streets, Shelby shrank in some areas and expanded in others. When it was all said and done, almost thirty-two percent of Shelby's residents had died. Think about that next time you look at its population numbers. Since then Shelby has steadfastly refused to allow any corp to replace those three habhexes. The canyon is a scar that reminds people of their place in the galaxy, and what corpofucks really think of their 'citizen consumers' when it comes down to brass tacks.
There are a few bridges across the canyon, built by locals. Mostly they exist because it's a pain in the ass to walk all the way around, but many of the bridges also include some type of memorial to the people lost that day and in the riots afterward. Along the edges of the canyon, personal construction is starting to lean out over the edges of that endless drop, but otherwise the canyon remains a giant empty space where people once lived.
Club Commodore
One of the most famous speakeasies on SB65, Club Commodore is often the first icon people think of when anyone mentions Shelby. Older even than the free zone that sprang up around it, the Commodore is a massive frame of steel and glass shaped like a burning fire. It was built by Devon Strate, who at the time was a member of the NeuroCorp Board of Directors. Devon built himself a glittering bright office, which he intended to outshine everyone and everything in the galaxy. The entire structure is built to reflect and magnify the lights inside, turning it into a massive glowing sun in the midst of a dark city. Devon made it as bright as physically possible.
Unfortunately for Devon, he was also an unrepentant prick. If his gaudy eyesore of an office wasn't problem enough for the people around him, his board authority that guided NeuroCorp to ever-worse atrocities just pushed things beyond any tolerable level. Devon, along with half the other members of the board, ended strung up by his feet, dangling high above the deck plates of Thomas Street. The Shelby Riots were short, but once they ended everything had changed. Medjine Fabre, one of the most prominent leaders of the people who declared Shelby a free zone, claimed Devon's gaudy office for herself.
In Medjine's hands, Devon's office became a speakeasy. She called it Club Commodore, for reasons she never articulated, and she turned it into a center of the district. Here, no conflict was allowed; Shelby's first neutral territory where gangs could meet in relative peace. That doesn't mean they don't get gunned down outside the club, but that's a different problem. Medjine also turned the lights down a bit so, although the club is still bright, it's not such an eyesore to those around it. She also rebuilt the interior, structuring it as concentric circles of tables and booths around a central stage where musicians perform.
When her son Gaspar inherited the place, he continued Medjine's tradition of protecting the Commodore's neutrality. He also updated the structure, lowering the central rings and raising the outer rings, while raising the performance stage a bit, putting it at the center of all attention. This also had the convenient effect of making Gaspar's personal boothe, right at the base of the stage, the most private public place in Shelby.
These days, the Commodore is where everyone wants to go. Gangsters hold meetings here, celebrities make public appearances, even corporate execs enjoy having illicit evenings at the most public speakeasy in the galaxy. Up-and-comers know that if they can just get into the Commodore, they'll have it made. The place has gotten to be so popular that getting in can be difficult; the line outside the door is always ridiculous. The real dream, though, is to be one of those people who get to walk right past the line, through the doors, into the glittering space that is Club Commodore.