*Spoilers*
When I left off yesterday, I was talking about the corrupt priest’s involvement with the corporations. The small village (named Bedford — a town near the real Pittsburgh) is agricultural based with the chief export being cotton. Clothing being needed by everyone, they do get good deals from the Church and the corporations (though the corporation trades are secret). Knowing this, it’s easy to see the corporations already have a foothold in the city, but to get involved directly with the local cult… they needed a little something more. Rephaim (the undead) technology.
For the simple back story explanation I chose: on a routine (illegal) sweep through the fringes of Dead Zone Gamma, a corporate team managed to secure a young vampire that was in the midst of testing some new weird science he created. The tech was supposed to make his undead servants more resilient, powerful, and longer lasting — while also providing some regenerative powers. Whether it had any effect on the undead is unknown, but the scientists were able to come up with some new uses for the stuff… specifically in corporate super soldier programs. But, those will be for a later date…
Right now, this small village of Bedford is the site of a smaller experiment — using the tech on plants. What the scientists hope to produce is a far superior strain of cotton, one that could provide cheap, flexible and powerful body armor — body armor that would look like everyday clothing. Again, it’s a minor project, but one that could have some very good results. To further the tests they’ve also insisted that some of the food crops grown for local consumption use the tech — to see if it gives them better yields (and what the effects of human consumption might be, but the villagers won’t know about that).
The corrupt priest and his disciples are essentially the head figures of the village, the six disciples being of the six head families. The people follow what they say for the most part, though most people are not as zealous in their worship to the Dark. The cultists see the corporation as a ‘brother’ in support of the Dark, they have no clue of the real motives or facts behind the tech given them, just that it can provide ‘miracles’ that draw in many converts.
And, that’s the basic interaction between the two enemy groups. Tomorrow I’ll (hopefully) have the next part… names and the etc.
