UCAS Sector

The United Canadian And American States The UCAS Sector Executive Jeremy Falloon Population 740,000 Human 65% Elf 12% Dwarf 8% Ork 12% Troll 3% Other 0% SINless Population (est.) 222,630 Per Capita Income 19,500 =Y= Below Poverty Level 36% Super-wealthy 1% Megacorporate Affiliation 32% Security Provider Knight Errant Education: GED 33% 4 year degree 26% Masters or higher 7% Regional Telecom Grid NA/UCAS-WE Opinion-Editorial by Sister Sarah; Street Samurai Fort Freedom How would I describe the UCAS Sector? A fort on the edge of civilization, a last refuge for the weary and the oppressed. While surrounded on all sides by enemies, it still stands proudly as not only the first line of defense against our foes, but an example of the greatness of the United Canadian and American States The UCAS Sector residents, while often persecuted by the Native Nations, still stand strong and confident in the face of adversity. Always ready to help their fellow man, the UCAS people are here in Denver to help guide these new nations and, when necessary, step forward with the same fearless spirit that helped found this great land so many years ago. Here, near where America The Beautiful was inspired, the American people still stand firm and ready to work with our neighbors. Geographic Overview Within the Denver metro area, the UCAS Sector border follows Highway 76 from the northeast, angles over southwest toward the city center, and then follows Route 6 as far as Highway 70. At that point, the line heads eastward again, then cuts nearly due south along Highway 225 and Route 83. As a result of some bureaucrat's drek-brainer, the UCAS Sector includes a non-contiguous area in Denver's downtown core, bounded in part by East Colfax Avenue, Pennsylvania Street, East 18th Avenue, and 17th Street. Down south in Colorado Springs, the boundary follows Route 2A to Intercity 25, and then heads east along the old city border. The UCAS (the U.S. at that point) was the first of the Treaty of Denver signatories to establish an autonomous sector and hide behind walls. Literally: a wall more then 75 klicks long marked the original border of the U.S. Sector. Several "adjustments" occurred between 2018 and 2055, and so the current borders no longer match the original line of the wall. The UCAS has managed to put to good use many lessons it learned in those bygone days. The UCAS Sector still protects its border with more klicks of wall than any other sector, including those hyper-paranoids in Aztlan. Throughout the Denver and Colorado Springs metro areas, a 6-meter-high wall topped with razorwire and monowire and bristling with imaging systems and sensors - lines the UCAS side of the border, keeping watch over no man's land. Only the rural stretches of the line use standard fences instead of plascrete slabs. The UCAS doesn't mine the no man's land, nor does it mount manned patrols of the area during the day. After dark, guard-dog patrols cover the UCAS side. Along the stretches of fence away from the city, the UCAS heavily mines its portion of no man's land. Patrols on the UCAS side of the fence line putter around in GMC Banshee LAVs and YellowJacket rotocraft with non-standard armor. The LAV crews usually extend their surveillance range by hanging one or more drones in the air at all times. Entry and Exit Now for the really important part, children. A dissertation on all the little obstacles the sector's legal beagles have tossed in the way of ordinary hustlers just trying to make a living. I'm talking getting in and staying in, getting what you need once your here, and what happens to folks fool enough to get caught. Enjoy. So You Want to Live Here? The UCAS Sector prides itself on its "tight" borders. So it should seem fairly obvious that sometimes it's easier to slip the border and get in illegally than to muddle through all the picky, nagging datawork required to enter the sector on the up and up. First off, the only people who can enter the sector without some kind of pre-approved tavel documentation or visa are UCAS citizens. Even those so privileged (hah!) must undergo a rigorous inspection (and sometimes an interrogation) at the border checkpoint. Citizens of other nations must apply for various kinds of visas to get into the UCAS Sector - visitor's visa, student visa, work visa (the famed green card), diplomatic visa, and on and on. Each of these magic chunks of data requires an application to be submitted from outside the sector. If you're in the sector on a visitor's visa, say, and you want to upgrade to a student visa, you must leave the sector and apply for your brand-spanking-new visa from outside. This wonderful system makes it much easier for the government to keep you out once you leave, if that happens to run their program. This holds true even for citizens of countries such as Russia and the Pan-African Congress who don't normally need visas to enter the UCAS; the UCAS Sector makes itself a special case. According to the legal slugs, only UCAS citizens or residents with green cards can work in the UCAS Sector. Needless to say, megacorporations that qualify for extraterritorial status need not abide by this law. Convenient, isn't it? Relative Costs Seattle folks, scan this good: some of the prices on the table below are gonna knock your fragging feet above your ears. Before you start filling the Shadowland e-mail boxes with beefs and bitches, think through the reasons for the big differences in costs. Seattle's on the Pacific Rim, a trade center for drekloads of stuff and cred from the other Rim nations. In the UCAS Sector, most of the (legit) trade comes from the rest of the UCAS proper - a nation that's cutting-edge technically but has next to squat in natural resources. Keep those facts in mind chumboys. Politics By: Mother Jonah Keeping faith with the grand tradition of North American democracy, the UCAS Sector holds free, and fair elections for its own local Congress…hah. Wrong. Don't we all wish, my children? But the UCAS Sector has even less real democracy than UCAS proper; in UCASec, they don't even bother with appearances anymore. Anyone out there remember ancient U.S. history? (Anyone out there ever read any history? Or anything? Literates are a dying breed in this sound-bite, dataflash age. <sigh>) The old American colonies, before they became a nation, danced to the tune of a British governor. The UCAS Sector works something like a UCAS colony, presided over by a commissioner appointed by the president of the UCAS. The current bootlicking toady, Jeremy Falloon, has held the position since 2060. He's the old man of the council, the senior most member and chairman for the moment. Originally, the UCAS government treated the commissioner as a nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives in EffDeeCee, allowing him to "attend" sessions virtually rather than physically so as not to take time away from his local duties. In 2037, the UCAS government (in its infinite wisdom) changed this policy, and so the UCAS Sector no longer has representatives in either House of Congress. Not much chance of a Tea Party or a Revolution, either; the phrase, "no taxation without representation" has too many syllables for the average sector resident to understand. On the other hand? As Commissioner of Denver and Council-Member representing the UCAS in the FRFZ, Old Man Falloon has absolute executive power, answerable only to the President of the United Canadian and American States. He can be recalled by Congress, but they really, really don't care. Nobody can make a difference. Vote for Nobody. - Campaign poster seen recently In the heart of the UCAS Sector Legalities Weapons Anyone intending mayhem or even a little intimidation in UCASec should think twice. All weapons-related offenses in the sector draw the same punishment as federal crimes, which carry higher penalties and are more stringently enforced. In the sector, all weapons-including such innocuous utensils as knives with blades longer than 12 centimeters-must be licensed. Mindbenders, Legal and Otherwise Any drug or other substance that is even mildly physically addictive, as opposed to mentally "habituating" (to use the appropriate psycho-jargon), is federally controlled. This means only a government-licensed doctor can prescribe any or legally obtain it. In fact, the UCAS Sector government buys clinically pure cram from time to time; it's prescribed for terminally ill patients to help ease their last nasty hours. Additionally, in recent years the Sector government has cracked down on BTLs after a number of deaths from Cal Hots and smuggled shipments of low-quality merchandise through the other sectors. About the Badge Knight Errant Security Services Denver, a wholly owned subsidiary of the very same Knight Errant most of us know and love, enforces the law in the sector, and a division also handles border security. Even though the local badge is officially independent of its parent corp (an arrangement that allows for a much closer liaison between Knight Errant management and the Sector Commissioner's office), any number of physical and personnel resources are transferred regularly between the Denver organization and any and every other Knight Errant operation in the world. Knight Errant Denver also has a sweetheart deal with the UCAS Armed Forces; Knight Errant offers employment to any military personnel who lose their army berths to organizational changes. (The deal essentially legitimizes personnel transfers between the UCAS military and Knight Errant). This also means that your average KE trooper may not be a donut-eating caricature as seen in the trids, but a hardened veteran of the Desert Wars or some other hot spot. Crime and Punishment The following table and accompanying notes show you, in a ni-i-i-ce convenient format, what gets you in drek and for how long (or how much). Scan close, boys and girls. Intent and Use The UCAS Sector is the only part of the Free Zone that makes the ludicrous distinction between "intent" and "use". I offer the following definitions for your enlightenment, copped from a public source. Use covers any use of a weapon against or in the general vicinity of a living target or public or private property. It is not necessary to prove intent to harm for this offense, only use. Neither must harm have resulted form use of the weapon. Intent covers any use of a weapon explicitly intended to cause physical injury or property damage, whether or not such injury actually occurred. Lots of words, little meaning. I much prefer the view espoused by Tir Tairngire and most other civilized nations, which is that if you used a weapon, you intended to use it (except in the case of accidental discharge, which wouldn't be prosecuted under the UCAS definition of "use" anyway). Legality of Cyberware Like most government slags in Denver, UCAS government slags want to know exactly who's got what under their skin. Therefore, they require all Class A and Class B cyberware to be licensed either upon entry into the sector or upon installation. Pay attention, children; you may not jander around with any unlicensed cyberware, no matter how harmless. Class C cyberware is right out of the brawl zone for anyone but Lone Star and megacorporate security personnel. It is a felony to install Class C or to have it installed. If caught, both the slag with the mods and the cutter who installed them get whacked with 15,000 nuyen fine for each and every Class C subsystem. Legality of Cyberdecks Just like everywhere else in the Zone, the UCAS government goons make you license all cyberdecks and Matrix software upon entering the sector (giving those curious individuals a chance to make sure your deck isn't stealth-rigged and leaves all the right audit trails). If you are caught in possession of an unlicensed deck or software chip, the laws let the sec-boys confiscate your deck and 'ware, as well as levy a fine of 2,500 nuyen for each item deemed in violation. (Lone Star counts each and every utility on your deck or in your possession as one item in violation. Depending on what you've got loaded, a single "icepick" deck might qualify as more than a dozen "items in violation" Big Cred, kids). And here's the real kicker, Because UCAS law distinguishes between possession and use, you get whacked with "items in violation" fines for both offenses. Using the icepick might cost you damn near a quarter million and put you in the can for six years or more. Controlled Substances Possession of controlled substances for personal use can be treated as a single crime regardless of the amount involved, or can be considered one "count" for each dose (depending on the type of substance). For example, the penalty for possessing a dozen California hots is usually 500 nuyen. Possession of 2XS chips, a deadly mind bender if ever there was one, might put the fine at 500 nuyen per chip. Trafficking offenses work the same way. A small-time chip-legger handling Cal hots might only get slapped with a fine of 1,000 nuyen, no matter how many chips she actually has in her possession. A pusher handling 2XS, however, faces fines of at least 1,000 nuyen per hit. Fines and Punishments Contraband Poss. Trans. Threat Use Intent Small Blade 100 250 2.5K/3 mo 5K/6 mo 10K/1 yr Large Blade 200 300 2.5K/3 mo 5K/6 mo 10K/1 yr Blunt Weapon 200 300 2.5K/3 mo 5K/6 mo 10K/1 yr Proj. Weapon 250 500 2.5K/3 mo 5K/6 mo 10K/1 yr Pistol 1K 2K 5K/1 yr 10K/2 yr 25K/3 yr Rifle 1K 2K 5K/1 yr 10K/2 yr 25K/3 yr Auto Weapons 5K 10K/3 mo 25K/2 yr 25K/5 yr 50K/5 yr Heavy Weapons 10K/2 yr 10K/2 yr 5 yrs. 7 yrs. 10 yrs. Explosives 500 2.5K/3 mo 3 yrs. 10 yrs. 15 yrs. Mil, Weapons 10K/2 yr 20K/2 yr 5 yrs. 7 yrs. 10 yrs. Mil. Armor 5K Ammunition 1K Class A Bioware 4K Class B Bioware 8K Class C Bioware 12K/3 yrs. Class A Cyber 5K Class B Cyber 5K Class C Cyber 15K Matrix Tech 2.5k 10K/6 mo Class A Equip. 1.5K Class B Equip. 3K/3 mo Class C Equip. 6K/6 mo Class A Cont. 500 Class B Cont. 1K Class C Cont. 25K/10 yrs. Offense Fine Sentence Arson 5,000 1 yr Assault 2,000 1 yr Battery 2,500 1 yr Extortion 2-3 yrs F. Confinement 2-5 yrs Fraud 2-5 yrs Illegal Entry 1-5 yrs Kidnapping 5-10 yrs Larceny(petty) 2-5 yrs Larceny(grand) 2-10 yrs Murder 1 30 yrs-life (no parole)* Murder 2 10 yrs-life Murder 3 2-5 yrs Negligence 1-5 yrs Rape 2-5 yrs Rape (statutory) 2-10 yrs R. Endangerment 5,000 10 yrs Solicitation 2K Trafficking 5,000 2-5 yrs Treason 10 yrs-life Vandalism 2,000 Accessory 20% normal Conspiracy 50% normal (*) Some jurisdictions still assign the death penalty for Murder-1, Denver does not.