Mars City Shadowrun
upper city
Ritzy fancy-land. The kind of place where the cops actually come when someone’s breaking into your house. They even have trees and grass in the parks, there. Crazy, right?
Most of the people who live here are the really fancy-types. High-end people with expensive accents who eat real food. Mostly they are corp-, government-, or organized crimeboss-types, with a fair sprinkling of celebs trying to get a jump on the burgeoning Martian social scene.
There is also a growing middle class, as the economic situation on Mars trends further away from it’s early feudalism, and back towards the capitalist dystopia of Earth. They mostly live out at the edges of the upper city, or in the more peaceful organized crime controlled zones of the undercity. There are also some suburbs/exurbs outside the city bubble, for those who want a little more peace and quiet on their weekends. Of course, this leaves them more open to raids from any number of Wasteland organizations, so most are heavily foritifed and guarded, using up most of the resident’s incomes.
Mostly, though, the upper city is glittering towers, thrusting high into the sky. No-one seems bothered by the phallo-centric nature of the architecture. The tallest even exit the bubble-giving an impressive view of the surrounding environs, no doubt, although those levels are exclusive executive suites, not open to the public. Transportation is provided by maglev train, as well as a variety of bus, taxi, and limo services. Most exec’s travel by helicopter or hovercar, although some still prefer ostentatious groundcars.
The upper city is well patrolled by both city police and special Lonestar squads, who take the special cases off the city cops’ hands-this includes most shadowrun investigations. The upper city is connected to navgrid/gridlink, and has a huge array of camera and sensor systems designed to quickly detect criminal activity, as well as known/wanted criminals, and alert the relevant authorities. Anyone trying to move around for long in hidden mode is likely to be stopped and questioned, if not summarily detained. Runners need to be extra careful to make sure all their fake data is up to date (or their stolen ID’s and rides haven’t been reported), or else they face some nasty encounters.