NationStates

1. Founders Tower and the Upper Ark
2. Airport
3. ASF HQ and The Divide
4. Shipyards
5. Container City
6. Foundry Pelga
7. Nuclear Reactor

The megastructure consists of a breakwater, which surrounds hundreds of artificial islands called "pelgos". The breakwater is made up of wave-absorbing ramps, which harvest energy from the ocean waves. The Founders' Tower lies at or near one corner of the Ark, but due to it sheer height it is visible from nearly every location on the megastructure. The vast majority of the Ark was constructed using a genetically-modified strain of coral called "Arkoral". Most of the Ark's collective mass lies beneath the surface of the ocean.

When the seas began to rise in the 2010s, the Ark became the only safe place on the planet. Expecting a mass influx of refugees from all over the planet, the Ark's Founders had the megastructure moved to a undisclosed location. The Ark briefly became safe, secret, secure, and self-sustaining. Even despite the relocation, however, large numbers of refugees managed to find the Ark in the 2020s. Many of these refugees were dangerous criminals, and many more had caught highly-contagious diseases.

These concerns did not outweigh the Founders' morals, however, and so these refugees, dubbed "Guests", were allowed into the Ark. The Founders suddenly found themselves in an emergency situation, with the Ark now being forced to support many thousands more people than it was designed to. Resource depletion quickly ensued, and the suddenness of the Guests' arrival meant that the Founders did not have time to design appropriate accommodations for them. The result seemed much like oppression to the Guests: they were forced to live in hastily- and poorly-constructed cities, shanty towns, and pelgos, and many of them were relegated to intensive physical labor to help keep the Ark running. The complete loss of contact between the Ark and the outside world in the late 2020’s did not help matters.

The Ark contained numerous technologies for harnessing renewable energy, including solar panels, an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion plant, underwater "Wave Turbines", and wind farms; by the 2040’s, however, all of these systems were either failing or already unusable. To keep critical systems powered, the Founders were forced to commission the construction of a nuclear reactor. Even despite this, virtually every resource on the Ark was rationed, with the Guests receiving the fewest essentials. It is this that has lead to the outbreak of this long brewing and perhaps inevitable insurgency.

ARK SECURITY FORCE (ASF)


Back when the Ark was a floating five star eco-resort and R&D eco-science park, it only needed a small corporate security team to perform risk management and VIP protection duties. But as the seas rose, and the trickle of refugees to the Ark became a flood, the Ark needed a police force. And then an armed gendarmerie. Ark Security has now expanded into a heavily armed counter-terrorism force.

Most ASF personnel have volunteered because they are convinced that for the Ark to survive, it must have peaceful order and conserve its remaining resources. Some are simply attracted to the Security's cause by the provisional allowance of an extra daily water and food ration, as well as better housing. Resistance provocations have forced the ASF to clamp down hard on the Lower Ark, which has lead to the Ark teetering on the brink of outright revolt.

In contrast to the Resistance, the ASF is known to have armor of a uniform style, professionally manufactured with well-maintained weapons, gear, and vehicles. Aside from a well trained professional ground army, the ASF has a number of fine tuned war machines. The ASF frequently deploy gunships, patrol boats, and even heavily armed cruisers and battle armor to patrol the waterways and skyline of the Ark. The ASF have a number of checkpoints and security stations set up across the entirety of the Ark, but their primary CP is the ASF HQ building and security tower built into The Divide, a a forty foot wall of concrete that separates the impoverished Lower Ark from the wealthy and affluent Upper Ark.

THE RESISTANCE


The Resistance is an organization oppositional to that of the Security that actively engages in combat in an attempt to contact the outside world and to escape The Ark. Members of the Resistance refer to each other using the moniker "brothers." The Resistance is led by Joseph Chen. They see themselves as liberators for freedom and equality, but the Security just sees them as terrorists.

When the Seas began to rise and coastal nations fell into panic, boatloads of refugees fought to find the Ark's secret location mid-ocean - only the lucky ones survived the trek. Initially, they were happy to have survived and gratefully accepted the cramped temporary housing, water rationing and dangerous maintenance jobs. But as the years passed, and conditions worsened, the Ark's new "guests" came to question the status quo.

After working under the harsh conditions for so long the refugees began to question the higher powers in the Ark, questioning if they really were attempting to contact the outside world, why the water, food, and power is rationed so unfairly, and why their dangerous work goes unappreciated. This rebellious thinking and acting aroused the suspicion of the ASF, and they began to crackdown on Resistance operations, only feeding the flames of the conflict, putting the Ark on the brink of a civil war.

The Resistance, lead by Joseph Chen, want to use the remaining resources on the Ark to contact the outside World and get help from there. If not flee the Ark completely. Or at least this is the majority goal. Unfortunately the Resistance has various ways of thinking and methods of action among Chen’s lieutenants. Most support Chen and his goal, while others have more radical ways about them. Flint Macdonald for example believes the Resistance should storm the Upper Ark, massacre the Founders, ASF, and the other bureaucrats, and the Resistance form a new regime and society of their design. Chen of course is aware of such dissident ideals, and while he acknowledges them as concerning and dangerous, he maintains only a united Resistance can stand against the Founders and ASF. Once they are gone, then the Resistance can choose their true path.

Unlike the well trained and heavily outfitted ASF, the Resistance is a cobbled together guerrilla force of untrained militia, rebels, and even thugs and gangsters. They’re clothing and gear ranges from everything to hockey masks and bandannas to homemade plexiglass shields, machetes, and third world armaments. Select operatives and lieutenants within the militia carry more modern and reliable weaponry taken from the ASF, though these are far and few.

COMMANDER CLINTON MOKOENA


Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1984, Clinton Mokoena enlisted in the US Marines at the age of nineteen. For twelve years he served the Marines and his country with dignity and pride. Mokoena saw active combat in Afghanistan and Pakistan and was also deployed in non-combat roles in Syria and Kuwait. His military career would come crashing down in 2015 after an incident in which three Pashtun children were killed. News footage of Mokoena gunning down three young Afghan boys during a raid on a suspected terrorist compound ensured his expulsion from the military.

Due to past service and connections upstairs, Mokoena was given an honorable discharge, much to the chagrin of the media and social activists. He moved to Los Angeles and took up working as VIP security for celebrities and business executives. He would later be contacted by Barbara Elmhurst, the spokeswoman and face representative of the Founders to take command of Ark security.

After the floods and the Ark was moved, Mokoena was designated as “Commander”. He organized the ASF into a formidable and steadfast security and police detail. And after that, a hardline and unbending anti-terrorist paramilitary cell. Mokoena and the Founders today are regularly at odds. While the Founders still believe compromise is an option, Mokoena does not. Despite orders from the higher ups to avoid lethal measures, Mokoena has directed his men to use deadly or crippling force in their handling of the Resistance and other dissidents. His fire brand tactics and no-nonsense military persona has lead many in the ASF to idolize him, while the Resistance loathe him. Mokoena is not entirely wrong in his accusations of terrorist and anarchists among the Resistance. Riots, beatings, death threats, and random arson at the hands of identified Resistance members has only strengthened his appeal to his men and even some among the Founders are starting to see his line of thought. Dissent and intimidation will not be tolerated.


”BROTHER” JOSEPH CHEN


Born in 1973 in San Francisco, Joseph Chen was the only child of Chinese immigrants. His parents died when Chen was only three in a car accident, and as a result he was taken into custody by his grandparents back in China and was raised in rural Wu province. He was accepted into a Chinese university at the age of seventeen but later would transfer abroad to a Japanese institution. Chen attained a master degree in civil engineering, however he also took a number of sociology and philosophy courses, though never acquiring a degree in this field.

Despite his deep patriotism for his home country, Chen left China in 2010 for an unknown reason and returned to his birthplace of San Francisco. In 2011, he joined the Ark project, his engineering and infrastructure expertise placing him as chief engineer. Chen would become well acquainted with Clinton Mokoena, the acting security chief who would become Commander of the ASF. From the beginning the two seemed destined to be archfoes. When the seas rose and the Ark was moved, Chen heavily advocated for taking in masses of refugees while Mokoena opposed this heavily. Chen preached against an isolated Ark, stating that contact needed to be made with the outside world, while Mokoena attacked this potential course of action as reckless and poorly considered. From the earliest days Chen denounced Mokoena as an ignorant elitist demagogue. Mokoena in turn has always denounced Chen as a starry eyed fanatic out of touch with reality.

Chen is a Buddhist and a vocal believer in Marxism. He in fact regularly quotes the Communist Manifesto in his speeches and posted articles. As well as the likes of Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, and Harold Laski to name a few. Chen for so long hoped that a peaceful solution could be found but has finally resigned that this is not possible. Setting aside his personal beliefs, he has fathered the masses and intends to liberate them from the unending squalor. Chen’s “no one left behind” philosophy and personal endearment with his followers has earned him the moniker “Brother Chen”. Some of the younger members of the Resistance call him “Father Chen” though Chen himself prefers “Brother”.


CHIEF OFFICER ERIC MASSE


Eric Masse, born in 2002 to a Canadian father and an American mother, is Commander Mokoena’s second in command and head of the ASF Special Response Unit (STU). His father was the chief biologist of the Ark’s aquaculture department while his mother was a sergeant in the early ASF prior to it’s later reformation under Mokoena. When Eric was twenty-one, he enlisted in ASF after his mother was killed when a shootout with a drug ring in near the foundries.

Masse showed exceptional skill as a marksman and in field tactics. He was well liked and respected by his peers and instructors. After the ASF “overhaul”, Mokoena handpicked Masse by name as his second and placed him in charge of the SRU. Masse is fiercely loyal to Mokoena and the Founders alike, his father in fact still a member. Despite allegedly having friends in the Lower Ark and even regularly voicing sympathy for the impoverished lot, he has shown to be unforgiving and even ruthless in his clamp-down tactics. Though not as hardline as Mokoena, Masse is willing to do whatever is necessary to stomp out the Resistance and ensure Ark security and order.


FLINT MACDONALD


Flint Macdonald, age thirty-eight, was born in Glasgow Scotland to a poor single mother. At a young age he regularly got into trouble, committing petty theft at fourteen and even stabbing a police officer who attempted to apprehend him. Flint was a mere teenager when the oceans and seas rose and enveloped the earth. His mother having died a year before from breast cancer, Flint fell in with a rather rough group of survivalists who eventually made their way to the Ark.

Flint has lived his whole life in the Lower Ark, mingling with drug dealers, smugglers, and sex traffickers even. When Chen first rallied the Resistance, Flint and his gang joined them. Chen saw what Flint was and knew what he was capable of, and yet he still allowed him among the ranks of the Resistance. Flint’s men are strong and loyal to their leader, and Flint has access to the resources of arms smuggling and pharmaceuticals. Every day nearly Chen finds himself questioning his decision to give a man like Flint Macdonald such a prominent role in the Resistance, reminding himself of the gains that offset the flaws.

Flint is a brutal and hardcore man and he and his “inner circle” have committed several acts of violence on their own to stir the resentment. He preaches that the answer isn’t leaving the Ark, but seizing it. The Resistance should storm the upper Ark, slaughter everyone in sight, and take control and distribute everything evenly across the Ark. His words are striking home with many in the Resistance, and while he voices his loyalty to Chen and his ideals, Chen can’t help but worry that Flint is laying the foundation to circumvent him.


BARBARA ELMHURST


Barbara Elmhurst, born in Seattle in 1980, grew up in a lower middle class family of four; herself, a brother, and her parents. She graduated from her local high school with top notch academics. She was admitted into Princeton University in 1998. She graduated from Princeton as a valedictorian and pursued further academics at Marshall Business School in California. Barbara ended her collegiate days with a PhD in Environmental Studies, a masters degree in economics, and an associates degree in business administration.

After finishing college Barbara took out several loans and dove into investing and became a major stock market player. She also started several small businesses and through clever marketing developed them into major interest firms. She rose through the ranks of splendor despite persistent rumors of alleged blackmail and underhanded business dealings. One tabloid even listed her as the “unconscious Miss Big” of America. By 2010 Barbara Elmhurst had a portfolio bulging with stock shares from major clothing and makeup brands to corporate farms and shipping industry. Elmhurst Mega Malls began opening up in every major city in the United States and Barbara was even supposedly considering a future in politics.

Despite her major investments in the corporate world Elmhurst also had donated large sums of money into new “green energy” sources and other enviro projects. She approached a number of likeminded philanthropy types who pooled billions of dollars and also received grants as well as under the table money from major scientific branches. She gathered together the best scientific minds in the nation and formed a conclave, and thus began the Ark project. An environmentally friendly offshore relocatable resort for the wealthy class to bask in “green splendor”.

Decades later Elmhurst is the unofficial leader and face representative of the Founders. The original wealthy class and scientific minds behind the Ark project. Of the roughly thirty members of the Founders Council, Elmhurst is the only one to make any notable public appearance and the only one known to all across the Ark, even the impoverished masses of Container City. Her face is seen daily on billboards and on Ark Web sites. She is collectively hated by the Resistance and even some among the ASF dislike her. Elmhurst is a bureaucrat to the core, and despite her charm, intellect, and charisma, she has a callous and self-centered side.

OOC NOTE
This is not the limitation of weapons available for players. This is strictly a listing of standard issue and the most common weapons found on the Ark. feel free to investigate other weaponry for your character if what’s below does not suit.

AR-15


This is the standard issue rifle for members of the Ark Security Force. Thirty rounds per magazine, interchangeable fire, dependently accurate, and customizable. Nearly every ASF officer is armed with this rifle or has been at some point. Though uncommon among Resistance fighters, small numbers of these rifles have been confiscated over the years from civilians and known Resistance alike.

AK-47


When refugees first poured onto the Ark by the day, thousands of these rifles were brought with them, be it by gangs, survivalist groups, or militia bands with refugees in tow. This is the go-to assault rifle for the Resistance. Though there are a wide variety of customized versions all across the Lower Ark, as well as other Kalashnikov model rifles. Including the smaller ASK-74U.

MOSSBERG 500 PUMP ACTION


The choice riot shotgun of the ASF. Though standard issue, they are not as common as the AR-15. Typical out of every five ASF officers, only will be armed with the Mossberg. Still they are reliable in both close quarters and open combat in the contained areas around the Ark, with six shots before reload.

SAWN-OFF TWELVE GUAGE


At least a fourth of Resistance fighters have a sawn-off shotgun tucked away in their duster or slipped into a hidden compartment in their breeches. These weapons are typically used as a last resort in combat and are also utilized by agents and infiltrators. Flint Macdonald’s men in particular are all armed with these and have on several cases turned simple protests violent by discharging close range at ASF personnel. A deadly choice as a backup weapon or sidearm.

M60 HEAVY MACHINE GUN


The M60 is typically used as a fixed gun by the ASF. The towers and walls of the Divide are lined with dozens of these HMG's, separated by coils of razor wire and cinderblock palisades. Occasionally they are brought into battle and used as emplacements for holding buildings, bridges, and even plaza type areas. The Resistance have a unique covet for these weapons as they are good for mounting on boats and in windows during surprise attacks. Extra food and water rations are even issues to those who capture them from ASF forces.

BARRET MA28A SNIPER RIFLE


Heavy duty, flexible, and reliable, the MA28A is used by the most highly trained ASF snipers as crowd control counter espionage and in intense firefights. A common ASF tactic is airlifting snipers to a notable distance and having them fire from helicopters at the enemy. This particular tactic has accosted the Resistance many fine operatives and they have still yet to find a way to reliable counteract this strategy.

43 9MM GLOCK


Standard issue sidearm for ASF officers. Nothing particularly fancy, but reliable and easy to carry. The Resistance also typically carry these as well as other sidearms, as when one runs low on ammunition simply relieve a fallen foe of his unneeded munitions.

OOC NOTE
This is a general description of standard day-to-day technology on the Ark.


THE ARK WEB
Much like the Internet of the early twenty-first century. The Ark Web is restricted to the Ark and it’s inhabitants and has no sort of connection to the outside world. It is maintained by fiber optic runners and towers located on the Upper Ark. It is predominantly a hub of commercialism for Upper Ark businesses and entertainment as well as online chat rooms and forums. It is painfully slow for the people of the Lower Ark, high speed connection being a luxury of the Upper Ark only. It is closely monitored by the ASF, this of course doesn’t stop hackers from breaking in and accessing it. There is also a “Dark Web” which is heavily used by he Resistance. Temporary chat rooms and “disposable web pages” overflow with anti-ASF propaganda. The ASF likes to maintain they keep a tight reign on accessibility to the Dark Web, but in truth they have little control over it.


DRONES
Drones technology, while not overtly advanced, is greater to that of the early twenty-first century. Small drones are used as aerial surveillance across the Upper and Lower Ark. Carrier drones carry basic supplies and tools across work sites between workers. The Resistance has been using drones to spy on ASF personnel and locations and also as mobile bombs.


CELL PHONES
A luxury mostly available to the wealthy class of the Upper Ark, all cell phones are carried by local towers constructed on the Upper Ark. like the web, the ASF monitor cell phone communications and unlike the web have a sharper gaze on them. Woe to the Resistance operative foolish enough to text his comrades outside of a code or acronym.


More TBA later.