The battles of the Second Corporate War have long since died down. And now the benevolent corporations are leading the survivors toward a bright, constructive future… But why, then, does the world divide into the Clean Zone and the Zone of Exclusion? Where is that universal prosperity? And why does the high Perimeter wall separate sterile corporate reality from the filth of bandit slums? Why do guards at checkpoints wear the logo of their corporation on their hearts, and desperate quick-response fighters renew the very same logos on the sides of their machines before every departure?
Whose gaze from the Other Side do they fear? Who do the people in the foul depths of the black sectors pray to—people who are barely distinguishable from beasts? What values remain in a world where trust has disappeared forever, and only cunning and strength are valued?
Welcome to the “wonderful” world of the future—with sectors for the elite and the discarded, with doctors selling organs, with deranged scientists creating deadly viruses. A world where there’s nothing left but calculation. A world where everyone is on their own.