u/Real_Ij

Pic is Lyn, one of last Worker partisans.

Part one here

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So, what happened after the human disappearance?

Gran Selon, Center

Being a mostly human dominated zone, with Drones mostly serving the humans, dependent on them. These Drones were unable to quickly adjust to post-collapse chaos, most lacking the ability to survive as well.

Gran Selon, North Wing

This place also sees little shift, as they had little human influence in the first place. Local crime powers rule like before. They were a kin to those of the West, but they remained a scattered, localized gang, when their Western counterparts evolved into huge, mafia-like syndicates competing for various profitable stuff.

Gran Selon, West Wing

The drastic shifts. Drones and humans were competing before in groups, anyone skilled getting in power. When the humans disappeared, one group moved quickly, that being Aldrich’s syndicate. This was a Drone-led one, but unlike many had ties to human-led ones. They would be quick in absorbing old human-led branches who lost their heads, with no clear boss. With this firepower, his syndicate starts a massive syndicate war. And after weeks of bloodshed, the West Wing would arise as a near single power for once. Most of the other syndicates are destroyed and absorbed, or made to flee to northern wings, losing all influence over the West wing.

This results in a conquest-dynasty-like structure, where a small gang reigns on top of the masses. Old loyalists got the most out of this share, forming a privilaged, political branch in this new order. They’d expand their influence over parts of the North (To eradicate rivals and gain cheap materials), and the Center (For advanced human techs). They also absorb many non-West wing Drones. Most would join the ruled class, but those who had position in the system before the collapse would still see opportunity (Like Flintlock or Mira). Aldrich can’t rule a whole society with his gang of mobsters forever. They’d form new ruling structures, creating the other branch of bureaucrats. Aldrich himself finds good use out of them, in developing better weapons, and making the masses obey him. He is now the ruler of all these Drones, and he seeks new power. Dictator-style. The old loyalists still enjoyed their status, and most didn’t notice the masses getting brainwashed into loyal pawns for the regimes. The installment of Drones wiped clean of all systems other than codes for processing orders and fighting damaged their status as the gang’s force, yet even this goes unnoticed. (They’d serve as both the normal police and thought police throughout this era, before landfall.)

But still, their status was firm, and the power game was ongoing. Until landfall.

Selonsk Sewers

Where the majority of anti-corp Drones were active before human disappearance. Back when the facility was fully functioning, they often carried out sabotages, and guerrilla attacks, troubling the corporate.

However, their numbers were greatly reduced after the facility partly closed. Some quit fighting. Others faced worse fate, those who stayed there. As the corporate had no use for the pipelines under corporate either, they simply blocked the majority of lines, with Worker partisans still inside it, and put Sentinels in there. It became a literal hellhole, and when the prosecutor eventually re-opened parts of it to supply the new factory works being done in secret, most of the troublesome Drones were already dead. Very few survivors, one being Lyn.

Selonsk

The city was already partly self-governed, so it saw little shifts. Although minor friction arose when supplies were cut and the heads disappeared, it was mostly resolved with the town developing rules of its own (More on that later). Occasionally venturing into the facilities for materials.

Prosecutor’s Manor

Not the luckiest place. When Selonsk’s Workers realized their oppressors were finally gone, one of the first things they decided to do was raiding this place. While the original goal was finding where their lost kins were sent to, the leaders quickly lost control of the excited crowd. They experience friction with the servants there, who were mostly loyal to the prosecutor, and believed everyone should keep doing what they did before human disappearance. This upsets the crowd, already full of robot adrenaline, and when a fight between two Drones from respective sides happens, it quickly turns into a mass killing. (Partly because they needed someone to unleash their anger, but the humans were gone) This was done in a more frantic state, and most of Selonsk’s Drones regret their actions afterwards. This is one of the major reasons why the town’s new rules arose.

Solver Facility

Built inside the facility after the discovery of Absolute Solver, it served as the local branch of Cabin Fever. All Drones tested positive for Solver within the designated sector were transferred here. (Mostly from Gran Selon) It also served the role of finding out the origin of mysterious things happening in the new genocide facility, as they suspected it was related to the Solver.

A few weeks after Nori’s sabotage of Cabin Fever under Cyn takeover. A similar thing happens here, but the impacts are far more fatal as they had less equipment in place. While the possessed Drone was eventually neutralized by a brave Drone and the crucifix patch, the facility lost its ability to function properly from there on, until the human disappearance. Most escaped with that, but little made through the DD attacks.

Landfall

The DD squad lands. Three, like how it should be. U, I, and their boss.

The pod itself lands in the abandoned Gran Selon North, and the killers soon found their way into populated zones.

To the North Wing, literal genocide. Their strongest forces were minor syndicates, and what are they against built-to-kill Drones? They quickly make up the corpse tower, one similar to the canon one.

To the West Wing, they run into harder resistance. Aldrich utilizes both WIped Drones and old syndicates to fight. With better tech, they cause bleeding, but that’s not enough. They take heavy tolls as well, and the expanding domain would shrink dynamically. This is also where the Bureaucrats win over the power struggle. They now have the war record, the only thing they lacked, and they proved to be more efficient than the old loyalists. Aldrich cannot tolerate deviations when outside odds are like this. He uses the bureaucrats to take full control of what’s left, making the loyalists feel excluded.

And, the scientist branch (A part of Bureaucrat one) that made the wiped Drones are now making anti-DD weapons, led by Dr. Flintlock. Someone curious about the origin of DDs, and obsessed over defeating them. This later influences a lot of things.

The town of Selonsk gets destroyed, with few managing to escape into the facility itself. They'd start New Selonsk there, but while the DD threat is reduced, new threats surround this newfound colony.

Gran Selon - Character Concepts

Gran Selon - Places 2

Redesign for SD-U