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Technology:
For most of the world technology is as it is in our world, but that's changing. Ixion Energy has made rapid advances in programmable robots, producing a series of humanoid drones under the control of a single handler. This is how Houndmaster operates now, where in years past he relied on dirt cheap mercenaries from the Middle East and Africa. Prosthetics have improved radically behind the scenes and Ixion, a major employer of disabled veterans, is only too happy to provide them for their employees as part of their next generation health insurance package.
But all their advaces developed by an army of scientists and interns has been outstripped in a year by one little girl with a para-ability for creating machines.
Originally built out of a scrapped Ixion drone, Remix built Lincoln, a robot with an advanced AI system that has achieved a rudimentary sentience. She designed a software program built to evolve itself with new inputs and experiences, a form of rapid learning more sophisticated than current machine learning. The appearance of Lincoln has pushed robotics and AI forward by decades already.
Remix's intuitive understanding of technology allows her to build on and improve current tech, forcing it forward generationally, but she's not the only change happening.
(The drones and Lincoln were visually inspired by the MRVNs in Titanfall)
The Stone.
The Stone is a fragment of extraterrestrial material left over from the Chicago Explosion. Jettisoning alien particles into the atmophere in its collision with Earth, its responsible for the strange mutations running rampant through Chicago. And what power remains in it is a prize various organizations tore up Chicago to get their hands on, triggering the New Year's Day War.
Eric had the stone examined by scientists at Fermilabs, where they discovered it was extraterrestrial in origin and possessed of a kind ofenergy unknown to their scientific understanding. Dr Zamani, Eric's contact, could only describe it as 'evil'. Whatever it is, its a massive energy source and if its remaining power could be harnessed, who knows what it could do? Eric had used it to boost his connection to the fire inside him, unlocking new abilities as well as alien visions and thoughts.
It fell out of his possession after Houndmaster abducted Ayesha, offering her life in exchange for the Stone. Caught in an ambush, Eric was nearly killed and barely escaped with his life. Unfortunately, Houndmaster escaped with the Stone, to deliver it to his employers. Based on his tech, that employer was most likely Ixion Energy, which is somewhat confirmed with Julian Dodd telling Eric he had access to a revolutionary new form of energy.
