Cape Point | Living Spaces

Continuing our look at Cape Point in the late 2020s. The numbers on the left correspond with the Cape Point map listing, the letter and number in brackets [eg: (G3)] are the map grid references.

05. Mouille Point Secure Gated Estates (DX)

These gated communities are suburban housing developments surrounded by fences, tac-drones and cameras and have ubiquitous guards who patrol the streets, instilling a sense of security in the extremely wealthy residents, who pay substantial fees for the protection. The PLECs will fight bitterly for these lucrative contracts.

Rich drug dealers and cartel lieutenants have also begun moving into these developments, and bask in the glow of artificial respectability. There are many such gated estates throughout Mouille Point, Green Point, Three Anchor Bay, Sea Point and Bantry Bay. These areas, connected by the M6 and the M61, are simply referred to as The Points. There are branded security checkpoints on all entrance roads.

07. Waterfront Residential Marina (E1)

A landscape of condominiums, light apartment blocks, parks, fountains and private security 4x4s. Some areas are gated. Waterfront is home to what's left of the middle classes, as well as many Hub corporates. There are small (completely legal, completely safe, completely boring) street markets, roadside cafés, and schools. The south-eastern end is very heavily guarded to prevent violence in the docklands spilling into the area, and there are security checkpoints on all entrance roads. The Marina district operates under a siege mentality - cameras and acoustic gun sensors are omnipresent. Security contracts change regularly, with different PLECs policing the area almost on a weekly basis.

18. The Afrikaner Broederbond Enclave (C5)*

The original Afrikaner Broederbond was born out of the deep conviction that the Afrikaners has been planted in this country by the Hand of God, destined to survive as a separate people with its own calling. 'Blancheville' is the nickname given to this city block. Six fair-sized buildings with their connecting alleys walled, The Broederbond is home to a couple of hundred white people, ranging from infants to grandparents. The walls are sturdy and about 12 feet tall, with the outside decorated with graffiti, gang signs, and race-hate slogans. Rickety bridges lead from rooftop to rooftop, allowing patrols to travel easily from roof to roof. There are motion detector lights and alarms, but the Broederbond is a group of families, complete with children - it has no lethal defences, unless you count the residents.

55. Granger Bay (EX)

These exclusive, secure beach-front apartment complexes are what the sprawling, ramshackle favela slums of Brazil would look like if the residents had millions to design their homes, instead of using scrap plastic and plywood. There are also many expensive, secure private villas scattered along the waterfront.

56. Vanwelt Plaza (F3)

A private, high-tech franchise city-state with its own constitution, border, laws, cops, everything. Owned and governed by Vanwelt Technologies Group. An award winning pocket park graces the roof of the Plaza building. Vanwelt schools are renowned.

57. The Helix Court (F4)

Artistically twisted carbon nano-tube construct, containing apartment pods, hostess lounges, bars and cafés. Clean, subdued but filled with upper-class vice. Parts of the Helix Court structure are still being 'grown'.

58. The Protea Building (E8)

This is a very expensive and safe place to live. The Horizonville area, in which the Protea Building is situated, was built solely with intercon money. The Protea Building was constructed to handle a large amount of monied people who needed expensive apartments. There are a number of similar buildings in the area. There are also speciality shops, parks, leisure facilities, private AV pads, boutiques, vineyards and restaurants, department stores, a golf course, a maglev network and cable car, in fact, everything the hard working executive and their family may ever need, surrounded by winding avenues and lush vegetation with commanding views of the Cape Point bowl. You need a corporate employment number and a credit check just to enter Horizonville.

59. Iziko Skyline Towers (D6)*

The Iziko Skyline Towers are a set of three cylindrical buildings of stepped heights, ranging from perhaps twenty to thirty stories high and ringed with myriad small balconies, sprouting out of a multilevel parking garage (with it's own visitor's entrance, as well as a gated resident's entrance). 

It's easy enough to find metered street parking, and there's an elaborate granite stoop leading up from the sidewalk to the pedestrian entrance. A spot-lit slab of granite next to that entrance reads 'Iziko Skyline Towers' in an engraved script font, and features a stylised 'big city skyline' logo.

Inside, there is a security desk, dark granite flooring, a fountain with a little waterfall and real

trees in planters climbing toward the atrium windows above. Lots of low-slung divans and chairs, and even a little automated coffee bar off to one side. There are three short, wide corridors that each lead to a bank of three elevators - one for each tower. There is another vestibule leading to the parking garage.

Inside each of the towers there is a circular lobby in the middle, with a single set of large picture windows facing out over the city. The individual condos, along with the elevator shafts, form a ring around this central lobby. 

Each condo features one or more of the balconies seen from outside. The lobby's decor is similar to that downstairs, but on a smaller scale. There are more low-slung couches and tables forming 'conversation pits' here and there, giving the residents of a given floor a place to socialise with one another. The condos are entered via a slightly cramped, dim foyer that opens to a medium sized open-plan living room, which is nicely appointed and furnished - bamboo floors and some soft rugs here and there, a couple of curved, contemporary couches forming a vague yin-yang around a thick tempered-glass coffee table, vertical blinds drawn over a picture window on the other side. Big TV on one wall, and a dining table and kitchen with a breakfast bar on the other side. Tasteful art. A couple of doors here and there that lead to bedrooms and a bathroom. Peephole cams are mounted in the doors with a monitor screen on the wall to the right.

If you can't buy or bullshit your way into any of these premier establishments, a discerning punk can always hole-up in such grand piles as sunny, breezy Link Town, cosy Devil's Peak, sea-front Atlantia, or the fresh and always welcoming Warrens.

*with apologies to Richard Balmer for bastardising his ideas. Again. :)

Cape Point | Night Life

Continuing our look at Cape Point in the late 2020s. The numbers on the left correspond with the Cape Point map listing, the letter and number in brackets [eg: (G3)] are the map grid references.

23. The Drome (bar) (G5)

The Drome is the premier night spot for the fixers, street dealers, solos, cutters and the movers and shakers of The Hub's underground. A tunnel of brushed metal surfaces, cold blue neon, long landscape windows with metal strip blinds, awash in the harsh vibe of 'biz' set to a speed metal soundtrack.

28. Visage (nightclub) (E3)

Popular Photonic Wave club with pseudo 80s styling, built inside the defunct Traffic Department building. A dark cavern of dry ice, pulsing lasers, black walls with paint splashes, wonder-walls, chrome tubing, large dance floors, mirror tiles, worn red velvet seats and black ash effect tables and several bars with black gloss tops. The clientele are mainly poseur-types; women go for the classic tight black mini-dress, polished chrome is so awesome, there are glo-tats, light-panelled clothing and neon optics. Visage is staffed by classic 80s chrome sexy 'robots'. Some of the patrons (retros) are starting to go for the look too. The club is a real mix of Schotschekloof Filter players, the Bo-Kaap beautiful and Green Point slummers. Managed by a rictus-grinning, plastic-faced hyperactive calling himself Max Headfuck. 

29. Club Synapse (nightclub) (E6)

This converted warehouse is dirty, faded and dark, both inside and out. All the ground floor windows are boarded over and the upper windows have barred grills covering them. The Club Synapse sign was painted onto the building around 8 years ago, and years of acid rain have taken their toll. The once bright paint is faded and flaking. Kombinat foot-soldiers use the club as a pick-up joint.

The club is open 24 hours a day, with cycling staff shifts every 6. Stay in the club long enough, and you’ll notice the Punk & Bass play list runs on a loop. Security staff also operate in a shift pattern but they never seem to have a full compliment, so security is minimal and, very occasionally, non-existent. The place is regularly closed due to a shooting or stabbing. It is popular with the unemployed and shift workers and is only ever at one-third it’s capacity at any given time. There’s a 5eb entry fee, providing there is someone on the front desk to collect it.

Club Synapse is owned by Amadeus Burundi, a young and moderately well connected fixer who specialises in bringing those with a need together with those who have a solution. Amadeus rarely handles any tangible goods, preferring info and connections. He lives in a cramped loft apartment in Oranjezicht, near the geodesic, rather than above the club he mismanages. Amadeus is on good terms with the Kombinat.

30. Dawala Nights (nightclub) (I5)

Small Xhosa Trance club in a disused police check point that's been extended. Inside there is a gaudy animated holographic waterfall covering an entire wall, which only maintains the illusion of depth when seen from the front, and it doubles as the main light source. Popular with some of the more sociable tsotsi. All manner of narcotics are available here if you know who to ask.

31. Atrocity (nightclub) (G4)

This old shopping atrium has been converted into The Hub's premier Industrial Grind club. The dark interior is decorated with old medical apparatus, Geiger-esque furniture, sickly toxic coloured lighting that pulses through a series of grilled turbines in the ceiling. Body modified dancers gyrate inside dirty glass cylinders mounted on conduit covered metal plinths. Revoltingly exotic joy toys languidly splash around in shallow fluids, inside filthy horizontal tubes that hang over the dance floor and bar area. Biohazard symbols are projected around the main room, along with sinister Cthulhu-inspired symbols and images. Live grind bands perform sets on a grilled stage above the infamous mosh pit. Patrons openly flaunt body mods, scars, sickening tattoos, and horrific implants. Many wear masks and respirators, latex and rubber fetish wear. 'Slaves' on leashes are not uncommon. The club is designed to revel in an alien-ness, an otherness and body-horror. The owner (who prefers the term 'host') goes by the name of Tetsuo Lovecraft and he has large black almond-shaped eyes, pallid grey skin with implanted tubes and bearings underneath. His artificial hair is like the spines on a sick porcupine.

32. Eutectica (bar) (E2)

A reclaimed and modernised tea warehouse built of local stone, with one 3-storey wall replaced with smoked glass. Inside, the bar is spread over two floors and features laboratory style glass, metal and polymer surfaces, spill channels on the metal tables, beaker-like glassware, and brightly coloured vinyl upholstery. This is enclosed within unusual angles, hard shapes, spheroids and interwoven with carbon nano-tube helixes. A resident DJ handles the background music while holographic projections dance and shift the ambience in sync with the tracks.

33. The Athenaeum (nightclub) (H4)

This club's theme is exclusivity, power and wealth. The old Georgian exchange building is stylishly decorated with large, ornate gilt mirrors, monstrous leather sofas, heavy dark wood flooring, slate and granite slab tables, a dark marble dance floor, an oversized and overstated oak panelled bar, high backed chairs, lush red velvet walls and chandeliers. This club exudes decadence, old European quality and is very much about ego. Rich-kids hold court clustered in exquisitely furnished alcoves. Low level corporates come here to pose, boast and act like the mythical Eurozone power-players seen in the popular sims.

34. Brauhaus (bar) (F2)

One of the oldest public houses in Cape Point. Largely run down, the brickwork covered in gang tags, you wouldn’t know this was a bar if it wasn’t for the grime encrusted, flickering Carlsberg neon above the steps that lead down from street level. The upper floors are a mix of low rent apartments and dilapidated squats. The interior is decked out in a traditional bar room style - long laminated wood-effect bar with worn bar stools, table booths, round tables and chairs, a digital jukebox and various sports memorabilia. Three flatscreens are mounted above the bar, showing cricket, news, music or soft porn. The owner, Alzo, is a lethargic, wiry skinhead in his early 40s and can often be found reading a well worn bible, whilst taking hits from any number of bright plastic inhalers with Chinese labels that he keeps behind the bar. He carries a small supply of booze in case the PSA show up, but otherwise he normally supplies various recreational narcotics to his regular patrons.

35. The Five Flies (bar) (E6)

An older free-standing two-story building, its original purpose surely lost to the ages. A big red sign sprouts from a dirty gravel parking lot to proclaim the bar's existence. A number of vehicles, each one sadder-looking than the last, haunt the car park. 

A beaded curtain separates the entryway from the bar proper. Inside it's dim and seedy, and the air is a hazy pale blue from cigarette smoke. The cliché African theme permeates the whole room, with carvings of tribal statuettes and faded posters of various tropical paradises cover those portions of the walls that aren't dominated by eye-searing neon beer logos and ads for King Cobra whiskey. Ceiling fans with rattan blades rotate lazily overhead. A dust-covered plastic parrot on a little brass swing sits on the edge of the bar. An unplugged pinball machine sulks in one corner next to a dart-board that probably hasn't seen a game since the ANC years. Multiple TV sets mounted on the walls are tuned to some kind of brutal game show involving a family of five being chased through a maze by whip-snapping dominatrices with swastika armbands. Off to the side, a barely functional jukebox wheezes through a synthesised cocktail-jazz tune that's clearly intended to induce people to spend money to make the jukebox play something worth hearing.

From the entrance you can see the hallway that leads to the 'fragrant' restrooms, and two other doors that are marked as private. Etta, a mute, skinny, African barmaid with a shaved head, a limp, and a complexion like a grapefruit, hobbles here and there, delivering drinks and scooping up empty glassware where appropriate. On the opposite side of the room, the bar is tended by a huge white man called Brian, bald-headed with a luxurious moustache, a cut off rugby top, and crude, matching oversized cyberarms. And yes, there are way more than five flies in this place.

36. Third World War (nightclub) (F2)

A reclaimed 3-storey office block squeezed between other buildings. The ground floor is painted in a garish camouflage pattern with the name of the club in peeling white military stencilling. The door staff wear olive drab flak vests and night vision goggles; all graftees. The interior is clad in bare concrete slabs, each baring a variety of damage, including bullet holes. Dented metal panels painted in flaking military greens act as tables. Smoke machines enshroud the club in a misty, noisy haze. On the walls there are tattered national flags and large polymer screens showing silent footage of combat - GEVs, swarming drone attacks, burning suburbs, AV gunships in formation, convoys of motorised infantry and tanks, tac-nuke strikes, deltas carpet bombing villages, PA suits hitting a mine field… Animated holos of mushroom clouds detonate in time to the music. The club is renowned for zone-dancing. Third World War is suspected to be part of the Njombo Cartel's portfolio.

37. Rafiki’s (bar) (H2)

This long, dark, narrow space carved out of an old, corrugated polymer industrial unit is a haven for serious wirehead addicts and braindancers jacking illegal sims. There is no bar as such in this neon-tube lit ‘tunnel’; refreshment needs are catered for with a long row of poorly maintained vendomats. Seating is a ramshackle collection of decommissioned office chairs rescued from dumpsters, old car and AV seats and a scattering of disjointed plastic tables. The whole place reeks of ozone, nicotine, teenagers and hash. 

The owner, Rafiki, is a 25 year old hormone locked mixed-race asexual (appearing to be 14 and hauntingly feminine) and a hardcore button-head. They have an office at the back that consists of polymer lean-to’s attached to scaffolding rods with industrial adhesives. They’ll let you store stuff out back, no questions asked (Rafiki’s too lethargic to go and look at what you’ve stashed). Rafiki will accept payment in stimulants if you’re strapped for cash. Rafiki deals in info, sim-stim and softs.

Its rumoured that Rafiki has acquired a 'SQuID' (Superconducting Quantum Interference Detector) on the black market; US Navy surplus; used in the war to find subs and suss out enemy cyber- systems. Visual memories, passwords, key-phrases and the like can be extracted using Rafiki's tweaked SQuID.

38. Storm (nightclub) (FX)

This purpose-built, pale, three layered structure is constructed to withstand the coastal weather fluctuations, being situated as it is toward the far end of the docks where they meet the sea wall. Each layer is separated by glowing blue neon. A simple chrome plate by the entrance bares the name. The thunderous base the club is renowned for can be heard well before you get there.

The inside is dark and steel grey mixed with a variety of blues. Lighting consists of dimmed white light mixed with flashing blue lasers and randomly strobing UV. A huge polymer wall-screen shows images of thick, rolling clouds and stormfronts. Some of the interior walls are slabs of clear or dull transparent acrylic sheet with down-lit water flowing between them. The foyer features wild fountains, as do the washroom areas. Mounted above the dance-floor there is a crackling Faraday cage (which tends to mess with cheaper implants and cell phones). The musical flava here is Euro-Ziet. Storm is famous for it's wildly dramatic foam parties.

39. Apartheid Union (bar) (J4)

Located on the first floor of a poorly built apartment building on the edge of the Woodstock PeeZee, that dates back to the late 1990s, Apartheid Union squats above a grocers shop, a burger hatch and overcrowded flats. You have to enter the noisy building to climb the stairs to the bar. 

The first thing you notice when you pass through the leopard print curtains is the thick pot-haze that hangs in the air. Beyond the smoke, there is a small bar, painted in black, green, yellow and red stripes, plastic furniture liberated from a defunct fast-food joint and garish (but sticky) lino flooring. 

There's a large well lit fish tank dominating one wall, replica Zulu shields and assegai on another and a glowing plastic statue of Nelson Mandela healing a blind woman. A tattered poster of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, resplendent in purple, smiles down from behind him. The guy skinning up behind the bar is a thin, drawn, bored-looking white man with thick dreadlocks and red ringed eyes. This is Snowcat, the owner and sole staff member as well as the self-appointed chairman of a growing, multicultural group of anti-corporate dissidents who long for a return to the optimism of the early ANC years. They get misty eyed singing reconciliation songs from the 90s.

40. The Factory (nightclub) (K6)

The original building was a small medical centre, but has been converted to house The Factory. The interior is tall and dark, with exposed steel girders painted with hazard stripes and smooth concrete floors. Orange hazard lights spin in the smoky haze. Spark emitters shower glowing orange rain over the crowd. Several deactivated industrial robots stand in salute above the dance-floor. Every few minutes, a large, dirty yellow spider-form robot descends with a pneumatic hiss from the roof, flashing lights on the tips of it's limbs, before being hoisted back into shadow. The entire floor space is the dance-floor, the bars being set flush with the walls. The vibe of the clientele is 'punk-chic' - military style, epaulettes, thin ties, short hair, almost fascist-style fashion. The music played here is a clever hybrid of Electropunk and Ambient Mood-Swing. The club is currently suffering from gang activity, drug dealers, weapons and organised criminals. Another place eclipsed by a geodesic.

41. House of Blue Lights (bar) (L10)*

Where do you go when you absolutely need to guarantee a little privacy for a discussion or a meeting? The front room of The House of Blue Lights is a well-lit but windowless bar with exits on no less than three sides of the building. The Blue Lights does a decent business on the bar service alone. High class call girls with a variety of ethnicity's will be noticeable in the bar area. What separates it from other bars is that in the back area you can rent a guaranteed-private chamber for an important "hush-hush" business discussion. Simply approach the attendant at the entrance to the back area and:

A)Mention to him/her that you want to rent a privacy room, and 

B)Give him/her the "password" you want others to have to give him to be allowed to join you.  This allows parties to arrive at different times and makes it more difficult to figure out who is in what room.

You will then be buzzed through a locked door and can go through a hallway to the room in question. People are not allowed to languish in the hallway (the attendant has an indicator on his/her desk that illuminates when someone is in the hallway and only lets one person or party use it at once), so there isn't really a way to be sure who is in what chamber if you are trying to watch from the bar area. A typical chamber is a small, windowless room similar to a blue-lit train compartment. It can hold about six people. It is fashioned in seamless clear plastic over white acrylic and features two moulded benches facing each other. The benches are more like smooth shelves built into opposite walls, the idea being that there is really no place to hide a bug. Each chamber is insulated, acoustically deadened, and is fitted with a scanning device that illuminates a warning light if something in the chamber is transmitting radio waves. Each chamber is swept for items left behind or other tampering immediately after each use. In short, there's no way to access what is said or done here without smuggling in a recorder of your own. Yes, they have a ventilation system, but they use white noise generators to keep them secure.

The staff is friendly and pleasant overall and have had some training to spot ruses and con jobs aimed at compromising security, but there are a few house rules that will get you thrown out if you don't observe them. They are posted just inside of each of the public doors and are :

1. If you ask questions of the staff as to who is onsite or where they are or when they were here, you will be denied service and immediately asked to leave.

2. Absolutely no cameras or other recording devices are allowed. If you are seen by any staff member with such a device, you will denied service and immediately asked to leave.

3. Absolutely no designation or insignia tying an individual to a media organisation is allowed. If you are seen by any staff member with such designation, you will be denied service and immediately asked to leave. Sorry, open declarations of media affiliation undermine the confidence of the patrons.

In addition, people who try to loiter around the attendant's desk will be asked to return to the bar area. Although The House is a handy thing to have, the need for such privacy is itself incriminating to a degree.  Some corporations have listed being there as a fireable offence. After all, if you were completely loyal, what would you have to hide?  The PSA, (rightly) suspicious that criminals sometimes use The House for meetings and plans, may try to stake the bar area out, but there's not really a way to be sure who is meeting whom. The owners of The House of Blue Lights have successfully sued the PSA and ISS for harassment, and as a result they tend to tread lightly here. Unknown to the majority of patrons, there is a secure puppet parlour and conventional brothel operating on the floors above as a part of The House.

42. The Dispensary (bar) (H6)

You can't see the exterior for the years of fly posters and graffiti artists, so no one knows what this place used to be. This self-service bar is lined with refrigerated vendomats for a variety of beer brands, and legal narcotics dispensers. Soemtimes, there are less-than-legal drugs in the 'mats too. The interior is all reinforced coloured glass and steel frames, the armoured and branded vendomats giving the place a retro-orbital feel. The staff consists of the shift manager and the security heavies, who observe the bar through cameras from an armoured back room. Being this close to the Devil's Peak Projects can cause problems; there are far too many violent incidents here, and the PSA are getting pissed off. Whichever gang claims the bar at any given time is very protective of it. Security only have a remit to protect he stock and the kit. A lot of well-known Projects dealers can be found frequenting the bar.

70. The Looking Glass (nightclub) (G4)

Sizeable macabre-chic strip-club where the dancers perform segments of their routines behind a curved sheet of dark, smoked glass that functions like an x-ray screen. You will literally see everything. Pole dancers perform inside cylinders of the same material. Flatscreens flash up x-ray images, many sexual. The decor consists of deep reds and opulent fabrics. The crowd is a healthy all-genders mix, dressed to impress.

71. Neoshima (nightclub) (C6)

Despite the sensationalist name, the Neoshima is a relatively calm nightclub, catering to multi-national wage slaves in a contemporary Japanese fashion. Chic, Tokyo corporate styling with low tables, burgundy upholstery, chrome edges, curved couches, communal areas, panelled paper screens, idol singers, kanji neon, elegant hostesses and the ubiquitous videoke.

78. Marimba’s (bar) (X11)

Positioned where the M61 cuts through the Bakoven geodesic, Marimba's is a NoGo bar of some repute. As dangerous as it is to get here, the information regarding events in the Suicide District can prove invaluable. Marimba is the man in the know, although now he is in his late 50s, he's thinking of quitting and moving on. He is well in with many local gang lords as well as a number of veteran solos. The bar has a very relaxed atmosphere, despite it's location, and feels more like an informal gathering. Marimba serves his guests from his back-room kitchen. The improvised furniture is littered with bongs, hookah pipes, pills, derms and plastic cups of Marimba's notorious homebrew, which he stores out back in reclaimed 25 litre containers. The furniture is made from painted bottle crates, large cable spindles serving as tables, and beanbags made from packing material stuffed into heat-sealed plastic sacks. Marimba sells some extraordinarily potent skunk too.

*with apologies to the VtfE crowd for bastardising their ideas. :)

Cape Point | Retail & Leisure

Continuing our look at Cape Point in the late 2020s. The numbers on the left correspond with the Cape Point map listing, the letter and number in brackets [eg: (G3)] are the map grid references.

24. The Thirty Mile Mall (D3)

Vast sub-surface mall complex beneath Signal Hill, built and managed by the Zi Corporation. The largest international brands compete to bring Cape residents the very best in retail experiences. 

Note to PCs: you can't buy guns here because that's just silly. Pay a fixer or go to The Hoop for that. I hear Militech and Arasaka's RRPs are pretty good too.

25. The Hoop (mall/market) (L5)

The Hoop was the ultramodern shopping experience in 2013, but is now a chaotic, donut-shaped shanty-market amongst the shells of old GAP stores and DELL franchises. It was abandoned due to the rise of gangs in the area and the construction of the superior Thirty Mile Mall. 

They actually keep livestock in here. 

Imagine an old KFC franchise, full of chickens and pigs, guarded by tsotsi gunmen with AK-47s rail-mounting Nikon SOPMODs… 

The market stalls sell street food, RAM, bootleg entertainment chips, porn, cigarettes, booze, toiletries, used electronics, second hand clothing, knock-off handbags, crappy ethnic jewellery, goats, assault rifles, and much, much more.

The Hoop is also home to recent start-up, Interzone Private Investigations*. Ex-Infocomp employee, Hendrik Van Zyl, chose The Hoop as it was the only space he could get after Infocomp had shut down all his other avenues. His Infocomp contract terminated and with very little money, he decided to offer what he knew to paying customers. IPI's office is located on the second floor, in a cramped, dilapidated Tie Rack.

The Hoop's abandoned parking lot is the place to find Honest Andris' Motorama* - finest vehicle from Eastern Europe! Andris Ozols was an entrepenuer in Latvia until that nation was torn apart during a religious war a few years ago. He emigrated to the SACR, and is now dealing in inexpensive used cars from Eastern Europe. Deregulated environmental protection laws and vehicle safety codes make it easy to scrape them up to emissions and safety standard levels. Andris buys older ones for next to nothing, has relatives assemble working examples from the best parts, and has them shipped here to sell for a profit.

Andris himself is a cheerful, friendly man, but is a schemer. He has so far sold every vehicle he brings in, and his repair shop for these vehicles does pretty well too. In other words, he doesn't haggle over the price of his vehicles. He might take a trade, but only if he is certain he can sell the trade item for at least the price he would normally get on a car.  

Honest Andris' is a place for low-level PCs and NPCs to get some cheap wheels that won't leave them heartbroken when they get destroyed. He may also have tentacles in other businesses, like smuggling immigrants, drugs, or guns from Latvia. He may have contacts within the Kombinat too. These activities may make him somehow more useful to the characters than just as a used car dealer.

26. The Photonics Market (F6)

A bustling semi-permanent, shambolic street market with all

the very latest counterfeit big-brand electronics from around the globe. Also a good place to find illegal software and discounted ICE beneath the the colourful plastic sheeting. Repairs, fixes and repurposing services are all available here for a fee, as are CAD-lathe manufactured smart-guns and jury rigged UAVs. Numerous Chinese, Malay and Vietnamese chipstores. Prone to PSA raids. Also home to Bad Sector, a computer shop selling reconditioned hardware at knocked down prices.

27. The Medicine Market (J3)

An abandoned department store houses this biotech and pharmaceutical 'street market' over five packed floors. Counterfeit medicines, designer drugs created from research chemicals in back alley bars, bioware, dubious or reclaimed implants, cloned cybernetics and human body-parts, Sahel neurochem, unlicensed medics, black clinics, insane ripper docs, Thai DNIs, witch-doctors, sakawa medicine men, drug kitchens, prostitutes forced into servitude by ubicomp tracking as pervasive as any government SIN, and illicit tattoo shops. There are also stalls selling traditional remedies - herbs, roots, totems etc. Biocontrol would dearly like to nuke this place out of existence. Gang activity is commonplace here. The Warrens can be accessed through the building's basement.

60. Simsense & Sensibility (F5)

This converted low rise apartment building now houses The Hub's premier adult fantasy braindance experience. Although the squat, four storey exterior is clad in dirty pink and grey plastic, the laminated pale grey interior is extremely clean and fresh. Timed air freshening units spray exotic scents into each of the six suites. Black plastic pods line the walls like sarcophagi, each housing an oxidised coated-aluminium braindance couch with temperfoam inlays, pink plastic Takara-Tomy ‘trode sets and a sanitising wipe/contact gel dispenser. Tasteful, erotic images are projected at intervals onto the walls, while soft, romantic music plays quietly from hidden speakers. 

The six suites are large and spread throughout the building, over the first three floors. A small, discrete reception desk is set in a small lobby with no windows, and all visitors must be buzzed in by the receptionist who monitors the exterior with cameras housed in the building’s cladding. Access to the sim-stim pods requires 100eb per hourly session or 1000eb for a monthly subscription. Members can enjoy clean facilities, soft to very hardcore programmable fantasies, the post-’stim bar area (Afterglow) on the upper floor and a Hyperlife™ across the street. Long term members tend to be conservative-looking, corporate couples looking to spice things up in safety, or hygiene obsessives with a fear of human contact.

68. VR-X (H4)*

Virtual Reality Xtreme (The Vrex) - normally open 24 hours and targets teens to young adults as clientele. 

The front of the shop is a small open court with tiled floor and a few tables and loungers on which to chill out on while a game is in progress, or watch the tournaments on big hanging screens with a Coke and a hotdog; this part has the best lighting so you don't spill your sauce.

Past the food court's low railing is the darker games section - black and blue ceilings and carpets, lit aqua from all the screens, air full of the constant thunder of engines, gunfire and spell effects. 'Partial enclosure' type machines are laid out in rows, using polymer flatscreens that get the player into the action of the simpler, cheaper games to the front, followed by a central pillar about which are a series of 'dentists chairs.' Players with I/F ports or 'trodes can jack in here to join in worldwide VR-X game tournaments - the chairs are upright until game start, then straighten, feet towards the pillar.

There are some extra loungers around this section for observers - dedicated game screens for the current action are mounted on the pillar, skipping from view to view and scoreboards. Some of the 'larger' worldwide games even support commentator hook-up, with instant replays and media controlled camera views to get the most dramatic shots of the action for the viewers.

Past this section, in a quieter thinly screened off room is the netcafé aspect of VR-X. Dataterm like PC's with cheap connection rates for VR-X clients are available for those who want to jack their personal deck in and be guaranteed a good linespeed for the night- or just a safe place to get local information.

VR-X arcades are always under constant video surveillance, and offer free net views of the shop - ostensibly so worried parents can see what their children are up to. This surveillance heavy aspect to the place avoids a lot of trouble - anyone with a 'past' who doesn't want to be on camera goes nowhere near the place… unless they know the guy at the kiosk. If your face is no liability, the noise and complete focus on screens will keep anyone from noticing you're muttering darkly through your hotdog wrapper. They still have trouble with bullying issues and the odd desperate 'dorpher wanting to roll kids for their pocket money, which is generally handled by a security guard or two from whatever company is available locally.

Their most major problems are with net security - the constant effort put into maintaining line speed and the VPN lines to other continents make them an excellent conduit for fast, long range hacking. (There are the conspiracy theorists who think this is the whole point of the place, but as a franchise it's viable on its own, without criminal activity.)

*with apologies to VftE members for bastardising their ideas. :)

Cape Point | Governance & Infrastructure

Continuing our look at Cape Point in the late 2020s. The numbers on the left correspond with the Cape Point map listing, the letter and number in brackets [eg: (G3)] are the map grid references.

09. SACR Government House (E4)

Government House is the seat of the Republic's parliament and the heart of non-corporate power in The Hub. It is a network of adjacent buildings housing civil servants, MPs, security staff, PR teams, media-spinners, journalists, conference rooms, 'war rooms', medical facilities, AI consultancy suites, the Prime Minister's offices and residency etc. The area is sumptuously styled with the latest artificial landscaping and designed for maximum security. Impact barriers can be triggered to seal the area in a matter of seconds. A CRDF rapid-reaction Fire Force team with AV support are stationed here at all times.

10. Public Security Agency Central (E4)

The imposing main HQ of the paramilitary national police organisation known as the PSA. PSA departments are prefixed with a letter D. These are: 

D-1 (Patrol)

D-2 (Public Order)

D-3 (Organic Damage)

D-4 (Controlled Substances)

D-5 (Transmission Felonies)

D-6 (Health & Hygiene)

D-7 (Tacticals)

D-8 (Commerce),

D-9 (Traffic Regulation)

D-10 (Coastals). 

PSA Central also houses the recently arrested in holding cells prior to court appearance. PSA Central operates an administrative AI known as Hecate.

11. The Intelligence Directorate (E4)

The ID is the SACR's intelligence agency, with interests both national and foreign. The HQ building is a tall, but unassuming, Georgian-styled structure that belies the fact that the entire edifice is state-of-the-art. Many civil servants work here. Beneath the building lie miles of secret corridors, cells, labs, server rooms, interview rooms and much more. The external structure boasts it's own nano-immune systems and transmission screens. The whole smart-complex is monitored by an AI that calls itself Warden.

12. The Internal Security Services (E4)

This large, dark monolith is home to The Internal Security Service, the city’s equivalent to Special Branch or the FBI, charged with combating terrorist organisations and reducing the power of the criminal gangs. It is corrupt at virtually every level, and does not actively pursue the major criminal cartel. Even when it hasn’t been bribed into inaction, it is usually hamstrung by politics and infighting. The ISS controls the city’s main counter terrorist unit, OSEC (Operations/Security), and has superior net operatives to the PSA. It theoretically weeds out corruption in government and the PSA, but in reality it ignores it until it becomes a problem. The ISS spends a lot of time stamping down on pirate media, mainly because they themselves are a major target. The ISS is more willing to stamp down on the urban poor and general citizenry than on those that covertly fund it's activities. 

The hacker collectives are beginning to suspect that the ISS possesses an illegal undeclared AI of considerable power (Daedalus). Given the ISS’ reputation for flaunting SACR law, the idea that it could withhold the existence of an AI is not hard to imagine. 

13. UN Biocontrol (E4)

The local headquarters of Biocontrol, the descendent of the old World Health Organisation. The structure is a large, stark white, cylindrical tower with the UN blue flag logo and the organisation's name in grey running vertically down the building. Biocontrol work closely with the SACR Government to tackle epidemics, research, perform contingency planning, health education, suppression operations, disease control and offer cutting edge laboratory facilities. There is a lot of work to do in the region following the horror of the Third World Emergency.

14. UN Protocol (E5)

The regional headquarters of the globe's largest legislative organisation. The site consists of three matt black connected towers with UN blue flags flying near the entrance, the organisation's name displayed in silver Times Roman on a black marble menhir, with the UN globe and laurel, also etched in silver. The grand entrance hall and reception of the structure is clad in black marble. Protocol monitor transnat activity, as well as each of the regional governments. They are particularly keen on monitoring the IOS, as they have no official facilities within that particular polity. Protocol sometimes use the Pan African Defence Force as peace keepers across the south and west of Africa, which causes a great deal of tension in the region when they are deployed.

15. Consulate Square (E4)

SAFS Embassy - The South African Free State maintains an embassy in the SACR at great expense. This failing state is struggling to stay afloat and it is only a matter of time before the transnats take over, the IOS or PAU invade or Protocol declare the State invalid and divide the territories up. The staff here are fully aware of the state of their nation, and are only concerned about maintaining their position and not being sent home. The SAFS flaunts it's covert operations within the SACR like a nation with nothing left to lose. Perhaps they are attempting to goad the SACR into a full scale invasion of the State…

PAU Embassy - The SACR and other SA states are riddled with agents of the Pan African Union, a pseudo-super-state, headed by the recently industrialised Tanzania and their allies. The PAU are an expansionist, elitist club, backed by a shadowy group of corporate moneymen who are only interested in developing and growing the marketplace for their companies' products. 

The PAU have been a problem for the SACR since the secession of hostilities at the end of the Third World Emergency in 2025. The embassy for the Pan African Union is monitored continually by both the ISS and the Directorate. The ISS are suspected of taking financial incentives from the PAU Diplomatic Corps to turn a blind eye to their political activities, and the influence they exert in The Hub. The Directorate finds the very presence of the PAU within the capital to be distasteful. The wider area around this building, and The Hub in general, is steeped in old Cold War style spy activity.

Chinese High Commission - A nest of spies, corporate developers and moneymen. The Chinese are commonplace throughout the continent, snapping up resources and tapping burgeoning markets. Weapons deals are still the most lucrative form of trade for the Chinese. The mighty Zi Corporation seems to be gaining greater control of the Commission staff as time goes on. There has been a huge amount of Chinese influence (and money) in the SACR in recent years, something the Europeans and other Pacific investors are keen to change.

IOS Embassy - A small, converted ministry building houses the embassy of the Incorporated Orange States, the Afrikaans-Transnational fusion that has the Western Cape so on edge. The States are governed like a series of subsidiaries, with the IOS Central Government as the parent company. Corporate entities flock to the region tempted by weighted incentives, lax legislation and a free market place. The IOS regularly antagonises the PAU member states, especially infosocialist Angola. This creates tensions for the SACR, who are trying to pacify the border regions and suppress the smuggling rings operating there.

US Embassy - A half-empty shadow of it's former status. The building is in disrepair and what little of it that is still in use is covered in advertising of all kinds, including AR. The US Embassy exists simply to make money. The minimal staff are little more than wily fixers these days. Rumours abound that a brothel operates in the former hospitality annex on-site. It is also a safe haven for US nationals operating as mercenaries across the south of the continent.

16. Cape Point Central MagLev Terminus (G3)

The first thing commuters see are the bright orange lights of this large Victorian Gothic station. The ticket booths are entirely automated but don't take cash. The entrance routes are lined with convenience stores like Lucky Dragon, along with dataterms and pay phones. A series of full-body turnstiles control access into the station. 

The trains, while not exactly sterile, are fairly clean, depending on the time of day. They hiss quietly along the elevated tracks, rocking slightly. If you can ignore all the animated advertisement boards, the large windows offer an impressive view of suburban blightscapes, colossal freeway interchanges, and, as it rockets further westward, larger and healthier looking buildings that seem to beckon your attention toward the colossal skyscraper clusters. The cars get more crowded as you head into town. As you approach the Terminus, you pass through long stretches of rail yards and old loading bays. Some of these facilities are alive and studded with lights, and some are just darkened, brooding hulks. From here there are routes to Cape Point Aerospace International, access to the subway network and lines to some of the more affluent districts.

20. SACR Defence Force Ministry (E4)

The sprawling complex and imposing fortified towers of the Cape Republic Defence Force. This is the Pentagon of the SACR. It is suspected amongst the upper echelons of The Directorate that a military coup may be on the cards in the very near future. The Ministry is a hotbed of back room deals, whispers and lies. The Angola border disputes are used to distract the media viewing public and as a display of the CRDF's ruthless capability.

21. Sense/Net (F3)

This imposing flat-topped pyramid is the regional HQ for the local netwatch, clashing regularly with the PSA's Transmission Felonies department. Sense/Net operatives and agents are ruthlessly efficient and rightly feared.

22. De Waal Park Stadium (E7)

Relocated sports complex, originally situated in Green Point for the 2010 World Cup. Soccer games, title fights, cricket matches and sell-out musical events are all held here. Security is provided by an open-ended contract with private security contractor Sentry, a wholly owned subsidiary of Militech.

69. Storage Modules (G3)

A very secure compound containing thousands of stacked storage modules and a variety of warehouses. Remote lifters and loaders drone through garish plastic alleyways under the 24 hour arc-lights. Modules and warehouses can be hired. Regular biometrics scans ensure that no-one takes up residence in the compound. Patrolled by PLECs with PSA back-up.

80. Cape Technikon (F4)

The Cape Peninsula University of Technology formed in January 2005 from the merger of the Cape Technikon and Peninsula Technikon. This sprawling gated and secure campus is the heart of all non-corporate high education in The Hub.