Editing Setting:Nutopia/Locations (section)

===The Moscow Arcology, City of Blood===

When the Russian Resource Zone was first created, native corporate giant Lukinvestprom stepped up to take the reins. Even as cameras flashed while the key to the city was delivered to LIP's CEO, the corporation was reeling from the massive expenditure. This was an investment way over LIP's head, and everyone knew it. But it was a vital symbolic move - Moscow had remained in Russian hands. And many interested parties in the former Federal intelligence agencies, as well as underworld bigwigs, had placed their trust in LIP's ability to keep Moscow firmly in Russian control.

Lukinvestprom acted quickly, pumping money into Moscow's many research institutes and laboratories. The company became a think tank, hiring out scientists for projects worldwide. Russia's academics flocked to Moscow for a chance to work on dedicated teams, with cutting-edge equipment, in well-funded laboratories. With the intelligentsia came a liberal spirit, an air of freedom of thought and expression that proved later to be resistant to corporate agenda and spin - and as some would argue, that very air of freedom led to Moscow's downfall.

As Ilium and the RRZAC tightened their control of vital Russian areas, fledgling Lukinvestprom was pressed from all sides into ceding authority to the foreign megacorp interests. In the long run, the resistance it could muster, financially as well as militarily, proved ultimately futile, as Ilium agents infiltrated key board positions and influenced shareholders. The hostile takeover occurred overnight, and the population of Moscow woke up to find themselves Ilium subjects.

This did not go down well with the Moscovite population. While overt resistance was quelled by Ilium PMC's, the arcology's residents accepted their new masters only grudgingly. A number of dissident scholars and political figures left the megacity to pursue career options in RRZAC-controlled Petersburg or in other, more recently founded corporate states. The brain drain was tangible, and Ilium struggled to put a positive spin on the events. Installing the former CEO of Lukinvestprom as Moscow's administrator did nothing to quell civil unrest, and in the face of mounting resistance, Ilium's management began to discuss solutions. Dr. Priya Lal of the infamous Black Masks proposed her own solution, one that at first could not even be whispered in private conversations but soon found its way into board meeting agendas. The Moscow Arcology was to be considered expendable, its population purged by means of bio-weapons.

Meanwhile, several prominent figures emerged in the Moscow resistance movement. Free thinker and poet Ljubov Ryazanskaya began collecting the stories of survivors of corporate atrocities; she was quickly silenced but the damage was done; information had already got out. The horrifying tales were difficult to believe or stomach, but an increasing number of anarchists and malcontents took it upon themselves to publish and distribute the stories. In the wake of the quietly growing PR scandal a seemingly mundane and unimportant figure arose as the figurehead of the Moscow insurgency. His name was Ivan Semenovich Belilov, affectionately nicknamed "Uncle Vanya" by his followers. A for all intents and purposes baseline human, Uncle Ivan's calm, jovial demeanor belied the fact that he had once been a top-level intelligence operative, a Colonel in the GRU. He made no efforts to hide that fact, however, happily referring to himself as Colonel Belilov in official communiques issued from secret bunkers hidden in the Moscow subway system. His movement grew, bolstered by ranks of radicalized intellectuals, disgruntled security men and profit-hungry mafiosi. Even in spite of the increasing number of terrorist strikes against key Ilium infrastructure and personnel, the corporation seemingly ignored Belilov's movement.

Then it happened. The Central Park incident that sparked the fall began originally in Gorky Park, as a team of Crackers (some subsequently linked to Belilov, some to the RRZAC, some to fringe anti-corp groups - this was a concerted effort of many hands) took control of Ilium's entire global media network during an anniversary celebration of Ilium's reign. Instead of propaganda images, feeds from the Siberian mining operations (painstakingly collected over many years at a great personal risk by a variety of agents) were displayed on corporate channels all over the world. In an instant, a rebellion arose that would eventually topple corp rule worldwide. And its seed was planted in Moscow.

Ilium was backed into a corner. Information about countless atrocities had leaked irrevocably out into the public domain. The corporation moved, less concerned with the protection of its interests than with punishing the impudent resistance. Dr. Priya Lal received the go-ahead order, and within the hour, massive quantities of a hitherto unknown airborne pathogen with horrifying effects(bearing the prosaic name Agent IX) were released into the arcology's air recirculation systems. The death toll was immense. Belilov and his followers went underground, literally, sealing themselves inside hermetic Soviet-era bomb shelters with internal air filtration. It seemed as if the Colonel was aware of the bio-warfare plans. Was he an Ilium plant? Or had he just been exceptionally lucky and gifted? The verdict is still out on this, even though conspiracy theorists are keen to point out that Uncle Vanya's wife had died under mysterious circumstances in the days following the plague's release.

Even after the Agent IX outbreak subsided, Moscow has remained dead, its surviving population hidden in old metro tunnels, Ilium merc patrols and feral hybrid organisms roaming the streets. Delving in Moscow is a sad, risky business, but it does have its own perks; in contrast to other warlords and chieftains, Colonel Belilov is quite friendly to Delver teams, allowing them free access into the arcology through his territory and supplying them with rations and energy. Some whisper the Colonel recruits Delvers to locate Ilium's old cache of mental conditioning and behavior modification research, in order to find a cure for the killswitch placed by his former corporate masters inside his head.