Fondasiesuiker
Construct
The Union enjoys several bases of operation in Durban proper but next no influence beyond the city. Even the smaller cities tend to be overrun by superstitionists and Reality Deviants, to say nothing of the Bushveld.
Headquarters
Key to the Union’s local wealth and influence is the sugar industry, and so unsurprisingly, so too is their primary base of operations: at the Illovo Sugar Park. Illovo Sugar is found in Umhlanga, an affluent suburb and resort, part of the northern Durban metro area. This industrial park includes both commercial and corporate offices as well as some of the mills themselves, though Illovo has stakes in sugar mills and fields all over Africa. The vast majority of Illovo Sugar is managed and worked by Sleeper proles, unaware of the Union’s seat there.
Union personnel report to an industrial management office complex located in a section of the industrial park apart from the corporate offices and mills proper. Special keycards are required to enter these buildings. Designated areas are assigned to each Convention and Methodology here represented. Some of these areas are little more than office cubbyholes with computer stations while others provide impressive corner offices and legal studies. Clean room-fitted laboratories stand side by side with conveyor belt-fed robotics sheds. They have it all here, even though the various Methodologies also maintain separate bases throughout the city.
Nodes
The real reason the Technocracy in Durban got into the sugar business all those decades ago was the use of the sugar itself. Or rather, the use of its bagasse (fibrous residue of sugar stalks after they’ve been crushed to extract their juice). Bagasse has plenty of mundane uses, including as biofuel (once properly refined). But bagasse the world over isn’t identical (just as the sugar plants themselves aren’t), and the Union discovered that the sugar grown in Zululand is especially versatile. Deep within the complex in a special refining room, under heavy security, lies a Primal Energy refining generator, into which bagasse still wet is fed. For every 1,000 pounds of bagasse so processed, one dram of Tass is produced (in the form of a sappy pulp).
The Node is actually a combination of this especially designed (and quite sensitive) Primal Energy refiner and the bagasse from sugar harvested on local lands only. The refining machine is very old technology at this point. The Union isn’t sure how its original designer (a brilliant Iterator) devised it in the first place and reverse-engineering hasn’t yet grasped it. As a consequence, access to the machine is heavily restricted. The Tass is carefully stored and Control awards it based on need. However, the smell of its processing is very heady. It’s so sickly-sweet that without masks, most people faint after a minute of exposure. The particles are of sufficient mass that Devices (and Geniuses) can be recharged.
Defenses
The keycard access into this inconspicuous complex is actually based on a genetic code specific to each authorized agent, which is likewise scanned in the doors’ thresholds. Therefore, stealing the card does not good. It opens the door but stepping through without the proper genetic match sets off the alarm. Once the alarms are set off for whatever reason, the usual Technocratic toys come into play. Initial response generally involves a team of MiB clones. Further intrusion may run the intruder afoul of HIT Marks or cloned beasties. A separate mixed team of MiB clones and two HIT Marks, along with automated gun turrets, guard the Node chamber. Tightly controlled and observed conveyor belts feed bales of damp bagasse from the main industrial mills into this special chamber.
Backgrounds & Characters
All members gain the Construct Background at ***. All other Backgrounds must be purchased and acquired normally. The construct commands a communal Level 3 Node of static Profit.
Custos
Tens of thousands of Sleepers work for Illovo Sugar in South Africa alone, though over half of those proles are farmers. None of them are aware of the Union and its work. Methodology centers at Illovo and elsewhere in Durban tend to maintain small and tight-knit crews of unEmpowered citizens to aid their various missions.
