China.
A land of tradition, beauty, nature, and extremely cheap workforce.
At least that was most businessmen from the late 20th and all through the 21st century thought. The millenial land of the sleeping dragon built an entire economic structure based on flexible labour laws, low taxes for foreign companies and cheap technology; the mecca of industry.
China and western businessmen had quite a profitable affair together, until the Great Awakening.
General Secretary Guang Ho, in 2082, applied a massive and fatal strike on the capitalist world. Overnight, Ho elevated taxes to astronomical levels, causing massive crisis on most major companies, and, therefore, their native countries too.
There was really nothing the western powers could do.
Nuclear threats? China also had bombs.
Economical blockade? Ho's state companies and farms covered all the basics needs of his people. And, besides, if China's massive middle class stopped buying, most companies in this greatly globalized world of 2082 would probably break anyway.
Political pleas? The might as well try. With Russia and the Asian Tigers on China's side, all would succumb to verbose debate without real consequences.
That was it. The west was done.
Soon after the major crisis, the globalized planet Earth suffered major influence from China in their cultures. Chinese movies were all the rage, along with chinese pop music, chinese models, chinese games, everything.
Our story begins in 2187.
You are Zheng Wallace, an USA born officer of MaMiCo (Mandarin Mining Corporation), working as an operations officer for the extraction of Carbon Gas in Atira Asteroids, to cover the recent shortage of earthly fuels. Your job is to certify that the fumes are plentiful, the workers are productive, and the quasi-military hierarchy is respected.
Life couldn't be more boring.
But it could surely be worse...
