The year is 2020, and the world is dark.

Nationalism is a joke, as keiretsu and multinational conglomerates rule the world. The technological curve has increased geometrically, and the world 2020 would be almost unrecognizeable to a denizen of the year 2000.

Cybernetics have advanced to the point where man-machine interfaces are not only possible, but commonplace, as people elect to have surgery to replace body parts with mechanical ones. This 'cyberware' has an dehumanizing affect on the mind, however, and cyberpsychosis... the sickness of the mind where a human is no longer human is the trendy sickness of the day on the talk shows, and they discuss at what percentage of a huan's replacement does he become inhuman? The courts have ruled 85%, so go over that, and you are now an appliance...

As land became more and more scarce around the large population centers, they grew up, instead of out. 100 story skyscrapers are the norm in large cities, and thus, street traffic gets almost no sunlight.

The rich live at the top of these buildings, enjoying the sun that the poor will never see, as they cross through the interlacing skyways, having panoramic views of the Aerodynes that ferry them from place to place, as air piloting is restricted to police, emergency vehicles, and a few licensed individuals.

The rest of humanity stays in the lower levels, living in one bedroom flats no bigger than a college dormitory room. As every available wallspace has a folding appliance for use that barely allows this to be liveable.

There are two ways to escape this drudgery. The first is to come to the attention of one of the corporations, and be brought into the fold of an arcology. But there are dark sides there as well, as your entire life belongs to the company. You do what they say, when they say it, and how they say. The second is space. In the space colonies at the lagrange points, on the moon, and on mars, a man is given more freedom to be a man, and to make his own way. But the dangers there make the life expectancy very low...

Into this situation, Novas erupted on the scene. Many of the Novas that have erupted are in some sort of servitude to a corporation, and don't believe that they haven't tried to take advantage of this. Already in the year since the Fireman erupted Novas have turned the world upside down, and the legistlation purely for them can fill a book.