West

The West is a region of the USA.

Background
Formed after The Collapse, the West is made up of the states of Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

History
The states of The West have not fared very well in the twenty-first century. Already hot and dry, the droughts and global warming of the last thirty years have taken their toll on these hapless places. Nowhere else is the death of small-town America as evident as here. There are few if any small towns left on the map. If any do survive, they're multi, generation homesteads and the like, places where the residents won't leave the generations of family in the local cemetery. No one cares to know whether these towns are still extant or not. While there are still the diehard or desperate few trying to claw a living from the land, don't count on finding one when you're lost and starving in the desert. Even if you do, they're as likely to shoot you and eat you as to lend a helping hand.

Most of the Western states are dominated by deserted highways carving their way between sun-parched dust bowl deserts. With the increased heat and decreased rainfall and trade, most of the ranches and farms, like the plant life, dried up and blew away. People moved to the larger cities, which, with their large utility network, were able to irrigate large 'green belts' beyond the suburbs, where the Western states now produce their food.

Skywalks have become commonplace in the West, as most people will avoid leaving their air-conditioned offices if at all possible. In Tucson, for example, it is possible to walk for eight miles across town without once having to face the heat. This has, of course, added to the complexity of building security, especially when corporate executives demand access to their offices twenty four hours a day. It has also dramatically changed traffic and rush hour patterns.

Economically, the states of the West have no real power. While there are a few excellent companies operating down there (like Phoenix's NetLink Software), the West as a whole does not control a major portion of any industry. There are only two reasons why the United States government pays the West any heed: smuggling and military.

Smuggling is a big problem all along the Mexican border, as private entrepreneurs try to run contraband across the border and major corporations try to avoid high U.S. tariffs. In a partial effort to counteract this, the United States has not maintained any highways except Interstates 10, 25 (in places} and 40, which connect the Californias with the rest of the U.S. This has not slowed down the smugglers much, but, it's as good a reason as any for the federal government to keep the Western states hungry for funds (and therefore loyal to the administration).

The one big asset of the West is their wide open spaces. Miles and miles of empty desert make for excellent training grounds for U.S. pilots and hoverjocks. Military vehicles roam the countryside pretty much at will, because the only people they offend have little or no voice in the state government. As an added bonus, the military presence and free fire laws make smuggling a bit more exciting a profession. But then, if it wasn't exciting, everybody would be doing it, neh?