Yulonia
| Yulonia | |
|---|---|
| City | |
| Special City-District of Yulonia | |
 Artist rendition of the Sierra Yulonia Tower in 1961 | |
|
Nickname(s): “Venice of the Mojave” | |
| Sovereign state |
 Kingdom of Sierra |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} Sierra |
| Province |
 Inland Empire |
| County | Palo Verde |
| Barony | Yulo |
| Foundation | 6 June 1951 |
| Founded by | Ulysses Yulo |
| Demonym(s) | Yulonian |
| Time zone | PST (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | None (Abolished) (UTC) |
| Call codes | 200, 201, 312, 404 |
| Primary airport | Yulonia Airport |
Yulonia, also known as Sierra Yulonia after its centerpiece building, is a casino resort town turned ghost town located in the Sierran province of Inland Empire, approximately 35 miles northeast of the town of Baker. The town was founded by eccentric billionaire Ulysses Yulo in 1951 as a utopian experiment. At its height in the mid 1960s, the city of Yulonia was home to a population of tens of thousands of people, partial self-sustainability, and major transportation connections to the rest of Sierra. The city’s unregulated market and promotion of futuristic technology made Yulonia the center of several burgeoning industries in Sierra, such as aerospace technology and space exploration, robotics, nuclear energy, and pharmaceutical research.
During Great War II the city became the center of Operation Safeguard, a plan sponsored by the Sierran government to promote the creation of domestic, underground nuclear shelters in the event of a global nuclear war or other catastrophic disaster. The city’s ties to the military and Sierran government (such as the RIA) also led to other unethical experiments, which later became infamous following declassification in the 21st century. The city's increasingly authoritarian governance during wartime led to discontent among the population, culminating in a violent insurrection in the final years of Great War II, which heavily damaged the city. This insurrection culminated in the 1965 Hatauva Incident, which caused a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor within the city, causing widespread physical and ecological damage. The death of the city's founder and visionary Ulysses Yulo in 1966 was a further nail in the coffin for the utopian concept behind the city of Yulonia. After Yulo's death, the city fell into a period of rapid decay and abandonment, only growing into a population center once more in recent times.
History
Early History
Beginning in approximately 1928 Ulysses Yulo began buying up properties across the Mojave Desert, often through his multi conglomerate Ilion Corp, which specialized in mining, oil, and rare resources. Many of Yulo’s purchases in Inland Empire proved to be frivolous, with the company collecting nearly two dozen distinct properties, the largest of which being nearly 50,000 acres. One of these sites would later develop into the testing site for Yulo Aircraft, including the site of North America’s first jet fighter in 1940. Other locations of note appeared to be less useful. In 1969 hikers discovered The Armitage, a mysterious, lone mansion built in an isolated part of the desert from around 1938-1940, which is believed to have been built solely for the purpose of a one-time Halloween haunted house attraction before being abandoned. At Cadiz, Inland Empire in 1944, Yulo constructed a sprawling farm complex that in many ways served as a blueprint for the later Yulonia.
In 1945 anomalously high radioactivity was discovered on the future site of Yulonia, marking the beginning of mining at this location by Ilion Corp. By 1948 the site had transformed into a major producer of europium, which would become crucial and highly sought after for color television screens, as well as other rare-earth elements. From the early 1960s to approximately the mid 1980s, Yulonia transformed into one of the largest and most profitable mines in the country, supplying almost all of the world’s rare-earth elements. Yulo took a huge personal interest in the location, ordering the creation of extensive infrastructure with the aid of the Sierran government. This first came in the form of new railroads and highways, the latter of which would eventually develop into Interprovincial 3 less than a decade later. This created a major connection from Yulonia west to Barstow and eventually Porciúncula, and east to Las Vegas, and ensured that those driving through this corridor would pass through the vicinity of the future Yulonia.
Jewel of the Desert
Under the guise of cold war military buildup, Yulo managed to convince his connections in the Sierran government to invest heavily into projects in the region, including the creation of on-site facilities for ore processing and refinement, but when the government became skeptical, Yulo used his own vast personal wealth and his companies to continue improvements. Yulo envisioned the creation of a vast cave system traveling deep into Clark Mountain, utilizing the existing mine network. From there sprung forth a fortress city towering above, crafted in an art deco style to resemble a modern villa. The first buildings to be constructed were housing units for workers and offices for Ilion Corp, but it soon became clear these buildings were far from utilitarian, and appeared more like hotels to investors and onlookers. Over the course of the next decade these buildings would begin to take shape, being connected with streets, alleys, and canals designed by Yulo personally. On one visit, Provincial Senator William Chambers remarked, “You’d hardly think there’s a mine outside downtown Venice.” Yulo would successfully lobby Inland Empire Provincial Assembly for an unprecedented granting of a special city district encompassing Yulonia and more, in which voting rights were granted only to landowners, effectively granting Yulo extraordinary and nearly unilateral control over all matters of governance in the city.
The crowning jewel of this utopian metropolis would be the Sierra Yulonia casino, a massive and towering building at the peak of the town’s mountain. The casino was envisioned to be a futuristic place of paradise, where all worries were to be taken care of. Each room would have vending machine-like devices capable of transporting any good to the user instantly. Luxury entertainment and services were to be ever flowing. Yulo envisioned that this town would be able to be completely self-sufficient and cut off from the rest of the world if deemed necessary. To this end he invested heavily in local infrastructure and technology. The location tapped into an underground aquifer for fresh water, and established a water recycling center so that water could be purified and reused endlessly. Additional aquifers within a twenty mile radius were also acquired by Ilion Corp, being used as reserve tanks connected through underground pipes. A classical aqueduct was also built into the premises that ran from the top of Clark Mountain, although this was largely for aesthetics more so than water collection—when water began to flow slightly slower than average, Yulo built an extensive elevator system and measuring facility at the top of the mountain, which ensured the rate was always exactly the same. Owing to Yulo’s paranoia, each water collection state could also be turned off without contaminating the rest, and was monitored repeatedly for contamination, radiation, and taste.
South of the mountainside, an extensive series of farms connected by irrigation canals were formed. Later as his paranoia grew, Yulo began to switch primarily to enclosed, greenhouse-style farms which dotted the area around Yulonia and within, and a series of geodesic domes. Each geodesic dome housed a perfectly controlled climate for the creation of a certain type of food, while the largest geodesic dome was the Yulonia Botanical Gardens, in the center of the city. Each building in the heart of the city was designed with the capability of forming an air lock, at which point it would be supplied oxygen from an underground station. All waste was transported through a pneumatic tube system to a recycling center, or ultimately shipped away from the city. In addition to being connected to the electrical grid, Yulo collaborated with the Sierran government in the creation of an experimental breeder reactor, becoming one of the first of its kind. Although later eclipsed by more modern designs, the reactor at Yulonia proved capable of more than powering the site’s expected electricity needs by 1956.
Yulo’s favor with the Sierran government began to dry up in the late 1950s, especially after he spent the majority of 1957 recovering from a nearly fatal injury after crashing a prototype plane. He was eventually strong armed out of a major leading role at Yulo Aircraft, and the Yulonia project, which was now approaching a $15 billion budget, was becoming increasingly unpopular among Ilion Corp investors and board members. The world’s first artificial satellite that year caused Yulo to go into a fervor, believing that Sierra would need to enter into a space race with the other major powers of the world if it had any hope of keeping up, and believing that in the future a nuclear war would engulf the world, following the successful denotation of the first atom bomb the previous year. Yulo’s infamous obsessive personality only increased, and he began to spend more and more time at Yulonia isolated from the outside world. He began frequent washing of his hands, showering, and medical and cosmetic care, all the while delving into further paranoia. In 1958 work began on an underground city complete with a subway system and nuclear bunker, capable of withstanding a near direct blast, and with enough supplies to last the foreseeable future. On the surface a monorail system became the chosen method of transportation.
That year the first human residents outside the mining operation took up residence, but the city remained far understaffed. Those who came to Yulonia included top scientists and engineers from around the globe, being paid enormously to see out Yulo’s vision. It would later be discovered years later that at this time Yulo began investing heavily in space exploration to little success, as well as a series of strange inventions. This included devices to control and change the weather, laser weaponry, robotics, thallium research, and an attempt at one of the world’s first supercomputers. Many of these inventions proved too ambitious for the meager laboratories of Yulonia, and priorities shifted on a whim based on Yulo’s mood. Nonetheless he began importing residents into the city from across Sierra, attracted by a high salary and promise of a free home once relocated. Yulo instituted strict rules, such as the prohibition of all outside food, beverage, and drugs, except those manufactured on site or by his companies, leading to a black market for more unsavory commodities.
Meanwhile, Ilion Corp had begun the unveiling of a line of numerous experimental drugs and medical treatments, that the city unwittingly found itself guinea pig to. Recreational drug use became popular among the city’s inhabitants, and according to declassified Sierran documents in 2018, from approximately 1962-1969 a selection of the city’s inhabitants unknowingly were subject to mind-control experimentation with drugs such as LSD, as part of a joint Ilion-military venture, that was part of the larger umbrella Project JUVIA. Sierran medicinal chemist Alexander Shulgin formed a partnership with Yulo, creating one of the most comprehensive and prolific pharmaceutical laboratories in the world within Yulonia. Many of the substances produced in Yulonia, such as methaqualone, MDMA, and mescaline enjoyed a long heyday as popular products on the free market, although many of these drugs would later be regulated or outright banned by the Sierran government, much to the disapproval of Yulo and his colleagues. Conversely, in Yulonia the city’s rule of law, which amounted largely to doing whatever one wanted as long as it followed Yulo’s wishes, promoted anti-regulation, which proved dangerous for many of the city’s early inhabitants. The city had a handful of other key founding principles. Yulonia was founded without religion and public worship was discouraged by Yulo. Instead he espoused a nearly religious adherence to the ideology of individualism, self-interest, and free markets. Yulo was heavily against the policies of the United Commonwealth and Landonism, finding that philosophy antithetical to his own, and he pushed the Sierran government for harsher anti-Landonist measures and increased military spending throughout the creation of Yulonia.
Landonist Wars
Yulo’s strong anti-Landonist opinions led to the city of Yulonia exercising strict policies, deemed oppressive or authoritarian by some. Associating with Landonists became punishable by eviction from the city of Yulonia, and other harsh penalties, including forced labor. This led to a witch hunt in the city, encouraged by Yulo himself briefly, after he became paranoid that United Commonwealth spies had infiltrated the city. The exploits of Yulo in the Mojave would jeopardize the tenuous non-aggression pact between Sierra and the United Commonwealth, with his actions being condemned as too extreme by United Commonwealth observers. On New Years’ Eve 1958 a strike occurred among the mining and construction staff of the city, criticizing the city for its harsh practices and poor working conditions. This would escalate into a series of skirmishes in the street, as Yulo reacted with harsh crackdown. This three-week conflict would not conclude until the intervention of the Sierran National Guard. In total some 187 people are believed to have been killed in the fighting.
After the New Years’ Eve Riots of 1958, Yulo managed to restore an uneasy peace, but discontent remained. Many workers and political dissidents would organize into an underground insurgency group known as the Vox Populi (Latin for "Voice of the People"), which would claim responsibility for acts of sabotage and fights with police forces throughout the 1960s.
Great War II
In 1961 the first grand opening of Yulonia was planned, however this was canceled by Yulo at the last minute after the outbreak of Great War II the same day. Yulo would dedicate much of his power toward the war effort, while in Yulonia he began shaping the city due to the effects of the war. As part of Operation Safeguard, throughout the 1960s Ilion Corp began construction on a series of underground nuclear shelters called vaults, the most extensive being in and around Yulonia, for the purpose of relocating the Sierran population in the event of nuclear war or total collapse. Yulo would also advocate for and later build internment camps for those deemed dissidents or saboteurs of the war effort in the later stages of the conflict. As Yulo’s paranoia grew, he began regulating entry and exit into Yulonia; hundreds of approved families would move into the city seeking shelter, but none were allowed to leave toward the later stages of the war.
Downfall
Yulo’s strict policies in the city would ultimately begin to contribute to its downfall. Throughout the 1960s the population of the city had skyrocketed, straining resources and exacerbating tensions. City surveillance intensified, with secret police loyal to Yulo carrying out interrogations and kidnappings. The city remained on lockdown after 1962, with a series of walls and fortifications, officially built as a fortress against a potential invasion, keeping the city’s inhabitants locked inside. The city became more isolationist, cutting off ties with much of its surrounding, under the guise of protecting crucial military equipment and production from sabotage or surveillance during wartime. This would lead to increased discontent and the outbreak of violent revolution in 1964 under the leadership of one Benny McMurphy.
This turn of events was censored in the media and largely secret from the public outside the city, with Yulo even misleading the Sierran government in order to prevent government intervention in the city’s affairs. Confident he could contain the rebellion internally through his own forces, Yulo waged a two year war against the rebels, which caused widespread damage across the city.
On 9 November 1965 the Hatauva Incident occurred, in which rebel forces managed to gain control over the Hatauva Auxiliary Power Station in a major firefight. In what was regarded as a deliberate act of sabotage, the nuclear power plant was damaged, causing a partial meltdown. An ensuing explosion caused massive damage to the surrounding city, which led to the city’s dire situation being discovered by the Sierran government. Although the war had ended, the Sierran government still attempted to cover up the incident, so not to cause a major panic or moment of weakness that would interfere with peace proceedings. By mid November, several thousand Sierran personnel had been deployed to the city, putting an end to the imposed isolation. In early 1966 attempts were made to have the government of Yulonia restructured to place power into a more traditional system, with large portions of the city being dislodged from Ilion jurisdiction, beginning a lengthy legal battle. The population of the city plummeted, as many fled the oppressive city laws or the impending disaster brought on by the Hatauva incident.
By this time, Yulo refused to exit his fortified compound in the heart of underground Yulonia, but nonetheless committed to a fifteen-year long, $2 billion dollar cleanup of the city and the aftermath of partial nuclear meltdown. He successfully lobbied through proxy to protect many of Yulonia’s privileges, but he could not prevent settlers within the city from vacating their homes and fleeing elsewhere. Sections of the city became derelict, including partially underground sections of the city that had become flooded with water or rubble. The most ornate sections of the city, including the infamous Sierra Yulonia hotel and resort, many of its underground compounds and vaults, and experimental living arrangements became locked off to the public, entering a state of Ilion-imposed decommissioning. In late 1966 Ulysses Yulo himself died alone in his underground compound, having been discovered to be suffering from serious effects of prolonged drug use, radiation exposure, and other health problems. His final corresponds with the public included impassioned speeches to expand Great War II into a war against the Landonist powers after the fall of the Axis.
