In the year 2040, environmental disasters and the economic Resource Wars of the early twenty-first century have had catastrophic effects upon the Earth's ecological balance. Ever-increasing polarisation of wealth, along with the development of humanoid, robotic "biots" (Biological Optical Transputer Systems), have resulted in a social demographic that leaves the majority of the world's population scavenging in the undercity slums while a wealthy minority live luxurious lives in towering skyscrapers. The Earth's population continues to rise, but without the resources to support them or the jobs to sustain them, they are cast onto the streets of the over-urbanised mega-cities.