Pacifica Prison

Located at the very bottom of the Marianas trench, Pacifica is the world's strictest hypermax security facility for superpowered threats. Several satellites watch the site constantly, some focused on the surface of the ocean, others using gravimetric, terahertz wave or infrared cameras to monitor the depths. Robotic mini-submarines patrol the area constantly, programmed to disable anything that isn't a fish. The facility operates under Japanese law, and most of its staff are from there, though it is funded and technically run by a group called the UN World Penal Authority.

The only way to Pacifica is by an armoured hydrofoil from Nagoya, Japan; though sometimes the most dangerous prisoners are carried there directly by members of the Primacy or other highly capable metahumans, such as Japan's Advanced Security Detail. The Primacy maintains an Embassy in Nagoya specifically to react to possible escape attempts. Entry to the facility is achieved by depth capsule, which must be launched from the surface: Pacifica itself contains no escape pods or pressure suits. The chief warden of Pacifica is Hanhiro Tosugata, a retired superhero formerly known as Aoiamatsubame (the Blue Swift). He has turned his long experience at crime fighting to holding those that he and others caught. By all accounts he is a humane and just man, but he crushes riots and escape attempts ruthlessly, well aware of the kind of carnage those in his custody could cause in the outside world. Prisoners are given a string of code letters and numbers reflecting the degree of danger they pose to the staff, and listing any precautions that must be taken to confine them. The majority of Pacifica's inmates are kept in special designed and tailored cells, built to cope their their particular powers or talents.

Survivability Variable (SV)

This is simply a measure of whether the individual can survive the crushing pressures of 11 kilometres under the ocean, and the long swim to any kind of shore. It is rated 0-1, with a normal person (and, indeed, a majority of metahumans) being 0: no chance whatsoever. Those that can survive are watched carefully, as they might have less compunction about puncturing the prison's bulkheads in order to escape, dooming everyone inside to rapid death from drowning, cold or pressure.

Escape Threat Class (ETC)

The administrators of Pacifica understand that every metahuman presents a unique challenge to imprison, and must be treated on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, there are a number of shorthand designations they use to classify general types of metahuman.

An individual can fall into more than one category. One such case is the Cybermancer, escape threat classified B/D. Able to influence human minds and machines alike with a thought, the Cybermancer has been imprisoned in a completely isolated cell for 10 years. Cameras cannot be used to monitor him because of his ability to usurp and manipulate them, and no staff can be trusted to resist his telepathic domination. No one has seen, heard or spoken to him in all that time; it is only know that he is still alive because of the waste products flushed out of the cell's toilets.

Some of the more common categories are:

  • A: Negligible. The prisoner has no abilities that make them difficult to restrain with bars, manacles and other conventional methods.
  • B: Technology Restriction. The prisoner must be kept away from devices such as computers, cell phones, and in some cases even duct tape and hairpins, because of extreme intelligence, inventiveness and/or technological skills.
  • C: Physical. The prisoner possesses extreme strength and/or resilience, and cannot be easily held with physical constraints. This category is usually appended with further information detailing the estimated level of strength the individual is capable of exerting. In some cases, powerful mechanical restraints may be used; in others, chemical or neural suppression is the only way of ensuring passivity.
  • D: Mental/Biological. The prisoner must be kept away from living staff members; all contact must be through remotes and robotics, because of psionic or biohazardous abilities.
  • E: Energetic. The prisoner is capable of manipulating or generating energy or force of some kind, from extreme heat to telekinesis. Some of these category are contained in cells designed to be impervious to their energy type; others are subject to a variety of dampening or dispersal technology.
  • F: Extranormal. The prisoner has abilities of a mystical nature. Various techniques are used for these prisoners, ranging from binding circles and magical wards to cells lined with cold iron, willow wood and undyed cloth.
  • G: Nonlinear. The prisoner has the ability to bypass certain laws of nature. Generally, this refers to teleporters and those with the ability to dematerialise or manipulate spacetime. They are usually kept in forcefield-locked cells or pinned in place with spatial reinforcement anchors.
  • X: 'X' is a special category, generally referring to a special storage wing used to hold objects and devices that are themselves prisons for dangerous beings or forces. The Codex of the Bottomless Abyss is kept here, as is an experimental wormhole generator that has been known to allow Nth dimensional aliens into our reality.

Personal Hazard Rating (PHR)

PHR is an estimate of the combat potential of a prisoner. Various scales are used: since the Second World War, the Russians have used the Barchev Method, which calculates how many 'average metahuman soldiers' it would take to incapacitate an individual. The Americans have used a scale devised by Department of Defence that estimates the number of tons of tanks, bombs, guns and ammunition it would take to do the same, called the Weighdown Balance. These days, the most common method is a simple, quasi-scientific measurement called simply Power Level, that takes into account a huge variety of factors, mental, physical and even social. Most members of the Primacy have been rated by the World Penal Authority in case their talents are ever needed to counteract an escape, and the WPA keeps this information under heavy guard because of the threat it could pose to the world's defenders if it fell into enemy hands.

Regional
Africa The Pact
Nigeria The Ministry of Extraplanetary Technology
X-town
Asia Ubyezhich
Europe
Germany Free City of Hamburg
North America
United States Kingdom City
Oceanic
Pacific Ocean Pacifica Prison
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License