The Incorporated States of NSC104 is a colossal, orderly nation, renowned for its keen interest in outer space, ubiquitous missile silos, and avant-garde cinema. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless, devout population of 6.001 billion NSC104ians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The large, corrupt, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Industry, and Administration. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 80.5%.

The frighteningly efficient NSC104ian economy, worth 793 trillion cards a year, is fairly diversified and dominated by the Retail industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Information Technology. Black market activity is rampant. Average income is an impressive 132,305 cards, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 387,079 per year while the poor average 35,690, a ratio of 10.8 to 1.

New urban roads are threatening city parks, space research funding has hit a recent high while several military bases are being closed down, veterans' meet-ups involve a lot of tail sniffing, and residents of new housing subdivisions complain about the total absence of supermarkets and restaurants. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. NSC104's national animal is the legendary, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

NSC104 is ranked 14,527^th in the world and 640^th in Two for Lowest Crime Rates, with 94.7 law-abiding acts per hour.