Traditionally, cyberpunk’s neon belongs to Tokyo and its attitude mimics Los Angeles, but its future? That looks like San Diego.
For centuries, the old city survived rising ocean levels behind its seawalls and pumping systems. It survived invasions because of its coastal defenses. When Astral Twilight came, it burned through San Diego and sent much of its population fleeing inland. By the time the bombardments ended, the city’s defensive installations had been exhausted and much of its infrastructure crippled.
XenVenri deployed almost immediately. Reconstruction sites appeared among the ruins and workers followed. Still wary of the city that had nearly killed them, survivors slowly returned from the surrounding wilderness. Those who did were quickly put back to work.
No one expected the megacorp to bomb their own city. The Fire Tide came beneath a haze of low clouds and smoke. Bombers streaked through shallow rays of sunlight, their pilots carrying only enough mission data and telemetry to understand the threat below. Glide bombs struck the seawall, and the Pacific crossed a boundary that had held for centuries.
Old Town is something special. Not for its ruins, its submerged streets, or even for what’s being built to replace it. The area represents a vision made manifest.
Bulrushes and cattails grow between submerged foundations. Fish swim through forgotten streets. Frogs, insects, rodents, and marsh birds occupy shallow waters concealing elevator shafts, collapsed basements, and broken homes. Towering mass excavators stalk the floodplain, lowering their grinding machinery over the remains of high-rises and commercial campuses. The old ruins are dismantled from the top down and fed back into a vision of the future. Despite its history, a new and better solution rises.
New hab blocks rise over the marshes and reflect off the water. Reconstruction crews cut a port through the floodplain while concrete, metal, composites, and wiring recovered from Old Town are processed for reuse. Families continue returning from the wilderness as workers and contractors are brought in from orbit. People flock toward the promise of stability.
San Diego has become a symbol of what Reconstruction promises the Origin System after Astral Twilight: not restoration, but replacement. No more politics or government. Work hard and reap the rewards. What survived the bombardments can be dismantled. What was drowned can be harvested.
If you hear gunfire, just take your Zoff and rest assured the authorities are dealing with it.
If you’d like to visit San Diego, A Star Too Far is your ticket to the future of cyberpunk. And now that you’ve been introduced to San Diego, explore Mechs & Spider Tanks or Astral Twilight. Or return to the ChromaSpyke universe page and explore other lore articles.