WELCOME TO THE CITY OF LOST ANGELS

As a whole, the LA sprawl stretches from Ventura and the valleys to the north all the way south to the bombed-out ruins of San Juan Capistrano, and from Catalina and the outlying raft  communities in the west to Barstow in the east. If you could walk it, it would be more than two hundred kilometers on a side, but nobody walks in LA.

The other thing you need to know about LA is that the “Twins,” the two massive quakes that hit early in 2069 and brought Angel Town to its knees. The magical phenomenon known to locals as ‘the Fall’ and the tsunami that followed allowed the waters to claimed about 80 percent of our city.

Although huge efforts have been made to reclaim dry land, a significant portion of the city still lies ruined and flooded. Most outsiders still refer to this area as El Infierno, although the district once called El Infierno represents only a fraction of the total area that was leveled. About fifteen percent of LA’s population still remains in refugee camps.

A HISTORY LESSON

LA’s past has very little bearing on the present or the future, except in the extremely short term. There are some events, however, that have shaped it (in some cases literally) and thus bear mention. The first such event was California’s decision to secede from the old USA. After Texas broke off, the politicians up in Sacramento started agitating for something similar for Cali. A vote was called and an overwhelming majority chose secession. Almost immediately, California started to crumble from the inside as fights sprung up between the resource-rich Central Valleys and the north section of the state, and the resource-poor, but highly consumptive south.

Other big events have obviously been the quakes that struck the area repeatedly over the past few decades. The first major seismic incident occurred in 2028 in what locals called the El Infierno quake. The epicenter was located a few short miles south of what was, in those days, Los Angeles’ major airport, LAX. The quake completely wrecked the airport and caused widespread damage over most of the LA residential neighborhoods. In one of their more inspired moves, the city council and mayor approved funding for a massive wall to be placed around the most devastated areas to keep the undesirables penned in their cage. Additional funds were allocated to fortify the freeways that cut through the devastated areas so they could be rebuilt to rise above the devastation below. Nearly all city services were cut off  from these areas, and no attempts at maintaining civil order were made. El Infierno became a hellish place to live. Buildings grew unstable, and the occasional temblor did nothing to help the situation. There was little in the way of law, and what law existed was enforced by street gangs whose rule never extended beyond a few blocks.

This changed in ‘45 when one of the off shore plants exploded and sent a radioactive tidal wave of toxic sludge slamming into El Infierno. Thousands died in the initial flood, and thousands more punched their ticket in the days that followed. Faced with having to provide entirely for themselves,  LA bleated for assistance in cleaning up the mess the State had left  behind and was promptly disowned by the rest of CalFree and granted status as a free city. LA decided that the only option to remain economically viable was to go crying to the megacorps for assistance. In between 2046 and 2061 a number of sweetheart deals were cut between the LA city council and Ares, Fuchi, MCT, and Renraku.

Th is was the state of aff airs until 2061, when Halley’s comet came and once more the city tried to shake itself to the ground. In a matter of hours, rioters were swarming over the city. The city  sent out a plea for assistance to whomever would help. Pueblo was the quickest off  the mark and airlifted a large military expeditionary force across the Mojave and into LA in a matter of hours. Within a few days, LA was pacified and the worst elements either shot or driven off. Pueblo made one decision, early on, that would shape the corporate environment for years to come. They kicked Aztechnology out of the city.

Even the Crash of ’64 was taken in stride by a city accustomed to disaster. The fledgling Horizon Group licensed the new wireless system and had the city up and running within weeks of the Crash 2.0. Th e city’s star seemed to rise with Horizon’s, and, when that megacorp secured its place on the Corporate Court, LA basked in the shared glory.

That pretty illusion lasted until March 8, 2069. At 9:57 AM. The San Andres Fault and the San Pedro Shelf Fault hit LA with all their fury. Combined, the “Twins” shook the entire world—and LA, located at the epicenter, was devastated. Huge sinkholes opened up, swallowing entire blocks. While the survivors were still stumbling around, the tsunami triggered by off-coast aftershocks arrived. The PCC called on treaties with the rest of the NAN and mobilized to clean up the mess. At last count, over a hundred thousand people died in the quakes, the floods, or from illness afterwards.

In the aftermath of the two earthquakes, much of Los Angeles found itself (impossibly) half-underwater; some areas by just a fraction of a meter, with other areas falling several stories below the surface. Survivors reported seeing entire city blocks vanish, dropping out of sight in an instant. Topographic mapping has revealed that the entire city of LA has sunk. This phenomenon has become known as “the Fall.” Underwater salvage crews came upon large openings a few meters under the water, which led into a network of underground caves and tunnels. Locals and the scientific community began calling the sunken areas and caverns the Deep Lacuna. Many of the caves connect the inland lagoons and flood zones to the ocean waters, which is part of the reason why some areas remain flooded.