The Dark History of Cyberpunk 2020: Before 2077

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Welcome to the darkest timeline. Today on Acceptable Losses, DK and Kirioth will dive deep into the gritty, original lore of the classic tabletop RPG, Cyberpunk 2020.

Before the neon-soaked streets of Cyberpunk 2077, the world had to completely fall apart. We explore the massive divergence in the alternate history timeline starting in the late 1980s, revealing how a secret government cabal known as the "Gang of Four" dismantled the United States from the shadows. From the catastrophic global market Crash of '94 and the martial law of "The Collapse" to the horrific Wasting Plague that wiped out millions, we cover exactly how the American Dream turned into a corporate nightmare.

Then, we shift our focus to the only place that truly matters: Night City. We trace the tragic ambition of architect Richard Night, who purchased a ruined Morro Bay to build a self-sustaining corporate utopia, only to be assassinated before his vision was complete. Discover how Night City evolved from a mob-ruled warzone into the ultimate, inescapable corporate cage it is today.

Grab your mirror shades, Chooms. It’s time to get sad.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Acceptable Losses Podcast, where Kirioth is undoubtedly going to try and probably succeed at ruining my day. Kirioth, how are you? And what are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:33

It's warm, I'm moist, and ready to dive into some cyberpunk.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

Oh, oh, oh no. Oh, oh, what a oh.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

All right. All right. Better or worse than than the start of the last episode.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

Like if we get to be I mean, saying you are hot and moist and ready to go is is it's that's an all-timer for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Um I don't know what the problem is. It's fine.

SPEAKER_04 1:06

Yeah. You know, let's just start the episode, huh? How about you just go right into the topic for today? I think that's appropriate. Yeah. Quick, move on. Quick start the episode. I don't want to talk about how hot and moist you are.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Well, but somebody when you when you put it like that, fair. So today's gonna say between this and Gnome Cox, you're on a roll, dude. It's been a weird two weeks, what can I say? So today we are going to uh go over the early history of Cyberpunk and the founding of Night City, and having, of course, gone through everything. Oh, strap in. Strap in, this is this is it's a whole thing. It's a whole thing. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:53

Cyberpunk. We love that. Cyberpunk's great. Now this and and I only know the video game. Uh well, the video game and the anime. So I'm I'm kinda I'm kinda I'm kinda jazzed for this. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Yes, yeah, as as uh as Shy points out, we're talking the game, not the entire genre. That would take longer than what I think this is gonna take. Um, that's a that's a multi-episode affair for sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's there's a little bit of of stuff in there, but yeah. It's it's we're talking like uh we're talking like Cyberpunk 2020. There is a little bit of mention, of course, the of the game on console PC and all modern gaming devices, which uh when it was pointed out when that was released, uh I nearly died. Nearly just crumbled to dust. Hadn't realized how long ago it was. But before all of that, Cyberpunk had for quite some time existed as a style and aesthetic before actually earning its own name. Things like Judge Dread and the manga series Akira emphasised the low-life high-tech style, while stories from Philip K. Dick, like We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, which would be later adapted into Total Recall, and do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which would then be adapted into Blade Runner, those set the foundation in a literary sense in the 60s. The cornerstone that truly set is a punk-based subculture was of course William Gibson's Neuromancer, which was released in 1984. And from there, there's been a ton of films, books, and anime series that were able to put an identity to the style and kind of ran with it. Now, game designer and writer Mike Pondsmith found specific inspiration in the films Blade Runner and Streets of Fire, the novel Hardwired by Walter John Williams, and the anime series Bubblegum Crisis when it came to a project that he was working on. So in 1988, he would publish Cyberpunk 2013 through his company, R Talsorian Games, and that would set the stage for a tabletop series that would continue to exist to this day. However, at the time of its release, Cyberpunk was actually not super well received. Some would say that it was only for diehards of the genre, while others would point out the bleak nature as being a bit egregious. I love this. In a fairly positive review by Rick Swann, he would say that the game was a terrific game for pessimists. Oh boy. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 4:23

That's that is yeah, you're right. That is a glowing review. Are you a pessimistic son of a bitch who finds no joy in anything at all ever? Well, have I got the game for you?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Ah, that's properly like damning with faint praise, that isn't it? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

I I feel like it's just damning. I don't know that's necessarily there's a I guess there is a sprinkle of potentially positive, but yeah, I woof.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

So the game would struggle in the 2000s, but the very passionate fan base would keep it afloat through grit and dedication, and by really dunking on the third edition of the game, which really sucks. Um it would consistently rank high on lists regarding popular tabletop games, even if no new edition had been published, and the cult following would result in fan-made expansions and other books that have not only been well received by the community, but also by Ponsmith himself. The game, of course, would find an exceptionally strong second wind in 2020 thanks to the CD Project Red game Cyberpunk 2077, and that combined with a new edition of the tabletop game, Cyberpunk Red, has resulted in the game being synonymous with the genre as a whole in the modern era. Plus, you know, it's like it's it's just straight up called Cyberpunk, which helps a lot.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Oh, that helps a lot. The genre is it has become named after the damn game. So yeah, yeah, it helps.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Excellent for marketing that. Oh yeah. When the genre and the game are the same thing, you've nailed it.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

Um What's the b Google, what's the best cyberpunk game? I've got news for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Also, the the reminder that uh Cyberpunk 2077 came out in 2020 is genuinely alarming. Uh, it doesn't feel like it was that long ago. And yet it really doesn't.

SPEAKER_04 6:16

Uh I think it also doesn't feel like that because like when it first came out, it was kind of terrible. And then I always think of like, it's like, oh, it released back when like Phantom of Liberty came out. And it's like, nope, that's when it got actually good. So yeah. I always have a skewed view of uh when Cyberpunk actually came out.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

It also kind of feels like it had a two-pronged release in that it came out and everyone went, wow, this is dog shit. And then it got constantly worked on non-stop for months and months and months, and then maybe a year to two years later, everyone went, it's actually really good now. You should you should give it a go. It's like there's there's been two same with No Man's Sky. Like that game when it launched, it was just I mean, it wasn't treated favorably, but now, years later, it's like, oh yeah, this is one of the best best supported and most toned around games of all time. It's it's like that, that two-pronged release thing.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

Not not to get too off topic, but brother, I got burned so hard on the No Man's Sky vanilla release. I believed everything they said in their marketing. Oh, that vanilla, oh boy. I I could never properly go back to No Man's Sky because it always just felt a little too dirty. But I do hear it's amazing, it's just that annoying burn. I legit refunded it. There were not enough skin graphs to to heal the burns, and I was like, no, never again. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

When it comes to the setting of Cyberpunk and all its additions, it's uh not like most others in the genre. Many of them, like Shadow Run, try to shadowcase try shadowcase, wow, try to showcase that that wasn't Possum. That was all me, that that mess up. Um Shadow Run has ruined you. It just went straight, begins with SH Shadow Run. Um many of them, like Shadowrun, try to showcase the entirety of the world as best as possible. In Cyberpunk, the world was designed around one place and one place alone, Night City. Located on the real-world Morrow Bay in Northern California, Night City is a megacity that was designed to be self-sustaining and fully autonomous in a world that had completely gone to hell, in a part of the state that had fully seceded from the former United States. We do know about many things that have occurred in the rest of the world and the country, but there's an asterisk to most of it. Due to the isolated nature of Night City and its fierce independence from literally everything else, many of the stories about what's gone on or what is going on in the world at large, it's uh it's questionable at times. In a meta sense, the game's editions have been retconned multiple times, but that just feeds into the structure of Night City itself.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

I uh I again I'm I'm assuming much like the game, it's like its own little country, and it's kind of outside the purview of world law until things get really bad. Oh, oh, it gets bad. It gets really bad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

It's Night City. There are no happy endings. Unfortunately, the lead up to Night City being a thing, uh also bad, so just bad all round. Hence with the strap-in warning at the start, oh, it gets dark. Uh, instead of dealing with true governments and having genuine concern for domestic and foreign issues, Night City is run by very powerful corporations, namely Militech, Night Corp, and Arasaka. Their actions within the borders of Night City are truly the only things that matter to those who live at who live there, and they have reached such a monumentally strong point of stability that in many respects they are stronger than entire world governments. The Knight City Council is the only thing many people know, and their rule of the city determines the trajectory of their unfortunate lives. What could possibly go wrong? Where have we heard this sort of thing before?

SPEAKER_04 10:21

Oh yeah, this all feels a wee bit too familiar. Did they did they by any chance build a gigantic techno pyramid for the people to live in?

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Funnily enough, the word arcology does show up in this script. Lovely. Just lovely. And from what from what I remember, it was it wasn't quite uh as horrific, but it was also not great either. So we'll we'll get to that. We'll get to that like later on. But yeah, just uh there's definitely some cross-contamination. Is that is that the best way to phrase it? Um Yay, parallels that aren't real world things, I hope. Nothing to worry about. We're all good. Um as a concept initially, Night City was meant to be a beacon of hope in a dark time, where people could be safe and protected by an autonomous corporate government that was mutually beneficial. Nowadays, it is safe, but only to those at the top of the ladder. Night City to many is less of a city and more of a cage that they're trapped in. For decades, people have been forced into wage slavery to support their corporate overlords, and thanks to financial instability, they are trapped within its borders. Even though many people inside Night City know little of what it's like outside of the place, they know that it's likely fundamentally worse, and their existence being based around how surviving each day is a miracle, seems pretty good by comparison. There may be some truth to that as well, by the way, as those who are old enough can remember the horrors of the collapse of the United States, where millions were gunned down in the street simply for not getting home in time before curfew.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

Oh boy, that's that's not good. That's millions died from damn, why are you out this late? And they're just gunned down in the st millions?

SPEAKER_00 12:15

It's crazy, dude. M millions dead from not being in bed before nine is insane.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 12:26

Also, I mean, you know, I mil million is a lot of people that are just like, nah, fuck this curfew. Millions?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Things weren't great. We'll we'll get to it, but things things weren't great. This is uh where the It's so it's so much worse. This is where the true grim darkness of Cyberpunk sets in. It's not just a setting of low life and high tech, but it's wrapped in individual nihilism. You are so aggressively pinned under the boot of a corporate overlord that it circles back round and you are somehow okay with it, to the point where your fight to survive every single day is as natural as breathing. Of course, the more cybernetic parts of this come into play later on in the timeline as a cathartic escapism, but it's very important to learn about what some folks are trying so desperately hard to escape from. So today, on Acceptable Losses, we're going to do a two-pronged overview with the emphasis on overview uh into the very early history of the world of Cyberlunk. First, we're going to go over a timeline showcasing the point of divergence between our real world and the nightmarish world of the setting, and covered that till about roughly 2013 or so. Then we're going to circle back and go over the creation of Night City and an overview of its story until the events of 2020. Ultimately, the history of the world doesn't matter to those that walk the streets of Night City, but context is key, and history fully explains not only why it exists in the first place, but also why it's as isolationist as it is. And Possum has said, don't worry, DK, this 100% won't feel too real. Totally promises, would never lie. Would never lie to us, Possum.

SPEAKER_04 14:06

Yeah, well, I mean, when when you're like, oh yeah, we're gonna talk about the parallels of the re of of you know the game's real world versus, you know, corporate overlord hell. I somehow think the real world is a hundred percent gonna bleed into this a lot. I don't know why you'd assume such a thing. Because the real world knows nothing about corporate overlords that overwork their people and essentially do have them in wage slavery. Gosh, that's never happened in the real world, right, Kiriya? There's a totally new concept that this game completely made up. Yeah, luckily we don't have any of that in real life. He said with no sarcasm seeping from his voice.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

None at all. Not even a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

Not even a Yeah, not even the smidgest bit of venom in those words.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

For context for this, the majority of the law covered here is from Cyberpunk 2020's core book, a few supplements, and some details from Cyberpunk 2013, since Possum didn't like hasn't had or opened the copy of that in a decade, and uh they really wanted to read it again. So an excuse to go into that Cyberpunk 2013 book, and Possum was all over it.

SPEAKER_04 15:29

I mean, I guess Possum does probably have like a library of these things, so it is probably it probably shouldn't be too surprising that he hasn't seen or read this thing in a decade.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

God damn. I I imagine I imagine that a a good chunk of Possum's house is just bookcases with specifically like RPG source books on every single shelf. And that you'd be able to track like the the newest editions as someone who knows nothing about any of them, you could probably walk in and know which one is the most recent one because that will be the one that is like more recently moved, and you could probably chart entire RPG histories purely from that cover's got slightly more dust on it, so I reckon that must have been that must have been the first, and then the second one will have been this one. That one on the end is clearly the newest, but I think there's some cross compatibility here because one two back, that's been touched recently as well. I think you could have managed that, and that is how I imagine Possum's house to be.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

There's also a part of my brain that imagines Possum as um have you seen Constantine with uh Keanu Reeves?

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

I I sometimes imagine Possum as the the alcoholic priest in there that just he touches things and immediately he reads them. And I'm like, that's gotta be Possum the way he like goes through the text. So there's a part of my brain that's just like possum's there, like eyes rolled back, touching all the newspapers, and then he's suddenly slaughter, you know.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

You know what? That is I'm also choosing to believe that. Got all of the books, but simply has to touch the spine and knows the entirety of the contents. Yep, exactly, exactly. Do not confirm or deny we wish to live in the fantasy. Thank you, Parson. Um but any contradictions between like the 2020 and 2013 versions and stuff, uh it could be fully intentional, as your life is nothing more than supporting a company that doesn't even know you exist. Also, you know, uh no magic or dragons in this setting, just unrelenting realism. But there's a fun little fact that Rebecca from Edge Runners has a very visible goat school tattoo that is apparently a cheeky little homage to the logo for Shadowrun. So that's that's kind of nice. That's that's a fun thing. Just a little connection.

SPEAKER_04 17:55

I guess that's a reference that probably fell flat with a lot of people, huh? Fell fell f wait, have I missed the pun?

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Uh yeah, you it's because it's Rebecca and I'm I'm now stunlocked by the the next sentence, what Shy said um missing the pun. Um this is what I hate about so Shy says this is what I hate about Cyberpunk 20 2077, but the tarot shit was too magical for this setting for my taste.

SPEAKER_04 18:31

I mean, I I I can see that.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Like it's weird.

SPEAKER_04 18:36

I get it. It's interesting, but weird.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Oh yeah, brain does.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

And they have access to literally everything that makes you function. So it always gave me the heebie jeebies where it's like, oh yeah, it sure would be cool to do like brain dances and have a computer in my head, and then it's like, oh, maybe it wouldn't. Yeah, no, I'm I'm not I'm not down for that. I don't I don't want anything to do with that. That's what do you mean the hacker wants a million dollars from me, and if I don't give it to them, they will shut down literally everything that makes my body work. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

If you do a specific DLC quest, you get the power to force any character to do an act scenario 5. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

Well, I mean, sorry again to go back to the game, but there's literally um one of the little chip power things where you use it on someone, and you know, it does indeed just make them put a gun to their head and you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

The RAM disc or whatever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Yeah. Yeah, no, that that gives me the that freaks me out. I don't like that at all.

SPEAKER_04 20:00

You know. I didn't realize that was a DLC question. I thought that was just like the main line, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

I'm I'm gonna have to I I've gotta say this bit and apologize in advance because yeah. So the the next section is titled The Cold War, and right before it, the possum simply says, anyway, time to get sad. Oh boy. Alright, well, you know why you're here. You've all experienced this before. And uh I've got a quote for you here as well. Just uh a nice, a nice, normal, fun quote. Alright.

SPEAKER_04 20:39

If you listen to the Euro trash, the United States is a seething hellhole of drug addicts, psychopathic killers, and wandering homeless packs armed to the teeth. If you listen to the corporate controlled media, it's a place of new challenges and exciting beginnings. If you listen to the punk on the street, it's neither one, but a mix of both. Let's take a little look at what things are really like, huh? Great. Yep, that's a great quote to start this off with, since we're in the Cold War.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Optimistic, right? Optimistic. There's always a middle ground.

SPEAKER_04 21:15

I don't know if optimistic is the right word for this.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Yeah, no, it's not the right word at all.

SPEAKER_04 21:19

Ominous more like ominous, yeah. Wrong O-word.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Close, but not quite there. Yeah, yeah. The primary schism between the world as we know it and the world of cyberpunk begins aptly with a collapse. The Berlin Wall fell in November of 1989, which marked the conclusion of the Cold War in a broad sense, but internally the United States was struggling. During the Cold War, advertising companies and popular media had begun to erode public understanding of global policies, ushering in an area an era of exceptionalism and a worldview that was directly centralized around the goings on within the United States alone. The ending of the Cold War marked the end of our Arguably the biggest media fixation the nation had seen since World War II, and many people had known nothing but the tense nature of this war since birth. Speaking of birth, by the way, uh 1988 is when Johnny Silverhand was born. This is ultimately super important to some major world events, but would you know we're not going to go into that right now.

SPEAKER_04 22:18

I mean, he's become the face of cyberpunk, so that's that's a cool little detail. I'm I mean Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Um Inevitably, with the conclusion of the Cold War, conflict was going to arise again, but this conflict would be a bit different than what we know. Prior to the fall of the Berlin War, George H. W. Bush would become the forty-first president of the United States of America, and there were internal concerns about his and future presidents' ability to rule the nation. Members of the CIA, NSA, FBI, and DEA would band together and form the very early groundwork of what became known as the Gang of Four, a secret cabal that was focused on running the government from the shadows so as to prevent any form of collapse or external manipulation of the government as a whole. Although the timeline for this stuff is probably a bit weird in like which was made first terms. I'm getting strong like fallout vibes from that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:43

Definitely. There's definitely a fallout vibe to oh yeah, we made a secret four-person organization to make sure that collapse of the government doesn't happen. Yep. Yeah. There's so many different points of failure. I'm sure we'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

We've got great ideas. Don't worry about it. It'll all work out. Oh boy. We will talk uh more about them in a bit, but in our real world history, the United States would invade Panama at the very end of 1989 in a conflict that would last one month. Operation Just Cause was meant to dispose of the ruler of Panama, who is a Manuel Noriega, due to his ties to drug trafficking. The conflict was swift and resulted in a considerable amount of deaths, including somewhere around 200 Panamanian citizens. The UN General Assembly, as well as European Parliament and the Organization of American States, would condemn this military operation as a dramatic overstep by the US, but the government would say that they had responsibility to protect the Americans in Panama and on the borders, and the best way to ensure this was to remove the risk of drug trafficking and enforce democracy. In cyberpunk, however, this conflict was only the start in what would be known as the first Central American War. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds about right.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:12

What do you mean the started a war when we just, you know, needlessly went in and killed 200 people in the name of America must be free.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Oh no, yeah, yeah, right. I mean, the fact is it's something that did already happen. But the uh huh, US invasion into foreign country to to oust president for drug crimes, it that it feels a little more current than I'd like it to. Uh be nice if that wasn't. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_04 25:42

Uh yeah, like Shy said, that would never happen. Where's this one off? Where are these parallels that Bossum was talking about? I don't I don't see them.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

It's so fictional. It's all in the past. You don't need to worry about it. Um speaking of which, I I've got another quote for you here. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

Oh, great. Imagine a world where Central America didn't become a battleground, where the US solved its problems of crime, inflation, and drugs, where the Cold War ended in democracy, not a succession of squabbling dictatorships. Dr. Albert Harper, 2015.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

He's he's not a dream. Unfortunately, it did not come to pass in this world. No, it certainly didn't. Yeeikes. Also, yes, uh the the the Wikipedia page for United States involvement in regime change in Latin America is somewhat of a rough read. But uh that's let's go let's go back to fictional awful.

SPEAKER_04 26:48

Um Dad, why is the map all green? Well, uh I don't have a great answer for you, honey.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Here, go go go back to TikTok and keep swiping. Don't think about it. Um just honey, turn on the iPad and just stop asking questions. The first thing you see is, did you know the TAL found a dreadnought that was older than their entire anyway?

SPEAKER_04 27:20

So the Turn off the iPad, throw it against the wall, kill it, kill it!

SPEAKER_00 27:28

The Panama Canal Treaty would expire during this time in 1990, resulting in control of the canal being reverted back to the government of Panama. Citing defense concerns, the United States would deploy troops deeper into Panama in an attempt to retake the canal. Panama's military forces, the Guardia Nacional de Panama, would not only fight against the American forces near the canal, but also along the borders of Nicaragua and Honduras. Their intimate knowledge of the geography of Central America was vital to their guerrilla tactics, and the United States has a very bad track record when it comes to fighting against forces in this manner in territory that is unfamiliar. Vietnam. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

I was gonna say it like yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:18

No, Shy. No, no, no. You gotta stop. You have to stop, Shy.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

This is gonna be a two-parter, even though it's the script is only the length of one episode, because we're gonna have to stop for existential dread breaks every two minutes. It's gonna get so sad.

SPEAKER_04 28:37

Yep, yep. I I I kind of forgot about the whole trying to retake the Panama Canal thing. And uh thanks for thanks for thanks for uh uh letting that one bubble back to the surface, Shy. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

I I I'll be honest, I I've got the fatigue at this point. I d I don't know I don't know I don't know what he's saying at any given time because it there's there's so much. There's so much and a lot of it I look, I'll be honest, a lot of it, I read it and go, I I mean that's clearly never gonna happen, or at least if it does, I don't understand how it's gonna work, and then you start looking more into it, and uh it just the the well of the well of despair and lunacy just gets deeper, and it's like, oh god, all right, let's do something else. Let's go to the fictional dystopian world now, huh? Yeah. So, due to the attack seemingly coming in at all angles, the United States would send forces into the other nations as well, escalating this into a full-fledged war. Though the United States was able to deploy new battalions with early cybernetics, they began to spiral and essentially re-experience the quagmire that was the Vietnam War, resulting in major losses. Now, cybernetics at this point are very much prototypes, but the intensity of the conflict resulted in the early funding and focus on like this new level of enhancement to recreate muscle fibers for those who suffered a catastrophic injury or just enhance those who didn't. This would eventually result in the earliest forms of cyberware that we would begin to see, strictly as a medical aid and nothing more. Objectively more crude than some of the more chrome-based sleek augments you're probably imagining, and of course extremely expensive. Veterans would come home with these augments, while others would seek out treatment on their own to perhaps fix some long-term injuries that can now finally be mended. Of course, as time went on, newer innovations would come and go, resulting in the obsolete ones becoming less expensive. In the next 20 years or so, augments such as these would begin to shift into various forms, becoming more utility-based in some respects and completely cosmetic in others, which we will touch on more in a bit. It's now time for things to get worse again. Conflict is not unique at this stage. You'll be shocked to learn.

SPEAKER_04 30:58

Oh, what do you mean after going from Cold War to Vietnam War? What do you mean? There's no conflict.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Well, there are a few other things that occurred in 1990 that are of note. Uh the Warsaw Pact would dissolve a bit earlier than in our timeline, and more importantly, no coup would form against Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union. He would be successful in preserving the Union as he wished, and was able to appoint a successor in the form of Andrei Gorb Gorborev, sorry, I nearly just said Gorbachev again, but it's not Gorborev. Um he would begin to implement Gorbachev's initial plan of restructuring the Soviet Union into something more modern. Things were going relatively okay over on the other side of the world while the US was embroiled in another conflict. In fact, Europe was doing great. Too great, actually, as it seemed that some form of unification was on the horizon. The Gang of Four would view this prospect as a potential wrench in their plans for the future of the US, because the more unified other global powers were, the United States would suffer consequences for that. More oversight, less power, all that jazz. They would watch this intently, but they needed to ensure that the conflict in Central America could conclude. Now, obviously, long drawn out wars tend to have quite a large impact on the average Joe in the US, uh especially when it comes to goods and services.

SPEAKER_04 32:23

Suddenly they're why are they taking all the sugar? Where's all the salt going? What what what happened? I don't man, no. Do you remember these days where we just why do the kids have to work at the metal factory now?

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Well Yeah. God, it'd be nice to have news about something other than this seemingly endless conflict that we were supposed to win four years ago. That'd be nice, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_04 32:49

Yeah, yeah. What do you mean we have to ration the food and the energy?

SPEAKER_00 32:52

What so the uh the jewel conflict in Iraq and Central America caused some issues immediately when it came to fuel prices. It would be around this time that a relatively unknown company known as Biotechnica would begin experimenting with fuel alternatives in the hope of solving the problem while also potentially helping them skyrocket in the corporate game. But they wouldn't be the only ones crafting something up at this time. In the very early months of 1991, a very strange thing would occur. The yield of coca plantations across huge portions of South America and Central America would become corrupted by a blight. The sheer volume of product destruction in an unsalvage unsalvageable manner would cause not only various cartels to collapse seemingly overnight, but the governments of both Chile and Ecuador would fully collapse inward due to the increased instability. Now, this blight, it turns out, was the product of the Gang of Four, and suspicions arise when poppy crops against Central Asia would suffer a very similar blight.

SPEAKER_04 34:03

Oh great. That started. Yeah, that's not that's not good. That's don't like that. Okay, lovely.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

I do I do love that it starts out with we need to make sure that the country is being run in a proper manner, and then we're like f like five paragraphs later where we're going to destroy other people's crops.

SPEAKER_04 34:30

The only way for the United States to survive is to, you know, destroy the agricultural uh world of every other country. Great! Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Uh it's almost like it's almost like they're not actually doing what they said they would, and instead of being a bit meg like like maniacal about the whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 34:51

Um Yeah, it's almost like that, which would again never happen in the real world. This is fiction, pure fiction.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Uh though this instability is too much to resist, we're going to uh briefly talk about some unity. So the Gang of Four would be correct in their fit fears about Europe's unification as the European Economic Community would be established in 1992. Their presence was strong, and their initial founding would consist of Germany, France, Denmark, Austria, and Benelux, which is Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Their unification caused severe fluctuations in the global economy, especially with the creation of the Eurodollar, and the implementation of protective tariffs would ensure that joining the EEC would result in strength and not division. And, best of all, being a European nation didn't matter. Entry into the EEC was based on global influence, not geography. So Japan was invited to join right from the drop, and they would have a strong relationship with the more recently reformed Soviet Union, now known as the Union of Sovereign Soviet Republics. The US would also be offered entry as well, but they would decline. Because of course they would. Shocking development, right?

SPEAKER_04 36:04

Like, oh wow, all of Europe is unifying? Not us, man. We're not Europe. Fuck them. We're free. Alright.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

That's cool. There are there are good reasons as to why they would decline. Are there are there actually Kirios? Are they actually good reasons? Good might be doing a bit of heavy lifting, but there were reasons. Um due to several governments being destabilized in Central and South America, the United States would begin funding militia groups to ensure that the leaders they wanted would be put into power. These leaders assured the United States that they would be given free access to lithium deposits and other natural resources without much hassle. Meanwhile, the conflict in Iraq would end fairly pyrrically. A whole lot of money and troops were spent without achieving the goal of removing Saddam Hussein from power, and the forces of the US were recalled to deal with the issues in Central and South America. That whole uh blight, that bioagent, was, as mentioned, successful, but it also had a degree of impact that was global. The drug wars here would hit the corporations of the EEC pretty hard, and the actions of the US in this part of the world would result in some aggressive sanctions being placed on them. The EEC would also do something the US found to be unthinkable. They would provide aid to various Soviet nations and really work on strength in unity. This, of course, very much against the US uh Yeah, the US is like, you're providing aid?

SPEAKER_04 37:38

Please, you have to subjugate them and destroy their crops and make them kneel under the boot of your come on, what are you doing? What are you doing? Also, when you're like, oh yeah, they had you know, they installed regime leaders so that they could have free access to all of their crops.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

I was like, oh, again, never happen in real life.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

We've given you freedom. I I love it when my my fictional worlds are based on just the real world, but but with more information on the shady stuff that's happening.

SPEAKER_04 38:18

Yeah, I l I love it when my dystopian fantasy doesn't sound like a fantasy and it just sounds historical. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

Ah, I see you've taken inspiration from yesterday. Yeah. Thanks. Correct. So yeah, the uh the whole providing uh aid to Soviet nations very much go went against the United States National Security Council's whole the Soviets are evil thing. That let's let's be honest, quite a strong, quite a strong uh like stand that has been taken for quite a while at this point. Um both both fictional and and real. Um which one are we talking about? Real fictional? Like take your picks. The direct equivalence there, it's just a one-for-one. Um the Soviets would accept the Euro dollar over the US dollar, forcing the collapse of NATO. Oh my, I please stop. For the first time in four years, the Soviet Union would make peace with Western Europe. I just read the NATO thing, and then I remembered all the stuff about how NATO shouldn't be a thing anymore, and uh I don't like it. Um I'm you know what, I'm I'm learning something about myself when when we do these. Uh Shy, for God's sake.

SPEAKER_04 39:40

You can't keep bringing up these links, Shy. That's crazy. Also, I I I love that the Euro dollar currency that Chai posted literally on it, instead of um uh it it just says get rich or die trying on the fucking money. Like instead of like, oh yeah, in God we trust or or or something, it's get rich or die trying, and it's like brother. If that's what it says on your currency, you are well and truly fucked.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Oh my god, that's ri that is really good. That's really good. I genuinely love that, at least to being honest about it.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Yeah, that's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Yeah, I'm kind of I'm learning, I'm learning increasingly as we do more of these, especially when we're doing stuff like like this or or Shadow Run um and like World of Darkness specifically, those sort of based kind of in reality, but sort of sheared off into their own universe where there's more fantastical elements. I'm learning that the first time I read through the script in preparation for the episode, I think I am uh partially dissociating as I go. Because it's like I I read through and I'm like, okay, all good. This looks great, this is fantastic, all sorted. I I can hopefully, you know, anticipate questions early on if they're answered later on, and you know, it it's just good for the general structure of everything, right? So, you know, it helps to know what you're reading. Yeah, but then we read it through, and I'm reading it again, and there's bits that I've already read before, and I know that what they say, but it's like part of my brain turns itself off on the first read through, and on the second one, that part isn't off, and that part goes, I hate that. I I just I hate it. I actually hate reading this, and the thing is, I didn't hate it before, but I think it's because I'm allowing myself to feel it in the moment when we do the recording. But it just means your brain puts up a spoiler filter that you don't even know is there. Yeah, it's like we could we're not gonna we're not gonna go into it now. We're gonna read through, make sure everything's good, and then when we sit down to record, I'm like, this is all too real, and I don't like it, but I don't have that reaction the first time through. And it feels like it should be the other way around, and I should be, you know, immune to it when we're actually talking about the thing. But it doesn't happen that way, and instead I just get sad and alarmed as we go along because I'm like, it's worse, it's actually worse the second time, it's genuinely worse the second time. Clear and acceptable losses, we feel sad and alarmed all the time.

SPEAKER_04 42:24

That's that's the new shirt. It's just it's just Kira's face, and I'm sad and alarmed. Perfect. Print it and ship it. You like reality, right?

SPEAKER_00 42:39

That's the new shirt. And it's just Kira. We should we should we should round out those shirts with a you like fantasy right and a you like reality right. I don't know the reality one, I'm not sure what we could put on it, but you know, uh I th I we could find something that would make it work and just our two characters looking depressed.

SPEAKER_04 43:02

Just just no shy, no, we cannot. I don't think that should be are you like I don't uh anywho, so cyberpunk completely dystopian and not at all paralleling our world.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

I've I have read out many things that DK refused to read out from you, Shy. For that one, I think you're just gonna have to put it up as a picture in the episode. I'm I'm not I'm not getting the heat for that one. No way. No, no, sir, not me. Um yeah, you're on your own, Shy. Oh now, the uh the the you know, Western Europe and the Soviet Union being at peace, that's all very cum by R and all that jazz, but the Gang of Four would not view it this way at all. They would become increasingly paranoid. Initially, the refusal to join the EEC was due to just being spread too thin, but it It became increasingly clear to the rest of the world that the United States was actively becoming more isolationist. But they didn't know the half of it. The rise of the EEC was now a specific target the Gang of Four could actively act out against, and they would begin to focus efforts towards destabilizing it. But this unfortunately would have to wait, as the other places they'd destabilized over the past few years were beginning to strike back, and these strikes would not be abroad. Various nations in South America would agree that action needed to be taken while the US was quite literally still stuck in the mud with various guerrilla forces in their neck of the woods. Those secret through secret channels and various other means, extremist organizations from South America would begin to wreak havoc across the US with various pinpointed terrorist attacks on domestic soil. The most aggressive one took place in the financial district of New York, where an improvised dirty bomb suitcase would be detonated and would result in the death of 15,000 people.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Boy, that's a that's a lie. Yeah, that sops.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

That is that is no good. That fifteen thousand people. How big was that suitcase? Must have been massive absolutely massive. Well, you said this was a dirty bomb, right? It could have been anything. Yeah, that's that that's fair.

SPEAKER_04 45:25

That's probably the bigger detail, isn't it?

unknown 45:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:29

And this is this is this is dystopian cyberpunk, so who knows? I mean, it might it might have been as small as a little microchip. Just packed full of anthrax.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Or some small nuclear bomb. Paranoia at this point in America was at a peak, and the Gang of Four would work over time when it came to supporting black market weapon sales in the US and beyond.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

Because that's what you should do. That is that, yeah, no, damn. They really do have their priorities set straight. Incredible.

SPEAKER_00 46:00

I'm starting to think these Gang of Four aren't very nice people. Um What gave that what gave you that indication? Just little things here and there, you know. Um just a gut feeling. I don't have any proof, but the wars in Central and South America would start to shift in their favour due to the implementation of air mobile units that gave them quite literally the upper hand, and the Gang of Four would begin to really begin in earnest their efforts against the EEC. By now the EEC would have accomplished great things, including the expansion of their space program and the reinforcement of their unified military ma and the reinforcement of their unified military made it seem like the United States was nothing more than second fiddle. Genuinely, at this point, the Gang of Four was afraid. The Quiet War was the name of the Gang of Four's direct action to undermine the efforts of the EEC, and though it had technically begun when entry into the EEC was declined by the US, the end of 1993 into 1994 was when it really took shape. Through the NSA, the Gang of Four would begin to commit great acts of financial fraud in order to give off the impression of financial stability in the country, in spite of not being a member of the EEC. The newly inaugurated president, James Richard Allen, was not much help here either, as his vice presidential pick was awfully manipulative over what he did or didn't act on. And that is because his VP was a man named Harold Harrison Hunt. Triple H to me. It's time to play the game. And he was on the payroll of the Gang of Four directly. There would be attempts to manipulate treaty talks between the EEC and Soviet militaries to stall further combination efforts too, but these would seem to be for naught. The US would then attempt to hack directly into the stock market systems of the EEC as well as Asia to put their money where their mouth is. The direct manipulation of the stock exchange numbers as well as a catastrophic amount of insider trading resulted in the EEC becoming deeply suspicious of the actions of the US, and they would launch an investigation. You can probably guess how that goes, given that the title for this section is The Crash and the Collapse.

SPEAKER_04 48:34

I'm sure it goes swimmingly. Surely, surely the investigation took up nothing. Wouldn't that be nice for those four guys specifically? That'd be so funny if that's actually what happened and the collapse and everything was just a completely unrelated event, and it was just like a single somewhere else. And Passum was like, gotcha idiot. You thought you knew what was happening. You did not.

SPEAKER_00 49:03

You had no clue, dumbass. Well, the investigation would be relatively quick and would determine the fault of the US and their desperate actions to influence the global market as a whole. So Damn, it was us. Instead of doing anything directly actionable, the EEC would just publish their findings. The news of the extreme nature of the fraud the US attempted would result in the crash of 94, where virtually every developed nation would place dramatic and vicious embargoes onto the US trade-wise. The extreme nature of these embargoes would be catastrophic. So I've got uh another quote for you, and uh I'll just I'll be honest. This is a rough one. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 49:56

Great, great. We were hiring like mad, getting ready for the rally. Then at about three o'clock one day, I was eating something and came on the feed. Embargo, everyone was in on it. The whole EEC, Switzerland even froze all American assets. Something about currency manipulations by hackers. I walked out on the sales floor and there was no sound. People were just staring. Japan had abandoned us, then Mexico, even Australia. I threw up in a trash can just as the first guy jumped. Joe Siegel. Oof.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:31

Yep. It uh it was not great. In only a few short months, those who relied on things like investment portfolios or pensions would lose any and all financial stability. And the amount of jobs that would pull out of the US would be too numerous to count. Unemployment percentages would reach the high double digits, and the number of those forced into homelessness would number in the millions. Because of the removal of any meaningful connection to global markets, the dollar would plummet to almost complete worthlessness, and the rapid cashing of bonds was so extreme that the Federal Reserve couldn't print money fast enough. The violence in the streets in virtually every state would force the US to recall virtually all military forces in order to deal with a domestic unrest, resulting in the loss of the First Central American War and ultimately a gigantic financial and personal investment loss on the end of the United States.

SPEAKER_04 51:30

Yeah, Lee! Oh man, I hate it when the consequences of my action show up. This is awful. But what really actually what really sucks is the fact that, like, just you know, everyday Joe Blow is the one that has to suffer for, you know, political corruption that had literally nothing to do with them. That always that always feels real, but it's like, oh yeah, millions are homeless, millions are dying. Oh, what did what did they do? Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

Yeah. Yeah. Funnily enough, a lot of the time when it comes to especially uh the the more wealthy in society, they get to do the fuck around. They don't often actually have to experience the find out part. That is left to everybody else. Yeah. It's always uh again, just it only happens in fantasy.

SPEAKER_04 52:21

This is just this would never happen in real life. Again, we love our fantasy podcast about grim dark universes.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

Well, the increase. Put that on your ping card, Jesus. The uh the increase of the homeless population as well as the unemployed population would result in the earliest nomads being present along the West Coast. Driven out by the companies that had once supported them, these roving bands of early nomad were very much an indicator of things to come when it came to the landscape of the country. Alongside them would be the earliest versions of booster gangs as well, as around this time the very early cybernetics were in swing, and now that they were disconnected from their homes or places of employment, cyberpsychosis would start to take hold. The extreme increase in instability would result in an even more extreme increase in mindless violence. Yeah I I suppose it would. Yeah. Yeah. And uh the government was spread too thin to really do anything meaningful about it. Of course, a lack of action would be viewed as something intentional by those who are in harm's way, and the active hunting and executions of defence attorneys and other officials that seemingly allowed for crime to continue would skyrocket. Even the deployment of soldiers on the streets of the United States could not stop the violence. Somehow, things were even worse in Pittsburgh around this time, as a full nuclear meltdown would occur in an arcology, rendering the city uninhabitable.

SPEAKER_04 53:58

There we go. There's the arcology and it sucks almost as bad as the other one.

SPEAKER_00 54:07

Hundreds would die immediately, and cancer rates to anyone from Pittsburgh would skyrocket. The former city would become known as the pit from then on. Oh man, that sucks.

SPEAKER_04 54:20

The pit. Oh man. The pit. Yeah. The Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_00 54:28

Great. Lovely. Meanwhile, though, meanwhile, to be fair, things were still going pretty okay overall, elsewhere, at least for a bit. Um the European Space Agency and the Pan African Alliance would begin furthering the colonization of space by beginning construction of the Kilimanjaro mass driver, which is one of the coolest things I've ever heard, to allow for goods to be shot into space, and a unification of ministries would be carried out in Japan. Sure, there was a civil war breaking out in China, courtesy of Maoist loyalists, and Poland was un I meant to I I meant to change this earlier and I forgot. Um now, Possum didn't mean to write a marital law. It's martial law. But it but it does say marital.

SPEAKER_04 55:16

Careful, Kira. Does the missus listen to the podcast? You gotta be careful, dude. Don't start a fight you don't wanna finish. Careful, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

Poland was under martial law. Um but things things otherwise great. Um also I got a personal warning for this bit. Carry off, you're gonna hate this one. At the tail end of 1995, the EEC would implement a system referred to as Fortress Europe, which resulted in the monitoring of citizens through the mandatory carrying of scannable and traceable ID cards.

SPEAKER_04 55:57

Which would uh you know what, I'm not even gonna say it. You know, you know what I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_00 56:02

I've said I've just said it already. Our government has been trying to do literally in like the last few months in this country. Uh definitely all in the realms of fiction.

SPEAKER_04 56:14

Uh I was gonna say, I don't even have to say it anymore, do I? Like, yeah, listen, just just chime in in the comments when you see something that actually happened.

SPEAKER_00 56:24

I would I would love to see a comment that is literally just time stamps to everything that is just real. Just all the things that are like actually, well, I would because then that would be interesting. I also wouldn't because I wouldn't want to actually go through and look at all of that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:43

That seems like a great way to ruin your evening. Actually, don't comment.

SPEAKER_00 56:47

Just just comment with yep, fiction. Just yep. By the start of 1996, the downward spiral that the United States was on had a name. The collapse. The violence in the country had escalated to the point where it was virtually unavoidable. By this stage, one in every four Americans was homeless, and riots would become the norm. Hundreds of thousands of people would cause these conflicts, and even though they had the name the Nomad Riots, seldom were nomads actually involved. The execution of officials would continue, earning the name the Lawyer Purge, and in August of 1996, President James Richard Allen would be assassinated in California while on the campaign trail.

SPEAKER_04 57:27

Oh man. One in four is wild, by the way. That's crazy. That's some sick art though, Shy. Home of the Brave with the with the I'm assuming that's Johnny Silverhand, early art of him, um, on the on the Harley. Gosh, that's that's that's a hell yeah, brother.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

It looks it looks great. The backdrop is horrific, but it's very cool.

SPEAKER_04 57:53

Um very, very dystopian cyberpunk background, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:58

Yeah. Now uh the death of the president would result in Harold Harrison Hunt becoming the acting president and allowing for the Gang of Four's plans to be fully realized. But you know, it's not necessarily going to be easy for anyone involved. And uh on that note, I have a quote for you here.

SPEAKER_04 58:20

It's part of me that helps the quote is just like, talk about student of the game.

SPEAKER_03 58:24

I am the fucking game jayer.

unknown 58:28

Anyway.

SPEAKER_04 58:29

Ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, now is the time for action. This body has chosen not to act on the crisis we face. If someone does not take action now, America is doomed. I will not allow this to happen. As the ranking member of the executive branch of the government, I have signed an executive order suspending the Constitution of the United States. As of this moment, 3 p.m., martial law has been established and will remain in effect until this crisis is past. At this time, cerebral units of the Central Command are positioning themselves around the Capitol. Each of you has been assigned a squad of U.S. Army Rangers at your homes for protection. This session is suspended until further notice. Thank you. Secretary of Defense Jonathan Seward Seward on August 17th. That's crazy, by the way. The fact that it's like well when the Constitution has been suspended.

SPEAKER_03 59:29

I was gonna say, I didn't even know you could do sure, surely you can't you shouldn't be uh uh boy, that's cr that's crazy business.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

I I don't know much about the US Constitution, I'll be honest. You know, there's it doesn't really have a huge amount of a huge amount of sway over here.

SPEAKER_04 59:45

Um in no United States Constitution doesn't have much weight in Europe? No, Kyrie, no.

SPEAKER_00 59:56

From what I gather, really, really quite, you know, important and foundational to the entirety of your society, from what I understand. Yeah. So someone going, yeah, we're just gonna turn this off for now. Alarming to say the least.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

To say the least, a little alarming.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:13

Just a just a switch. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:19

Unprecedented even, perhaps. Um that definitely has not happened in real life. Maybe, maybe, maybe there's some presidents that wish they could, but I don't believe that's ever happened.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:32

Yeah, it hasn't happened yet. Yeah. So the implementation of martial law at this stage in the game would be the final closing of an iron curtain around the United States. Oh, for fuck's sake. If that I'm not even re I'm not even reading it. I'm not even reading it. I didn't even read it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:50

I didn't see that headline at all. I don't even I don't even know what Kyrie's reacting to. I'm not I'm not looking at it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

I'm just not looking at it. Um So, for God's sake, the implementation of martial law at this stage in the game would be the final closing of an iron curtain around the United States, as they would be left to their own devices, except those stationed overseas in the remaining footholds the US had. The forced imprisonment andor killing of those who were homeless and potentially hostile would begin. This being said, America was not the only place having a very rough time at that moment, as Japan was dealing with a lot of issues, courtesy of the now ominously powerful Arasaka. But the story of Arasaka is so in-depth that it kind of requires its own separate conversation. So next time we delve into this universe, we'll go over everything regarding them, including the Fortnite character Adam Smasher, uh which was new I didn't uh that was news to me that there was a a cyberpunk-related uh Fortnite crossover. Oh yeah, that was a while ago.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:52

I think uh I think Lucy's in it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:54

I think I don't remember if Adam's in it, but well Adam Smasher is in it, but um I don't Possum So I I said to Possum, having having like read that bit, I said, wait, there's a Fortnite crossover. And then Possum replied, inexplicably, they added Adam Smasher to Fortnite, which is like adding Jeffrey Dahmer to the Sims. I mean, he's not wrong. So I uh I don't have the context for for that, but it doesn't sound like a good choice on Fortnite's part.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:34

You know, the guy who is introduced to you in the game is saying that you know you look like a real fuckable cut of meat. Perfect for Fortnite. Oh my god, what really wow, that's canon?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:49

Adam Smash doing ads for the hard rock cafe? That's canon? That's not just I thought that was fan art, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:58

Oh god. Wow. All right, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick. Anyway, after all of this, the EEC is doing great. Portugal and Italy decided to join. Uh and hopefully nothing really bad happens that can impact the global economy any further. Oh boy. The Mideast meltdown was one of the more horrific side effects of the collapse.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:28

I was about to say foreshadowing is a literary job, but you have beat me to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:34

Jesus. I'm not gonna lie, when Possum does these little sections, regardless of whether we're doing acceptable losses or adapt is ridiculous, I I'm slowly seeing how how long I can get away with pushing the poles between the very obvious foreshadowing and then the horrific statement straight after.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:54

It's good, it's good. You're you're learning. Possum's like, ah yes, I have you trained well.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:00

Dance, my puppet dance. So uh yeah, the Mid East meltdown, one of the more horrific side effects of the collapse, as tensions between the countries of the Middle East and North Africa would come to a head. Nuclear exchanges would break out, resulting in nations essentially getting glassed. Libya, the UAE, most of Iran, and a good portion of Iraq would be virtually destroyed. Some, like Egypt, Israel, and Syria, would own would survive only because they were already in tatters prior to the bombs going off. The fallout of these exchanges would spread worldwide and have a devastating impact on the environments of countless nations. The surviving forces in Iraq and Iran would initiate a direct conflict and would have a devastating impact on the remaining military forces in the region. Due to a lack of finances and a lack of personnel, the NSA was not prepared with any form of early warning to provide intel to American soldiers who were caught in the crossfire and were all but wiped out. Yeah. Nice. Nice. Speaking of being wiped out, remember that period in the nineties when a bunch of oil spills just kept happening over and over again? Well, the spills would get progressively worse during this time, and a toxic spill in the Pacific Northwest in nineteen ninety-seven would utterly wipe out the fishing industry there. Oh, great. It just keeps getting it's just getting better and better. Yeah. Oh boy, that's all right. Cool, cool, cool, sick, sick, sick, sick. State economies were still collapsing at this time, and it seemed like hope was lost. Curfews due to the martial law order were essentially shoot on site, and the military would actively conduct artillery strikes on its own people, including in Houston, where over two thousand citizens were killed.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:50

Boy, that's that's that sucks.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:52

That's uh I've said it before. This this whole Gang of War situation.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:04

Yeah, no, I I I I agree wholeheartedly with you, Kiri. Yep, yeah, I mm-mm. Nope, I don't think it's working. I hate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:15

It's it's so gross. The sheer volume of DEA agents and members of the INS, the immigration and naturalization services, acting almost as paramilitary resulted in them being mostly plain clothes officers, and secret funding from these still awfully powerful mega corporations resulted in basically any flavor of mercenary that you can think of. Now, this is another quote for you. Sorry. I don't I'm just I'm just gonna apologize now.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:47

Okay. When I was only seven, mother told me to stay inside all the time. We lived in a part of LA called Newton. I hated staying inside a lot. Mom used to fight with everyone who came inside, even me. One day, a woman from the government came to see me and took me to another house. They said that mom was dead in the bedroom. I knew it wasn't true because my mother had a head. Oh. I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:14

Yeah.

unknown 1:07:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:15

That's uh Yeah, that also, by the by, uh, for anyone listening, uh, that quote is just by an unknown child. This happens so regularly and is so unsurprising. They were like, oh, we don't even need to denote who said this. This is just a child. Happens all the time. Not even gonna mark down their name. Whoof. Yeah. Yeah. It's not great.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:42

It's not it's not great. No.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:45

As you can imagine, many states began to question whether or not the United States was a good idea. Understatement. But why? That felt like some proper British understatedness. I I love that. Um New York and Texas would be some of the earliest ones to refuse to pay taxes to DC and would initiate blockades that resulted in economic strikes. San Francisco would attempt to forcibly close its borders only for the government to try to strongarm itself in and claim the city as its own. This resulted in the state of California announcing that they were fully seceding from the Union. The Free States movement would begin and multiple states would just straight up bail on the US. Initially, the government would try to force the forces of the US military to reclaim those states, but they would not budge. The forced deployment of US soldiers on US soil resulted in incredible attrition and active armed resistance. Many who had initially acted in the early stages of the collapse now regretted it, and the call to arms would be ignored, resulting in the remnant of the US government being forced to a standstill. The Gang of Four was on the ropes, and investigations into them would begin at the behest of Jonathan Seward. Now, this has been very understated, but now is a good time to really make one thing clear. Despite the terrors of the United States as a whole, corporations are doing fine, especially in the United States. See, after the collapse, the government straight up did not have the ability to stop the mega corporations from abroad setting up shop.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:23

Yeah, sadly, I was like, yep, that definitely sounds like a tracks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:31

I'd imagine US mega corporations are having a hell of a bad time. But if all their money is coming from more stable countries and economies, like what you how are you gonna stop them from just buying stuff up everywhere? And if people are homeless or you know, the dollar is worth absolutely nothing. Yeah. And someone like a and a representative rocks up and is like, well, you want to buy this entire street for enough that you might be able to eat for a week, probably just gonna be like, yeah, that's fine.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:03

Yeah. Yeah, especially since like uh they're they're probably in the global trade, so they're also getting a currency that is worth significantly more than the US dollar. Yep. Yep. I'm sure I'm I'm sure Militech is doing fine, just fine. Yeah. And Arasaka and yeah, uh yeah, yeah, sadly, they are probably flourishing. Business is a boom and stock prices have never been higher.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:28

That's the important thing. As long as line goes up, everything's fine. We know this.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:32

Um Militech is a US corporation. Can you tell? Oh wow, thanks, Shy. I know I couldn't. There were no indicators at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:46

Oh God. There were obviously tons of vulnerable people after the collapse that were desperate for any form of work, even if it meant very little pay. The promises of security and safety were complemented with the rapid hiring of even more desperate people who would act as mercenaries to protect them. Plus, land was clearing up left and right for them, so they had more space to stretch out, allowing them to operate almost completely uncontested and giving them the ability to work on experimental new ways of life. From agriculture to cybernetics, America became a great experiment yet again. Elsewhere in the world, we begin to see a few more snags. China claims Hong Kong while Europe is ravaged by once-in-a-lifetime hurricanes. A massive earthquake off the coast of Spain causes tsunamis that kill thousands. And uh speaking of earthquakes, uh, 1998 was a true nightmare for the United States, like most of the recent years. Um but it's in a different way.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:48

That's the key thing. This time it wasn't the government that caused mass casualties. This time it's just a natural disaster. Yeah. Don't worry, guys. This this casualty, mass casualty list, it's just Mother Nature.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:07

So much better. It's that rumbling, it's that artillery strikes again. Oh no, wait, no, no, it's just an earthquake. Oh, this is lovely. What a refreshing change.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:18

It's just a city-sized sinkhole. Aw, well, you know, at least the stock prices are okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:28

I know my house is gone, but it wasn't worth anything anyway. So true. A major drought spreads across the entirety of the Midwest, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of miles of land and the tanking of farms left and right. But perhaps the most devastating environmental event occurs in Los Angeles. An earthquake registering 10.5 on the Richter scale kicks the heart of Los Angeles. That's 10.5 in the heart. What's the strongest earthquake ever recorded? I'm not sure. I mean 10.5 is is bloody up there, innit?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:09

I um that was the most British I think you've ever sounded.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:16

It's bloody strong, in it.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:20

So true, brother. So true. I actually don't know what the strongest recorded was. Um, unfortunately, there was that huge 7.1 in Japan recently, which hopefully everybody in Japan is doing all right. But um, I don't know what the strongest recorded earthquake ever was. Oh, uh Chai has, I guess this is like the second strongest one. Uh the Indian Ocean earthquake in tsunami in December 26, 2004. Sumatra, Indonesia was a 9.2. Jeez. And this one is significantly stronger.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:57

Oh, apparently in 1960 in Chile, there was one that was 9.5. I can't even imagine that kind of world shaking. Yeah, so 10.5 um in LA is absolutely atrocious. That's that's horrific. Wow. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:19

I mean, uh the Indian Ocean one obviously happened like in the ocean, and then the subsequent tsunami ruined everything. But the the epicenter being the heart of LA is crazy business.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:32

Well, over 30% of the city is immediately submerged underwater. Oh god. And over 65,000 people are killed. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:43

Oh damn.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:47

That sucks.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:48

But yeah, yeah, that would that sucks.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:51

Yeah, 10.5 in the heart of LA, that being the epicenter.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:55

Oh boy, that that is not even not even the rock would survive that one. And he survived some bullshit.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:05

You making a reference to the hit movie San Andreas? Yes, I am.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:11

Okay, cool. Which I think I think I've watched, but I genuinely can't remember really any of it outside of him going up a wall of water in a boat, and that's really all I can remember. Um The Rock, starring as The Rock, indeed. It's the only role he can play, to be fair.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:32

So true. So true.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:34

Well, that in Maui, which is just the rock, but anyway. At this point, people in the US are starting to believe that there's a lot more going on that's causing these horrors to happen, and some turn to religious fanaticism. In Kentucky, a group of Neo-Luddites called the Luds form. They are fearful of the innovations in technology and how it's spurred by the advancement of megacorporations. They were I was about to say uh d they sound like my sort of people, but then I remembered this next bit, which is they would become a domestic terrorist organization that would begin a bombing spree that would continue for a decade. So, all right. Maybe not too far off on the like right basis, but these actions not I'm not on I'm not as on board with those. No.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:22

No, definitely, for sure. Carry out before reading the script. These sound like my kind of people reads two lines down. Ah, fuck. I'm gonna get cancelled for this.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:38

I can't want a list. Remember how things were going okay in the rest of the world? Well, it's getting a bit rough out there now. Um the UK is now also under martial law and the monarchy is removed. Good. The flavour text in one of the books. I was gonna let you handle that one. Uh the flavour text in one of the book states how the King of England in 1998 is King Charles III, and he, along with Prince Andrew, oh dear, the fact that he's the one who's referenced is that's that's rough. Um why am I him? Why um uh and other members of the royal family are either detained or exiled. I mean, I support that for Prince Andrew now, so I don't think Hong Kong is also in a state of martial law, just throwing that out there. Uh oh, and the KGB attempted to overthrow the new USSR, but they failed. Do you know who is having a good time though? The moon.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:46

The moon. All right, sick. So I guess I guess I didn't I know, yeah. I I I guess even in like the game and the show, the moon is sort of like, oh yeah, we need to escape to the moon. That's where paradise is. God, I would love to really stay your house on the moon, you know?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:04

Yeah, yeah. Tyco colony is fully established, and they're building another mass driver so that uh so that stuff can be fired from the moon to Earth. So it's like the moon's looking pretty good right now. It's looking better than a lot of Earth, apparently. Um as we get to 1999, things start to slightly shift in the favour of the US. The federal weapons statute is implemented as an attempt to curb the influence of the Gang of Four on America's current state of chaos. The statute states that a gun owner's gun, that should a gun owner's gun be found utilized and identified to be theirs at the scene of a crime, they are liable for the crime. Oh, now this can be this can be prevented by reporting the gun is stolen or missing to authorities and filing a report. Okay? It's not just it's not just I left my I left my Glock on the bus and now apparently I'm a mass murderer. It's not quite that.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:58

Well, what happens what happens if your gun is stolen, you don't know it, and then the first to your knowledge, it shows up at a crime scene.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:05

I mean, I'm assuming you get shot in the head. Yeah, you're right. It seems like that is what happens. No sympathy. You're like, I should have reported it stolen, idiot.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:17

The form is available publicly. Just go to the library. It's like it's not that hard. But I didn't know it was stolen. Too bad, idiot. It's actually it's it's actually I don't think quite that bad. But the statute also bans the open carrying of fully automatic weapons or get a prison sentence of up to seven years. So it's you know, they're they're really trying to crack down. Some states threaten to secede because of this. I mean, you know, you can insert your own joke about about which state that's I wasn't gonna say it.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:51

I wasn't gonna say shit, I wasn't gonna say shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:56

So leave that. I'm not touching that one with a 10-foot bowl, brother. Nope, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:02

That's a that's that that's a rare that's a rare insert your own punchline, that one.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:06

Yeah, yep, yeah, but you you do the heavy lifting, listeners.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:11

Rioting in urban areas would drop by about 30%, giving the military enough wiggle room to focus more on the actions of the NSA as opposed to average citizens. The impact would result in martial law being lifted as the grip of the gang of four would fully slip. And now it's the year 2000. Y2K, baby. Sure, a cult that was fearful of the millennium would cause a mass atrocity across various populated areas, including a chemical attack in Berlin that killed 19,000 plus people before taking their own lives, but that's just small potatoes. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:48

Yeah, that oh boy, we we we traveled a long way. It's like, hooray, it's Y2K, by the by, and it's like, oh no, oh boy, we are we are diving headfirst into the shallow end. God.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:06

Oh. And uh continuing the theme of this podcast, uh Possum apologizes in advance for the following words. The wasting plague. Oh. Cool. A horrible infection would begin to tear through the world close to the end of 1999. Those hit by the plague would face an infection of their organs that would make the victims starve to death no matter how much food they consume. Oh boy, that's unfortunate. That's uh that's that's rough. Again, you can insert your own uh pharmaceutical-based joke there if you'd like.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:45

So so there's a literal plague that no matter how much you eat, you still die of hunger? Yep. You still starve to die.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:53

Which is way that I mean, isn't that so like hyper tapeworms? Yeah. You just eat and eat and eat, but you are always starving and you actually physically starve to death. That's insane.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:09

I don't know why my brain is so on Constantine today, but I was immediately reminded of the priest again when he goes on his drinking bin and all of the bottles don't seem to have anything in them. And he's like, What's that gun store?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:21

Yeah, it's the same guy, it's the same priest, it's the same character.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:25

And I'm like, oh, that kind of I'm so Constantine pilled today. I don't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:31

That's such a horrific scene as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:33

Oh, it's so it's when he's like he's just downing so much alcohol and and uh he doesn't even realize it because the fucking uh Balthazar is there tainting everything, that son of a bitch in his fucking coin.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:52

Gonna go and watch it again later just to just to get some some sense of catharsis.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:58

Yeah, fire, I was born of this. Anyway, that's a different episode.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:03

Now the wasting plague was spread extremely easily, especially to those who are in close quarters. Considering that a lot of people were, you know, homeless and in close quarters, the plague would tear through the vulnerable masses at a horrifying rate. The impact of the Gang of Four made the severity of the wasting plague almost easy to ignore, which is horrifying by itself. And by the time an inoculation would be developed in Japan, over 14 million people would be killed by it. Holy shit! Fourteen million people? Fourteen million Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:42

Wow. Huh, I mean, I guess this is the worst possible time for a plague like this to break out considering everything you just said, but fuck me, dude. That's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:54

That is horrific. That is absolutely atrocious. God. The the most significant thing that would occur at the start of the new millennium would be the creation of the net and world sat. The near instantaneous connection of people around the world would have a permanent impact on the landscape of the planet. The United States would also become directly connected with Mr. Saburo Arasaka of the Arasaka Corporation, as he began to buy up like a lot of the failed factories and folded corporations in order to reinvigorate the population. Saburo would become a man in the American people would look up to as an inspiration. He came to help them when their own government had failed them, and America would start to sort of spring back. Sorry, the pacing on this is so good. America would start to sort of spring back. A food crash in 2002 would cause the crops in Canada and the USSR to fail.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:53

Well, things were good for a little bit, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:57

But here's the thing the newly invigorated US agricultural companies would survive due to biological counteragents. So the US is it is still on the up and up, still going strong.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:10

Okay. Okay. New theme for this episode. US on the up and up. It's about bloody time, frankly. Yeah, it's been a long series of downward spirals for the US, but glad to see we're on the rise again.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:25

At this rate, they may yet reach ground floor.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:29

I was gonna say there's there's people there are survivors in the US. There's people alive here after the wasting plague, after the countless dead from just civil war, martial law. There are people in the US still. It's not a barren graveyard.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:49

I feel like in if if we're going by if we're going by sort of film reference terms, since Constantine's come up a few times, if if if we're talking the platform, I think they they've left the the uh the high 200s and they're now in like the the low thirties platform-wise. You know, that it's it's it's not great, but it's nowhere near as bad as it could be. Yeah. Or indeed has been for years. Um speaking of which, uh 2003 would effectively spell the full beginning of the end for the Gang of Four. They also saw the formation of Johnny Silverhand's band Samurai, but again, that's not super important at this very moment.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:31

What yes it is Fucking Samurai!

SPEAKER_04 1:26:35

How dare you, Possum?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:36

It's always important always, every time. The second Central American War would begin, and it would earn the nickname New Vietnam. Oh for a second there, things were looking up, but you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:52

Yeah, you don't want new Vietnam. I don't want old Vietnam.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:56

I just want the second Central American War. We've established that it was an absolute clusterfuck.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:03

Quite literally led to the downfall of the United States as a country. Why are you doing it again? What are you doing?

SPEAKER_04 1:27:11

Stop. Yeah. Yeah, when you're when you're like, golly, I wish we had another Vietnam, it's like, oh boy, let's not let's not do a reunion tour on this one, huh?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:27

Oh, God. The US would attempt to invade Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, because why not? And it was almost an immediate disaster. So much so that a counter-coup formed within the Gang of Four, allowing for the army to get a foothold, claimed DC. Unfortunately, despite the immediate blowback, US forces would remain in this conflict for another seven years while things at home got progressively worse. Oh shy.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:54

But the Vietnam War gave us so many wonderful movies. Come on. Oh shy. I'll listen, I I I read it. All right, Shy, I read one of your comments. All right. I gave you one.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:07

I gave you one. I've been too traumatized by links to news articles to pay as much attention to the chat as I should. I'm sure I'm sorry, Shy. I'm just there's there there's a risk of seeing something that's going to like like in a very real way upset me if I look across too often. And every time I see one, I get I get I I get distracted from what I'm supposed to be reading instead have existential dread.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:36

So I'm not reading that one though. Shy you're on you can put that up on the screen if you want, but now I'm you know what I'll read that one at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:44

Oh, okay, okay. Shy says, thank you, thank you for reading my Vietnam War apologism.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:49

Oh boy. Crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:56

Well, the investigation into the Gang of War would conclude, and the information on just how deep the corruption went would further inflame tensions. Figuratively and literally. Transcripts from the first Central American War would be exposed that revealed secret underhand deals and statements courtesy of acting president Triple H, and he would flee as mercenaries attempted to storm the Capitol. Possum didn't write Triple H. I just I'm struggling to read his name because it's too many if there's just too much going on. Harold Harold Harrison Hunt. Um The king of Holy Hunt would be tracked down eventually in Florida where he would be captured and immolated by mercenaries.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:36

Oh man, I wasn't expecting immolated. I was definitely expecting him to suffer and be unalived. I was not expecting immolated timers. It's so specific. In such a horrible way. Oh man. Well, you know, so uh again, sometimes you get what you fucking deserve, Murray. So, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:01

If only he'd been carrying a bottle of water to s to spit into the air, but the flavors totally.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:07

That would have cured everything. It's a light misting from a bottle of Evian.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:14

We had to get one more reference in. He's he's he's just been set fire. He's not coming back. So an attempt would be made to restore some sense of democratic rule in the country thanks to the ousting of the gang, but presidential appointee Henry Jacobi would be assassinated on November 5th, 2005. An investigation would be launched into who ordered the assassination, and a company known as Mantoga Incorporated would be the culprit. The US military would issue an ultimatum to the company on November 17th. Remove yourselves from the country as a whole in four hours or face the consequences. Four hours? You got four hours. You'd best get moving. Thinking that the military was blowing smoke, Mantoga Incorporated would ignore them. Once the four-hour mark was hit, Operation Big Stick would take place. And then what happened, Kirian? Oh, it's really not funny, but it is quite funny. In a few short hours, the army would eradicate every single Mantoga office with point-point accurate airstrikes while ground forces would overrun storage facilities. Assassins would take out employees left and right, and even if they fled the country, they would be hunted down. What the fuck? Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:38

So there were probably some employees that were like, no, I'm taking this seriously. I'm the fuck out of here. And and probably fled in four hours, but the US is like, nah, sorry. The whole company didn't, you're fucked. Like, goddamn.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:52

That's genuinely crazy. Operation Big Steak would end on April 3rd of 2006, after the final living administrator from Antoga Inc. was killed in Germany.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:04

Jesus!

SPEAKER_00 1:32:06

That is absolutely batshit. Oh my god! Like do you so I mean how it's it's not it's not that many people being just taken out by the government isn't funny. But the idea of you've got four hours to get out to get your company out, to get your company out, and because they were like, I don't I don't think they're going to do anything like horrific in four hours, only for them to go every employee must die is insane. It's absolutely insane behavior.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:43

Gosh, that's wild. So I mean, I I I guess they probably got, you know, they're the they're uh the guy that assassinated. I I I I guess they probably got their man, maybe. I mean there's no one left, so I'm assuming that'd be it'd be so funny if they were like, yeah, but we outsourced the assassin, they were never part of our company. Yeah, the assassin was part of Arasaka, dude. Like, what sorry, you just killed a corporation for nothing.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:15

Turns out we read the memo wrong. Just let's not mention it. Let's not mention it. Um the uh yes, that's that's pretty much exactly what Possum was put in the script. So Scheid says, I like the summary of it in the source book. This genocidal military action has remained as an example to all corporations on American soil of what happens when the US government is pushed too far.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:39

Like people in the US needed more examples of this. I was gonna say that people down in the streets for being out too late. I think we know millions dead from curfew. Ah, we need to set a stronger example though. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:01

It's crazy. Crazy. Oh I've got uh another I've got another another quote for you. This one, I will say, I'm not even gonna apologize for. Alright. This one is actually, I think, one of the first just flipped out of positive things we've had in like 13 pages of screen. Wow, we have positive things? Crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:23

We do have, well, a positive thing. I remember election day in 2008. I was only 12. None of the kids could figure out what the commotion was about. All the adults were real happy though. A street punk named Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:41

Sounds like such a bad play or musical, but you know, take it.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:48

Streetcar named Desire, Street Punk named Christmas. Yeah, yeah, sure, why not? Also being that happy that there's finally an election is like, oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:01

In 2008, free elections would occur for the first time in years, which is great stuff, right? It would be time to rebuild, except for the band Samurai, which would break up this year.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:15

We know what Johnny got up to after Samurai broke up, though, so thousand eight would not be without conflict, though.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:23

Most of these conflicts would be of the corporate nature, as a number of corporate wars would begin to take place during this time. Ambition for many would turn to the stars, but with ambition would come conflict. The first orbital war would be fought in space between the United States and the Soviets, of course, and would end catastrophically as Tycho would launch rocks at Colorado Springs. Oof. So I mean I guess fuck Colorado Springs in particular. I yeah, I I I guess you know. Alright. The rest of the world would go through sporadic periods of martial law and civil unrest while corporations would begin to sink their teeth in deeper. The number of free states will get into the double digit, but some would call crawling back to America's corpse at some point. This would also be the time where the arms race for literal arms would take off substantially at the behest of corporations. The industrial cyberware revolution would occur and result in the dramatic increase in the utility that various cyber augments provided. Some would be necessary for basic job functions, while others were a bit more ridiculous and unnecessary. To many, cybernetics became a status symbol, while to others it meant survival. Some would become deeply invested in the idea of replacing oneself piece by piece, while others would fear it entirely. Boss baby moment of silence for the boss baby there.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:47

Yeah, devil a moment of silence.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:51

But like many other things, the primary reason for this cyberware revolution was for combat. The stronger and more violent you were in a war zone, the more likely you could win for a nation or the highest paying executive. There are many more conflicts for the next twelve years leading into 2020, but many of them can only be truly discussed after we learn about the single most important place in the world of cyberpunk. So, I have another quote for you here.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:19

Alright, and it's oh, oh, okay. I I thought you were excited, it's back to normal. We're gonna be depressed again. An exciting and vibrant place to live. Night City is even more fun to visit, world famous for its slogan, the city on the edge of tomorrow. The area hosts almost nine million tourists, conventioners, and corporate travelers every year, a planned community with an advanced rapid transit system, its own net LDL, and a corporate center boasting representatives from over a dozen of the world's most powerful megacorps. Night City is a shining example of technologic technology triumphant over the troubles of the past. Right here in Knight City.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:09

Sounds good to me. Sounds almost too good to be true.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:15

No, this is a tech paradise where nothing bad can happen.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:24

In 1954, a man by the name of Richard Knight would be born into a family of Caltech researchers. He would initially follow in the steps of his parents, but be burnt financially by a roommate of his in college by the name of Ron Romney Zakarian. That is a tricky name. His focus from then on would shift from science to business investment. He would make some new friends and would eventually form a company by the name of Halsey, Ferris, and Knight. The company's focus was on the building of megastructures, such as huge office complexes, airports, and cities. HFN would become exceptionally successful, and Knight would reap these benefits greatly. He would become a very wealthy man, both financially and interpersonally, as he would become married to a woman named Miriam. However, by the time 1990 rolled around, Knight became concerned about the state of the country.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:17

Everyone ever in that setting. I'm becoming concerned about the state of the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:25

Something doesn't feel quite right here. He would see extreme violence in the streets and would fear that something terrible was imminent. His work was also becoming boring as it was mostly building large accommodations for corporations that were mostly cookie cutter. He felt that he was squandering his talents, and he wanted to do what he could to help the people of the US as best as possible. He would form Knight International and would start the groundwork for something massive, a city. But not just any city, a city that was maintained and controlled by corporations, a place that would be safe from the social and economic disasters tearing the country to shreds. He wanted this city to be self-sufficient and strong enough to hold off intruders and potential military forces that would attempt to seize it. Though extremely corporate focused, he wanted it to feel like a combination of all sorts of cultures and ideologies, and he wanted to preserve as much natural feel as possible while also being a supermodern shrine for enlightened capitalism. A city like none other.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:22

Hooray, Enlightened Capitalism. You love to see it. Yay.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:28

It's my favourite kind. Fortunately for him, the collapse resulted in many corporations looking to establish a foothold while also not having to fret about the violence in the streets. The tailor-made ideas that Knight had were perfect, and they would freely hand him as much money as he needed to make it a possibility. Knight required quite a bit of land to get this project off the ground, something that had ocean ports as well as highways, and something far enough out of the way where they didn't really have to spend too much. He would send survey teams across the coast of the now ruined United States, but an article in the San Francisco Chronicle would catch his eye. A town called Morro Bay in Central California had recently suffered an extremely violent turf war courtesy of the Hells Angels that resulted in over 10,000 people being killed. Jesus Turf war. It's crazy. 10,000 fewer people have died in global conflict than in that turf war. That's crazy. Jesus. After the gangsters were cleared out by the military, the town of Morrow Bay was a ghost town. No shit. Just everybody's dead. Literal goes down. And pretty much any survivor refused to come back. Again. I'm not sure. Not surprising. My house was in Morro Bay. What house? I I don't remember living there. Nothing, nothing could make me go back to that house after that.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:11

I mean, at this point, Morrow Bay is probably a steaming crater anyway, so fucking who cares? A steaming crater full of blood. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:20

That's all it is. And the bodies of tens of thousands of people. Gash. Yeah. For literal pennies on the dollar, Richard Knight was able to purchase the entirety of Morrow Bay and would begin the cleaning and building process. In order to avoid potential scrutiny, Knight was able to pay for the bay to be renamed to the Del Coronado Bay, and the new city being built here would be known as Coronado City. Though the residents and corporations would call it Knight's City due to the ambition of its founder. His ambition was, to put it mildly, eccentric. Each portion of Coronado City was to reflect the architecture from various other North American cities from coast to coast. Some neighborhoods had the coastal flare of Seattle, while others had the brownstone buildings of Boston. Some homes would look like they were out of a Victorian storybook, while others looked like they were from a samurai film. The shops and restaurants in these neighborhoods would reflect their individual inspirations, and giant stadiums would allow for entertainment in sports form as well as shopping. The most visible buildings in the city were the skyscrapers and they would be his personal pet projects. Of all the buildings in the city, these skyscrapers would not only symbolize the affluence of its potential leaders reaching to the sky, but also the almost astronomic ambition of Richard Knight himself. Construction would begin in 1994 and would continue until 2077. The project, much like its creator, is boundless.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:51

I mean it's one of those things that sounds great on paper.

unknown 1:43:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:56

And then once it gets translated into action, it's like, oh no.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:02

Oh yes, people were involved in this. And as we've learned from the previous half many years. People, not great, some of them, it turns out. The biggest issue with the development and future of Coronado City was in its past. Though they'd done a good job clearing out the remnants of the Hells Angels and other gangs from the area, they were still encroaching on the territory of much bigger operations. The Mafia and the Ocusa didn't much care for what Knight was doing, but they were hoping they could at least score a buck or two from him. The unions of construction workers and transport personnel were bankrolled by these organizations, and they figured they could exploit the finances of Richard by setting up shell corporations that would pass the buck on to them. Unfortunately, due to Knight's ambition, the extremely intricate and specific nature of the construction would require him to seek out hyper-specific unions and firms that were more in line with past projects, causing the old established crime organizations to reel. He really was working on a crime-free metropolis, and as such, they would try to make his life hell. Now, Knight had he had quite a bit of luck when it came to the constant threats he received during the project, courtesy of corporations eager to accept a contract or two from him, but his luck would run out eventually. On the night of September twentieth, nineteen ninety-eight, Knight would be in his penthouse suite in the newly completed Parkview Tower, where a hitman would kill him. The culprit was never captured, and though the killer successfully took Knight's life, it only cemented his legacy. The City Council of Coronado City would rename the city to Knight City in his memory. In the wake of his death, his wife Miriam would found Knight's Foundation, which would eventually become Knight Corporation, because of course, which would promote the preservation of Richard Knight's ideology when it came to the city. However, the death of Richard would have a long-lasting impact on the city and on its continued construction. Getting offed by a hitman because you were trying to build a crime-free city. It's the perfect kind of tragic, innit?

SPEAKER_04 1:46:12

Yeah, yeah, that that definitely sounds like a tragedy. That would indeed happen. That is yeah. Yeah. How dare you?

SPEAKER_00 1:46:23

How dare you? Crime free. We're trying to work here. And when we say work, we we mean not work. We're talking pure crime and you are messing it up. I've got another quote for you.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:38

All right. When visiting Night City, you should wear light to medium weight clothing with a light armor jacket or ballistic cloth overcoat optional. A filter mask and supplemental oxygen are highly recommended as a hedge against inversion smogs and acid rain fog. However, acid proof slickers, umbrellas, and air masks are all readily available from sidewalk vendors during smog warning periods at moderate costs. Oh great place for a holiday. Sounds lovely. That sounds like the night city we all know and love.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:16

Have you got your acid-proof overcoat and bulletproof vest? Yes. Excellent. Let's go to dinner.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:24

Terrible. Wouldn't want the inversion smogs and acid rain fog to get us after all when we go on our daily jog.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:33

When I when I what is inversion smog? Because when I read it the first time, I was like, it just sounds, it just sounds like fog that turns you inside out. But I can't.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:43

That might be what it is, dude. That might be. There, I mean, there's the the what isn't it like the withering plague that's like, oh yeah, you can eat, but you'll starve. I mean, I I I I could see an inversion fog that literally just inverts your insides to your outsides.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:00

Oh, it's so much more boring than that. That's a real shame. That's that's a real shame. It's it's it's just it it okay. It it's so it's so much less fun. It's just severe air pollution caused by temperature inversion where a warm air layer traps cool polluted air near the ground, preventing it from rising and dispersing.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:22

Boo! We want the fog that makes your insides become your outsides.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:28

Boo boo. Boo's acid rain, and then it'd just be like normal smog, but like that. Uh Kirioth is like, wow, imagine living in a place where you dive and go outside. Oh, so it's 40 degrees C today. How hot is it in your office, Carrioth? Right, right now, the cage on the wall says it's 35 degrees C. Oh yuck. If I've stumbled at all today, that's that's pretty much why. I'm yeah, I'm I'm warm. I am unpleasantly warm. Um, don't don't worry. On my on my air conditioning, I know.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:19

On on my computer in the bottom left-hand corner, it is a uh it it in in red letters, it just says heat warning just issued, and there is a red triangle with a thermometer inside of it. So lovely. Thank God for AC.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:37

Yeah. I will get a split unit in here. I will. It's just not right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:49:44

Yeah, think of the bear cock gnome minis that are melting in your in your office, please, Kira. Think of the gnome minis giant meatwalks.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:55

That I was gonna say they're hanging in there, but that would that's not It wasn't an intentional one.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:03

It was just That's a ballsy pun, sir. Oh lovely. Lovely stuff. The ball's in your court, Kira Mif.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:20

We've got it. Mob bosses would begin to step in and attempt to carve the city up, and the volume of gangs would cause Night City's police department to be spread thin. In order to protect themselves, many gangs would be bankrolled by corporations, forcing some of the mobsters to move into the more suburban parts of the city. The presence of the gangs over the next seven years became such a problem that the only way they could truly remove them was to either demolish the city and try again, or completely wall it off. However, both of these plans were impossible due to how much of a financial undertaking it would be. Corporations would have no real interest in attempting to run Night City, nor would they have interest in stopping the mobsters. Between 2005 and 2009, much of the remnants of Night City's government were replaced with mob-backed politicians in order to cement a piece of land to call their own in the city itself. Eventually, once the ambitious project of Richard Knight would turn into an active war zone filled to the brim with horrors, resulting in the name Night City taking on the meaning of something truly unfortunate and grim. There were more murders in this four-year period than most cities would have in a ten-year period. And gang activity was so extreme that you were just as likely to die in a boning as you were to have your wallet stolen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:53

And this is sort of what it's devolved to. Again, this is this is the night city that uh we all sort of know and love. This is yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:06

Now the unsolved murders at this point and crimes in general would uh would number in the thousands. And uh eventually, by the end of 2009, the corporations would attempt to re-seize control, and for the next two years, Night City would be home to an event known as the mob war. Ah god. Mm-hmm. Corporations would go to war with the mobsters and the gangsters, but not for the benefit of the common man, obviously. The mobs were essentially a uh you're surprised, a uh a business at this point. And the corporate powers that wished to contest them, they wanted to do it on a business-to-business level. If they wanted to play the corporate game, they also had to play the corporate war games. So as you can imagine, most of the mobsters were dramatically underprepared when they were met with assassinations, assault vehicles, aerial attacks, courtesy of AVs, and exceptionally well armed mercenaries. Yeah, I hate the idea of a mob boss just being like, this is not fair. This is not this is some bullshit.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:13

This is like government-funded military stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:20

Pretty one-sided fight. You've got a guy with the mod like a some sort of equivalent of a ye oldie Tommy gun because it looks cool, and he's like on the on the street, and then just a mercenary, a fully bulletproof mercenary, walks up and just absolutely blasts him with some sort of high-tech weapon, but from around a corner or something. Just like come on.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:44

Isn't that even isn't that he walks out, he's like, Oh yeah, say hello to my little friend, and then a tank rolls up on him and he's like, ah come on, I just want to be cool like in the movies, and then he just becomes tank treadmist.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:03

Becomes part of the infirm. Yeah, he does. Within a matter of just a couple of years, uh the corporations would wipe out the mobsters from Night City. The corporations would place in a mayor that would serve as their puppet, while they would work to clean the city up. The newly reformed city council would quickly deputise the security forces of the corporations to give them full authority without question, and wouldn't you know it? It worked. Night City became super clean again. You know, as long as you had money. Uh affordable housing units were used to house corporate troopers, resulting in a chronic homelessness problem that had no true solution. In 2012, uh Bowl Ebon oh no, I looked this up earlier and I've forgotten. Bowl Ebenic would become the mayor of Night City, and this was just the guy that the corporations wanted. California as a whole became a free state in 2002, but there would be increasing friction between the two harsh of the state. This would result in a separation war in 2011. Every time. Every time I'm like, is it is is this the end of the is this the end of the constant infighting and horrible wars? And every time it's like, no, no, no, there's there's there's still another one, don't worry. It's another civil war.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:21

Yay! How many tens of thousands died this time? Yeah, another one.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:28

Another one. And uh the separation war would end in 2012 with the signing of the Northern Separation Treaty. This would establish clear-cut borders between the Free State of Northern California, Sacramento as its capital, and the Free State of Allied Southern California with San Diego as its capital. Due to the split, Night City would become a part of NORCAL, but access to travellers from SoCal was guaranteed. The Night City Police Department and Night City Fire Department would be re-established in 2013, and the worst of the cleanup would be would be considered completed by the corporations. The police department being re-established in 2013 is crazy. Yeah. It's literally no law, it's just corporation troopers just doing whatever the hell they liked the whole time. Almost as murking people. What the hell?

SPEAKER_04 1:56:21

As I mean, yeah, that's that's Night City for ya. That's just how it goes, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:31

Oh god. To say the corporate overlords were draconian and oppressive is a bit of an understatement, but to many this was acceptable. Sure. Bit of an understatement, I'm sure. Oh, possum. It's uh it's better to be under the heel of a corporation that potentially than like than potentially getting shot on the way to a grocery store. Uh, some didn't care for this much, including a relatively famous rocker boy by the name of Johnny Silverhand. On April 13th, 2013, Johnny would hold a concert slash riot outside of Arasaka Tower. This was meant to serve as a distraction so he could rescue his girlfriend, Alt Cunningham, who was held captive inside. The resulting riot would result in the death of many employees and rioters, and the CEO of Arasaka's American branch would be murdered. For the next few years, Johnny would serve as a thorn in the side of Night City's police forces as well as the corporations. There would be the homelessness riots in 2014, and Johnny Silverhand would play a sign would pay a benefit concert to bring attention to the ruthless methods of the NCPD's action during this time. Now, due to an influx in random crimes, mercenaries would become common in the city and the megacorps would begin to hire them quite frequently, to the point where realistically it became dedicated work. These edge runners would benefit greatly from their corporate sponsors, as they would say that their actions were for the good of Night City, when in actuality it was an underhanded way to claw higher to the top of the corporate ladder. Money for municipal projects would somehow find their way into the neighborhoods already bloated with corporate excess, while the borders of the combat zone would increase in size. Night City was, for those rich enough, pretty damn safe, all things considered. To them, Richard Knight's vision was realized, and it was a safe metropolis. Mmm, don't like that. Just be wealthy, idiot. Yeah, it's just just have money. I don't understand what the problem is. Oh man. Just stop being poor.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:48

It's so easy. It's not so bad. Nothing bad has ever happened to me.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:52

Like, well, you don't you live in like billion dollar sanctuary, essentially? Ah yeah, but what's going on outside your walls?

SPEAKER_00 1:59:01

Ah, who cares? Well, outside of outside of their walls, to the average person, uh, leaving the house on a daily basis was a casting of the dice. Still, the city had many benefits to them, especially compared to the horrors of the rest of the United States. But those horrors don't truly matter when you think about it. The creation of Night City was directly tied to the isolationist nature of the US as a whole. Doesn't it make sense to put on your own blinders when you're stuck in the confines of Night City? Beyond your mirror shades, the rest of the world doesn't matter. The ruling class of the US doesn't matter when the board of directors of some megacorp can dictate whether you live or not.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:42

I mean, I I I I guess that's true. I guess that's fair.

SPEAKER_04 1:59:46

Like you got bigger fish to fry than what's going on outside in the rest of the world when, you know, Megacorp could it very easily or or just random gang mob violence could end your day like that, and it's very likely. So yeah, I imagine you would have some blinders on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:04

Well, is it he's he's out of line, but he's right.

unknown 2:00:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:10

By 2020, there's a few things you would likely know about the remnants of the United States. You'd know that it would have the largest income gap in the world, and it wasn't even close. You'd know that about a dozen or so states had broken their ties with the former nation. The years where martial law was handled with the mindset of shooting without asking questions was complemented with years of the worst plague the nation had ever seen. All this you you've got to brace yourself for this. There's no there's no way of me saying this without it absolutely blowing your mind. Okay. All this combined with gang violence resulted in the death of over one hundred million Americans in just shy of fifteen years. What?

SPEAKER_03 2:01:00

Fifteen years and a hundred million? Over a hundred million people died. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:13

That's that's that is that is incomprehen that is an incomprehensible amount of death.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:19

That if we're if we're looking at like the the current population, that is essentially a third of the US dead. In fifteen years. In fifteen years. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:34

That's crazy, dude. Holy. All right, cool. So no one's left in Night City. Good to know.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:43

They're all dead. Insanity. Oh no, Night City is fine. It's the rest of it.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:48

Although Shy is Shy has a little quote from uh Mike Pont. Cyberpunk was a warning, not an aspiration. Well, I have some bad news. Um well, good and bad news. You know, there there are some parallels, but hopefully hopefully we don't continue paralleling.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:08

Yeah. Yeah, that'd be nice. Um the the really damning thing is that all of that could have been avoided. I mean, admittedly, in in Night City, you uh you don't know that there was once an American dream, because all you see is a nightmare. So yeah, there is life and history outside of Night City, sure, but that doesn't impact your day-to-day. You're not even guaranteed to survive a day in Night City, let alone live long enough to see the world. Night City, to many, is their world. Their life is tied to it without much question, and the only thing more dangerous than going outside your door is leaving the city. But you can't leave the city. Leaving Night City is about as realistic as taking a trip to Mars, and many in the streets would much prefer to dream since their wage slavery prevents them from anything actually real. There is no escape, only escapism. Some look to the gangs and think of it as a way to accomplish something where they actually have an impact, while others turn to the ever-advancing technology and find solace in removing themselves from this mortal coil piece by piece. Night City to many, in the end, is the safest place you can live in, but this is strictly because it's the only place you can live in. And to round that out, we have a lovely final quote to round out the episode. Oh, I'm sure this'll be great.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:29

Unlike the more obvious walled zones of Detroit and Chicago, these controlled zones are kept relatively crime-free through electronic security, aerial patrols with AV and aerogyro vehicles, and close contact with deputized security forces in the corporate zone. Unlike many other urban areas throughout the US, you may actually find any you may actually find any personal protection beyond a light caliber handgun unnecessary. Night City is safe.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:05

It's fine.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:07

Just don't think about it or learn about it or want to go anywhere else because you can't.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:14

Yeah, I don't like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:15

As safe as it can be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:17

The hundred million that have died there would beg to differ.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:22

That is such a I can't get over that number. A hundred million Americans dead in 15 years. Like the US. We've been going through this, and we know the US went through an absolutely terrible time, and arguably still is. It really really hammers that home. It really hammers that home. America not having a good time overall. Wow. Yeah. So there you go. That is the the sort of the backdrop, the uh build-up to the construction and formation of Night City and all of the awful, horrible, horrific things that happened to the United States in the process. Whether directly or indirectly related. I mean, I suppose it is all directly related in that a lot of it is what made Richard Knight want to build the city in the first place. But yeah, wow. Yeah, it I don't know about you, so much worse than I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, it just sucks.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:27

It just sucks. There's just there's not a lot of hope unless you're the uh upper one percent. Uh then you then hey, oh yeah, it's gravy. Uh just is lovely. I'm safe, I'm protected. Oh, night city is phenomenal. You know, if you're the top 1%. Yeah, that sucks. It just it just sucks. Boy, it sucks. Like having played the games and the anime, and it's like, oh yeah, I knew Night City was bad, but it's like, boy, it is really, really fucked. It really is. Oof. Oof. And it's it night city somehow is way worse when you have like all the context too, and all of like the history, and it's like, oh yeah, oh, oh great, damn you, triple H.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:13

There really is no escape from the awful. It's just different flavours of awful depending on where you are. Unfortunate enough to live or you know, try to live.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:25

But you know where a fortunate place would be to go? Orchidate.com for some sick, acceptable losses. Merch, you can be a wee per Lincoln. We almost got through that transition, dude.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:42

We almost lots of that that was an segue. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:53

Man, I almost I almost made it, Carrie. God damn it.

SPEAKER_04 2:06:58

But you should head over to Orchidate.com. Link in the description, link on the screen. Get an amazing shirt. Weave for Lincoln. You like sci-fi, you like history. I think there's still some coins and wall scrolls. Go check it out. Great merch. Link on the screen and in the description. Carry enough, tell them about the Patreon.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:21

I got nothing. I've got nothing clever for this. Um we we if you want access to episodes early, you should head over to patreon.com/slash acceptable losses. You will also find over there, if you choose to support us monetarily, you only you don't just get oh my god, I'm totally thrown. Um that gave me psychic damage. You don't just get the episodes early. You also get exclusive episodes on Patreon. Shorter episodes for the most part. There's a couple of exceptions to that because I got carried away writing the scripts, but we upload usually three of those a month as well as the ones that you'll find here. And and and this is the most important thing that I should have put at the start. Maybe maybe I can butcher this into the right order. We also have a digital poster on Patreon as well. We sure do. We haven't done one before. This is the first one, and it's it's an absolutely legendary poster. We are still searching for the intercontinental ballistic missile. We're looking for it. And if you want to help us look for it, then uh support us on Patreon to get the high-res non-watermarked version of that poster. It's absolutely fantastic, and we love it.

SPEAKER_04 2:08:39

Oh yeah, it's phenomenal. Love it. I'm I'm I'm glad we could finally get the word out about this missing intercontinental ballistic missile. The people's gonna know.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:49

Surely someone has seen this thing. Come on. Yeah. It's been missing for ages. Someone's gotta have an idea.

SPEAKER_04 2:08:56

Yeah. Come on. Anyway. Carry out, do the outro, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 2:09:03

This this is gonna be a rough one. Thanks. We're just no, we're just gonna go clean and simple so that I can get out of this room. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you very much for watching, depending on which you did, and we will see you for the next one. Help.