NUSA

The history of the New United States of America (NUSA) is a long, chaotic story of collapse, war, corporate overreach, and authoritarian reconstruction. Its roots go back as far as the conclusion of World War II, when the United States emerged as a global superpower after dropping two nuclear bombs on Japan. This event ended the war but ignited the Cold War with the Soviet Union—a conflict that would dominate the remainder of the 20th century.   By the late 1980s, the United States was already showing signs of deep internal decay. While the Cold War officially ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the nation quickly found itself embroiled in new conflicts. The First Central American War broke out in 1990 as U.S. forces intervened in countries like Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador to maintain control over the Panama Canal and suppress regional instability, often confronting ex-allies who had once been U.S.-backed dictators.   Simultaneously, domestic issues worsened. The U.S. economy suffered from unfair European trade practices and the rise of the Eurodollar following the 1992 Treaty that created the European Economic Community. American refusal to join this union, seen as paranoid isolationism, provoked retaliatory tariffs and an economic downturn. In a desperate move to win the War on Drugs, the DEA released genetically engineered plagues that targeted coca and opium crops worldwide. These efforts destabilized several South American governments and led to brutal drug wars between DEA forces and Eurocorp-backed cartels. In 1993, Colombian drug lords detonated a tactical nuclear weapon in New York City, killing 15,000 people, sparking chaos and panic.   By 1994, the United States teetered on the brink of ruin. The Crash of '94 obliterated the World Stock Market, plunging the country into a depression so deep that one in four Americans became homeless. A powerful coalition known as the Gang of Four—composed of top members of the NSA, CIA, FBI, and DEA—effectively took over the federal government, ruling through covert action, misinformation, and military repression. They implemented martial law, deploying troops to enforce curfews in cities like New York and Chicago. One of the darkest chapters of this era was the Houston Incident, when military forces under the Gang's orders used artillery bombardments to kill over 2,000 civilians protesting in the streets.   The chaos encouraged fragmentation. Several cities and states began to resist the federal government's brutal overreach. As militias formed and the National Guard often sided with local populations, the country fractured. Tensions reached a tipping point when paramilitary police—under Gang of Four authority—seized San Francisco. The resulting battle between residents and federal forces marked the beginning of the "Wars of Succession." California’s governor declared the state independent, blowing up mountain passes to prevent federal retaliation. Soon after, states like Texas, Oregon, Washington, and the Dakotas followed, declaring themselves "Free States" and refusing to recognize federal authority. The U.S. military, disillusioned by years of domestic repression and global failures, refused to intervene.   Environmental catastrophes compounded the crisis. The 1997 Mideast Meltdown halved the world’s oil supply, causing prices in the U.S. to soar. In 1998, a massive 10.5-magnitude earthquake leveled much of Los Angeles, killing over 65,000 and flooding 35% of the city. That same year, the Drought of ’98 turned the Midwest into a dustbowl, while Neo-Luddites launched a terror campaign against industrial infrastructure.   During this period of chaos, Richard Night founded Night International and began building a prototype city in Del Coronado Bay. It was intended to be a haven from the lawlessness and decline around it. Night’s dream attracted support from corporations, including the Arasaka Corporation. By the late 1990s, Arasaka was a major force in American society, buying bankrupt companies and employing thousands. Saburo Arasaka, its CEO, was even seen by many as a populist hero who cared more for the American worker than the U.S. government ever had.   On August 17, 1996, President James Richard Allen was assassinated during a campaign stop. His death gave Vice President Harold Harrison Hunt free reign to advance the Gang of Four’s agenda. Meanwhile, the number of disenfranchised citizens soared. By 1998, 21 million Americans were homeless. Nomad families roamed the highways. Boostergangs—heavily augmented violent criminals—dominated city slums.   As the year 2000 approached, the world braced for Y2K. Fear of global digital collapse triggered the rise of Millennium Cults. On January 1, 2000, mass suicides and violent rampages erupted across the country. Later that year, firestorms scorched the northwestern U.S., while a pandemic known as the Wasting Plague swept across North America and Europe, killing 14 million people before Japan developed a vaccine.   In 2001, the launch of WorldSat and the Net revolutionized communication and commerce, laying the foundation for the interconnected cybernetic culture of the 21st century. Arasaka's investment in America deepened. They poured funds into Richard Night’s city—later renamed Night City after his murder—and their public image soared. Saburo Arasaka regularly visited American cities and factories, projecting an image of corporate benevolence in stark contrast to federal neglect.   By 2002, international agricultural disasters like the Food Crash devastated food supplies. U.S. agribusinesses survived by deploying proprietary bio-agents to save their crops. The Second Central American War broke out in 2003, spiraling into another quagmire for U.S. forces. The war’s failure triggered a military-led counter-coup against the Gang of Four. By 2007, most of the Gang had either been purged or sold out to the megacorporations.   In 2005, an attempt to return to democratic governance failed when presidential appointee Henry Jacobi was assassinated. The event was linked to Mantoga, Inc., which refused an ultimatum to vacate the country. Operation Big Stick was launched, and U.S. forces obliterated Mantoga, effectively declaring war on rogue corporations. Free elections returned in 2008, and martial law was lifted.   Yet the scars of war and collapse remained. That same year, the U.S. was accused by the USSR of biowarfare, sparking a final Cold War confrontation in orbit. The U.S. attacked the Soviet space platform MIR XIII. The European Space Agency responded, resulting in a six-hour orbital war that ended when a mass-driver rock destroyed Colorado Springs. The fallout led to an uneasy peace but left the U.S. more isolated than ever.   In 2009, another confrontation nearly occurred when U.S.-backed terrorists attempted to seize the Crystal Palace, a space station operated by the ESA. The plan was thwarted when the ESA dropped another orbital rock into the ocean near Washington D.C. as a warning.   The 2010s marked the final stage in the death of the old United States. States increasingly ignored federal authority. Many had already seceded or operated as de facto independent nations. They stopped sending taxes to Washington, nationalized their military reserves, and established their own trade deals. Though still nominally part of the Union, these “Free States” functioned autonomously. The federal government, unable to provide the support it once did, ceased to be relevant in much of the country.   In the early 2020s, America was deep in chaos. Martial law ruled, and the nation experienced one of the bloodiest stretches of its existence. Over 100 million Americans died in just fifteen years—more than thirty times the death toll of the Vietnam War. These were not just casualties of battle, but victims of systemic collapse: starvation, disease, violence, and governmental failure. Though the United States still had the resources to support its people, those resources were locked away by states that acted selfishly and defensively. The lack of cooperation between states—each now acting like sovereign, militarized entities—accelerated the devastation. Border lockdowns, heavy tariffs, and isolationism created economic strangulation and social collapse.   Certain states—like California, Texas, Utah, and Nevada—acted early, implementing strict controls and identification systems to maintain order. But others, like Florida and New York, collapsed quickly under the weight of their massive nonproductive populations and overstrained welfare systems. Even when states eventually began adopting systems like NorCal's Citizen Identification by 1998, it was already too late. By the year 2000, over 150 million Americans had been disenfranchised. It is estimated that nearly 75% of these individuals died.   During the Shadow War period, the United States wasn’t entirely dormant. It continued its geopolitical maneuvering by engaging in covert operations, such as when the European Economic Community (EEC) attempted to subvert Colombia. The U.S. responded with covert warfare through its Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA), which came at a high cost in lives but ended in strategic success.   Meanwhile, the economic toll of the global “Hot War” was taking its toll on both the United States and the Free States. Militech’s stranglehold on the economy meant that even those trying to resist corporate control—like Texas—still relied on Militech for military gear. Bribes and corporate influence paralyzed state responses. However, things began to escalate beyond containment. When key cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Night City descended into open warfare and gunfire echoed through Washington, D.C., the government had no choice but to mobilize.   National Guard and military units were activated across the country. The U.S. Air Force began patrol sweeps of low Earth orbit. Hawaii and other U.S. territories were fully locked under martial law. Possession of weapons was a capital offense, and corporate immunity was suspended. The United States was even rumored to be considering drastic measures similar to European policies—seizing domestic corporate assets outright if necessary.   Tensions exploded in 2022. Southern California and Texas nationalized all Arasaka and Militech facilities in their territories. In response, the EEC threatened to do the same. When a Militech showroom in Italy was attacked—possibly as a false flag operation—the EEC carried out its threat and nationalized all corporate holdings of both megacorps across Europe. Arasaka and Militech protested, calling the attack staged, but it was too late. Japan, emboldened by the EEC’s actions, attempted a similar seizure of Arasaka assets. Prime Minister Jirou Kikuchi attempted to take control, but Saburo Arasaka blocked him. Yorinobu Arasaka, Saburo's rebellious son, played a key role by leaking internal information to the government, aiding the nationalization effort.   By then, Night City had become the focal point of the corporate conflict. Kei Arasaka, another of Saburo’s sons, was trapped within the city as his forces fortified their position. As Militech pulled out and began planning a final assault, Arasaka retaliated with targeted digital assassinations via the Soulkiller program, murdering U.S. officials connected to the Net. The situation reached a boiling point when President Elizabeth Kress coordinated with NorCal Governor Denise De La Vega to surround the city with elite U.S. military forces led by General Patrick Eddington, alongside Militech’s own elite troops.   Arasaka, however, was not weak. A military strike on the city risked massive civilian casualties and economic fallout. Rumors swirled that Soulkiller could be deployed en masse. At the same time, the Net was collapsing under the weight of the DataKrash virus. Several Militech shareholders and a U.S. senator fell into vegetative states after connecting to the compromised Net—some blamed DataKrash, others believed it was Soulkiller.   On August 20, 2023, everything came to a head. A nuclear device was detonated inside Arasaka Tower by a strike team led by legendary solo Morgan Blackhand. The blast killed 12,000 Arasaka personnel and leveled the Corporate Center of Night City. The fallout from the explosion—gas line ignitions, transformer meltdowns, chain reaction fires—transformed downtown Night City into a radioactive wasteland.   Arasaka’s defeat was near total. With most of its global assets seized by Japan and the EEC, and its presence in America annihilated, the United States moved quickly to close the war. Elizabeth Kress, the former Militech president turned national leader, reinstated Donald Lundee—Militech’s CEO—as an official government commander. Though reluctant, Lundee ordered all Militech forces to cease offensive actions. The global phase of the war was over.   Still, President Kress had one final goal: eliminate Arasaka entirely from North America. She oversaw the eradication of all remaining Arasaka holdouts in the U.S. through 2023, while simultaneously launching a massive propaganda campaign. The official narrative held that Arasaka had detonated the nuke as a scorched-earth tactic, choosing destruction over defeat. Whether this was true or not, it served her purposes perfectly. She promised a new America, and many people were willing to believe her.   By 2025, the last embers of resistance were extinguished, and the Fourth Corporate War was officially declared over. What followed was a long period known as the Time of the Red. America was no longer a superpower. Instead, it was a fractured, militarized state under the tight control of President Kress. Though some local elections continued, there were no federal elections. Kress ruled through her prolonged State of Emergency. The country was divided. The East Coast, dominated by the BosWash Corridor (Boston to Washington), was firmly in government hands. West of the Mississippi, however, was a no-man’s land, a new Wild West. Local militias and private armies ruled, and former military units reorganized into rogue COGs—Combined Operations Groups—that acted as warlords or mercenary factions.   The West Coast, meanwhile, reorganized as the Pacifica Confederation—a loose federation of states and provinces like Northern California, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. While U.S. military bases still dotted their territory, they had little sway over local governments. Night City, now a cratered husk of what it had been, survived as a semi-autonomous free trade city-state under Pacifica protection.   On July 4th, 2053, the long-awaited rebirth of the United States took place. A new constitution was ratified, and Elizabeth Kress stepped down after 34 years in power. She had been reelected nine times during her rule. She handed power to an interim government to oversee the first democratic elections of the New United States of America.   David Whindam became the first officially elected president of the NUSA. Like Kress, his background was corporate. He was succeeded by another corporate candidate: Rosalind Myers, who became the third president and the second woman to hold the office. Myers began her presidency with the ambitious goal of reunifying the fractured states. It was an old dream of the federalist faction, and after winning reelection in 2069, she began to make that dream a reality.   The NUSA was finally moving toward true reunification, emerging from decades of war, devastation, and dictatorship. But the scars of the Fourth Corporate War and the Time of the Red remain etched into the very foundation of the new nation. The question now was whether it could truly become whole again—or whether the corporate rot that birthed it would rise once more.   The Unification War (2069 – 2070) War The Unification War, sometimes referred to as the Metal War(s), was an armed conflict between the New United States of America (NUSA) and an alliance of seceded states known as the Free States. The war started in January 2069 and ended in June 2070. The re-elected NUSA President, Rosalind Myers, presented a unification program to extend federal rule over the rogue Free States under the pretense of strengthening the nation. Most of the independent states opposed unification. Councilman Lucius Rhyne was worried the conflict would soon reach Night City, and through his contacts and connections pleaded for the Arasaka Corporation to return and protect them from the invasion. At the dawn of an impending invasion of Night City, Arasaka arrived in time with a supercarrier in Coronado Bay forcing the NUSA and Militech troops to retreat. Following Arasaka's intervention, the NUSA and the Free States signed a treaty known as the Treaty of Unification in Arvin, South California, ending the Unification War. The treaty ensured the Free States would remain autonomous but would have to participate in the new federal government and hostilities among themselves would have to cease. President Myers agreed to this treaty because she feared Arasaka's increasing involvement could escalate the conflict into one the New United States could not afford. Both sides claimed victory; the Free States preserved their independence and the NUSA believed they were closer than ever to the reunification of America. Although the Unification War was officially ended, leading AI analytics software predicts another "hot war" will likely to break out by 2080 with a 74% confidence rate. Restlessness (2077) By 2077, relations between the NUSA and the Free States had only deteriorated. Following suicide bombings on NUSA bases in New Mexico and Oklahoma, President Myers openly blamed the Republic of Texas (which did not sign the treaty and remained independent) and ordered retaliatory bombings on airports in the Texan cities of Wellington and El Paso. Both sides expressed a desire to avoid conflict, but bookies put the odds on a border war breaking out in the near future at 3-to-1. Within Alaska, corn harvests had dropped by 80% from the last year's yield. Local authorities were obligated to provide nearly 80 million bushels of their crop to Biotechnica. Arasaka was now able to function within the NUSA once again, however its influence still only stretched to the Free States and Night City. The NUSA was under the control of President Myers, former CEO of Militech. It was common knowledge the NUS was Militech's largest customer and with it, the corporation became very powerful holding much control over the country. Many Americans were against the idea of Myers being re-elected, in fear of having a country that would only serve their suppliers.   The Western Corporate States (WSC) revealed a new Visa program for people who planned to relocate would first need to find a sponsor from among WCS-sponsored companies. Following a twenty year long employment period within WCS, Visa-holders could then earn the right to permanent residence, marriage license, and single-child permits. In Detroit, the city reached new economic height after decades of decay. The city's numerous landfills, abandoned buildings, and industrial zones had become rich in resources that were highly valued in the economy of 2070s. Thousands of migrants began relocating to Detroit in search of old technology manufactured from around the turn of the century. This was in spite of the hazardous conditions and gang violence within the city limits. Militech announced it's plans for building a new colony on Mars. The proposed facility would hold residential, scientific, and industrial areas. Further west, Night City found itself in a precarious position. Though it became an independent city-state after the Unification War, Night City was positioned between North California, the most militarily powerful of the Free States, and South California, a staunch supporter of the NUSA. Night City's official policy was to try to avoid involvement in the bitter rivalry between the two Californias and ignore NUSA overtures at annexation, but the citizenry was gradually becoming polarized between pro-independence and pro-NUSA rhetoric.