Neo-Tokyo

The capitol of the Far East Sector, **Neo-Tokyo** was considered Earth's second city after Monument City and was a vital administrative center for the United Earth Government.

## History

One of the largest cities on Earth, Neo-Tokyo was a centre for high-tech industry and research for nearly two decades. It became the UEG's second city, and the effective capitol for half the world. And, unlike so many others, it would survive the Invid Invasion after a fashion and continue to exist all through the occupation.

As the name suggests, Neo-Tokyo was built on the ruins of the original Tokyo, which was destroyed during the Zentraedi Rain of Death. While Japan had been devastated like everywhere else in the world, a combination of circumstances sped up reconstruction. Likewise, unlike many of the ad-hoc communities that sprang up in the wake of the Rain, Neo-Tokyo was instead carefully planned and structured.

Many of the cities in the rest of the world, such as Monument City or New Portland, constructed underground complexes designed to house their populations in the advent of another war. Some went even further, such as New Denver which was built partially underground. However, none did such to the same degree that Neo-Tokyo did. From the outset, it was functionally built as two cities. The first was a conventional, surface city much like many other rebuilt settlement, but it was the second that was far more extraordinary.

Unlike the grey concrete tunnels of Monument and Portland, the Geo-Grid, as it was called, was built as a complete and functional city. It had an open layout that in many ways mimicked Tokyo as it had been in the 1980s, complete with streets, districts, city blocks, green spaces and so on. Key to this environment was an adaptation of the Environmental Video Emulation (EVE) technology used on-board the SDF-1 to create an artificial sky and weather, effectively giving the population the illusion that they were living above ground. The goal of this construction was to ensure continuity of the city and its population. In the advent of another invasion, the population would be relocated underground where they could theoretically ride out whatever happened.

By 2015, Neo-Tokyo was the largest and most advanced city in Asia, and had become the capitol of the UEG's Far East Sector. In real terms, it was probably the second most important city in the world after Monument City, largely due to the latter being the capitol of the UEG. One major boon that the city received was becoming the location of the Robotech Research Centre, a move that was made as much to take advantage of the city's advanced infrastructure as it was to decentralise key resources in the advent of another war.

While it engaged in a number of projects, the RRC's main focus was their efforts to access the SDF-1's salvaged central computer and decode the secrets within. This goal led to a number of benefits and technological advances, both for the military and the boarder civilian population. However, at the same time, the RRC became increasingly influential within the city and the sector as a whole. Under the directorship of Doctor Lazlo Zand, the RRC took on a decidedly secretive, borderline cultish demeanor.

This influence reached its public peak in the early 2020s with the launch of the EVE Network. Outwardly, it was a government-owned and run entertainment and education network which served as a platform for encouraging the 'correct' behaviour, with messages of discipline, patience, respect and preparedness being the most important. Its key draw was Eve, who, in addition to being a pop idol in the vein of Lynn Minmei, also served as a host for call-in shows and other media. However, what was not publicly known was that Eve was an entirely virtual creation, a computer generated 'talking head' created by the RRC. And as much as the EVE Network was about communication and education, it also was a powerful tool for surveillance, with the GMP monitoring calls to the station and using them to find dissidents and criminals.

During the 2020s the character of the city changed in other ways. While originally the underground portions of the city were intended to be a shelter, they ever-increasingly became more desirable due to the safety they offered. Many wealthy and powerful people chose to make their permanent home underground, while abandoning the surface. This saw something of an economic shift, with parts of the surface city becoming run down as businesses closed or relocated. The outer regions of the surface city came to be surrounded by a ring of slums, populated by those who were too poor to afford life underground, or who had moved there from elsewhere in the region.

The first half of the decade also saw the growing power and influence of the Shimada Yakuza group in the city's underworld, both figuratively and literally. Lead by Kan Shimada, the group had profited heavily off the reconstruction of the city through a variety of means. While engaged in the usual rackets of vice, drugs, smuggling and the like, Shimada was gaining more and more influence over the city's leadership. However, the biggest obstacle to his power was the RRC, which had proven to be impervious to his influence. As a result, a quiet shadow war would build between the two groups, played out through cyber attacks aimed at penetrating the RRC's systems and stealing what information they could. However, there were also moments when this conflict turned bloody, leading to casualties on both sides. However, with the backing of the UEG and sector government, Dr Zand and the RRC maintained an edge during the conflict.

The Far East Sector would see one of the first battles of the Second Robotech War when a force of Bioroids attacked one of the outlying districts of the city in 2028. Later that year it would become home to a different conflict, as GMP Colonel B.D. Andrews staged a coup to take control of the region, supported by his own men as well as Southern Cross soldiers. His reign would be short-lived, however. Andrews was killed in a counter-attack staged by Mark Landry, an exchange student who happened to simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time; ironically, Landry was armed with the MODAT 5 prototype that Andrews had ordered destroyed to secure his rule. In the aftermath the Southern Cross purged those officers involved and restored order to the district, but the government's hold over the city never fully recovered.

Neo-Tokyo was attacked by the Robotech Masters again in the final stages of the Second Robotech War, but this time with far deadlier effect. The Masters had hoped to physically retrieve the SDF-1's computer from the RRC, and sent a large force to secure the complex that included not only Bioroids and their Assault Dropships, but also several warships. The Southern Cross forces in the area tried to fight back but suffered severe losses from the overwhelming enemy assault. Eventually, the Southern Cross opted to destroy the computer (over the RRC's objections) rather than risk it falling into enemy hands. While the Masters' forces collapsed, they still inflicted significant losses and severely damaged the surface parts of the city.

These events played well to the Shimada group's advantage. With the computer destroyed, what was left of the RRC withdrew to North America, removing one of their biggest obstacles. With the military in shambles and the UEG collapsing, Kan Shimada moved to take control of the entire city. He found little opposition from the devastated Southern Cross forces in the area, many of which simply supported him without argument. Those who opposed him were forced to leave the sector or detained by their former colleagues.

Now the unquestioned leader of Tokyo, Shimada attended the Pinnacle Conference and was one of the few who realised the threat the Invid represented. Under his orders, the surface portions of the city were completely evacuated, with the population moving entirely underground. When the Invid came, they laid waste to the almost entirely abandoned surface city, but were either unaware of what lay beneath or simply didn't care. While the Kanto region became home to vast fields of the Flower of Life, complete with Protocultre farms, and the Invid built a hive on the side of Mount Fuji, they left the subterranean city unharmed.

For Kan Shimada, control of Neo-Tokyo proved to be a poisoned chalice. While at first he was secure in his control of the city and safe against the outside world, the situation began to turn against him. As supplies of Protoculture dwindled (and ironically, without the RRC staff to maintain them), the city's systems began to fail, leading to shutdowns of facilities and even entire parts of the city. The artificial sky was one of the first things to go, but it was followed by many others as the years of the occupation went on. As the situation worsened the people became restless, resulting in Shimada imposing ever increasingly more draconian measures to maintain control and suppress dissent. By 2040, the city had become a gilded cage, with an impoverished population living in the hulk of what had once been the most advanced city on the planet.

## Geography

Neo-Tokyo is located on the Kanto Plain, built over (and under) the ruins of its predecessor. The use of artificial islands in Tokyo Bay built from a mixture of reclaimed land and repurposed ruins added to the available space. From the outset it was a heavily planned city, with carefully delineated districts serviced by efficiently laid out public transport systems and other utilities. The construction of the city was a mixture of open-plan and arcology structures, intended to maximise the use of space. As a result, most buildings were high-rise. However, there were some districts within the city that were deliberately built to a 1980s architectural style and layout, albeit using modern technologies. The city also makes ample use of green space. Advanced technology is commonplace throughout the city, with most citizens having access to advanced communications, high-speed datagrid connections, consumer robotics and so on. Before the Second Robotech War, the people of Neo-Tokyo enjoyed the highest standard of living on Earth.

Surrounding the city is a ring of slum districts, populated by those who have come from elsewhere in the Far East Sector or other parts of the world. These districts are a stark contrast to the rest of the city, and are usually poorly planned and have little or no access to advanced technologies. In these areas, crime is rife and civil authority limited or even non-existent. It needs to be said that these slums were home to the city's Zentraedi population.

However, the most notable feature of Neo-Tokyo is the Geo-Grid. Essentially a second city, it is built underneath Neo-Tokyo to be an entirely self-contained environment that could house the entire population in the advent of another invasion or global attack. The Geo-Grid made use of EVE technology to create an artificial environment that would simulate life above ground while being equipped with all the amenities of the surface city. Carefully designed transport systems allowed an ease of movement between the two halves of the city and within the Geo-Grid, which even featured its own airport. Use of hydroponic farms and Protoculture power system resulted in a system that could hypothetically last for decades if needs be. However, these systems needed to be carefully managed and maintained by the staff of the Robotech Research Centre. The Shimada's driving out most of the RRG's staff following their takeover was a contributing factor towards the city's decay.

## Government and Politics

Until the end of the Second Robotech War, Neo-Tokyo was the capitol of the UEG's Far East Sector, and served as the administrative centre for the entire Asian sector. The city's leadership was democratically elected by the population. However, in many respects, the true power within the city was the Robotech Research Centre, headed up by Dr Lazlo Zand. Due to their role in operating the city's advanced systems and Geo-Grid, the RRC wielded considerable influence over the government and economy. The use of the EVE network to both monitor the population and spread government propaganda helped to further extend that influence.

Due to the city's importance, Neo-Tokyo and its surrounding region was home to numerous Army of the Southern Cross units, ranging from Civil Defence and infantry squads to Tactical Air Force commands. The Global Military Police also had a strong presence in the city. For many years, the local GMP commander was Colonel B.D. Andrews, a charismatic figure with connections to many other ASC officers and members of the Sector leadership.

While the city was a key centre for the UEG, there was still opposition to their presence. The reborn Anti-Unification Leauge had a presence within the city, and enjoyed some measure of support from older members of the population. However, their activities were comparatively limited, with actual armed attacks being rather rare. Organised crime groups, such as the Shimada Yakuza, were also opposed to the URG for a variety of reasons, with some having connections to the AUL. Finally, there were a number of fringe churches and cults active in the city, such as the Church of Recurrent Tragedies or the Seicho No Ie that also wielded influence out of proportion to their size.

Both the city and sector governments were suspended by Colonel Andrews following his coup. While both were restored, they were also weakened, allowing the Shimadas to grow in influence. The damage suffered by the ASC's forces at the end of the war, combined with the loss of the RRC, removed the final obstacles to Shimada's power, allowing him to take over the government. Kan Shimada ruled the city as a dictatorship, and ever-increasingly came to rely on suborned Southern Cross units to enforce his position.