Locations

During the career of the Cyber Knight and their squad, they will visit or hear about many locations both inside and outside the dome of New Boston.

New Boston Zone

Towers

Within the dome, the largest structures are the "towers" which are immense, mile-wide buildings that also play a role as support pillars for the dome. Some of these are corporate headquarters or extreme luxury residences.

Skyrises

Corporate Executives and high-rollers don't just live in residences--they live in extreme luxury Skyrises. Skyrises are very tall high-rises, though not as tall as the Towers. Security is very high in Skyrises, with extremely limited access. This is matched by their unequaled opulence and level of service.

Downtown

Ascending more than 200 stories above the sea, the Downtown district of New Boston stands as a testament to human ambition and luxury. Encased within the protective shell f the massive dome, it is the heart of the city, pulsating with energy and life. The streets below glisten and sparkle, bathed in the iridescent glow of artificial sunlight that filters through the 120 stories of open air above.

The megacorporate Towers loom large, their sleek forms piercing the sky as they reach for the dome's zenith. Hover traffic buzzes through the air, a chaotic ballet of commerce and opulence, as vehicles of all shapes and sizes flash between the towering structures. The Downtown district is not only the geographic center of New Boston, but also the epicenter of power and influence, as the Megacorporations exert their control through the very architecture that defines the skyline.

Though much of the open space is within the jurisdiction of the United North American (UNA) government and New Boston, stepping into the outer courtyards or the lofty megacorporate structures means crossing into megacorporate sovereign territory. Within their walls, the Megacorporations reign supreme, enforcing their own laws and asserting extraterritoriality.

Securing residency in Downtown or any of its plush Skyrises is a privilege reserved for those with excessive cash or permanent corporate citizenship. The security measures guarding access to the Downtown airspace are unparalleled, with hover locks scrutinizing every vehicle that enters or departs. This exclusive haven for the privileged corporate citizenry and elite remains tantalizingly out of reach to all but corporate citizens and shareholders.

The Avenues

Beneath the sprawling Downtown, four central districts known as the Avenues lie stacked atop one another like layers of a decadent cake. Each Avenue towers approximately 30 stories high, separated by a 10-story interstice of structural support, infrastructure tunnels, and airshafts. The Avenues serve as concentrated hubs of residential and business activity, devoid of the industrial, manufacturing, or transportation sectors found in the city's outer and lower districts. Many buildings in the Avenues extend from street level to the ceiling, their 30-story structures providing both living and working spaces while doubling as vital structural supports.

Commonwealth Avenue, the uppermost tier, boasts open-air connections to central Downtown, facilitating the effortless flow of hover and foot traffic between the two areas. With its luxury offering and entertainment venues, it mirrors the opulence of Downtown itself. Descending from Commonwealth Avenue, hover traffic encounters increasing restrictions, necessitating passage through large vertical locks. As one ventures deeper into the Avenues, hover options become scarcer, with major lifts and private elevators providing alternative access for pedestrian traffic.

Below Commonwealth lies the reserved and buttoned-up Copley Square Avenue, the beating heart of the cities banking and financial sectors. Further down, Liberty Avenue unfolds as a melting pot of commerce, where denizens, goods, and services from the city's upper and lower echelons intersect. At the very base, Fenns Avenue has transformed almost entirely into a residential district teaming with small restaurants, bars, clubs, and establishments of a more clandestine nature.

A popular adage, "there are rats living in these walls" alludes to the populations that have carved out makeshift homes within the concrete, metal, and wiring that separates the Avenues. The colossal foundations of the megacorporate Towers dominating Downtown's skyline also permeate the Avenues, plunging through each district and burrowing into the bedrock beneath New Boston. Below Copley Square, these foundations brim with unsanctioned additions--ramshackle housing, stop-n-go pads for hovertrucks favored by smugglers, and edgy nightclubs with a view.

Boston Harbor

The Boston harbor is accessible from the ocean through an extensive system of locks which can be opened to permit either submersibles or the rare surface cargo ship. As the 23rd century carries on, shipping is beginning to grow again.

Numerous islands and peninsulas dot the outer harbor, outside the dome. Collectively, they are called the Harbor Islands. Some of the islands support industrial facilities. such as Work Isle A12.

Trivia: The Harbor Islands in contemporary Boston are several dozen islands in and around Boston Harbor. All but two are part of Massachusetts State Parks and U.S. National Parks. Ferries and tour boats cruise the islands, which have several lighthouse, old forts, and parklands. Three former Harbor Islands no longer exist; as Boston expanded, they were connected by landfill to become East Boston and Logan Airport. Other "islands" are technically peninsulas, having been connected to the mainland by landfill.

Charles and Mystic Rivers

Long ago entombed beneath the relentless urban progress of progress and the layers upon layers of concrete, the Charles and Mystic Rivers continued their ancient journey to the sea. Their paths have been reshaped by centuries of rising tides, carving new, corrosive channels through the city's foundations, defying human attempts to tame them. The once-famously waters have only further devolved into a toxic sludge, fostering an ecosystem of twisted life, where only the most resilient organisms survive, almost always infected or sustained by mutated nano.

Despite their noxious state, the subterranean rivers remain vital arteries coursing beneath the dome. They serve as clandestine routes for smugglers, gun runners, and transporters, who ferry human cargo through the hidden veins of New Boston. The Charles River meanders from beneath Ward 4 into the foundations of the dome's western Fenway district and then twists north to meet with the Mystic River where it winds its way south from beneath Ward 7 into the Charlesbank district. This treacherous waterworld teems with danger, as marauding river pirates and ruthless Gangs fight for control over the docks, put-in points and narrow passages that only small boats can safely navigate.

Trivia: The Charles River has a long history of pollution. One of the main tributaries is named the Muddy River, and sometimes the same name was applied to the entire Charles River in acknowledgement of the color the river often showed. The 1965 song "Dirty Water" by the Standells is talking about the Charles River. Cleanup of the river began about the time the song came out, and in the mid-1990s a major project began. By 2007, swim races were considered safe in the Charles River.

The Belly

The Belly is infamous as one of the most prominent drug havens beneath New Boston. A labyrinthine network of decaying infrastructure and forgotten tunnels where the lost gather for pervasive drug use. The cheapest and most powerful synthetic narcotics are rampant, sold by Gangs and Syndicate pushers who stake out open-air drug markets. The rotting tunnels and flophouses are filled with comatose users and the air is thick with the stench of decay. It is a place where only the most desperate go, and few ever return.

The Under

Beyond the sanctioned tunnels and inhabited structures begins "the Under" (about 300m below sea level), a hostile, half-flooded network of construction tunnels and the vast structural components that anchor the dome to the earth's crust.

Wards

In a joint venture between McKellen Heavy Industries and Matsumoto Global that started 11 years ago, major new exterior sections of land have been reclaimed for habitation. These are called the Wards and each measured roughly 8 square miles.

Ward 4 is situated to the west of the dome roughly where Allston and Brighton once lay while Ward 7 is to the northwest covering what was once Somerville. As nano pollution has been slowly dropping since 2203, these areas are now deemed habitable due to high walls, massive blower units that vault pollution overhead and low range ionized shielding.

Even with these precautions, Ward 4 and 7 are deemed the worst available above-ground habitation in the zone and each is home to roughly 1.5 million hardy souls.

McKellen efficiently operate power and water plants for Ward 4 and 7 and has won the favor of the United North America, which has contracted their services for the upcoming construction of Ward 11 along the South Shore. This new venture, however, has ignited tensions with Matsumoto Global, as the two corporations jockey for dominance in the ever-evolving utilities landscape of New Boston.

The Leans

Outside of the dome and the Wards, marginalized populations live in the most harsh and inhospitable conditions of areas called the Leans. These mixed above-and-below ground structures are nailed and welded together from scavenged materials. Literally leaning against the dome and walls of New Boston, the Leans are plagued by radioactive contamination and horrendous air and water quality. In such difficult living conditions, Gangs and warlords see an opportunity to exploit the most vulnerable populations by providing them with necessities in exchange for protection, basic supplies or by imposing their own rule through force. The occasional appearances of MilSec and UNA forces are almost always in the form of a raid, targeting some illegal activity or criminal headquarters and never in the form of an aid mission.

The atrocious conditions within the Leans reportedly lead to the first Free Streets Compact cells being formed as tight-knight communities to self-police and protect their own. The FSC still has many of its largest cells in the Leans, and many of them are built into commanding positions over the subterranean railway lines coming and going from New Boston. Those communities who have found or dug access to these rail tunnels benefit from the risky ability to steal train cargo, pirate electricity and Matrix connection as well as establish their own smuggling routes between cities by covertly using the freight trains.

Eastbank 72

A radioactive superfund sector in East Boston littered with abandoned habstacks and shuttered chemical factories. While the sector is officially embargoed, the large apartment blocks are still largely occupied - illegally and regardless of the health risks. The Blue Ox paramilitary gang operates in Eastbank 72, using the territory for smuggling routes and to extort the local squatter populace.

The factories in Eastbank 72 were a megacorporate collaboration between McKellen Heavy Industries and UltraTek to produce N-72, a revolutionary anti-gravity oil that was promised to be a key accelerant in the construction of new space elevators. However, the nano-intensive production process proved to be highly unstable. Multiple major industrial accidents were covered up and buried under Eastbank 72 before UNA regulation came down hard on the site in 2226. The following legal battle which saw McKellen and UltraTek turned on each other continues to this day and has ended any hope of modern N-72 production, at least for now.

External Zones

These areas are external to the NBZ and are not directly featured in Cyberknights: Flashpoint but do occasionally have meaningful mentions in the game's lore.

Algiers Dome

The city of Algiers, in the old country of Algeria, built a dome. Warner-Braun has established a presence in Algiers.

Atlanta

One of the rail lines into New Boston links to Atlanta.

Trivia: Atlanta had a passing role in the "Cyberknights Tabletop RPG (2020)". One Dr. Jaeger, who performed the Quantum Computer surgery for Yossarian in a hidden Jupiter medical clinic, fled to Atlanta at the conclusion of the campaign's story.

London Underground

Warner-Braun has a presence in London Underground.

Neo-Prague Zone

Warner-Braun has a presence in Neo-Prague.

Trivia: The Kickstarter for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint had a stretch goal at $350,000 named, "NEW CITY: NEO_PRAGUE". The description was, "If we hit this, we will enable transatlantic travel and allow your Knight to take your team to Neo-Prague." Unfortunately, the Kickstarter only reached $225,000, so this stretch goal was not achieved.

New Berlin

Warner-Braun has a presence in New Berlin.

Peru

Peru is listed as a location in one of the origin backstories as a location the Cyber Knight smuggled wetware into the NBZ from.

Phoenix

There is a reference to someone relocating to Phoenix.

San Francisco Radiation Zone

Presumably the site of the old city of San Francisco.

Swiss Financial Enclave

Warner-Braun has a presence in the Swiss Financial Enclave.

Tokyo

The city of Tokyo, Japan, has survived.

Earth Orbital Stations

Constellations

Constellations are groups of small space stations, often used for research. One such constellation orbiting Earth is called Fadelight, which is owned and operated by the Jupiter Group.

Gleamers

Gleamers are orbital habitats for fortunate corporate citizens. Many denizens of Earth dream of one day being wealthy enough to live on a Gleamer, free from the pollutions of their planet.

Other planets

Venus

Warner-Braun and McKellen Heavy Industries have each invested in an orbital research station above Venus.

Mars

Warner-Braun Global has at least one settlement on Mars. Jupiter Group controls the settlement MARS 2 on the surface of Mars. McKellen Heavy Industries has a research station orbiting Mars. Matsumoto has their sole extra-terrestrial holding of Neo Kyoto on Mars.

Jupiter

Jupiter Group has the orbital constellation Little Io orbiting the planet Jupiter. The costs and risks of maintaining this distant human outpost are extreme.

Saturn

McKellen Heavy Industries has a research station orbiting Saturn.