In early 2094, the world is a very different place. In the west, the United States has all but fallen and its governmental structure collapsed, leaving smaller city governments and the warring factions of the Badlands to mostly fend for themselves. In what was once southwestern California, the massive domed city of Withmore is nearly buffetted by the Pacific while barren desert seems to go on forever in every other direction.
A lone figure watches the sky as a star falls, crashing on a plateau just southeast of the domed corporate haven. Scars line his face and body from past battles, and his eyes gleam an unusual crimson. He is an outcast, a criminal, a street samurai turned desert ronin. The star turns out to be a single-man craft dropped from orbit, and upon contact a song begins to form in the ronin's head. Eventually the song becomes overwhelming, and draws him onward, northward, through the broken remains of North America towards the unknown.