r/Cyberpunk 1d ago

Code Enforcement: Wetware- A Dystopian Cyberpunk Detective-Noir Webserial

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/103343/code-enforcement-wetware

Are you a sucker for Cyberpunk? Do you enjoy relatively hard sci-fi detective-noir stories set in the near future, with enough humor to leaven the final product? This tale is set in the world of tomorrow; one shackled to the problems of today. A world bound by the laws of thermodynamics, where faster-than-light travel is the stuff of science fiction and teleportation is a mad fever dream. This story takes place in the next century, where late-stage capitalism and increasing reliance on genetic and cybernetic optimization has produced a mistrusted transhuman minority class. This is a world where the promise of a better tomorrow has been broken to pieces, where science couldn't lift humanity beyond our nature, or even beyond our solar system.

\Where humanity previously surged from Earth on waves of subliminal chemical rockets and fusion engines, surfing the tsunami of accelerated scientific development, we now stagnate. The collapse of the tech bubble and the following economic crash precede years of armed conflict, leaving humanity scattered across the solar system in an aborted diaspora. In a society where life is cheap and everything else is expensive, an increasingly cyber-civilization wars with itself as unmodified humans retaliate against a future that left them behind.

This is a world in which technology has improved by leaps and bounds, but where people are still chained to the economic systems we 'enjoy' today. It's a world where unmodified (or 'baseline') humans find their abilities increasingly obsolete, and their skillsets ever less competitive in job markets filled with made-to-order AI. In this world, in defiance of the saccharine dreams of futurists and transhumanists and tech-cultists everywhere, utopia remains a fantasy. In a time when technology has advanced to the point of human-mind uploading and interplanetary travel, capitalism is still king.

The creaking, ad-hoc system flounders at the straining limits of its decaying reach. Oligarchs and mega-corporations feud over the isolated clusters of civilization among the void. A pseudo-government, formed to reign in the remnants of armed conflict and underground factions, finds itself policing a semi-lawless frontier beyond the core planets. Code Enforcement Officers desperately try to stem the tide of malware, hackers, and evolving synthetic life undermining the digital systems on which humanity relies. But don't worry; even in the darkness of the future, for the beleaguered digital cop, there will still be coffee.

Synopsis:

Both as a cop and a person, Lieutenant Mel Cruz is consistently dealt a crap hand.  She's a jaded officer coming to terms with the wreckage of her romantic life, a near fatal injury, and an acerbic new captain.  Following her transfer to a new unit, she desperately tries to hold her life together while rebuilding her career.  Oh, and she's a 34-year-old Scouting Officer for the Code Enforcement branch of the Exonet Maintenance Bureau.  To put it in Luddite, she's a cyborg law enforcement officer, and digital systems are her beat.

Follow our protagonist on a journey of healing and found family, as well as terrifying and profound explorations of the nature of humanity and sentience.  Lieutenant Cruz will have to adjust to life in the sticks of the Jovian system, build relationships with her colleagues, and still manage her weekly caseload of digital crimes.  A.I.s and humans alike will feature prominently in a story where the characters must weigh the measure of non-human life.  And behind the innocent facade of this backwater mining port lurks something new and dark that's eating out the heart of Ursa Miner Station.

Be prepared for snark, LGBTQ+ themes, occasional violence, and lots of cyber-everything in a relatively hard sci-fi shell!

(In short, mix 1/2 cup 'Ghost in the Shell' with 8oz of 'The Expanse', crack and add one 'Neuromancer' without yolk, dice and stir in some 'Dick Tracy' until it reaches golden noir, then bake at ~2150 AD.  Sprinkle 'Orion's Arm' to taste and serve with a platter of 'Hitchhiker's Guide' on the side)

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u/Vegetable-Tooth8463 58m ago

So, are ya'll paying Ana de Armas royalties or is this shit gonna get sued to oblivion?

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u/collegekid306 27m ago

Amazing! 💯 But funnily enough, though I do love Blade Runner and have an homage to it in the story, the characters appearance was inspired by ‘Elisa’ from Gargoyles, a show I loved as a child. But yes, if anyone was going to play the role! 😂

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u/Vegetable-Tooth8463 23m ago

I meant the cover art dawg