Utopia was nice while it lasted.
Three hundred years after "The Burn," the post-nuke horse-and-buggy age collides with the last secret remnants of the old hi-tech world.
The facist Atualphan empire, having annexed most of South and Central America, has conquered the formerly hidden, underwater techno-utopia of New Atlantis. The surviving Neo-Atlantans are under siege - trapped in the unreachable depths of their facility with a year's worth of air.
Two survivors, a boy Noah and Cyberna, an adorable dolphin-shaped AI, must convince the Union of North America to defeat the Atualphans before they become unstoppable with reverse-engineered technology or the Atlantians run out of air.
Can be found here
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Tropes used in this comics include:
- After the End: Notable for taking place three hundred years later, and for the conspicuous lack of biker gangs.
- Berserk Button: Shiratz, just before "The Burn", bolting off and turning his mistress's torturer-killers into mangled heaps of gore.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Noah Parks secretly practiced martial arts moves with his homeys, and kills an attacking death-cultist while travelling through the swamp.
- Cool Horse. Shiratz and the G.E.M.'S
- Decadent Court: Atualphan Empire's aristocracy is implied to be full of intrigues between the courtiers, many of whom were related to the Emperor through his concubines. As the current emperor is young and "inbred simpleton", according to this page, Micay is exploiting a segment of the aristocracy (minor nobles, well-connected intellectuals, and disgruntled field officers) to create her own kingdom.
- Divided States of America: Includes the Union of North America, and the New England Maritime Alliance.
- Do Androids Dream?: Cyberna gets "visions" now and then, possibly from a neural print of a human woman whose traits were incorporated into her personality. Occasionally, this gets problematic for her.
- Eye Scream: Cyberna has recurring visions of a woman with gouged-out eyes, from the memories of another woman whose personality traits were used as her template.
- The Federation: Union of North America—or UNA—is a federal government despite the Divided States of America nature from the pre-apocalypse nation. They still have enough influence to have many non-UNA members and nations in former Canada join their conflict against Atualphan Empire in Mexico.
- Friendly, Playful Dolphin: Cementing human/dolphin ties is what Cyberna originally existed for.
- Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Cyberna, the New Atlantis's unique, fully-sapient AI.
- Ladyof War: Lt. Naomi Selbermann is a budding version of this. Col. Sahar Choudhary is the senior officer version.
- Cavalry Officer: Commissioned officers and NCO's, generals and colonels on down to sergeants. The usual mixed bag you'll find in any military, any era.
- Lost Technology: PS2's are a real archeological gem!
- Mechanical Horse: The above-named Shiratz is actually a 4,000-year-old alien probe.
- Nano Machines: Shiratz can manufacture them internally and literally blow them out his nose for specific purposes. He uses them to create a telepathic link with Noah.
- Officer and a Gentleman: Ken Dyson is the quiet, laid-back version of this, but may stray into Beware the Nice Ones territory.
- The Empire: The Atualphan empire, a second Incan empire who had already conquered most of South Americas with their expansion into Mexico causing Union of North America and their allies to intervene. Their system is an authoritarian military state where the Emperor and aristocracy had political power that instilled warrior culture among the common citizenry from birth and punished dissenters that had large segments working in labor camps.
- Sapient Cetaceans: Cyberna, an AI built in a (mostly) dolphin shape to act as a human/dolphin interface is an example of this. Having spent time with them in their own element, she has few illusions about their actual nature, but she is capable of teaching them "civilized manners" just the same.
- Schizo Tech: Horses, radios, airships, and AI's!
- The Vamp: Lady Micay.
- Uplifted Animal: The G.E.M.s again.
- Weird Trade Union: The Teamster Guild is a powerful trade-union in UNA that also has its own military with artillery units.
