Radio Silence Zone

Overview

The Radio Silence Zone is one of the most dangerous places in New Vance City. It is a ruined stretch of broken towers, relay yards, and collapsed streets where technology stops working. Radios cut out. Drones crash. Machines fail without warning. Once you enter, you are on your own.

No faction patrols the Zone. No one maintains it. The Static Cult claims the entire area and treats it as sacred ground. Anyone who goes inside does so without backup and without reliable gear. Most people who enter do not stay long. Some never come back.

The Zone was created during the Collapse. Emergency networks overloaded, power surged through the system, and key equipment burned out. Repair crews tried to fix it in the early days, but many vanished. After too many losses, the area was written off and marked as a place where technology could not be trusted.

Environment and Layout

Before the Collapse, this area was packed with communication buildings. Now it is a mess of leaning towers and broken streets. Steel antenna frames hang over roads. Satellite dishes are snapped or half torn from rooftops. Thick cables sag across alleys and doorways.

Most lines are dead, but some still carry power. The Static Cult keeps crude generators running to feed their machines. Loose wires spark at random. Metal hums when touched. The air feels heavy and sharp.

People who scout the edges divide the Zone into three parts.

The outer area is made of apartments, offices, and small relay buildings. Devices sometimes work here, but only for a short time. Signals fade fast. Screens flicker.

The middle area holds the main tower yards. Here, radios fail almost instantly. Implants glitch. Drones drop out of the sky. Many people feel sick or disoriented after only a few minutes.

The inner area surrounds the central transmission tower and a ruined broadcast hall. Nothing works right here. Even simple tools behave strangely. Metal vibrates. Time feels uneven. Most people cannot stay long without serious harm.

The ground is dangerous. Old trucks rot in the streets. Scrap metal covers walkways. Sharp edges and loose debris slow movement. The Cult gathers conductive metal and binds it into chains and coils around buildings and towers. Rust and exposed wire are everywhere.

Effects on Technology and People

Technology fails inside the Zone. Radios cut out. Screens fill with static. Sensors give bad readings or stop working. Drones lose control and crash. Machines freeze, loop, or turn violent without warning.

People with implants suffer the worst effects. Mechanical limbs twitch on their own. Eye implants flash with static or false images. Neural links spike with pain or go dead. Some people leave with shaking hands, memory gaps, or sudden mood changes. Robots and service machines often shut down completely or attack anything nearby.

Because of this, city authorities ban autonomous machines near the Zone. Patrols that work close to the border rely on basic weapons, simple scopes, and written notes.

The Zone also affects the human mind. Many people feel pressure in their head or hear ringing. Some feel sudden fear or joy for no clear reason. Others hear faint voices that sound like old broadcasts or familiar people. Doctors believe these effects come from stress and nerve damage. The Static Cult believes the voices are real.

The Static Cult

The Static Cult is the only group that lives inside the Zone. They believe the static itself is alive. They call it the Broadcast. They say the Collapse stripped away lies and revealed the true signal beneath the world.

To the Cult, the Zone is not broken. It is holy.

They believe private thought is a flaw. They believe surrendering the self brings clarity. Those who resist are seen as broken. Those who submit are seen as saved.

Cult members are easy to identify. Heavy implants sit at the base of the skull and along the spine. Copper wires run from their bodies into their clothing. When the static surges, their muscles twitch. Many mutter constantly. Their speech mixes prayers, code fragments, and broken media lines.

They move through the Zone in small groups. They adjust wires, move coils, and stop to listen at key points. These patrols are both maintenance and worship.

The Conductor

At the center of the Zone stands the main transmission tower. The Cult has wrapped it in copper and mounted it with scavenged dishes and coils. It serves as both altar and command post.

Bound into the tower is the Cult’s leader, known as The Conductor.

The Conductor is fused into a chair connected directly to the tower. Wires and ports link their body to the core systems. When they speak, nearby radios crackle to life. Speakers activate. Other cultists hear the voice through their implants. The voice often overlaps itself or breaks apart mid-sentence.

The Conductor orders constant “tuning.”

Cult teams watch the outer and middle areas for lone travelers. Captured victims are dragged into old broadcast buildings. Crude surgery rooms have been set up inside. Cult surgeons open the skull and install receiver implants.

Many people die during the process. Those who live wake up confused and broken, with static flooding their thoughts. Over time, most lose their old identity and blend into the Cult. The Conductor calls this rescue. Everyone else calls it theft.

Relations and Use

No major faction controls the Radio Silence Zone. The Citadel Council lists it as forbidden. The Solar Guardians monitor it from a distance. The Hydro Hegemony avoids it entirely. Gear Rats strip metal from the edges but keep their machines far back.

Even so, people still come close.

Criminal fixers meet in the outer area where surveillance fails. Clinics pay well for intact hardware pulled from old relay cores. Researchers want samples of Cult implants. Families search for missing relatives. Some believers enter willingly, hoping to hear the Broadcast for themselves.

The Zone forces people to rely on their bodies and their choices. Technology cannot be trusted. Information is limited. The Static Cult does not want land or trade. It wants minds and machines to feed into the Broadcast.

Inside the Radio Silence Zone, machines fail first. Minds fail next.