The Colony landed on Phoenicia generations ago.

Terraforming had failed to take. The atmosphere was still poor, and the city waiting for the colonists had been built beneath a Shield.

Central City had been constructed before Planetfall, but it was never large enough to hold the population arriving aboard the Colony Ships.

The Shield was pushed outward. Automated construction placed HAB blocks for the population, IND blocks over mineable resources and FOD blocks where food could be produced.

The population came down from orbit and went to work.

But the atmosphere had never become what had been promised, and food production proved far more difficult than planned.

More colonists arrived. More housing was needed. The city spread outward.

Later arrivals found themselves pushed farther from Central City into increasingly poor housing, crowded HAB blocks and slums built wherever space could be found beneath the Shield.

The final transport never came down.

Its population refused Planetfall and remained aboard the Colony Craft. The ship stayed in orbit and became the Space Station that still circles Phoenicia.

Resentment grew between the newer colonists of the Outer City and the original settlers within Central City.

Eventually it became war.

There was no winner.

By the time the First War of the City ended, the population on both sides of the wall had been reduced.

Central City sealed its gates.

The Outer City remained outside.

Central City continued to demand resources from the Outer City.

The Outer City became aggressive again.

The story says that Central City answered by switching off the Shield over the Districts that had risen against it.

The Second War lasted minutes.

Afterwards, the automated systems continued to communicate with the Outer City.

Central City did not.

No one knows what happened inside Central City.

The gates remain closed. The systems continue to make their demands. The tithes are still collected.

Perhaps the stories about the Second War are true.

Perhaps the holes in the Shield are evidence of what Central City can do.

Perhaps they are simply ruins from a history nobody remembers correctly.

No one outside the walls knows.

The demands still come.

The Districts still pay.

No District produces everything it is asked to supply, and resources are too scarce for neighbouring Districts simply to give away what they have.

So the Gangs steal it.

They raid other Districts, guard their own supplies, bargain when they can and fight when they cannot.

Because whatever really happened during the Second War, nobody wants their District to be the next one removed from the planet.