Early in the 21st Century, the Tryell Corporation advanced Robot evolution to the Nexus phase – a being virtually identical to a human – known as a Replicant.
Replicants were used Off-world as slave labor. Those who escaped to Earth were hunted by Blade Runner units ordered to kill any trespassing Replicant upon detection.
In 2022, a Replicant attack on the Tyrell Corporation forced the company into bankruptcy and erased all records of existing Replicants. The surviving Nexus 8 models disappeared with the help of the Replicant underground. Many Replicants remained in servitude.
In 2027, Aahna “Ash” Ashina, a former Blade Runner, rejoined the department to hunt down fugitive Replicants. Her superiors are unaware that her loyalties are divided. Her lover, Freysa, is a leader in the Replicant underground.
While investigating a report of a rogue Replicant at the Los Angeles seawall construction site, Ash discovered that a Nexus 6 Replicant, Yotun, whom she had failed to retire 12 years previously, had somehow outlived his expiration date and had become the leader of a Replicant guerrilla army.
Learning of her investigation, Yotun had Ash abducted before launching an all-out attack upon Los Angeles, destroying the newly constructed seawall, and killing dozens of the city’s political and corporate elite.
Yotun subjected Ash to a drug-induced brainwashing process before submersing her in one of his Replicant rejuvenation tanks.
Members of the Replicant underground launched an attack on a power station to win the trust of Yotun and gave him Freysa as a ‘good-will’ gesture. While Yotun took Freysa with him on a mission he called, “the most important one,” the others, now inside Yotun’s underground lair, set out to locate and rescue Ash. Reviving her from the tank, Ash was shocked to discover that her crippling back disability had somehow been cured…