The Switchback
A massive, multi-level, gnarled freeway interchange within Knight City — described at the table as a cyberpunk MacArthur Maze, the real-world Bay Area interchange notorious for being easy to get lost in. Built into it are islands offering food service, fuel, and other basics, because it’s entirely possible to become lost — and effectively trapped — inside it for extended periods. Neon Drift describes it flatly as “hell on earth,” and recalls a Van Life group once getting stuck there for six months, refueling on the road, unable to find a way out.
Overview
Every road in the region seems to converge here before its final approach into the city proper, and Rest Easy Interstate Services — true to form — controls access to essentially all of it. The Switchback also has entrances leading down into the Under Sector, which is what makes it relevant to the crew’s Session 1 investigation: all signs point to Mara Sato having passed through here on her way down.
As seen in Session 2: “a knot tied in concrete and steel, a hundred roadways folding over and under one another until direction stops meaning much.” Rainwater runs black through cracked gutters below and the support columns sweat rust; the lanes get cleaner and brighter the higher you climb, lined with chrome barriers and cold REIS light, with checkpoints deciding who gets to go up and who gets turned back. People live on the street here; street-cart food vendors and roadside night markets operate alongside everything from beaters to supercars. A broken neon sign buzzes NO ACCESS MOTEL over one dead ramp.
Its western end is the Tangle.
Known Facts
- Multiple levels of interchange roads, with food/fuel islands built directly into the structure.
- Large and disorienting enough that people have been stranded there for months at a time.
- Has entrances connecting down to the Under Sector.
- Controlled by Rest Easy Interstate Services, consistent with their citywide road monopoly. Checkpoints (e.g. Checkpoint B-17) gate access by credentials; REIS is progressively cutting off the old arcology key routes one choke point at a time.
- Supports a resident population: squatters, street vendors, and roadside night markets. Slim Jimmy runs a junk stall and rat barbecue at one of them.
- Contains restricted-access NSMC tunnels connecting to the Under Sector — Mara Sato came up out of them.
- The Lucky Strike gang has a presence down here.