Early in the 21st Century, the Tyrell Corporation advanced Robot evolution into 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, Aahn "Ash" Ashina rejoined the Blade Runner division 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, 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.
Yotun had Ash abducted before launching an all-out terrorist attack upon Los Angeles. His Replicant army destroyed the newly constructed seawall, killing the city's political and corporate elite, and inciting all Replicants in the city to revolt against their masters, before taking over the LAPD Tower.
Rescued from Yotun's clutches by members of Freysa's Underground, Ash raced back to the city to rescue her lover, whom Yotun mistakenly believed had joined his cause. Instead, she sabotaged his broadcast to the city from the LAPD Tower, and in retaliation he blinded her in one eye and left her to die in the burning building.
Faced with killing Yotun or rescuing Freysa, Ash chose her wounded lover and the two of them were air-lifted from the rooftop by the Underground...
