2026 to 2030

The Diaspora.

• The Diaspora begins. Groups displaced from wrecked cities now set out to Reclaim nearby cities abandoned since the Collapse of the 1990s. They are supported by Nomads who set up convoys between cities.
• There is massive looting of old tech and abandoned storehouses. Only scattered Corps are still functioning and only on a very reduced basis, Local businesses are left to take up the slack, often with resources plundered from abandoned Megacorp facilities. 
• Very limited VPNs within Corporate parks. AIs occasionally creep into the wrecked cities' old NETs to seek out other AIs to join the Ghost World.
• Arasaka breaks into three warring factions: the Kiji (Green Pheasant) Faction, headed by Hanako Arasaka; the Hato (Dove) Faction, helmed by supporters of Michiko Arasaka, Kei's youngest daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, instead allies with the new U.S. government; and the Taka (Hawk) Faction, led by Saburo's rebel son Yorinobu. 
• The remaining United States is now a functional dictatorship under President Elizabeth Kress' State of Emergency.