Mombasa

Mombasa was a large coastal megacity located in the Earth nation of Kenya, part of the East African Protectorate. Originally established around 900 A.D., it was one of the longest, continuously-inhabited cities in East Africa and easily the largest by population until the Covenant invasion of Earth in 2552. At the peak of human residency on Earth, Mombasa boasted a population of over 120 million people across multiple municipalities including Mombasa Island. The city was depopulated in the wake of the initial Covenant assault and glassed during the unearthing of the Voi Portal megastructure. Since the conflict's resolution, the United Nations Space Command established a massive exclusion zone around the portal site, including Mombasa, leading to the city becoming abandoned and falling into disrepair.

Mombasa was a major port city, originally defined by an industry of tourism. Heavily damaged during the late-21st and 22nd-century conflicts and rebuilt through the 23rd century, Mombasa became the global hub for trade and finance eventually hosting the first commercial space tether on Earth. The city was often split denominally between the financial center, "New Mombasa," and the surrounding municipalities, known collectively as "Old Mombasa." In present times, the single populated fixture of Mombasa is the Mombasa Annex, a large military security installation established on the former Mombasa Tether site.

Geography
The site of Mombasa has historically centered on Mombasa Island, at the mouth of two shallow bays and the Indian Ocean. The northern bay is split into Mombasa Harbor and Tudor Creek; the southern bay is similarly split into Port Kilindini and Port Reitz. During the period of rapid climate change at the turn of the second A.D. millennium, sea levels worldwide increased by unprecedented increments and complex coastal management systems were eventually put in place. The bays expanded, however, extending further inland by almost four miles and required further earthworks and seawalls to retain the coastline's general shape. Nonetheless, Mombasa and the surrounding land continue to be characterized as relatively flat, especially after nearby hills were excavated as part of city construction.

Due to a nuclear attack in the city's middling history, much of the contemporary layout differs from developments a century before. The western, inland municipality of Magongo was at the attack's epicenter, eventually being radioactively treated and then flattened to buildup the flooded Mombasa Island and Likoni. Much of Magongo became unstable ground after, compromised by salt marsh formation and erosion of the undersea bedrock. Centuries-old fissures formed there would eventually give way to revealing the hidden Voi Portal megastructure during the Covenant military's excavation of the region. With the portal site exposed, Magongo and other western municipalities have disappeared. Much of the city's residential areas were melted away or swallowed by encroaching water when the temporary seawalls constructed by the Covenant gave way to the Indian Ocean, partially-filling the crater.

Contemporary Mombasa Island is defined by sharp, mile-high skyscrapers rising from within the confines of slanted sea walls. The large coral extents that originally formed Mombasa Island and ran along the coastlines have long since dried out from increased ocean traffic while relocation projects established more vibrant, artificial reefs and fisheries further out to sea. After the construction of the Mombasa Tether in Mombasa Harbor, further constructional developments along Mombasa Island's southern waterfront and north Mombasa waterfront provide compensative protection in the event of a substantial disaster, particularly storm-flooding or the possible collapse of the space elevator. These developments are referred to as numeric sectors and covered by circle-shaped, encompassing retainer walls. Access between megaplexes is managed through extensive security locks apparatuses, potentially isolating the mini-districts from one another in event of an emergency.

The surviving seaside municipalities are covered in mixed urban sprawl, featuring architecture from several eras and of varying construction quality. While abandoned, plasma bombardment failed to destroy much of these residential and harbor areas, leaving them as a stark, though partially-submerged, reminder of what once existed in Old Mombasa. Only the southwestern tip of New Mombasa and Mombasa Island remain relatively unscathed, a testament to the city's robust engineering works. During an emergency atmospheric Slispace jump, a Covenant assault carrier managed to compromise the Mombasa tether, causing it to snap during the continuing conflict. The skeletal remains of the Mombasa Tether stretch hundreds of miles inland after security protocols failed to control the tether's descent. Still, the Mombasa Tether base remains occupied by a token UNSC security detachment, serving as a military cargo port, depot, and monitoring installation for the surrounding East African Exclusion Zone. Much of the land and ocean in and around Mombasa are covered in radioactive, molten dust left by the use of glassing beams in the area. Extending beyond Mombasa along with coinciding ecological damage, the area including the East African Exclusion Zone is often dubbed the "Kenyan Badlands."

History
Mombasa began as a Swahili settlement on Mombasa Island known as "Kongowea" in ancient times.