Plastits

Pencil

The Combat Zone is a no-man's land beyond the fringe of civilisation, in a post-apocalyptic world. It's where survivors, gangs, mercenaries, mutants, cyborgs and reanimated 'ReBorn' tentatively co-exist. Essentially, anywhere outside civilisation is termed "The Combat Zone", where rule of law is determined by might and cunning. Exiled from civilisation is a rogue former law enforcement officer. Her callsign is 'Pencil'. Because rumour has it, she's killed someone with one.. Paramilitaries, such as Pencil, operate from pockets of 'civilisation', fortified enclaves. There's plenty of opportunities for Pencil to employ her skillset in the Combat Zone. Pencil specialises in bounty hunting, bringing her targets back alive. Few bounties in the Zone are worth more alive than dead, other than escaped mutants. Some mutants didn't escape, but were released. And Pencil is part of their recapture and re-evaluation. Mutants are artificially designed people, but whether they count as human is debatable. Initially developed as shock troops, all mutants are stronger and tougher than humans. However they soon were replaced by robots, droids, drones for military purposes, as mutants are costly and time consuming to grow and train, and such dangerous creations who have agency pose risks. Instead, they are now repurposed for specialist fields that are too hazardous or distasteful for humans. However, just because Combat mutants are outlawed, doesn't mean they don't exist. Such mutants pose too great a risk to study in civilisation.. so they are often released to the Combat Zone, for later recapture and re-evaluation. Animals shun mutants, unless trained to tolerate them, ie dogs will bark, cats will hiss, horses will rear, most will flee. Pencil and other monster hunters may employ dogs or other animals to ascertain whether a target is human or not. But the most lucrative category of live bounty, of dubious morality, is abducting skilled personnel for the ReBorn. The ReBorn are cybernetic zombies. So long as the brain is intact, a fresh corpse can be reanimated through the magic of science. The new Frankenstein creation benefits from the brainpower of its previous life, in addition to the cybernetic augmentations, at cost of muted emotions. Eternal life, or undeath, framed as religion. This procedure can also be done to a live, usually involuntary, subject. These conversions, performed in their distant citadel, Haven, provide the highest quality ReBorn. Pencil specialises in live extraction. For Pencil and her team, this can mean intercepting ReBorn caravans before they reach Haven. But only for profit. Pencil is a mercenary, after all. And when business is slow, well, anyone with half a brain in the Combat Zone suddenly becomes a bounty..