NIGHT CITY ns << SE2TION Di) COMBAT ZONE B_A TT AT FARM The Combat Zone. Every modern ‘American city has one; Night City is no exception. A burned-out sprawl of tenements, abandoned factories, boarded up offices and trashed shopping malls, occupied only by the desperate, the devious and the dead. During thelight of day, the Zone sleeps under its industrial strength pall of smog. But at night, the Zone comes alive, for it is only then that It’s most feared residents venture out of their sweltering sewer holes and rat-infested hovels to how! and prowl. Night City’s Combat Zone lies somewhere south of the centrality as shown on most Chamber of Commerce maps. For the first few miles, this region is mostly made up of residential areas; blocks and blocks of nearly identical tract housing interspersed withsmall businesses. Furthersouth, les the area actually known as the Combat Zone, with its blocks andblocksof burnt out wasteland. Thereisno dear definition between the residential area and the combat zone; things just tend to degrade gradually, getting worse and worse until the neighborhoodisfinally atthe level of apostholocaust hellhole. Itshould be noted the Zone seems to be growing yearly, and whatwas once marginally valuable housing one years often now another ple of junk in the Zone a year later. There has been much discussion on whether or not Night City should wall offits Zone, much as has been done in Detroit (with its ubiquitous twenty foot concrete abutments established in the late 90'3). So far, no agency either civil or corporate, has been willing to take the initiative to begin such a massive undertaking. ‘The Combat Zone sneversafe. Sure you'can getin andout again, maybe even twice, but even the high-rollers at the Hacienda wouldn’t give you odds on it. Entire security teams have disappeared in the Zone, and not even the police are willing to go down there anymore. About the only professional organization that will enter the Zone, is Trauma Team™, and even then only with state of the art firepower backing them up. ‘The only information most people can get about lfe in the Zone comes from those who have “comebacktotellthetale” (Go to speak). People who are tough enough to survive the Zone don't really care about small talk, 30 much of this information is gathered in bits and pieces. tis pretty well accepted that there is some form of hierarchy among the ‘combat gangs, with the Blood Razors currently on top. ttis also rumored that something called “RazorBal!” is played at ‘an abandonedice-skatingrink, onceamonth, andhasagreat tumout among the gangs, ‘The Zone is where Cyberpunks go to play. I's a place where there are no streetiamps to mar the shadows, no monitor camerasto watch illegal deals, and no cops to interfere. Of all the mean streetsof the 21st century, the Zoneis the meanest, Firefights are a way of lfe. Drugs are a way of choice. Brutal, sudden death isa constant option. Because the Zone is such a nebulous region, no exact maps exist within your dataterm database. The Zone’s entry is instead updated by running reports from Combat Cabb hacks, random fixers selling information, and the occasional solo with something interesting to report related to a job. a