Night Hunters
History
The Middle East crisis had continued for years. One side had the support of the United States and the other had Russia in their corner. Both countries claimed they were stretching a helping hand to end the long war and human suffering, but the real reason was more material. In exchange for the military aid, the both great nations got their hands on something valuable; oil. The atmosphere between the two began to resemble the tension of the Cold War.
The spark to the powder keg was a nerve gas attack in November of 2000. The terrorist attack targeted a joint meeting of multiple leaders of nations in Washington. In the attack died presidents of the United States, France, Italy, Spain and Austria together with over 500 other people. Russia quickly claimed it was innocent of the terrorist attack and pointed fingers at Germany. The attack was made by using Sarin nerve gas, but Russia was firm that they weren’t related to the incident and someone had stolen a load of Sarin from them. Conspiracy theorists ran rampant.
27th of December 2001 The United States of America declared a war against Russia. Within a year other nations were swallowed in the conflict and it escalated into World War III. The war divided the countries in two camps. Western nations formed the Atlantic Defense Alliance (ADA, in spoken language it was called simply Alliance) and the easter front formed the Sovereign Coalition of Eastern Nations (SCEN, spoken Coalition). When people thought it couldn’t get any worse, the true nightmare began. In 2006 unknown monsters appeared. They emerged from the desert of Nevada and soon obliterated fully the first towns they came to. The monsters spread across the entire continental United States and soon spread across the borders. The history books don’t know if they were transferred on purpose or by accident to Europe or if they somehow got there by themselves, but what was certain, was that the monsters somehow got to Europe and caused just as much destruction there.
As the monsters brought hell on earth, they became the new enemy number one. The war was put on hold as former enemies shook hands and allied together against this unknown threat. The battle for survival of humanity had begun.
When it became obvious that the majority of monsters were immune to modern weapons, the best solution to the situation seemed to be shoring up their defenses after disastrous attempts at hostile action against the sins had little effect on the monsters, and tragic outcomes against the dwindling human population . One of the more horrific examples of this was the nuclear strikes made by the United States against Mexico in an attempt to stop the sins at one of their greatest concentrations, but the nuclear explosion killed only the weakest sins. Worse still, it killed millions of people who haven’t been evacuated yet, either instantly in the blast or later in radiation sickness. The attack was widely condemned, and turned over half of Mexico into a radioactive wasteland, which prevents everyone from trying to travel to South America by land. In light of how ineffective these aggressive acts seemed to be against the sins, nations began to rapidly build walled cities and the first were erected in 2016. Within the relative safety of the walled cities, in 2017 Atyantika created the first generation of super soldiers, made to fight against the sins. The stoiers were able to wield Aura weapons, melee weapons manifested by will, which were capable of hurting even the strongest sins.
Because of the problems concerning the stoiers, Antika was soon forced to return back to the drawing board. The next generation of super soldiers, the charons, were humans enhanced with Zero chips. they were introduced to the world in 2020. The problem with human soldiers was that it took too much time to raise one soldier, compared to something they could grow in a tank. Antika’s final creation was revealed in 2027, the third generation of super soldiers, the charites. They were a more docile version of the original stoiers.
Despite the best effort of the Antika, the world outside was collapsing. The sins and nature claimed cities and towns. Majority of humans had died and the rest of them lived in the walled cities, sanctuaries. Venturing outside a sanctuary was extremely dangerous, but it wasn’t fully safe inside the walls either. During the years, some of the sanctuaries fell, either into inner conflicts or to attacks of the sins.
As the years passed, connection to the world outside was lost as no one was maintaining important satellites or link masts. In 2049 the sanctuaries lost connection to the sanctuaries outside North America. In 2062 the sanctuaries lost connection with one another and now the only way to hear news from other sanctuaries is physically visiting them.
World
It's the year 2081 and most of known humanity resides behind colossal walls of the sanctuary cities. Behind the city walls is the dangerous wilderness, ruled by the sins. Berkton is a sanctuary in coastal Virginia, where life inside the walls is relatively normal. There are three other sanctuaries, relatively near Berkton. Riverburg, Casterville and Recrosse. Altamont city was overrun by the sins ten years ago. A group of people managed to escape from the city before it fell and they were divided to the nearest sanctuaries as refugees.
Berkton is a huge city, protected by two walls. The outer wall is called Aegis and the inner wall Gloria, named after the wife of Mayor Berkton, who was the biggest funder in building the walls. The walls are 650 feet tall and 50 feet thick, covered with thick steel sheets. Above the city is an invisible laser grid, which is used to detect intruders and for aiming. Atop of the walls are mounted turrets and railguns. They are supported by cannons placed inside the walls.
The city is extremely divided both physically and economically. The outer city, or Dogtown as people call it because ‘they have cramped us here like dogs’, is a place of poverty. Poorly made buildings rise against the wall Aegis and people live in tiny apartments. The Dogtown has its own services, like shops, health services and entertainment because people of the inner city don't want to see them. Separating the apartments of Dogtown from the city center wall is a ring of factories and farmlands that try desperately to thrive in the pollution of the factories. Products of the farmlands are sold in Dogtown. Drugs, prostitution, thefts and all kinds of criminal activity bloom in Dogtown. The Police forces are too few to handle all the problems in Dogtown, and people who decide about the funding don’t care about problems as long as they don’t reach the inner city.
The most fortunate residents of Berkton live in the inner city, Paradise City as it later became known, surrounded by the wall Gloria. There are the better farmlands that aren’t choked in the smog of industry, and near them live people who consider themselves as middle class. The air quality in Paradise city is good and it’s considered a safe place to live, especially compared to Dogtown. The upper class people live in spacious villas or modern city condos. The services and offices are located at the center of the city. There are first class malls, with grocery stores, clothing stores, restaurants, theaters, beauty salons, bars and such. Around the tall buildings are well managed green parks. Paradise City has an unparalleled variety of free time activities from arts to sports.
Most of the sanctuaries have closed internet, called Circle. The entertainment industry isn’t what it used to be, but sanctuaries have their own local television broadcasts. They broadcast mainly educational programs, reruns of whatever old movies and series they have time after time and recordings of live performances and reality shows because they are cheap to make as well as pay per view programs which offer more ‘adult’ entertainment. There are small studios that still make movies and series, but their budgets are pitiful compared to what grand studios had before the war. The content of each Circle grows with what people upload in it. One way of expanding the Circle is downloading a copy of another city’s Circle and it’s common that a party visiting another sanctuary brings a copy of their Circle for that purpose.
People use landline phones and those whose pockets are deep enough have cell phones, which are sturdy little blocks with a 5 lines monochrome graphic display. They can be used for calling and sending 120 characters long messages. For the lack of telephone masts, the cell phones work only in sanctuaries and calling or messaging to another sanctuary is impossible. Authorities use radios inside the city in addition to using phones.
The contrast between Dogtown and Paradise city is like night and day. They both have most of the same services, yet people lead very different kinds of lives. In Dogtown people work long days, or commit crimes, just to get by. They can hardly afford to do anything that costs money on the little free time they have. People work under hazardous conditions and the area itself isn’t safe for living either because of the high crime rate, occasional fires, and collapsing of buildings caused by nonexisting engineering and cheap materials. Many children have to go to sleep hungry because their parent(s) don’t have money to buy food. Often illnesses go untreated because medicine is too expensive.
In Paradise city people live comfortably in houses or apartments where there are rarely electricity or water cuts. The schools have highly educated teachers, hospitals have the newest technology and people have money they can spend on hobbies or luxury items. They can even get pets like a cat, a dog, or a horse. The dirty and exhausting jobs are reserved for the people of Dogtown, while educated residents of Paradise city handle jobs that don’t require getting one’s hands dirty or breaking a sweat, or then they work as directors in different kinds of facilities. Many people in Paradise city look down on their fellow citizens who live in Dogtown, despite the fact that they don’t have enough people to do all the work in Paradise, so numerous workers come there every day to work and after their shift is over, they return back to the outer city.
At the very bottom of the society are the zerons as they are nonhumans. Even criminals of Dogtown have more rights than the zerons. In the Dogtown people who do a work that requires only a little training or no training at all, like simple factory work or working on fields, are considered as less significant as educated people, like doctors, engineers, teachers, pilots and such. Somewhere between the two groups are civil servants, like firefighters, police officers and soldiers. The people who go to work in the inner city are respected in Dogtown. However, no matter how educated and skilled one is, if he isn’t a citizen of Paradise city, he will always be considered a lesser person than someone who lives in the inner city.
In the inner city the hierarchy is very similar. The physical laborers are at the bottom, the executing level of soldiers and civil servants come after them and at the top of the working class are the highly educated, like successful scientists, coders, surgeons, professions and such. The position of people who work in the entertainment industry depends fully on what kind of art they make and what kind of reputation they have gained. The Charons are well respected in Berkton, more than working class or regular soldiers, though not more than high ranking officers. At the very top of the society are the directors and presidents of important companies and facilities. Some have gained an important position simply because they were born in wealth or married into it. At the top of the hierarchy sits Mayor Timothy Berkton. All important decisions have to get his approval.
The glaring inequality between the humans and the zerons and people of Dogtown and Paradise city gave rise to Compassion. It’s an organisation that works in order to give an improved quality of life for everyone. Compassion’s main goals are securing human rights for the zerons, or at least stopping their cruel and inhumane treatment, and dividing the wealth of Berkton so there would be no more first and second class citizens. Compassion is a peaceful organization and they try to achieve their goals by raising conversation and making the problems known, making peaceful demonstrations and applying for legal changes. So far the biggest achievement Compassion has made are charity programs it runs in Dogtown, to offer medical services and food for free for the citizens of the outer city. There are smaller groups who have the same goal as Compassion, but they try to achieve it by resorting to violent attacks. Compassion disapproves with their methods and strictly declares they are not part of Compassion or their agenda.
For public safety Berkton has its own police department, fire department and hospitals. However, the presence of the military and Night hunters is strong. The main purpose of the Night hunters is destroying any and all sins that might appear inside the city, but they have duties too. The main force of the Night Hunters serves in the Berkton Defense Corps. Their headquarters are in Paradise city and their area of operation is the whole of Berkton. Most of the time they work in guard duty on the walls or in the underground. The Berkton Defense Corps’ main purpose is defeating all grand scale sin attacks. As the mobilisation of the Corps is slow, it’s supported by Berkton Special Response Unit.
The Special Response Unit (SRU) is divided into eight sectors. There is one squad in each sector, consisting of about 30 Night hunters. While on duty the SRU Hunters patrol in a vehicle around their sector or are on standby at a base, located atop of wall Gloria. The SRU handles mainly missions that are too challenging for the police and they are the first to encounter a sin when they appear inside the city. In addition to this the hunters can be assigned to do many other tasks. They can work as personal bodyguards as well as be ordered to escort a party venturing outside the sanctuary either for exploring or visiting another city. The worst assignment one can get is so called harvesting duty. It means going out and thinning out the numbers of sins wandering too close to the wall. It’s an extremely dangerous job, which is why usually only suicidal, insane or those who have pissed off their superiors are assigned to do it. Majority of people in the harvesting duty are zerons. Unlike the charons, the zerons can be ordered to take part in private occasions organised by the elite of Berkton. These occasions can be anything between perverted orgies and death matches.
The fastest way to move around the city is a helicopter. Travel via aircraft is restricted to the airspace above and just outside the sanctuary walls as unknown factors have led to aircraft traveling further than that suffering catastrophic mechanical failure. There is a tram network in both Dogtown and Paradise city, but they aren’t connected. On the inner side of the walls, up high is also a monorail. There are multiple elevators that take people up and down on the walls. There are 16 commonly known entryways to the wide underground system.
Because there is only a limited amount of space within the walls, the city has continued growing by digging deeper under the ground. In the underground system are crucial facilities like a nuclear power plant, water treatment plant and emergency storages. Facilities where zeron are created are underground too. Ironically the richest people of Berkton have their panic houses built underground, in the very same system where Berkton prison is. The prison is small considering the size of the city, because instead of keeping people in a prison for several years, the justice department is more willing to give an expulsion out of the city, which is the same as a death sentence in reality.
Night Hunters
Athyantika
However, the people couldn’t cover behind their walls forever. From the beginning of the war against the sins, scientists all over the world gathered together to join their efforts in beating the monsters. Their cooperation gave birth to the science organisation, Athyantika (or Antika as it’s called more often). The organization had branch offices all over the world.
Antika worked tirelessly on developing weapons and methods to defeat the sins. With time, trial and error they managed to isolate from the monsters’ cells which held a part of their power. These cells would be used in Antika’s greatest and most successful project: Project Contra.
Project Contra
The project was based on cells harvested from the sins, and the power within which became known as, ‘Zero’ power. By mixing human DNA with animal and sin genes the scientists created an artificially made life form known as a zeron. Later they found a way to compress the same power the zerons had on Zero chips, which were used on soldiers to give them Zero powers.
Night hunter became known as a name meaning charons, stoiers and charites. All Night hunters possessed the Zero power, which gave them enhanced strength, speed, and agility together with some unnatural abilities and capability to manifest an Aura weapon and heal themselves. Without using the Zero a hunter has only the strength and limberness their body type can naturally give. So without the Zero a hunter built like a tank is stronger than a little female with slender built. With Zero a hunter can boost their abilities, but it will come with a cost. One of the downsides of being a Night hunter is that all zerons are born sterile and the chipping decreases a charon’s fertility significantly.
The building up stress from using the Zero is called strain on the charons and corruption on the zerons. Built up strain dissolves on its own overtime. Mild strain will disappear in four to six hours, moderate strain will take a full day to wear off and severe strain needs two or three days to recover from.
Zero power is unnatural and using it is going to strain one’s body and mind. This strain affects the charons and the zerons differently. A human body isn’t meant to possess such power and that’s why using the Zero is going to wear out the charon’s body eventually. The first mild symptoms of using too much power are headache and lightheadedness. They are the body’s own sign to stop using Zero. The continous use after the first warning signs will cause nosebleeds, shaking, loss of strength of a limb, and even temporary blindness, loss of hearing, or partial paralysis. Should a charon push forward despite these, they risk becoming permanently blinded, deaf or even falling into a coma. It’s possible for a charon to strain their body so much it will cause a death by a heart attack or a brain aneurysm.
The zerons can’t rid off the corruption on their own, which is why they need something called a reset. An artificial reset is an injection, which will remove the corruption within 24 hours. A natural reset is sexual and it requires a zeron to be intimate with someone while both, or all, participants are aroused and it will lead to at least to the orgasm of at least one of them. Officially it’s encouraged to choose the natural reset and handle it discreetly. In practise how which type of reset a zeron uses depends on their own personality and the people they have to deal with. The common interval between resets is two weeks for someone who works in SRU and hasn’t had to deal with sins beyond C class. However, it’s completely possible for both a charon and a zeron to go beyond their limits in a single combat if they use their powers without control.
Use of the Zero power builds corruption inside zerons’ bodies. The first signs of corruption show up as a faintly glowing pattern of vines around the mid body. From there they will spread and as they spread, the skin becomes white and starts losing its elasticity, resembling a white cracking marble. Despite the skin losing its elasticity, it has no effect on moving. When the glow and the whitening of the skin start to reach the neck of a zeron, the situation is critical. At this point they can still stop and be saved with a reset. When the corruption starts touching a zeron’s neck, she begins to struggle to control her own mind. It is a rule for this situation to eliminate the zeron immediately. Should a zeron fail to do it herself, it’s up to her allies to end her as quickly as possible before she becomes a nightmare.
When a zeron becomes a nightmare, they will lose their mind and succumb to their sin origin. The corruption will make them grow into deformed monstrosities and they will gain access to all the powers that were sealed in their blood heritage. A nightmare is vastly more dangerous and powerful than any zeron can be. They are the disgrace of the military and some civilians despise and hate the zerons because they are unreliable and can turn against their own.
Aura
An Aura weapon is a melee weapon a Night hunter can manifest at will. It’s still unknown what determines what kind of weapon one gets, but whatever type of that weapon is, it’s for life. Changing Aura is impossible. There are many different types of Aura weapons, from different kinds of swords and spears to glaives, fist weapons, chain whips, and exotic blades.
Summoning and maintaining an Aura weapon requires very little power. The weapon can break under extreme stress, but it can be summoned back as unbroken. If a Night hunter leaves the weapon alone for more than a minute, it will disappear on its own or the hunter can dismiss it at will.
With Zero a hunter can enhance their Aura as well their own abilities. A hunter can use Zero power to grow the size and durability of their weapons and increase their own strength and speed too. The amount of strain from the boosting is proportional to how much one decides to pour their power in enhancing their abilities. Without special abilities by using Zero a hunter can jump up to 30 feet with a running start (in other words, with speed) and to 15 feet on spot without the running start, jump down from 90 feet without being injured, grow their weapons size into twofold and run 45 mph/h. Doing all that will cause lots of strain so hunters moderate the use of Zero by doing so only short periods of time at once.
With the Zero power come special abilities, like spurting spikes out of the ground, phasing through inanimate objects, partially hardening one’s body, covering one’s Aura in fire, flash speed etc. These abilities are like weaker versions of what the sins have. Using them requires Zero and their use is draining, so they are used normally only in short bursts.
Unlike enhancing one’s Aura or natural qualities (like running, jumping and such) Zero abilities can’t be boosted no matter how much one pours their power into them. Every hunter has multiple abilities sealed in their Zero and with time and experience a hunter usually learns to use more of those hidden abilities. At the same time, as a hunter becomes more experienced in the use of their power, the strain from enhancing their natural physical attributes will decrease to some extent.
The healing ability all hunters have is frightening and gruesome. Some people call the Night hunters monsters because they can keep on fighting despite being impaled or losing a limb, and on top of that, they can heal themselves from such fatal injuries. The Night hunters don’t go into a pain shock, no matter how much they suffer, which enables them to continue to fight. However, this doesn’t mean they don’t feel pain normally. The surest way to kill a hunter is beheading, destroying brains or a heart as they are something that will kill a hunter instantly.
The most straining thing a hunter can do is heal themselves. Often the hunters have to balance between how much to use Zero for a combat and how much reserve for a possible injury. If a hunter has already gained a large amount of strain or corruption during a combat or last days, they might not be able to heal themselves because going over the limit will be lethal anyway. Healing small scratches and cuts doesn’t require much power, but deeper cuts and broken bones start to need some proper healing which will be heavy on one’s body and increase the strain or corruption level significantly. Recovering from a severe injury, like being impaled or losing a part of body, is extremely exhausting and in the worst case scenario a hunter has too much strain to begin with to heal themselves from such a serious injury. That is how the hunters lose limbs and gain scars. If they can’t heal themselves, whether it’s because they are unconscious or have exhausted too much Zero already, they have to rely on traditional modern medicine to save them.
There is a small time window of less than one hour for a hunter to heal their injuries with Zero. This limitation of self-regeneration makes it impossible to wait till reset takes effect or strain wears off and then heal suffered injuries. This is tactically crucial because a hunter must make the decision of either holding back their Zero use in case of being hurt and having to heal themselves or use more Zero in offense and hope they won’t get injured, because there isn’t enough room to use Zero for self-regeneration and they would be at the mercy of traditional medicine.
Zerons
Zerons are made in underground facilities, in bio tanks that resemble coffins. Growing a zeron takes eight months. When a zeron is born, in other words released from her tank, she is mentally and physically an adult. Her mental and physical state equals that of an 18 year old, but she might be socially clumsy or awkward for a couple of years at first. It’s a minor problem that will disappear with time. During the eight months a zeron’s body develops fully and their mind is fed with all the information that is seen as necessary. This includes necessary combat training, general knowledge of the world as it is now, military code and proper social behavior among other things. The most important thing that is implanted in the zeron’s mind is their true purpose, serving humankind. That is the very core of their indoctrination and everything is built around it.
Dying while defending a human was the greatest honor a zeron could achieve. A zeron who let a human die when he could have been saved is seen as a failure and disgrace, even when it was impossible to save the human in question. The zerons are taught to obey humans and never act aggressively towards them. No matter what is said or done to them, they can’t raise a hand against a human or that hand will be cut off or in the worst case the zeron will be sent back to the facility for extermination. The exception to this rule is when the zerons are performing their duty, which means obeying an order of a superior or upkeeping the peace.
The official name for the facilities where the zerons are created and trained is Zeron Genetics. In spoken language they are commonly known as zeron factories. In Berkton there are two Zeron Genetics facilities, Valor and Hope. The Valor is an older facility using old and cruel principles, whereas Hope is a newer facility with a more humane approach to training the zerons. They are both divided into two sections, one for stoiers and one for charites. The sections are strictly separated from one another.
The main function of the zeron factories is producing zerons and ensuring they are ready for service. In a factory zerons go through various physical and mental tests. The hardest tests are so called stress tests, that contain sadistic abuse and violence to make sure a zeron won’t break and turn against its creators under any kind of situation. As reset being part of a zeron’s life, they have to be used to sexual interaction too. This means that new zerons have to endure sexual abuse too to make sure they won’t panic and hurt someone when they have their first reset done in the outside world. The factories use prisoners for this purpose to take advantage of the inmates’ sick desires which should prepare the zerons for whatever they might experience in future. Should a zeron snap and kill someone, it’s not considered a big loss if one prisoner dies.
The zerons live in huge halls where there are simple bunk beds in rows. They have no personal possessions. Because of the nightmare they have to endure, it’s common that zerons seek comfort and consolation from each other. Often stoiers considers other stoiers as their brothers and charites see other charites as their sisters. It’s not uncommon at all that two zerons squeeze to sleep on the same bunk bed or several of them huddle together, sleeping while sitting. In their heads is information of the outside world and the thought of what is waiting for them is what keeps the zerons sane.
In Berkton Valor is the true horror factory for zerons who are the unlucky ones and are born there. The ones who are lucky are born in Hope. The treatment of the zerons is almost humane there. There are way less stress tests, they are milder and many of them are run on simulations.
There are many different types of zerons. The name of a type is decided where it was originally created, which is the reason for varying naming traditions as Antika had laboratories all over the world. For example a kitsu (fox) and a neko (cat) types were created in Asia, a griffin type in Germany and wolf type in Canada. Before the communication connection to other nations was lost, Antika exchanged information actively which is why there can be types outside of the region where they were originally created.
As the Hunters are part of the military they are required to act accordingly, especially when wearing a uniform. The zerons are assumed to act with dignity at all times because their appearance makes it obvious who they are. This means avoiding public drinking, getting into brawls, general debauchery and generally all kinds of bad and disturbing behavior. The consequences of getting caught or bringing bad reputation to the military depend on who did it and how widely known the condemned act is. There is a big difference between someone reporting one drinking with his buddies and urinating on a street and having a porn video made while wearing an official uniform, for example. As a general rule, the charons are judged and punished more mildly than the zerons. The common correctional actions for the charons are a warning, taking away leave days and temporary pay cuts. The zerons can have the same punishments, but they have less leaves and a much smaller salary to begin with. Unlike the charons, the zerons might be physically punished or even sent back to a zeron factory, which usually means death.
The zerons are property of the sanctuary where they were made, and in a way, the charons are too, which is why the cities are extremely reluctant to let them go. For a charon there exists a small chance to be able to transfer to another city, but for a zeron that is extremely rare. There is no such thing as retirement age for the zerons. They serve until they are killed in duty or they become incapable of continuing, when they are sent back to a zeron factory where they will be eliminated or they work as guards in there, because even though a zeron might not be good enough for a real combat, they can still have enough left to keep fresh zerons under control. For this reason, it’s unclear how long a zeron could live if allowed. The charons are usually transferred out of active combat duty before 40. Continuing past that age increases the risk of a body slowly wearing out, which will cause a heart failure or a brain aneurysm.
As the pay the zerons receive is awfully modest, it’s not uncommon at all that they bond with a charon who will either buy them products they desire, give money or let them live at their place. The nature of these bonds differ. Some form a genuine caring relationship where as to some it’s a fair trade of services to goods. The smarter zerons might try to charm and even manipulate a charon or charons to give them what they want. There are also charons with darker personality who take advantage of their position. It’s more convenient for a zeron to have a relationship with a charon or another zeron because it’s not judged as badly as being with a civilian, as long as it is kept discreet.
Stoiers
The stoiers are the first generation of the super soldiers made by Antika. They were heralded as saviors and heroes. News about the stoiers spread quickly all across the world and they exceeded all expectations. Without fear and selflessly they attacked the frightening sins and slayed them. They were the new hope for humankind in a time when all seemed lost. For the first time after the appearance of the sins it looked like the humans might win this war.
Behind the scenes the stoiers weren’t as perfect as the officials let people to understand. They had behavior problems. They showed defiance, refused to obey their superiors and fought with each other. By the time there were cases where a stoier attacked his superior or raped someone it became impossible to keep their problems hidden from the public. There weren’t just a few individuals who had these bad behavior problems, but it seemed to be a common problem for the stoiers. They couldn’t stand someone threatening their place as a leader of the pact and considered women as their own property. Naturally this caused big and bloody conflicts.
The problems with the stoiers made the scientists rush their experiments on developing a human super soldier. Three years after announcing the stoiers, their manufacturing was discontinued temporarily. The existing stoiers were sent back to zeron factories, where they were exterminated. At this point some of the stoiers fled.
Antika made big changes on the stoiers and several years later in 2029, they continued creating new and improved stoiers. The new stoiers were weaker than the original stoiers, but their behavior problems had almost completely vanished. Some individuals might still feel possessive or show mild rebelliousness, but this kind of behavior is quickly rewarded with severe physical punishment or death, so they know to keep their temper in check. Unfortunately, the first stoiers destroyed the reputation of the zerons and even today some people are wary or outright hateful towards the zerons.
Charons
The second generation of the super soldiers. The Charons were a result of scientists wanting to enhance humans instead of making creatures to fight their fights. In a process called chipping four Zero chips are implanted in the back of a human soldier. The chipping is performed between the ages between 19 and 24. The procedure is excruciatingly painful because one can’t be under the influence of any kind of drugs during it, so doctors can’t use painkillers or anesthesia. It’s a risky operation and only 81% of the patients survive through it. The chips themselves are hexagon shaped. It varies from patient to patient whether the chips show through skin or not when passive, but when they are active they glow. Removing the chips without killing the patient is impossible.
After the chipping follows a phase where the body adjusts to the changes the Zero powers bring. It will take from two to four months to get used to it and the progress might be exhausting and painful. Especially learning to use the Zero power and how far one can take it. In the end, a human body isn’t meant to possess such unnatural power, so use of it will cause a heavy strain on the body. The charons are equal in power with the zerons, but their downside is that it takes 19 years to get one combat ready charon where it takes less than four years to get a combat ready zeron.
One can enlist in the charon program at age of 18 at earliest. There will be one year long military training and during that training the superiors and professionals will estimate if the individual is physically and mentally fit to become a charon. If they pass all the tests, they go through chipping and then join a military academy. Both the charons and the zerons must graduate from the military academy, which will take two years normally.
There are many reasons why one would go through such a dangerous procedure in order to become a charon. Some do it out of a sense of duty as they feel they must protect others, some do it for the money and social acceptance the status of a charon brings as even people of Dogtown can become charons, some are adrenaline junkies who do it for the excitement of a combat, some for a chance to get boss around the zerons. There are as many reasons to become a charon as there are charons.
Charites
The third generation of zero soldiers, all female zerons. As strong as the charons were, there were a limited number of them. The people needed the zerons because they could be replaced easier than humans, so Antika made the charites. They are more servile than the stoiers, which is completely on purpose to avoid the problems people had with the original stoiers.
Unfairly, the charites suffer from the bad reputation made by the original stoiers. They were received with caution and some people feared them. The rules for the charites were stricter and punishments harsher than what they had been before their time. There was zero tolerance to all and any kind of disobedience. Even the smallest defiance or aggressive behavior was met with cruel punishments in order to show the people that the charites were under control and they wouldn’t be a danger to the public.