Tim Zaren
Species: Human
Age: 29
Drive: Programming
Warpside Assignment: Weapons Officer
Groundside Assignment: Technical Officer


Two hundred years ago, a renegade group of human scientists and genetic engineers set out to found a new and perfect society. On a world called Eumelus, they created a colony where everyone was bred and groomed for a particular role, where human potential was optimized and human weakness excised. Your homeworld had no contact with the Combine, to prevent the perfect society being corrupted by outside influences.

Even before you were decanted from the artificial womb, you knew your purpose. You were made to hunt deviants. In every generation, there are errors and unanticipated problems: renegades who fled Eumelus instead of performing their assigned role, mutants, intruders from offworld, corruption and genetic treachery. The deviant hunter’s role is to eliminate these problems from the perfect society. You were imprinted with an all-consuming drive for justice, to eliminate corruption and to protect the law-abiding. Your abilities and talents were so honed that the whole colony needed only a single deviant hunter — fifty thousand people with one lone cop to keep them honest.

Then, the Mohilar War wreaked havoc across the Combine. Society fractured, governments fell, and criminals took over. You looked up at the stars and realized there were billions of people out there crying out for justice.

A year ago, you fled Eumelus. The deviant hunter became the arch-deviant, as your inborn compulsion to bring justice forced you to consider the needs of the whole universe. Perhaps it is an impossible, quixotic quest to bring justice to the Bleed, but you simply cannot do anything else.

Eumelus was a scientific, rational society. It made sense to you. Out here in the Bleed, everyone’s a bizarre deviant. Your genetic gifts mean you can detect the most subtle changes in skin temperature and eye movement that might signal a guilty conscience, but you are confused by many aspects of Bleed culture.

You’ve signed on as a laser. It is the most efficient way to bring justice to the Bleed.

The Crew:

• Aze Hawk: A former Combine naval captain. Highly respected.
  
• Revenant: A cybe; Eumelus is seen as a model society by some cybe factions. Hawk and Revenant knew each other during the war, and you suspect they have unfinished business.
  
• Francine Dare: A brilliant young pilot. You and she are friends; she is very talented, but needs to learn to put her skills to the service of a cause. She lacks direction.
  
• Dr. Fairfax: He appears to be a kindly old doctor, but you sense that he is considerably more dangerous than he seems. He stinks of guilt.
  
• Volith: Durugh ex-spy. You suspect she is manipulating the crew for her own ends; do not let her distract you from the pursuit of justice.

Plot Arcs:

• Servant of Justice: Can Zaren balance the obsessive pursuit of justice with being human?
  1. The crew encounter a situation where solving the case will cause much more suffering and injustice than exposing the truth. Do you choose justice or mercy?
     
  2. An alien virus temporarily disables the crew’s viroware and augmentations — including Zaren’s drive for justice! How does you react to being temporarily free of this compulsion?
     
  3. Zaren finds evidence of wrongdoing on the part of one of his shipmates. Do his feelings overcome his desire for justice?
  
  
• Genetic Destiny: Zaren has left Eumelus, but can he deny the purpose written into his genetic code?
  1. You run into another deviant from Eumelus, whose genetically-encoded purpose has driven him to break the law of his adopted home. Do you find him responsible for his crimes, even though he had no more choice to commit them than you do when solving them?
     
  2. A sinister scientist plans to rule the Bleed with a mind-control virus. You discover that it’s possible to imprint your own genetic compulsion for justice onto the virus. Should you enforce the law at a genetic level?
     
  3. Eumelus is attacked by a mysterious foe. Can you save your homeworld — or is the engineered society worth saving?