Combat Zone (2020)

The Combat Zone (also known as Section D) was a dangerous lawless area of Night City during the first half of the 21st century. It was found somewhere in South Night City, bordering with the Central City downtown.

Overview
Night City's Combat Zone lies somewhere south of the Central City, 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 with small businesses. Further south, lies the area actually known as the Combat Zone, with its blocks and blocks of burnt out wasteland. There is no clear definition between the residential area and the combat zone; things just tend to degrade gradually, getting worse and worse until the neighborhood is finally at the level of a post holocaust hellhole.

Night City'a Combat Zone is never safe. Sure you'can get in and out 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 NCPD 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 life in the Zone comes from those who have "come back to tell the tale" (so to speak). People who are tough enough to survive the Zone don't really care about small talk, so much of this information is gathered in bits and pieces. It is pretty well accepted that there is some form of hierarchy among the combat gangs, with the Blood Razors currently on top. It is also rumored that something called "RazorBall" is played at an abandoned ice-skating rink, once a month, and has a great turnout among the gangs.

History
Night City's Combat Zone appeared sometime between 1998 and 2000. The corporations and organized crime of that time carved up the city's resources, which resulted in the NCPD becoming completely ineffective. Gangs, backed by Corporate and Mob sponsors, established themselves in the suburbs south of Central Night City and in time, these gangs became so entrenched that the only way to remove them would be to demolish the entire area and start from scratch. And it stayed this way for twenty years.

By 2020, the Zone was a few miles of somewhat habitable tract housing interspaced with small businesses that eventually gave way to the burnt out wasteland the Zone was. Of note, the Combat Zone was semengly growing yearly, and what was once marginally valuable housing one year could often become another pile of junk in the Zone the next year. There were many discussions on whether or not Night City should had walled it off, much like it had been done in Detroit with its ubiquitous twenty foot concrete abutments. But in the end, no agency, either civil or corporate, was willing to take the initiative to began such a massive undertaking.

By 2045, much of this area became known as the Old Combat Zone.

Locations

 * Rache Bartmoss apartment

Notable Combat Zone Gangs

 * Blood & Tears
 * Blood Razors
 * Death in the Afternoon
 * Fangs of Justice
 * Golden Knights
 * Piranhas
 * Second Comming
 * Steel Slaughter Slammers
 * Warrior Heart
 * Western Stars