Zen/Background

Just prior to P-day, Zen was a bright young student with an interest in computer science and programming. With good grades, a supporting family, and connections within the Navy, he soon found himself in an internship program that would mold him into being the type of person the Navy needed. It wasn't the sort of career he had seen himself entering into, but the opportunity to pick up valuable experience and travel around on the government's dime seemed too good to pass up. Without being tied down by a family, when the opportunity came to join the crew of the USS Leviathan, a deep ocean weapon testing vessel, he immediately signed himself up.

As fortune would have it, Zen was selected to join the crew of the USS Leviathan and was soon adjusting to life aboard the ship. Sailing out from one of the naval bases in California, he would be out of contact with his friends and loved ones for a while. There, he would continue to work with computers and design simulation models. He would be kept busy with plenty of work, up until the point when the world was shaken by a catastrophe of unprecedented scale.

With the structure of the government in shambles, Zen and those who joined him in returning to the mainland found themselves being taken in by RSX and given a helpful start in adjusting to this new world. A basic understanding of how nanites worked, combat training to protect against overly eager mutants, and some standard equipment... This wasn't the world they were familiar with. It was easier for some than it was for others, and some weren't at all interested in receiving any of RSX's aid. In Zen's case, it would be a few years until he was finally granted an opportunity to go home and see firsthand what had become of the life he knew.

His home was nothing like he remembered it. Ruined buildings, empty streets, and scared mutants were all that he would find. The house he grew up in was half-collapsed with clear signs of feral markings all around it. No messages, no clues as to where his family might have gone, there was nothing that would help him find out if they were alright. Any evidence he found would only hint at a very unfortunate end with bloodied clothes and claw marks littering the interior. Disheartened by what he found, he would return with the scouting crew back to RSX HQ and try to cope with the idea that anyone he knew before P-day was likely gone.