The Perimeter Outskirts

Role and Purpose

The Perimeter Outskirts form the outer defensive ring of New Vance City. They are not a normal district. They are an active battlefield that surrounds the city. This area exists to slow and break threats before they reach the inner streets. The Perimeter Watch is the force that holds this ground. They are treated as a last stand rather than a political faction.

The Outskirts sit between the city’s patched walls and the open wasteland. On one side lies New Vance with its districts and enclaves. On the other side stretch ruins and wild zones full of shamblers and raider crews. Almost every danger that can move eventually crosses the Outskirts.

The Perimeter Watch treats this ring as both duty and home. They sleep in bunkhouses behind barricades or in converted checkpoints. They patrol from tower to tower, watching for movement and weak points in the line. They are not under any other faction. They cooperate when it helps the defense, but they keep their own command. Their identity is clear. If someone does not hold the line here, there will be no line left to hold.

Terrain, Fortifications, and Sectors

The terrain of the Perimeter Outskirts is rough and uneven. The Collapse left craters, burned-out blocks, and shattered overpasses around the old city limits. As a result, the Watch rarely works with straight walls or clean sightlines. They use what exists. Piles of concrete, cargo containers, wrecked vehicles, and fallen towers all become part of the defense.

Barricades are never finished. They are always in a state of repair or replacement. Common materials include scorched cars welded together, jagged fencing, sheet metal, sandbags, barbed wire, and armor plate from broken machines. In some stretches, the line is a proper wall with firing steps. In others, it is only a shallow trench and a single row of cars.

Floodlights, sensor masts, and comms rigs stand on skeletal towers or stacked scaffolds. Many of these systems are improvised. Power lines stretch from portable generators, Solar Guardian feed points, or rough junctions that pull current from the main grid. The lights often flicker. When they fail, Watch units fall back on flares, spotters, and simple fire.

The Watch divides the Outskirts into numbered zones with local command posts. Some sections border Raider territory, others face shambler routes or open wasteland. Risk and patrol patterns change based on which threat is most active in a given week. When a section sees heavy attacks, the Watch marks it as a “hot stretch” and requests extra ammunition and manpower.

The Perimeter Watch: People and Culture

The Perimeter Watch is made up of ex-soldiers, former security officers, scavvers, and baseline civilians who chose this duty. Many recruits come from the Outer Districts and have seen what happens when shamblers or raiders reach unprotected streets. Others are Citadel or Solar dropouts who wanted a more direct purpose. Some have lost families to breaches. For them, standing this line is personal.

The Watch does not pay well. Supplies are thin. Members sleep in cramped bunks and work long rotations. Their reward is clear purpose and the respect, sometimes grudging, of almost every faction. They do not scheme, hoard, or extort. They do not control water, power, or trade routes. They care about keeping the shamblers out and the city breathing.

Life on the Outskirts is measured in ammunition, working gear, and people you can trust to cover your flank. Coffee is an important small currency. Brewing a pot and passing cups around builds bonds. Many units keep simple rituals: a tally carved on a wall after each night survived, a short toast to the fallen, a shared joke before a dangerous patrol. Rank exists, but authority is earned through competence, not status. Anyone who steals from their own or abuses power is usually pushed out fast.

Rotations in the Outskirts wear people down. Some members last years and become local legends. Others burn out after a few months and ask for reassignment. The Watch tries to rotate units between quieter and hotter stretches, but there are never enough people to make the system fair.

Threats, Tactics, and Daily Operations

The Perimeter Outskirts face constant pressure. The most common threat is shambler waves. Sometimes these are scattered individuals drawn by noise. Sometimes they are large swarms pushed ahead by sound or movement further out. Watch tactics against shamblers focus on early detection, controlled fire, and layered fallback points. Burning bodies and keeping piles clear is important, since corpses can block fields of fire and attract more infected.

Raiders are more complex. Groups based in the Raiders Camp Zone probe the Outskirts for weak spots, ambush patrols, or try to slip small teams through gaps to hit supply lines deeper inside the city. Larger raids bring cars and improvised armored vehicles. In these cases, the Watch may request support from Solar Guardian gunships or call for short Gear Rat truces. Even then, much of the fighting stays close and direct along barricades and in ruined streets.

Other dangers include mutant beasts, unstable terrain, minefields from early defense efforts, and environmental hazards carried in from the wasteland. Silent Walker movements near the Outskirts are rare but feared. When scouts report their presence, entire stretches go on high alert, with strict fire rules and no one allowed to patrol alone.

Daily operations follow a simple cycle. Dawn checks focus on damage from the night, counting ammunition, and repairing barricades. Day patrols sweep the ground between the main line and the nearest enemy-held ruins. Evening brings increased watch rotations. Night is the hardest time, when shamblers move more and raiders like to test the line. Logistics never stop. The Watch needs bullets, fuel, food, medical supplies, and replacement parts. Convoys to the Outskirts are high-value targets, so every delivery is planned as a small operation.

Relations and Morale

In the politics of New Vance City, the Perimeter Outskirts occupy a unique space. The Perimeter Watch is respected by all major factions, but it does not belong to any of them. The Citadel Council needs the Outskirts to hold. Solar Guardians need the line to protect solar arrays and substations. Hydro Hegemony needs it to secure pipe routes and water convoys. Even the Gear Rats understand that if shamblers overrun the city, there will be nothing left to raid.

This shared dependence creates uneasy cooperation. The Watch can call in favors from multiple sides when things get bad. At the same time, they are often caught between faction disputes. A Guardian unit might demand extra power for a defensive grid, while Hydro insists those lines remain focused on pump stations. The Watch rarely has the authority to settle such arguments. They report the risk and brace for the next attack.

Morale in the Outskirts swings between grim humor and quiet fear. Everyone stationed here knows that if the line fails in more than one place, there may be no way to recover. There are stories of sections that fell without time to send full warnings. In those cases, the only sign is a sudden surge in emergency traffic from inner districts. When people in the Watch talk about their own deaths, they do it in direct terms.