Zambuck

## Tactical Analysis

* **Would you like a sip?:** Wandering doctors from town to town, Zambucks act as the Contingent's medic troops. With their knowledge of first aid (and sufficient tonics), they tend to the wounds of those injured near them, providing a healing radius for friendly soldiers.

* **Pain-free:** One should not expect them to come unarmed, however, as Zambucks are armed with simple, .50 caliber, metalstorm derringers for self-defense, though the metalstorm rounds it fires still hits hard and can knock infantry off their feet. This prevents them from healing allies, though, and it’s damage is (relatively) low compared to the others.

* **Side effects:** Due to their own reluctance to break the Hippocratic Oath, Zambucks typically for shots that cause the least injury (read: less damage), despite their bullets caliber being .50 BMG. They themselves are fragile, only relying on their non-combatant status to even survive.

* **But wait, there's more!:** Some Zambucks are far more knowledgeable on human anatomy than their colleagues; capable of triggering pressure points in the body to raise their patients' pain tolerance, or shoot at pressure points to debilitate enemies with overwhelming pain. Most Zambucks do need to spend time on the field to do the same thing.

## Background

St. John Ambulance, a subsidiary charity for the Order of St. John in England, has been known as a common name used by many affiliated organizations dedicated to first aid and ambulance services. With volunteers operating worldwide from Canada to South Africa and Sri Lanka, the Order has helped transmit the importance of first aid to public consciousness, that it's absolutely unacceptable that so many people die needlessly – because no one could give them first aid when they needed it.

Indeed, no one could (or would) give first aid, or any medical services for this matter, when WWIII survivors in Australia and New Zealand needed them. But that is not because no volunteer was willing to, it's because almost all of them were virtually wiped out by the occupying Empire. Realizing the value of field medics to a human blockade such as the Contingent, the Japanese quickly moved to sever their capability and assistance they can give to fellow soldiers. MASH tents once discovered were blasted to ashes by mecha, and shinobi often went for medics first before striking down any other soldier. As a result, barely a few from St. John Ambulance Australia survived the war.

However, the lack of capable personnel for the age wasn't just the obstacle for medical aid through Contingent territory. There was the issue of distance; volunteers having to travel through the scorching Australian heat, encountering bandits, wildlife or God knows what else on the journey while the patients lay bedridden. Medical supplies are another matter, with the existing ones in top-secret Contingent bases; the civilian ones constantly in danger of being hoarded by looters or less-than-reputable businessmen to be sold for exaggerated prices. Just having spent a considerable percentage of their men against Japan, the Contingent is not willing to let more of their remaining citizens succumb to disease, injury, or anything remotely fatal. For this, the elephant in the Outback - lack of efficient medical aid - is not something to be disregarded.

When those in Darwin and Brisbane started to rebuild, opportunistic men were already rising from the ruins earlier than them. Playing on the survivors' dire need for effective and affordable medicine, these snake oil salesmen began to advertise their products, spinning tales about miracle tonics that, for example, have "gratuitous amount of regenerative properties on cells" but with a 'reasonable' price tag (compared to those in Syndicate pharmacies). Even when those tonics have little to none when it comes to effects, many survivors have been lapping up whatever claim those salesmen have been pulling out of their buttocks, particularly the less plausible ones that "heighten mental clarity" and "instant cure for all diseases". When those customers found out they were being ripped off, authorities were called into bring those charlatans to justice, but when they arrive, those salesmen were already gone, laughing their way to the bank.

But one of those salesmen's charades continued until he began to concoct some herbs, ingredients and chemicals for another 'miracle cure.' to be sold. Doing his usual routine of mesmerizing ~~suckers~~ interested buyers, that salesman was about to run for it until one of his potential ~~victims~~ customers reported that his tonic *actually worked!* Understandably shocked by the revelation, he immediately hid himself from the public as he knew that rival salesmen and raging civilians would be out for his blood. But he needed a way to market his *functional* cure-all tonic without compromising his identity, and fast. Stumbling upon a St. Johns poster at another town and seeing a bigger market of ~~desperate people~~ buyers, he began to execute his Plan H.

Leaving behind a batch of his tonics at the nearest MASH tent, the salesman also left a note stating that those can substitute for first aid when supplies are lacking. Intentionally rejecting his offer due to suspicion (not to mention that the ingredients needed to recreate the tonic are apparently his 'trade secrets'), the salesman paid a lot of distributors to show his potion directly in the cities they were working in. After a week, almost 90% of those in the infirmary found their illness and injuries not only *actually recovering*, but even feeling better now than ever before! Still refusing to publicly reveal himself, he and his underground contacts began to distribute the tonic to the most remote hospitals the frontier.

While the real effects of the tonic are still unknown, what is known about it is that the instant regeneration it promises is *actually* gradual, that the user must still consult their doctors and take prescribed medicine before wholly trusting in them. But the '**Zambucks**' - the informal term for St. Johns workers in Australia - today feel more determined to assist to their fellow countrymen... along with their 'private benefactors' backing them in every step of the way. But, due to the Empires disregard for non-combatants leading to many medics being killed, all Zambucks have been trained to use a derringer loaded with .50 metalstorm rounds, their smallest caliber, for self defense.