A Study in Steel

Nothing is as it seems in the city of Duplicity. In a far distant future, a surge of advancements in biotechnology brings "cyborg" beings into the world as we know it. Through bigotry and selfishness, the world quickly erupts into chaos, bringing a short but brutal war between the humans who deify their purity, and the cyborgs who seek to unify the world under their technology. One hundred years later, the war is long past. Humans are almost extinct, and the world is populated by genetically engineered beings called Drives; a blend of biotechnology and machinery that are each created for a specific purpose. Vera is a Search Engine in the gritty city of Duplicity-- a city with a thriving Drive society underground and a wasteland of ruins run by criminals above. She's a Private Investigator for this efficient metal world, and her life revolves around finding information of all kinds. Her latest job is supposed to be an easy one, but when her team is attacked by an assassin and her client is murdered, she's compelled to get to the bottom of whatever's going on, and begins a spiral down into the corrupt world of Duplicity's past. Working with her partners, Boots and Adonis, Vera searches for the answers she's physically driven to find. This journey leads her to a beautiful red-head with a secret, and all the danger that comes with it. Follow Vera's investigation, along with the intertwining lives of other citizens of Duplicity. A Server with dreams of a better world, a human refugee longing for safety, a high class Technician with an unhealthy addiction, and an office worker struggling to save the woman he knows he shouldn't care about. Together, the stories in "A Study in Steel" explore the essence of humanity and desperation that lingers in this world of machines.