Bittu scratched his wrist idly as he stood next to his newly assigned cruiser. It wasn't the new ride that had him nervous though, it was the huge armoured cyborg standing across from him on the opposite side of the vehicle.
At first he had been shocked by the thing’s, no, the man’s true identity. The fact that he had originally mistook Abel for some sort of new combat robot still rankled his pride. He should have noticed the man’s demeanor when they first met, instead he had let his bias get the better of him. Well, no more.
Trying as hard as he could to ignore the fact that his new partner was not exactly a living being anymore he unlocked the cruiser and opened the driver side door. Abel opened his door and they both sat at the same time.
Abel stared straight ahead for a moment before turning to look at him, his helmet visor dark enough to hide his limited biological features. “Well, this is it. I finally get to do something more than running laps for testing.”
Bittu just nodded, not knowing exactly what to say to the man. He had been mind wiped, he had no memory of his past or who he was. Bittu found the entire situation exceptionally dark and twisted. Now he was no stranger to such concepts as internment and forced labor, criminals were treated to such activities all the time. But to wipe the mind of someone and then turn them into that. He shuddered at the thought.
“Hey what’s wrong, are you cold or something partner?” Bittu heard Abel ask him. The genuine concern in the man’s voice made up his mind. He would do everything in his power to find out what had happened to the man. He needed to know.
Bittu sat up and shook his horned head. “No, I was just thinking about something chilling. Anyways, we should get moving. We have patrol duty on level ninety-eight it seems.”
Abel nodded. “That sounds like a plan.”
Bittu turned on the car, it's promethium powercells warming up before the electric motor turned on. Checking his mirrors he pulled out of his spot and drove them quickly to the exit ramp. Not a moment later they were out of the station and moving down the wide boulevard that connected the Hollow Pass precinct to the rest of the city.
Bittu adjusted his dark polarized glasses as they stopped at an intersection, the lights a solid red indicating that it was not yet time to go. As the traffic passed in front of them Abel remarked “Wow, there are so many. I wonder how many people there are in Shikago in total?”
Bittu responded automatically “Shikago stratocity, population of two hundred million souls this time of the year. The second largest stratocity on all of Kondirak.”
Abel whistled softly. “Two hundred million? How is that possible, where do they get the food to sustain that many people? There are no farms around the city, the area is a wasteland from what I have read.”
The light turned a solid green and Bittu checked both ways before pulling through the intersection. Too many times he had almost been hit by some asshole running the red because they thought they could make it. He glanced at Abel and answered his question “There aren't aboveground farms you are correct. But about twenty miles out where the pollution belt ends there are large substacks filled with hydroponics. Those alone wouldn't be quite enough however so the city imports from Draken V in the Draken system. Are you familiar with it?”
Abel shook his head “I must admit that my knowledge of the place is fragmented at best. I assume that it is an agricultural world?”
Bittu chuckled “Yeah, kind of. More like a massive slave plantation.”
Abel looked at him sharply. “Slave plantation? What do you mean, the Union does not allow slavery on account of…” The cyborg started to say but Bittu cut him off.
“Slavery by any other word is still slavery. The people of Draken V might as well be slaves, wage slaves at the very least. The plantations are all owned by a single family, one man controls the entire planet and all the trade that happens on it. They set the prices of everything, from the food to clothing to the price of clean water. They use their power to keep the farmers poor and dependent on the company for support. It should be illegal, but through some quirk of fate a loophole allowing such treatment under the law exists.” he said with some bitterness, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel till his knuckles turned lavender.
Abel seemed to think for a few moments. In the huge man’s silence Bittu took them off the main road and onto one of the elevated highway ramps. As they passed from the ground level to the raised roadway Abel finally spoke.
The cyborg spoke with a bit of anger in his modulated voice. “That is wrong. That's sick, how can the Union just stand idly by and allow such injustice to happen?”
Bittu nearly shouted as the anger burning in his gut threatened to get the better of him “The Union doesn't care that's why! What are the lives of a few tens of thousands of peasant farmers to the billions that rely on their labor!?” he stopped himself, his breath coming in short gasps such had been the force of his outburst. He could feel his tail lashing in the small space behind his seat.
Abel looked at him, the mechanical servos in his neck whirring softly as he cocked his helmeted head. “You sound like this is personal.”
Bittu glanced at his new partner, the large metal man seemingly impassive and uninterested. But Bittu got the impression that the man did care, that he cared a lot. Otherwise why would he have even bothered asking, Abel didn't know him. He had nothing to prove. Bittu made up his mind, sighing deeply he dodged a slow moving transport truck and then began speaking.
“I was born on Draken V Abel. I watched my parents toil their lives away in those fields. They could have provided us with modern equipment, but they didn't. The most sophisticated thing we had looked like the rejects from some Aumite colony. Steam powered tractors and livestock drawn plows, of course we didn't know any better. It was the way things were.” he paused as he had to maneuver around another slow moving vehicle on the skyway.
Abel butted in “That sounds wrong. There are no laws against that kind of treatment?” the big cyborg asked him.
Bittu shrugged and said “No, it appears not. That's why I left. I wanted to find justice, but all I ended up finding was more corruption. Everywhere I looked I found pain and suffering, the strong exploiting the weak. I figured if I wasn't going to make a difference I might as well take some of the evil bastards with me you know?” He said with a savage grin.
To his surprise Abel started to laugh. Bittu was a bit upset, the whole story and he laughed? Before he could give the human a piece of his mind the man spoke “Well, then you certainly picked a good place to do it. Shikago is almost as corrupt as it gets. I feel the same way, I only have a few weeks of memory to draw from, but already I have seen debauchery and greed. Up at the highest possible levels too. It's my mission to expose this corruption and take the guilty down a few pegs.” Bittu smiled as the man finished.
What a grand day that would be, the high and mighty of the city's elite no longer being untouchable. It would never happen of course, but who was he to crush a poor cyborg’s dreams?
Instead he turned his attention back to the road. They had already moved a few levels down and were approaching their patrol zone. He shifted to the exit lane and drove onto the ramp down to the elevated highway that circumnavigated the city level. The level looked markedly different from the ones they had just descended through. In his years in the massive stratocity he had noticed a distinct hierarchy to the city. The higher up the structure one traveled the more opulent the construction became till you reached the administrative spires near the VIP space port at the tip.
The buildings on level ninety-eight looked well built but worn down by the passage of time. The city itself was a few hundred years old, its infrastructure slowly deteriorating as the city work crews fought an ever losing battle to maintain the behemoth structure.
Abel pointed out the window and asked “What is that?”
Looking towards the man’s gesture he saw a large structure in the distance. Its exterior was painted a ruddy rusting orange color and it was tall, almost reaching the ceiling far above. “That? That's the level ninety prison megacomplex. Its minimum security and houses most of the criminals we pick up on day-to-day operations. Petty thieves, tax evaders and the like. Maximum security lockup is three levels down, and it's not a place you want to visit. Trust me.” he said ominously.
Abel asked “Why not?” to which Bittu sighed.
He looked around for an exit ramp and then took it saying “It’s just not a very nice place. The people are scum, the guards are scummier. You don't get assigned to work a position guarding that festering shithole by being on your superior's good side. That posting is a punishment, the worst of the worst get sent there. Life without parole, lock the door and throw away the key types.” he explained as concisely as he could.
“Oh.” was all Abel said in response.
Bittu shook his head, his patrol glasses dampening the glare of the prevalent halogen lights bordering the main road they were driving down. He turned a corner and pulled to the edge of the road.
Abel looked around and asked “What's happening, where are we?”
“Nothing’s happening, yet at least. And we are in the side alley behind a Shabino’s sandwich joint. We are holding position till we get a reasonable report to move on.” Bittu informed the man.
He suddenly wondered if Abel could eat. Before he could ask him however he heard the scanner fizz as it picked up a local transmission. “All level ninety-eight responders we have a reported break in on Seventy-fifth and Twenty. Please be advised there are reports of gunshots in the area.”
Bittu looked at Abel and smiled as he turned on the lights and sirens. “That was fast, looks like it’s time to get to work!” He said cheerfully as he stomped on the gas pedal.
The cruiser shot forwards with powerful acceleration and Bittu smiled even harder. This was what he lived for, the rush that preceded bringing justice to the scum that rummaged around the city. He took the first corner a little hot and Abel exclaimed as they nearly sideswiped a delivery van.
“What the, whaaoh! You almost flattened that pedestrian Bittu!” The cyborg exclaimed as they whizzed down the street, civilian vehicles screeching out of their path.
Bittu grinned and said “They had plenty of room. Besides, they should know to get out of the way.”
He saw Abel shake his head from the corner of his eye but the man said nothing more, instead he pulled his gun from the partially internalized leg holster that Bittu hadn’t seen before.
It looked like they were going in full bore, he grinned again as they neared their target. The bad guys wouldn't even know what hit them.
***********
Abel sat back into the padded seat of the cruiser as he tried to ignore Bittu’s somewhat erratic driving.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
They took another corner at high speed and Bittu finally started to slow the vehicle down. Abel looked around and noticed that they had arrived at the location of the call. Several buildings down there was a small group of people standing huddled under the awning of a large apartment complex.
Bittu parked the car across the street and Abel climbed out with his gun drawn. He was using a modified variant of an EMP50, a popular electromag pistol well known for its stopping power.
As soon as Bittu exited the cruiser he spoke to his assistant “Sirens off, crowd control mode.”
The cruiser’s siren shut off followed by a repeating message from the vehicle “This is a police action, do not interfere. Interference with a police action is punishable by a three month sentence in minimum security lockup.” Abel shook his head slightly at the message. What a world they lived in.
Bittu motioned for him to follow and crouched down behind the cruiser on the opposite side from the building. Bittu looked at him and asked “Alrighty then rookie, this is your first crime scene. What do you think?”
Abel looked over the edge of the cruiser’s roof. He could see the entrance to the building. A brick facade with small windows and a side escape stairway. It looked to be some manner of apartment complex complete with a front lobby area. The small crowd of onlookers had moved back from the building when they rolled up but were still close enough to be in danger. He thought about it and then turned to his partner.
Abel gestured to the onlookers and said “We need to get these people back, then we should breach the atrium.”
Bittu nodded and flicked his violet eyes over towards the rubberneckers. Standing he shouted loudly in his tenor voice “Hey, get back. What do you want to get shot!?”
Abel frowned at the nerivith man’s lack of tact but had to admit it was effective. The crowd dispersed almost instantly at the sight of an angry officer waving a shotgun.
With the crowd dispersed and out of immediate harm's way Abel looked at Bittu and said “Let me go first. I have a much better chance of surviving a bullet than you do. Even with that vest on.” He said pointing to the shorter horned man’s aggregated hyperdiamond buckyweave vest.
The vest was capable of stopping even small caliber hypervelocity rounds and some types of laser and beamer shots. Though Abel was pretty sure the man wouldn't want to test the claim.
Bittu nodded and motioned to move out saying “Ok then fair enough. But don't get blown away on your first mission. Tegu will take it out of my tail.”
Abel gave the man a reassuring pat in the shoulder and the stood. With all the speed he could muster he shot across the narrow road and to the front of the building. His back slammed against the brickwork, shattering it in a few places as he held his gun at the ready. Nothing shot at him and so he eased over to the front entrance.
Pulling up his wrist embedded computer he reported “Officer Abel responding to an altercation. Reports of gunshots in the area.”
After a moment he motioned for Bittu to cross and waited till the pink man was standing on the other side of the building's interior entrance.
Bittu looked at him and asked “You're not calling in for backup are you?”
Abel shrugged and said “Not unless you think we need it.”
Bittu grinned widely and shook his horned head. “We have got this. From what I can see it's a standard break in, smash and grab. The gunshots could be anything from hostile action to self defense. We should proceed with caution.” the smaller man nodded.
Nodding back Abel cracked open the front door of the building. It was regular glass not glazmite and so it would offer no protection against potential attack. Peeking around the corner he saw the coast seemed clear. He threw the door open fully and Bittu grabbed it and secured it to the wall to keep it propped open. They moved into the building’s atrium together. The large decorative room a little worse for wear.
The wallpaper was faded, the chandeliers dusty and the decorative pillars were chipped and damaged. All in all it looked like any of the other buildings on the same block. Cheap and affordable housing to those less fortunate and of lesser means.
“This place is a dump.” Bittu hissed.
Abel was inclined to agree but instead replied “And yet this is far from the slums. I wonder why our guy decided to rob this place. The inhabitants clearly don't have much in the way of wealth.”
Bittu shrugged his narrow shoulders and stalked alongside him. “Who the hel knows. Or cares, we get the baddie and then we haul em back to the station for questioning. As long as they don't resist arrest that is.” he said a little darkly.
At the end of the tiled floor there was an elevator. Abel looked at it and then decided that the stairs might legitimately be the safer option. “Do we know what floor the disturbance was on?” he asked his partner.
Bittu shook his head “No specifics, just that it was in this building and on one of the upper floors.”
‘Great.’ Abel thought silently. Just their luck to get put on an unknown altercation. All they had to go on was the rumor of a crime, not a report of the crime itself. He squared his shoulders and started up the stairs.
Bittu halted and asked “What are you doing? The elevator is right here, Abel?”
Abel shook his head. “I wouldn't trust that elevator with my life, much less the lives of multiple others if we alert the criminals to our presence.”
Abel continued up the stairs, smiling slightly as he heard Bittu sigh and move to follow him. He lifted his EMP50 up and into a ready position. He looked around a solid stairwell wall quickly before ducking back into cover, he hadn't seen anything.
It was then that Bittu moved up to his side and produced a small electronic scope. “It pays to come prepared. All clear, see?” the man said as he poled the tool around the corner and continued up the stairs ahead of him.
Abel shook his helmeted head. He was definitely still learning the ropes it seemed. It was his first day actually on patrol afterall.
Bittu and Abel continued on in that fashion, checking floor after floor for signs of the disturbance when Abel stopped. Another sound reached his enhanced hearing, a crying baby, the sound of someone treading over broken glass, the click of a hard object bumping into something.
Abel motioned for Bittu and whispered “This is the floor.”
His lanky partner adjusted his bullet resistant vest and asked “How can you be so sure? You know something I don’t rookie?”
Abel tapped his helmet and said “I am possessed of greatly enhanced hearing than you. I can hear suspicious activity on this floor, trust me.” Turning from his more experienced partner he approached the landing door. The building was old, low tech, the door was an old manually operated swinging design. This made it a relatively easy affair to open it a hair so he could peek down the long apartment hallway. He saw nothing immediately out of the ordinary and so switched his helmet to alternate frequencies.
Looking at the carpeting he noticed a slight thermal residue that picked out a series of overlapping footsteps. He cocked his head.
“Bittu, we have more than one potential hostile.” Abel said as he closed the door silently.
Bittu opened his mouth and said “What? How could you possibly, you know what. Nevermind. Another fancy gadget of yours I assume?” Abel nodded and the man just huffed. Bittu passes a long fingered hand over his face, his features a mask of different conflicting emotions.
From what Abel knew of the nerivith they didn't suffer from anxiety and stress in the same manner that humans did, though if he had to guess he would say that Bittu looked a little stressed at the moment.
“Should I call for some backup Bittu?” Abel asked him.
The man seemed to think about it for a few moments before saying “I don’t think we should wait. We are here on scene, we can call for assistance if you want Abel, but we are going in now.”
Abel nodded and quickly sent out a general alert saying “Officers need assistance on Seventy-fifth and Twenty, the Greystone Plaza building. Multiple suspects, potentially armed and dangerous. Over and out.”
Bittu nodded and Abel flung the door open before rushing into the cover of a nearby doorway. Bittu followed him on the opposite side. The door was caught by its hydraulics and closed with a soft sigh, not giving them away.
Bittu made a hand motion signaling to advance, putting his shotgun away and pulled out his sidearm. A compact black pistol that looked like a field modified IAC Port-25 high capacity handgun. The twenty-five round pistol was common in law enforcement for its ability to reliably put out a lot of rounds and keep on spitting lead in the dirtiest of environments.
They crept towards the sounds of the disturbance. After a few meters Bittu cocked his head and looked at him sharply, it seemed as though they had gotten close enough for him to hear the sounds as well.
Abel was soon able to hear a set of voices arguing quietly. The first was a high pitched yet strangely masculine sounding voice, perhaps a swanith male. The other sounded like a slaaveth, the low throaty gurgling accent markedly different from the first.
The swanith voice asked “Why did we have to keep this little shit alive again?”
The slaaveth gurgled back “Because that's the job we got sent to do. We intimidate the bastard, maybe take a hostage so he pays up. Now stop arguing and grab the bitch. We need to go before some blueskins show up.”
They were almost to the opened door now, Abel was just reaching out for it when Bittu cursed loudly and threw himself flat to the ground. Abel only had time turn his head to the far end of the hall before he was struck by a powerful blow to the upper chest.
The force of the impact knocked his heavy cybernetic body backwards and onto his back. He maintained his grip on his gun though and let off a trio of low powered shots towards the newcomer. He missed, the large trench coated attacker ducking back into the cover of the hall’s end.
Bittu asked “Are you alright Abel? Talk to me buddy!”
Abel growled “I’m fine, not a scratch. That was very unfortunate timing, I never even heard that guy come up the stairs.” He climbed to his feet and shoulder charged the door he had heard the thugs hiding behind.
He burst through the flimsy wood in a shower of splinters and scanned the room for targets. There were none, Bittu followed his grand entrance as Abel moved towards the bedroom area of the small apartment. He popped around the corner and found a human man’s body lying on the ground. The man was alive but appeared to be badly beaten, what's more the window of the bedroom was open.
Abel moved to the window and found it led to the escape ladder and into a narrow alley. Looking out the window he saw the two thugs were busy trying to escape, they had almost reached the ground by that point.
Abel smiled and glanced at Bittu behind him in the doorway “Hey, check this out.” Before Bittu could comment, Abel jumped off the edge of the escapeway.
He had pulled the same stunt before from three stories, now they were six stories up, fully double what he knew his body could handle. As he fell through the air he thought about the consequences of his actions if he had taken it too far. There was a chance he wouldn't be walking away from this. But what choice did he have? His only other option was to let the two escape, and that was not an option he was willing to consider.
The dark asphalt of the alley rushed up to meet him at tremendous speed, he heard one of the crooks just before he landed.
“Hey, do you hear that?” The swanith male asked the other.
Before either of them could so much as utter another word, Abel hit the ground like a meteor. The asphalt cracked and a cloud of debris was thrown out from the force of his armoured feet digging craters into the ground. His right leg took the brunt of the strain without too much difficulty, the limb going dark yellow in his internal monitors. Abel heard a terrible snap as his left leg failed under the extreme load. The limb folded under the impact, pieces of alloy spiraling off towards the two goons. The slaaveth man grunted as he was struck in the leg, yelling in alarm and limping off with a small bundle in his arms. The swanith wasn't so fortunate, a large sprocket caromed off the small avian’s cranium and instantly knocked them unconscious.
Abel grunted in shock and tried to aim his gun at the fleeing man, but found that in the confusion it had fallen from his grip. Abel growled in frustration as he ignored the abundant warnings flashing through his mind. His internal organs had handled the strain almost without issue, but his legs were both fucked.
His left leg was scrap metal, it wouldn't respond to his commands at all. His right leg wasn't much better, the limb twitching spasmodically at random intervals. He had limited control over it but the feedback from the damage was starting to give him a headache and so he forcibly severed the connection to his lower extremities.
Immediately a horrible sense of cold numbness swept through his whole body, the slow burning ache returning. That all too familiar sensation, as if something vitally important was gone. He felt empty, his insides hollow and his mind swam for a while before he heard a voice.
“Buddy, Abel? Come on man, wake up. What the hel were you thinking, by the lords that was a fucking stupid thing to do.” Bittu almost screamed at him in a near panic.
Abel lifted an arm and pointed at the still unconscious swanith male lying at the bottom of the stairs. “I got one though.” he wheezed, laughing painfully.
Suddenly Bittu smiled as well, shaking his head. “You are one crazy son of a shrij, but yea. You sure got one alright. Was that a piece of your leg that knocked him out?” The man asked in wonder.
Abel chuckled again “Yeah. Mutherfucker wasn't expecting that for sure. What a rush eh?”
Bittu just shook his horned head in what looked like disbelief as he stared at him, Abel couldn't help but grin a little despite the painful feedback. The situation was just far too ridiculous otherwise.