“There you are,” said Kix, over the secure comms as he spotted Arron in the large flowing crowd of civilians.
Arron was leaning against the wall of a semi-clean building at the spot that they had agreed upon earlier. He was still completely relaxed from the full shave and aftercare that he had received a while ago.
“What's with you?” asked Kix, seeing Arron's extremely relaxed posture.
“Nothing much, just enjoyed some of the local sights and experiences of sector 1,” said Arron.
Kix gave Arron an odd look before he looked around at the rundown buildings sidewalks and tens of shabbily dressed people passing by.
“What's there to see? It's almost exactly like every other sector, the only difference is the people who live here are more violent and scheming,” said Kix dismissively.
As Kix stopped in front of Arron he looked at his smooth face. With how long he had been working with Arron he was able to notice that his face was only slightly different from before the burns.
“Doc-Octy sure is good at what he does. You were one smelly charred mess before. Not even a year on the job and you are already missing an arm and an eye.”
“I'm just glad I didn't have to go to the government hospital... Let's not talk about all of this. Can you tell me what we are doing here in sector one?”
Kix shook his head and in a whisper said, “Not here. Wait till later when we arrive at the main operations building. All I can say is we have been taken off active patrol and put on an undercover mission. The Office of Reason chose us partly as punishment and also because the danger is extremely high. If we fail, we fail. Or I should say, if you are discovered you will have to fight your way out of the situation.”
“Great what have we gotten ourselves into this time?” asked Arron as he followed Kix down the broken sidewalk turned into a jam-packed street that had more people walking on it than hover vehicles. “Where are we going?”
“My apartment. Since you have no authorization to live in sector one, you'll be staying with me while we work on this mission. These are the orders directly from the Office of Reason agent overseeing this entire mission. So there is no need to worry about informing them that you are living here temporarily.”
“You have to notify them about something like that? Wait! You have an apartment here?”
“Of course you have to notify them if you are staying at another person's home for more than a visit. Especially if you have a D rank SCS, things can get ugly if they don't report this to their social worker at the Office of Reason, and why is my having an apartment here a shock to you? I grew up here, of course, I'll have a place to stay.”
“It's just no matter how much I learn, it seems like there is always new information that pops up and surprises me,” said Arron as he squeezed past two burly men that were glaring at each other in the middle of the street and were ready to fight each other.
“That's nothing surprising since most of the people living in the Mega-city never leave the sector or the level of the city they were born in,” said Kix.
As they continued down several different streets Arron couldn't help but notice several things that stood out and continued to repeatedly catch his attention while they were walking.
“Kix... aren't those banned by Mother and Father?” said Arron pointing at one of the sidearms that were openly being displayed by rough-looking men that were standing at corners of streets and in front of several different buildings.
Now that he was aware of the weapons, he was able to see them almost everywhere.
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“Yes, they are, for law-abiding citizens at least.”
“I never knew it was this lawless here, so brazen to openly show them like this. With them being armed like this, what are the rest of the civilians supposed to do?”
“I don't get why you're so surprised. It's not all that bad since the citizens have us to help if there is ever a serious problem!”
“You know how long it takes us to get to just one call. We can't save everyone, so why isn't there a crackdown on such open illegal activity? What are the police and Office of Reason doing?”
“You are right, we can't save everyone. That's why a lot of people living here like living in the factories and business dorms that are not run by people like those guys. The factory and business security bots are a good enough deterrent to stop the low-level thugs from causing any problems.”
Kix was silent for several seconds as they walked down a different dark street.
“As for why there are no crackdowns on illegal activity... well you wouldn't know that since you lived out in the countryside. It may seem calm here and like any other sector, but it has only been this calm for about two years now. Before...” Kix just shook his head.
“How bad could it have been? Even in the old city everyone was far more protected by that city wall than we were in the countryside. When I was growing up we had to deal with several famines where thousands of people died from hunger while we sent the food to the capital. Then there were the constant natural disasters killing and tearing up the land as well as the explosions from the battles happening so close to our town that you could feel the ground shake. We could always hear loud explosions off in the distance no matter what time of day it was,” said Arron.
Kix was silent for a moment as he was lost in thought reliving the past events of his childhood before snapping out of his daze and looking back at Arron.
“Arron, here's a tip for you. Don't ever say such a thing like that to anyone that lives here. Especially to the older generation. Many of those distant explosions you heard were happening where we lived both inside and outside of the city walls. After the war was over and the first level was built by Mother and Father, many of us thought things would change...”
“It didn't? There was nothing about this on the news that I have read or watched,” said Arron, feeling that the hardships he had grown up with were not something that Kix or anyone from the mega-city could just brush off as nothing.
“Of course there wasn't any change. Back then Mother and Father were not as strong or fully in control. They were having trouble taking care of everything so many mistakes were made all leading to many minor rebellions. The Office of Reason was created to help them handle all of the major problems and many minor rebellions that popped up. All of this was focused on sector one.”
“What was so special about this place?” asked Arron as he looked around at the grimy walls, crumbling sidewalks, and cracked streets.
“Nothing. It was the people that were living here. Rumor had it that several of the old government leaders and their families were living here in hiding under different identities. There were also hundreds of former officers and tens of thousands of soldiers from the old army that were living here.”
“Separatists!?” said Arron, surprised.
“Allegedly! Mother and Father could not tell who was and who was not due to all the previous personnel information being destroyed in the destruction of the old city. Not that such a thing would stop them from doing whatever they wanted either way. For those that they were sure were from the old government or military, they labeled them as enemies of the new Party of Mother and Father and issued orders for their capture,” said Kix, falling silent for several seconds before speaking again.
“There were many bloody and hard-fought battles just to capture each of the alleged separatists ending up with many casualties. Because this sector had a high population of former government and military members, they decided to band together to protect each other from such raids. That is how most of the different underground organizations started out and later branched out to do other things. They have been constantly battling with Mother and Father's agents ever since. Starting from the completion of the first levels of Sector 1, all the way to just a few years ago. This short time is known locally as [The Blood Wars]. From everything I experienced growing up, these were the bloodiest years I can remember. Sector 1 has been a constant thorn in Mother and Father's side and that is why there is so much illegal activity happening here.”
“So that's why you're such an odd person. Is this why you have a chip on your shoulder when it comes to the subject of Mother and Father?” asked Arron.
“Let's not get into that, shall we? We can just say I learned a healthy lesson that the party members of Mother and Father may smile and say nice words, but they are no one's friend, and should not be trusted when they do things for your 'Safety'.”
Kix stopped in front of a decent older 300-story building that was all black.
“This is the place where you will be staying for a while,” said Kix as he held his hand over a scanner near the entrance unlocking the door for the two of them to step inside.