Arron and Toothbrush sat on a plush couch seat in the back of the dark blue flying car.
Kix sat on the couch in the front, facing Arron and Toothbrush.
“It really is a flying car. This is my first time in a flying car,” said Tooth.
“Same,” said Arron.
He looked outside the tinted windows and saw the late afternoon traffic jam far below them.
“The chief OK’ed the use of this company flying car for a one-way trip,” said Kix, slouching deep into the comfy couch.
“Well I guess I should start explaining things while we head to the apartments,” said Kix.
Both Arron and Toothbrush turned their full attention to the slouching Kix.
“First things first, M1 has already paid for your first month of rent for your new apartment. It is a sort of bonus reward for graduating. The majority of us single people who don’t have families live in the same building. As for paying rent after this month, it is fairly cheap and you can make advance payments for up to 5 years. There is a no money back policy for that.”
“What? What if I want to search for and live in a better place,” asked Tooth.
“Trust me you won’t find a better place unless you become CEO of one of the megacorps or you become a politician for the party of Mother and father,” said Kix. “What are your SCS ranks? I’m rank C.”
“B,” said Arron.
“C,” said Tooth who looked at Arron with shock.
“Wow B rank? Just a reminder to you, M1 requires all members to live on level 1 so that they are able to respond to calls and alerts immediately.”
“Guess I’m pretty lucky to get you as a partner… or is it that you are lucky since the last guy who was going to be my partner died.”
“How did he die? Did someone shoot him? A hovercar bomb? Melee cybernetic weapon fight?” asked Tooth.
Kix shook his head with a slightly embarrassed smile on his face, “He died from a heart attack caused by… a new illegal mixture of drugs and immersive Holoporn.”
“Damn even with Mother and Father legalizing the small-time stim drugs, people still have to ruin it for everyone by selling stronger illegal drugs,” said Tooth shaking his head.
“Mother and Father only legalized stims to keep control of the population and make money off of it,” said Kix with a sad expression as he stared out the window and thought of past events.
“Whoa… aren’t you afraid of what will happen if the Office of Reason hears you say that?” asked a shocked Tooth.
“Growing up I saw worse things happen to people than getting a slap on the wrist for saying a few words,” said Kix.
“Kix, I’m curious about the ERF. I have never heard about this group inside M1. Well I didn’t know much about M1 before either, so…” said Arron.
“Ah, so you’re from out of the city. Impressive to see you have a B rank already. As for the ERF: the Experimental Research Force. There are a few internal nicknames we have given ourselves and ones others at M1 have given us. The new one going around is the Elite Riot Force since we always get called out to handle such situations. An older one still in use is the Expendable Rat Force,” said Kix.
“Expendable rat force?” asked Arron.
“You both are in the ERF so I don’t have to keep any secrets from you. In the beginning, the M1 completely lacked the proper funds and everyone had to bring their own equipment and supplies to work. Of course with the dangerous work that M1 does there were many deaths and M1 started to get the ‘special’ suicide force nickname by the media. That’s why if you look at all the veteran members of M1 they either have several cybernetic limbs, implants, or severe scars.”
Arron looked at Kix’s hand.
“This was from when I was a kid, the loss was quite troublesome not only for me… Anyway back to the ERF. I think the press conferences of so much damage and death, as well as the new nicknames, got to Mother and Father and they decided to start sending their prototype equipment to M1 and have them test it out.”
“Prototypes? Sweet we get to work with and see the cutting edge equipment before everyone else!?” asked a hyped Tooth.
Kix shook his head, “It’s not that great. Arron, the chief took you to see the ERF armory already right? That place stores all the old, broken, or failed prototypes as well as the most current versions of things that we still have to test.”
“That entire warehouse was nothing but prototypes?”
“Yep, I would have to say it’s filled with around 60% failed, 10% obsolete projects. The last 30% are the new prototypes that are still waiting to be tested. We are Mother and Father’s test rats. There are no safety measures as there are no guidelines on what to protect against…. failures are common and sometimes deadly… from our test, the kinks are worked out and safety measures are created.”
“What about this?” asked Arron pointing to the case that held his new heavy chest armor.
“The ERF heavy chest armor v16 Right? That’s the newest prototype version, you’re quite lucky that you joined now. Soon we might be able to use standardized armor. It’s all because the chief called in a few favors with some of his old contacts on the 4th level from when he was the police chief. But we are still waiting.”
‘The chief was a former police chief on the 4th level?’ Arron thought to himself. It was hard to see how he ended up in the M1.
“By standardized armor you mean the full body armor used by the first response medics and other police forces on the 2nd-4th Levels?” asked Tooth.
Kix nodded his head. At that moment the flying car stopped in front of a large parasteel gate embedded in the wall high above the ground. They had reached the sector 12 checkpoint that led to Sector 11.
A police officer wearing a red flying uniform flew over to the car along with several round floating security bots that surrounded the flying car.
The officer tapped on the window and motioned for it to be opened.
“I need to see everyone’s ID,” said the officer as he held out a scanner.
Arron and the other two held out their Right hand and allowed the gate guard to scan them.
“You can pass. Don’t try going where you do not belong,” said the officer guard as he pressed a holographic button and waved them forward.
The security bots moved out of the way and the large gate started to open.
The flying car once again moved forward passing through the gates entering a small tunnel in the wall that separated sector 12 and sector 11.
As they passed through they saw two different ramps leading up to what Arron guessed was the 2nd Level. Both entrances were covered with visible thick flowing electricity. Seconds later they were out of the tunnel and flying through the skies of sector 11 towards the residential zone 3.
“They have such high security for moving through the sector walls?” asked Arron, who had only used the Maglev to get around.
“That’s nothing, you should see the security for the gates that lead out of the city. Good luck trying to leave…” said Kix.
“Right, I heard it is guarded like a fortress and there is an Office of reason agent always stationed at each entrance,” said Tooth.
Kix nodded and started to once again explain the details of their job.
“Although we live in sector 11, zone 3, our unit is based in sector 12. In total, the ERF has 15 units with 10 members each. 1 unit for each sector 1-11 and 4 units for sector 12. Each unit has 1 senior and 2 junior logistics and 7 field officers. The unit commander is the 7th member and often switches between each of the 3 different partner groups giving support to whoever needs backup.”
“Seems simple enough,” said Arron.
Toothbrush nodded his head in agreement.
“Generally everyone at M1 could care less about why you joined M1, all anyone cares about is if you give your all to complete the task given to you. As for me… I joined for a better life…” said Kix.
“M1 a better life? Which sector did you live in before?” asked Tooth.
“Sector 1,” said Kix as he stared out the window at the hundreds of towering Apartment buildings that passed by.
“Oh…” said Tooth. He looked puzzled but after a bit of thinking something clicked in his head as he realized something. He kept his mouth shut and continued to stare out the window.
