Chapter 35: Traffic Stop

Sector 10, Zone 1.

Several days passed since Arron's first eventful patrol. Arron and Kix were once again in sector 10 to keep the peace and fulfill the orders issued by Mother and Father.

Arron was standing on a raised paraconcrete square platform in the middle of the large 8-lane 4-way highway.

The highway was the main road that connected the factories, apartments, and the marketplace of Sector 10. This meant that there were thousands of Hover-Vehicles driving past every few minutes.

With the help of his helmet’s visor, he watched as the vehicles flooded past him. He was on the lookout for any vehicles that belonged to those who had warrants out for arrests.

“Kix, how long do I have to stand here?” asked Arron, using the helmet's secure one-way coms.

“The information sent to us by Tooth said the target would be off of work any time now. They should be passing through soon,” said Kix, his holographic head appearing in a box screen in the upper right of the helmet's visor.

“Just be ready to help me if they try anything,” said Arron.

Kix was hiding inside the dark and cramped para-concrete platform that Arron was standing on.

He was already suited up in the P.L.E.v.2 exoskeleton and would exit to help secure the target when Arron successfully found and stopped the target. His hiding was so that he did not spook the target or any other passing wanted criminals.

Several minutes passed before Arron's visor alerted him by zooming in on a Hovercar and highlighting it in red.

It was a fairly new slim blue Roarari Hovercar, a knockoff of the 2nd and 3rd levels popular Furrarie brand.

“Target found. Initiating stop,” said Arron.

He raised his gloved hand and it glowed red as he pointed to the intersection where the hovercar was.

The traffic light for that lane immediately switched to red causing all the auto-driven cars to come to a complete jerking stop. Some of the vehicles had been in the process of crossing the 8-lane 4-way and were not stopped right in the middle. The doors of the vehicles were all automatically locked, making it so no one could exit their vehicle to interfere or escape.

Using the holographic traffic control interface, Arron selected the road in front and behind the targeted car.

As he raised his gloved hand, the road in front and behind the blue Roarari raised boxing it in.

“Kix, it's all ready for you,” said Arron.

He stood to the side as the parasteel trapdoor opened and Kix jumped out with his fully powered exoskeleton legs.

The P.L.E.v.2 was far smaller and slimmer than the black Exoskeletons that Arron had seen used by the Office of Reason guards. It was quite compact when compared to its predecessor.

The parasteel armor that covered Kix's entire body was tinted in the dark blue of M1 with the checkered white paint on its shoulders and a large M1 on its chest.

Kix hopped down from the platform onto the highway below and started a swift clunking jog towards the target. He weaved in and out of the halted Hovercars passing several unsurprised faces as they watched Kix run by.

“Ah! The target's door is being opened! Looks like the target Illegally hacked and modified the car!” warned Arron. He was now busy keeping an eye on the car while manually directing traffic away from the area.

“I see that!” said Kix, as he crouched down and jumped into the air, clearing a large distance.

Crash!

Kix landed on the hood of the blue Roarari. Crumpling the A3 Parastele and the engine inside.

He reached out with the armored exoskeleton and grabbed onto the half-open door... and shoved it back trapping the man that was halfway out of the car.

“OWWWW! What the fuck man! Let me go! I ain't done nothing!” shouted the trapped man,

Both of the man's arms had been replaced with cybernetic implants and he was trying to use them to push the car door open.

Kix pressed down harder as he stepped off the front of the ruined hood and stood in front of the door. The man's arms, which were made from a cheap A1 parasteel, could not withstand the pressure from Kix's exoskeleton and buckled, becoming severely dented.

Kix did a quick scan of the man's NerViz implant, after finding that the target had removed the cloud-chip in his hand.

Ding!

The man's outline turned red and a list of the many violations he had committed started to flow above his head.

“The information was correct. It is the chicken bandit, Arresting the target. Arron, notify the police that their target has been apprehended. Give them our coordinates so they can come pick him up.”

Kix opened the door and grabbed the man's shoulder, pulling him out. The man's two cybernetic arms hung limp next to his body. There was no way for him to escape the grip of the exoskeleton so he gave up struggling.

“How did you find me? I didn't use my car and I don't have a cloudchip!” said the chicken bandit.

“You idiot. You think driving a stolen car would make you invisible? All you did was add more crimes to your list,” said Kix, as he adjusted and then placed the magnetic cuffs around the man's legs.

There was no point in putting the cuffs on the man's crumpled arms.

“What crimes am I being accused of! Who says I'm a criminal? I only borrow this car.”

Kix looked at the long list and found who had issued the warrant.

“The Office of Reason is the one who issued the warrant on behalf of the police HQ. You've been on the run for quite a few days. Stupid of you to go to work.”

“Whatever! Who cares what they say? And screw you, you're just an M1 goon. All you guys do is arrest and kill us C-rank SCS people!” said the angry man.

Kix grabbed the man's crumpled arm and pulled him along the highway as they walked towards the APC that was only a block away.

“Well yeah, the only people living on the first level are C and D rank soo... and those with D rank have it worse than you, so you should stop complaining. You're already getting points docked from your score for the warrant. With the added charges of illegally modifying a vehicle, who knows, you might be lucky enough this time to become a new D rank SCS citizen. I'm rooting for you,” said Kix as he half dragged the stumbling man behind him.

This caused the belligerent man to go quiet as the reality of his situation set in.

“No need to tease the man. I doubt that he will make it out of this with the same SCS rank,” said Arron.

Arron raised his gloved hands which turned green and pointed at the stopped traffic, returning control to sector 10's traffic control AI. The stopped vehicles all rose back up and continued to travel wherever they had been going before being stopped.

Arron used the underground tunnel inside the platform to walk to an exit a block away, where the APC was waiting. When he arrived outside Kix was shoving the man into the back cell and closing the door.

“I think I'm getting the hang of this job. Other than our first day It has been rather tame,” said Arron.

He entered the passenger side of the APC and started typing up a document to send out the information to the police.

Kix exited the P.L.E.v.2 putting it back into its metal case before he hopped into the driver's seat and slammed the door shut.

“I'm just glad we haven't been given any deathtrap equipment to try out lately,” said Kix.

Soon after sending out the message, Arron received a holocall from the Police-HQ.

A female secretary appeared on the top-right screen of his visor.

“Our officers can't meet you there since it's not safe. You need to at least come to the sector 10 and 12 border checkpoint so they can pick the target up.”

Arron turned to Kix and said, “They want us to go to the border checkpoint so they can pick him up.”

“What a bunch of pussies. Tell them they can come and pick him up now or they can wait until we are finished with our shift. We're not making the trip all the way back just because they're scared,” said Kix, not lowering his voice.

Arron saw the female's face redden. She looked to the side at someone who was off-screen and had let out a stream of curses.

“There's no need to tell us, we heard him loud and clear,” said the cursing man, his face popped into view and was tinted red with anger.

“As soon as we have enough armored cars ready, we'll send someone over to where you're at.”

Ahnnnnnnnnnn! M1 Alarm sounded in both the vehicle and their helmets.

The alarm interrupted the call with the Police HQ and was replaced with Toothbrush on both Kix and Arron's helmet visor as well as the APC's dashboard holoscreen.

“New orders! Someone in a Mechanized worker bot has started to go on a rampage in sector 10's industrial zone 2. Your orders are to stop them!”

After the transmission of their new orders, the holo-call with the police HQ resumed once again.

“Sorry, we received new orders. We'll update you on where to come when we get to our new destination.”

“Where are you heading?”

“Zone 2!”

“That's even worse! It's farther away and more dangerous!” said the red-faced man.

Arron only shrugged his shoulders, “Sorry, just following orders.”