Chapter 52: Statistics And Justice

“Hey it's cramped back here!” complained Bug-eye.

“We weren't expecting to have to take someone for a ride. Maybe you shouldn't have killed someone,” said Kix, who was focused on swerving in and out of the heavy traffic.

Arron was keeping a close eye on Bug-eye who was crammed back into the storage part of the AP, chained to a rack.

“With the Rage Week Festival starting today you would think that the traffic would be far lighter but no... It looks even worse,” complained Kix.

“Of course, there is going to be more traffic! People are all trying to leave the main areas to join other family members,” said Bug-eye.

“Is that so?” asked Arron.

“It's because of idiots like him that people are afraid to leave their homes or be alone during rage week,” said Kix, pointing at Bug-eye.

“Hey! I was only a little bit angry back then. I have calmed down and regained my senses so can you let me go?”

“Sure,” said Kix.

“You will?” asked both Arron and Bug-eye at the same time.

“Yeah, at the nearest police station. We're not going to take him all the way back to HQ.”

Arron smiled at that and continued to watch Bug-eye.

“Hey can you stop, I have to pee,” asked Bug-eye a few moments later.

“If you pee in this car, I'll add vandalizing government property to your charges. Then I'll make you clean it up yourself,” said Arron.

“UNFAIR! I'm going to complain to Mother and Father about your abuse of power!”

Both Arron and Kix ignored the man's rants until they pulled into one of the loading and unloading parking spaces in front of the small red and yellow sector 4 zone 3 police station.

“You take him in, I’ll keep a watch out here for any trouble,” said Kix.

So Arron dragged the stumbling and constantly complaining Bug-eye into the police station.

A female receptionist in a red and yellow uniform sat behind the security desk watching a day drama. She looked away from the holo-tv when Arron and the noisy Bug-Eye stopped in front of her desk.

“M1? What are you doing here?” asked the woman after she looked at his armor.

“He killed his neighbor,” said Arron.

“He was a separatist!”

“Another one? This is going to be a long week,” said the receptionist with an exasperated sigh.

She turned her attention back to the day-drama while she started to type up a document and then swiped it over to Arron.

“Fill out the rest of the details on that form for me,” said the receptionist, not paying any more attention to Arron or Bug-eye.

This was Arron's first time handing over a criminal this way so it took him a few minutes to fill out the unfamiliar form. When he had checked it over twice he sent it back to the receptionist who then absentmindedly tapped a few options to file it away.

“Take him back with the others,” said the receptionist, as she pressed a hidden button.

A loud buzz sounded and a nearby thick parasteel door slid open.

Arron dragged the reluctant Bug-eye through the open door and down the dimly lit hallway.

At the end of the hallway was a large open holding cell that was surrounded by flowing yellow electricity. There were two security drones standing guard near the cell door.

“Hey! Have you come to get us out?”

“I'm innocent! He was a separatist!”

“Yeah me too! I was only eating him because he was a separatist!”

Several bizarre and disheveled faces appeared at the edge of the glowing electric barrier.

“Prisoner 1, 6, and 10. Step back. Or receive justice!” said the robotic security drone. It shoved its thin metallic hand through the electric current and snapped its metal claws shut in front of one of the prisoners' faces.

“Prisoner?” asked the second security drone as it floated over to Arron and pointed at the cuffed Bug-eye.

“Prisoner,” said Arron as he un-cuffed Bug-eye and pushed him towards the two security bots.

“Activating new prisoner protocol....” said the first Security drone. “Welcome prisoner 12! Stay still, or receive Justice!”

A small opening in the electric barrier was created near the security bots. The prisoners inside the open cell instead of rushing towards the opening fell over themselves trying to get away from the opening.

“Move! Or receive justice!” said the second security bot as it poked Bug-eye in the back.

***

With his task complete, Arron returned to the waiting APC.

“What took you so long?” asked Kix.

“Paperwork and I had to escort him to the cell. There were already 11 people there just today. All of them killed someone and were just talking about separatist this and separatist that,” said Arron.

“This is nothing, last time it was estimated that 200 people a day were killed due to the Rage week Festival.”

“200 a day?”

“It may not sound like much with the several tens of millions of people that live on the first floor, and that's how the news reported it, just a statistic. But that is the wrong way of looking at it. That was 200 families torn apart every day.”

Arron nodded his head in agreement.

Ping!

“Arron, Kix. New orders! A large group of vigilantes is gathering near the shopping district! You are to head over there and help the security drones clean up the situation and stop any trouble from happening,” said Toothbrush as soon as his head popped into view over the dash.

“Hey, tooth. You don't sound so chipper anymore, what happened?” asked Kix with a smile.

“The damn calls won't stop coming in! I have to go or I'll never get through them all!” said Tooth before hanging up.

“Heh, I bet he wishes he was out here with us now,” said Kix with a chuckle.

The shopping district was not that far away from the police station so they quickly arrived at the coordinates given to them.

When Arron and Kix stepped out of the AP there were already over 100 people milling about near the entrance of the shopping district that was being blocked by several security drones.

“Ah! Finally, a human officer has come! Tell these dumb bots to move aside!” shouted a female near the front of the group.

“What are you guys doing here? With it being Rage week and all shouldn't you be with your families?” asked Arron.

“We're hunting Separatists!” said another female.

“Hunting Separatists?” asked Arron. It was then that he noticed almost all of them were holding some form of a makeshift blunt weapon. His hand was now resting on his service weapon just in case the crowd turned violent.

“You all are aware that gathering in such a large group with weapons like the ones you are carrying is illegal right?” asked Kix, as he and Arron walked to the front of the group to stand next to the security drones.

“We're allowed to because we're following Mother and Father's orders to root out separatists!” said the first woman who seemed to be the main speaker of the group.

Arron made sure to log all of her information for further investigation and to keep track in case she was part of any other such disturbances during the rest of the week-long festival.

“If you are looking for separatists, why are you here? The only people I see around here are you guys,” said Arron.

“On Faceplant and Barker people were saying that there were several separatist shops here. So we decided to take care of the problem ourselves since no one else was going to do anything!”

“Wait, you're basing all this on a few posts from some random person on the holo-net?” asked Kix.

“They're not random people! One of them has over 10,000 followers and their post received 100 reposts and over 1000 likes!”

“..and what if this information is wrong and the people that you are accusing are innocent?” asked Arron.

The woman shrugged. “Can't win them all, but I'm sure that they are separatist! I saw all the descriptions of what one looks like from the news.”

“Alright, you can all go play vigilante somewhere else. Leave this area,” said Kix waving his hand in a shooing motion.

“What! We're not vigilantes! We're here to bring justice to the Separatists! You can't stop us!” shouted someone from the crowd.

“If you have information about a person being a suspected Separatist report it to the Office of Reason. Do not come out here looking to beat someone up just because someone said something on the holo-net,” said Kix, his hand now on his service weapon.

“Leave now, or we'll show you real justice!” said Arron.

As if taking this as an order the line of security drones all spoke at the same time, “Respected customers, leave or receive justice!”