The Hub Ch. 01

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Authors' Note: This is a collaborative story written by DungeonsOfDread and myself. We wanted to work together on something, and thought that this was a good way to bring two unique characters to life. I (Sinister Spiders) have written for Flit, and DungeonsOfDread had given a voice to KC-847. We hope that you enjoy our tale...

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KC-847 steadied himself as the transport hover truck buffeted in the air as it travelled toward its destination. The Crucial Operations Team(COT) coordinator had designated this mission as his first solo command operation.

For the past three months KC-847 had been under the supervision of a superior Derivate Retrieval Officer(DRO), advising him in the conduct and behaviour of a Government representative. He passed his review with exceptional results and immediately commenced active duty.

KC-847's first mission was a simple retrieval; unconfirmed reports of an unregistered Telekinetic- Level 3(TK3) disturbing the peace had caught the attention of the DIS and thus it would be his job to rectify the situation in the most efficient way possible. The hover mechanism of the truck hummed in the background filling the silent void of the cabin. Two rows of seats housed twelve specially trained Citizen operatives, although they lacked the psychic powers of the Derivates they had been trained for years in the art of neutralisation and capture.

Although DRO's were in charge of any operation such as this, everyone knew the truth. Government controlled Derivates were slaves to the institution. Born from test tubes and raised by scientists, they were only seen as pieces of equipment owned and maintained by The Government. They were considered no more human than the automated taxi services available for Citizens of The Hub. It was understood however that the best tool to capture a dangerous out of control Derivate was to send a controlled Derivate as they were the most suitably equipped to handle the situation.

KC-847's team paid him very little attention, only interested in completing the job and getting home to their friends and family. KC-847 had no family or friends, but he didn't envy them; he was of course only an instrument of The Government, trained to feel little or no emotion toward anything or anyone. However despite that he still felt a pang of nervousness as they neared their destination, perhaps it was just the nerves of his first mission? He tried to reassure himself but in the back of his mind something bothered him deeply. He was a telekinetic, not a telepath or precog but still the feeling remained. He touched the back of his neck tracing lines around the control chip, a neural control device designed to keep his abilities in check. The years of training provided by The Government had honed his body and mind into a well tuned machine with a defined purpose.

The truck lurched to a stop and the rear bay doors hissed as they opened. The evening street lights blared into the cabin illuminating the occupants. KC-847 focused his mind and body as he had been taught in training. The familiar sensation of this well learnt meditation calmed his growing nerves allowing him to move forward to complete this task.

"Attention company! Form ranks." KC-847 started barking the orders as he was trained to. The group stood to attention and hastily formed three lines, four in each group at the rear of the truck, their weapons were ready in their arms. He joined them standing in front continuing to issue commands.

"Alpha group, you take point. Scout the area and report back to me."

"Yes sir!" Alpha group answered in unison.

"Bravo group, follow up at the rear. Charlie group you're with me. "

"Yes sir!" Bravo and Charlie responded.

"Okay people, lets move out." Alpha team rushed forward into the sewer entrance with weapons raised. It was common practice to send a small group as to avoid alerting the dangerous individual of their presence. After a few minutes KC-847 led the rest of men into the dark tunnel.

~*~

Leah "Flit" Cross kicked a stray rock out of the centre of the walkway with her steel-capped boot as she did her rounds. Her companion, Hawkeye, sniggered and she turned to glare at him.

"What?" Flit snapped, agitated, pushing her black hair off her face and tucking it neatly behind her ear.

"Someone's in a shit mood today." He said, dismissing her glare with a roll of his green eyes.

"You would be too if you had parents like mine." Flit snapped, reaching back and rubbing the microchip in the back of her neck reflexively. It was something she did quite often, and it was something that her parents were always sure to reprimand her for. The chip was supposed to be a part of her, just like it was for the other Citizens. Do you see other Citizens playing with their chips? Her mother would ask exasperatedly.

"At least you have parents." Hawkeye said evenly "A lot of us aren't so lucky."

Flit sighed. He was right. There were very few unregistered families that survived intact. If it wasn't bad enough that The Government officers were killing their people every other day, Unregistered Deviates were prone to dying from over-stretching their powers. Sometimes all it would take was one moment where emotions ran too high, or where someone was a little too ambitious, and then death would be considered the most merciful result.

The Residence was full of Deviates who had been permanently disabled because they lost control of their abilities. Flit was in awe of the work that the Fellows team did in the Residence. She had no idea how anyone could stand seeing so many people in such a depressing state without becoming depressed themselves. This awe, however, was often metered by the fact that her mother was one of the Healers assigned to the Residence. As a micro-kinetic her mother was able to manipulate people's bodies at the cell level to work on rehabilitating them or keeping them alive.

Today Flit and Hawkeye had been assigned the task of patrolling and securing the Northern-most passages that led down to the Residence. Flit's recent acceptance into the Security team had caused a great deal of conflict in her family. After seeing so many people damaged by Government officers or their own abilities, her mother would prefer her to be off counting stock with her father in the Supply team. Flit could think of nothing more boring than being in the Supply team. Her father, once a powerful teleporter, had accidentally teleported so that half of right arm and leg were spliced into a wall when he had been trying to escape some officers. The only way to save the rest of him was to amputate his limbs to separate him from said wall. It was her mother who had been called to the scene. That was where her parents first met.

It was this tragic story of the loss of Flit's father's limbs that was brought up, again, during the argument at home that very morning. It was something that her mother tried to use to show her that she should settle for a less active position. Flit, however, would have none of it. She was pleased to be included in the Security team, where her ability to teleport herself and her team mates was highly valued. Plus, Flit had never (even once) teleported and lost so much as the tip of a strand of hair.

"So, what's eating you?" Hawkeye asked.

"Parents. Again." Flit groaned.

"Still on about the Supply shit?" Hawkeye asked with a small tilt of his head. Sometimes he really did act like his namesake. Even though some of his mannerisms were patently bird-like, the real reason for his Underground name was due to his psionic power of remote viewing. Hawkeye had the ability to see locations and gather information about them from a great distance. His speciality was taking in scenes from a birds-eye view. This was particularly useful in the Security team, as they often needed to scout certain areas. Flit thought it was particularly useful as it meant he could remote view parts of their rounds and they could make it back in time to catch up with friends before heading back into the world beyond.

Hawkeye and Flit had been friends since they were young. His mother had died shortly after he was born, but luckily for him his father was part of the Control team- he was always well supported as he grew up. He had inherited his father's unnerving green eyes, but had the sandy-blonde hair was apparently thanks to his mother. Even though he was handsome, Flit had never really thought of him as anything other than a friend, or even brother. They had both of them had been relieved when they had been accepted into the same team- it made it easy for them to continue their friendship.

"Mum is threatening to talk to Harmony and Divvy about it. She thinks that they will take her side and try and get me reassigned." Flit said as she looked up at the light at the end of the tunnel that had slowly grown from the size of a marble to the size of a fist whilst they were walking. The Northern tunnels were notorious for being painfully long and straight. Flit was also disposed to thinking of them as being terribly boring.

"Don't worry too much about it." Hawkeye said with a reassuring smile. "It is really unlikely that either Harmony or Divvy will reassign you if you don't want to move. We aren't The Government, we don't force people to do things they don't want to do."

Flit shrugged her shoulders disbelievingly and pulled up her sleeve to look at her watch. Why was this day moving so slowly? Desperate to think about something other than her family's civil war she decided to change the topic.

"Can you see anything yet?" She asked Hawkeye even though she knew the answer. Luckily, he was in a good mood and decided not to call her out for playing dumb.

"Another minute or so and I shouldn't have any problems." He said.

The next minute passed without conversation, only the muffled sound of their footsteps breaking into the humid tunnel air. When Hawkeye stopped walking Flit did also, and she looked at her friend expectantly. He took a deep breath, relaxed his muscled shoulders, and focused his view on a point where the dark tunnel roof met the artificially lit night.

Hawkeye had always explained his power to be like putting up a mirror. He was able to see things from above if he could get a visual angle that would reflect the area he wanted to see. Right now he would be able to see anything that someone sitting at the top of the tunnel entrance would see. And considering that the tunnel entrance was at the top of a hill, that was a hell of a lot. There were other remote viewers that were able to see things not in their line of sight, but Hawkeye was either not able to or not yet experienced enough to do so. Only time would tell which category he fell into.

Normally it was only a matter of minutes before Hawkeye responded with the all-clear. Flit's eyebrows creased as she waited somewhat impatiently for the go-ahead to turn around and continue the rounds. At first she wasn't sure if it was the fact that her day seemed to be going so slowly that made this wait unusually long and boring, but when Hawkeye's face paled slightly and his hands tightened into fists, Flit's heart skipped a beat.

"Hawkeye?" Flit asked softly, unnerved by her close friend's behaviour.

~*~

KC-847 and his team navigated their way through the artificially lit tunnels of the underground sewer system. Most of the upper level service tunnels closer to the entrance had been mapped but he and his team would be heading deeper. The levels below were mostly uncharted and were home to the downtrodden dregs of society, those that The Government deemed unsuitable for surface living were all sent here to die.

KC-847 took again stock of the resources available to him, the team he sent in advanced were lightly equipped and armed, four individuals specially trained in stealth and reconnaissance. The remaining two teams were in full combat fatigues with body armour and heavy weaponry, some might argue that such tools and resources were not required for such a simple retrieval but The Government took no risks when it came to such an important task. Each member wore night vision goggles which became more useful the further they descended. KC-847's own goggles were specially designed, not only were they smaller and more streamlined than his team they also relayed important data in the form of a head up display. Right now he was leading the team using the map in his visor. As for his own equipment KC-847 only wore light armour as not to restrict his movement in combat, he also wore a light side arm strapped to his belt. He rarely used his weapon however as his own abilities far outmatched weapons in almost any circumstance

Fifteen minutes had passed since the forward team had entered. They were due to report in.

"Alpha team report!" KC-847 keyed in his radio, conveniently attached to his all in one visor. He was greeted with static on the open line.

"Alpha team report! Again he tried to hail them. The ominous sound of static blared into his earpiece. Holding his hand in the air with palm up, he motioned the team with him to halt.

"Alpha team repo...." The sounds of gunfire echoing through the halls interrupted his next transmission. He gave Alpha team strict instructions not to engage the unregistered Derivate, perhaps they were caught by surprise.

"Bravo team, with me, double time, Charlie Team secure this position." Without waiting for a response he dashed forward toward the gunfire, his team hot on his heels. There was the possibility that more than one unregistered Derivate was down here, though The Government denied its existence, an organisation named The Underground was known to protect and house many unscrupulous characters illegally, their base of operations was rumoured to be within the underground network of the sewer systems.

As KC-847 and his team drew closer to the barrage of gunfire it's frequency slowed until it finally stopped and the only sounds he could hear were rushed footfalls of he and his team racing forward. He halted his team, listening out. Silence again. He focused his psychic senses outward to try and locate any Derivates in the area. All Derivates had the ability to detect one another, though they could not detect the abilities of each other, they could ascertain a location. He could not sense anything.

They proceeded further, and more cautiously. It was the smell that hit them first, the rot of dead corpses. The sight that beheld them was even more grotesque. Piles and piles of dead humans and creatures were in a small enclosed room, they were shredded beyond all recognition, KC-847 spotted the new additions. Alpha team. They had inadvertently discovered a nest of some sort. The sewers were rumoured to house more than just the bottom of society and The Underground. Early experimentation with genetics started on animals, the results were said to be unpredictable and on occasion resulted in dangerous uncontrolled mutants. The Government had convinced the general populace that unregistered Derivates and Mutants were all purged when they came into power, but he had seen his fair share of both. It was not his place to contradict The Government, only to complete the task assigned to him. However it seemed that this mission had become more challenging.

Neutralising mutants was not the mission tonight so he turned back and motioned his team to do the same. Gunfire echoed again in the tunnels, this time coming from back the way they came.

"Charlie Team Report!" He tried to contact his rear guard.

"Sir! Under Attack! Need Backup....." His radio blared into life as one of the team members responded loud and continuous gunfire could be heard through the radio. His remaining team looked back at him for orders, they knew that what ever was down here could dispatch of a fully trained team within seconds. There was only one option.

"Alright team, let move, swift and smart, we don't know what were up against tonight." They responded immediately as trained soldiers do moving as a unit, weapons at the ready. This time they arrived in time but whether that was a positive was yet to be seen. Charlie team had taken cover behind some nearby rubble, already one member was on the ground, blood pouring out, body mangled. Another member appeared to be injured and was barely holding onto their weapon. A swarm of giant mutated rats half the height of a person swarmed toward them relentlessly. Bullets sung through the air some hitting but doing very little damage. From the speed and strength of the creatures KC-847 could easily see how they were able to do so much damage.

The situation was quickly becoming ominous. KC-847 and Bravo team rushed into action assisting with cover fire, KC-847 gestured toward the swarm knocking back several of the rats at a time. It was enough to get their attention and they changed tactics rushing toward the new comers. Without cover they were quickly overwhelmed. The first three members were jumped by at least a dozen rats, and were ripped apart within seconds. The forth member was left to bat them off in melee as they nipped and ripped at his legs, slowly he was overwhelmed, his screams barely drowning out the rat's screeching. KC-847 barely held them back, using his abilities to hold the creatures back before they got too close. In the corner of his vision he spied the rest of Charlie team succumb to the sea of death. Now all of the beady red rat eyes were on him and his entire body was starting to weaken from the effort it took to keep the creatures at bay. Death, it seemed, was inevitable.

~*~

"Hawkeye, what is it?" Flit asked again when her original question got no response.

Hawkeye put a hand up to signal for her to be quiet and she bit her lip, eyebrows remaining thoroughly furrowed. She could see the strain of concentration on his normally relaxed features and every moment that passed by felt like an eternity of waiting. Just when all of her nervous energy was about to explode his posture changed and he turned to face her.

"There is a Government hover truck out there. Near the entrance to the Nest..."

"The Nest?" Asked Flit, eyes shooting open. The Nest was where the swarm of Mutant rats lived. Everybody from the Underground knew to avoid that place unless they wanted to be the creatures' next meal. "Surely they'd know better than to go there-"

Flit's statement of utter disbelief was interrupted by the loud echoes of a barrage of gunfire. Both she and Hawkeye looked at each other at the same time. The Government's Officers had penetrated the Underground sewers a number of times. However, they had never gotten close enough to the Residence or any of the Warren tunnels well below the surface of The Hub before, and had therefore never really presented much of a threat. However, the fact that a group of Agents had chosen to enter using the tunnels nearest The Nest was insane. Flit had been to The Nest a number of times and had seen how many of the Mutants rats' meals had been Government personnel. Didn't those idiots ever learn?

"We should go check it out!" Flit said, adrenaline coursing through her veins and setting her senses on edge as the loud gunfire continued to echo through the sparsely lit tunnels.

"Are you serious? I'm not going to The Nest alone!" Hawkeye said incredulously, Flit rolled her hazel eyes impatiently. "Plus the protocol is that we return to the Warren and get back-up before taking them on."

"You won't be alone, you'll be with me! Besides, by the time we get to the Warren and back they might be gone! Or dead! They're no use to us dead!" Flit argued. Hawkeye gave her a look with his emerald green eyes that told her just how ludicrous he found her idea.

"We're going back to the Warren." He said firmly, Flit scrunched her nose up and crossed her arms over her breasts stubbornly. "The longer this discussion takes the less chance we have of catching them alive." He snapped, turning on his heal and running headlong back down the tunnel they had just walked up. "Come on!" He yelled at her over his shoulder.