CRYPT 12

C 1 2 | E P I S O D E 0 2

Slowly, the sun drifted away while the Cloud Relegus satellites powered up. They were satellites which induced daylight, more like inverters which stored energy from the sun and emitted it in form of light once Phase II's brightness dropped below a certain point. This part of the world couldn't to ever fall dark, or even depend on the weaning moon after sunset due to the high concentration of Sentry companies like Tri Tech which stored data on every living human, making it the second busiest place area, the first being Cloud 6,the largest residential skyline.

Protocol demanded that Porters reported to section 16 to get information on their crew mates. This part of was nicked 'rough edge' since it was the domain for the tough looking security officials, Guardians as they were often referred to. The transit pod opened up to a wide hall way, activities on the floor weren't as busy as the training grounds or medical wing except for the messenger drones and bots which whizzed past often as he made his way to one of the machines in the intel arcade.

"How's it going bud?" The machine started after Bishop had inputted his access codes.

"What?" Bishop cocked an eyebrow in wonder.

"Oh, I know you're surprised. Some moron's messed with my setup, I'm still a hundred though," the machine replied, making Bishop scoff in amusement of how much like a Guardian the machine now sounded unlike its former casual responses.

"So what're you called now, Robo Cop?" Bishop said in sarcasm.

"Name's still the same; ITX-51A, baby."

Bishop shook his head. It was pretty obvious that Section 16 had revamped their systems and had hired a geek-moron-for the job.

"I need updates on the crew for PORT69-27-BR001."

"Man! This is the real shit and you got a badass squad heading out with you," ITX answered, displaying headshots and short profiles of 4 Guardians on its screen.

"What do you mean 'the real shit'?"

"Synthesis. That's a super classified job you got yourself on," ITX replied, making Bishop wonder if it was a human operator he was conversing with or just an artificially intelligent system on an overdose of information.

A roar erupted from down the floor which caught his attention. His head swung in the direction it had come from, he needn't be told what had caused it and as though compelled, Bishop strolled towards the other end of the hallway.

The Drill was a usual event for Guardians. For the viewing audience, it was simply a form of entertainment watching Guardians fitted in super cool beta gears run around the virtual field while trying to overcome potentially dangerous scenarios. To the Guardians and Tech Specialists, The Drill served as a way to test run new gears developed by emerging Tech Specialists to grade their usability, a source of revenue to the economy of Capital city.

The Drill placed participants in virtually similar cases any Porter-Guardian crew was likely to encounter while on an assignment. This created a real time response with the participants beta tested gears.

Bishop pressed his palms against the cold transparent glass of the platform where he stood watching the arena which was large enough to occupy a crowd of 9 thousand. His eyes bounced from one Guardian to another on the field as they played their game of 'bring-the-Porter-home-alive.'

It was already the final round and the last team was halfway through their progress. Bishop watched with high interest as the 4 man team progressed along the arena which was larger than 12 million square feet. How was it possible to fit in a space that large in a hall so small? Technology at its finest. Although the original size spanned just over 2 million square feet, the training sequences span a virtual distance of 12 million square feet, landscape and environment of the arena changed every few million square feet into a new sector which came with a new set of challenge for the Guardians to react and adapt to. Every advancement into a new sector meant the players had to adjust their gears to the new conditions the arena presented.