Cyberware

The dogs were howling loudly tonight. Once again they saw their place in life being stripped away by metal and wires. A new bot had hit the market. The Zetech, fully customizable in both function and looks. They could be whatever you wanted them to be, A friends for your reclusive ten year old, A tutor for your failing teenager, A guard dog for your house, A personal secretary. Hell, they could even be your bed warmer. High class brothels were already placing orders. But that's not what the fuss was about. The model itself was designed as law enforcement. Putting soulless metal that could out perform the average human in the hands of those war lords was a recipe for disaster. The people were panicking, afraid for their safety. Which was the point. You don't put military grade weapons on your law enforcement bot, just doesn't work that way.

Seth leaned back in his chair and sighed. Two weeks vacation and what was he doing? Writing a column for a site that didn't pay him enough. He made himself sick sometimes. If he had any sense he would have gone underground, Get on board with Rebellion news or Flintlock. He would make a years salary in a month if he did. But no, he wasn't about to do that. He was comfortable, he didn't flinch anytime he heard sirens. Living in fear like everyone else was the last thing he wanted. No, he wanted to keep his head above water for as long as he could. Keep his life simple.
Would make for a shitty story if he did huh?

The hall rented out for the unveiling was the most expensive the section launching the ZeTech could afford, after all, they had to put on a good show for the benefactors. The hall was set up more like a stage than anything else, show being held on the fifth floor of the large venue, the other floors consisting of elaborate lounges and entertainment facilities to keep their benefactors busy for the moment leading up to the event. As the time neared eight PM the deligates made their way up to the fifth floor and started to fill the theatre, for calling it by any other name would be unessisarry. the room housed easily over four hundred people with its multi leveled seating system.

As the time drew near the lights dimmed and a man strutted out on stage, his right eye obviously cybernetic as its iris gave off a subtle glow, he had a small metallic strip that was fixed at his jaw, picking up his voice and projecting it across the vastness of the hall. "Ladies and gentlemen!" He said with a broad grin as he eyed the number of people that had decided to attend the unveiling like a hungry feline. The man's name was Richard Chase, the main developer, and speaker for the ZeTech project, the one that was able to speak his way in to his benefactor's pockets, giving him all the money he had ever needed and more. He let himself get lost in the moment for only but a moment before he bowed to the crowd. "I'd like to start off by thanking each and every one of you who came here tonight" He said with a smile and a pause before looking to the side with a grin and mock-shrug, "but that would take far too long" As if on cue the crowd gave off a slight chortle. pleased with his success he carried on with his monologue, pacing back to center stage. "I know you all are busy and time costs you all money, however, of course, you'd want to see just -what- your funding has gone in to. Now i could bore you with endless details and possibilities of the ZeTech, of what they can do, of what they should do, and what it will be possible to make them do in the future. Ladies and gentlemen, we stand upon a precipice of technology the likes of which we have yet to see.. that is. until now. like i said, i could bore you with details, but.." he smiled and paused for effect, "I'll let the Zetech, speak for itself."

On cue a pannel from the floor would click and hiss, sliding awawy as a platform freely rose out of the ground, in the center standing a being of brillient technological design, unique and quite obviously intelligent if not scantly clad. The Zetch stood still as a statue as it was lifted, only 'coming to life' as the platform stopped moving. it took a step off from it and walked off the platform smoothly to stand on the end of the short runway at the stage, a mechanical tail slowly moving around behind it as the fin at its head moved slightly as if calabrating, bright glowing eyes scanned the crowd as it slightly moved its head to do so, eyes quickly snapping to a falsh of light that came from the first camera, eyes darting to the next as it went off, tail haulting its movement, it seeming to concentrate like a cat wanting to play, making some of the journalists midly nervious.

One of the reporters spoke up. "Alright then.. ZeTech. How would you describe yourself?" He asked in a smug tone.
"That's low, requesting a bot to describe itself. You'll get a manual listing of features at best." Seth thought to himself as he grabbed a bowl of noodles and began scarfing them down. "Bots don't have an identity. Someone's gonna paint this as a flaw. Or better yet, he's gonna grill it with questions like that and make it overload. Cyworks probably has the fucker on payroll. Catch the bot malfunctioning on camera, will be deemed as a failure then five months later they'll roll out their own version." Knowing the insides of the corporate world had it's advantages. Was a shame that he would be killed if he ever hinted at something like that though. The suits owned everything, even the lives of the simple minded people walking below their ivory towers.

Zetech focussed its eyes on the reporter, tail starting to move again as it paused a moment its fins readjusting some, Chase tried his best to hide back a grin as his bot answered. The Zetech took a step forward as it opned its mouth to speak, voice obviously vocoded, but to an extent that it was clearly recogniseable and understandable, " I describe myself as a creation" she said whilst looking down at the reporter, eyes wide and mostly blank like that of a porcelain doll, "The first of my kind" Her voice was slow and clearly sounded out each word like a child first starting to make use of its own words.

"Didn't give a serial number. Probably wasn't coded with one being a prototype and all." Seth thought as he swallowed a mouthful of noodles.

The reporter gave a smug smirk. "Alright then, your model is being designed for law enforcement, to protect the people out on the streets. But let me ask you this then, what's the value of human life? You are programmed to stop crime, but if by stopping it, you caused the death of an innocent civilian, or more likely, KILLED an innocent civilian." The room filled with worried murmurs as he planted a seed. "What then?" He asked over the hum of the worried people.

"Easy question." Seth said to himself. "They saw that one coming while they were drawing blueprints. Lets see what response they coded her with."

Zetech stood there a moment, the 'ears' raising slightly. "Innocence." She said at a pause before slightly tilting her head, "Answering a question with a question. What do you, define, as innocent. Definitions may vary."

"Someone not committing the crime, or someone wrongly accused." The reporter said wearing a smile. "Innocent until proven guilty, You know, a staple in our justice system. So what do you do, if stopping a crime.. meant harming someone not associated with the crime? Regular cops have to deal with this dilemma all the time."

"The harming of innocents is to be avoided where possible. As you had said. It happens. Actions are. weighted on outcome. if by, stopping a crime it meant some are harmed, but the majority are saved. that action, is carried through. Innocents are to be. saved" She said, adding her usual pauses as the tail moved about idly behind her

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." The reporter sdaid nodding his head, smug look still on his face. "Proving! That this thing is unable to personalize people. A trait necessary for comforting those affected by the crimes. Tell a child that the loss of his parents was necessary, tell a mother, that her little girl was brutally murdered. This thing in front of us is no more qualified to serve and protect our citizens than a knife is!" He yelled over the sound of those in the room agreeing with him.


Seth let out a sigh. "He's missing the point entirely.. But they don't care, got em scared. Looking at a wolf and wondering why it's not wagging it's tail when it sees em."

Zetech tilted her head slightly, looking to the reporter, "Those that die-" the Zetech was cut off by the sound of a large explosion as the building shaked, debris blowing the walls apart as a ball of flame rushed through the theatre, taking out those closest to the doors without any problem. the camera feeds cut out as the building crumpled in on itself, presumably crushing, or incinerating everyone inside.

Seth stared at the screen with some noodles hang out of his mouth. "Well that escalated quickly."
Social media was going haywire, the net filled with the shocked confused reactions to what they just saw. Terrorist attack, corporate or otherwise was the prime suspect. Either way Cyware was making a killing. Stocks immediately jumped three fold in a matter of seconds as their competition was taken out. And at the tremendous loss of life they had just witnessed, Most were complaining about the money they had lost, investors, earlier buyers, it was all a mess. And Seth had to shift through it all. He was gonna need more coffee.

The night passed too quickly for most and painfully slowly for others, responce units were literally crawling all over the scene, firefighters digging through the rubble to try find any hope of survivors, mostly coming up empty handed, whoever had orchestrated the event had gone to great lengths to make sure there'd be nothing left. However, it would despite their efforts they diddn't go far enough as about midday the site recorded a secondary blast, rubble in one area of the destruction being obliterated, leaving behind smouldering ash as the Zetech pulled itself out from it all, not seeming any worse for ware as a trancelucent shielding flickered about it, dying down afterwards as her fins adjusted, looking to all the people in the area

With most of the civilians out of the way all that remained were the rescue workers. Catching sight of Zetch one of the men smiled. "Well look at that, the toy survived. Hey guys. it's over here." He called to the others. Soon Zetch was surrounded by several of the workers. "Come along with us now. We're gonna take you to your owner." One of the men said with a snicker. He was quickly quieted by a slap to the back of the head. "Shadap Henry. Zetech, Go into standby mode for transportation." He ordered her. "Zenthet's gonna pay a loooot of money for you." He said mentioning a rival corporation, Zenthetics united.

Zetch looked to them, head slightly tilting to the side as she picked up the name. "No." She said quite simply, quite pointedly. "I am not. property of Zenthetics." She said before straightening her head. "Stand down."

The man sighed. "Off course she'd be safeguarded. Taker her down with the EMP." Suddenly Zetch was hit in the back of the head that distributed an electrical pulse meant to temporarily shut her down.

The Zetech's head lulled forward a moment as the lights on her body flickered off. She stayed like that a moment before they flickered on again, one by one the lights flickering to life as she raised her head, looking to the group as her tail flicked about, the pupil of the eye lense contracting. "That wasn't very nice. Do you like it?" The fins on her head move to the sides as a short electrical pulse is sent out from her to the immediate area

Struck with electricity their own circuits began to short out. Leaving them on the ground writhing in pain, unable to move properly. The commotion garnered the attention of the other workers nearby who start to approach.

"your activity has been noted as criminal" She said as she slightly cocked her head to the side "Have a nice day." she said before pannels on her back popped out slightly and slided seamlessly to the side as smaller fins folded out from them, light gathering at the undersides as she rocketed off in to the air.

A kid of about seventeen stood not all too far off from behind a truck out of view, small camera in hand. "Cuz is going to love this..." he said before turning on his heel and sprinting off in to the alleyway, checking it to be empty before setting the camera in his pack, taking a few steps back before running at the wall full tilt, taking in a quick breath as he jumped off the ground, setting his feet on the wall mid flight, pushing off from it to change his trajectory, hands reaching out to grab at the railing to the side wall that belonged to an apartment. He swung down and landed on the grating before making up the stairs with a chuckle, "man this never gets old.."

Seth drug himself out of bed and into a shower. Hard nights were the worst part of the job. Starting up his computer he searched around for anything related to the blast. What he found were the usual rambling of the masses. Nothing of any value he sighed, blowing steam from his cup of coffee. "What would the sheep do without their shepherds?"

Jace moved quickly from rooftop to rooftop, alleyway to alleyway, he knew this part of the city like the back of his hand, like it was his playground. Even so, he'd never want to get caught in the act of his antics and usually took quite a bit of care not to get noticed, going the least populated routes each time, swerving out from view when someone unexpected popped up. eventually he ran up towards one of the houses in the next sector of the district, climbing the outer stairs to the second level before pulling back the hood on his jacket, lifting his hand to knock on the door repeatedly, "hey, hey cuz you home??"

"No." Seth grumbled loud enough for Jace to hear him. Pressing a button on a nearby remote the front door unlocked. He hated when people dropped in without warning. Didn't give him time to clean the mess of files and equitment laying around everywhere.

Jace had a broad grin by the time the door was opned, "guess what i got??" He said whilst trying to contain himself, wanting to nearly jump about like an excited child as he moved in past Seth with a chuckle, grasping at his pack on his back, taking a try of two before he gripped it and puleld it off, setting it on a table before starting to rummage through it*

"A girlfriend? Someone else to bother. I dunno, what?" He said in a tired voice.

"yeah jee thanks Seth" he looked back to him with a blunt expression before digging in his pack again, pulling out his camera, hopping past Seth, grabbing a portable holoscreen frame from his bag before setting it on the table, connecting the two manually before he navigated the screen, pulling up the video feed he'd captured, right from where the Zetech emerged to where he'd shut off the feed to make his way back

Seth watched the footage. "So ZU's after it then? That's a twist. Go ahead and take that to the authorities, probably a decent reward for info on the bombing. Could lead em in the right direction."