#meanwhile the police have entered the building and search the two massive crowds that came to sit and look at two superheroes do nothing

[phoenixtakaramono]

Finders Keepers ch5 Sneak Peek

It was an unspoken fact that history was written by its victors and its sufferers. It culminates in a selective retelling of events that is passed down via the education systems located throughout the galaxies.

During the time of the Last Corporate War—with the survivors being Anshin, Atlas, Dahl, Hyperion, Jakobs, Maliwan, Pangolin, S&S Munitions, Tediore, Vladof, and other megacorporations—only one emerged to stand at the forefront of innovation. With the fortunate excavation on the planet Promethea, Atlas Corporation had reverse-engineered the alien Eridian technology to give themselves an edge over their competitors.

With the discovery came a new line of machines, starships, and weaponry that were to be manufactured, as well as the earlier prototypes of the digistruct technology. Eventually all that led to the colonization of the planet Pandora and a monopoly of the interplanetary scale, allowing Atlas control over a significant portion of the market for goods and services. Their success had spurred on other megacorporations to explore other frontier planets in search of more alien technology and similar resources.

Yet of the numerous planets that made up the solar system, only a few of them were well-known intergalactically.

Many knew Aquator to be a scenic tourist hotspot with its many small islands to vacation on.

Athenas was known to be a planet governed by the Order of the Impending Storm—a religious monastic sect whose influence reached all aspects of their civilization.

Dionysus was a party planet, known for visitors’ drunken escapees and the tourist tagline “what happens in Dionysus, stays in Dionysus.”

Hermes was a planet with a thin atmosphere that was rich in helium, orbiting around a giant blue star instead of the sun.

Pandora was one of the frontier planets, recently colonized by Atlas—and other megacorporations like Dahl and Hyperion—as a research test site and as a settlement.

The last was Promethea, an environment of harsh extraterrestrial living conditions because of the excessive mining, rapid industrialization, martial law, and the like.

Planets like Artemis, Demophon, Eden-5, Eden-6, Eden-7, Epitah, Eunomia, Grophic IV, Hephaestus, Hera, Hestias, Hieronymous, Honus 4651, Isolus, Menoetius, Tantalus, Themis, and Thrace had their own reputations, but they were universally regarded to be on the same respectable level as the old planetary system.

Modeled after Earth, all of the Edens founded were known to be settlements of research, boasting of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism. Only the brightest—or the wealthy—were allowed citizenship or temporary student visas, to learn at the competing prestigious institutions and to increase their prospects of being hired by a megacorporation. Largely peaceful, the citizens of these planets were accustomed to a life of high-tech luxuries.

And unlike Eden-5 whose reputation was overshadowed by their corrupt police force, Eden-7 had some of the largest university financial endowments which allowed for many resources for their academic programs and research endeavors.

Bordering the main hub of the city was a tall building. Not quite a skyscraper, the architecture resembled that of an industrial hangar that had been elongated to touch the skies.

Pulling into the nearest available parking spot, a well-dressed long-limbed man emerged from a black vehicle. His hair seemed to have a burnished bronze luster from the sun.

Smoothing out the nonexistent wrinkles in his suit and anxiously adjusting his tie, he walked around to the passenger side to retrieve a clunky robotic prototype. Pressing the ON/OFF button, he waited for it to finish activation.

Snatching the laptop briefcase in the meanwhile, he murmured to the floating device, “Alright, it’s our moment to shine, Dumpy.” Closing the door with a nudge of his hip, he pocketed the key fob after hearing the car beep. “We got this in the bag.” He smacked the briefcase. “Confidence is the key.”

A deep, synthetic baritone—the voice package belonged to the deceased actor James Earl Jones—replied in the affirmative.

Deliberately tilting his chin up, Rhys left the parking with Dumpy whirring in the air quietly beside him. Not once did he allow himself to look down at his feet or to avoid eye contact.

At this time, even with the employees retiring for the night, it seemed the world was at its usual and undisturbed.

The uniforms that Atlas personnel wore was a curious mix of business and military dress code, which was what distinguished one from the other. Red accents were intermingled in a mostly dark or neutral color palette.

Cyborgs—humans having undergone cybernetic enhancement surgery such as bionic limbs or microchip implants—and androids were virtually indistinguishable. A usual sight, they shambled along with the rest of the unaugmented humans.

Soon, Rhys spotted an interesting individual among the crowd that wound around a giant statue. The first thought that came to his head was the word “white;” her hair and skin were bleached of all color, like a ghost.

The woman was dressed in a furred-collar military vest worn over a black T- shirt that exposed her midriff. Leather trousers hugged her figure, as well as her knee-high boots. Even as she marched her back was ramrod-straight, like a sword forged of steel. Likely due to the leather material of the long opera-length gloves she wore, they reminded Rhys of the black rubber gloves that a butcher would use instead of a fashionable evening accessory.

There was even a large Bowie knife strapped to the belt and a gun holster. Since the sight of her didn’t cause anyone alarm, he could only assume that she was authorized to carry weapons in plain sight.

She drew several stares from passersby, which Rhys suspected wasn’t only for her distinguishing features.

He narrowed his eyes. There was the smallest sense of recognition, although it escaped his memory of how and where he has seen her before. As they traveled, the waning sun could be seen through the openings placed strategically throughout the compound. A gradience of crimsons, oranges, and golds was suffused over the rigid gunmetal grays.

The building was once a product of its times—an outdated corporate steel-and-glass facade—before the property on the real estate market had been purchased by the CEO. During the initial remodeling phase, the exposed foundation and rusted structure made it appear like a skeleton with its flesh peeled off.

The soles of his shoes were clacking against the industrial-sized plates as Rhys craned his neck, spotting the Atlas logo affixed overhead. Neon yellow LED tubing was installed throughout the architecture.

The crowd had thinned at the entrance, where the woman was headed toward. By this time, the premises was mostly deserted.

That illusion of calm was shattered when the woman jerked to a sudden halt.

A split second later, she evaded the gunshots by pitching her body into a barrel roll. Scorched dents were left in the metal where she once stood.

Slamming her hand and feet onto the ground, the woman regained balance. She had already been in mid-motion of reaching into her holster, but she froze up at the sight of the two guns trained on her.

A spear of ice pierced Rhys from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

Hastily retreating a few steps back, he felt his back collide roughly against the pedestal of the Greek titan Atlas. Looming overhead, the statue was hoisting a massive sphere meant to represent Earth.

“Don’t let them see you,” he hissed, snatching Dumpy from midair. Sweat was adhering his dress shirt to his skin. He leaned slightly forward, ignoring the simulated heavy breathing from the robot’s voice modulator. “Let me see what you see. Enhance.”

Much like a video recorder, Dumpy was recording the situation live. The zoom function allowed Rhys to see a close-up of the two armed assailants who had trodden forth. They’d worn nondescript clothing meant to blend in and catch their target off-guard. If it hadn’t been for their faces, he wouldn’t have been able to ascertain the gender from just their builds alone.

Rhys wasn’t much of an expert on firearms—his knowledge of guns was limited to movies and video games—but the make and model appeared vintage, likely contraband. Guns made on Earth were considered outdated and weak compared to the advanced arms mass-produced by megacorporations today.

Rhys was too far to hear the quieter words being exchanged, but the volume of the shouting was clearly agitated. They were yelling at her to drop her gun and to kick it away.

This did not seem like a drill.

Only the three individuals were found up ahead. With no one else emerging from the sliding doors, it seemed the building had gone under lockdown. Security cameras were pointed down at the scene.

The inactivity was making him restless. “What’s taking so long?” he demanded. “Why isn’t anyone doing anything?”

“It is likely the result of the bystander effect and other causes,” Dumpy commented in its deep, measured intonation. “Do you want me to call the authorities? It is prudent to reduce fatal casualties.”

The robot’s unaffected droning had managed to steady his nerves somewhat, helping him regain a semblance of self-control. Rhys worried his lower lip.

The sun was slowly falling below the horizon, and darkness threatened to swallow the world.

Waiting for the police to arrive might be a risk that he wasn’t certain the lady could afford to have. On the other hand, he would likely be gunned down the instant that he called attention to himself; running was not ideal.

He had to create a distraction.

“No.” Rhys sank down into a crouch. His hands were trembling. “We’re going to do one better.”

Managing to enter the correct numeric sequence into the holographic lock, he snapped the briefcase open and disengaged the laptop from Sleep mode. His fingers fumbled across the keyboard, entering the lengthy password.

Forcing his fear back, he whispered, “I’m going to disable the lights. It’ll give you a narrow window before the backup generator starts. I’ll need you to activate your defense matrix and take out those two guys. Don’t overdo the voltage.” He glanced up. “Do you think we can pull that off?”

Processing the command, Dumpy calculated the plan’s estimated percentage of success aloud. It also warned that what Rhys was doing was illegal.

“Well, we’re going to try.” Every movement was essentially muscle memory, like a choreographed dance. Brown eyes darted across the screen. “Good thing I still have remote access to the server. This is child’s play. ...Sorry, buddy. You’re gonna be the hero. I believe in you.”

The sun had set completely, with only the artificial lights illuminating the compound. Switching off the electricity supply a few precious minutes later, they were plunged into absolute darkness.

For a few seconds, he could make out nothing but dark lumps—silhouettes who were startled by the abrupt power outage. There was not much time. Motioning rapidly, Rhys hissed under his breath, “Go, go, go!”

He was crossing his fingers.

For a moment, the shape of Dumpy could be seen hovering over one of the men.

There was an unnatural humming, before white-blue light abruptly burst into vision, temporarily igniting the night. The man’s limbs were flailing as though a live wire had been attached to each of his nerves, his body convulsing like a rag doll as the violent electrical current pulsed through him. Not a moment too soon, the tased man collapsed, paralyzed, and his partner shouted his name.

Like machine fire, shots were unloaded blindly at the crackling light. They sounded like fireworks going off, with missed bullets shaking the entire building structure.

Despite Dumpy’s best attempts at evasion—dodging, flying like an erratic pendulum—sparks could be seen when bullets struck sheet metal.

Rhys’ heart plummeted. To his horror, even with the bulletproof design, the robot was soon spiraling out of control. Crashing into the ground like a small meteor, upon impact its emotionless “ow, ow, ow” distorted in volume, becoming an unintelligible screech.

“Nooo! Dumpy!”

“Atlas will never fall!” The voice was female and vaguely familiar; it had come slicing through the shadows as sharp as a knife.

In the distraction, semi-translucent wings, reminding Rhys of crackling electricity, unfurled from the lithe woman’s back like a butterfly from a cocoon. Half of her body was glowing, where the Siren birthmarks were.

It was over in a second.

By the time the man whirled on his feet, a dime-sized hole had been left between his eyes, revealing liquefied brain matter. The woman could be seen standing upright, the barrel of her customized pearlescent revolver smoking slightly from the discharged elemental round. Her finger only left the trigger when the assailant fell.

Nobody in this place moved a muscle, and it was so quiet that even the sound of their breathing could be heard.

(Ch 1-4 of the scifi AU Finders Keepers can be found on AO3! Ch5 is currently in progress.)

#rhys the company man #rhack #tales from the borderlands #commandant steele #scifi #siren #dumpy #finders keepers #sneak peek #phoenixtakaramono #flashback #I am out of practice with action sequences #not the full scene but the majority #worldbuilding

[drubblernews-blog]

New Post has been published on http://drubbler.com/2017/02/23/according-to-amnesty-international-torture-in-armenia-police/

According to Amnesty International, torture in Armenia Police

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Yerevan, February 23, 2017, 14:14- REGNUM the year was also marked by economic and political instability and the growing concerns about safety, associated with the April large-scale military confrontation in Nagorny Karabakh, according to a report by the international human rights organization Amnesty International, which fixes the situation with human rights in the world in the year 2016.

the authors of the report note that Prime Minister Abrahamyan September 8 resigned, explaining the step that the Government has not coped with the economic and political difficulties. The new Prime Minister, President SERZH SARGSYAN appointed 13 September former Mayor Karen Karapetyan.

in the section “excessive force”, it is stated that in July the police exceeded the force to disperse peaceful demonstrations in General in the capital, Yerevan. Hundreds of people have been arbitrarily detained. Many reported injured, beaten or ill-treated during detention and in police custody.

17 July, a group of armed men stormed into a police building in the erebuni district of Yerevan. While a police officer was killed and two were wounded, several police officers were taken hostage. After the takeover of the building, hundreds of people gathered in freedom square to call for the resignation of President and express solidarity with the armed people and their demand to release the arrested oppositionist Zhirayr Sefilyan’s blamed illegal possession of weapons. A two-week standoff with police sparked massive anti-Government speeches in Yerevan, culminated in several skirmishes with the police. Meetings occur every day and ceased after July 30 people seized hostages, surrendered.

according to avtrorov report, although in most cases, police did not interfere with the peaceful assemblies, protesters and others constantly detained.

“several protest rallies in Yerevan were dispersed with excessive force. 20th July clashes occurred after police allowed the protesters to pass food to the armed group, police in the building zabarrikadirovavshejsja. Some of the protesters started shoving police, throwing stones and bottles of water. Police responded the indiscriminate use of svetoshumovyh grenades and tear gas, leaving affected many peaceful protesters and bystanders, “the document says.

it also States that the police started to disperse rally and detain participants. According to witnesses, police chased and beat demonstrators trying to flee, and then detain them. According to available information, 136 people have been detained, many people suffered.

the authors of the report note that the 29 July police exceeded the force against peaceful demonstrators in quarter Sari Tagh beside captured police building.

“police demanded the protesters to disperse. Shortly thereafter, police indiscriminately used tear gas and stun grenades, which suffered numerous demonstrators and several journalists. Then the crowd from behind a police cordon pop group men, armed with wooden clubs; They surrounded and beat demonstrators and journalists. Meanwhile, police blocked the street to prevent the crowd to scatter, and proceeded to arrest all protesters, “Amnesty International stressed.

dannem defenders, at least 14 journalists reported that they have released a stun grenade attack and beaten to prevent broadcast. Reportedly, at least 60 people were injured and have been hospitalized, including one with serious burns from vzryvavshihsja grenades.

in the ensuing weeks for excessive use of force have been suspended five police officers. The Chief of police was fired, and 13 police officers, including several high ranks, received an official reprimand for “failure to prevent the attacks on demonstrators and journalists.

at the end of the year, investigations into both incidents has not ended.

in the section “arbitrary arrests and detentions,” says that after the events of 17 July, the police began calling on interrogations of political activists. According to media reports, the police without formalizing the detention was delivered nearly 200 people, mostly opposition supporters and activists. According to activists, police came to their home and threatened relatives of detention and conducted illegal searches. The activists themselves were questioned and kept in police custody, some more 12:00, but then released without charge. They were not allowed to notify relatives about his whereabouts and was not allowed to communicate with their lawyers.

in the report there is also a section with a loud entitled “torture and other ill-treatment”, in which international human rights organization said that there were still many allegations of torture and ill-treatment in police custody and in places of detention.

during July, some activists were told that they were not given water, medication and did not have adequate medical care when they are stopped by the police for participating in the protests. In some cases they were held more than 12:00 without charge. Several people said they were severely beaten and subjected to other forms of ill-treatment during their detention and custody, and also were unable to notify relatives and lawyers about his whereabouts, “human rights activists note.

in a conversation with REGNUM NEWS AGENCY, who requested anonymity, former expert one of Armenian non-governmental organizations, working in partnership with Amnesty International, said that the international human rights organization the report takes as a basis the reports of local organizations, which, in turn, often follow the events without leaving their offices and are based on the testimony of the participants of the events that appear in the local press does them without checking.

Thus, according to the expert, the report turns out not quite accurate, and sometimes not at all accurate. “So, for example, the section on” torture and other ill-treatment, which is based on “received a lot of messages,” told the activists “cannot be considered reliable. Of course, the police still apply illegal methods of working with suspects, detainees and witnesses, but call it torture cannot be», — noted he.

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