Chapter 1: Hunted
January 16th, 2020
Manticore facility
Donald Lydecker, the current head of Manticore, was sitting in a briefing room with several of his subordinates, namely Sandoval, and two committee members; James McGinnis and Elizabeth Renfro.
"Everything is going smoothly and accordingly to the plan we devised. X5-599 was outfitted with the micro-implant and within a day of his release we have already apprehended the rogue X5-452 , and have roughly ascertained the locations of X5's 626 aka Tinga, 205 aka Zane, 210 aka Jondy, 493 aka Ben, 751 aka Cora and 532 aka Faith." Lydecker reported.
"I assume you have given the orders to intercept and recapture them?" Renfro guessed
"My men are awaiting final orders for deployment, which will be given upon the adjournment of this meeting." Lydecker answered.
"Then consider this meeting finished." Renfro announced. "Send your men to get the X5's and bring them home. All of them."
Lydecker nodded and both McGinnis and Renfro left the room. Lydecker turned to Sandoval.
"It's time." He said simply and Sandoval nodded, then left the room.
"Enjoy what's left of your freedom kids." Lydecker muttered under his breath "Because I will make sure that your only loyalty lies with Manticore, when I get you back."
Downtown San Fransisco- Early Morning
A young woman, clad in a black skintight jumpsuit, with fiery red hair and bright green eyes strides out of a bar and walks down the street to where her red Ninja 1200 is leaning against a lamppost. She gets onto it and starts the engine. After a moment she revs it up and speeds away from the bar, heading for her house on the other side of the bridge. As she speeds down the almost empty streets, her long red hair flies in the wind, revealing a stark black barcode on the nape of her neck. From the sidewalk a man in a black suit whips out a camera and snaps a couple pictures of her, complete with barcode. Unaware of the man with the camera, the woman continues riding towards the Golden Gate sector checkpoint. She reaches the checkpoint half a minute later and shows the guard her pass. The cop takes a quick look at it. The id reads Jondy Peyton. After examining it quickly, the guard hands it back and waves her through. Jondy grins and speeds through the checkpoint. She guns the bike to maximum speed as she drives across the bridge and down through the other checkpoint.
A short time later, she arrives at her street, immediately sensing that something was very wrong. She quickly scanned the neighborhood and spotted several military vehicles parked in front of nearby buildings.
Shit Jondy thought angrily and started to turn around, but two hummers with the Manticore symbol on their hoods drove into view, blocking they way she had come. Two of the parked vehicles roared to life and backed into the roads to serve as barricades, cutting off the other two escape routes. Jondy looked around hurriedly and then remembered the narrow alleyway between her apartment and the one next to it.
Worth a shot. Jondy decided and floored her bike towards the alley, dodging the tazer darts and successfully escaping into the alley. Her plan would have worked if Manticore had not already considered the possibility that she may try to use the alley as escape route and stationed two soldiers in the shadows to ambush her. As she approached their hiding spots, they jumped into view and held up a thick rope so that it was level with her chest. Jondy was unable to stop in time and the wind was knocked out of her lungs as she was thrown off the bike. Jondy hit the tarmac hard and before she could react, both of her attackers were on top of her, holding her down. Once they made sure that they each had a firm grasp on her, they helped her to stand. Once she was up one of the men released his hold on her. Before she could blink, the other had her in a full nelson hold. she struggled against him with all her strength, but he was too strong and she was unable to break free of his hold. The second man pulled out a tazer wand. Flicking it on, he thrust it into her gut, sending electricity coursing over her body. She moaned in anguish and lifted her head to look at her assailiant. His face was completely devoid of any emotion, save for the slight glint in his eyes that Jondy guessed was pride in having be able to take down one of the '09' escapees. Jondy felt herself grow tired as the soldier continued to electrocute her. After about ten seconds of being tazed, Jondy slumped in the grasp of the first soldier. She was awake but unable to move any part of her body.
"Her strength is gone." The soldier with the tazer reported and turned the wand off. He pocketed it. The first soldier loosened his hold on her and moved his grip to her underarms. The second soldier grasped her feet and lifted them. The two men carried her out of the alley and loaded her into a waiting transport.
Los Angeles, California
Maximum Security Prison
Faith sat in a single's cell, reflecting on her actions that caused her to wind up in jail. She desperately wished she could go back and stop herself from committing the atrocities that led to her winding up in jail. But despite her many skills, turning back th hands of time was not among them. So she sat in silence and meditated.
The warden of the prison watched her on a monitor from his office. He turned to look at the bald man that was waiting for him to make a decision.
"Are you sure she's the one?" The Warden asked. "She's got a mean streak half a mile long."
"You're prison files documented that one of her distinguishing marks was a jet black barcode tattoo on the nape of her neck." Sandoval answered. "I am positive she is the one we are looking for."
The warden nodded. "If it gets her out of my hair. What do you need me to do?"
"Mix sedatives into her meal, then give it to her." The bald man answered. "When she is sleeping, I need her prepped for transport."
"As you wish." The warden replied
A half hour later, Faith's unconscious body was loaded into a Manticore bound helicopter.
One by one, Manticore recaptured the '09' X5 escapees. After receiving information on the remaining three X5's locations, Lydecker sent out men to collect them as well. Krit, Syl, and Zane were captured in Los Angeles, Tinga was caught in Portland, detained Cora in Tampa Florida, and intercepted Zack in Tuscon. Ben had been cornered in Montana, but chose to terminate himself rather than return to Manticore. The only escapee they were unable to locate was Shal. She had some how managed to elude capture, and even Zack admitted he had no idea where she was. Lydecker didn't care though. He had nine of his 'kids' back and that was all that mattered to him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So How do you like it?
Celtic Jedi- I'm glad you like my story so far and I hope you like this chapter as much.