SRT: A new day

City of Neon

Since the attack on New York, SPR had branched out massively. Not just china, but a long list of other countries had gotten under SPR control. UAF was starting to sweat as the borders moved to around the russian federation, down Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Afghanistan and Pakistan were standing on fragile walls while every country to their east was taken up by SPR as well. The only places in the east that remained out of SPR's reach were South Korea and Japan.

Japan had always been a sovereign state. They had no need for SRT to protect them. Their upper-echelon warrior class known as the Samurai had protected their land since steel was discovered there. Yet in an interesting turn of events, South Korea and Japan had bonded together over one industry they excelled in. Robotics. Using revolutionary robotics, their borders were secured with magnificent, vastly superior weaponry.

Two Knave-02 bots were patrolling down the neon-illuminated streets of Kyoto where Aiolos was roaming. Sable at his side and magic swirling within his eyes. He passed countless street vendors offering food and electronics. Both had become inseparable to society here. His eyes wandered over the Knave bots as they passed. Their mechanical parts moving so seamlessly that it almost seemed as though they were just soldiers. Viro in high-tech armour. Yet the truth was that these things were completely autonomous A.I. operated robots. Not programmed with preset rules, but rather educated and thinking for themselves. Though they were no good for conversation, they did truly think on the same level a viro did.

Aiolos shook the thoughts of skynet from his mind as he moved through the street. Keeping his eyes set out before him. He had moved on from SRT about a year ago. Artemis' death was something he needed to get away from. To move on to somewhere better. Instead, he had moved on to the eastern alliance. Officially called the Automated Defence Forces, often shortened to ADF to go with the trend of the great factions. Aiolos looked up to their leader, Caryatid, for her hard line stance against SPR. Where SRT continued to be political, she replied with a heavy metal fist whenever SPR tried them. A careless position, maybe, due to the danger of nuclear attacks. But mutual destruction was a looming certainty that kept that at bay. As long as SPR avoided them, they would be fine.

As one of the few people in the Automated Defence Forces, Aiolos was of flesh and blood. Yet even a year after he had enlisted, he still couldn't get used to the sight of autonomous robots performing on the battlefield.

Since he discontinued working for SRT and enlisted with ADF, Aiolos had been able to indulge his expertise in sneaking to the utmost. Today was no different. He was charged with counter-intelligence duties. To find SPR spies and informants in their midst and kill them without making any such action public. Best to avoid another Cuban missile crisis. 

His intelligence had set him up to meet an SPR informant in the neon district of Kyoto. The new version of the red light district. A district filled with not-so secret 'pleasure rooms'. Those consisted of virtual reality porn simulations and sex-bots. Legal, but immoral. "At least the human trafficking has naught a foothold here." Aiolos mumbled to himself as he continued towards the 'food vendor' he was supposed to have his meeting at.

The vendor, known as the lotus-picker, carried a name that blatantly screamed it's back room services through the title. They provided a type of virtual pleasure that was illegal even though it was fake. Digitalised, animated, interactive child pornography. The police couldn't do anything about it, since the owners of this store seemed to have an unnatural ability to hide materials and sniff out police from a mile away. But with their name, it was almost as if they were daring the police to make their move.

The setting was perfect for Aiolos. He could just straight up shoot the spy and no one would care. All it would do was create an excuse for the police to comb out the building. A dead paedophile would just be a welcome surprise to them. For the first time in a long time, being blunt and open about his work would be the best way to get things done. Aiolos rested his hand on the inner pocket on his side, making sure his five-seven was still where it should be. A nifty and surprisingly powerful pistol made with integrated silencer for Aiolos' use. Normally, Aiolos would take care of targets from a distance, but this target had some information he needed to know before ending his life.