Lacuna [Reed900]

1: 6 Months Later

Lacuna
(n.)
"A blank space, a missing part."
•••••••••

6 months after the start of the Android's revolution, Detroit was completely controlled by machines. Very few humans inhabited the city after it had been taken over. War still continued on in the desperate fight for control, but Jericho had planted its foot down and refused to back down. New Jericho was now located at Belle Isle's Cyberlife Tower. It wasn't Cyberlife anymore- the tower had been remodeled to quite an extent. It served as a base, a clinic, and shelter for many of the androids homeless after the revolution. Other buildings around the area were utilized as well, transformed into various facilities for the deviant's use.

There were still civilians who had decided to stay in the city after the revolution. They were tolerated- as long as they didn't cause problems, they were permitted to stay. Some befriended the Androids, others avoided any potential contact. Those who recognized and treated the machines as equal lived in harmony and carried on about their days, or helped with the initial rebuild of some of the war devastated areas.

It was progress. Androids may have earned the respect of much of the world, but there was still much more hate and skepticism to go around. There were still plenty of people who wanted to snuff out what little the Androids had.

Riots were common.

It wasn't anything new to find civilians provoking violence. They were indignant humans who didn't want to back down or accept change.
Markus was fair with them most of the time. The rioters were either taken into temporary custody. However if a riot was particularly violent, they were gunned down on the spot.

That's where the RK900 came in.

Shortly after the initial revolution had ended, the Jericho leaders had returned to Cyberlife and swept through the building.
That's when they found him.
In a deserted operation room, the RK900 was found abandoned on an assembly rig.

With careful discussion, they all finally came to the decision to wake him. It was a skeptical thing to wake up an Android who was intended to inflict harm on other androids. But despite Connor's slight unease about waking his successor, he agreed to give him a chance to live.

Things didn't go as planned.

From the moment those icy blue eyes opened, he tore himself free from the rig and attacked the nearest deviant, who so happened to be Connor.

Stronger. Faster. More resilient.

Programmed to kill, to snuff the hopes and dreams out of any deviant in sight.

One of a kind.

Markus had sprung into action then, attempting to override the RK900's protocols and force him to deviate.
While he had stopped the Android from nearly killing his predecessor, he hadn't succeeded in deviating the new RK model.

More resilient.

Both Markus and Connor attempted it, but there was a blockade, something preventing the normal change to take place.

This RK900 seemingly could not deviate.

At first they were unsure how to proceed with such a scenario. The belief of Android freedom went against the idea of controlling the RK900. But the Android seemed to only be satisfied following orders.

They kept him in stasis for months, his fate undecided. Come March, Markus was attacked on the streets and nearly killed. While he was being repaired, North did not hesitate to take charge and finally order for Nines to be released from his many months of inactivity.
The team began giving him missions. They gave him purpose, a reason to exist.

He was brutal, built for combat. It was quickly established that he wasn't the negotiator Connor was. He was programmed for chasing and apprehending subjects, and that's what they used him for.
Jericho first made him work alongside the military units fighting along the rims of the city, right up on the front lines. He would be sent out during the nights to the trenches located along the outskirts and ambush unexpecting human fleets, silencing them quietly, as if he wasn't ever there.

They nicknamed him "The Wolf."

After a few more months went by, the city dwellers were beginning to become bolder. There were more riots, more androids dying in the streets than there had previously been.

Plans changed. Instead of working on the front lines, every morning the RK900 would be sent out to scout the city, neutralizing anyone who dare step out of line. He was quick, efficient, and never failed his missions.
A hunter. A suffocator.
He gained recognition among the civilians, just as he did the battlefield. Fear and hatred followed him, but he didn't care. He couldn't.
He was a machine. Without feeling, without emotion.

•••••••••

Gavin Reed heard rumors about the RK900 model. In the bars people were obviously wary, and the subject of such an Android was brought up frequently. Conversations always went along the lines of:

"Did you hear what happened to Phil? According to Dave he got mauled by that RK900 'droid."

"Shit man, really?"

"Yeah! Dave said another dude got a bullet put right through his head. Said the thing was like a wild animal. Another Android had to command the droid to stop killing."

There was almost always someone who was killed when the RK900 was around. Nobody knew much about the model other than his reputation of hunting people down like sheep. Gavin hasn't met the Android personally, but upon hearing rumors he didn't want to meet it.

Gavin has stayed in Detroit after the revolution. Partially because he had nowhere to go. But another part of him told him to stay. He wasn't sure what it was, but after the revolution he had fallen into a void he couldn't make sense of. Maybe it was the surreal reality that he was placed in, how machines once designed to serve rose up and completely decked their creators. It could have been guilt for his past actions, or that he was simply too stubborn to leave the one place he ever truly called home. He was staying, and no fucking Android was going to move him.

Either way, the Detroit Police Department was still up and running, providing a simple and logical reason to stay put instead of a bucket of question marks Gavin didn't even want to decipher. It was one of the many agreements Jericho had made. To keep order and to keep the human civilians safe, they allowed for the DPD to continue sending officers out into the field. The numbers of officers dwindled, some leaving after the revolution, but it was enough.

Everyone was dealing with the situation in their own ways.