(10 minutes later)

“Control, this is Car 3, we have arrived at the restaurant—” said the Hokkaido police officer disembarking from his police car.

Just then, a drunken man is thrown onto the car windshield. Shocked, he quickly checks on the man and his car, finding that his car is unscathed, but the man has been badly beaten up, and is almost losing consciousness.

Around the area are the whimpering bodies of the 3 other men, all badly beaten up and groaning in pain, laying in a bed of shattered glass and blood.

“Sorry about your windows, but you can thank me for not getting harassed!” said Sean, leaving the restaurant. “Evening, officers,” he smiled, greeting the Hokkaido police that showed up, taking a puff of his E-cigarette, breathing out the watermelon flavoured gas. 

(NOIR Industries Mecha production facility, Hokkaido, October 2132)

Sean removed the dead hydrogen fuel cells from his work exoskeleton, grabbing the new ones sitting at the charging station, carefully handling them. He still remembers his first experience with fuel cell batteries at 10 years old, which later involved fire extinguishers and a punishment of 1000 push-ups. He is glad that he did not drink the night before, thanks to some drunks destroying his appetite, since this gives him a clearer mind to do his job. 

He slotted the 4 fuel cells into the powertrain of the exoskeleton, powering them on, and then wearing the exoskeleton.

Sean walked past several co-workers on their way to their work posts after recharging their fuel cells. He walked into the clean, spotless production line, bustling with robot arms and other mobile robots, melding together the heavy pieces of metal and wiring in the electronic components. The factory is 90% automated and the robots can do the majority of the work in the factory on their own. Manual intervention is only needed for some very precise portions, and in management areas. Sean has been working here for 2 years, earning a salary of 300,300 yen a month. While much lesser than the salary and the accompanying welfare that his old job brought him, he does not consider it too bad.

"Have you heard the news, the Sellardraxian extremist group Vanguard has conducted another terrorist attack in Sweden, they killed human children," said a human coworker to her colleague, another human.

"These magical savages, we should have simply forced them all off-world," whispered her colleague, trying to make sure Sean cannot hear him, having noticed that Sean is approaching them. Little did he know that Sean can "hear" him very clearly by reading his lips out of the corner of his eyes, his sense of sight sharp, thanks to his old training.

Sean sighed. He had a vague understanding of human-Sellardraxian discrimination growing up, but he only really faced it head on once he arrived here. Nevertheless, that is the least of his worries, for he has a much more troublesome task at hand: building the robotic behemoth in front of him. He brushed aside the long black hair that wrapped around his dragon horns, which had grown out over the 2 years he was here. Directing his tools, he wielded the plates of titanium alloys together. He then levitated himself up more, reaching another section and doing the same.

A notification came up on his HUD, notifying that it is now his allocated lunch break time. Sean looked at the time, it's now 2pm. He had started his shift at 8am in the morning, working non-stop in the last 6 hours as he hovered between Mechas being brought in on the production line. While Sean feels that he can carry on, he decided against it.

After all, today's menu is wagyu beef, and he does not want to queue too long for it.

Sean floated down gracefully to the floor, removing his helmet and stretching. He looked up, removing his mask that was hanging around his elf ears, seeing his faint reflection on the shiny white paintjob. He walked backwards, examining the 18m tall humanoid robot behemoth in front of him.

"Nova Supreme," Sean thought, thinking of the name of the Mecha he is building. "Fitting for the first mass production Mark 6."

Sean checked out of the production room and headed to the cafeteria, excitedly helping himself to a wagyu beef bowl. He had just returned his tray when he noticed that a huge number of workers have gathered at the windows. Curious, Sean squeezed his way through the crowd of people, wanting to know what is happening.

"What's going on?" he asked a human worker. He gave him an uncomfortable stare upon noticing his horns. "There is a protest going on downstairs. The Hokkaido police and UN peacekeepers have set up a barricade to maintain order."

Sean peeked out of the window, seeing that a huge crowd has gathered outside the gate to the factory, chanting slogans that is unfortunately inaudible to him due to the excellent soundproofing.

He tried to make out the words on their screens, prompting him to roll his eyes.

"Not those pacifists again…" he sighed, exasperated, "speaking so much about how Earth needs to achieve global and universal peace under anarchism, and ironically, they have a tendency of using force to "convince" people. And look! All in their signature white helmets!"

Sean looked at the UN peacekeepers under the United Nations Interim Force in Japan (UNIFIJ) and Hokkaido police in combat exoskeletons called Exo-suits, flanked by sentry robots deployed in anti-riot configuration, sporting collapsible riot shields, tasers and less lethal weapons, while the living soldiers and officers below are equipped with live ammunition to respond to any emergencies.

A familiar UN peacekeeper caught his attention. He is an UN police personnel, dressed in the signature grey-blue tactical uniform of his police unit under his blue UN Exo-Suit instead of the military uniforms of the constituent nations of UNIFIJ. Recognising his friend, he grabbed a bottle of orange soda from the cafeteria.

"Comrade, money!" yelled the robot receptionist.

Sean apologetically came back, scanning the code with his phone, then running down.

Inspector Phineas Wang of the Hong Kong Police Force CTRU turned to him, surprised. "Sean, what are you doing here?"

Sean handed him the drink, which Phineas emptied in seconds. "Thanks, haven't managed to catch a break for the past 2 hours. These protestors are really annoying. When you told me that they gave you a headache in Berlin I thought you were exaggerating, but now I have to believe."

"MAKE LOVE NOT WAR!" the crowd chanted loudly and an empty plastic bottle is thrown, hitting Phineas in his helmet and bouncing on to the floor.

Sean chuckled. "Point proven," he commented as he popped an E-cigarette into his mouth, only for Phineas to pull it out and toss into a trash can nearby.

"You promised your big sis to quit," reprimanded Phineas. "And besides, you were crying out about being tight on money the other day and here you are contributing cigarette tax?"

"She is in Tokyo, she can't control me," Sean protested, pulling out another E-cigarette.

"She is worried about you, you know? She has been spam calling me—"

"Well, if she wants to screw up her combat performance by worrying about me 24/7, and get washed out, she can feel free to do so," Sean replied, puffing out the smoke deliberately in Phineas' face. "Her duty is to stay put in UNSSD, mine is to build these big a** robots." 

Phineas sighed at Sean's behaviour, for a brief moment Phineas is tempted to tear away Sean's act.

More trash is thrown by the protestors, prompting the sentry robots to deploy their riot shields in umbrella formations, shielding the UN and police personnel below. Sean generated a fireball, incinerating the trash in the air.

"DOWN WITH UNSSD! WE WILL CRUSH YOU!" the crowd chanted loudly.

"Hmph, "peace-loving"," commented Sean sarcastically.

A UN peacekeeper grabbed a loudspeaker. "You are participating in an illegal gathering! Your act of protest is a direct violation of Article 3 of the Earth Defence Law! And you also threatened assault against law enforcement personnel! Cease your actions immediately!"

Suddenly, the cars in the crowd revved, prompting the Hokkaido police in the external perimeter to disengage the safety of their guns.

Before any of them can react, the cars charged forward, running over several protestors and then crashing into the barricade, opening it. An angry crowd soon rushed in, armed with improvised weapons, mercilessly hitting the Hokkaido police and trading blows with the UN peacekeepers that have rushed to reinforce them, soon escalating into a violent brawl as they clashed.

"C'mon, I just wanted wagyu!" remarked Sean, backing off to let the UN peacekeepers do their job.

The sentry robots deployed their arsenal, raining down tear gas, tasers and rubber bullets at the protestors, but their sheer numbers soon overwhelmed the few robots in the area and one of the robots is pushed down and violently dismantled.