Gantun simulation

Aradi sat in hornet, she put her hands on the steering wheel, she then smirked, and quickly snorted, she noticed her behavior was quite usual when visiting the doctor's office. Her body began to sway slowly, leaning far to the right before adjusting herself, she widened her eyes a moment before slightly tightening them to focus on the road,
"I shouldn't be driving like this, but it's not like I'm drunk or anything, I'll be fine" she said aloud. Her hand suddenly glitched, RGB colors clashed in a silhouette. Aradi shook her head, with finesse and quickness, the hornet's sirens went off, the gas pedal was hit, the tires screeched, a smoke trail behind, an unstoppable force, and now before her....unmovable object: the snack rack.

The Elf stared at the many rows of chips and snacks, her mouth was starting to drop as her brain was processing all the items she could simply pluck. NPCs walked around the store, they paid no mind to her. Suddenly a voice spoke to her through the earpiece,
"Lieutenant we reached the threshold on how much we're allowed to pump into your body, you need to pick something or the servers are going to start frying"

Aradi sighed, some citizens watched as she seemingly talked aloud to herself,
"We'll just - move the sim, ahhh...why did I have to be selected, this policy of shadowing recruits during the operation, I could've done it in the sim room..."
"It's important for F.O.T.s to be on site, the recruits have haptic feedback and might need help, it's part of the training" the voice said,
Aradi mocked the voice. She then grabbed a bag of E-Chips, she turned and then suddenly, a strange NPC stood in front of her. Aradi shut her eyes for a moment, her head slightly adjusted itself before her eyelids widened, blinking several times, her deep blue eyes focused on the individual in front of her. It was an old human man with a rather long grey beard. The Elf looked down at his feet, and then back up to his eyes while her head slowly followed, the old man simply looked at her, hunched. The color of his eyes were a pale yellow, his brows bushy, grey as his beard, his clothes held some age to it, but the style was...different, not uncommon to see someone wearing peculiar clothing of course. Aradi spoke into her walkie
"Hey Brookh" she inhaled and exhaled slowly,
"I'm not sure, what I'm looking at here, but this NPC....is really not passing the vibe check for me"
Brookh, the moderator of the sim who had been talking to Aradi the whole time, responded,
"Uhh, must be the generation, not a big deal. You don't do sims often do you?"
"Only when I'm ordered too" she said.

Simulation Control Center, real world

Brookh yawned, his four arms navigated on 4 touch screens, he paused a moment to check vitals on the Ancient Elf,
Everything seems nominal...well in comparison to previous sim logs,
He turned to the microphone,
"Nothing wrong on my end, maybe the immersion is set too high"

Inside Simulation

"What is your name?" the old man asked, his voice raspy, tired. Aradi began to walk past him, ignoring his question.
"We all had names"

Aradi stopped, and turned, the old man was gone,
"Brookh"
No response.
"Brookh!"
"Yea server overload for a second, checking in on the recruits, holy sh*t"
Aradi ran out of the store, an NPC called out,
"Hey you gotta pay!"
"What's happening?"
"I don't know, extra criminals just got loaded into the sim, Outer Territory, the system glitched up a level, for Anti-Terror training"
Aradi groaned as she hopped in her hornet,
"Anti-Terror? These rookies are barely passing to make it as a reg, can you shut it off?"
"Leveling down impacts grade, if I do that, the sim will have to be rebooted, which could take a day or 2. It's up to you whether you want them all to fail or not"

Aradi checked the nav-display to get a look at where the recruits were operating at,
"Not necessary, I'm pulling an audible, it'll dock everyone down 5 points, but it's better than a full failure, send the coords to the drone, I'll have to take 'em on myself"
"Sending"

Aradi's screen lit up with yellow dots, she saw some recruits near them. The closest 2 were Recruit Sidko and Zzarr. She quickly ate chips and hit the gas pedal.

A few miles or so away

Sidko walked the streets of Gantun while Zzarr sat in the protectorate cruiser, scanning the area for reported crimes,
"Zzarr, I don't know about you, but I cannot tell a criminal apart from the crowd" he said into a walkie. In the cruiser, Zzarr shrugged,
"You took your scanner with you, put it on, everyone who isn't a Protectorate a valid suspect"

Sidko dug his hand into his right front pocket, he took out an optical lens that he put on his eye. The "OptiEye" is designed to scan the faces of Citizens, looking for low credit scores to send to the GCID.
"Oh wow this is amazing! I can see everyone's SoCred score!" Sidko said aloud, some people looked at him oddly, he smiled awkwardly. Zzarr took a bite into a bar of candy as she looked at Sidko's blue dot on the nav screen,
"So what do you think about the Ancient" she asked, Sidko looked at everyone he could as he walked through the bustling crowds of the sim, he came across a food stand, the SoCred of the Citizen selling food was nearing the lower end of his class. Sidko took out his tablet,
"Vu Gar, your credit score is low, I'm going to have to write out an attendance form for you to attend Council affirmation classes starting next week"
The food stand worker groaned,
"Ahghhh ayes, officer"
The Recruit's face lit up, being spoken to with such respect certainly had its charm.

Sidko turned and responded to Zzarr's question as he continued walking,
"Oh yea, her...."
His mind flashed back to her cold stares, her decisive actions. A true believer in the Council.
"She's like something out of a movie, doesn't feel real" he said,
"That's how I felt, when I saw everything unfolding, she jumped right in, getting rid of that defect, all while me and the others froze up"
Sidko looked down as he walked,
"Don't blame yourself, I...I should've ran forward the minute that freak showed up..."
Their heavy topic was taken elsewhere as a voice popped from the walkie,
"All units, this is your FTO, simulation has escalated, terror threats have been added to the list of pacification. Unit 4, stay put, threat is closing in on your position, Recruit Sidko return to the cruiser, asap"

Sidko knew the voice, the Ancient. He turned to start quickly heading to the cruiser,
"Zzarr, what's going on?"

Aradi pulled up next to Unit 4's cruiser, the window was shattered, she looked inside, there was no recruit to be seen, there was however, blood on the glass and some on the pavement. People stared in wonder at the scene. One of the perks of operating outside the sim was that witnesses exist, in the sim, NPCs just react, they don't hold complex behaviors. Aradi took her tablet out and accessed the surveillance in her area. The rewinded feed showed a large dark clay skinned Citizen walking up to the cruiser, punching through the glass and dragging the recruit out, then beating her, and taking what seemed to be her lifeless body elsewhere. Aradi shifted around the cameras and drones in the city, looking at footage. Sidko arrived at the scene, he saw Aradi standing in front of the window, he checked inside the cruiser, then looked around, he was panting, clearly panicked,
"Where is she" he asked, Aradi ignored him, maybe she didn't hear him, he asked again, but he was cut off as Aradi put her tablet away and ordered him,
"Get in the hornet, we're heading to E-block" she said as she quickly went to her vehicle, Sidko followed her. Aradi stopped, she then looked at him,
"Actually you're driving" she said as she went around the front, Sidko took to the driver's seat, he put his seatbelt on, Aradi placed her attention on the display unit, she then went on her walkie,
"Brookh, this is Aradi, requesting mod 3 dropships be routed to watch all other units, and AT set up at Housing Block 2, E-Class"

"That's 3 points, you're 4 points away from total failure" Brookh said,
"Progress update?"
"About 90% complete, need 10 more rounded up and processed in less than 15"
Aradi pointed her finger to the left side of the road,
"Turn there- IDIOT - don't you dare hit a civilian, we'll fail because of you!"
"I'm nervous!"
"Pay proper respects moron!"
"I'm sorry - m-ma'am" Sidko said as the hornet sped down the street.
"Turn right at the end of this block"
As Sidko turned the wheel, the cruiser nearly tipped over, coming to a screeching halt before a tape line. The block was sealed off, other cruisers were present, Protectorate NPCs were guarding the line, one of them approached the vehicle, Aradi stepped out,
"FTO-Aradi, what's going on" said as she walked forward, Sidko got out, he looked up to the sky, a dropship with an NPC was aiming down a mounted turret at the building, drones flew around, news reporters kept beyond the "do not cross" line. The NPC spoke to Aradi,
"Building is occupied by 5 terrorists, it is surrounded by friendlies, awaiting negotiation phase" the officer said as he handed Aradi a phone,
She nodded as she put the phone to her ear,
"This is the negotiator, who am I speaking too?"
A voice snapped back at her instantly,
"Yo momma" - she could hear laughter and snickering in the back,
Her face instantly became red with fury,
"Listen up you rejected space gunks, I'm the only person sitting between you and an entire army breaking down that door and zeroing you into dust. The only reason we're even talking right now is because the Council is merciful and is willing to extend a soft punishment if you comply, if you don't. I'll personally make sure you end up being recycled into goods that the pets get to dig into, god it?"
A hysterical laugh met her retort,
"Ok ok, we want a free ride out of the Council to the outer territories, no escort, no tracking, and we're taking the hostage with us, we'll drop her off in a pod when we leave the border" =
Aradi sighed,
"Let me get back to you" she said as she clicked and handed off the phone to the NPC, she turned to Sidko,
"Negotiations are over"
Sidko looked at her,
"What happened?"
"Listen recruit, you deal with terrorists like this: They tell you what they want, you give them what they deserve, and what they need is a bullet that has an express ticket to their dome" She said as she walked to the trunk of the hornet, as Aradi lifted the trunk, she picked up a shotgun and tossed it to Sidko,
"It's your first breach, so there, enjoy" the Elf said as she unholstered her handgun.

Aradi's demeanor and strength in her posture alone showed that everything in the simulations should be treated as reality. A strange notion to Sidko, and many others. For such events such as these were extremely rare, Sidko knew to take the simulation training seriously, but to equate the scenarios to real life given the contexts of the training he's had so far, seems to be a false representation of what actually goes on in the reality of the society that inherits the Galactic Council. To the Young Citizens, as the rest of the populace, Virtuals are a fundamental core for social gatherings, long distance dating, intercourse, and many more activities, but in the end, it was all unreal, which is why the term "anything goes" is highly associated with it. But Aradi shows that she does not separate the two, maybe that's the mindset he needed to pass.

Hostage situations are quite a bizarre and fantastical event in the Galactic Council. Crime to this degree is often regarded as an extremely unlikely happening within the borders of the Council. Any planet that incurs a hostage situation is often on news headlines for several weeks across the Council. Political shifts also occur during this time, and not just on the planet the event takes place, fear of weapons in the hands of ordinary citizens grows despite the laws. While crimes can be found originating within the Council, a majority of the sources used are located at border crossings between the Outer Territories and the Galactic Council, for example: in year 40, on Hal Prime. An individual obsessed with shooter simulations was able to contact an arms dealer using an illegal net code and set a smuggling route to a Pro-Native town outside the city limits. The loophole was the allowance of firearms for non-Galactic Council citizens outside the city limits; all firearm allowance is maintained by Pro-Native populations. Although there was no intended violence along with the fact the weapons were not even loaded with ammo, it was a clear violation, the individual was sent to prison for 50 years for illegal smuggling, illegal methods of obtaining an item, obtaining illegal content, possession of illegal content, illegal contact with the Outer Territories and intent to house illegal content, illegal tampering with electronics, illegal net code, unauthorized use electronics, and many more listed with a reduced sentencing to forfeit citizenship and be placed in the Non-Citizen Districts . An entire gunship was dispatched along with drones for caution.

"I'm going through the alley" she said, if they call, answer, delay, and then position yourself. We're on our own" the Elf said as she positioned herself, she looked up, her hand dug into her bag, and a single medicinal chip came up, and was crushed by her perfectly sharp teeth. After a few crunches. The many ridges would make it quite easy for her to reach the 4th floor she knelt for a moment and then jumped up, using the edges of the building on her ascent, she became wind upon wind, despite the standard Protectorate gear she wore, her natural strength carried her with ease. She gracefully landed upon the roof, her eyes quickly scanned the area , there was a pothole in the center of the roof, she quickly ran over to it, she then patched in on the radio,
"Standing by for entry" she said.

Sidko walked into a temporary operation room that was set up in front of the building, there was a phone on the table, it rang as he walked in, an NPC who sat on an all black office chair, wheeled over ac

"Here you go" it said as the phone was picked up and handed to Sidko,

"Y-y-ou'r-d-d-d-ead" the NPC suddenly said as the phone was taken from him, Brookh patched in,

"Recruit, this is Brookh, Admin of the sim. Just a heads up, I'm turning off 'Dynamic NPC chatter", don't worry about the glitch, common place when the Ancient is involved" he said, Sidko nodded as he looked at the NPC,

"...yyyea" he uttered.