BLEED/HAVEN

[XIII] LEO

The space suits were a little tight for Leo's taste, the one piece suit was white with a quarter inch thick rectangular extension on the back for an oxygen tank. Oxygen was not something that synthetics needed to survive, however this was simply a standard issue. Blue designs adorned the gear as well along the edges, cuffs, soles, and so forth. The symbol of Roakon was printed on the right shoulder of the suits as well. The helmet was also minimalistic, the glass visor was designed in a way that the entirety of his face was visible, while giving breathing room for the rest of the head.  The crew of five were lumbering along the barren escape of the moon in their rover for quite some time now, making small talk and getting to know Leo a bit more. He told them stories of his old detective work and they praised him for being so witty in many of the situations he found himself in.

"You sound like a bona fide prodigy in all honesty, is there anything that eluded you, oh great one?"

Tina said to him with an air of playful sarcasm. He gave a smirk and thought about it for a moment before responding over comms,

"Actually yes, there was one case in particular that I couldn't crack for some time. It took us months before there were enough clues."

Leo lowered his gaze to the floor of the vehicle as the memories of the specific case came flooding back. He started getting lost in his thoughts before Jet's voice pulled him back,

"So are you going to tell us about it? Or is mystery supposed to be part of your charm?"

The group laughed and Leo shook his head before replying,

"Right, so the gist of it was a murder. It was said to be a public statement by the group, Orphan. I had never heard much about them other than they usually only do peaceful protests and such. Anyways, the man who was murdered was a husband and father to a woman named Miranda. My first thought was that the husband was connected to the radical group in some sort of way, but knowing nothing about them left me with a cold trail. No DNA or anything on the scene. Merely his body strung up against the Roakon monument in a public park with the word 'Rebirth' written above him in blood."

The crew silently listened on, and as much as Leo had the opportunity to draw out every twist and turn of the case, the payoff of it all would not be worth the buildup. So he pressed on through it to the end,

"Several months later, a video that you guys may have seen surfaced on social media. The actual crime taking place by the perpetrators. With that video and simple cross referencing, we were able to find the make and model of one of the members of the group. That was because he was synthetic. The others had their records somehow wiped from the system, but since the synthetic likely had been previously recycled, his information was always trackable. So there it was, case solved."

There was a small pause before Charnita spoke,

"Jeez. I heard about the video and such, I don't know though. Orphan has never been known to go to such extremes. Mounting a body on a monument with blood over it sounds completely psycho."

That was something he would never understand about the case. None of the group even admitted to being a part of Orphan, which was proven to be a lie in court. However, that was the extent of information they ever got out of them. What was that message? What did 'Rebirth' mean? Jet began to speak but was interrupted by a ringing sound emitting from the inside of the rover. Set flipped a few switches from the driver's seat and Jet spoke as he adjusted himself to get ready,

"Showtime kiddos, let's make it happen."

After that, Leo and the crew started stretching from whatever mildly comfortable positions they could find in their seats. After a few more moments, Jet turned around to start talking directly,

"Alright, so remember, we're here to evacuate all the colonists via their moon rovers and assist the researchers with the synthetic production facilities. We'll split up, Tina and Set will help with the colonials and the rest of us will head for the research facilities. Sounds good?"

Tina let loose an exaggerative groan and spoke back,

"Come on, I've never seen the production facilities before."

"I mean, none of us have really."

Jet fired back. Tina just rolled her eyes and leaned forward closer to Jet and pleaded, then Charnita provided her saving grace,

"I really don't want to be around that creepy production shit anyways, so how about Tina and I just switch? I don't mind escorting."

Tina nodded with hope in her eyes and a large smile across her face. Jet shrugged and replied,

"Works for me, although I don't really know what you're expecting. It's a research facility, not a science fair."

Tina sat back with a huff of relief,

"You never know!"

After previously having been driving for hours, Leo could finally see the facility in the distance after a few more minutes. An enormous white and blue structure that grew larger as they approached. The team started readying their rifles and securing their packs of supplies as they pulled into a garage surrounded with spotlights. When they pulled in the vehicle came to a stop and the large door behind them shut and sealed. Thick clouds of white smoke began filling the surrounding area for about a minute until they could see doors beginning to open. However there was no welcoming committee, but rather a group of people rushing into the facility in a frenzy while a few armed Roakon soldiers corralled them along. Jet opened the door and approached the soldiers and the rest of the team followed suit. Leo hefted his weapon and fell in second to last. The now pressurized garage filled with the sounds of panicking individuals with disheveled clothing along with wounded. After a few moments of Jet talking to the soldiers, he approached the team and spoke in a serious voice,

"We move now, safeties off. The situation just got a lot more dire."

The group did not hesitate to follow the command, Leo stepped forward and asked,

"What's going on? Are the oxygen sources lower than anticipated?"

Jet shook his head,

"No. There's a revolt of Synthetics and they are trying to kill all of the humans. Orphan is here."

"Orphan?"

Leo questioned,

"The protesting synthetic group?"

Charnita added on,

"I think Jet was going to tell you earlier on the ride here. Orphan believes that the synthetic's service to humans is enslavement. They mostly consist of the abused and neglected synthetics. I mean, it's not like it's unheard of for humans to abuse them. Like they abuse pets, other humans or whoever they can lord some form of power over. That group is just sick of it, leaders at Roakon aren't happy about it as you could imagine, but I mean what do you expect when you give synthetics the ability to feel and think?"

Leo could understand that, it wasn't like he never thought of the way he got treated as unfairly. He just tossed it aside in light of his duty as a synthetic. To serve the humans.

Jet nodded and spoke again,

"Let's split up into our teams and handle this. These soldiers have the majority of the colonists being rounded up and will start deploying their rovers from this garage. Team A is going to round up what's left with these soldiers and Team B is going to head to the research division to get the rest. We'll rendezvous here when everyone is out."

Everyone took their orders and left without hesitation. Jet took point and led Tina and Leo through the corridor in which everyone was entering from and banked left.