The Executioner

Chapter 1: Execution

The execution was about to begin.
The criminal was shoved onto the black, metal floor of the execution chamber. Eyes unable to adjust to the dark, only seeing the arch of lights from the machine ahead of him. He lands on his hands and knees and after the beating from the enforcer, he barely stayed that way. He noticed the executioner stood in the corner of the room, unaffected by the events and continued working the machine; The Execution Laser Machine, called an ELM by most. The stench of death and hot metal corrupted the humid air and stung the criminal's eyes. It made him feel as if he was going to empty his stomach's contents and further dirty the floor he was on.

Suddenly, being dragged by the enforcer, he was thrown onto the table knocking the wind out of him, his body limp. He struggled to even breathe it was as though his body was being pulled down onto the table, he gasped trying to recover from the throw. He pleaded to the enforcer who had caught him, looking into the yellow and red helmet, it's solid and rigid shape and the extruded area for the visor noticeably scuffed and scratched. The criminal was desperately trying to find eyes to sympathise behind the helmet's dark visor, with no luck he then turned to the other figure in the room, the executioner, who was typing on a screen to the side, this one was wearing black and purple armour.
"Reaper, hey! I'm innocent. HEY!"
He was being ignored by both and he screamed in anguish.
The enforcer clenched their fist and laid a heavy punch into the criminal's jaw and the gauntlet of the enforcer's Super Hardened Armour got a fresh lathering of blood. The criminal groaned as he felt blood in his mouth.

The executioner almost finished typing on the screen in front of him and readying the ELM. The clattering, babbling and fear emanating from the perpetrator was so irritating.
"Stop struggling, shut up." He began, leaning over, his tone was harsh and his body gestures exaggerated, "It's an electromagnet holding you, or rather, all your implants to the table. The more you struggle, the more you bleed, the more you cry, the more painful the laser will be. Imagine all that liquid boiling on your face for your last moments alive.
The consortium deemed this more ethical, better for society, more preventative than imprisonment and bullets but really... It's cheaper."
After hearing the executioner the criminal tried taking deep breaths and calming down. The executioner walked over to the table and pressed buttons to begin the sequence.

The table moved under the arched machine like a hellish MRI machine.
The criminal tried to say something but his jaw wasn't hinged anymore, just a bloody wail escaped his mouth his implants hurt but he knew it wouldn't last long. The machine hummed and the criminal started breathing faster again and squirming to be free.
The criminal looked up into the red growing light above him. He wanted to cover his ears. The noise was painful. It was getting hotter.
Then a deep, prideful, almost heroic voice said:
"THIS EXECUTION LASER MACHINE IS SPONSORED BY SPRINGS COLA. SPRINGS' IS THE MOST DELICIOUS DRINK AROUND! THAT'S PROBABLY WHY WE'RE NEW TERRA'S FAVOURITE DRINK. FRUITY SPRINGS COLA THE DRINK FOR ME, THE DRINK FOR EVERYONE!"
The executioner sighed deeply as he'd heard it every time he'd use the machine, it was like the words were carved into his head.
"Laser focused, 3. 2. 1. Initiating. Stand clear"
He droned.
There was a loud fizzing, the criminal screamed. A deep red, irradiant hue flashed in the room, then a white flash that hit Spencer's SHA suit's helmet and made him squirt even through the it's lenses. Then everything was quiet. The table withdrew, All that remained were a pile of wet clothes and cybernetics implants.

"What did this one do?" Spencer asked, his voice distorted by his executioner's SHA suit. He tried to speak clearly during this part of his job, it made him seem formal and eloquent, especially to the enforcers. He started eyeing the implants, trying to see how expensive the criminals operating system was.

"Drugs production, gold dust. Was makin' it in some 'bandoned garage space not too far from here, quite the set up actually. On top of that he were a homegrow, reason enough for me." The enforcer had a rummage of the inplants.

"Steady on." Spencer passively opposed the derogatory term for synthetic humans but most of the time Spencer ignored the slurs and the district bias, not to pick a side in such a complicated situation, besides he didn't want to ruin the relationship with his coworker.

"Whatever, he weren't clever enough t'realise nobody can dodge the 'cers in the end." Spencer could understand this enforcers dialect, something that couldn't be said for many of their number.

"Must've made plenty though look at his metal." Spencer reached to pick up phone the perpetrator had had.
"The new premium OhmegaPhone deluxe, I should get this fitted rather than sell it."

"The OPhone? Sure, S' long as I get these legs, ain't seen no carbon like this since I got ma' medals from the Commissioner." the enforcers picked up the legs admiringly.

"Yeah sure, see you tomorrow?" Spencer picked up the clothes and hardware on the table. The enforcer walked away with the legs.

"Yeah sure."
Spencer shut down the machine, a slow deep whirring turned to nothing and left the room following the enforcer.
The enforcer strode away obviously quite happy that she has some premium hardware.

Spencer put the not-so-expensive implants and clothes in a box filled with other items of the like, he then put the, now full, box into a slot and instantly, humming started. He flipped and examined the OPhone in his hands, he saw an update from an unofficial site, it was modded to stop monitoring, he looked more intently and pocketed it, to sell of course, he had nothing to hide so he wouldn't need the phone, nor did he want to be caught with it.

Spencer walked out of the execution chamber and into the adjacent break room, he removed his SHA helmet so he could breathe air that doesn't smell like the inside of the morning megatrain, his brown hair was messed up from wearing it. He sat down and exhaled, noticing one of his co-workers was also present, not Pluto who normally shares a shift with him. He thought her codename was Thanatos. Executioners are kept anonymous and so they are given codenames.

"Hey." Thanatos broke the silence.

"Hello." Spencer didn't talk to his colleagues frequently so he didn't know any similar interests or even anything to talk about at all.

"I just made a pot of coffee if you uh..." she pointed at the coffee pot.

"No thanks, it's after 12, so I try not to."

"I get you, I have caffeine all the time though, I'm literally addicted, I can't help myself I just really like the taste of springs N-ergy."

"I can't stand the stuff, it's too sickly and acidic for my tastes. "

"Yeah..." she drawled, "it's not for everyone, despite what the ad says." they both laughed.

"Is it your rotation after me? What are you doing here?" Spencer wanted to find out why he was made to endure awkward smalltalk with a co-worker he'd met maybe twice before.

"Yeah my shift was moved, Pluto having personal problems or something y'know? Anyway I'm kinda glad I'm after you, you always do the maintenance and cleaning the ELM properly unlike Pluto."

"Pluto is before me, we also have shifts together sometimes, and I gotta tell you, it's like he doesn't even know how to use it."

"What do you expect? He shows up late half the time looking like he's seeing amber." Thanatos laughed.

"You think he takes gold dust?"  Spencer asked half seriously.

"It explains a lot doesn't it? I can't imagine turning to that stuff. He floats through his shifts like he's high. I mean what else could it be? If he was dim he wouldn't have qualified for the job. Honestly one time he botched the sequence when we had to run a batch and the first guy took a whole minute. Screamed half the time. Made the rest really rowdy." Thanatos took a long drink.

"Crikey, did you report him?" Spencer was clearly concerned. "I mean that's unethical."

"No, we're understaffed as it is. I don't want to have to have to work more shifts just because he's incompetent."

"I don't think he has ever cleaned the under tray his whole time working here."
"He probably doesn't know it exists!"

They continued to make fun of Pluto for another few minutes. Spencer went to the grime encrusted locker room, this was the only room nobody cleaned. The lockers were peeling military grey and the walls were yellowed tiles, he put his SHA helmet in his locker but didn't change out of the rest of his suit. Then he went to his desk and removed the SHA gloves, he didn't think there would be another criminal for a while.