1:2:8 Scouting (Part 1)

Brightness. The clones had never been allowed into Celreagaire but especially not since Magpie decided to swipe Tolan’s keys three years ago. Their short but memorable teen years had been tough on them. The three of them emerged from the undercity, their armour glinted in the sun as it filtered through the gate. Their eyes took a moment to adjust.
“Why are we going this way? Surely it’s just going to make things harder?” Midpoint adjusted the polarising filters on his helmet.
“It is.” Ace responded. “But if Magpie’s group need to get to us in an emergency, they’ll need the hunting bikes.”
“Still, couldn’t we have left that way and skipped walking through the city?” Curve shuddered. “It’s weird up here.”
“It’s much quicker coming this way. Trust me.” Ace scanned their card and, reluctantly, the gate opened.
The museum square was almost empty, save a few members of the Military Guild’s crime scene clean-up crew who were squatting by the front window, sweeping broken glass from the earlier robbery. One of them turned briefly to watch the clones cross the square but he quickly got back to his work.
Despite their imposing armour and despite the force they were exerting as they marched through the streets of Celreagaire, not a sound came from their soles. Their breathing was the only sound barring the gentle rustle of the leaves in the trees above. Not a person nor animal in sight.
“Isn’t it the middle of the day?” Midpoint jabbed Curve. “Where is everyone?” He gestured all around.
Curve sighed. “It’s like what Tolan always says: Never visit the surface because you’ll stick out like a sore thumb.”
“I thought they were talking about the armour or our skin not that we’d be the only ones around.” Midpoint looked around in awe. “You’d think there were more people in The Conglomeration.”
“It’s just a difference in rules.” Ace said flatly. “But it’s alright, there’ll be someone around in a moment to greet us.” They pointed to a camera atop a lamppost then another and another. “They’ve been watching us since we stepped out of the lift. I’m surprised we made it this far.”
They continued their march and managed to make it another buildings length before the people Ace prophesised made their appearance. Two hoverbikes and their pilots slowly drifted into the clones’ path. The pilots dismounted and, in doing so, significantly lowered their threat perception in the eyes of the clones. Two scrawny, young officers approached them. One had a pistol on his hip, the other came bearing a tablet.
"Right then, I'm going to need to see your ID and a Civilian Armour and Weaponry permit.” Jeremiah tapped away at his tablet. His partner slowly lowered his hand to his hip. Curve chuckled to herself. “Something funny about that?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head, stifling her amusement. “It’s just… Nothing.”
“ID. Now.” Jeremiah’s partner now had his pistol prepared and ready to fire. “You have been warned.”
“Curve… Calm down.” Ace patted down the packs on their belt. “I think my ID should be in here.” Curve kept quiet but her chuckle developed into laughter.
“Spit it out!” Jeremiah had his own weapon drawn now.
“No.” Ace tried to settle their sister down.
“How cute.” Curve continued, “You see three people in full polymer combat armour and the moment one mildly challenges your authority, decide that you’re going to try and intimidate them… Ballsy.”
“Look, we’re here tracking a criminal that has escaped from The Conglomeration. We’re passing through but we’ll be out of the capital in no time.” Ace kept their calm.
“You’re from The Undercity.” There was a moment of realisation between them. “Ah…”
“This is Private Thompkins, CC0019 updating on incident fourteen thirty eight. We’ve got three armoured individuals here saying they’re from The Undercity. Looking for advisement.” There was a crackle on the communicator.
There was a faint conversation on the other end which concluded with Thompkins handing the communicator to Jeremiah.
“Right… Ok… No they haven’t yet… I believe so… Hold on, I’ll check.” He lowered the communicator and covered the microphone. “What did you say your reason was for breaching The Undercity gate?”
“We’re simply passing through, trying to capture a criminal that your security forces let into The conglomeration.” Ace remained diplomatic. It was starting to get harder.
“Right, thank you.” Jeremiah returned the communicator to his ear. “They’re looking for Blue I think.” There was a pause. “Right… ok… We can do that.” He handed the communicator back to his partner. “You three are to leave Celreagaire as soon as possible. You have ten minutes to vacate the city walls before we return and arrest you. Do you understand?”
Curve was about to say something before Ace spoke over her. “We do. We’ll be sure to be on our way then.” They gently persuaded Curve past the officers.
“Like you could ever take us.” Midpoint whispered under his breath as he passed Jeremiah. His helmet was just enough to muffle the words.
Better than true to their word, and with some encouragement from Ace, they reached the outer wall in half of their allotted time with barely a feather ruffled; not that there were too many. The city streets were as empty as they had been on the first half of their journey, the only time they saw any evidence of Celreagaire’s inhabitants was when they saw the locals queueing to leave work to go on their lunch breaks; although the clones saw the locals, it was as if the locals didn’t want to see them. They would take one confused and then disgusted glance before hurriedly turning their back on the strangers on the street. The great door stood tall before them. Unlike the rest of the city, polished to the point of reflection, the door was neglected to the point of uselessness; its hinges nearly rusted locked and the only part that seemed properly maintained was the lock at the centre. Ace ran Tolan’s card through the reader. It flickered and beeped before displaying a green light. Several heavy clicks later, the doors parted and the first part of their marathon had come to a close. Before them now, the oxygen fields.

Together, they took their first step from the solid, dry land of Celreagaire and into the algae swamps of the oxygen fields. Their boots hit what looked like solid ground and continued straight through. Ripples of emerald emanated from their boot prints as they trudged through the knee height water. They had a kilometre of hiking ahead of them. The three of them sighed in unison.
“You’ll get used to it. Come on.” Ace waved their hand forward.
The three of them thanked their lucky stars their armour was air and water tight but it did little to lower the resistance of the sludgy water.
“Nothing like a brisk walk through a swamp to clean the polish off your armour.” Curve layered the sarcasm as thick as the algae coating her boots. “An hour that took…” She whispered under her breath.
“What’s that then?” Midpoint ran his finger along a deep gash across the shoulder pad and down her upper arm.
“That’s character.” She returned smugly. “You can’t polish character.”
“What’s the hold-up you two? Come on.” Ace shouted over their shoulder, waving their arm in an attempt to summon the others.
“Coming sir.” They groaned together like impetuous children before increasing their pace.
Their quickened pace cut wider swathes through the algae and created even larger ripples across the otherwise undamaged surface. A short reprieve lay ahead of them. In the midst of the pools, islands. Small spider plants sat amongst the grass and silver birch trees; the remnants of one of the old walls lingered on the edge.
“A third down!” Ace paused for a moment. They removed their helmet and felt the temperate breeze in their hair. “Lovely.” Their comrades looked to their leader and shook their heads.
“You’re an arse.” Curves responded. “Isn’t there any way we can speed this along?” She looked at the wetland ahead.
“How old would you say this wall was?” Ace gave a smug smile. “It was the first border wall. The original.”
“And…” Midpoint shrugged.
“Don’t any of you remember Tolan’s lessons?” Ace waited for the shrugs to confirm what they had suspected. “Humans are sentimental. They might have knocked down the wall but they kept some of it out of sentimentality. We’re not walking all the way to Sanctuary Point. Five minutes that way, there’s an old tool shed which is still used as a botanical control station; there are speeders there we can borrow.”
Midpoint counted on his fingers, “seventy year old speeders. I bet they have wheels.”
“Still used.” Ace shook their head. “Come on.”
Like they said, it wasn’t long until they reached the shed and unlike much of their journey so far, they could walk across dry, solid ground. The shed looked newer than they were expecting. Design wise, it wasn’t in keeping with the neo-brutalist aesthetic of Celreagaire but it maintained the same colour and material scheme. Like the main city, there wasn’t a person in sight. They approached the shed. Although they had expected it to be deserted, they had expected more resistance than the old padlock rusting between the door and the wall. Ace gave it a hearty bash with their pistol’s butt. The lock crumbled to orange nothing on the floor but unexpectedly, so did the hinges on the opposing side. The door fell inwards.
“There we go.” Ace smiled.
“Subtle.” Curve stepped onto the door and into the shed.
The modernised exterior was merely skin deep as the interior looked almost untouched, sporting technology that, even by the outdated standards of Celreagaire, was outdated. A small computer sat in the corner, its fan whirring away as it collected and displayed a live readout of all of the data required to maintain the city before uploading it to the intranet. Apart from the manual gardening equipment, there wasn’t much else in the shed save for five snowboard like devices.
“You’re an arse.” Curve repeated grabbing a board.
“You said there were speeders.” Midpoint held up his board. “This does not look like a speeder.”
“No, it’s better.” Ace started before being interrupted.
“How is this better? Really?” Midpoint tossed his board to the floor. “Max speed of three.”
“Seriously?” Curve added.
“Oh ye of little faith.” Ace looked the board over with a smile across their face. “These’ll do nicely.” The other two stood back and shook their heads as they watched Ace tinker with the board. They removed the wiring from their pistol and jammed it into the freshly exposed circuitry at the back of the board. “Right then, your turns.” Midpoint removed his helmet revealing his face. Confusion was written across it.
“And what’s that supposed to do?”