Artificial Selection: A Near Future Thought Experiment

Chapter XI

The ArtTech security's rifles got two settings: lethal and stun. There is a switch on the rifle that determines the amount of power used to ionize the plasma; consequently, the strength of the plasma differs.

When the security guards and droids were firing blank shots into the air, the rifle was on stun. The rage of the plasma under this state was extremely short, and the damage was very low. However, most unionists did not know about these details. All they saw were advanced plasma rifles, and anybody with a bit of common sense knew that plasma rifle was one of the most dangerous SWAT-grade weapons.

Michael couldn't remember whom, but a person had decided to seize a rifle from the security. He took a musician's flute as a weapon and charged towards a guard, attempting to smash him in the head with the flute like a metal pipe. The security guard, with his extensive trainings under ArtTech, easily dodged the pipe and shoved his rifle into the assailant's chest to stun him at point blank. The assailant flew back for several meters with the force of impact.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please freeze what you are doing now and calmly return to your seats, or force will be used!" Johnson was trying to take back control of the situation, but nobody bothered to stop and listen to him.

The unionists pointed at that security guard and yelled, "They are shooting civilians! They are tyrannical capitalist henchmen!"

More unionists charged at that security guard and were welcomed by returning fire form more guards and droids. Despite the overwhelming power of the rifles, the security was still highly outnumbered. The guards were soon overtaken by the flood of unionists, and many of them got tackled to the ground with their rifles seized away. The droids meanwhile were constantly moving among the mobs and stunning them, but soon enough, the mobs had realized that they didn't need to be as kind to the droids as they were to fellow human beings. Many people took flutes, violins, guitars, and other kinds of heavy objects to smash the droids. Although they had a surface made of metal alloys, they still couldn't stand such intense attack. Many of them began to glitch around, and the mobs then plucked out their wires.

The people who managed to grab a rifle were now firing at droids at people alike. They fired in stun mode for a while, but soon realized they could switch to lethal mode. After a minute, the plasma had scarred the room completely that the floor was either burnt black with the electricity from the rifles or dyed red with people's wounds.

It was such a gruesome chaos — a mess of white plasma, silver glints of steel, and red flesh and blood — that one could only differentiate people based on their clothing. Those wearing the unionist armband and those who didn't. Those who flashed their ArtTech badge and those who didn't. Those who wore expensive suits and those who didn't.

Michael was frozen in place. He watched as a fuming technologist produced a hidden dagger and plunged it into the chest of a unionist. Not too far from them, a unionist fired at a helpless student who futilely tried to shield himself with his backpack. A thin blue white beam emitted from the muzzle of the rifle and pierced through both the bag and the student, leaving a big burned hole on the point of impact. That student fell down and died before he could scream. The next second, however, the back of the unionist's head was bashed in by a guitar, and his rifle was taken away by another person.

Three unionists noticed the unconscious body of Jay and the laser knife in his hand, and they assumed that Jay must be some wealthy man who was in possession of a powerful weapon and quite a lot of cash, because one of them immediately decided to kick the knife out of Jay's hand towards his gangs, and then he picked up Jay's arms and dragged him towards his gang. From the look on their faces, they probably wanted to strip Jay off any wealth, that was, his clothes and accessories.