In the Shadows of Perfection
Edited by Averis
In a world of misery Some will become dizzy When their world is thrown into a tizzy But most are busy Living in a big city Never knowing what goes on Just a mile beyond the surface
On a planet five times the size of earth in another galaxy, there is a planet that from all appearances seems a perfect utopia. Every paradise has its invisible imperfections. The whole planet is prosperous and the manual labor jobs have all but disappeared from the face of the planet. Knowledge has become a very crucial thing, designs are always being improved upon and as such the ever increasing population of the non-sentient machines are handed all hard labor jobs.
A mile below the surface is a much darker and exponentially more dangerous place. Even the simplest jobs because nightmares in the poor lighting and the dangerous ones, you don't hear from those people again. Children are put to work in some way or another as soon as they can walk, and the ones who can't walk are abandoned. From laying down tracks to mining the minerals the surface needs, right to dealing with the trash from the surface and their own. There isn't a clean job anywhere, let alone in the deepest tunnels, if you find the wrong tunnel you may be greeted with an hours long fall before finding that there is no ground, only the core of the planet.
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Head Commanding Overseer Kelforn's log: Date: 12/15/4010 Operational Status: Green Fights this week: 65 Comments: The program has gone over without a hitch and everything seems to be going smoothly. There are currently over three million indentured servants working off their debts. Some are criminals in an experimental program. This is a governmentally sanctioned program that may or may not go public. Digging for resources is our number one goal at this point... but I'm worried about some of the guards, they refer to the servants as slaves. May need to address this issue later, will wait to see behavior patterns.
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Head Commanding Overseer Jackson's Log: Date: 8/25/4070 Operational Status: Green Fights This week: 250 Deaths this Week: 42 Comments: The slaves are becoming more and more aggressive, and the guards are having to hurt them more. May have to amend rules in order to keep population in check, I don't want more people getting hurt. Mining continues to go well. Automated guards are going to put in place by next week. Population increase of over 300% since beginning of the program, as such I will continue to keep updated statistics on population growth.
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Head Commanding Overseer Hafkan's Log: Date: 6/25/4280
Operation Status: Green Fights this Week: 82 Deaths this Week: 600 Comments: The local population is stable. None above the surface know except for those who need to. The prison program has also become quite effective. We've had a few close calls but they have all been turned into slaves. Nothing will stop us now. Killing is 100% approved, slaves have children trying to maintain numbers but becoming neigh on impossible. High hopes for future projects
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Zelkaidian
I woke up to the normal sounds of the mines. Screaming children as they are pushed to the ground as they fail to get moving fast enough for the guards. The grunts and shouts of both adults and children protesting the harsh treatment of the younger ones by the guards. I got up as fast as I could, sliding on an old fashioned miners cap, soot covered tank top and blue jean overalls before heading for the mine.
On the outside I found a cart filled with explosives, I grabbed a back pack full of dynamite detonators. Just inside my apprentice, Ahna, was waiting for me. She was half my age being only about twelve and despite that she was such a brilliant girl, she knew more things than the slave elders do. I was training her to be an explosives specialist like me. She and I have one trait we share, neither of us are fit to be in the physical part of the mining. We worked in a coal mine, there were thousands of them in addition to the millions of others mining different minerals necessary to the world above ours.
"Hey Zel, how's it going today," one of the miners said.
"Not bad, just getting here and it looks good outside," I replied.
"Glad to hear it, maybe for once we won't get our asses kicked on the way back to the houses," he responded, one arm around his mate, you could see hope in her face just from hearing that.
I looked down the dark road ahead of us and as it got dimmer and darker I turned my light on. Once I did you could see all of the workers all soot covered with their hair matted down and tangled from the sweat and soot. It was a sad sight to see most of these men and women were tired, worn and in desperate need of a break. They had it fairly hard; I didn't envy a single one of them. Their job was probably the hardest I've ever seen.
"Look at them, they look so beat down," Ahna said in pity.
"You'll get used to it. But don't ever think your life is any harder than theirs," I said.
"I understand," she said.
I quizzed her the whole way to the tunnels where the demolitions would be. I asked them if they had hit any hard rock. They had hit at least several feet of it so they asked me to come help them figure out where it needed to go. Once there I asked Ahna what her opinion on the situation was and she gave me her best educated guess which was almost dead on so I let her drill the hole and set up the blast zone.
"3... 2... 1...," the noise of the blast was a heavy concussive boom in the tight tunnels, "... Alright its clear come on guys lets back to it," I announced.
They picked up their pick axes and shovels and started doing what they do best, mine. What kept them in tune though were some of our old folksongs that had lost all meaning to the guards and only meant something to us. It gave us hope, hope for tomorrow, the day after and maybe one day our freedom, been singing if for over two hundred years: never once we have lost our spirit, only our lives.
The day was pretty uneventful until lunch came around. Then something horrible happened, a teenager of around fourteen years was carrying a can of gasoline. She tripped over something, the noise attracted a guard and he wasn't happy. He yanked her up and half marched half dragged her over to the edge of a drop that was at least a hundred feet. The few of us that were on break looked on in horror as the guard opened the can of gasoline on her. He then found a match, and struck it and threw it at her, the flames consumed her instantly, her shrieks filled the cavern then he kicked her over the edge.
There would be a party tonight, of that I was certain. It's bad to dwell on the loss of a person. We believe that if they feel us dwelling on it they will never return us to the land touched by the sun. I wholly believed that in the end we all will return to the land of sun. The prophecy will happen. They can't keep us down forever.
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Name: Tessa Renaldo Job: Former Military Sniper, SWAT Team 74 sniper Age: 28 Crime: Activist in Anti- Slavery, nearly exposed operation Orders: Frame of crime and get sent to Mine 6,607
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Six months later...
What the hell is going on? I didn't even do what I was convicted of there was little to no evidence that the crime even happened and then I'm getting sent to prison for the rest of my life. What the fuck? I served my planet, I served this city on more than one occasion and had I received medals for my valor and dedication. Some unknown incident and now all of that was thrown out of the window. Then they said they were taking me to the mega-corporation's main facility. This reeks of funk.
The guards on the bus were big and burly. The one on the left was a German Sheppard, even with all of his heavy armor on you could tell he was an avid body builder. He was very pushy as well, he seemed to think that he could shove anyone around if he pushed hard enough. Along with this he had a shot gun its sleek barrel poking out over the top of his shoulder.
The guard on the right was a Pit Bull, which can very aggressive. He was a body builder as well it looked like, though he was a bit flabbier than his counterpart. He had scars over both eyes, and looked like he was always pissed off. He had a high powered rail gun slung over his shoulder.
The ride took all of ten minutes, afterwards I was taken into a service entrance. Then they cracked me over the head....
I awoke several hours later in a daze. There was a male albino wolf standing over me, he looked like he too worked out but he was still small, his fur was covered in soot and matted fur, not neat or maintained at all. He had a look of concern. He was examining the lump on my head.
"They hit you pretty hard didn't they," he asked.
"Who are you talking about," I asked.
"The two guards, Joe and jack, the 'service guards' they tend to hit the newcomers pretty hard," he responded.
"Really," I said sarcastically.
"Yeah," he said, not hearing, or understanding the sarcasm," What was it like up there?"
"What are you talking about," I asked.
"The world with the sun, I hope you got a good look at it, because chances are you'll never see it again," he said.
"Holy shit, are you a slave," I asked.
"Yeah, I work in the mines. You have really nice eyes by the way," he said.
"Oh, thank you," I said.
"Names Zelkaidian, yours," he asked offering his paw.
"Tessa, Nice to meet you Zelkaidian," I said.
"Yeah, well guess I better to show you the ropes," he said.