Chapter 1
The Vecks Compilation
As I sat in my hotel room, listening device pressed to my ear I looked out the window. It was raining. Hard. How typical. It always seemed to rain in Nova York. Especially when I had a mission to complete that involved killing someone. I guess I should be glad, though. It washed the blood and gore away. Didn't scare the civilians. Last thing I needed was the civilians getting twitchy with me around.

I suppose this is as good a point as any to explain. My name is Jacob Vecks. I'm a Watcher. Essentialy...we're thought police. About 500 years ago, the world errupted in a new world war. By the time the war was over..there were no sides anymore. And there were no countries. Until Alexander Remmin rose to the forefront and re-instituted the United Nations. From there, he and the representitives from the new countries that were starting to emerge met and started to rebuild the world.

200 years after that, Remmin, still alive, turned the world into his own personal empire. The Republic of Nouvelle Bastion. Each nation was then governed by a regent. Each regent answered to Remmin and his military. However, there were dissidents. They're called Hackers. Essentially, they break into different systems within the government, and plant propoganda. Slogans and messeges broadcasting the will for domocracy, instead of all people united under the rule of one leader. Every day for the past 300 years they've faught a covert war against Remmin. And...the odd thing is...sometimes? They win.

As a Watcher, it's my job to arrest potential Hackers, and kill those who are confirmed as such. To the general populace, we're a myth. We don't exist. A story to tell a naughty child so they'll behave. "Be careful what you do, son." A mother will say. "Or the Watchers will come take you away." Which isn't that far from the truth. We will take children from their parents for a couple of reasons. One: They show the potential. They can become Watchers. Two: Their parents are Hackers. We'll put the children into government care.

I was glad my duty wasn't for the second reason tonight. God help me, I hated it when I had to do that. Parents with kids...always the worst. When it was my job to, say, kill the mother for being a Hacker, and the father for being an accessory to the fact. The kids would later be picked up by an extraction team, and all memory of them would be erased from the databanks. The children would then be conditioned and outfitted with new ID's. Anyone that knew them would get a surprise visit from some of my...co-workers.... to have the same thing done. They'd be asked agressively to forget the kids.

Thing is, no one could really be sure that their parents were really their parents. Kind of sad...but needed I suppose. But tonight was a normal run. Go in, kill the Nest Leader, and get out.

Anyways, as I said. I was sitting in the dingy hotel on the outskirts of Nova York. My listening device buzzed, and my commander came into the comm. "Vecks. This is Robaer. Change of plans. Alpha-63." With that, the link cut, and my jaw tightened. It was worse we had thought. Intel had told us that it was a single group. Three, maybe four Hackers. Turns out, this entire house was what we called a Rats Nest. A hub, if you will, for Hackers.

Standing, I put my black short-jacket on. It stopped about midway down my back. Reaching into a cabinet, I pulled out the Drop. A Drop was a case of all the equipment that Intel thought I would need. And...a few extras. A care package if you will. I grinned. They'd really given me something to look foward two this time. Several pieces of equipment spilled onto the bed as I tipped the case. A head-set with flip down HUD, including night vision. Two pistols, each with an extended magazine and switch-blade on the top of the barrel. And a shotgun. I clipped the ammo to the belts that ran along my black outfit. I loaded the pistols and shotgun and slung it across my back. The pistols went into little hoslters on my hips. Flipping the HUD down over my right eye, I touched the comm in my ear. "Watcher Theta, moving."

"Affermative Watcher Theta. Entry Pont Zulu-3 is target. Marking. Extraction Point is Bingo-Charlie 1. Marking."

As the andronginous voice spoke, my HUD flashed, and a map of the building showed up. The door on the left hand side had a small red dot on it. A root-cellar. A blue dot flashed on the map on the roof. That's where the air speeder would pick me up when I'd finished, if everything went well. Not to get ahead of myself, but ...it didn't.

Opening the window of my hotel room, I jumped from the ledge. 12 stories above ground, it would kill a normal human. But, my body had been augmented to be more durable than the average person. The serums they had used made me faster, stronger and gave me clearer thinking when under stress. I wasn't invincible. Not even close. I just had an edge.

Landing with a crunch on the gravel below, I felt the jolt go through my legs and shake my hardened bones. Picking a couple of silencers off my belt I clipped them to my pistols, drew one of the weapons and started towards the door I would use. A sentry moved back and forth across the porch, looking for all the world like he was just enjoying the rain and the fresh air while smoking a cigarette.

Putting my back flat against the wall, I waited while he turned around and started walking back towards the other end. Stepping around the corner I grabbed him, and put him gun up against the back of his skull. "Tell me how many guards are inside." I whispered into his ear.

"Why should I help you, pig?" he retorted, his rought voice sounding familiar as he struggled against my grip.

"Because, I'm the one holding a gun against your head, that's why. Now, tell me what I want to know, and I'll let you live. We'll recondition you, you'll never know what happened." I pressed the barrel in harder, drawing a small ring of blood as the bore of the gun cut through the first layer of skin. The man shuddered, and I could feel his pulse quicken as his mind raced.

"Shut up, your dirty--" That was all I needed to hear. Covering his mouth, I pulled the trigger. The bullet entered his head, and the gore splattered on the deck infront of him as he sagged. Dragging him around the corner, I put him in the shadow, and searched his pockets. In the chest pocket of his coat I found a small, thin, metallic stick. A probe. These were used by sentries to disable security.

Touching my ear, I said "Watcher Theta. Got a winfall. One bogie is bingo." I shoved the probe into the security terminal. "And now the rest are flying blind. Preparing for rapid vector assault. Terminal force?"

The command center responded. "Copy that. Bogie down, and the birds are blind. Affermative on throwing stones." So, that was it. All the info was relayed and I had my go-ahead. One enemy was dead, and I found a probe, knocking out their security. And I asked if I was to kill all in the house. I got the ok for it. I drew my shotgun, and cocked it. No point in being coy, I figured.

Nearing the door, I reared back and kicked, knocking the heavy oak portal off its hinges. One of the senteries turned, but not fast enough, I fired and cocked again before the slug even hit him. When it did, it ripped a massive hole in his stomach. I could just immagine the size of the exit wound. As I ran down the stairs, other members of the nest started to pop out of their holes like gophers. None lived very long.

When I finally got to the control room, I'd already expeneded all my shells, and the clips for my pistols. As I strode into the room, a heard a muffled clapping sound. Leaning up against the main terminal, bathed in blue light from the screen was the leader of this particular cell. "Well, you finally managed to find me." He breathed through his mask. His voice sounded vaguely familiar. "I've been searching for you for a long time."

Flipping the HUD off my head, I tossed it to the ground and activated the self-destruct. I had no use for it anymore, and we didn't need it to be reverse-engineered. "This..." I said, gesturing to the pannels, and the screens. "All of this, the carnage, the destruction. All to get access to a Watcher?"

He laughed again. "No, Vecks. It was to get access to YOU. By all accounts, you do not exist. I, however, knew that you did. And wanted to meet you myself."

"Sorry." I said, as I flicked the blades out on the spent pistols."I don't sign autographs. Evidence. You understand." I ran at him, hoping to catch him off guard and kill him quickly. I swung my left arm across his face. He ducked, and shot his hand up between my left and right arms. Grabbing my right, he used my momentum to flip me head over heals. I was surprised, but the training I'd had took over. I pivoted my weight, landed and shot in with the butt of the pistol knocking the man into the wall.

He was solidly built, I found. Almost like...No. I couldn't be. It was impossible, I thought. He had been engineered. There was no other explaination. Touching my left ear I opened the comm. "Traffic control, this is Theta. We have an emergency, code bravo jul-AHH!" Was as far as I got. The man had flicked his wrist and sent a small blade flying at me, cutting open my hand, and ripping the delicate piece of communication equipment from my ear. "How in the world did you...?"

He ran at me. Faking a punch to the left, I went to duck under it but he dropped, and swept my feet out from under me. My pistol-blades clattered to the sides, and he kicked them out of the way. Rearing up, he brought his fist down in a massive arc that would have crushed me if I hadn't moved. Splintering the concrete floor, he glared at me as I rolled out of the way. He came at me again as I stood there. Back and forth we went trading blow after blow. My face felt like broken glass as he broke my nose, blood pouring from the nostrils. I moved back towards a mall as he came at me again.

Using the strength afforded by my genetic enhancements, I jammed my hand into the wood panneling and, using my leg vaulted backwards in a quick flip. Landing on his shoulders, I closed my legs around his neck and dropped backwards. Using my momentum, I threw my opponent, and he crashed into the computer screen on the opposite side of the room, the electricity stunned him long enough for me to grab one of my weapons, and move to his back.

Placing the weapon at his throat, I moved it accross his jugular as he struggled. His blood, warm and sticky, poured over my hands and down his front. "Now," I said. "Let's see who you really are." I pulled his mask off, and my eyes shot open. I was looking...at myself. My green eyes. My dark red hair. Even the scar running along my chin. He was...me. My breathing became haggared as I stumbled into the hall to another corpse, which I tore the mask off of. Again...me. I was sick. Retching on the floor, I moved to the next body, and the next and the next. They were all me. Clones. But...how?

I sat in the hotel room again. Glass of whiskey in my hand. I was glad that alchohol hadn't been outlawed yet. I needed the drink, something to steady my hands. My PDA blinked. An e-mail. Opening it, I saw, yet again, a picture of one of those clones. It read: "Now you've seen the face of terror. Sleep lightly, Watcher. I come for you." I drew a shuddering breath. There was a knock...no a pounding at the door, and my heart lept into my throat. Drawing another pistol, I aimed it at the door, "Come in." I said. In strode three soldiers, in full armor. And...Who was that? I didn't know him. At least...not yet. He pointed a gun at me and, before I could react. A dart hit me. As I began to pass out...something about it all felt familiar. Like I'd been here before. As I hit the ground I relfected on what was going to happen...and...I was scared. For the first time in my life, that I could remember...I was afraid.