Cain also had spent the last several years getting to know Maria on a personal level. He would listen to her stories and gained much wisdom from them. Maria had grown up in a time before The Nexus, a time before the world had been brought together under one flag. She lived to see it happen, a feat that not many people could still say. Maria had told Cain how in the past, there had been many countries. These countries, she told him, were always in a state of war. Whether it was political or actual armed conflict, the world was never at peace. This was true up until The Nexus was formed, she said. The Nexus was a group of international leaders who banded together in an attempt to unite the entire world. This group, however, did not proclaim their message outright from the beginning. It was gradual, Maria said – she, herself, was not entirely sure how it happened.
One after one, countries banded together under the name of Nexus and it wasn’t before long that the entire world joined in. The Nexus ended warfare, it ended racial hostility, and it ended the notion of creed/culture. The Nexus told its people that the differences between us were nominal and that focusing on them only brought about destruction and disagreement. By learning to accept one another, The Nexus said, the strength of the human race would only increase tenfold. This message was not unheard of, of course, attempts at world peace had been tried countless times before only to have them all fail. Something about The Nexus was different though, Maria said. They had a way of convincing even the most radical leaders to see the benefits of a world-conglomerate. As time passed, The Nexus created all sorts of innovation that changed human-life forever. By having all of the world’s brightest minds under one flag, technology evolved by leaps and bounds. Industry skyrocketed and past understandings of political economy no longer existed to restrict progression in all aspects of existence.
As a result of all these fundamental changes, the human population skyrocketed. New cities had to be made over-night and other cities had to be enlarged to house all of the new masses. Where past uncultivated land existed, new sprawling urban landscapes were created. Eventually, smaller towns were absorbed by larger ones and large cities were absorbed by even more gigantic metropolises. After a decade of life under The Nexus, a very small fraction of the world was left untouched by industry. Municipalities were tangled together in a gargantuan mesh of skyscrapers to the point where people became confused on where one city ended and the other began. As a result of this confusion, The Nexus decided to create new city names with new grid-like boundaries. Each “block,” which were squares one hundred miles in side-length, were given a new name. Maria and Cain’s block was given the name “Epsilon.”
Maria also told Cain how this almost utopian past turned into the world they both new today. The Nexus was obsessed with efficiency and it slowly tried to eliminate the “unnecessary” facets of life. One of the most revolutionary changes was the removal of the justice-system. In the past, Maria said, crime suspects were given a chance to plead their side of the story before being found guilty or innocent. If they were found guilty of the crime through the justice system, they would be housed in large facilities with all of the other criminals. Only the worst criminals were sentenced to death, Maria told Cain.
The Nexus found this process to be very inefficient and so it removed the justice-system all together. Instead, The Nexus created new technology to combat criminal activity. The Nexus’s scientists developed innovative microscopic video-cameras that were planted over the entire world, with one exception – Nexus-controlled buildings were not under surveillance. In order to avoid loop-holes in the system, The Nexus placed the cameras at random locations at random times. Once a week, all of the cameras would shift in position to keep people from potentially finding and vandalizing them. Each shift, however, would not compromise surveillance. The Nexus made sure that each shift would not cut off any previously observable space. These cameras were placed in the homes of citizens, they were placed in bathroom stalls, and they were placed in almost every dark nook of the world just waiting to catch a criminal in the act.
If the cameras recorded suspicious activity, Nexus officials would be notified. Upon reviewing of the recorded video footage, if The Nexus found the person in question to be guilty of a crime, they would send a notice to “Overwatch.” Overwatch became the police of the future, but it consisted of only one “person” per city. In order to maintain order, colossal towers were constructed in the center of each city. The towers had no entrances at the bottom floor and no windows in order to avoid the possibility of citizens revolting and attempting to storm the building. They were each fifty miles tall with a roof armed with one technologically-altered sniper. This android-solider was enhanced to be the perfect sniper – one shot, one kill. Neural enhancements allowed Overwatch snipers to see through walls and to make shots from distances that would impossible for any normal human. The Overwatch would be helicoptered into the tower upon activation and remain there for the rest of its life.
Overwatch snipers can survive without food or water and are mentally incapable of shooting anyone that isn’t a labeled criminal by The Nexus. Each day, Overwatch snipers are given targets via a computer-interface located in their brains. Also, they are helicoptered supplies which include different sniper-rifles for different kills and sufficient ammo for that day’s list and not a single bullet extra as an extra precautionary measure. During that day, the Overwatch will locate the criminals and deliver a quick and painless shot to the end. This shot is delivered to the head in order to keep justice somewhat humane and to avoid drastic “clean-up” for the officials who gather the bodies post-mortem. After the day’s cleansing is complete, Overwatch will signal The Nexus to let them know where the bodies are so that they can be picked up and harvested. Overwatch’s justice is given to any criminal no matter how trivial the crime. If you are caught (which you will be), you will be killed the following day. Overwatch snipers are perfect, but they are still technically human and they will die after an uncannily long lifespan. Typical Overwatch snipers will live to see over a hundred years total and then will malfunction before dying. Upon the death of an Overwatch sniper, The Nexus takes one day to recruit a new official to take the mantle of the deceased Overwatch.
The Nexus found that this system reduced the cost of maintaining peace and also deterred crime by levels never before seen. However, there came a case in which Overwatch could not locate the criminal in question. As a result, the creation of Nexus “Investigators” was necessary. These Investigators are also technologically-altered, armored with all sorts of machine-enhancements to boost efficiency. The Investigators are equipped with the Nexus’s most advanced and classified weapons, ranging from every kind of ranged-munition imaginable to up-close-and-personal close quarters combat ordnance. The Investigators are trained in combat from birth and are genetically manufactured to be infallible assassins. They are given the list of criminals that are unable to be terminated by Overwatch. They walk the cities incognito, searching for The Nexus’s most wanted. Nexus Investigators are also given special missions outside of city walls where needed. Special teams of two or more Investigators are created and act as The Nexus’s military in such cases.
Maria would tell all of the history that she could remember to Cain; she enjoyed sharing her knowledge. They would often talk at the dinner table after eating, before Cain went back to his house for evening activities. It was at this time that Maria was happiest; just having someone to converse with made her feel less lonely than she did the rest of the day while Cain worked. Maria didn’t know how much longer she would have to live and so she tried to make sure that she shared everything that she could about her life to Cain before she passed.
However, that afternoon during dinner, Cain didn’t say much. They sat at the table after dinner and just looked at the walls, unable to talk about anything truly interesting. Maria, looked at Cain and noticed that he seemed very troubled. She wasted no time and asked him what was bothering him. Cain looked back to Maria with a frown and told her that he had something to tell her. “I have caught the Zantel Virus and I didn’t know how to tell you. I contacted Nexus the other day and tonight I will be taken by Overwatch. I won’t be here to take care of you or the house starting tomorrow, so if you find that you still need assistance you will have to hire someone. I didn’t think it would end like this Maria, I don’t know what to say.”