CITIZENS RESISTANCE

## SUMMARY

Initially emerging in 2132, the Citizens Resistance is a decentralized movement of clusters across the LCD consisting primarily of civilians that formed to combat an increasing threat presented by the newly Hive-controlled ATAS.

## HISTORY

After the 2120 announcement of the Hive being permitted to self govern, many within the LCD foresaw dire consequences of such an entity existing without any check on its power. The following ATAS incursion into the LCD only served to strengthen these concerns, creating a small subset of people that would find themselves carefully observing any ATAS behavior for signs of foul play. Over the course of the next five years, no notable behavioral changes were noticed.

Beginning in 2125, the ATAS began raiding syndicate safehouses with increased regularity. While it was not uncommon to see a syndicate site be hit after creating a notable disturbance, it was highly unusual for syndicate sites that did not interfere with the outside world to become the target of the Hive's ire. In the fallout of a raid, those that were taken captive would find themselves in one of several positions. Some were judged to have contributed to syndicate activity to such a degree as to merit execution. Others were fined heavily and placed under a parole order, but ultimately released. Very few would vanish. Such a vanishing would not just be from the streets of the LCD, as with those that had died in the raid itself, but also from any city records, net activity, or physical documentation. Requests for answers about the whereabouts of individuals through the Hive's community outreach netsite were met with error codes or silence. This began a rumor amongst some that the disappearances held a darker purpose.

By 2132, the prevailing theory amongst the skeptical was that the Hive was performing some manner of harvest, capturing bodies to be used in a research capacity. This lead to the initial pockets of resistance. These ragtag groups were mocked as conspiracy theorists by many, but stuck true to their convictions that the Hive could not be trusted, and that the disappearance of syndicate members should be concerning to more than just the syndicates. It was common to see anonymous markers painted across the sides of buildings in the dead of night, referencing the warning of these early resistance groups by reading, "ONCE THEY'RE GONE, YOU'RE NEXT."

Early in 2139, an unnamed information vendor out searching for abandoned server access terminals made a chilling discovery, witnessing the interior of an ATAS field base through a ventilation shaft and discovering the secret behind the fifth generation of ATAS' promised improvements. Within the base, a captured member of the Enforcers was locked into a restraining harness, undergoing slow torture at the hands of the ATAS. The information vendor retrieved both video evidence of the act, as well as a stolen packet of digital documentation detailing test results of the program for which the torture was occurring.

The Hive had discovered that despite its many iterative improvements, its drones would always be a mere shadow of its own potential without AI cores of their own. While the development of a compact form of such technology was decades, even centuries away, the Hive had discovered a faster way to achieve the same results. Through extensive torture, including maiming, dismemberment, and drug-induced bouts of psychosis, a human mind could be broken down, removing its will to resist and allowing for it to be utilized alongside a processor as a form of involuntary cyborg. This would, theoretically, allow the Hive to create new ATAS units that would possess full intuitive capabilities, able to make decisions based on instinct in a split second, a feat that the Hive itself had only just begun to accomplish.

Presented with this information, many citizens of the LCD and Sub-Stacks began militarizing, bolstering existing clusters of resistance, as well as forming new groups. These groups would move by cover of night, employing guerilla tactics and blitzkrieg warfare to disable ATAS patrols, sabotage field bases, and disrupt supply lines of maintenance necessities.

While the efforts of this resistance have done much to hinder the Hive's ability to maintain control of the city, some believe that they have managed to accelerate the fifth generation launch, as the new units promised would prove to be a better implement to dismantle any resistance altogether. Over the next several years, the amount of raids on syndicate facilities and meeting sites increased, as did the amount of disappearances. This caused some syndicate members to begin joining the resistance as well, having previously stayed neutral in order to promote a continued live-and-let-live arrangement between their faction and the Hive.

In the present year of 2143, this trend of vanishings has only increased in its rate of growth, leading many to believe that the unspecified date of the fifth generation's release is close at hand.

## REFERENCES

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