Confirmed reports from units on the ground in Earthway that the orbital power grid has failed. New reports coming in that surface power distribution substations are overloading across the city, entire districts are going dark. Rioting is out of control, FedPol units are falling back on all fronts. The situation is critical.
SC3S Commander: “Earthway Dist-Com, this is Sword Company, 3rd Section, we’ve made contact with what’s left of the FedPol units from the South District Tunnels… It’s not looking good down there.”
EWDC Dispatch: “Understood, Sword 3S- hold position until further orders…”
SC3S Commander: “Dist-Com, we’ve got civilians on scope, a lot of civilians; they’re moving down the inter-district highway towards the elevator entrance. I think it’s a new group heading to the shelters blockade… Please advise.”
EWDC Dispatch: “Sword S3, how many are you looking at?”
SC3S Commander: “Hard to tell, maybe a couple thousand. Most on foot, a few vehicles. Advise, over.”
EWDC Dispatch: “Move your AFVs to block the highway, do not let those people pass into the elevator entrance. Do you understand?”
SC3S Commander: “With all due to respect, command, these are people seeking shelter…”
EWDC Dispatch: “That is a direct order, Sword Company.”
SC3S Commander: “Understood, Dist-Com…”
The streets almost trembled under the stampede of panicked crowds, flowing forth from the residential centres flanking either side of the central highway and pouring out into the intersections. A few vehicles carrying a dozen or more civilians and myriad luggage crudely tied down formed a sort of convoy in the midst of the crowds. There was panic in the air, yet a relative calm; people helped each other over obstacles and maintained some form of order as the huge crowd turned the final corner onto the main highway intersection leading to the Earthway Lower Tier District Elevator. Even as the fog-filled pitch-black backdrop of the city pulsed with immense flashes of brilliant blue light and subsequent orange hues from substation transformers overloading and exploding, the crowds remained somewhat coherent. They must have thought they would be rescued by the authorities as they made their way toward the elevator; the civic government had enacted martial law and the Planetary Guard Army had been deployed to the streets, advertisement billboards had been overridden with public notices informing people to remain calm and proceed in an orderly fashion to the nearest Shelter.
As the crowds filled out onto the main highway, the relatively calm atmosphere began to fall away into a panicked rush towards the elevator access; up ahead, the flashing blue strobe lights of Federal Police and Guard vehicles offered little comfort to the people, but they remained peaceful. Before the crowds could close distance with the elevator access building further, blinding white headlights cast across the street before them, forcing many at the front of the crowd to shield their eyes. The roar of Fusion Turbines echoed in the midst of the sounds of thousands of feet clambering across the street. A pair of Planetary Guard APCs pulled out of a nearby street and moved to block the crowd’s advance; flanked on either side by a half a dozen heavily armed Guard troopers, their weapons tentatively trained on the ground between the themselves and the huge crowd before them.
“Please remain calm!” A voice crackled over a loud speaker from one of the vehicles. “You are required to remain here until instructed to proceed!”
The troopers formed a line in front of the APCs, still making sure to avoid directly training their weapons upon the civilians. The crowd hesitated for a moment before a few people moved forwards into the headlights and boldly confronted the troops.
“We heard from another group the impact is only minutes away!” one of the civilians exclaimed, shouting towards the troops. “We need to get everyone to the shelter now!”
The crowd became riled up in agreement, slowly edging forward towards the troopers’ line. The soldiers edged backwards until their backs almost touched their vehicles.
“Please remain calm!” The voice shouted again, this time somewhat more assertive. “You must remain here until instructed!”
The crowd hesitate again, the lull soon giving way to a slowly building roar of angered voices and shouting.
“These people are going to die if we don’t go NOW!” One voice exclaimed, followed by shouts and screams of agreement; their tone increasingly aggressive as the crowd began to advance towards the troops yet again.
“You must remain here! Failure to comply will result in-“ the voice exclaimed, but was cut off by protestors shouting; “What?! You’re going to shoot us?”
The situation began to deteriorate rapidly as the peaceful crowds began forming makeshift phalanxes, some of the protestors had armed themselves with various makeshift weapons, a few even began to produce equipment clearly stolen from FedPol units.
“STOP IMMEDIATELY OR YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON!” The voice exclaimed once more, this time the troops’ aligned their weapons with the crowds; the red-tinted lines of their laser targeting systems moving across the front of the crowd as they diffused in the fog. Despite the threat, the crowd began to advance more rapidly; perhaps none of the civilians heeded the threat as real, many still viewed the Guard Troops as a symbol of safety and protection, but that would soon change.
SC3S Commander: “Dist-Com, this is Sword Company, 3rd Section. We’re in position but the crowds are refusing instructions, we are minutes away from direct contact. Requesting immediate orders, over.”
EWDC Dispatch: “Standby Sword Company…”
SC3S Commander: “Sir we need an update NOW. There’s several thousand protestors almost on top of my unit’s position.”
EWDC Dispatch: “The shelter is almost at maximum capacity, those people cannot be allowed into the elevator facility until we have confirmed there is enough room for them all. Do whatever it takes to hold them there, commander.”
The once calmed crowd had rapidly given way to a raging mob as protestors wielded makeshift weapons and began setting fires to illuminate the street. The roar of terrified people almost drowning out the hum of the Guard APCs’ engines.
The Section commander; atop the lead APC looked onwards towards the several-hundred meter wide front of the advancing mob, now only a few dozen meters from his men; all of which had entered a crouched position with their weapons trained across the front of the crowd. One of the troopers turned to look up to the commander, who met his gaze with almost disarray. “Sir, we’re not going to be able to hold them back, we don’t have non lethal, we don’t have riot gear. What do we do?”
The commander looked back towards the crowds; any chance of reasoning with them had now diminished as pure instinct kicked in- exacerbated by the echoes of more explosions and flashes of light from across the city backdrop behind them.
“Sir?”
The commander took his sidearm from this thigh holster in one hand and pointed it directly upwards. Firing a single shot from the SMX-4 FIMD, the blue flash illuminating the troopers’ line; carried further by the moisture in the air. The crack of a firearm discharge echoed across the street as a single metal casing dropped to the ground under the APC. There was a brief lull in the crowd’s roaring before the screaming set in- the somewhat cohesive advance of the protestors suddenly broke down giving way to a charge of frenzied and terrified people forced to choose between the danger of remaining outside the shelter during the apocalypse or the threat of being shot by the troops blocking their way.
“STOP OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!” The commander exclaimed. His men shouldered their rifles firmly and fingers crossed over triggers. “THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!”
The gunshot had apparently escalated the situation severely as several groups of apparently well-organised rioters began to form amidst the panicking civilians; many of them carrying firearms taken from fallen FedPol units. A few moments later, the rat-tat-tat of burst-fire FIMD shots echoed again across the street, this time towards the troops; a round ricocheting off the glacis plate of the lead APC. The troops instinctively took defensive cover positions behind the vehicle. The section commander took cover below the APC’s roof, pulling the hatch almost fully closed over his head while gripping his radio.
SC3S Commander: “Dist-Com, Sword Company 3rd Section is taking small arms fire from rioters. We are returning fire.”
“All units, return fire, neutralise the armed dissidents but watch your fire around civilians. You are professionals, gentlemen, I do not want ANY collateral losses. Understood?”
A few moments later the street erupted into a gunfight between Planetary Guard troops dug in around their APCs and groups of violent protestors ahead of them. Many of which had created makeshift barriers from debris and burned out vehicles, others advanced slowly behind civilian vehicles that had been commandeered from the crowds. As the battle unfolded, the rioters began to take losses; the superior training of the guard troops clearly showing. However, sheer numbers began to have its effect on the Guard; and casualties began to mount. With each rioter that fell to the asphalt lifeless, another took his place, self-preservation kicking in driving people into wild animals as the street filled with black smoke from burning fires, the blue flashes of FIMD discharges pulsing like a neon strobe light show on either side of the small stretch of tarmac that had rapidly become a “no-man’s land”.
SC3S Commander: “Dist-Com we need reinforcements. Organised armed rioters are assaulting our position. There is no way they are just scared civilians, what is going on down here, we are under direct attack. We need support ASAP!”
EWDC Dispatch: “Acknowledged, Sword Company 3rd Section. We are diverting Halberd Company 1st Section and Shield Company 2nd Section with attached armour to your position. We have received reports of rioters utilising heavy weapons in your sector, be advised. Lethal force is fully authorised. Do anything you can to neutralise the threat, commander.”
SC3S Commander: “Copy, Dist-Com, we could really use that armour right about now.”
There remains great mystery surrounding the final moments of civilisation on Eridonia – the few local hours between panic starting and the impact of the Aftershock had tested human society to the extreme and proven that, despite our advancement, we are still just animals fighting for survival in harsh world – a world that was set to become even harsher as the heavens above Eridonia opened and laid bare the fragility of human civilisation for the trillion people on the planet to see, for one final night, before darkness and silence engulfed the globe and set in stone the final monument to what was the Greatest human civilisation in Aquarius.
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