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SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT
Broadcast over speakers onboard, Doss speaks:
This is a CODE RED ALERT and all hands are required.
Earlier this evening, Bone intercepted a directive from the Architects to initiate a Sterilisation Event in Xitang, China on 01/29/2026 at 1600. There's no information about what is triggering this, but we have a unique chance to save 50,000 souls from eradication.
Evacuation is our primary goal here. We know the blast radius is 15.5 miles (25 km for our non-Americans). We need to get as many people as possible out of the radius as quickly and as efficiently as we can. St James has a suggested approach here. Espionage, consult with your chain of command for assignments.
Ground Forces will be on site getting as many people to safety as possible. Your primary directive is evacuation. Utilize any resources at your disposal.
These people are Veiled. This makes things easier and trickier at the same time. We won't have widespread panic: you're fighting against complacency.
Pilots, your primary directive is drone destruction You're the hail Mary: as long as the drones are targeting you, they can't execute their orders. We need to give people on the ground as much time as we can. You'll be against the big boys, not just the standard drones. They're powerful, but they're slow. Take advantage of your maneuverability.
Strategists, you'll be manning Command with Science. Let them run point on ground communication and stick to what you know best: how to keep our pilots alive.
Remember the mission. Let's go be big damn heroes.
Bobby & Ara
This isn't the first time that they've had to evacuate a community, but as with all emergencies in a Pres City, there is an odd sense of wrongness in crowds that don't know what panic is. It makes their jobs easier because calm people don't cause problems and are easier to herd but it also creates a false sense of security that is in direct contrast with the looming threat of localized genocide overhead.
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This isn't the first time that they've had to evacuate a community, but as with all emergencies in a Pres City, there is an odd sense of wrongness in crowds that don't know what panic is. It makes their jobs easier because calm people don't cause problems and are easier to herd but it also creates a false sense of security that is in direct contrast with the looming threat of localized genocide overhead.
For this reason, Ara keeps her metaphorical trigger finger at the ready. Her role in this mission is essentially traffic warden, but even so the idea of growing complacent and being unprepared makes her skin crawl.
Bobby, too, is on high alert despite the relative ease of directing the flow of the evacuation. There’s a time crunch, and making people who can’t feel a sense of urgency meet that deadline requires everything to run as smoothly as possible.
And so it’s surprising when he stops suddenly, holding a finger to his mouth to indicate that Ara stays silent too while he tries to figure out if he really had heard something unexpected.
Ara's gaze immediately sharpens and sweeps the area, checking the crowd and the area for whatever has caught Bobby's attention. She doesn't hear it at first, too intent on a visual sweep of each person passing by, but then she nods at her partner and moves toward him and a small store front several feet down the road.
Bobby moves closer to the store as quietly as he can manage, helped by the general hubbub of the evacuees. He cups his hands around his eyes to lean on the window and peers in, waiting for Ara to look too.
She weaves through the crowd before settling next to her partner, unholstering and extending her baton as she does so. On its own, the sounds of scratching and things being moved around aren't alarming or noteworthy, but under the circumstances, it is at the very least suspicious.
"A looter," she speculates in a whisper.
“Unveiled then,” Bobby whispers back, an obvious statement since the veiled would have no reason to loot. “We still need to get them out.”
Ara's little grunt is a wordless approval and she moves towards the entrance. Locked—as expected—but the door, just like everything else in this town, is old. After a brief moment to assess, Ara backs up and kicks the door in, throwing caution to the wind. They were on a time crunch and they had to get everyone out, Veiled or Unveiled.
The door flying open startles the looter, Bobby quickly moving to block the door in case they try to make a run for it. “It’s alright,” he says, voice calm and even, despite his hand resting on his gun, just in case. “We’re with the resistance, we’re not going to turn you in. But you need to get out of town.”
Ara stays on Bobby's six, blocking the doorway as a few of the Veiled pause at the commotion, still without any sense of self-preservation despite the radioed evacuation order.
"You're used to blending in, yeah? Well, now's your time to blend and get the fuck out of here before you become dust." Ara commands, playing the bad cop to Bobby's good, and gestures towards the street. "Supplies are no good to you and yours if you're dead."
“Keep what you’ve already got,” Bobby suggests, his own time on the run influencing his approach despite the ticking time. “But they’re going to flatten this town and they won’t care if you’re in it or not. Understand?”
The looter nods, and Bobby glances sideways to Ara, trying to silently communicate if they should step away from the door and let them join the crowds, or if they’re still too much of a risk.
Her eyes slide over to the looter, taking in their carefully blank expression and the scared panic that was only noticeable because she was looking for it. She's been in their shoes. Any other day, their mask would probably be perfect but it was harder to hide when something terrible was happening.
"You can follow us for a bit, no one who's not one of us is going to look at you if you're in our shadow." she suggests and heads out, trusting Bobby to lead them out while she gently ushers the rest of the crowd forward to make a little space.
Bobby sticks close to the unveiled looter when they move, shoulder to shoulder as they join the crowd. There’s many questions he wants to ask, thoughts of seeing if they want to join the resistance, asking if they’re from an outlander community, but they can’t stand out amongst the veiled crowd so he keeps his mouth shut and continues to make sure all those around them are moving towards the buses.
At some point, the looter slips away and they can do little else without abandoning their initial task. They would be someone else's problem now, maybe even Recruitment's if the agents from that cell can find them again.