Ruins of the Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE.“Arghhhhhhhhh!”“Heeeeeeelp!”The dust had yet to settle and amidst the backdrop of creaking and groaning concrete and steel, cries for help rang out in a cacophony of multiple languages and volumes. Debris was everywhere, pieces of the shattered building thrown all over downtown Dubai by the blast, which had shattered windows even ten blocks away. Here and there, lucky people who were less injured were pulling themselves from the rubble of the collapsed tower and ruined megamall.The survivors were wailing in horror, anger, and desperation as they dug through the rubble they had just climbed out of in search of their friends and loved ones who were beside them when the bomb went off. One person found his child’s body, riddled with injuries, burns, and broken bones, and fell to his knees, sobbing, wailing, and cursing at the uncaring god who had allowed the tragedy to happen.Thirteen short seconds was all it had taken for what everyone thought w
In the air over what used to be known as Haiti.Four fighter jets whooshed over Port-au-Prince at Mach 7 on a patrol route that provided full scanning coverage of the paralyzed city. Though they were flying fast and low, the sonic boom following them wasn’t any noisier than a regular pre-empire passenger jet, if not even quieter.{Scanning complete. Proceed to the next destination.}The pilots of the jets acknowledged their orders and increased their speed to Mach 8.4 as they headed southwest toward Carrefour, surrounded by an invisible bubble stretching fifteen kilometers in every direction. Their mission was simple, though emotionally and physically draining; they were performing deep scans on each city they passed over in an attempt to pinpoint possible survivors of the wave of terrorist attacks carried out only minutes before.Similar operations were being carried out all over the world as the Aeolus Air Force sent out squadron after squadron of Aeolus ES-75 Catseye reconnaissance
*Three Gorges Dam has suffered structural damage and is failing [Damage: catastrophic] [Situation: red]**Svalbard Global Seed Vault has suffered a biological attack [Damage: low] [Situation: white]**Taweelah Desalination Plant has suffered a chemical attack [Damage: high] [Situation: yellow]**Chichen Itza has suffered a suicide bombing [Damage: low] [Situation: green]**United Nations Headquarters has been carbombed [Damage: medium] [Situation: orange]*Reports of ongoing terror attacks continued streaming in even as Minerva, Hephaestus, and Asclepius were coordinating rescue efforts. Even though they reached each site in an average of twenty minutes, and fifty minutes at the longest, the estimated death toll continued its meteoric rise despite their best efforts.{Dispatch LEAs to assist with evacuation along the Yangtze River. Send RES-QRs and constructor swarms to shore up the dam and buy time for the evacuation. The Yangtze River downstream from the dam and the Yangtze River De
While the terrorist attacks continued, it was at a much slower rate. Reports began dwindling and reduced in frequency from seconds, to minutes, and finally, tens of minutes. And with an average response time of twenty minutes, it seemed that the AIs had caught up to the trend and the worst was over.All of the scenes around the world had been cordoned off. Imperial police and LEAs were maintaining the cordon as RES-QRs dragged out survivors and placed markers on the dead for later retrieval; at that moment, survivors mattered more. Some of the smaller attack sites, like the wave of suicide bombings at UNESCO Heritage Sites, had even been cleared of all casualties and GEMbots dispatched to repair the damage. Soon, most of the attack sites progressed to the cleanup phase. Active rescue was only ongoing at the worst of the sites, like in Dubai, where the Burj Khalifa had been dropped on the Dubai Mall and a few other skyscrapers fell due to the blast; or in Paris, where the Louvre had i
If the goal of the recording that had just played on the news was recruiting, it backfired in a spectacular fashion. Rather than gaining the support of the majority, it had enraged them. As the attacks had happened all over the world, nearly every citizen in the empire had lost someone, whether they were close family or simply acquaintances, or even friends of a friend. So other than those that had already been extremely dissatisfied with the empire, no one even thought of answering the masked terrorist’s rallying call.Despite that, the conspiracy theorists’ heyday continued. Now, they had another piece of “evidence”; obviously, the person in the video was a scapegoat brought forward because the theorists were absolutely correct in saying that the empire had planned and carried out the attacks on their own. That said, while the conspiracy theorists were patting themselves on the back, believing they had proven their theory true by a preponderance of the evidence, most normal people
Dubai wasn’t the only place that had rescue ships show up. Nova, despite being busy watching over Aron during his upgrade, had diverted a few atomic printers from their cleanup duty in orbit to the Lagrange points where they stored the material and used that to print as many hospital ships as could be printed with the material available there. In combination with those printed in orbit by the remaining printers there, hundreds of hospital ships had shown up at locations around the world and carried out rescues using the same shocking technology.The hospital ships were then handed over to Minerva, as Nova was only sparing a single thread of her consciousness for anything that wasn’t Aron at the moment and she had to address the empire on his behalf shortly.Not five minutes later, a hologram of “Aron” appeared in front of everyone in the simulation, as well as those using AR glasses in reality. Along with those, he also appeared on every phone, computer, and television screen as well.
After the “emperor’s” appearance, things began settling down. People had already seen the borderline magical effect of the rescue ships and they chose to extend their trust to the empire... at least mostly, anyway. Beneath the surface, most were still withholding judgment as, though they had indeed received some benefits from the empire, the conspiracy theories were indeed believable. But levitating ships and tractor beams had gone a long way toward building people’s trust regardless.Still, there was a long way to go. There were hundreds of rescue ships, sure, but there had been thousands of attacks.But everywhere the rescue ships went, they were soon followed by constructor swarms, GEMbots, and aid personnel that built temporary housing for the displaced victims who didn’t require extended stays in medical pods. Thus, every cleared site soon became a hive of activity as large buildings were constructed at a speed that rivaled that of time-lapse videos.At the same time, notificatio
“This will be your room for the duration of your stay with us,” Rose, Aron’s mother, said as she opened a door in one of the long corridors in the cube. The room that Herschel and Virginia Rothschild would be staying in was a very luxurious penthouse suite with four bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, a kitchen, sauna, living room, and an indoor gym. Each bedroom also contained a pair of extended-stay medical VR pods, and the gym had another two in it.“Wow....” Virginia couldn’t help but be surprised by the level of low-key luxury on display in the room she and her husband would be staying in until the troubles died down outside. “It’s minimalistic, but luxurious and pleasing to the eye,” she praised.“Yeah, I was surprised when I saw the living quarters, too. Especially after seeing how plain the exterior of the building is,” Rose agreed with a smile. “If you have any questions, just ask your AI assistant. Here’s a pair of glasses,” she handed the other lady a pair of chic reading glas