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25 years have passed since the glorious victory at Brickingrad. The Federalist Star Union evicted the Berliniscow Naturalist Party completely from the planet Midway, site of the battle. After a fierce space battle saw FSU ships unable to break through the BNP defensive cordon around their home system, the war settled in a stalemate in space. Most of the Federal military remains picketed around BNP territory, ready to stop any major offensive. The spirit to finish them off is absent, however. Domestic issues have since grabbed the attention of FSU leadership. The late Augustus "Dubya" Caesar's Roma Intra Vacuum party lost the subsequent elections to the Developmental League. They have controlled the presidency for 22 years, with the present day featuring their third candidate to hold office.
The issues at present for the FSU are debates over reforms to the Tithe Infantry practice (the giving of production orders to couples to provide a newborn male for life in the federal infantry), freedom of expression and religion, and federal authority over the states. Of late, the issue of nationality within the Union has become pressing. One nation in the Union from the Reddish Brown dye immigrated in mass numbers to the Union before the Brickingrad era from beyond charted space, and as yet still have no state of their own. Old public plans to carve one for them out of BNP territory were put on hold, then mothballed, then forgotten about as the Reddish Browns began insisting on being given land taken from the existing nation-states in the Union...
An Overwatch shot of the city El Deplorablo. Situated on the Federalist Star Union planet which contains the capitol, the eponymous city-state of Fiat Lux, it is located in the rural and sparsely populated state of Pantarox.
Its notable features include,
-A city-wide rail net with 2 stations and 2 engines
-The Beige House, the residence and office of the governor of Pantarox
-A market area featuring a significant hard-currency bank, complete with a crane to load chests of money onto or off of trains.
-Modest gold-mining operations
-A small airport
-Finally, The sphincter, which is the headquarters for the new and radical Eleutherian Synthesis Party. From here, its leader coordinates efforts to beat the other two major political parties, Roma Intra Vacuum and the Developmental League, in elections across the Union. It is also from here that the party's increasingly notorious military arm, the Blood Gorge Society, is commanded.
On the outskirts of town, a group of five snake herds directs their scaly stock to the markets of El Deplorablo.
Inside the sphincter, on its second floor, the leader of the Eleutherian Synthesis Party, Cafferio, meets with the ranking member of his military organization. Named Tsabashvili, the commander is here to discuss how to finance the proposed enlargement of their party's armed forces, the Blood Gorge Society.
Below the two on the first floor, Cafferio's two bodyguards watch over their leader's wife from outside her meditation chamber.
At the airport, 4 proselytes for a bold new religion obstruct the runway in an attempt to force people to gather round to hear their message.
"Showing agency in this world goes against the divine's will!" they shout to confused passersby, "it is His will to be passive and let all things fly past you, never giving input."
They talk of other novel virtues espoused by their faith.
"He who turns the other cheek is rewarded only half as much as he who stands idle with his head hung low as his neighbor is cut down in cold blood. That man is in turn only rewarded half as much as he who remains silent as his brothers and sisters are sold into slavery."
"To even ask, 'To do or do not?' is sacrilege; the divine wills that you always do not."
"Parents, always offer up your little ones to those who would slay you. To do so puts their lives in the hands of the divine and so honors Him."
But most of all, these men called for all who would listen to stop participating in the Federalist Star Union's war to defeat the Berliniscow Naturalist Party in any capacity. "Your deliverance will only be had when you stop struggling against things of the world and spend all your time physically idle and contemplating the divine. So honor not those fallen in battle, nor those engaged in it or about to be. Rather, pay homage to those brave and convicted enough to tolerate the massacre, who abide the bondage of their fellows with nary a word or a lifting of the finger!"
To get rid of the troublesome newcomer priests, the city's elders have hired a small band of six mercenaries to remove them. The easy way or the hard way.
The local schoolmarm has hired a harlequin entertainer to give her students a fun time.
On the limits of the city a group of youths prepare to leave for a day at nearby beach.
For some it's lunch hour, and a passing pizza van is happy to provide.
A station clerk takes tickets from passengers prior to their boarding.
Beyond the city limits an adventerous photographer tries to snap some shots of elusive cold-weather mega fauna.
A citizen walks down the steps of the west station overhang.
A shot from the western train station looking towards the Beige House, which has the big dinosaur skull on top of it.
Beyond the city's western limits a shepherd moves his flock of silk spinners and venom givers to greener pastures.
Featuring a bank, food service, bar, and boutique shop.
Citizens gather around for rest, drink and music at the marketplace bar.
El Deplorablo's demilitarized fort; now used only for storage. The old garrison has been gone for years and its wall guns are kept unloaded. The city residents now use it for bulk storage.
Extracting raw gold is one of the city's main industries.
The mining company's overseer inspects a fresh nugget as his men watch the great drill set to work.
A small fruit stand near the city center. Beside it are a storage platform and the main power generators.
The owner and operator of the city's Big Red train peeks from his crew station prior to setting off.
A small wood stands behind the Beige House.
Strange creatures dwell in the Beige House's wood.
A shot from the west station looking towards the sphincter tower.
Through the center of town, the track is arranged in a serpentine manner.
Inside a sealed room in the Beige House, the Governor's staff coordinate the state of Pantarox.
The Governor's family has lunch with their daughter's current suitor.
The airport's traffic handler sees a large aircraft on the radar screen coming in for an unscheduled landing.
The air traffic handler gets on her handheld and hails the incoming unknown aircraft.
"Come in unidentified aircraft, this is ElDep Control. Your trajectory takes you into our runway which is presently blocked," she says.
After a moment of silence her handheld cackles with a reply. "Good afternoon ElDep Control, this is Roots 1. We're forced to make an emergency landing at your runway ASAP. Can you get it cleared?"
"We'll do our best, Roots 1. Maintain your descent."
The traffic handler rushes out of her office to shout for her coworkers to clear the runway.
The people around the airport scatter from the runway as the new aircraft gets near for landing. The Cucktian priests hold true to their gospel of total passivity by standing still in its path.
Over at the northeast corner of the city, the two would-be beach-goers on top of the bus notice a strange vehicle approaching at high speed. They call out to the worker on the roof across from them to help them figure out what it is.
The roof worker looks over to the strange vehicle and calls back to the beach-goers.
"I dunno," he begins, "some kinda big six-wheeler with a skull and turret on it."
Far across El Deplorablo, beyond its western limits, the arachnashepherd notices something in the distance headed his way.
A bizarrely arranged figure at the head of a mass of armed men makes their way towards the lone arachnashepherd.
The unscheduled aircraft's shadow comes over the runway as it begins its landing cycle.
As for the Cucktian priests, when push comes to shove they opt for self-preservation over practicing what they preach.
Roots 1 is revealed to be a space shuttle as it finally makes its emergency landing at El Deplorablo's airport. A hush falls over the area around the runway as its engines die down.
Continuing their approach to the airport from earlier, the mercenaries take notice of the newcomer shuttle.
The one in front, the group's leader and veteran of another state's militia force, recognizes what model it is.
"What the hell's an old-generation assault shuttle doing landing like that here?" he wonders aloud.
As the mercenaries close the distance the shuttle's dorsal turret turns and unleashes heavy machine gun fire on them.
The lead mercenary catches the shuttle's heavy slugs as his squad-mates react. Some of them flinch at the shock as others raise their AK's and return fire.
Immediately following the eruption of turret fire, the fuselage of the shuttle pops open to unveil a squad of armed men. Roughly half rush out of the shuttle as others brace their automatic weapons on it and open fire.
The shuttle-born attackers begin shooting down everyone in sight, including the air traffic handler who had made their 'emergency' landing possible.
In the midst of the massacre, the airport's cargo driver attempts to escape in his little vehicle.
One of the shuttle-men who had stay within the transport raises a director's wand and barks out an order to his squad's rocket launcher man.
"Take that micro truck down NOW! Orders are that NO adults in the city may survive!"
The shuttle-men's rocket launcher finds its mark and the truck driver and his vehicle are blasted apart.
The shuttle-mens' massacre at the airport continues apace.
As the airport is overrun, the transport vehicle across town aims its twin-barreled turret at the green roofed building. The worker on top of it stares frozen in disbelief as the energy guns hum up a charge.
The pair of energy shots make direct hits on the broadside of the building and rip it apart.
The roof of the hit building flips over and the debris crush the beach-goers who are not on the bus' roof.
As the transport dives into the city at speed, its passengers aim their guns over the sideguards and begin killing any civilian in sight.
Eventually the big vehicle comes to a stop just inside the city. One of the soldiers with epaulets stands up in the back and orders his troops to dismount.
Between this and the seizure of the airport the entire eastern flank of the city has fallen.
Back at the western extreme of El Deplorablo, the arachnashepherd hears the commotion in the city and turns to see what it is. He can hear the cacophony of automatic gunfire with the occasional explosion mixed in, all with a droning overcast of panicked screams.
All while the group of armed men approach him.
The shepherd's attention is snapped back to the approaching group of strangers as he hears one of his scorpions crunch underfoot. He turns to see that the culprit is the garishly dressed one in front.
Now the shepherd held his animals dear, for they had been his pathway out of poverty. Born poor in the city to negligent parents, he had worked a miserable job for over a year as a teen to save enough money to leave. Eventually he bought a pair each of genetically modified spiders and scorpions and set off into the countryside to become the shepherd he was now. From time to time he would stop by a market in a city or town, and milk the spiders of their silk and the scorpions of their venom. The silk he sold to clothiers and the venom to the military, who coated their bullets in the deadly substance. This was some years ago, and he had by now grown his herd from two and two spiders and scorpions to four and three.
So when he saw the physical extension of his years of hard labor and effort, he was roused to anger. Pointing his staff at the man in black, the shepherd scolded him. In the moment he did not pay heed to the crowd of armed men behind the man.
"How dare you so cavalierly destroy the source of my livelihood!" he shouted, "I WILL take you to court over that!"
No sooner had the shepherd finished venting over the death of his animal than the man in black flicked his right arm and sent his whip into an uncoiled lash. The focal point of the strike caught the irate shepherd in the face. The blow sends the shepherd reeling backward.
As the shepherd crumples back following the whipping the man in black directs his purple rod at him.
"Don't ever even look my way, banana demon!" is all the winged man says as he carries on past the fallen shepherd.
The man in black shifts his rod in his hand, pointing it now at the city. In the same moment he bellows out commands at his following army.
"This is our city now! Kill every adult of yellow or peach skin you find! Seize their vehicles intact for us and link up with your commando brothers!"
