“But?” she asked.
“We’ll have to recommend that the Guardia recheck the filtration systems on their air handlers,” the Marine said quietly. “The ones that are still alive are definitely affected and have tried to physically bash their way through the bars. None of them are in good shape…and those are the ones that were in solitary.”
“And the others?”
“The drunk tank is a slaughterhouse,” Mooren said, her voice forced level. “I eyeball that there were fifteen prisoners, at least, in the cells. Maybe five are alive and they’ve all hurt themselves. Badly.”
“And we’ve still got most of the population hiding in their apartments and the locals have contact with the other precinct station,” Roslyn observed. “This must have been one of the epicenters.”
“Most of the chaos seems to be concentrating on the park where we started,” the Marine replied, pointing down the street. “The affected don’t seem to be attacking each other anymore, either. The…wreckage here says they did at the beginning.”
Roslyn nodded quietly, glancing down at her wrist as her comp buzzed. It was Bolivar, and she tapped a command to link in the Guardia officer, sending audio only from her end.
His video feed was more compressed than it had been, a narrow square around his head. Behind him she could clearly see some kind of vehicle.
“I figured you’d want to be in the loop, Commander,” Bolivar told her. “We’re flagging a concentration of the…affected near your location, and we’re moving a secondary perimeter in on the south side.”
He shook his head.
“Primary perimeter will now act as a quarantine zone. No one leaves the zone without full medical work-up, blood, bioscans, the works. We need to know what we’re looking at and that it won’t spread.”
“I agree,” Roslyn told him. “My Captain is standing by to provide any medical or other assistance you need.”
“I know,” Bolivar confirmed. “Right now, however, my Governor is refusing to even call in planetary resources, let alone Protectorate resources. ‘If we can secure the crisis alone, we have no need to call on others.’”
The last sentence was a clear echo, but Bolivar managed to say it with a mostly straight face.
“Officially, I cannot provide a full update to Captain Daalman,” he continued. “However, you’re in the area and I see a full need for both of us to be sure you’re informed.
“How many Marines do you have, Commander?”
“Nine, all in exosuits with both nonlethal and antipersonnel ordnance,” Roslyn replied. “I didn’t think we needed to bring real heavy weapons, so they stayed on the shuttle.”
“I’m not going to ask why you have heavy ordnance on your shuttle, Commander,” Bolivar said drily. “I’m forwarding you an access program for a full tactical link. You should be able to see us move in and interface with our sensors and video feeds.
“I am trusting you not to forward that data to Captain Daalman; do you understand me, Commander Chambers?” the Guardia officer told her.
“I understand completely, Captain Bolivar,” Roslyn agreed. She understood that he wanted her to relay everything to Daalman, just in case things went very, very wrong.
“For now, I want you and your Marines to remain in position and provide a backup surveillance from inside the zone,” he continued. “Hopefully, we will meet in person very shortly, Lieutenant Commander.”
“Good luck, Captain Bolivar.”
The live channel closed, and Roslyn looked over at Mooren.
“We’re getting a tactical feed from the Guardia,” she told the Marine NCO. “Can you or Knight set up a relay to get it to Huntress?”
“Of course.” Mooren paused. “They’re moving in, then?”
“They are. Bolivar says we should see them shortly,” Roslyn said.
“Bullshit.”
“That’s what he’s afraid of, yes.”
By the time the Guardia vehicles rolled in, Knight had interlaced the data from the locals with the overhead from Song of the Huntress and provided them with a stunningly detailed view of Nueva Portugal’s attempt to restore order.
Whatever the situation might be, the Guardia had a standard set of protocols for escalation of force. Massive loudspeakers ordered the crowds to disperse—but only seemed to draw the attention of the small crowds of victims still scattered through the southern half of the neighborhood.
Dozens, then hundreds, of bodies gathered toward the sound of sirens and loudspeakers. There was a standoff as the lead vehicles, armored riot vehicles that could pass for light tanks, came to a halt ten meters from the crowd, continuing to bellow orders to disperse.
Instead of dispersing, the crowd on Knight’s holographic projection surged toward the vehicles. New icons flashed up on the hologram as the lead pair of vehicles activated their sonic dispersers, noisemakers that were supposed to act on subconscious instincts to send humans running.
The crowd kept charging. Roslyn grimaced as she watched the civilians storm onto the riot vehicles, clawing mindlessly at the armored panels and trying to break into the pseudo-tanks.
The officers behind the riot vehicles opened fire with stunguns, but Roslyn already knew what was going to happen there.
“We told them,” Knight said grimly. “What the hell are they going to do?”
“That,” Mooren said grimly, pointing as the video feed showed gas vents opening on the exterior of the riot vehicles. “Nix solution. It’s a last-ditch defensive measure for exactly this situation.”
Except it wasn’t working. The hologram was interpolating imagery from multiple sources and gave Roslyn and her people a clear image as one of the people swarming the lead riot vehicle tore the access hatch open. Half a dozen people fell into the opening within seconds—and the Nix solution came with them.
“My god,” Roslyn whispered. “What… What do we do?”
More SmartDarts cascaded over the crowd as the Guardia officers opened fire with everything they had. The SmartDarts’ shock settings were still managing to bring people to the ground, temporarily disabling them…but Nueva Portugal had been an UnArcana World. The local police didn’t have Mages to pin people down as Roslyn had incapacitated their one prisoner.
The second wave of vehicles and officers began to pull back. It wasn’t a planned thing. It was a wavering step backward. Then another.
