- Joined
- Feb 14, 2022
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- #1
< :: Incoming encrypted transmission from city 43 administrator, Markie-O'Vello :: >
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<:: Transcript Alpha-01, A beautiful state of mind ::>
<:: Hello reader, my name is Veronica Markie-O’Vello. I'm the current city administrator for city forty-three. I want to take you on a journey, from where this place started, to where it now resides. Back before the union came to earth, the city was known as Auckland, sitting between two vast oceans in the country of New zealand. I had never been to this place prior to now, but from what I have seen in pictures, it was a magnificent place. Towering buildings, a vast economy and the streets bustling with life at every juncture. People were going about their daily lives in a hustle and bustle of well orchestrated movements, whether that was via the use of public transportation, personal vehicles or walking to their destinations.
There were so many different careers back then too, such as train drivers, pilots, lawyers, accountants, shop keepers, sales men and women…..The list goes on, as you can imagine. What I mean to say, is that people across the city varied greatly in their professions. The weather at the time, according to my sources of course, was normally fair and quite warm throughout the years, with the obvious rain storms here and there and some snowfall during their winter seasons. God, I wish I could have seen it for myself. The pictures I have witnessed are so beautiful, I almost cried with sorrow after being presented with them. Vast plains and hills, strewn with trees, all covered in snow, such a magnificent sight to bearers eye! But, I digress a little.
All in all, the city in its former state was indeed something of a marvel, the high rise skyscrapers glistened in the sun on a clear day, trees and hedgerows lining the streets and adding color to what might have been an eye sore without. ::>
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<:: Transcript Alpha-02, Hours of dread and sorrow ::>
<:: The following was during the war, within the city of Auckland. As I previously mentioned, I had never visited this place before and seen it with my own eyes, but from what I have read and heard, this is what happened during the seven hour war.
Portal storms, xenian creatures and all manner of horrific monsters had ravaged the city prior, greatly reducing the numbers within the military forces. A shell of its former self, parts of the city were being rebuilt, getting whatever materials they could from overseas. Other areas, had been completely reduced to rubble, having seen an onslaught of fighting and riots, through sheer desperation of the local population as food and water, started to become a rare commodity. This allowed for easy pickings, as the combined forces began to enter the city and make light work of suppressing all those that remained. People in New Zealand, had never been subjected to this type of offensive before, with the added depletion of resources, made it extremely easy for the combine to make their move and force the population into their will.
They called it the seven hour war, across the globe. This was not the case for Auckland. Three hours was all it took to overrun and occupy the city, lining every street, taking root at every strategic location and laying claim to the once prosperous hub of the northernmost island. All those that remained, were yet to fully understand how their lives would change under the new regime. For some, they would never know what the future would hold. Laying under the cover of darkness, those who sought to fight back and refused to succumb to the combine, gathered what they could within the last hour leading up to the peace treaty. They forged ahead, with little to no equipment or protection, hoping to have strength in the numbers they had. This was to be a foolish error in judgment, being taken down swiftly and effectively by very few of the combines forces. Auckland was now under the combines command. ::>
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<:: Transcript Bravo -01, A unified Auckland ::>
<:: Thank you reader, for continuing on my journey through this monologue. By now, you may be wondering what happened next. Simply put, the union became the new norm for Auckland and over the next five years, suppressed and forced the local population into its branches. The workers union was the first to materialize, having an immediate need for structural redevelopment and critical infrastructure rebuilt. Water supplies had been heavily damaged during the war, along with their subsequent pumping stations and sanitation plants. All were condensed into a small pocketed, manageable location within the center of the city, for ease of access and better security. The workers union had a large scale warehouse constructed to the east of the city, allowing for a mass production of rations and low grade chemical manufacture for some of the overseas locations and industrial sectors.
Not too much longer after the fact, would the need arise for the medical union’s intervention, as disease and viral infections manifested themselves from the over production of chemicals. People with skin sores, ulcers, hair loss, tooth decay and loss of eyesight had become a very common sight. I know what you're thinking and no, pollution was not the direct cause. Chemicals by their very nature had a long and slow effect on those who handled them on a daily basis, during the forced labor cycles overseen by the newly formed civil protection teams. Poor handling of these materials and a lack of care by the combine, prevented the lower class citizens from being allowed any forms of protection against these hazards, enabling a simple spill to create a chain effect of long anguish, pain and suffering. Many had to be amputated over the years, bringing in transfers from outside the city to boost the ever diminishing workforce. Life was difficult and would not get any easier. ::>
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<:: Transcript Charlie-02, A failed administration ::>
<:: Where do I begin! There is such a backlog of terrible leadership that it really is hard to pinpoint where it started to go wrong. I won't ever speak his name, through the sheer negligence and ensuing carnage that he caused in this city and quite frankly, doesn't deserve to get a mention.. Over the years following the unification of forty-three, a new revolutionary industrialist ideal had befallen the workers union, increasing production on heavy resources for the rest of the world and shipping them via the newly built ports on the west and eastern coast lines. Things such as oil refining, coal purification into coke, steel manufacturing, raw plastic and bottle making via extrusion techniques, were some of the things our so called leader implemented over the course of three years, I don't know why, but we retained out title of city, instead of being changed to industrial. I remember them telling me as one of his ministers, that it was to cover it up and hide the fact from the city's inner population. Pollution being a prominent feature of this plan, it didn't stay hidden for long.
The industrial sector was located on the western border of the city, encompassing five square miles in total. The industries had been laid out in a pattern resembling that of the streets in Manhattan, a block formation with roads and underpasses full of soot and dust, heavy goods vehicles being used to cart all the various materials between them all. Dead bodies became a common sight too, through various accidents within the industries. Most of this was swept under the carpet and never made the local news paper, in fear that those who might be against it all would rise up and group together to overthrow the union. Everything was mostly above board, being in line with the unions industrial ideas, but hindsight into the years prior and how weak the workforce had eventually become, was something to be desired.
Two months before I eventually became the city administrator, there was a stirring within the civil administration. A rumor had started to spread that a group had formed within the city's rebellious population, plotting and scheming against the administrator. They were blase about it, not really giving enough thought over the legitimacy of the group. On Friday, the fifteenth of august, twenty-sixteen, those rumors would become a reality. A team of seven officers, three overwatch units and the administrator left the nexus in a convoy, heading out to the industrial district for a meeting with some of the management there. The main gate, twenty meters tall and fifteen meters wide, was the first of three that had to be traversed before reaching that sector. On the second gate, unbeknownst to the convoy, a group had set up their plan of attack. Thirty-five people, all armed and ready to fight, lined the walls of the gate, hiding behind barricades built for the over watch forces to use and defend with. Their numbers, having been in a great quantity, were able to defeat those guarding the checkpoint and seized full control over its functions and communications systems. They knew who was approaching and laid in wait for days, no one in the overwatch teams realizing that all contact had stopped abruptly and failing to recognize this fact.
As the convoy approached the gate, the waiting ambush gathered their senses and moved into position, hiding in the shadows and ready to make their move. IED’s had been placed along the road side, disguised as things like water bottles, old buckets and suitcases, aged in such a way as so they would appear to have been there for a long time, deterring the idea of suspicion. Once stopped at the gate, the usual line of communication between those in charge of the convoy and the gate's operational personnel began. The first, and only message to be received by the inner coms systems was a simple identification protocol. This caused all the IEDs to explode at the same time, ripping the vehicles and anyone around them to shreds in an instant, killing a few officers in the blast. Signaled by this blast, the group sprang into action and opened fire on their targets, who by now were dazed and confused by what had transpired. The administrator lost his life, being shredded by a plethora of bullets and being hit by a small piece of shrapnel from the initial explosion. Some would say it was horrific, whilst others proclaimed a victory for the betterment of this city. ::>
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<:: Transcript Echo -03, A state of decay ::>
<:: Transcript Echo -03, A state of decay ::>
<:: I bring you now to my final message which will give you a run down on the current situation in forty-three. Everything is drawing ever closer to collapse and may soon require us to abandon the city as a whole. I have my team of ministers working hard to resolve the problems we face, but it's becoming ever clearer to me now that we are in desperate need of outside help and medical aid. Our population is weak, decrepit and overworked by the previous administration's tyrannical and industrialist approach. I am personally no saint, given the atrocities I have had a hand in helping to create for the population, but I am now trying to make some adjustments and keep the city from falling into an unstable spiral of total decay and misery. It's proving to be a difficult task, the ministers placing blocks at every step of the way and demanding we keep forging along a path of assured failure. My concerns are a prominent thought in the forefront of my mind on a daily basis. Our benefactors are not ones to be trifled with, as they oversee the efforts I am trying to make, thrown to the wayside as though they are of no consequence.
My first port of call was to try and remove the industrial sector of the city, in a bid to improve the overall health of the population and rid this city of pollution. My efforts have been questioned constantly, driving me into a more depressed and anxious state of mind. I managed to draw up and write a new act, detailing how all industries needed to improve on their gas expulsion and waste management processes, having heavy consequences should they not fall in line within a given time frame. My second act was to import doctors and surgeons for the medical union, making them a priority transfer to help in sustaining those who were on death's door. These changes have helped somewhat, but still leave a lot to be desired.
We take on transfers weekly, many of which are outcasts from other cities. I have a very heavy overwatch presence setup along the borders of the nexus as a precautionary measure. Most of those that remain here are not native to the former state of New Zealand, so I fear some form of retaliatory actions will follow on from the previous administrations failings. Over time, things have begin to improve at a steady rate, but fail to build up momentum. There is a terminal nearby, numbered as eight in the index. I got word that it is also falling into a state of abandonment, making me believe that we will also share that same fate, sooner rather than later.
My health is also declining, having suffered from a brain injury when I was nine years old. I fear with this, along with the pollution that's been enveloping the city for many years now, that I dont have many years left in me. I will do everything in my power as administrator to restore life and bring back a healthy workforce, to better our species and push forward to reach the stars, hopefully impressing our great benefactors enough to allow the continued progress. For now at least, things are not looking great and appear to be falling further away from what could be a prosperous, working city. For now at least, I thank you for reading my message. ::>
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