(Stickied Post)
by chjameberrs (45 min)
Wed Sep 23 3012
Hey everyone. I've been hearing a lot of dis/misinfo about what happened a couple months ago with the attack on the semi-annual Sol Order Summit. It's getting old. People died- my girlfriend, the Davoran representative, was shot, she's lucky to be alive. Now so you slimy fucks can get the facts straight, I'll do a writeup on what really happened, and I'll even pin it. Now I swear to all the gods, any more misinfo, and the perpetrator will be banned. Get your facts straight, this is some serious shit. Capiche?
"On 1/12/3012, the Mantean race came to an end, and a wonderful woman was cut down in her prime. If this tragedy wasn't already enough, it was doubled down upon with the declaration of war upon us by the people of Caldoras, a rallying cry which spread throughout the system. Let me be clear here. These people are not rebels or revolutionaries. They are terrorists.
This is the first war that has been declared since Mercury joined the Order, and the Atlantean Solbenders were wiped out. That was 890 years ago. And now, those whose nations have only ever known peace from war have decided to incite it again, with a terrible attempt on the lives of hundreds of planetary representatives of the Order. But I am getting ahead of myself. Allow me to give you a rough recounting of that night. "
-The fifteenth CEO of Mercury, Kassidy Ross, on 1/13/3012, following the assasination of Her Grace, the Last of Mantissa, Veena Dorian, at the age of 683.
At the 1,778th biannual summit of the Sol Order- which is a meeting of all approximately 780 recognized independent planets within our system, a newcomer had arrived. Caldoras, a planet from the outer edges of our solar system, past even Rauros, had joined the fray. Caldoras was a rather small planet, roughly 0.24 times the SPR (Standard Planet Radius- Roughly 10,000 km.) It was a mostly industrial and mining focused planet, first settled by Rauorans and supplied by Mercurians. Eventually, the extremely breathtaking water features and comparatively low gravity allowed them to develop a huge tourism boost. I remember my girlfriend and I actually went to a waterpark there, the damn thing had this massive artificial waterfall you could stand under. It was at least an entire mile high, and it felt like rain by the time it got down to you. It was great. Caldoras was booming, but up until a few years prior, they were paying heavy taxes from Mercury for all the mining equipment they'd used. Really shitty behaviour, I'll even admit that as a proud Mercurian Citizen. However, there's no excuses for how they responded.
A few hours into the peace meeting, the Caldoran representative brought up the topic of the taxes. Kassidy was startled to hear this, saying, "I could've sworn we lifted those taxes when you asked two years ago. I'm having my accounting people check it as we speak; give me a moment. In the meantime, let's hear the next topic."
The Caldoran rep cut them off though- "Two years!? How terrible is your backlog, we've asked you at least once a week since then!"
Kassidy- "It didn't make its way up to me- indeed, it should've been solved without me. Could be a glitch. As I said, I'm looking into it. I'm not brushing off your concerns, Mr. Rashcnot, we're simply doing an investigation into this. Believe me, your economy benefits ours, taxes or not. We'd love to get more cruises out there, and lowering prices would be a great way to do that. I just don't want to hold up the summit while I wait."
Rashcnot growled. "I don't believe that for a goddamned second. You're conducting a phony investigation, and you're going to say you did nothing wrong!"
"Sit down, Rashcnot." Kassidy said, standing up. From their position next to Veena, everyone could see that, as always, they were the security rep too, which meant they had a massive 20mm revolver at their hip. It has only been used a few times, to terrifying ends. Any terrorist that entered that room invariably had left with at least one extra hole in- usually through- them. Rashcnot barely batted an eye as he walked to the front, and began to rant.
"How dare you scam us, and then threaten us at a peace treaty! You, and your stranglehold on everything! You so-called keepers of peace. You are nothing more than scoundrels and thieves! You decieve not only us, but your people! (At this remark, Kassidy flushed.) You aren't even human! You aren't anything but a goddamned machine! This is what I think of your gun, and of your dictatorship!"
Quicker than lightning, Rashcnot formed and fired a gun directly into Kassidy's skull, and then proceeded to fire into Veena too, before recieving a shot to the head. Veena died within two minutes, but Kassidy lived. Their face was torn apart, but a metallic frame remained. As it turns out, our dear leader was an AI being run off a brain scan of Kassidy from a couple hundred years ago. At least it was better than the Davoran leadership. There wasn't much time for Kassidy to process what just happened, as right after the initial attack, four soliders broke through the glass ceiling and fell down into the room.
Automatic rifles in hand, the soldiers swept their fire across all the closest- and most powerful- countries' representatives. This is where my girlfriend was shot. Kiturian, Rhodian, and Cassum representatives were all hit in this first sweep, and the chaos kept coming.
I won't bore you with the details. Four juggernauts in a room with a bunch of (mostly) unarmed diplomats. Fur, scales, and blood littered the room. About ten people were dead, and about 25 more seriously injured. Thanks to Kassidy's unique trait of "being a machine god/goddess", they were able to pilot the Autonomous National Security Squadron to the site. The four other attackers were put down, and a ship laden with explosives was intercepted before it could kamikaze the Mercury Tower.
While their attack wasn't as horrifying as it could've been- millions of people in exovats would've been killed if their ship hadn't been intercepted- It was still extremely bad. Those 25 injured turned out to be closer to 36 due to unseen shrapnel that delegates only found when they got their sheets all bloody upon returning home. Additionally, there were also some people who had died afterwards, from either injuries or, sadly, suicide due to trauma from the attack. I still have to wake her up from nightmares sometimes.
Some of you may be asking, "Why wasn't there more security? Where were all the guards?" Truth be told, there should've been. But there also hadn't been any sort of incident in over ninety years. We were getting a bit lax, this was routine. It's sad that so many had to bite the bullet for it.
It's not some kind of conspiracy. It was complacency.
That was a terrible night. I thought I watched the love of my life die before my eyes, and I'll be damned if anyone will try and come up with crazy plots about it. It was a terror attack. And we will get revenge.