OOC: Time to wrap things up in a neat little bow since I've, once again, allowed things to drag out for this long without a response. Also, this post has been cleared by the previous involved folks.
IC:
Conclusion
Ultimately, Darryl made a rather unwise choice, somehow figuring that a scuffle using superior numbers was the best option he had, as the ending possibilities for this little encounter were gradually becoming more and more limited. The only other way out of this would have been to run, but the weather made certain that it had a low probability of success. The decision he made, though, did not have the results he desired. Due to the Knights’ superior training, the fact that they actually had armoring, and, frankly, their much better common sense, the resulting fight lasted for but a moment, finally concluding when the unruly bunch had been taken into custody, bruised, aching, and their egos having taken a hit but the Knights coming through largely unscathed.
Not everyone had that same stroke of luck with their conflicts, unfortunately. Some of the other forces faced opponents who were actually armed with something more dangerous than fists, like pistols, shotguns, and rifles; those, while certainly more lethal, had left some badly injured and a few killed, but not in great numbers. The most problematic had been explosives, whether it had been the security forces managing to find themselves caught up in another detonation of a church or temple or they had been specifically targeted. The bombs tended to be easy to make with improvised materials, easy to visibly conceal, especially with the deep snowbanks, and one did not have to linger around the area and wind up getting caught.
That presented a challenge when it came to properly securing the city, as much of the explosive materials were obtained during and after the civil war when the munitions were not being tracked and were handed out to just about anyone who could put up a fight against the oppressive government. So, handheld scanners were passed out to the security forces, and large gantries were suspended over different roadways to scan vehicles as they passed beneath. This was helped by the intelligence services pivoting their focus from external threats towards internal ones to try to get one step ahead of the radicals who were setting the explosives off and to see about finding where the caches of these things were still hidden.
But as time wore on, the blizzard and the deathly frigid weather eventually subsided and so did the violence. The much appreciated assistance of the security forces working hand in hand with the Grummian military had helped ensure that tensions were kept to a minimum, while the government had thrown itself into clamping down hard and getting to the root of the strife. The political reforms had begun to take hold as parties had sprung up, realigned, and put themselves out there to fill the void of the churches; hopefully pushing people to settle their conflicts at the ballot box instead of trying to outright kill one another.
Thousands had been arrested for their involvement both in these attacks and the infestation of corruption in the local levels of government to the point where those apprehended had to be transferred to other cities and to the colony worlds to be arraigned and possibly sentenced. A select few seemed to again drop off the face of the Earth; opponents pointed fingers at each other, investigations tended to go nowhere (there were bigger fish to fry, after all), and others speculated that perhaps they had fled because of their crimes. Who truly knew?
The people’s sentiment towards the foreigners had thawed too. Initially, the citizens of Hawthorne were pretty apprehensive regarding these armed invaders who were standing on every street corner, patrolling past their homes and offices. Over the weeks that they were there, the people had grown grateful of them, of their spending their time and effort sacrificing themselves to help preserve the peace. And when the time had finally arrived for them to leave and for the Grummian forces to take over and eventually start drawing down their own forces, the people were actually sad to see them go. A select few, finding the cause noble and not having much in future prospects where they were, opted to join the Knights. But most others, when the time came for the dropships to leave, came out and bid the NDA forces and the Knights farewell, realizing that they were once again on their own to straighten out the remainder of this mess they had set up for themselves, to hopefully craft a far better future than what was there when this help had first arrived.
