<OOC Thread is located here>
Kalldir had once been one of the richest cities in the entire region surrounding the Tumaya rainforest. For anyone wanting to exploit the rich market that was the various towns and cities inside the dense and hostile Tumaya rainforest it was the final stop before you had to enter the rainforest itself. Many traders would pause here for a few days for final preparations when going in, and for a celebration of their new found wealth when they returned. Being out of the Tumaya itself Kalldir was not embroiled in the wars and disputes that filled the rainforest and made trading there so valuable. It had prospered unhindered and unnoticed by it's warring neighbours, ignored in the sometimes tribal infighting and alliances.
That had changed thirty years ago. The warning signs happened five years before, when a single alliance of cities started dominating the war in the Jungle. No-one in Kalldir wondered what would happen when the cities and towns in the Tumaya rainforest stopped fighting amongst themselves. When the very militarised culture that had arisen as a result of being on constant guard for raids and attacks suddenly had no enemies to fight, and a very rich neighbour practically defenceless. When the Songri Oushi, or army, had marched out of the jungle it had been too late. The closest thing Kalldir had to rulers, the merchant princes, had formed militia to defend their city. But for all their wealth they were no match for the Oushi doctrine, technology, and most crucially experience. Kalldir had been savaged by the fighting, it's construction and layout not built for defence or to endure battles raging in it's streets like the cities in the Tumaya were. The damage from that battle, and the looting that followed, had savaged the city so badly that even now, thirty years on, entire suburbs were ruins and the city centre had numerous reminders of the war. Songri had not devoted much resources to the city that had profited from what it saw as it's blood.
At least resources that could be used to rebuild. Kalldir contained one of the largest garrison forces in all of Songri, tens of thousands of soldiers and their armoured support. The massive security, and, since the construction of airports in the major cities in the Tumaya rainforest, the obscurity of Kalldir had made it the perfect location for any highly classified project the Songri government wished to preform. The development of Power Armour, a suit slightly larger than a regular human with the armour of a light vehicle, had occurred here, and many more projects are rumoured to take place. There is no doubt to the military governor of Kalldir, Shogun Ishikawa, that foreign spies have infiltrated 'his' city and seek to uncover it's secrets. Projects Ascension, Legion and Seraphim. Each project is based in it's own underground facility, and the entrances are highly guarded and classified. Only the most loyal of individuals are allowed to preform anything at these facilities.
Of course maintaining order in the city and protecting the Projects is complicated by the fact that even after thirty years the native population can still remember the wealth and prosperity that it had. The freedoms it's people had, of not being subject to near constant martial law, enforced by soldiers who hold contempt, and sometimes even hatred, for Kalldir and those who inhabit it. With Shogun Ishikawa seeing no reason to keep the men of the Oushi and women of the Kaigun (Everything that isn't front-line infantry) under that restrictive a leash, and abuse of power from the occupying soldiers was common.
As a result of this a resistance group had emerged, and even those not in the resistance would often try staging rallies and strikes against the occupation. These were mostly simply contained by Oushi forces, and allowed to run their course. With foreigners, both visiting tourists and media outlets, reporting from inside the city itself Shogun Ishikawa had orders to try and refrain from making a headline grabbing scene that suppressing a rally or strike would create. The moment it became violent he had his authority to brutally suppress the 'riot', and the people had learned that limit well. Often the resistance would time their attacks and strikes at the time when chunks of the Oushi were deployed to watch a rally, and this tactic had been slowly whittling away at the Occupation force. But a series of blunders by resistance forces had crippled their ability, and now the only real disruption, and cause of alarms on an often weekly basis, was the rallies and strikes.
One of which was taking place now in the middle of Osanagokoro Square. The square itself was a massive block of empty space that usually contained a market of portable stalls and people selling whatever they wanted. Now not one of those stalls filled what was nearly the size of a city block. Instead nearly three hundred protesters had gathered, and 2 full battalions, 100 men plus the hum-vees and APCs that carried them all up, of the Oushi watched. Each Soldier held their weapon lowered, but at the slightest provocation they would raise their weapons and fire. It was common knowledge that the Oushi had no rubber bullets, and anything fired would be live ammunition. A crowd had gathered, not part of the rally and certainly not in any position where they could be caught in potential crossfire. No doubt foreign media would be present, it always was. Watching for the Songri soldiers to slip up, to fire first. For the moment everything was relatively peaceful. The protesters were chanting their usual demands for the Oushi to police it's own ranks, and the Oushi remained absolutely silent and unmoving as it watched, fingers resting next to safeties, waiting for an order to open fire on the exploitive ungrateful natives.
