TVNS▲2.24|LXNN▼0.48|UVSR▼3.03|OONT▲24.86|MFTA▲6.80|IILN▲1.00|WVVH▼34.64|DSCV▼0.03|JLON▲0.46|OSSI▼3.30|XASN▲87.30|UUTH▼8.70
The logo of the Liu Xiu News Network flashes quickly across the screen before switching to the image of a handsome woman standing in front of the tranquil skyline of Piraeus City. The Jiwao Skylift, the planet's only space elevator dominates looms in the distant background, still dominating the city skyline despite being many miles away. As the camera focuses on the news anchor, a handsome dark haired woman in a fashionable suit accented with vivid purple, the faint silhouette of a elevator car can be seen ascending through the low hanging rain clouds."Hello, I'm Illia Jorvas, and welcome back to our morning news updates. For those of you just tuning in we have been reviewing the massively successful security operations that have taken place in the last month."
The camera feed shows clips of pirate vessels being disabled and destroyed in space before flashing several different images of criminals being arrested by Maritime Authority troops. There are several scenes of different checkpoints from across the star system showing larger numbers of security personnel performing thorough scans of civilians entering and exiting from industrial areas and cities. The camera feed switches back to the anchor and zooms out, revealing the large holographic images of two men on either side of the anchor. The man to the right has a lean, sharp angled face and a slightly tan complexion, his eyes piercing and cold while his uniform denotes that he is some form of military official. The man to the left of the anchor is rounder, his face softer, his complexion ruddy and off color as if mixed between too colors of paint that would never match. His hair is patchy and a pair of cheap looking glasses sit in front of his oddly shaped eyes."Since the two terrorist attacks that are widely known as "The Wildfire Incident" the starship Imperator and her complement of security advisors from the Imperial Star Republic have made incredible strides to make all of our lives far more safe and secure. But have they gone too far? Joining me now is retired Maritime Authority Commander Zanim Foral and Bacchus Sanna, magistrate of the northern Lowlands District of Piraeus Ctiy. Gentlemen, good morning and welcome."
Both men nod and send out generic platitudes back to the anchor, who presses on without a pause."First things first, I would just like to thank you Commander Foral, for your service and the work that you and the men under your command have done to make all of our lives a little safer. It must have been exceedingly challenging to root out and effectively destroy many, if not all, of the criminal elements operating beyond the lawful boundaries of our star system."
The commander nods, though doesn't return the anchor's plastic smile."Yes Illia, it is no lie that this has been some of the most challenging work I've done in my career but I feel like I'm justified in saying that the day where we can say no crime exists within Liu Xiu is very near. With the massive upgrades deployment of the Authority's security division, in the last month we've apprehended hundreds of pirates and other extremists that had been entrenched during the tenure of the Phanes Republic."
The camera feed has now changed as the anchor's face appears between the two men, the magistrate already frowning heavily, his strange, beady eyes narrowed and brow furrowed, revealing more severe hair loss than could previously be seen.
"Indeed, but is that a condemnation of the security measures put in place by the Phanes Republic? They also had a security force that started out with far more military support than the Maritime Authority"
The anchor's questions don't seem to faze the commander, his face is relaxed, his eyes still locked on the camera."I don't believe it is a condemnation, no. I can only speak my opinion on the matter but I feel that the Liu Xiu of the Phanes Republic and that of the Imperial Star Republic are two vastly different star systems. In the beginning, there were hardly any laws to govern trade and general commerce within the star system and this was allowed because there was a focus on generating profit in any way possible, thus leading the Phanite administration to take a more relaxed view towards what we would deem as outlaw behavior."
"So you're saying that the previous administration endorsed piracy and crime and allowed it to spread to critical levels?"
"Speculation and differing cultures. Some people see something as acceptable, some do not. Do I think that they intended for it to get as rampant as it was? Of course not, but there's just no real way of knowing what their plan was"
"Indeed."
The anchor shifts slightly in her seat, now putting her close to the magistrate. "Magistrate Sanna, as someone who was in the Phanite administration, can you shed some light on why your old bosses would want pirates running around in their backyard?"
The magistrates frown is now a scowl, his face turning strange shade that almost resembles rotting fruit. "What the administration did was their own business, it was and still is my responsibility to look out for the citizens in my district!"
"So you're saying that the Phanite administration refused to share information with public figures?"
"No, of course not! But I was invited here to talk about the new security measures and how they're crippling businesses in the outer habitation districts, not bicker about the policies of the old landlord!"
"So you're saying that by making sure there are no terrorists going to and from the city is actually a bad thing? "
"No, I-"
"Should we just open the flood gates and allow all these people to come and go as they please? Before the security surge your district was still one of the poorest in the Lowlands, how would that change if we relaxed our security measures back to what they were?"
"The...the new security measures are keeping honest, hard-working people from getting jobs in wealthier portions of the city and keeping others from spending their money in our stores!"
"So you are saying that you'd rather there be no security at all, then"
The magistrate flusters, tripping over his words as he tries to control his obviously boiling anger and formulate the proper words. Commander Foral simply continues staring into the camera, his face looking rather unimpressed and perhaps even a bit disgusted. Illia appears to seize on the moment but before she can say anything the camera pans out as in the distance, the Jiwao Skylift begins to shift violently near it's base. For the first time during the conversation, the commander's face seems to show emotion as the color drains from his tan face. He leaps to his feet and dashes out of the frame, his microphone peaking out as the magistrate stares numbly out his window. Illia Jorvas blinks twice before nervously shuffling some papers."Uh, ladies and gentlement, it seems that the, that the Skylift is having some sort of technical probOHMYGOD!"
Illia's normally pretty face contorts into a ear piercing scream as the shouts of other crew within the studio begin to yell as well, many other staff tht were previously off camera running across the soundstage before a impossibly loud roar and a blast of debris flying towards the camera abruptly ends the signal. For several minutes there is nothing but empty air and a ERROR message before the feed suddenly comes back to life in a very different location. The feed now shows the skyline of a much smaller city surrounded by miles and miles of farmland, the anchor now a younger man in a ruffled looking suit and disheveled sandy-brown hair. BREAKING NEWS---BREAKING NEWS----BREAKING NEWS spams the live ticker feed at the bottom of the screne.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we, uh, this is Jorin Tavos of the Jarilo branch of LXNN. Moments ago we, uh, we seem to have lost contact with our parent station on Jiwao...We're-we're not sure if this is a technical malfunction or something else..." The new anchor seems lost as his news crew scrambles to bring him new information.
"If you, uh, if you had been watching it seemed to appear as though the Jiwao Skylift was having some sort of major technical problem...I'm not, we're not sure if that contributed to the loss of signal..."
Somewhere offscreen another man yells something that is lost in echo to the microphone but not to the anchorman."Um. It apperas now we have, uh, we have confirmation that ALL communications with Jiwao have been severed...Uh, to repeat we here on Taen are unable to contact anyone on the planet of Jiwao following massive technical problems with the space elevator...We're trying to get as much information to you as we can right now but as of this moment all contact with Jiwao has been lost."
Another yell from off screen, the new anchor nods dumbly."Uh, it appears now that we have some reports filtering in from starships and, ah, Port Expedition...We're now receiving reports that the Jiwao Skylift has completely collapsed. Repeat we are now receiving information from Jiwao orbit that the space elevator is has collapsed."
The anchor points offscreen to someone."Bernard, can we uh...can we get any sort of video feed from anyone in orbit?"
The offscreen voice yells back and what little colored that remained in the host's face drains completely away."Uh, ladies and gentlemen we are trying to get you the lastest information but if you're just joining us, the Jiwao Skylift on the planet Jiwao has supposedly collapsed. All contact with anyone on the surface of Jiwao is now impossible...We're trying to get some kind of image from the satellite network in Jiwao orbit but we, ah-"
The feed suddenly snaps to a grainy video feed across the hull of a starship. The camera is pointed directly at Jiwao where the massive orbital station of the Skylift once stood. There are thousands of flickering lights as the system's star catches the light from what appears to be a extremely vast spreading field of debris. The camera feed switches to another feed, this time furhter out and mounted on what appears to be a space station in geosynchronous orbit of a impossibly long line of dark clouds circling the planet of Jiwao in a almost perfect line."Uh, ladies and gentlemen we are getting our first looks at what is possibly the state of Jiwao following some sort of catastrophic technical failure of the space elevator. Uh, if you go back to the first image from what appears to be a hull camera of a starship-Bernard are we sure?-Yeah this is a starship that was on approach to the orbital station of the connected to the Skylift."
The anchor clears his throat as the two camera feeds roll simultaneously besides each other."There's been no official word yet but I think I can say without much of a doubt that, um, that the Skylift elevator has completely collapsed. You can see the line of destruction wrapping around the planet where the lower half of the-of the cable landed. The upper portion is, I'm being told, now flying in an outbound trajectory across the Liu Xiu system. Again if you're just joining us we are showing footage of the apparent total collapse of the space elevator on Jiwao and we have extremely limited contact with Port Expedition vessels..."
The live camera feeds suddenly gone blank before the seal of the Liu Xiu Maritime Authority fills the screen. The image remains large for several moments before it is shrunken to show the anchor, who now looks stunned beyond words."Uh, it ah, it appears that the Maritime Authority has now, ah, has now shut down all transmissions from Jiwao local space. We're going to keep trying to re-establish contact but as of right now everything around Jiwao is now out of contact. Uh, I can only speculate at this point, it was very clear from our first camera feed that the space elevator is gone."
The feed switches to show looping footage of the expanding debris cloud over Jiwao and the long line of dirty, dark clouds circling the planet."Uh, please stay with us ladies and gentlemen, we're trying to get the information out to you as best we can..."
The voice from offscreen shouts again."Uh, it looks like we have very limited footage coming in from the MediaNet from the ground...Can we cut to it?"
The camera feed shifts again, this time to the rainy streets of Jiwao. The footage is extremely grainy and blurred by motion. The grainy footage zips back and forth between the towering, writhing form of the space elevator and the panicking morning work crowd. The video finally snaps into focus as the camera's owner focuses on the space elevator. The stalk of metal is now leaning at a incredibly sharp angle.
"Are you getting this shit!?" A female voice asks from off-screen.
"Yeah" Another female voice responds, "Yeah I'm streaming to XiuTube right now!"
"What the fuck do you think is happening!?"
"I don't know! OH SHIT LOOK RUN"The video devolves into a mess of blurry images and peaked audio before the same impossibly loud roar or twisting metal deafens anything else. One final blurry shot shows a gargantuan mass of black slamming into the ground outside Piraeus City and a cloud of debris racing towards the camera before the video abruptly ends. The feed shifts back to the anchor who briefly attempt to recompose himself before slumping in his chair."Oh, jeeze. Uh...Forgive me but I just have to take a moment to collect myself..."
Several moments pass showing the anchor slumped in his chair before it shifts back to the looped images from Jiwao orbit. Finally the anchor seems to pull himself together."LAdies and gentlemen, if you're just joining us, we can now confirm the collapse of the Jiwao Skylift. The space elevator over Jiwao has collapsed. We have no contact with the planet, the moonbases on Fenghaung or anyone in orbit. The entire Jiwao system is cut off from contact. Again we can now confirm the collapse of the space elevator over Jiwao, an event that happened only a few minutes ago..."