Arise, go to Aquilaria, that great city

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Octavius
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Arise, go to Aquilaria, that great city

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Arise, go to Aquilaria, that great city

In the far reaches of Antican history, before the Unification and the War of Allies, the Field of Valor, or Campus Valoris, was the site of military training and ceremony for Aquilaria, then a city-state turned regional power. With the founding of the Dinarchy, Aquilaria was transformed from a local power to the capital of a large empire, and the Field of Valor ceased to fulfill that purpose. Over the years, it was sold off piece by piece, first to the wealthy, who built extravagant villas. Later, as the Eternal City grew to overtake it, the Field of Valor became dominated by low-income apartment blocks. A fateful fire during the Late Dinarchy consumed the area, resulting in a rebirth. The modern Field of Valor was populated by high-rise apartments, whose property value slowly trickled upward, one of Aquilaria's larger business districts, and the site of several branches of the University of Aquilaria.

The College of Engineering and Applied Science, nestled against a hill in the southeastern part of the Field of Valor, served the city quite well in the immediate aftermath of those electro-magnetic pulses that hit all of Platea and beyond. Within a few days after the EMP, CEAS had repaired their emergency generator, and were able to establish a radio-based communications network. Parts of Arahova, in Phedodah, had been knocked out by the same EMP. Mahapur in Aryasht. Kyriaki in Skiron. As the University of Aquilaria's radio tower established communication with each new city, they saw the affected region grow to encompass most of Continental Antica. Only Korhal, Sylvania, and Antica abroad were spared.

Shortly after establishing contact and exchanging information, however, the radio tower in Kyriaki fell silent. After a few days, Mahapur similarly stopped responding. In Platea, Gnidia and Passerina never responded at all.

Nafticon City gave them the news: a series of nuclear blasts in the upper atmosphere, too far up to cause any surface damage or leave behind nuclear fallout. Nafticon had no idea who did it, but it was the result of a ballistic missile fired from somewhere in the Raynor Sea. Nobody claimed credit, and nobody had declared war.



Within a day, the government of the City of Aquilaria headquartered itself in the administrative facilities of the nearby College of Business Administration and declared martial law until the current emergency concluded. Under normal circumstances, a blackout would result in emergency standby generators starting up in key facilities. Government facilities, key infrastructure locations, universities, hospitals. These were damaged by the EMP. A normal blackout would also last for a relatively short period of time. Now, refrigerators went warm, electric stoves stayed cold, and delivery trucks did not deliver new supplies of food.

Emergency shelters were established and RDF Reserves were called up in order to stop the looting and distribute emergency food rations. They were marginally successful for the moment, as the appearance of guns in the hands of soldiers, even one-weekend-a-month soldiers, has the power to bring people back into line when they know that those soldiers have the authority to use force to maintain order. Regular soldiers, located in military bases around Aquilaria, were scarce. Regular transport vehicles have way too many little electronic parts to get fried by an EMP. Integrated circuits. Starter solenoids. Spark plugs.

Too many little electronic parts were burned out by the EMP and now useless. Little electronic parts like pacemakers. Small, vital pieces of electronic equipment like infusion pumps, electrocardiograms, defibrillators.

The initial fires, the result of gas containment failures, automobile collisions, train derailings, plane crashes, accidents, arson, etc, became more difficult to put out over time, as water pressure dropped. Containment by demolition was under consideration. Thankfully, Aquilaria was not typically subjected to hot, dry winds.

After almost a week of this, as order teetered on the edge, struggling to maintain itself, the robots came. Aquilaria's radio tower went silent.

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