The morning after I arrive at A'roll's house, a news broadcast cuts on.
"A Federation soldier by the name of Bolf Brashheart has commanded several civilians in taking over a small town in Celestia in an attempt to spark a revolution. The Commune claims to have nothing to do with this attempted revolution; more on the story later."
The thing about Galactic news is that there's so much going on, so much to cover. He was a single paragraph in the newspaper this morning, and a headline under a debate between President Monclaire and former President Kuti'feriut.
We have to stop by the Veterans Hospital in the Capital of Opranus, Kerbin. Thirty minutes from A'roll's home.
A'roll sings some old romance song while we drive down the highway.
The drive is calm; a part of me thinks they shut down the highway. Snow and sleet, along with ice, would make the road impossible to drive on normally.
Freezing rain pours on the windshield.
I hit the brakes as quickly as I can upon seeing a crowd.
The crowd is in front of the Capitol Building; I believe there are thousands of people here. They're waving signs and protesting in the freezing cold.
They then start tossing things at the Federation officers holding them back.
My CivLink blinks, and I'm supposedly on duty now; it claims there's a 'battle in progress.
Snow and hail pound on the roof of the low rider; the sky is a dark grey.
The tone of the whole city is just negative. Every part of it; nobody is smiling, nobody is laughing.
It's tense.
A'roll exits the vehicle and opens his trunk, grabbing Double Whammy and Yahflay's Peashooter.
"You never know." He hands me Double Whammy.
I look at it and flinch. My hands shake, and I drop it on the snow; a cartridge falls out of it. Red, as if it's been used before and not fully empty; they'd be purple if the cartridge expired and green if full.
I haven't touched it in several years. Almost four years. The handle is cold and lifeless. I vowed I'd never touch it again, yet here I am.
There's yelling and screaming from the crowd.
"From the Colonies to the Capital!" and "Viva La Commune!"
The protestors wear red bandanas with black face coverings. They know the Federation has advanced technology and can detect them no matter where they are and how far from their homeworld they may be. They don't care; it's not about being anonymous to them.
Bo calls us on our CivLink and starts asking us some questions.
"Dude, are you seeing what's happening on Opranus right now? If I were you, I'd get off of there quickly."
A'roll joins our conversation, and then Oza does as well right after.
Naku joins, then Aedar, and lastly Iri.
"What are we talking about, guys?" Aedar asks.
Everyone tells him to shut up.
"There's this million-man protest across the galaxy. The one in Kerbin; I think it's getting violent." A'roll states. He stands on the car and broadcasts it.
Protestors throw rocks and sticks and snowballs at him, noticing the purple Federation sweater.
"Get the fuck back!" He exclaims, shooting Yahflay's peashooter into the air.
Iri opens his mouth and closes it quickly.
"Say what you had to say, bud," Naku states. We can hear each individual flap of his shake and wobble whenever he speaks; it's disgusting.
"When I was younger, on the planet Georis. Something similar to this happened. I was no older than 8 and—" A'roll interrupts him.
"Fuck up, puss puss. Are y'all gonna come down here and help us or what?" He says.
Iri sighs.
In thirty seconds, they appear, landing on the diner right next to us. They got here via an escape pod.
"Power to the people!" The crowd exclaims.
Several Federation officers, along with local law enforcement, are being pushed back to the Capitol building, nonviolently. A young Sergeant with the Nickname 'Flappybird' calls for his little squad to open fire on the crowd.
We can hear him through our comms, and we guide several protestors into a safe place.
The crowd scatters and yells when they hear rayguns open fire. Some of the snow changes colors since some protestors get hit, but some people decide they want to fight back.
Several hundred people.
An all-out firefight breaks out in the street of Kerbin; thirteen of Flappybird's soldiers request backup from the closest Federation team.
Which so happens to be us, and we have to navigate through the crowd.
Walking through the crowd is like going through waist-high mud in the rain; it's shorter than you, hard to navigate, and really thick.
Snow gets on everything; Naku insulates himself by jiggling the whole time there.
A'roll nearly gets trampled.
Minutes turn into about an hour before we get to the Capitol.
And it seems like we're too late.
There are protestors, and soldiers are laid out intricately throughout the building.
A man sits on the staircase.
"The Icarus Legionnaires took care of it," Flappybird says.
He has this thick black mustache.
Oza tosses her helmet on the ground.
"I thought we were going to get some action!"
Bo turns around quickly, forming her arm into a shield and barricading the door.
There are hundreds of protestors attempting to get into the building.
One of them does get in by smashing the window. He instructs the crowd to throw Molotov cocktails into the building to burn it down.
There's no fire exit in this building, and the Legion teleported in here.
Bo's shield locks against the doors just as the first Molotov shatters on the steps outside. Fire spreads fast across the wet stone, turning the snow to steam. The man who climbed through the window keeps shouting, waving more bottles forward.
Aedar stumbles. He mentioned he's deathly afraid of fire. He shakes like a cold puppy, and it's starting to warm up.
Flappybird points to the door.
"White-haired woman! Whatever it is you're doing! Keep doing it!" He yells.
He searches around the building before grabbing two devices. He places a tube on a raygun and fires it through the wet stone walls. A perfect circle forms, cutting through the crowd and a chunk of the building.
The crowd gasps audibly.
More people press against Bo's shield, and Flappybird has no idea what he just did for the protestors.
They begin sky-hooking Molotovs into the building. Iri throws them back; Aedar crawls into a tight space and begins to cry.
A'roll stands over him and places his index finger on Aedar's forehead.
"Man up, fucknuts!" He smacks Aedar in the face.
Aedar cries louder and louder.
Naku liquefies himself and slithers through the building's cracks, ending up outside. He comes back inside and states.
"The good news is, there are fewer of them. They are going towards the GalacticPort, though. All of the Radicals are trying to break in."
Oza yells.
"Shut the fuck up! I'm thinking of a plan!"
"Think harder," I say to her.
She looks at me.
Finally, they break down Bo's barricade, and hundreds of people flood in instantly like a Tsunami. Bo yells, extending her cyber arm onto a structure.
She looks at us and sighs before being submerged into the crowd.
The crowd fills up the building like a can of sardines. It's more crowded than I know what.
And A'roll has a bright idea.
He fires Peashooter in the air and scares everybody.
Several protestors try to rush towards him; he doesn't care, and he shoots them down.
I see something for a second, like when you have deja vu. Except, it's before the event actually happens. Meta vision or something: the left wall of the building shaking, then a large fireball coming from it.
I instruct our team to get to the opposing wall.
Right as we get to the right wall, the left one explodes.
Hundreds of protestors ragdoll into the right wall.
A'roll turns towards me.
"Now what?"
Oza raises her finger in the air and points to her CivLink.
"We get out of here!"
As she says that, I foresee several people breaking in through the roof with metal wings.
The protestors plant devices all around the building and begin to leave.
The roof shakes.
Violently.
Several dozen soldiers come in through the roof, some winged. They open fire on the crowd, some disable the devices, and the rest take us away to some distant location.
It happens so quickly it feels as if it was divine intervention.