Julius looked out to the empty street with a depressed slump in his shoulders. His city was gone, nothing more than a smoldering crater at this point. At least, this is all he could think as he stared into the ruin that was once the Ehlers Cigs building. He remembered that night Ehlers had killed himself in amazing detail at this moment. His eyes began to tear up at the thought of his cousins last words. “I’m sorry, Julius.” Those words seemed to come from everyone who ever died in front of him. He walked closer to the center of the crater, climbing over the rubble, so that he could get a better look at some of the few pieces of the building that had survived the bomb that the Outcasts set off earlier that day. Damn them, he thought. They had reduced New Chicago to nothing more than a war zone. With his men gone he couldn’t make any claim to the plots of land they destroyed. He couldn’t save the people they were killing. He felt like he was nothing. He wasn’t the brave, strong, and charismatic leader he had wanted to be for his people. He was just like the rest of them. Powerless to do anything for those suffering around him. He sat down on a rather flat piece of rubble, watching the moonlight play on the specks of dust that still remained in the air. He hung his head as another tear reached the ground below him. This couldn’t be happening, he thought, this was all just a dream that he would wake up from. However, sadly, no matter how much he wished it he knew his life was just a never ending nightmare. He was without hope, without purpose. Only of the few remaining security staff tried to make repairs, but after the mysterious liquidation of the Ehlers accounts he didn’t have the millions required to repair the city. Even if he did it would never be the same again. The Outcasts practically ruled over the city now and he didn’t know what to do. The Armada had tried contacting him multiple times, to offer aid, but he couldn’t take it. He didn’t know which would be worse, letting his city be run by criminals, or having his people subjected to oppressive military occupation. He cupped his hands together, still staring at the dirt beneath his feet. “Why?” He said allowed to no one in particular. His voice was nothing more than a sad, hollow whisper at this point. He wished he could be confident in this moment, believe that he could get back up from this. He wanted it to be as if his city dying was nothing more than a small set back to his life. He stood up again, now anxious to keep walking. He passed structural pylons, old bits of girder, and even bits of what used to be his house on the top floor. As he climbed his way back out of the hole towards the hospital where the Ehler’s Cigs sign had crashed into he noticed a small broken picture frame that had somehow managed to survive the explosion. He bent over, brushing the glass away, and picked out the picture. It was a small picture of him and Jess smiling at the camera when they went and visited some other colony. Julius hasn’t seen her in days. Had she left with the others? Would he ever see her again? What would he tell her when she came back? His house had been blown up. He only had the money that he had managed to keep with him and he dare not use it on anything other than medical treatment for the city. He was beginning to consider just leaving it all behind. It wouldn’t be an easy thing to do but at least he wouldn’t have the lives of so many on his shoulders. No, he thought. He wouldn’t give up like that but somedays he wished he could. All he had ever wanted was to stop the people around him from dying and it seemed to him that he had only created the catalyst to more death and destruction. He walked through the empty hospital, seeing the wires where cameras once hung. The place that once held the autodoc sparked occasionally. Hisashi should’ve fixed that but Julius didn’t dwell on it much longer. He walked carefully over the shattered glass and rubble that now decorated the reception room. As he walked out the door he felt the first drops of rain hit his face as a storm started up. He sighed as he put his hands in his pockets and walked along the empty street. The lights flickered with that almost inaudible hum that always came from fluorescence. He walked along, passing under the Sky Elevator and over the ICIA HQ that had been broken into only a few days prior. What was he going to do? This isn’t where he thought he’d be in a thousand years. “I guess everyone has their time.” He said again to no one. It was almost too much to handle at times. The stress, the finances, the murders, the destroyed bits of city. What was he doing it for? At times, the answer seemed so simple to him. To protect the ones he loved and help the ones who can’t help themselves. At other times, it just seemed like one big blurry mess that he could barely make sense of. Yet, he had the strange compulsion just to keep going on and see it through to the bloody end. He stood on the beampad in the cold night air as the rain droplets came down in droves. He pressed the button on his wrist pad that would take him back up to his ship and that night, he would dream of the many things he could’ve done to stop all this and feel the night’s chill long after he had left it.
(( the evolution of NC is honestly one of the coolest dynamic environments I've seen on the server ever. ))
((NC actually got bombed. Water tower broke, the cig building is one big crater, and the hospital is rubble, too.))
((For some reason, on the other side of town, a little bit away from the Ehler's tower, the Moriya Tower and NC Bank still stand strong. Seems like terrorists like advocates of capitalism? And just hate Ehlers for some reason XD))
((Well Julius is doing something that few (if any) colony leaders have ever done; roll with the punches. (Including myself))) ((Kudos for that, makes me wanna visit NC more, to be perfectly honest.))
(oh, trust me. I'm good at voiceovers. Just ask most people who have heard my voice. Looks like you have competition, Narfball.)
Upon request of one or two people, I decided to make something like this on a weekly basis. It didn't seem like too much trouble, but it's something I can do at the very least. http://community.playstarboundrp.com/threads/in-the-weeks-that-followed.6663/#post-77743
