Nearly a week had come and gone since the evacuation of Westeria City had been announced. The congestion of roads and air traffic out of the city was still heavy, but many of the residential regions of the city were turning into ghost towns. Others maintained a strong presence yet, Little Shintenchi among them, where the locals had opted to dig in and wait out the storm rather than have their lives uprooted in being shipped off to some foreign land. Many of them didn't speak the Terran tongue, and the prospect of starting over in a new place was a frightening one.
Azure Heights and Calcord Point maintained the largest concentration of activity though as they both served as primary evacuation hubs. Military presence remained thick throughout the streets, aiding the civilians in reaching their appropriate destinations.
It was the early hours of morning, and the sun had yet to breach the horizon when a faint pop and crackle filled the air amidst the congested evacuation point within Azure Heights. It wasn't an entirely alien sound to the city streets - not since the city had fallen anyways. It was a sound akin to static electricity. At first that's all it was. An occasional pop, and a spark of light here and there. Curious, but not particularly alarming in itself, especially given the scale of larger anomalies that had torn the city asunder.
It grew rapidly though from a faint almost imperceptible noise in the deadened pre-dawn hours of morning, to something far more violent. Arcs of uncontrolled energy lashed out from the air, striking nearby objects with unpredictable results. A telephone pole was briefly brought to life as fallen electric lines lashed and writhed like serpents, and an abandoned vehicle was rendered into molten slag by one wayward whip crack. Scorch marks appeared upon the pavement where other lances of energy struck, until the random fluctuations in energy managed to stabilize enough for several rifts to take form.
Panic quickly spread among those within the streets as they clambered and fell over one another in their rush to get clear of the rifts. The unstable nature of the rifts was fast apparent as several snapped shut almost as soon as they were formed. Others maintained some semblance of stability though, if only for a time. The bursts of energy fluctuations left it uncertain how long they would remain though. Many of the rifts to open up within the city collapsed upon themselves before long, but some managed to grow stable enough to self-sustain themselves.
The TNG soldiers on scene moved quickly to try and control the situation as they called out for an orderly fall back to secure the area, but they were working against a panicked crowd while their own numbers were stretched thin.
"Get those civilians back!" barked a soldier.
"Get an abjurer over here!" another hollered. "Get these rifts closed!"
Azure Heights and Calcord Point maintained the largest concentration of activity though as they both served as primary evacuation hubs. Military presence remained thick throughout the streets, aiding the civilians in reaching their appropriate destinations.
It was the early hours of morning, and the sun had yet to breach the horizon when a faint pop and crackle filled the air amidst the congested evacuation point within Azure Heights. It wasn't an entirely alien sound to the city streets - not since the city had fallen anyways. It was a sound akin to static electricity. At first that's all it was. An occasional pop, and a spark of light here and there. Curious, but not particularly alarming in itself, especially given the scale of larger anomalies that had torn the city asunder.
It grew rapidly though from a faint almost imperceptible noise in the deadened pre-dawn hours of morning, to something far more violent. Arcs of uncontrolled energy lashed out from the air, striking nearby objects with unpredictable results. A telephone pole was briefly brought to life as fallen electric lines lashed and writhed like serpents, and an abandoned vehicle was rendered into molten slag by one wayward whip crack. Scorch marks appeared upon the pavement where other lances of energy struck, until the random fluctuations in energy managed to stabilize enough for several rifts to take form.
Panic quickly spread among those within the streets as they clambered and fell over one another in their rush to get clear of the rifts. The unstable nature of the rifts was fast apparent as several snapped shut almost as soon as they were formed. Others maintained some semblance of stability though, if only for a time. The bursts of energy fluctuations left it uncertain how long they would remain though. Many of the rifts to open up within the city collapsed upon themselves before long, but some managed to grow stable enough to self-sustain themselves.
The TNG soldiers on scene moved quickly to try and control the situation as they called out for an orderly fall back to secure the area, but they were working against a panicked crowd while their own numbers were stretched thin.
"Get those civilians back!" barked a soldier.
"Get an abjurer over here!" another hollered. "Get these rifts closed!"
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