"Minos Strikes Again"

[Joe Manning 0]

Fifteen feet below the surface of Tranquility City platform H-7, four Rainmakers were beginning Minos' next ordered attack. The platform's innards were a weaving network of tunnels that allowed workers to access and regulate the flow of water, power, and (most importantly) air. The largest chamber, at the very center of the platform, housed the oxygen generators which fed clean air up to vents along the platform's streets. It was this air flow that the Rainmakers were targeting.

 

Their efforts would no go uninhibited, however. Over a dozen Rainmakers had already been captured by the Guardians and were being detained at their Central Precinct. Many of these Guardians had cracked under interrogation and spilled plans of known attacks. One of the more recent captives had, only at the very last minute, identified the air generators of platform H-7 as a target. H-7 was in the Sunrise District, the city's most populated residential district.

 

When the lead Rainmaker finished plugging a gas canister into the air processors' manual intake port, the Guardians on the catwalk above launched their assault.

 

* * * * *

 

Ten kilometers away, Marshall Amanda Savoy and her bodyguards had just arrived at the Medical One landing pad. As they proceeded to the facility, Savoy's ODRI indicated a comm from her second in command at the Central Precinct. "This is Savoy," she acknowledged.

 

"Marshall, we have an update from platform H-7," Constable La'nok reported. "The results were favorable, but not optimal. Our team managed to stop the Rainmakers and take two of them captive. However, a small quantity of tricerazine nitrate made it to the platform's surface vents before the air flow was shut down."

 

"Damn it!" Savoy barked. "How bad is it?"

 

"Per your orders, we did not begin evacuation efforts on the surface until the team began securing the maintenance tunnels. They estimate that enough of the gas was contained to keep casualties under five hundred people. However, word of the attack has begun spreading, and the evacuation efforts on platform H-7 are turning into a hysterical scramble for the bridges. Further, word of the evacuation is spreading throughout the city. The mob assembling at the Port District is growing."

 

"So we've got bigger problems," Savoy observed as her team arrived at the facility's entrance. "Civil unrest problems."

 

"Yes. Our interrogation efforts are yielding good results. We have prevented at least the full effects of two consecutive attacks. And we now have two additional captives to bring back here. But the fear of further attacks appears to be having the effect on the populace that Minos intended. Also, we currently have no information on the next attack that is planned."

 

"Which is why I'm here," Savoy replied. The guards at the entrance had cleared her team to enter the facility. "Let's hope LaHaye is in a good enough condition to talk ... "