Democracy vs Corporatocracy

Chapter Twenty Six: Breaking News

April 23rd 2042

Chadwick Messenger was the first man of colour to work as a news anchor for the Global News Network since their founding in 2022 and even though he had only had the job for a month, he had proven to be very popular with the people of the world. He often reported on the world news and was always the first to be shown at the beginning of each episode of the Global News Network. He usually came into work with a calm and charismatic attitude, but today he was very shocked and concerned. Mere hours after they occured, the news of the attack in Providence had been delivered to the entire planet. A previously unknown organisation had fired missiles at three ArmTech owned ships that were leaving Providence port and a mysterious blue gas had covered the city. This gas had cured people who were afflicted with illnesses such as Diabetes, Heart diseases and even Cancer! The same day a package had been sent to them that contained a flashdrive, within the flashdrive was the evidence that ArmTech had been selling a deadly gas known as the Demon's Death and what the gas was capable of. Everyone at G.N.N was in a state of shock and now they had shown the evidence to the world via their extremely popular YouTube channel. Now Chadwick had to do the job of reporting this to the world.

Chadwick was sitting at his desk with sweat running down his face. He quickly wiped it of with a handkerchief and took a deep breath. The camerawoman suddenly said "We are live in ten seconds". Chadwick stood still upon hearing those words. The intro music started playing and the words "Global News Network, delivering the news, one show at a time" were said through the megaphones. The image of Chadwick appeared on every television set that was tuned to the Global News Network and Chadwick said "Good morning and welcome. I'm Chadwick Messenger and I have news that meanswell and breaking news". Chadwick said with certainty "Three days have passed since the devastating attack in Providence Rhode Island. The operation was conducted by a previously unknown group calling themselves the Freedom Democracy League. Who claim that their attack was to prevent ArmTech from causing the deaths of millions". The screen behind Chadwick sprung alive and showed the three ArmTech cargo freighters being sunk by missiles. Chadwick proceeded to say "On the same day of the attack a package was sent to us by the Freedom Democracy League, inside were the details of what was within the freighters and a letter from the leader of the F.D.L themself!" The screen changed to show a photo of the letter and the flash drive. Chadwick bought out the letter and said "I shall now start reading from the letter". Chadwick started reading it and said "To the Global News Network, We are the Freedom Democracy League. The world's first anti-Corporate resistance movement. America is a great country yes, but it has been poisoned by Corporate corruption and the American Dream is dead. The corporations known as MegaCorp, ArmTech and Gapple control the United States economy and dictate how the American People live their lives. While the common worker slaves away and is given almost nothing in return, the Corpos stuff themselves with food and drink. NO! This stops NOW. We have taken up arms against the Corpos and we will not stop until the sick and poisonous ideology of Corporate Fascism has been rooted out. This is the one thing the Corpos fear......the Second American Revolution. Sincerely yours, M.L".

Chadwick put down the letter and said "As one can tell the Freedom Democracy League seek to overthrow the United States Government and the Corporations that back them through a violent revolution. The person known as "M.L" appears to be the leader of the F.D.L. Whatsmore is they may get huge amounts of support in the weeks and months to follow thanks to the evidence that ArmTech was selling an illegal weaponized gas to North Korea, Iran and The Serrano Cartel". The screen behind him changed to show footage of a conference room in ArmTech HQ in New York. ArmTech CEO Ronald Lundee was at the end of the conference table and the Board of Directors was also present. Delegates from North Korea, Iran and the New Russian Empire were also present. El Boquita, one of the top Narcos of the Serrano Cartel was there as well and was smoking weed. Lundee got up and said "Hello and thank you for coming, now I have a business proposal for all of you, one that we can all benefit from". Ronald Lundee was an old man in his sixties, he was caucasian, had a trimmed moustache and balding white hair. Lundee scratched his moustache and said "Ever since ArmTech's founding in 1973 we have been a world leader in weapons development and now I give to you.....the Demon's Death". The painting of ArmTech HQ opened up to reveal a safe. One of the guards opened it and inside was a serum labeled "HJ-38". Lundee smirked and said "The Demon's Death is a highly lethal gas that tracks down and destroys the Vitamin D in the body, causing death within mere minutes". The greedy buyers were instantly intrigued by this dastardly news. Ronald Lundee proceeded to say with an evil smile "Loaded into missiles, they can be spread across entire areas within mere minutes. They can wipe out whole villages, or entire armies within days. The Demon's Death can do what you have failed to do.......kill those who disagree with and oppose you effectively and decisively". The screen turned to an image of the United Nations headquarters in London as Chadwick said "With the release of that footage, the United Nations has placed massive sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea as punishment for violations of the Geneva Convention. The Peruvian Government meanwhile has vowed to take action against the Serrano Cartel, who sought to use the gas to seize control of Peru and turn it into an authoritarian drug state". A golden globe with a police badge on it then appeared on the screen behind Chadwick as he said "In response to these revelations, ArmTech executives have been placed under investigation by the Global Police Force".

The Global Police Force were a United Nations effort to try and police the entire planet and help further crack down on crime. They had jurisdiction in almost every country and worked alongside local and national police to lower the crime levels as much as possible. Since their founding in 2025, the crime rate had decreased by 73% in every country that allowed the Global Police Force to operate within their borders. But the Corporations had used their influence to ensure that the G.P.F wouldn't get jurisdiction in not one of the American states. This was because they feared that the G.P.F would find out about their misdeeds and have them arrested. Chadwick proceeded to say "The evidence revealed by the Freedom Democracy League is more than enough however to get ArmTech CEO Ronald Lundee and much of the board of directors arrested. Facing massive sanctions from the United Nations, the U.S Government has agreed to allow the Global Police Force to arrest them, making this the G.P.F's first ever arrests to take place on American soil". An image of ArmTech headquarters then appeared as Chadwick said "We now go live to ArmTech HQ with our woman on the ground, Lana Lane". Lana Lane was outside of ArmTech HQ in New York, along with her cameraman and hundreds of anti-corporate protesters. Lana was a Chinese-Canadian reporter for the Global News Network and had enjoyed an exciting career with them for the last three years. Lana said while facing the camera "I'm here live at the ArmTech HQ in New York city, where hundreds of people have gathered in the spirit of anti-Corporate protest". Behind her were hundreds of protesters who were holding signs that said things like "ArmTech=WAR CRIMINALS!" and "Democracy YES! Corporatocracy NO!" There was a Global Police Force van outside of the tall skyscraper that ArmTech used as their Headquarters and suddenly the front doors flew open. Lana gasped at who was coming out and said "There they are folks, the ArmTech board of directors and ArmTech CEO Ronald Lundee". The greedy rich businessmen were being dragged to the van by G.P.F officers as Ronald Lundee denied his actions. The protesters started screaming and booing at these horrible men and women with pure rage. Ronald Lundee angrily proclaimed "Come on, those were clearly deep fakes, those are DEEP FAKES! You UNDERSTAND!?" As he was put in the van with his cronies, he shouted "Do you have any idea who I am!?" The G.P.F officer said in response "Yeah yeah, we know who you are and what you've done Corpo". Lundee saw the news camera and angrily shouted "Freedom Democracy League! I know your watching this! I could've been ten times richer if not for you DELINQUANTS!!! One day, ooh one day, I WILL have my REVENGE!!!!!!" The van doors closed and the crowd cheered with joy at the fact that soon the ArmTech board of directors would be sent of to prison.

As the van sped of to the airport, Lana proceeded to say "Ronald Lundee and the arrested conspirators will be placed on trial in a joint court of law between South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Peru and Siberia next month. Back to you in the studio Chadwick". Back in the studio, Chadwick began with "Thanks Lana, like she said, an international trial will take place next month. ArmTech will be prosecuted with racketeering, tax evasion, poison gas creation and conspiracy to war crimes". With each crime Chadwick listed, the screen behind him showed all of them in the order he said. Chadwick then said "In the meantime, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched an investigation into the Freedom Democracy League, an official announcement will be made between April 31st and May 10th". The symbol of the F.B.I appeared on the screen behind him as he finally finished with "Well, that brings us to the end of our report on the Demon's Death scandal, we will be talking about the British referendum on whether or not to join the European Federation after the break". With that the commercials came on and people started waiting for the break to finish. Little did they know that the Freedom Democracy League were celebrating their victory in Boston with a party in the mess area. Marcus had just seen the news broadcast from one of the old tv sets the League had in the Freedom Nest and knew that this was only the beginning of their mission to overthrow the Corpos. Already he was making the plans for further recruitment of runaway and homeless children, increasing of resources, reconstruction of Boston and further plans of attacks on the Corpos. That night they would celebrate, but the next day they would make their plans for further resistance against the Corpos.