The Other Side

Merander: Day 1

It has been a month since Kistiya, it is winter in New Orderia. Thousands are set to die in the span of a few minutes.

Location: NO-MCACOM headquarters, Malask City

ACOM Senior Dispatcher Prim, this is his 23rd year on the job. Him and his colleagues are on the ACOM building's 9th floor, said building is filling with smoke. The fire alarm is going off and the sound of sirens kicking off from police and fire units outside sounds through the structure. Prim and another dispatcher are moving through the hallway with their flashlights cutting through the light haze caused by the small fires below.

Prim: Is anyone injured?

Dispatcher: No, we are all good here. Was that a fucking quake?

Prim: I think so, get the manuals out and start blocking off fire doors. Start making phone calls, any agency you can think of needs to be here.

Radio: 2 David O 1 to control, most of the 2nd precinct is functional, I have officers not responding at 34th and Bradford.

The radios were going mad with different emergency crews trying to figure out what happened, luckily the previous earthquake made the departments make a rough plan for what to do. Only supervisors were radioing in to dispatch, the rest of the units were talking on alternative channels. It was still chaos, everyone with significant rank from the FDNO, FDMC, HCFR, CFP, NOHR, NOPD, MCPD, NOHP, CEM, WFM, SecDiv, NOMC MPD, and anything in between were talking.

Prim: I want someone figuring out which firehouses and precincts are disabled. Get fleet services on the line and have them set up the spares as functional companies. Every off duty firefighter, medic, and cop needs to be on the streets now. I need a direct line to the NOJOD, with luck the army can get out here soon.

Dispatcher: Sir! Customs Enforcement is reporting a fire out of control in the Airport and there is a jet crashed on the runway. FDNO ARFF 88 is on scene, but they are barely able to operate.

Prim: Have CEM evacuate everyone, tell ARFF to get the jet clear of victims and let it burn. Start a 10-75 response to assist.

Dispatcher: Sir? This is a major emergency, a small structure fire response isn't enough. Shouldn't we get them the full 10-60 response they are asking for?

Prim: Half the capital is burning, same for Malask. We can't get anything to them without compromising other areas even further.

The dispatcher nodded and began sending nearby firefighting crews to the airport while a pair of MCPD officers ran into the room with flashlights in hand. The officers asked if everyone was alright and if there was a fire on this floor, after Prim explained they were fine for now the officers returned to the stairwell and continued up the building. Normally that was a job for the fire department, but the FDMC was already overwhelmed so the police had to be doing the searches.

Dispatcher: The military has CAS craft running scouting missions right now, reports are already coming in that it is region wide devastation. Our district got lucky, Midtown has a high rise at risk of falling. The highways are destroyed, riots are breaking out in Chinatown, and we are getting orders from the top.

Prim: What does "the top" actually mean?

Dispatcher: I don't know, I don't have clearance to read the name. They just gave a location and orders to send the NOHR for a radiological incident. It is NOID... RCM?

Prim: Fuck! Give them everything they need, get NOHP there as well and if we have a tactical unit in the region send it. We should start closing the roads as well, someone get the motorcycle units on the highway to close it down. I need metro police to shut down the subway and begin sweeping it for wrecks. Last time we had two, we will have even more at this one.

Dispatcher: About that sir, we have reports of a subway train incident. Above ground tracks collapsed in Sparowa, FDMC units on that street are saying there is a full block on fire and the train station fully came down. Roads are blocked and Sparowa's main link to Downtown just got destroyed.

Prim: Relay to fire and police that they'll need to take side streets to get into the district. 

A dispatcher ran over to Prim with a phone while telling him it was a connection to the NOJOD headquarters. Prim lifted up the phone and thanked the dispatcher while the others kept working.

Prim: Hello sir, I am ACOM Senior Dispatcher Prim, who is this?

Phone: Field Marshal Ventuas, you have a blank check currently. The entire army is already mobilizing to the capital, Malask, Dosker, and Rank.

Prim: What happened in Rank and Dosker?

Phone: Dosker FD and NPM Fire Rescue are reporting a bad reactor fire. Rank got hit similarly to New Orderlands and Malask, it is mostly on fire. The capital is being moved north to Ardonia for the time being, all civilians should move south to the river for evacuation, the NOJOD airstrip is partially fixed already and we will airlift out everyone we can.

Prim: Thank you sir. I need military forces to Chinatown, fighting is breaking out already. Greater Renton is heavily damaged, I need as many soldiers as possible there. The ACOM building is on fire, we will need a new one set up at the NOJOD headquarters.

Phone: And you are all still in the burning building?

Prim: With all due respect, I refuse to leave the cities to die. We will keep working until someone else can take care of it.

Phone: Good man, I'll see to it that military command personnel can take over your operations and a temporary command post can be built.

The phone hang up and Prim returned it to the dispatcher who gave it to him. He went over to a map, held up his flashlight to better illuminate it, and began drawing a number of circles. He then drew arrows from those circled points to the river.

Prim: Those are firehouses and police stations big enough and well enough built to be able to operate still. I want all of them to be converted to field hospitals. Firefighters will tend to the wounded, anyone who can be moved will head south to the river, anyone who cannot will be airlifted to the NOJOD Headquarters. Same thing as when China invaded, full evacuation of the twin cities. 

Location: NOID Research base

The base was in shambles to say the least. The entire motorpool and road leading up to it had been filled with a mix of NOID, military, and emergency vehicles. Air raid sirens were going off as Geiger counters went wild. Everyone on scene wore gas masks as arcs of light purple lightning shot into the air which was illuminated a light blue as a result of radiation reacting in the air. A few agents attempted to regain control of the situation, one of which was RCM agent Revant.

Revant: Everyone remain calm. I need someone to shut down that GATE, and I need another crew on fire suppression. I want as many combat units as possible hunting down anything that escaped, I need aircraft looking over the frozen wastes as well. Sensors are picking up small rifts forming across the region. We singlehanded just summoned the wrath of the multiverse people, we need to be smart now and lock it down fast. Close the roads, nothing leaves the affected area without a badge, flashing lights, and being searched.

What had happened was interesting, the earthquake hit at the exact moment an experimental GATE was tested. The damage caused by the shaking led to the GATE malfunctioning and causing a cross-reality disaster. A number of subjects from countless realities were now running amok on Earth in a part of the country that had just been destroyed. Public order has already began breaking down and the military is barely mobilized yet.

By the time day one of the incident was over thousands were dead across 4 cities and millions more had injuries of some kind, although most were minor hundreds of thousands had major wounds. The UN was mobilizing and NATO has been called in to assist with disaster response and military efforts, but that will take days. The Navy had been ordered to move South, but debris in the Marinovic River would lead to them being stuck away from the capital and Malask, where damage was the greatest. Things can only get worse now.