Humanity Endures

Part 2 - The Senate | Chapter 4

Screams, gunfire, and the whine of snapping metal now reigned where the calm tone of the chamber master had once threatened to lull every senator to sleep. The once-peaceful, once mundane Senatorial Chamber was now gripped by anarchy, and though the main threat to anyone's life was now in pieces, the senators, being easily frightened, acted as if they were moments away from being killed regardless.

Lassarha, purple blood lightly flowing from her ears thanks to the deafening and abrupt detonation nearby — and the vicious gunfire that had followed — shot a glance upwards, and, as her hearts fluttered with shock, she threw herself to the ground. Another instant, and a wicked chunk of gold and steel from a chandelier, small yet still large enough to cause injury, came crashing down onto what had been her seat. Catching herself on the golden floor, Lassarha felt a boot strike her ribs, and, looking up, watched helplessly as a planetary consul, in the midst of fleeing, had tripped over her; as he fell onto Lassarha, the people behind him tripped in turn, and Lassarha only just managed to wriggle out from under the human pile before she herself was crushed. Vaulting over a railing, Lassarha watched as a senator next to her was struck in the face by a loose piece of golden debris; rushing to help the man up — the wound was minor — Lassarha then looked to the threatening ceiling, yet saw that, thankfully, the rain of debris was abating. Other senators had been wounded by similar pieces of debris, though even the most grievous wounds were still barely past superficial; clearly, collateral damage was not intended by the assassin's master, whoever that was. In the crucible of chaos, Lassarha's marine training began to reawaken, and while others ran for their lives, she, drawing her sidearm, began to search the room for additional assailants. She found none. Above her, in the epicenter of the detonation, only a small number of fires continued to lap at the walls and ceiling of the room; these were soon quenched by the timely intervention of the chamber's countless fire-suppressing microbes, and with them gone, the last threat to the people within the Senate — besides the people themselves — vanished. Clearly, as everyone but the assassin was in one piece, the assassin's explosives were intended to kill the assassin himself, rather than members of the Senate, even though the operative could have easily been equipped with a bomb powerful enough to kill all within the chamber. The fact that she had survived, ironically, left Lassarha deeply concerned, as this left but a few possibilities: either the assassin's commander specifically disliked their target, having no issue with the rest of the Senate, or, more worryingly, and more likely, someone within the Senate had ordered the assassination in the first place — this was almost as unsettling as the attempt itself.

When it became clear to all that the assassin was dead and the threat gone, the sounds of gunfire, screaming, and general panic ceased as well, along with the disorganized evacuation that had been injuring many. However, the emotional void left by the now-departed fear gave way to confusion, which in turn gave way to confrontation. Screams turned to shouts and yells as many different planetary consuls and station commanders accused each other of staging the assassination, though most people's anger was thus far undirected, and many were too shell-shocked to start rushing to judgement already. No doubt, this would soon change, for as nearly everyone in the room was of a rank that made them privy to classified information, most simply delayed their accusations until the prime constable, who they knew was in orbit, gave them more information.

A tense minute passed; vocal disagreements began, were waged, and calmed down — their participants becoming silent as if to better 'hear' the imminent textcomm — until at one point, despite all that had happened, one could hear a pin impact the ground. After a half-minute of this tense silence, Xertaza's textcomm finally arrived, stating that the intended target of the assassination attempt was Cehlarxan. Though the textcomm had injected more information into the volatile mixture that the Senate had become, the Senate, for a few moments, seemed more silent than ever, as if each and every one of its members were afraid to accuse who they suspected was the attempted murderer, or feared that by speaking out in defence of this person, they would implicate themselves. A crushing feeling of imminent defeat swept over Lassarha, and the next second, what she had feared, happened.