Protection & Defense || CA News
The amount of sheer power possessed by so many of his fellow residents, as well as their invaders, seemed to have increased exponentially overnight. Casualties of war beyond any scope he’d seen (though perhaps not beyond the scope of imagination) littered the streets, buildings reduced to rubble by the work of single individuals with the power of armies, the earth upturned violently in places, surfaces blackened and shattered by explosives. Utter carnage. It was enough to make the coldest heart weak with exhaustion, a weariness brought on by despair.
He’d been called many things, but never cold. “You are soft,” his father had told him, voice like iron and twice as cold. “Learn to steel yourself to do the hard things.” And he had, on the surface. No matter how it broke his heart.
The hard things were not, however, always the right things. In fact, at times, it seemed they were merely…the path of least resistance. The number of deaths he had seen in these few wartorn days, pointless deaths at the hands of those who attacked, as well those who championed themselves like heroes against the enemy, utterly merciless alike… Takatora knew their intentions to be good, but rashness cost lives, and…
The dead could be grieved and buried afterward. He had to steel himself. He had no other choice.
Some of his would-be comrades proved more rash than others. Destroy the threat from the other side, they’d thought, venturing through the portals to strike back without even considering a united front, let alone any other approach. Whether or not it was effective, he couldn’t begin to guess; any semblance of organization was rapidly being swallowed by the chaotic tides of battle. Even so, many of the powerful, the leaders, gave some sort of communication as to what was going on, the radio constantly alive and buzzing with updates and warnings too rapid to fully process.
Who, he wondered, had decided that fighting was the only option? There was a single beacon of hope, a single instance of someone sparking a large-scale (if all went as planned) attempt at changing that, at any potential peaceful alternative…but it was one attempt in the midst of tragedy after tragedy. Battle and invasion with little to no thought or attempt at reason.
But now time for reason. Takatora understood the nature of wars like these, the reason for that – if you stop to ask why you must fight, you’ll be dead before you find an answer. The only choice was to fight, and to put down the attackers, if only enough to subdue them. He understood, but that didn’t make it an easier reality to accept. Much less after all that he’d been through, after seeing a similarly hopeless situation saved by a boy with no sense but with a heart far more hopeful than he could imagine, anymore.
There was no such savior this time.
Fighting was necessary. A defense, a real one, a counterstrike, had to be arranged. Not destructive, he hadn’t the heart anymore for such things, but…to stop the destruction here, at least. And he would not ask anyone else to take up the role that he should have in the first place. He ought to have seen it coming.
TO: All Contacts
FROM: Takatora Kureshima
[TEXT] I realize that many of these efforts have been made, but I would ask you to have the patience to hear out one more.
[TEXT] Many of our invaders have gone unchallenged. Rescue and relief efforts, and attempts to strike back at them, divide our attentions and prevent us from meeting these attacks with a collected, unified front. It is a weakness, and it is costing us greatly.
[TEXT] A great deal of our…territory, as it were, is being attacked and “claimed” relentlessly, and this should not be the case. The number of individuals who have more than the ability to fight against this, working together, makes up the better part of this city’s populace. No one should be able to wreak havoc or lay claim to an area for so long.
[TEXT] If you would offer your aid, I aim to arrange teams to combat the threats and reclaim each sector, preferably as non-lethally as possible. Your life will be on the line, perhaps more than it already is, so it is understandable if you will not. But I would urge you to consider that much more may be on the line if something is not done.
[TEXT] The scientists who brought us here are helpless, or else have forsaken us. Something must be done.
[TEXT] Meet me, if you would, in Sector 1 at its armory. If you do not wish to participate in this, please aid in the relief efforts that have sprung up around the city, and take care of yourselves.
[TL;DR: we’re going to try to fight back against the invading force. OOC notes beneath the cut!]
