Last Light

> ***"... Today, the unification starts. Soon, we will all stand side by side, Enlightened by the Everlasting Radiance. And we will banish darkness once more...”***
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> - Last report received inside Compass Station, April 2305 -
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## **Overview**

Historians mark the **Fourth Era's** beginning following the assassination attempts and general chaos caused by the Zracon's final infiltration of Commonwealth worlds as a day of infamy: **Last Light**.

In a single day, over the course of twenty bloody hours, the entirety of Commonwealth's psionic population went collectively lost in a 'psionic scream', of which they proceeded in assassination attempts on governors, activists, and military men and woman in charge of the armed forces and administrative centers.

On that day, many Commonwealth government, business, and military leader's had their lives at risk. The science council suffered the most damage with over half of the department and two of its heads died in the attack, while prime minster Takumi Ishii lost his life defending the chancellor.

The event also lead to a lead a dagger-thin victory of the Egalitarian Party in the Commonwealth's government: *"Individual choice foundation"* a generally more right wing group then the 'Far Left Parties' like **Innovation** and **Xenoist's**, yet still considered to be generally liberal in all things other then military and a few general 'Planets Rights' ideas. considered scandalous and different, yet generally still liberal and leaning to the 'Left Wing'.

Yet, the greatest loss was perhaps the amount of dead that GCN reported in the weeks that followed. Planets across the Commonwealth began full scale riots against Psionics and against the state responsible for protecting said Psi Users for the sudden and terrifying act of terrorism on Commonwealth soil.

The **Last Light**, however, served as an act that would give way to the 'Newblood' generation inside the political scenario, guided by the few of the surviving members of the assassination attempts by the Zracon, as they took up the task of rebuilding what their forefathers had 'died for' during the attacks.

### **The Day of Infamy**

Ortan days begin on a general clock, and on the 7th day of April, in 2305, on the Ortan hour of 7:24 AM, Compass Station, a powerful listening post aimed towards the Zracon Border, was terrorized by a series of psionic attacks and power-outages that resulted in the station being abruptly abandoned and the marshal guard of the east being called upon. The Ortus capital went into a wartime alert, tier two, and began calling ministers to decide on a meeting for 'A Coming War against the Zracon'.

7:26 - Just as the leading heads of the nation were coming together to formulate stratagems to counter the impending Zracon menace the first reports of violence came in; a sudden onset of shootings and assaults in the workplaces or perhaps overworked bureaucrats going mad, this was what the authorities thought they saw anyways - it did not take long for the situation to escalate - what began as a busy day would soon turn into a military affair.

7:28 - The gravity of the situation still unknown, members of the council argued not whether it was Zracon (for they all knew it was) but how to attack and get retaliation for the indecent. The meeting included many leading heads of state and among these people was Adhara Tanwar and her husband Tesar. The meeting was expected to last for a good 3 hours but it was over when the shooting started - Not much is really known about the specific course of events within the room except that, in the firefight Tesar was shot in the throat and that some time after said firefight, after isolating themselves, Tesar and Tanwar were killed by a grenade - At the same time several other top brass meetings were targeted which included incidents of toxic gas being pumped into several meetings and bombings.

What had followed, was a military operation to strike at the heart of the Ortan Capital building, lead by local Istari garrison ordered to protect the Capital from psionic infiltrators. A irony, that single greatest assault on the Commonwealth's homeworld, was in fact by citizens of the Commonwealth itself.

While this was happening; Takumi Ishii received a non-lethal shot at the hands of Task Force Etherial's Agent Bishop, he and Lin thought the wound to be merely a scratch. Only to have Takumi Ishii die minute later, for the shot had carried a lethal poison that shut down his organs. Shu Lin mistook his symptoms for shock as he had taken a seat to catch his breath, thus he needed to close his eyes for a minute.

7:30 - Outside the closed doors of the Government buildings the authorities were awash with reports of violence and murder, the fact still unknown that this was the work of Zracon agents, this nationwide surge was mistaken as an organised riot stirred up by radicals and the police were sent out en mass equip with riot gear and enforcement droids. In more authoritarian nations this may have been enough; however, Commonwealth governance relies more on public trust rather than public oppression and as such the police must not be seen as a militant organisation. This meant the police were equipped for riots, not assault and battery.

By the time the brass within the institutions of order finally came to realize what was actually happening, it was too late to recall deployed police units, many of which were already in the thick of actual riots at this point. Resulting in numerous deaths on both psi's and law enforcement.

7:55 - Isolated within the great government buildings many councilors and governors were picked off: but after surviving the surprise attacks and establishing contact with Lin; Shen Kuo, a few senior members of the Science Council and an unfortunate group of GCN workers proceeded down a the main building stairwell. They chanced upon an ongoing shootout. As the firefight reached its conclusion the Ortan QRF had arrived to escort surviving personnel off world; with Shen and his Councilors secured the QRF made for the main building, but Shen grabbed the captains arm.

> *"If you're going in there, you'll need more than what you've got, trust me, I'll sort it"*
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8:20 - Military units begin to sweep streets in an attempt to control the public and redirect them to safe zones; in some cases this was successful, in others the riots only got worse, with some devolving into large multifaceted affairs that always devolved into looting, assaults, and worse.

9:00 - The element of surprise now lost to the psionics as they instinctively began to fortify captured buildings, including the capital building of Ortus, and used hostages with the hopes of drawing the armed forces to attack them quickly and recklessly. However at Chancellor Lin's command the armed forces did not engage in any operations other than public protection; instead, in the largest special operation ever conducted, spec ops teams were sent to assault each psionic held building. This process was arduously slower as the spec ops could only manage so many at a time and no single person knew exactly how to react should they become spotted during such operations.

The Siege of the Ortan Capital building would last for three more hours, until 'Shula Akovo and his forty Commandos' where freed from the grasp of Zracon influence.

'The forty', as they would be called in the Exonet for decades to come, would be a symbol of the corruption of psychic ability in the Commonwealth. They would surrender, after thirty more minutes.

Bishop, and the Shula Akovo Istari garrison, had killed nearly 600 people and had damaged the Ortan capital building to such a way that it would take years for the repairs to be complete.

11:30, even lower end Psionics, weather dormant or active in any way, proceeded to slowly be driven into acts of violence across the Commonwealth and across the galaxy. Cases vary wildly, but the simple truth is this.

For three hours, all people with a psionic power equal or higher to .005 in a Bishop scale (the scale to measure psionics) proceeded to have their base instincts raised to the forefront, turning from sentient human into mindless beast within a course of a few minutes.

Events spiraled out of control, with headlines in the news for months on GNC being: Nuns of Psionic ability eating their children in care, teacher of forty years jumps off building with explosives killing three hundred. Psionic regiments in garrisons proceeded to murder their best friends, family of psionics proceeded to boil hometown alive with minds.

It only got worse the more remote.

Three days later, 2:00 PM, Ortus.

Class 1 emergency was called for the first time, it granted Shu Lin the ability to round of the remaining psionics that hadn't been murdered by family or law enforcement as well as a call for what would be a grueling six week trial.

## **The Trial of the Century**

"I had a father once, he wouldn't touch his daughter like that."

"My cousin was odd, yet, how could he do that too his own son..."

"He, ate...he ate his husband's hand. They had married two days before, they where so happy, how could he do this!"

- Various Responses from the Trial aptly described as, "Psionic Panic". It would be GCN's single most viewed day of all time...

Almost everyone in the Commonwealth had a opinion on the matter as the bureaucracy day began law hour...

It was, packed, the entirety of Commonwealth legal experts came with Pen Badges armed and general fears was that their would be almost 100,000 executions in the coming days, in actuality however the events that transpired resulted in not a single execution. Due in part to Ojoji Nito, a Cipher who mastered in legal defense's case in which he argued that psi's under Zracon brainwashing had no control over there actions thus making them mentally innocent.

Individual Choice Foundation, Shen Kuo's party mumbled on the side, viewing the general disobedience between what people want and the reality before them. Eventually trying and failing to convict Olma Dosprusni, a woman who had murdered her two year old son and had been rendered emotionless by the psionic drain on her personality. Which Ojoji herself used this 'health condition' as proof of psychosis during the Last Light event

Olma, was looked upon by the Commonwealth as a woman who felt nothing when eating her own flesh and blood, and riots quickly formed across the Commonwealth with the three Exile party members considering it a crime to have Olma Dosprusni to go free.

When Olma was released, hell broke loose. Riots began all over the nation.

Then, the Pogrom of Redamola happened.

## **Redamola City Burns**

"The arts! The papers! Our history, Gone!" Nikolas Veputchi, a scholar, looking over the burned out wreckage of the Redamon Pyramid in which the largest Pogrom the Southeast has suffered.

Redamon Prime, was always a generally one of the most spiritualist planets in the Commonwealth yet, the population suffered under a lot of problems as time went on. The planet never really specialized in any way, it was never a Curacao or a Arvo and just became a planet that was known for being the scholastic storehouse of the Commonwealth, following the Fall of Yadra years ago and subsequent loss of history for the Karthemas in general.

Yet, Redamon Prime was a planet that had the most psionics, it had suffered terribly after the Last Light and had whole cities around the planet turned into ash heaps following the ensuing madness.

The population of the planet, particularly of the impoverished refugees who later flocked into the cities that had for decades, swelled with anguish and hatred for the few psionic brotherhoods and sisterhoods who, discriminated upon them for their lack of wealth and their supposed poor knowledge in the art of pisonics.

The following, was a ethnic cleansing of psionics on the world that would eventually result in a massive diaspora to other planets, unseen since the Udkavongo Diaspora of the third era.

Murder was in the air, people had made mass graves as the morgues became overcrowded with dead bodies.

The Pyramid, had been set on fire by numerous mobs with a few larger ones proceeding to batter down the doors to the treasure room and proceed to set on fire thousands, if not millions, of historical records as well as books that the Psychic Myriad had stored for safe keeping.

Yet, the worst happened to the City of Redamola, once a shining beacon of the arts, it was more-or-less reduced to rubble after a mob totaling around 1000 or more swarmed the streets and proceeded to systematically murder and destroy the city till ruins remain.

Afterword, the town was drenched in salt by a roaming civilian army, who had proceeded to ravage the countryside in riots until the military took matters into their own hands and proceeded to counter the knighthood and its hate mobs with military suppression and riot-police who now where prepared for the chaos that insued.

Hundreds of thousands where killed during the pogroms the most out of any Commonwealth world, nineteen cities where abandoned afterword and the planet was transformed into a sea of dead bodies.

The populace of Redamon Prime will forever be shook in the horrors of that bloody day.

## Aftermath

The Last Light incident had a profound affect on the Commonwealth. Over 1 million government, miltary, and business officials lost their lives in the attack. 1.2 billion psi's who called the Commonwealth home were now viewed with hostility.

The death of many paved the rise for the new to take over. Shu Lin having loyally serve the Commonwealth for over 54 years was surprised to hear that she, and her Xeno Friendship watch lost the 2305 elections to Shen Kuo and his Individual Choice Foundation.

Mobilization against the Zracon, put the general comforts that Commonwealth civilians enjoy at risk.

The Commonwealth will forever be scarred by the final light.