Meeting of the Corporate Council

OCON Arcology

Corporate Council

Chambers
Day 6 - 0005L

By midnight a meeting of the Corporate Council was already well underway the with the Heads of the Corporate families and their personal staff already in attendence.

Under normal circumstances it was considered poor form to not attend in person but these circumstances however were clearly not the norm and thus attendence via virtual presence or proxy could be forgiven.

D'Vir, the virtual representative of ENCorp was only just taking the floor as Oda arrived in chambers blowing politely to his peers before moving to his seat at the right of High Secretary Gideon Hun the current Head of OCON who was himself already seated staring at the live images of devastation that had once been Zone 58 floating' in air above transmitted real time to the council chambers.

" Director Nagoya." Hun stated nodding his head in welcome.

" High Secretary Hun. " Nagoya bowed formally.

" Do we have anything yet? " Hu inquired as he continued to watch the drama play out on the images above motioning Oda to take his seat.

Oda frowned shaking his head. " Not much more than what we had an hour ago Sir. A review satellite images still suggest that the blast originated in the Series-A #3 Coolant Injection Tower and that this smaller blast in turn ruptured the A6 fuel cell which in turn resulted in the detonation of all 8 of the cells in the series."

Hun frowned. " It was my understanding that there are safeguards in place to prevent this very thing from ever happening ?"

Oda frowned. " I believe Sir, That we all shared in this understanding."

" Any good news than ? " Hun inquired.

" Not good news perhaps but an observation... "Oda offered. " As bad as this may all appear. We can count ourselves lucky that the blast only triggered the A- Series Cells. First because those were located on the far side of the powerplant complex and thus the powerplant itself sheilded the city from most of the blast. Second if it had been the B, C, and D-Series cell networks that had been triggered it is a very real possibility that we could have lost half if not the majority of the city proper."

Hun shook his head grimly. "As you have said Oda. Not good news but that alone is not going to give us much room to maneuver here. My analysts are telling me we're already looking at anywhere from 500,000 to 900,000 dead with fallout from the blast affecting every Zone in the city. If this turns out to be the fault of ENCorp itself swift action will need to be taken. "

Hun sighed shaking his head as he continued to watch the live feed.

" As bad as this is we're already receiving reports of roiting in some of the less affected Zones and word just recently of malcontents publicly lynched an entire OSEC Emergency Services team working damage control in the slums. With Chairmen Yi's purge of the cities less than desirable elements an ongoing reality the public both citizen and non-citizen alike are already screaming for our blood over this matter."

" The people of this city are always looking for someone to blame for their circumstances." Oda stated plainly. " And we unfortunately will always be at the top of that list."

Hun nodded his agreement than motioned Oda's attentions to the chamber floor. " D'Vir is about to speak."

Oda nodded settling back into his seat turning his attentions to speaker. " I think we are all very interested in what ENCorp has to say about this."

--

By all appearances the ENCorp public represenative D'Vir was a young woman of striking features in her mid to late twenties with short dark hair and hypnotic blue eyes. Dressed as always in traditional corprate attire that while tasteful remained wholely unremarkable and yet never failing to flatter the woman's shape.

The reality however was that she was only a virtual construct or perhaps more truthfully what one could call an independent virtual intelligence employed by ENCorp to act as a proxy when a public face was required.

The Council Chamber's fell to silence as D'Vir cleared her voice before starting to speak.

" Good evening ... For the record at 2132 hours local time this evening a series of explosions cause by as yet unknown sources resulted in failure of containment for one of powerplants dedicated fuel cells resulting in an explosion that not only destroyed said fuel cell but also took Primary Reactors One and Two offline."

D'Vir paused allowing those gathered time enough to absorb what she had said before she continued.

"While the damage is quite extensive ENCorp will continue to meet its obligations to the city providing power to the communications networks as well as other key services until we are able to safely resume power production with Reactor #2 in 7 to 10 days time."

" Reactor #1 however has suffered extensive damage and will remain offline for no less than 4 to 6 weeks time until operations can be fully restored."

D'Vir paused again for a moment allowing time for her statements to be absorbed before again continuing.

" As for the cause of the blast itself an investigation into this event is already underway and we ask your understanding in that access to the blast site by OCON or 3rd parties is prohibited and will remain so for an undetermined time. Any attempt made by OSEC or other interested parties to access the site without prior clearance or approval will be addressed harshly."

D'Vir's expression grew stern as she gazed fixed upon those gathered.

" Let me be clear ... ENCorp views this event as an attack on itself and its territory. Any and all attempts to access the site by force will be met with force with no exceptions. Our intention is to avoid biological contamination of any evidence to be collected at the site during this critical period and to avoid unnecessary human exposure to any as yet unknown dangers. ENCorp has already deployed Heavy security units with standing orders to ensure that the site remains undisturbed until it is cleared. Any protests or requests for access to the site after it has been processed will be handled via approved channels."

D'Vir expression assumed a somewhat more pleasing cast as she smiled warmly. Once more allowing time for those gathered to absorb what she had said.

" I will not be accepting questions at this time. I wish you all a good evening."