Uprising

And so we climbed Foundation Square. We climbed with the fury of all of humanity determined to bring down this corrupt dictatorial system that we were all unknowingly enslaved to. For our friends, our parents, our sons, our daughters, our husbands, and our wives, we climbed. As if it would all end once we reached the top. We knew it wouldn't, we knew this was only the beginning, but as we tore the flag from the statue's hand, the symbol of our subjugation was cast aside. In the name of Freedom...in the Name of Humanity. When once the police stood to stop us by truncheon, now we overcame their boundaries. When once their bullets would make even the strongest man surrender, today they were as water pellets against our rebellious spirit.



A path was cleared through the chaos and I, of all people was handed Our Flag, the Rebellion's Flag, by Dean and with pride I walked it to the Statue and with hope in my heart I planted it where the Dyantian Flag, or should I say the SyCon Flag, once sat. Now all around me I heard roars of approval, cheering...”Orion! Orion! Orion!” they yelled. Their faces emblazoned with the determination to hold their ground against the establishment. Men and Women from all walks of life united in a stand against the Powers that Be. Those who sat in the Ivory Tower just behind me looking down at us like we were ants. At that moment I grabbed my pistol and let loose a single shot into the air, and instantly the crowd became silent, and I spoke to them,



“My Friends, for months we have fought, and many of you have fought longer than I have. Like many of you there was a time where I lived my life with a feeling of perpetuity. That I would continue doing the same thing the same way without question for the rest of my meager existence...” My anxiety completely melted away as the words poured out of my mouth without forethought. I did not speak those words...I felt them, “...with the planting of this flag I can finally say no longer. With the planting of this flag I can call myself a free man. We still have a long way to go before we have truly changed this world.”, I turned and pointed to the SyCon Tower, “Those men in their Ivory Tower look down at us with contempt like ants. They seek to control us with their corporate control. Governing with a puppet government to keep us pacified, rubber stamping law after law to make us feel safe and secure when really all they do is make us slaves to a system in which our own perpetuity becomes our opiate. No More! No More will we live our lives as numbers for the Board of Directors to manipulate! No More will we stand in blind obedience to to a government that bows to a conglomerate of faceless suits and is not in anyway responsible to us! For months we have awaited this day. Months of hearing voices of underground resistance, and whispers of freedom. Above every obstacle we have risen, and never once have we lost our faith in this movement. History is on our side my friends!”



The Cheering began again as I stopped talking. It was louder this time, the fighting had stopped as we had overpowered the police and taken their weapons. They sat in lines with their hands behind their heads. They would not be killed. We were above that. We would not do to them what they had done to us, we would not give them the satisfaction of creating a justification for them to take moral superiority. Just then as the crowd was beginning entrench the area for the inevitable military assault, a SyCon mobile screen fluttered down to the square in front of me. On it was the face of the SyCon CEO Jarek Deacon. His white hair almost picturesque as if he had prepared it especially for this conversation. His face was stern and a mix of annoyed and angry. He spoke,



“Well, well Mr. Orion you seem to be quite the popular fellow. As you can see I am unamused by your little provocation. However I am willing to offer your little collection of street rabble an opportunity to leave without harm. Drop the weapons and disperse and you will not be harmed.”



Of course we would be harmed, we all had identification chips in our wrists and the street cameras had assuredly identified all of us upon entering the area. “And if we refuse, sir?” I responded.

“Well then I will be forced to put your crowd down by force, and I assure you I have no qualms about doing what is necessary to protect stability and peace on this world”



“Well Mr. Deacon, you speak of me as if I run this Rebellion, however this is our uprising, not mine. And so I shall leave this decision with the others. Everyone, Give SyCon your answer, Will We Surrender?!” The crowd let out a resounding “No!” I stood there facing Mr. Deacon with a small grin on my face and my arms crossed. The sleeves on my jacket had rolled themselves down amidst the chaos. Deacon's face remained unmoved and suddenly the screen changed to a view of Jylland Station in the neighboring province, the birthplace of the Rebellion. The scene depicted a relatively normal day with people walking back and forth between entrenchment positions. Sentries keeping watch, all was mostly quiet. Why were they showing us this? Was it a glitch in SyCon's programming? No, of course not...I designed and programmed this model myself.



Then all of a sudden, a blinding flash of light appeared on the screen, and in an instant I knew exactly what had happened. In an instant Fifty Million people were killed. Jarek Deacon had dropped a nuclear warhead on top of Jylland Station. I watched with horror as I watched the towering skyscrapers fall to pieces. My only solace came in knowing that those who died, did so quickly. Without realizing it, I took my gun out of its holster and fired five rounds into the screen of the drone, disabling it. I stood there with tears streaming down my face as I dropped the pistol to the ground. There was silence among the crowd. Dean, Kyra...all of the rebels stood in awe...and this wasn't the end. The military was approaching fast. We were committed. We spat in the face of SyCon and there was no turning back. We all knew it. Dean and Kyra cam to help me, but I waved them away, wiped my eyes and quickly told the crowd to dig in and suit up, we were going to have a long night ahead of us.