Pov: Civilian of Aurora

I was at the marketplace buying food for my family.

...Ever since my husband died defending the Arcology, money has been tight… If we don't get an extension on the loan we will be evicted at the end of the month...

...In an Arcology, eviction means death… The lands outside are irradiated wastelands where there is no food…

As I was trying to determine what would be cheapest to buy until I noticed that there was a commotion. The advertisement screens in the area had started flickering for no reason...

Then an image appeared on the screen. It took a second for my mind to realize what it was. An image of the defence line, the same defence line my husband died protecting…

A man appeared on the screen, standing in front of the Image. He had a mask on without eyeholes, without details, just a blank mask.

Then he began talking.

“Some of you might not recognize this image.”

His voice was a cold one, but not cruel… much like a man who has seen hell and come back.

“But most of you do.”

There was a weight behind his words, strangely alluring to the ear.

There were technicians hard at work trying to fix the advertisement board but they seemed to be struggling.

“This is what was left of the defence Line. The very line we set. The line we fought back at.”

He took a short pause…

“The one that thousands died on.”

He was at the defence line? But barely anyone survived that… It sounds unbelievable.. But something about his voice makes me want to believe it.

He shakes his head slightly with a hand on his mask,

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Then he looks at the camera again… Like he was staring at me… Despite there being no eyeholes on his mask.

“I ask you, when did YOU forget? When did you, and all the rest of us forget?”

Forget what?

“When did we forget that we are at war?”

His words garnered a brief silence, even at the marketplace.

“...’The People’s Revolution’... None of you remember, but that was the name that we fought under when this war began. A great revolution, against our corrupt government” he said, with a strange nostalgia in his voice.

“...But we failed did we not? You, all of us grew complacent. Look around you.”

“You live in an armed haven from monsters, ruled by corporations, as long as you profit them you get to stay, when you don't… You are evicted!”

...The truth, that none of us wanted to think was laid bare by him...

“We, The People’s Revolution, failed. We fell to the same sins the government did. Now we have the military to end our old enemy, but we don't. Because keeping the war going makes profit!”

The words he spoke kindled a strange feeling at the bottom of my stomach...

“...Does this not piss you off?”

...yes.

“...Does this not make you angry?”

yes.

“In the past. Good men and women fought back. They lit a flame, that would consume the Old World and its corruption.”

“Where has that flame, our will to FIGHT gone?”

… He is right…

“ Today. Let us spark that flame once more.”

His voice grew in strength.

“Today. We shall spark the flames of revolution once more.”

That strange feeling I felt was growing in me like a forest fire, looking around me I could tell many felt the same.

“Today. We will fire the first shot of a new war. A war to take back our world.”

He said with a certainty in his voice, as if he already knew we agreed. Like he was the voice of our anger.

“Follow me, men and women of Aurora. Follow me, and we will show the world, that The People’s Revolution is far from over.”

Suddenly, the feed cut off. And silence echoed throughout the marketplace. The Arcology security had already come out at some point, armed just in case…

...Perhaps we would have backed down seeing them, but then something happened, setting of a chain reaction.

In the distance, we could hear gunfire and screams.

The security had fired upon the population.

...At that point, nothing could stop us anymore.

As we went on rampage against the Arcology security people with similar blank masks (except with eyeholes) as the man from the advertisement joined us. Somehow we ended up naturally following them as we fought.

*23rd of February Year 70 A.R. the Revolution of Aurora*