News in America wasn’t repetitive or slow by any stretch of the imagination, but it followed a rhythm as many things do. Some third-world country was always doing some saber-rattling, some big executive was always on trial for something, and some new scandal involving a congressman or member of the president’s cabinet was being uncovered almost on the daily. Scandal was the most important part of that. People loved scandal and consumed it whenever they could, like the drug that oxycodone always wanted to be.
The headquarters of the PANOPTICON Corporation was supposed to be impregnable; it had to be, considering what some of its reporting had driven people to do. Thus, the dossier sitting on the CEO’s desk as he came in for the morning was the cause of more than its fair share of surprise. The mail department had no record of receiving it, but the building was utterly devoid of any signs of a break-in. For all intents and purposes, a ghost might’ve placed it there.
The package was thoroughly checked and, once they had confirmed that it wasn’t a bomb, it was opened in a sealed glovebox. No bacterial or viral spores came out, so it was assumed to be safe. The CEO, one Yolanda Pherson, asked to be the first to see it, and her wish was granted posthaste. The document’s preamble was short and to the point, a quick introduction to, as Mrs. Pherson discovered, a much longer scandal. Alien infiltrators operating at every level of society, acting as the driving force behind several recent terrorist attacks and high-profile murders. They worked under no name and no leader, but were shockingly coordinated in their maneuvers.
Pherson had the dossier sent the way of the veritable army of writers PANOPTICON commanded immediately. The veracity of the dossier didn’t matter; the scandal itself would be the talk of the free world for years to come.
She didn’t know just how right she was.
Waffen’s little document, placed in just the right place, had its desired effect. Within thirty minutes, news of the infiltration was being broadcast by PANOPTICON, and within an hour, all major news networks aired something or other on the issue. By four hours, the story had gone global.
By six, the chaos began.
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The people of CAST had been simmering ever since the beginning of the Contact Wars some eight years before. The first diplomatic craft of mankind lay broken in the void, humanity’s extended hand of friendship slapped away. Mankind won those combats, but not without cost. Nobody had forgotten that.
The Home Guard was far from the only group that sought to further the interests of humanity at any cost. Some were neo-colonialists, saying that alien species were to serve as second-class citizens under a human-dominated system, much like the Poslushi and their demesne. Others believed that CAST should simply cut off all contact with the greater galaxy and focus on peaceful expansion and internal affairs. Worryingly, there were several groups that were far more extreme, from the Vanguard of Russia to the First Patriot Rifles, who espoused anything from totalitarian enslavement of alien societies to outright extermination.
Major cities all over Earth and beyond were quickly overrun with protesters as the more xenophobic elements of society clashed with those whose opinions ran opposite. Quickly, these disagreements turned violent, and the first shots fired in New York were launched, ironically, by those who believed there could still be peace.
Los Angeles turned into a scene from the worst nightmares of any veteran of the Rodney King riots, as the LAPD was overwhelmed and people were left on their own to protect themselves from all sides of the fighting, shooting first and asking questions later. Order was restored in New York, but whether that was a positive was debatable, as exosuited riot police broke through crowds of protesters, lashing out left and right. The disorder was not restricted to America, however. All throughout Europe, helicopter drones hovered over the streets, scanning to find anyone breaking the curfews. In Russia, said curfews were enforced the old-fashioned way, by military parades and jackboots in the streets in a manner unseen since the fall of the Soviet Union.
AHINT was spared from this plight, but only by a near-total media blackout enacted the moment China caught wind of the news, which sparked its own wave of protests, though these were far more subdued. The other nations of their alliance followed suit immediately afterward.
For President Herald, this was a disaster. The NSA had been ringing the bell regarding infiltrators since the beginning of the war, and the reports had only become clearer over time, but the plan was to declassify the existence of this nebulous threat when it was deemed that humanity could handle the aftershocks. Instead, they had released their own report to the press, one that blew the size of their operation far out of proportion. The White House Press Secretary was doing her best to challenge the veracity of the document, and practically every misinformation watchdog under the sun was being alerted, but it was all damage control which had little chance of being helpful
Once more, the Infiltration Inspection Act had made its way through Congress, the same act that would have enabled the military to roam wherever it chose in the country. Unfortunately, it had done so with quite a comfortable margin; there was no chance that a veto would hold. Thus, Herald, like any good politician, saw where the winds would blow and put his signature on the Act. He would do his best to shield America from its own paranoia, however many executive orders it took, however many percentage points he lost at the polls, but for now, he had to bide his time.
For the Union. For democracy. For mankind itself.