Chapter 452 The "Emperor" Responds
Dubai wasn’t the only place that had rescue ships show up. Nova, despite being busy watching over Aron during his upgrade, had diverted a few atomic printers from their cleanup duty in orbit to the Lagrange points where they stored the material and used that to print as many hospital ships as could be printed with the material available there. In combination with those printed in orbit by the remaining printers there, hundreds of hospital ships had shown up at locations around the world and carried out rescues using the same shocking technology.
The hospital ships were then handed over to Minerva, as Nova was only sparing a single thread of her consciousness for anything that wasn’t Aron at the moment and she had to address the empire on his behalf shortly.
Not five minutes later, a hologram of “Aron” appeared in front of everyone in the simulation, as well as those using AR glasses in reality. Along with those, he also appeared on every phone, computer, and television screen as well.n-)OVelbIn
“Dear citizens of the Terran Empire,” he began, a grave look on his face. “Over the past two hours, Our empire faced the worst terrorist attack in human history. More than two thousand attacks were carried out, and the attacks are still ongoing. The attacks have resulted in more than seven million dead and almost twice that number of injured, together with more than five trillion Earth New Dollars in economic and infrastructure damage.” The “emperor’s” solemn gaze seemed to penetrate the hearts of everyone that saw him.
“Over the past few hours, We have been working hard on providing rescue and respite to those affected by the abominable attacks carried out against the innocent citizens of Our empire. Had Our response not been fast enough, the casualty list would only have grown. Thankfully, however, every storm cloud has a silver lining. And that silver lining now is that the attacks only took place after Our government was in a functioning state. Had they taken place even one or two days ago, they would have been many times more devastating.”
Although “Aron” said that, it wasn’t as though the attacks even could have taken place earlier, as martial law had been in place until the night before.
“Still, even a single citizen’s death at the hands of these vile terrorists is more than We are willing to tolerate. Thus, We will not stop until We find out exactly who was behind this and punish them under imperial law.
“There will be no loopholes.”
He changed the subject and continued, “The despicable terrorists who carried out these attacks, and those behind them who planned them, did so under the insane belief that We are a devil that’s out to taint the world. That’s the reason they used to justify the civilian casualties they caused, but their intricate planning and cunning security measures put the lie to their words. And although We are sure that everyone already knows this, We want to reiterate and stress that those behind this show signs of being a cult. They, like every other cult before them, take advantage of the weaknesses in people’s hearts to indoctrinate them and strip their sense of self and individuality to the point that those victims are willing to martyr themselves for their cause.
“And what a ridiculous cause it is! We have done nothing but work for the betterment of humanity. Our technology heals the sick, feeds the hungry, teaches the uneducated, and will house the homeless and enrich the poor. Which of those are actions that a ‘devil’ would do on behalf of anyone? We are deeply offended on a personal level by these ridiculous and patently false claims!
“And to think that during this time, even as the attacks and rescue efforts are ongoing, certain people abused the privileges afforded to them to provide a platform for this ridiculous and insane slander. They are the media broadcasters and management that allowed the cult’s manifesto to be broadcast without informing the government or even considering the trauma it would inflict on the people who were still dealing with the attacks that cost them family, friends, and so very much more.
“And for that, they must pay. As We speak to you now, Our imperial police agency is arresting everyone involved in that particular debacle. They will be publicly tried before the imperial court on charges of fostering sedition. It must be made very clear that the law cannot be casually broken without consequences.
“But for now, We have run out of time and must place Our focus back where it belongs: on the rescue efforts and providing succor to those affected by these heinous attacks. We will keep you informed as to the ongoing investigations.”
Aron’s projection gradually faded from sight and was replaced by the imperial seal. Then that, too, vanished, leaving the recipients who had watched the uncharacteristically short address not knowing what to feel about it.
The events of the day had simply been too much for everyone, and people lingered for quite some time in a collective worldwide stare state.
