140 - URGENT NOTICE TO LAINZ THE CITY

URGENT NOTICE URGENT NOTICE URGENT NOTICE URGENT NOTICE URGENT NOTICE URGENT NOTICE

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- Sent to all city LIN systems Repeat: All city LIN

EVACUATE THE CITY

HIS RADIANCE COMMANDS IN HIS OWN VOICE: "Evacuate the city."

His Radiance calls for complete evacuation. Lainz, along with its allies, Milar and the Nadu, are at war with Prime.

Prime has destroyed Nadu's homeland from the sky, bombarding it with ice and stone. Even though the zardukar are building defenses, even though the Great Hive is beginning to protect the city, His Radiance is saying that the city will be a target for Prime and expects bombardment imminently.

If you have family out-city, go to them. Shelter city is open for all citizens of Lainz 'kuluri will be posted to direct and assist all citizens. EVACUATE.

IF YOU CHOOSE TO STAY IN THE CITY IT WILL BE AT YOUR OWN RISK AND DIRECTLY DISOBEYING THE CRYSTAL HEART OF LAINZ.

The city will close everything By sunset today, and complete shut down one hour later. 

BASIN ACCESS WILL BE SEALED. NO ACCESS TO ANY LOGGIA. CITY FACE WILL BE SEALED. BUTTE SHUTTERS WILL BE CLOSED. ALL PUMPS AND ALL CITY FUNCTIONS WILL BE SHUT DOWN.

HIS RADIANCE COMMANDS. THE CITY MAY COME UNDER ATTACK AT AN HOUR'S NOTICE. EVACUATE. EVACUATE. EVACUATE.

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The lin editor, Datrus, set the copy down on his desk. “Are we moved?” he asked. The offices, even though deep inside the butte, were echoingly empty where before they'd been humming like the Hive.

His assistant hefted a box containing the last, loose, miscellaneous bits swept up on his last pass through their offices. “We're out.”

“I've set the lin up to keep repeating that until shut down,” Datrus said and clambered to his feet. “Let's hope there aren't too many fools who insist on staying.”

**

Outside, the city was bare. No trailing plants, no banners flapping in the wind. The two main bridges to the rim were completely empty, though the road along the rim, south, was thick with people with their goods and animals, thick enough to turn the white road dark. The 'kulu whistled from the Rim Gate. People evacuating stopped in their careful flight to see what had only been stuff of legend for them. The Great Hive, millions of bees, rose from the top of the city, obscuring the sun crystal, darkening with their shadow, and like a glittering veil caught in the wind, flew down into the canyon, into the shadow.

For a long moment there was no sound but the wind and then an enormous rumble shook the ground hard enough to knock people off their feet, as enormous machines moved for the very first time since their construction. Warbirds screamed and crouched and donkeys brayed and braced themselves.

All along the bridges the felon cages rotated in their slots and disappeared into the structure of the bridges themselves. Sand burst from the rim side and the rumble grew to a roar as the bridge roads unhooked from the gate, the stone unlatching, peeling away from the rock like a sheet of skin ahead of the healer's knife. Both of them carefully folded down into the butte below, into what had looked like a natural crack in the rock. Anyone leaving the city now would have to work their way down through the centre of the butte, slowly through the labyrinth below.

The loggia bridges, graceful arching bridges, all rotated in place before slowly, slowly, folding inward, around the city, sealing every open street, wrapping coils of stone around the city core, turning the entire top of the butte, from sun crystal to the bottom of the basin into a swirled, striped cone of white and red and orange rock.

It did not look natural, but it was less obviously a city. Someone not expecting a city might just glance over it. The kapikuluri at the Gate backed up, pushing the last of the evacuees before them, but they too couldn't help but turn to watch as the Gate itself groaned and fell into rubble, sand already blowing across the road. If Prime gave it enough time the edge would look natural again in days.

The reservoirs were all underground. The white mounds, and lesser graves, if untended would be softened or buried in the rolling sand. Already the edges of the city cone were being filled in with flying dust.