If Bloodeye looked up, she would see three beams, projected from one of the Citadel's upper levels and spaced apart a fair distance. Over a loudspeaker, an automated female voice announces, "Suppress. Extinguish. Three-hundred seconds. Latitude sixty-seven degrees north. Longitude forty-five degrees east." Five aircraft are launched from the Citadel- A dropship, along with a bomber and three fighters. It is obviously not a standard patrol wing. The station's loudspeakers broadcast the same message, although the beams would be out of Vinny's line of sight. The maglev is quickly sent into motion. After a dull period of waiting in line, the maglev car pulls up, and its doors open. Gallagher hears the broadcast as well, and if he looked in the Citadel's direction, he would be able to see the beams a fair distance away.
Stepping into the maglev car, the broadcast jostled Gallagher out of his boardroom induced stupor. "Suppress... Extinguish?" he mumbled, "Surprised they're using such egregious language; you'd think they'd euphemize it a bit." Pausing for a moment to think about where those co-ordinates might lead.
A nearby Apex man hears this. "They have no reason to conceal their intentions. They can easily put down opposition when it comes to that..."
Gallagher chuckles. "Heh! Well, I'm just used to the standard military vernacular; it's almost refreshing to see them be so... honest." his grin quickly vanishes though, feeling that the worst he could do is make it seem that he might support the authorities.
The car fills and the doors close. It begins moving along the rail. The Apex has taken a seat."Aren't you going to... Sit down?"
Taking a corner of the car where he can face towards the crowd without worry of someone surprising him from behind, Gallagher waits patiently for the car to arrive at the residential area.
Through the nearest window, Gallagher could get a full view of the Citadel and the projected beams of light. Multiple wings of aircraft seem to be hovering, awaiting further orders. Several squads of Greyhound troops have their eyes focused on the beams, apparently waiting.
Folding his arms with one hand tucked into his jacket close to where his pistol is holstered, Gallagher carefully watched the aircraft; felt like trouble was brewing.
The maglev closes the distance quickly. It soon arrives at the residential station. The doors open, and passengers start exiting.
Stepping out of the maglev car, Gallagher took a careful scan of the area, keeping an eye out for any guard patrols. First thing was first, he started to make his way to wherever it was appropriate to be looking to rent an apartment.
"Huh, how efficient." Gallagher made his way to whichever desk had the smallest queue, or no queue, preferably.
Gallagher manages to find a desk with no line. Before he is serviced, however, the announcer speaks again. "Initiate, thirty seconds. Mobilize." The announcement is once again very clear in its militaristic intention. The calm tone of the synthesized voice is unsettling. As Ekal walks away, three shots from an energy weapon can be heard, followed by the sound of three bodies hitting the ground.
"Mobilize on who?" Gallagher muttered to himself. Realizing he was standing in front of one of the desks already, he quickly changed gear without a clutch. "Hey, uh, I need an apartment. Preferably one with some elbow room."
The human woman at the desk nods, entering some information into a terminal on the desk, then looking back up to Gallagher. "That's 400 pixels up front, 200 monthly." A loud, low-pitched buzz is heard as a squadron of aircraft flies overhead. "Ten seconds."
Pulling out a debit card to make the transaction with, Gallagher felt worried that the lady behind the counter showed no concern with what seemed to be an impending airstrike. Placing the card on the desk, he tensed up, counting down the seconds in his head, feeling the need to dive for cover when the time ran out.
"Here you are, sir." The human hands Gallagher a small device- It appears to be a cheap GPS, programmed with the location of the apartment. *BUZZ* "Initiate." A low hum resonates inside the building as numerous military aircraft fly over it. In the distance, a high-pitched whistling is audible.
Taking both his card and the GPS, Gallagher made a beeline for the exit, listening carefully to the whistling. If it suddenly got higher pitched, he would would put himself behind whatever solid cover he could find. Should his fears be unfounded, he would make his way to his new apartment.
If he looked in the direction of the Greyhound Citadel, he would see that the laser-lights were gone. On the same trajectory were glowing orbs, moving with impressive speed and being fired repeatedly with an interval of about three seconds. Being a former soldier, Gallagher should recognize these as plasma shells.
"Plasma; bright as a sun, as usual." Gallagher watched the trajectory while checking the map on the GPS to get an idea where the shells where bound.