Chapter Twenty-five: Methods of Enforcement

Carth Onasi really wanted to stay home.

Unfortunately, his home was a long, long way away. And outside his window, there were crowds of people protesting. Some of them were holding signs and raising them skyward in front of the Senate Building. Others were in front of businesses.

Signs ranged from 'Eat the rich' to 'Fire the Senate.'

Given what had just been revealed, Carth wasn't sure he could blame them. Unfortunately, there were also riots going on. Looking down, he saw people breaking windows and hurling bombs, looting.

Where were the police?

"Look at this," said the driver. "The whole city has lost its mind. There are protests on every skyscraper and bridge."

"Well, at the very least most of the protests are peaceful," said Carth. As he spoke, he drew out his pistols and setting them to stun. His family had a proud military tradition, and he was no exception. "There are only a couple areas where the looting is getting really bad. Take me down here, will you?"

"What?" said the driver. "But we're right over a riot! You're an officer! You could get lynched!"

"I know," said Carth. "That's why I need to go down.

"The Coruscant Police have just been decapitated. They're going to need all the help you can get."

"What are you going to do?" asked the driver, obeying.

Carth raised his pistols. "What I can, obviously. Set to stun, of course."

Down they went, little by little. However, as they lowered, someone threw a grenade. It went right past the window and exploded. The driver swerved back. "This is nuts! I've got to get out!"

"This'll be enough," said Carth, before opening the door.

Below he saw an aircar.

This was nuts.

Carth did it anyway. Leaping down, he descended and landed, rolling forward. Rising up, he saw a man coming at him with a pipe. Carth shot him, sending a bolt of blue to send him unconscious to the ground. Someone else came at him, and he shot them too.

By now, several people were beginning to take notice, so he shot them, just in case. Seeing a group of people coming out of a store with stolen merchandise, he raised his guns. Then Carth fired into the group. Pretty soon, all of them fell unconscious to the ground.

Of course, by this point, a lot of people had taken notice and were running toward him. Carth fired into them while backing away behind the car. One by one, they fell as he moved his hands, feeling his reflexes kicking in. Someone tried to climb over the car, and he shot them too, as his other gun took down three others.

"Down you go!" said Carth, guns practically taking on a life of their own.

Then a grenade landed behind him.

Carth rolled away and stood up, firing even as he backed away from the crowds. They were having to stumble over their fallen. If even one of these guys got in close, it was over; the rest would mob him. Every shot had to count.

Moving, he started to fire into different places, so those he hit would encumber others. Pretty soon, a lot of them were having to maneuver around one another. And then, pretty soon, the tide stopped.

These people were here because they wanted to have some fun smashing places up.

And little by little, some of them started running. Others lost their nerve, and soon the whole crowd was dispersing. That left only a lot of unconscious bodies. They'd have serious headaches later, of course, but nobody had died.

It was lucky. Carth had been afraid they might have killed each other with all those bombs.

So he looked to all the other people assembled, who had come here to get in on the looting. "Attention, citizens of Coruscant! Return to your homes immediately! Looting and violence will not be permitted!"

The mobs turned to leave quietly.

Carth realized his guns were very hot. Spinning it around in his hands, he sheathed them. "I guess that concludes negotiations." Wait, not quite, he saw merchandise in hand. "Ladies and gentlemen, one more thing! Please return any merchandise you have stolen immediately, then vacate the premises! No further violence! Let's keep this nice and quiet, you've had your fun for the day!"

Sullenly a lot of the thugs did just that.

These people didn't care about corruption or the problems faced by society. The people who cared about those things were over on the next skyscraper. They were assembled with signs and order and weren't hurting anyone.

Soon enough, however, as the mobs departed, a number of store owners came out. One of them, a twilek, came forward. "Thank you, Mr..."

"Carth Onasi, I'm with the TSF," said Carth. "I'm sorry about any damages you've sustained, the police are... presently incapacitated."

"Does that look like incapacitated to you?" asked the twilek.

Carth looked back, to see a series of police cruises flying into view over the peaceful protests. They then, unprovoked, began spewing tear gas all over them. Others lined up and started firing to stun at them. Even then, the protestors didn't fight back. They were trying to stand up and continue as they were attacked without remorse.

Carth was speechless for a moment. "What?! What is wrong with everyone on this planet?!

"There are people who are breaking and destroying everything in sight! And they're going after the peaceful protests next door?! Why?!"

"I don't know, but I've just lost years of work," said the twilek. "I worked my way out of the gutter for this, and these animals have broken it in moments."

Carth sighed, bitterly remembering that he was the last person to be complaining. He hadn't lost anything in these riots. Which is more than could be said for some. "I'm sorry to hear that. We should probably get some rope and tie these people up, and make some calls to the police.

"Maybe they'll be able to send someone over. I'll make an official report to the Coruscant police once they get their act together."

"There is a weapon shop near here," said the twilek. "A month ago, I was against people owning personal firearms. Next time someone tries this on my store, I'm going to put a blaster bolt through their head."

"I'd recommend you stick to stun weapons," said Carth. "It's a lot less complicated from a legal perspective. And they're just as useful for self-defense. Cheaper as well. They also won't kill someone if you have an accident."

"I'll keep it in mind," said the twilek. "But it seems to be working out for you."

"I'm a Telosian, I despise violence," said Carth. "Just because I have to use it doesn't mean I like it. If I can get this over with without killing anyone, all the better.

"I'm going to check some of the other blocks. See if anyone else needs my help."

"Nice knowing you," said the twilek.

Carth took the point.

Making his way along the streets, he saw shops wrecked and bodies in the streets. Several people had clearly been beaten to death. Medical speeders were everywhere, and vehicles had been smashed and burned.

And then he found the corpses further on.

It was right near an elevator leading down. Around the elevator were dozens of bodies shot with blaster bolts. Whoever did it hadn't set to stone. And further on were piles of corpses, lying by a car. More of them were lying dead, having tried to make a run for it.

Whoever did this had been shooting people even when they were running away.

"You've got to stop him, he's a maniac! A monster!" said a man, coming out from hiding.

"Who?" asked Carth.

"It... it was during the riots that were here a few moments ago," said the man. "This guy he... he came up out of an elevator and told the crowd to get out of his way. He was wearing a blue vest, and someone threw a bomb.

"Then, he started shooting.

"He killed everyone he could. Then when he finished, he went into the stores and shot everyone there."

A serial killer, using the riots as an excuse to murder. "Where did he go?"

"That way!" said the man, pointing down the street.

"Call the police, now, tell them what is happening and give them a description!" said Carth.

"I did, thirty minutes ago, but they haven't sent anyone!" said the man.

For Carth, following the trail was easy.

It was punctuated by bodies. This guy... he'd been using lethal force on anyone he ran into. Possibly because he thought anyone could be a threat. Or maybe he just had a taste for it.

He had to be trained. No random person with a gun could do this kind of damage.

And then he saw him. Carth had seen his face in the suspect's list on Telos. Calo had massacred an entire family as part of an Exchange hit. "Calo Nord."

Calo Nord was pointing a gun at a man through a broken window. "You, driver, get out of the car."

"No, please-" said the man.

"Get. Out," said Calo Nord.

The man complied, stepping out of the car. Calo Nord shot him in the back of the head, and he fell lifeless to the ground. Then Calo looked over to Carth, whose blaster came out and fired at him repeatedly. The blasts slammed straight into Calo's body but seemed to dissipate. Some sort of body armor?

Calo Nord raised his gun, and Carth rolled away to duck behind a speeder. The bolts blasted against the ground.

"You shot him!" said Carth. "Why didn't you set for stun, Calo?! These are civilians!"

"Witnesses are bad form," said Calo flatly. "As for the mob, better safe than sorry. No loose ends." Suddenly a grenade landed near Carth. It exploded with a flash, and Carth fell back. As his vision cleared, he saw Calo, expressionless and pointing his gun at him.

This was it.

Carth was going to die. This wasn't how he'd envisioned this going down.

Then Calo smiled. It was a smile that was, simply put, evil. It had no warmth or life in it. "...Count yourself lucky, Onasi. There isn't a bounty on you yet, so I'll leave you alive to tell the story. Might help with my rep."

Onasi?

How had he known his name? Either way, Carth couldn't do anything, as Calo climbed into the aircar and flew away. He just lay there, staring into space, realizing how close he'd come to death.

After a moment, he stood up and began to walk to the nearest source of mass transportation.

Thankfully, he didn't run into any more mobs. Carth doubted he'd have been able to fend them off if it had happened. Eventually, he found himself getting into the Telosian Starport. He was met there by an officer.

"Lieutenant Onasi," said the man. "Are you alright? We heard you were doing crowd control."

"Yes, well, someone had to," said Carth. "It's going insane out there.

"Can I get a message through to Telos?"

"Yes, sir," said the man.

Carth could hardly remember what happened between then and making the call. All he knew was that he was calling home over the interstellar communications. Telos had only recently set up the equipment to make that kind of call, and it was extremely expensive. You had to relay the signal through multiple different stations. It took constant upkeep and wasn't worth it except on line to Coruscant. That and for important military lines.

But it helped with diplomacy, not needing a starship to tell a Senator what to do.

"Carth, are you alright?" asked Morgana.

When had she appeared on the screen?

Carth didn't know; he'd been staring into space. "For the moment, Morgana, I'm still in one place. I'm sorry I got called off like this. But with everything that is going on, there are hardly enough people to cover Telos. Let alone, Coruscant."

"I know," said Morgana. "I've heard horror stories about what is going on. Half the people are saying that there are thugs menacing people in the streets. The other claim that the police are gunning down innocent people for fun."

"Well, I can assure you, I haven't seen anything like that," said Carth. "Some people though... a bounty hunter, Calo Nord. He slaughtered his way through them. He didn't even need to; he just shot them because why not.

"Coruscant is falling to pieces, and a lot of people are suffering. Can I talk to Dustin?"

"He's not here right now," said Morgana. "He's been dating Selene, actually."

"Selene, one of his classmates?" asked Carth, finding he could hardly remember anything.

"Yes, they got close recently," said Morgana.

"Right, I wish I could have been there," said Carth.

"You could do more than wish, Carth," said Morgana. "Are you alright? You look like you've been through a warzone."

"You know what's going on out there, Morgana," said Carth. "And it's only getting worse.

"Things are reaching a crisis point here.

"Once things settle down, I... I'll make it up to him. I promise."

And then an officer took him by the shoulder. Carth looked up. "Yes, what is it?"

"Lieutenant Grenn needs to speak to you," said the man.

Carth nodded mutely. "Great, I can't stop to talk.

"Duty calls, Morgana."

"Go to it then," said Morgana. "Just take some leave once you get back."

The communication ended, and Carth saw Grenn. The officer had bags under his eyes and had the look of a man who was worked too hard. "Detective Onasi, I see you've been having a bad day."

"You could say that," said Carth. "The police on Coruscant are out there gassing peaceful protests. This, while violent riots go unchecked."

"I think I can shed some light on that," said Grenn. "The interstellar news is trying to portray the protests as violent and destructive. My guess is that they are hoping to make the protests look like brutal thugs. By doing so, they'll discredit the people calling for reform and dodge having to put some work in."

"What makes you say that?" asked Carth.

"Well, if I were a morally bankrupt Senator who'd murder an entire planet for votes, that's what I would do," said Grenn. "In any case, I'm sorry to make it worse.

"Alas Czerka never made it to Telos. He managed to overload the power conduit in his cell, murdered his guards, and staged an escape. He's even got his lightsaber. We have no idea where he is now."

"What about the slaves?" asked Carth.

"They arrived on time, and we're arranging for treatment," said Grenn, "some of them were in pretty bad shape. Also, one of the other ships we set trackers on has turned up, the one with the Pureflower. Someone caught it en route and looted the entire thing.

"We checked the security camera and confirmed the identity of the one who did it.

"It's Davik Kang again."

Carth couldn't believe this. Every time he thought this year couldn't get any worse, it surprised him. "So, what now?"

"Well, we still have five Covenant Jedi prisoners. Lucian Draay is fairly important," said Grenn. "We have some leverage, and you've probably already heard of our alliance with the Echani."

Carth shook his head. "What exactly is the endgame here, Lieutenant Grenn? What are we trying to do?"

"At the moment?" asked Grenn. "There are Jedi going all over the place across Republic Worlds. Master Atris has been coordinating with them to try and initiate votes of no confidence. Mostly against the Senators who were on the take. If we topple the existing power structure, it'll more or less force a hard reset in the voting areas.

"For now, though, I need you back on Telos and fast."

"Why?" asked Carth, not opposing the idea.

"We've got a drug ring to track down," said Grenn. "And certain investigations have shed light on things. Things I'd have preferred to never learn. We're going to need your help."

"Understood, sir, I'll be there," said Carth. "It'll be good to get back to my family anyway."

"Any word on Master Kreia and Padawan Malak?" asked Grenn.

"They're with Senator Yusanis," said Carth, thinking about what had been happening. He'd seen Malak fiddling with the datapad that he'd put the information on. Kreia or Yusanis would never have been reckless enough to release the information.

But Malak had had his best friend shot down, had anger issues, and was raised as a child soldier. He probably was seeing the Senate as an enemy army to be destroyed. Not a system to be reformed. He was the only one with the motive, means, and will to do all this. "And I have a feeling I know who it was who caused all this."

"Talk to me once you get back," said Grenn.

The link ended.

"Another day at the office," said Carth.

Malak probably didn't understand the scope. The Senate was an institution to be reformed. If an adult had done something like this, Carth would have wanted him to put behind bars. Except, Malak hadn't actually done anything illegal in the first place. Just revealed years of corruption.

Really, the problem wasn't the reveal, so much as the content of the reveal. If the Senate hadn't had the same morality level as your average Sith Lord, this wouldn't have happened. You'd have had a few protests, yes. Some senators would have been embarrassed, and things would have blown over. Instead, they had police brutality and mob violence: that and a complete government failure on every conceivable level.

Carth hated the chaos and violence. At the same time, however, he could say with certainty that he had no sympathy for the government. The Senate deserved what was happening to it.

It was just a shame it was happening to everyone else.

"Could this year get any worse?" muttered Carth.

A few hours later, Carth learned that the Iridian Plague had spread too far more planets. And among them were major trade routes. Given the incubation period, they were likely to have a galaxy-wide pandemic.

Typical really.