23 Jan 2022, 22:40

A dark night: Surrounded by rubble, without heating, electricity, or water, and trapped within by the Duchian government, the Anastasian people suffer

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Anastasia City, in the course of a single day, has found itself in ruins. Thirteen explosions throughout the city killed possibly hundreds, tearing apart streets, sewers, electricity, telephone, and broadband lines, as well as water and gas. Further massive gas explosions triggered by the destruction left the city in flames; several others have been reported since, likely due to the destruction. Buildings have been reported completely collapsed after the repeated explosions across Anastasia City, as gas continues to leak from pipelines exposed by the destruction.

Unusually hot and long lasting fires, suspected to be caused by a napalm-like substance contained within incendiary devices, spread across the city, destroying housing stock and stores and claiming even more lives, forcing Anastasians to flee across the streets where they were beset by violent individuals almost certainly on drugs. Other, more minor fires, were reported from other apartments. While firefighters have indeed made headway against the fires, they continue sporadically across the city. Several building collapses have further been reported since, however, and even more buildings are believed to be unhabitable as a result of the fires.

"We have nowhere to go," said an Anastasian who has been forced to return to their apartment, in a building that has half-collapsed.

The streets of Anastasia City are impassable, covered in rubble from the sewer explosions and later building collapses. Where the explosions themselves occurred, they have caved in completely, revealing pools of sewage, sometimes burning. In other places, bodies and bodyparts can be seen strewn across the street, killed and torn apart by the force of the explosions.

Conditions in the city have been described as "Haanean." Citizens have been seen defecating in the open, with nowhere else to do so due to the destruction of the city's water and sanitation systems; others have quickly constructed shelters out of debris, creating "shanty-towns" outside of collapsed or condemned apartment buildings. Significant portions of the city allegedly remain without contact, as roads leading to them have been rendered completely impassable.

While the violence has ended, reports of property crime remain rampant. Looting and robbery are common. Sporadic firebombing continues to be observed across the city, as emergency and police services struggle to deal with the situation in the destroyed city.

"They say that everything is intact," said an Anastasian, "but in reality we live in ruins. The whole city is devastated. Liars, the Duchians are!"

Fear has also spread through the city; images and videos of Duchian soldiers shooting indiscriminately at Anastasians, alongside widespread rumors, have made many fearful of reprisals.

"I can't stay here," said an Anastasian who was possibly of Nicoleizian descent, although this was based solely off the fact that she had a French accent, which could very well mean that she was in reality Haanean. "Anywhere else would be better than this hellhole, even the motherland."

The Syndicalists have begun community-based efforts to reach as many Anastasians as is possible, and have apparently been more successful with this than the Duchians; meanwhile, the party leader of the Anastasian Democratic Assembly made an address.

"Today is a black day for Anastasia City. Beset by terrorists, hundreds have died. Hundreds more are missing, lost beneath rubble, lost to fires, lost to the manipulations of these evil actors. Anastasians now lie on the street, beset by criminals, amid unending fires and rubble. Our city, which would have become the jewel of the Caspian, is now a ruin. We lend our full support to the actions of the Duchian government; but we insist that more be done for the Anastasians who have died, who continue to suffer. Those who did this must be condemned, must suffer, for the hundreds of lives they have taken; but more should be done for the Anastasians who are suffering. We must work as hard as we can to repair destroyed infrastructure and reconstruct housing, for the thousands upon thousands who have been left homeless and without even the most basic of services. We must remember, we must avenge, but we also must work to recover on our own terms, to show those behind this our strength."