Novem Protest

On the 24th day of the 6th month of 20918 V3 the Custodians organize a large-scale peaceful protest to try to spark government reform, and then everything goes sideways...

Structure

Exposition

Originally an idea pushed for my Morgan Manelle, the protest were planned to be a civil action on a massive scale meant to grab both citizen and Firewall attention alike. A civil action meant to shine a light on the massive wealth disparity in Datum and the clear differences in how the majority of it's citizenship was treated. The plan was to start gaining public momentum to force Firewall to start making policy changes in line with the Custodians' Declaration of Intent.

Conflict

The protest began in earnest at the 13th hour, with the bulk of participants crowding into the central park of Datum's Novem District. Very quickly the demonstration's numbers began to swell, and the protests expanded beyond the park and turned into marches through Novem's city streets.
Firewall CEC was quick to respond as more and more demonstrators joined the march. CEC barricades were hastily set up to block off the streets as CEC personnel arrived on the scene in force.
The overwhelming CEC presence did little to pacify the protestors. To the majority of Datum's Low Priority citizens CEC wasn't exactly seen "favorably", given an already questionable history of overreach, neglect and excessive force that had developed after the Second Crash. Their arrival in such great numbers was seen as Firewall trying to simply end the protest as quickly as possible so that the movement could be ignored.

Rising Action

After four hours of protesting, yelling and an intense standoff between protestors and CEC the situation finally reached it's breaking point. It's unclear what, exactly, the exact trigger was, but CEC began firing on citizens using both lethal and non-lethal weaponry.
What was moments ago a protest turned into panic, confusion and riots.
The majority of protestors broke rank immediately and fled, understandably fearing for their lives as CEC forces pushed in towards the park.

Climax

By the day's end an estimated eighty programs lay dead thanks to CEC's actions, with several hundred having been rounded up and taken to Nilcypher Partition Facility to processing and booking for "disrupting the peace" and taking part in "unlawful, seditious action".
By the early morning of the next day much of the Inner Novem Sector would be on CEC lockdown with severely limited movement as CEC forces moved to stamp out any pockets of resistance that hadn't fully dispersed. This would present itself less in terms of dealing with actual violent elements and more as CEC crackdowns on alleged elements. The number of arrests would only climb.

Resolution

With the day ending in bloodshed and mass arrests, Firewall had sent a very clear message to dissenters.
It was quickly determined that the Custodians needed to answer in kind.

Relations

Protagonists

This is the story's first introduction to Quinn Karter, who at this point in time is an ordinary (though clearly politically active) citizen within Datum. This scene establishes Quinn as the PC and our story's PoV character.

Adversaries

This is also our first introduction of Firewall and, by extension, CEC, both of which will be playing a constant part in the story to come. This establishes early on Firewall's power, capabilities and the limits that it is willing to go to in order to maintain order within Datum.

Plot type

Introduction Scene

Related Characters

• Quinn Karter

Related Organizations

• CEC
• Custodians
• Firewall