Official News - page 2

CONTINUING UNREST ON RIGEL, DISAFFECTION SPREADS ACROSS GALAXY

by Dot Matrix

It's been another week of chaos on Rigel 4, with the rioters rampaging, destroying and looting as they vent their anger against the lax management of their absentee owner, Pugwash. For much of the week their violent protests were concentrated in the warehouse district, with property belonging to a number of Merchants destroyed along with the contents, but in the past few days they also tore down a factory and a depot.

It was beginning to look as if the riots would continue until there was no property left on the planet, but yesterday Pugwash suddenly deployed squads of elite riot police trained especially to put down this kind of civil unrest. What prompted her to act at last was when her personal bank account was hit by hackers, so she finally woke up and decided that things had gone far enough. Right now, it's all quiet on the streets as the sullen population stays at home for the first time in weeks.

Pugwash has promised to pay a little more attention to the needs of her citizens in the future. She was heard to say, "Hey, anything for a quiet life," as she authorized some pollution control facilities and a biodiversity project. "Bread and circuses; it's easy to bribe the little people with this kind of stuff, particularly when the carrot is accompanied by the stick of my highly trained riot police in their spiffy black leather uniforms."

The question now is, what does the future hold for other planets throughout the Galaxy? Workthings and citizens are taking the example of the Rigellian rioters and demanding that their POs listen to their grievances. So far, no riots have broken out on other resource planets, but only because Engineers have been scrambling to build the infrastructure required to keep the people satisfied – or, at least, cowed. We'll have to wait and see whether they all remain vigilant.

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