Chapter 578 Coming Out Swinging
??The fallout from the EMP was relatively small, considering that it only really affected a minority of the population. It also helped that the empire hadn’t been caught off guard and had had time to prepare. Thus, the damage was relatively minor, only in the billions of END. And most of that was the damage to old “legacy” versions of their tech, as anything that had been released over the past six or eight months had been well shielded and hardened to resist EMP attacks. Even civilian tech was the same.
As for the electrical grid, that had been shielded from the very beginning. Thus, nothing connected to it faced any issues due to surges in the grid itself. Still, as part precaution and part political theater, the imperial press agency had reminded imperial citizens to ensure that any electrical appliance was unplugged at the time the CME hit, and for at least two hours afterward in case of any residual effects.
However, the same couldn’t be said for things that weren’t reliant on the grid and couldn’t simply be unplugged. Things like airplanes, cars, other vehicles, HAM radios, and so forth were still affected. Most of those were major purchases or passion projects, so they hadn’t been replaced with newer hardware, as in the case of airplanes and vehicles, or they hadn’t been made to the exacting standards of imperial hardware, such as in the case of hobby electronics or passion projects like RC vehicles and HAM radios.
That was where the majority of losses came from on the empire’s side, as most of the citizens’ hardware had already been upgraded to the newer, more protected versions.
But the same couldn’t be said for noncitizens. Other than religious luddites like the Amish, Mennonites, and some Hutterites, or the small tribes that hadn’t even come into contact with modern technology like the Sentinelese, the rest of the world was severely impacted. Power grids were overloaded, generators failed—and in some cases, exploded—hospital life support turned into impromptu electroshock therapy devices, and even the so-called “hardened” military technology, like toughbooks, turned out to be not so impervious to EMPs as non-imperial scientists and researchers had claimed during the development and bidding processes.
But as hundreds of millions of people had finally caved and joined the empire, leaving only a little over a hundred million or so noncitizens, the effective damage was limited. Most of it, ironically, was environmental damage caused by shorts and surges. Minister Al-Mutairi had reached out through the imperial diplomatic corps with an offer to aid in extinguishing the roaring wildfires and helping with the recovery efforts, but other than the Russians, who were still led by Vladimir, most of the remnants declined the offer. Some rather more politely than others.
Still, the remnants had been chokeslammed back to before the industrial revolution and a lot of effort would be required to lift them back to what passed for modernity to them. And that was something that Aron wasn’t willing to do.
To prevent accidents and limit the loss of life to the greatest degree, the empire had issued a shelter in place order for all imperial citizens beginning three hours before the CME hit Earth. They also, through the Ministry of the Exterior, asked the remnants to do the same. And to limit the damage to the economy, the empire also promised to allow citizens to trade in any damaged goods for identical items, or for partial credit toward more advanced versions of the same things.
He quickly scanned the file and asked, “What’s the damage estimate so far?”
[Mostly property damage, with a few injuries. The injuries are easily fixed, but the property damage is... less so. And it’s increasing as articles are published in newspapers, social media, and broadcast media. As you know, with tensions rising, it’s like we’ve been put in a pressure cooker with the valve stuck. Adding in the wild card that is blessings....]
“And all it’ll take is a single incident to trigger a pseudo-race war,” Aron finished for Gaia.
“What are we doing about it?” he asked.
[The imperial police agency has increased the number of patrol ships, but it’s a bandaid patch at best. Police are reactive by their very nature, and they can only catch the criminals either in, or after the act. Prevention is impossible for them, but it’s the only cure.]
“I hope the situation resolves itself,” Aron sighed and rubbed his temples. He could feel a headache coming on. “God help them if they do something I can’t tolerate. If they push me that far....” He was far from as calm as he appeared on the surface. The damage report was already beginning to make him angry, but it was still manageable as no deaths had occurred... yet.
Although he had been as benevolent as he could since the founding of the empire, that didn’t mean he was incapable of being ruthless. But people had short memories, and it was becoming obvious that they had already begun to forget what had happened during the Last War.
And though he hoped the police could deal with the rising crime rate, it didn’t prevent Murphy from coming out swinging.