III

There was a stern silence around the entire city. The only sound
was the deafening blight of thunder and heavy pounding of the rains.
All citizens were now completely worried and anxiously unstable as
they await the decision of the Assembly meeting. There was nothing but
fear, fear that troubled the strength the city had long held since the
dark days.
Then a moment, around the buildings blurted a march of music.
Floating ships appeared through the atmosphere, sizing about fifteen
meters in length. All were carried by horizontal rings that fluttered
through the air. Both ends of the ships were connected on the rings
opposite poles. The ringed ships, about thousands of them, covered the
grounds with the citys anthem. As the music went on, everyone peered
through their glass windows, anxious to know what the announcement
will say. The floating screens, when the music was finished, then made
a sound at once.
A voice pronounced, as the ships projected a hologram picture of
the citys emblem.
Stars cover them all.
Tribunoch stays from the fall.
As the world spins with weeping,
Before the Sovereign made unyielding.
Arise. City of the stars.
Then came another music, a shorter one. When it was over the
voice came back. Here the Chief Minister announces.
My beloved torchbearers, the hologram showed a man. It was the
Chief Minister, sitting on a huge chair. He was all composed, but he
was as soft as he was discomforted. For over a long time now have we
been facing this indescribable torment upon our domain. It is beyond
our knowledge of how to surpass this dilemma. But we never lack
solutions. I know your fear, but fear no longer. We, the Magnifician
Assembly, had therefore settled the paramount remedy we significantly
need to undertake.
We shall be transferring to the Hidden Cave.
Nobody spoke a single word. The decision of the Magnifician
Assembly was outright irrevocable. Their decision, furthermore, is
what the citizens had long to perceive. And may they be confused by
the verdict of why it is better to move to the cave and not asking
Rippleton to relocate the rains, there was nothing they could do to
resist. Disagreement is just as good as suicide. Whether or not they
agree to it, they need to follow what the assembly had believed to be
effective enough for their territory. The assemblys decisions are
always for the good of the city people. Nobody had a better option.
The ships went shut all at once after the announcement.

Early around seven in the first phase the next day the citizens
were taken by thousands of mini floating cars. The transferring had
begun. And quickly they should do it for thousands of Tribunian
citizen needs to be relocated.
All the mini-floating cars were approaching to the ten huge
hovercrafts that is a size of a quarter hectare. The hovercrafts,
which were purposely designed for wars and battles, more called as the
Lightyears, were piled up in the City Arena a mile away from the
Cybrus Square.
The cars, round and flat in figure, all carrying about ten
citizens each, floated above and across the buildings and edifices of
the now drowning city. Everyone was still and silent. The only noise
was the clattering of the acid rains in the metallic surfaces that it
touched.
There, all arranged accordingly in the flooding ground, were the
whale-shaped giant Lightyears that await the mini floating cars. They
were elevated by columns that support their weight thus supporting
them from the arising flood. The floating cars then entered the mouth
of the Lightyears, which is a thousand times as big as them. The first
two Lightyears were already full in first twenty minutes. It loaded up
to about four hundred floating cars, setting for takeoff.
Pilot Triden Rousguard, along copilot Amia Wardis, collected
himself to launch Lightyear 0001. He pulled the ships entry plank and
the mouth of the giant ship slowly fastened. Lightyear 0001 and 0002,
ready for takeoff. says a male voice in the aviator cabin. He pushed
the launch button and released the layered wings, which are about ten
meters long each, to the sides and to the back of the hovercraft. Ten
seconds later, Lightyear 0001 hovered and pursued towards the dark
clouds. Lightyear 0002 followed, as the rest of the crafts were still
loaded with the floating cars.
Young Ervith Grattlins peered upon the window of their floating
car. It was caged inside Lightyear 0001, along hundreds of other cars
that rested accordingly. The sides of the hovercraft were made of
glass. Though a part of the view the glass showed was covered by the
wings, he could still see what the world outside had looked like. The
view was astonishingly new to him. Never in his life as the son of the
Chief Minister had he been allowed to go outside of the city gates, so
was his younger brother Erodim. This was his first flash of reality.
The moment he entirely realized the world he is living is not alive at
all. The rains never stopped. And the horizon far on the east grew
mournfully sad as the dark draped clouds cried with acid rain. The
division of heaven and earth in his view lurched into a line of
sorrow, of never ending imprisonment. He cannot clearly see whats
going on far away from where hes looking, but what hes certain
about, is that the world outside Tribunoch is not safe to live.
On his side was Erodim, sitting unheeded and occupied with his
Magnimus toy. Erodim was silently peering on his robotic puppet as

they drove, making no unnecessary movement. Ervith was fourteen then

and his brother was ten. All of them in the car, their father Chief
Minister Ermidoch Grattlins, and their mother Defrinima, remained
silent as they made way to the Hidden Cave. The only sound that broke
the silence is the sway of the lighted ship magnets that swung beneath
the vehicle that makes it float. For a minute later, with the gruesome
sight from outside of his view, Ervith lurked himself on the soft
velvet couch and fell asleep. His heart sank in distress. Maybe this
was the reason why his father never let him out of the city gates. The
sight of the outside world is not worth to be admired for.
When the next Lightyears were about to take off, a bleat of
strong air whirled upon the City Arena. The sound of the acid rains
became louder, the skies blasted rowdier thunders and the mist of the
floating car glasses thickened. Then it occurred to them, a storm, a
strong acid rainstorm, is fast approaching.
The winds became stronger, and the floating cars which havent
yet arrived at the Lightyears mouth struggled mid-air. The furious
winds pushed over a car opposite to its direction, crashing another
car in its impact. The two cars fell upon the flooded ground, both
floating cars acquired intent damage and the acid waters entered the
open breakage the crash had produced. The citizens inside the fallen
cars cried in agony as the acid rains burnt their skin very slowly.
And the next thing, aptly assumed to arrive, then transpired.
Panic. Every citizen cried in hurry for their fleeting escape. A man
tried to push a pilot on their car, menacing him to rush towards the
Lightyears. The pilot lost control and they shifted direction. Their
floating car disappeared instantly as it hurdled towards a growing
tornado that ranked over the Bristoll tower, the Grangers Hotel and
all other spherical and tube-shaped structures to wrecking.
The tornado danced over some more of the buildings and the cars
that flew hysterically, each of which exploded and fragments twisting
with the growing cyclone.
More floating cars struggled to further move in the air, even the
Lightyears moved slightly upon the pull of the wind. It was as strong
as a breath of a monstrous titan. Some cars turned around as the
pilots lost control of the machines. Most cars tried to divert their
direction, escaping from the force but the winds and the rains pushed
them all over towards the tornado. Some more crashed towards each
other and some crashed through the tall buildings. The collidings were
too fast. And for a minute then, the flood of acid was filled of
destroyed cars and skinned bodies. It became pale red as mixtures of
blood and tears united with the acidic evil ground.
There are still convoys which havent launched into the ships
mouth! pilot Corvan Mox screamed over his co-pilot Evelyn Royce as
she attempted to pull the plank for the Lightyears mouth.

We have no time! The cyclones pulling us! Evelyn responded

courageously. Corvan stared deep into her eyes, saw a bit of fear, and
agreed her decision. There are thousands of people dying out there.
But to save them would make the situation worse. There was nothing
they could do. Fate had ran its course to them, in a purely
unfortunate path. Lightyear 0003 then started to clap its entrance.
Lightyear 0003 and 0004, ready for take-off. the male voice
again muttered. Evelyn instantly pushed the launch button. But before
the ships mouth could clip up, a huge wave ran inside the ship,
entering to the array of cars that rested. Even the floods of acid
waved high as the winds pressed through. The columns underneath the
Lightyears collapsed relentlessly. And Lightyear 0003 fell through the
ground, sinking into the violent flood.
Lightyear 0004 attempted to launch, and successively hovered.
About a hundred feet it flew to the dark sky trying to escape. It was
of fair distance in the sky when they set out for full speed, but a
wad of lightning thrust over the tail of the ship. In an extreme whip
of thunderous destruction the machines shut down and the pilot lost
the controls. The ship rotated as it fell on its way towards the
Cybrus Square.