Safety First: The Eldest Brother ~11ABY

It had been quite a week.

No, scratch that, it had been a crazy month.

Anyway, I was taking over day to day operations of The Eldest Brother Casino and Resort in Kor Vella, Corellia. It had not been a smooth transition, but things were finally falling into place and I was pretty sure the staff were still talking about me behind my back, but at least it was behind my back and not to my face.

You can't police people's thoughts, anyway.

"Tragoni?" I looked up toward a security camera. "Can you police people's thoughts?"

"Negative, Kal Olorin. I do not possess that capability. Do you want me to -"

I waved off the security AI. "No, no, just a joke. Everything is okay in the casino, right?"

"Everything is operating within required parameters for 06:00 in the morning, local time. Most patrons are sleeping."

"Thanks." I checked my chrono. Somehow I'd been up all night, going through a stack of schedules and personnel rotations that needed my final approval. "Guess I'll just take a walk and look for breakfast."

(ooc: OPEN to all who wish to be here, the BOMBINGS in Tyrena and Kor Vella, at approximately 11:30am local time, will be occurring shortly and a THING will occur here at the casino and at ALL Sasseeri's casinos.)

The morning seemed to last for months, one of those days that dragged on like it would never end. My eyelids felt like sandpaper as I forced himself to stare at a datapad of information about the so-called Kids Zone. The rollercoaster that wrapped around the casino was working perfectly, for once, the bungee jump from the top had passed its inspection, and the arcade had two new VR games that were racking in the credits.

I tossed it aside after signing off on it, hoping I wasn't missing something important in that blurry bit at the end I couldn't quite read. I'm getting way too old to pull all-nighters.

"I'm going to lunch," I announced, to no one in particular, and no one looked up, or cared. I sat for a moment, irritated at the loss of my girl Friday who at least pretended to care what I was doing because I paid her to, and then shoved myself up out of my chair and stalked through the casino toward my favorite restaurant.

A loud boom rattled the blastproof windows that made up the front entrance, and everyone stopped what they were doing to look around.

It took a moment, once it started, for me to realize the ground was shaking. Hanging light fixtures rattled their crystals as they swayed, and the lights flickered. Another crash of sound from the city, a fucking explosion or even two, sent patrons screaming from the gaming tables.

My eyes widened as the bloom of a fireball rose from somewhere in the middle of Tyrena City proper.

Seismic event detected. Terrorist attack detected. Initiate security procedures Gamma-Oh-Five-Delta-Point-Seven. Initiaaaaa-AA-ttttttttttttttttt...

...//...||cmd.root.code.distruption||

://:cause::electromagnetic.interference

://:cause::electromagnetic.shielding.failure

://:cause::recent.upgrades.unfinished

://:solution::reboot.system

://:rebooting

://:reeeeboooOOOOtttttttt

Security lockdown initiated.

I looked up in a random direction. There were so many security cams in the casino I'm sure I was pointed toward one. "Why are we locking down? Tragoni, report."

The security AI did not respond. Someone outside the casino walked directly into the glass doors when they didn't open for them, and then started banging on them. I jogged over to pull open the automatic doors and found they were magnetically sealed.

"Get these doors open," I said to the doormen, and they jumped into action while I mimed apologies through the glass.

My comm chirped. "Olorin, the turbolifts are stalled."

"Well, that's inconvenient," I replied. "Who is this?"

"B'galles." Now the voice was irritated. "Your head of security, sir."

"Right, of course. I think my comm is distorting the sound for some reason. Well, direct people to the stairs, we should evacuate the top floors. What the fuck is going on? A terrorist attack?"

​"I don't know, sir. Our communications from the outside have been cut by Tragoni. And the turbolifts are stuck between floors."

"Well, that's a fucking mess." I ran my hands through my hair, still standing by the doors that would not open and were designed to be unbreakable.

"Fuck."