Coastal Blues

[StaolDerg]

Merritaun had been better.

At least, she'd remembered it to be at least a few years ago, but with the years mixing in between, it was rather hard to separate a century from a decade, let alone a few years. The smoke rising from the rooftops as the train pulled into the station was identical to the columns of ashy grey she recalled from her last visit here- a good seven years, she believed. Yalkiat pulled herself up to the car's corridor, the couple of army doctors with her filing up behind attentively in their beige uniforms, clean aprons firmly tied against their dress.

She pushed up the badge of Civil Commissariat emblazoned around her neck, the red and grey insignia scratched with years of service. The officer stepped off the train with a mask wrapped about her mouth- just in case. Her entourage followed suit, covering up with field caps as they trailed her path off the train. 

Merritaun's Health Division had requested help weeks ago- thanks to the nightmare that was bureaucracy, it'd only ended up on the Northeastern TAKPOE Commissariat's desk yesterday. Yalkiat herself had been called to duty only hours ago through a very congested telegram network, using her office's powers to immediately draft a task force together and jump on the first train to the port city. Her office, normally consigned to duties of starving villagers and wver-infuriating crime families intercepting convoys, now was saddled with the issue of an ill population. What the ailment was and the response to it was up to her and the doctors she had brought. 

The inselni grimaced at the sight of the station. Looking about, she sought to find the medical officer that her orders had promised.

[StaolDerg]

Lieutenant-Commissar Nalvara,

The situation has grown worse. Bacterial infection epidemic to blame- possibly now spreading internationally. Intensify your efforts in Merritaun. Following cities of Tatenagawa, Shaoyang, Panmay, Asashihoro, Yamaramoto, Narakonai, Jinhua, and Xinzhou have reported similar cases. Nationwide epidemic has been declared by the Emergency Action Commissariat and Sanitation Office. You are hereby given authority to ensure public safety by all means and commence a full-level quarantine, with permission to sacrifice production. Issue command has been removed form your regions' office and will instead be passed to the TAKPOE Ministry of Health. Any information you can provide on the matter is requested via report.

Glory to the Empress.

General-Commissar A. N. Palkari, Northeast Emergency Action Commissariat Command

---

The Inselni folded the communique shut and stowed it back into her coat, deep in concerned thought. She dismissed the courier who'd delivered it with a nod, walking back to her office to begin drafting new orders immediately. As she made the trip down the hospital's upper corridors, she passed by the overcrowded wards and dozens of beds lining the halls themselves with groaning sick. She tugged up on her mask, picking up the pace.

Nalvara had mobilized a small army of medical workers to reinforce the city's' existing medical infrastructure, but she might as well have been throwing cups of water on a burning building. She'd brought soldiers to help enforce the quarantine, but the city's crime syndicates had only taken their presence as a threat to their domains, choosing to fire on the scattered Elenria Horizon that had been mobilized at her request- many of them were reservists or rear units of the Army, and were not even of the military's Territorial Reserve Divisions, making them only tired veterans who teetered on the brink of crippling alcoholism armed with sharp sticks.

But never mind that. The medical problem was growing out of control. Travel would have to be severely restricted and the population aggressively quarantined- if it was any consolation, if she was demoted to the military for failure, the insurgents would probably be too busy dealing with the disease themselves. She made a tight smile to herself as she entered her office, snatching up a thick bundle of paper and readying herself for a good few hours of making it rain ink.