"Jason! Do you copy? Get the girls into the bunker! Secure Sarah, Lena, Alexandria—everyone! This isn't a skirmish; it's a decapitation strike!" Ethan said over the comms.
"I'm already on it, Chief, but we have a major problem. As soon as the shots were fired at you, the whole city went into a frenzy. We have reports of small, heavily armed groups appearing in the markets, the plazas, even the residential sectors. They aren't just targeting us; they're firing into crowds to draw us out!" Jason said.
On the tactical map, dozens of red dots blossomed across North End like a spreading virus. The hard-won peace Ethan had established was disintegrating in minutes. Civilians were screaming, caught in the crossfire of professional hits, and the trust the population had begun to place in Royal was being burned to the ground.
"They're turning my city into a war zone just to distract my forces," Ethan said, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper.
