June 26th 2045, 8:37 AM Central Time. Three inquisitor guards sat in a darkly lit room. At the table was a middle aged woman and her small child next to her. The woman had a vengeful look on her face, and her tone was condescending.

"We never asked for him to leave... he just did. And honestly, my little Charlotte and I are better off because of it. My husband would beat me every day after work, as if I were some outlet for his anger at the government." The woman said in a shaky voice. "But we need to eat. I will do double the work, if that means my baby can have her rations back."

One of the inquisitors busily jotted down the interrogation notes as she spoke. The guard next to him spoke up.

"Did your husband ever mention his intentions before he left ma'am?" Silence was met with the question. The buzz of an incandescent light created a tense setting as the lady and the guard locked eye contact.

June 27th 2045, 10:15 AM Eastern Time. In the heart of the Capital in the 2nd Atlantic District was the local precinct attorney's office. Above the entrance read a sign that said "Rennick Law." Within the confines of the office sat an older man with stringy, balding hair that he conveniently covered with a top hat. His eyes looked sunken in from the stress of work and his back was hunched over from sitting at a desk all of his life. Behind him was a TV that had constant coverage of the upcoming Helegian Summit. His least favorite person in the world, Friedrich Johanson, was chirping away as he always does.

"Only five more days till this year's Helegian Summit! Our team here at Capital Central is covering the glorious parade that is taking place in downtown Moscow Square. The State led marching band is headlining this parade as they perform our national anthem, and one can't help but get teary eyed at this beautiful performance." The attorney quickly grabbed the remote and muted the TV in disgust. Without a knock on the door or any warning, his second least favorite person entered the room. The military's second in command to the Premier himself, General Zachary Joseph.

"John, hope I wasn't interrupting work. Wanted to stop by and ask a favor." The General was completely dressed in his military outfit as he always was. He walked in and sat in front of the desk and lit a cigar as if it were his own office. John stiffened his back and put on his glasses to give the illusion that he cared in the slightest.

"General, of course!" John responded.

"What a lovely parade..." The General said as he watched the TV. "I always loved marching bands as a kid. Such attention to detail they have, and compliance for their leaders. It is as if they respect and listen to the hand that feeds them..." John hated the General's delusional obsession with the state, but nevertheless, he listened intently. "Unfortunately there is another parade that is happening two districts to the east, John. I'm sure you have no knowledge of this. If news broke there would be chaos in the capital, and that would be a disaster right before the summit." John did his best to act surprised, but little did the General know, John knew exactly what was happening in the 5th Midwestern District. The General continued. "A small band of terrorists who refer to themselves as The Patriots managed to hijack multiple Inquisitor Depot's across the area. As we speak they are marching towards the capital, armed and dangerous. I know you are busy, but I also know you have multiple clients in the area that can shed some light on the severity of this issue. I'm on the fence on whether or not we need to withdraw troops from the middle east and station them around the capital. We haven't had to do that in over 30 years. So do me a favor and investigate." John nodded his head and got up to shake the General's hand. And with a stiff salute, he left his office in haste. A small grin crept up John's face.

All of John's life he sentenced good people to lives full of slavery and hardship. He was a puppet for the state and enacted their evil will. Every day, rinse repeat. John eventually ended up hating himself, down to his core. On paper, John Rennick lived a good life. He had a nice apartment with a beautiful wife and three healthy children, but it came off the backs of innocent civilians. At first, John was simply carrying on his fathers legacy, inheriting the family business. He was naive, but it caught up to him.

Two months ago, in an act of desperation and self salvation, John met in secret with a defected Inquisitor from the 5th Midwestern District. He never mentioned his name, and that didn't matter. All John knew was that every Tuesday, at 5:45 in the morning, he would copy classified documents and discreetly deliver them to this inquisitor. Along with the documents, John pulled his strings to disrupt the chains of command within the 5th Midwestern District. The result of this partnership was this righteous revolt led by an orphan named Ramsey Erikson.

John figured that the military would find out eventually, he didn't know it would take this long. According to his sources, the revolt started all the way back during the Summer Solstice. How impotent could the General be? Regardless, John recognized his position was incredibly dangerous. One slip up and his family could be hung in the streets for treason. So John acted with razor sharp intuition and tact. He figured the General would expect a call back in the afternoon, so he patiently waited in his office. He knew that he couldn't just come out and say that the parade wasn't a threat, the General was too war hungry for that. John had to throw him a bone, moreover, John needed a distraction.

The clock hit 3:00 PM sharp and John Rennick picked up the phone. His secretary answered.

"Patch me into the General's office please." A few moments passed and the General picked up with his gruff voice.

"Mr. Rennick! I hope you have some good news for me."

"General, I just heard back from some local attorneys in the area. From what I heard, it's as rag tag as you can get. No more than a hundred workers gained control of around 50 inquisitor-issued trucks and are indeed heading towards the capital, full of armed civilians. However, word around the area is saying that a majority of the civilians hardly know how to operate these vehicles. It is a simple case of dumb luck that they overtook a depot." John cleared his throat. "If I were you, I would keep this under wraps as much as possible and order a swift air strike as soon as they enter the 1st Atlantic District. We don't want people wondering why we are stationing military personnel around the capital and causing unease. Carpet bombing the convoy will be more than enough." The General gave John his grunt of approval and hung up the phone. John leaned back in his chair and gave out an exasperated sigh of relief. "Now for the distraction," he said to himself.

June 29th 2:30 PM Eastern Time. A long line of trucks traverse down a dirt path just 40 miles west of the border heading into the 1st Atlantic District. Inside the truck at the back of the line sat Paul and Arthur staring outside the windows. Paul was on edge. Something was bound to go wrong eventually. To him, it was eerie how successful the Patriots were in capturing this many vehicles with seemingly 0 fatalities. In the driver's seat sat Ida. She learned how to drive the truck rather quickly to everyone's surprise, yet her eyes never left the windshield. Ida was just as on edge as Paul was. To her right, in the passenger's seat was Abel. Before they all left, he tore out the radio and has been deconstructing it for the past week. For the most part, the trip had been silent, with only the low rumble of the truck to keep everyone company. An anxious anticipation of ambush hung over everyone's shoulders. Arthur was the first to break the silence.

"I wish we left on better terms..." He said. Paul knew instantly he was talking about mom.

"We are going to go back to her after all of this, ok? And when we do, all of us will be free." Paul's words didn't help ease Arthur's mind as he stared into the woods outside. "Anyways, Ramsey will take care of us." Ida then chirped in.

"Well, I still find it hard to believe that he gained those creepy powers by looking through a telescope, but hey, weirder has happened. He's led us this far, I have no reason not to trust him. I'm just pissed he made us drive in the back of the line, I'd rather see where we are going." Ida said while looking at Arthur through the rearview mirror. She quickly regained focus on the road as the truck ahead of them came to a halt. Unease swept over everyone in the truck.

They sat there for roughly thirty minutes before Ramsey strolled up to the side of their vehicle. He motioned Ida to roll down the window.

"We're gonna take a small break to stretch some legs. Get out." He said with a commanding voice. Everyone exited the vehicle and cautiously walked around the road. Paul took this as an opportunity to meet some new faces. In the truck ahead of them, a girl around his age stepped out. She had a nervous smile on her face as she tried to crack jokes with the other patriots in her group. They ignored her for the most part. Paul felt bad so he walked over and introduced himself.

"Tough crowd?" Paul said with a slight grin. The girl turned around looking relieved someone was talking to her.

"Ehhh! They'll come around eventually, every comedian starts off with a bad set or two."

"Ha! Well, there's no such thing as comedians these days, so I think you've got nothing to worry about. My name is Paul." Paul extended his hand. The girl took it and shook his hand with over exaggerated vigor.

"My name is Alice, nice to meet you!"

"So why did you decide to join the Patriots, Alice?" Paul asked this because he can normally get a good read on what type of person he's talking to when they answer this question.

"Obviously because of the cause... Duh! The evil capital politicians are corrupting this country! Somebody like Ramsey would be way more fit for leading us." Alice finished her elevator pitch with a smug look on her face. Paul instantly picked up that she was clearly putting on a facade.

"No better reason to join the cause... haha. Let me introduce you to my friends." Paul led Alice to their truck but as they were walking he felt a rumble in the ground. They both froze immediately. Ramsey was standing on top of a truck looking east towards the front of the line. Kristoff burst out of the woods in a panic.

"RAMSEY! What the hell was that." Ramsey turned around and stared at Kristoff.

"Bombs."