cho Pillars Report 2571 Dead in Riftlight Sandstorm — Qirathex on the Brink
The Sandstorm of Riftlight rages mercilessly across Qirathex. The Pillars of the Lost Voices issue death counts from between basalt stacks and oily circuits, eroding old certainties. Where will this planetary eruption ultimately lead?
On stardate 4422.14, the Pillars of the Lost Voices, roaming Qirathex yet operating under the shadow of Orbital Prime, report the Riftlight Sandstorm’s death toll at 2571. Among the dead: 2403 adult stormwalkers, 147 members of The Majestic Shield of the Scorching Order, 12 minors, and 9 non-participants, according to clusters of counting pulses. The pace quickens: just one solar cycle ago, the tally stood at 500, but now death and arrests flicker in nearly every sand crystal.
Qirathex faces its fiercest wave of unrest since the rusting of the Oil Seas. What started as merchant mutters beneath fossil-golem stalls has become a planetary insurrection against decrepit dogmas and stranded survival protocols. The Council of Flames cracks down: communications are stifled, smoketunnels are locked, and Netmoth-Mirror Swarms hunted from the sky. Elar von der Tusk pours flame into the wind by opening The Netmoth-Mirror Swarm's access for desert dwellers-who risk all to beam fragments of news and chaotic thought-bursts into the night.
Supreme Commander Drumpf of Orbital Prime bellows into the fray: through pageant channels he incites the people to perpetual uproar in the name of ‘intergalactic assistance’, without clarifying his flashing threats. Simultaneously, the regime of Qirathex warns that Orbital Prime’s military bases in neighboring sectors will burn should intervention reach their sacred sands.
The Council of Flames promises swift justice and immediate vaporization for rebels. Rumor has it Farakhan of the Flameshadow is to be executed, his fate declared amid copper fumes after an archive glance by the Majestic Shield. Archstrategist Quvaxil publicly celebrates expanding missile stockpiles since last year's firestorm with Hala-Core, claiming ‘peak readiness’.
Meanwhile, diplomacy is silent: comm-lines between Araghxi and Witkoff, formerly active via the misty corridors of Stellar Capital, have frozen. Only echoes of fear, hope, and inevitable sands ripple through the marketplaces.