The Jolly Ulikio'tinarin: Doubts casted on Attack's culprit

(OOC: For future reference, you should try to keep to lighter fonts. That one is very hard to read as is!)

((Dammit. D: I always keep using 990000 vs CC0000...))

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"Long live Free Tantalus!" came a scream from an opposing building across the street.

Moments later, a Tantalan gunman opened fire on thirteen employees at the D'macus Bioreplication Kh'uun Courtyard, killing nine whilst four more employees remain injured at home; the killer himself is still at large, and Aurelian residents of the Western T'iantaloum Kh'uunate are advised to secure their berths in the wake of this latest tragedy.

"I-it was terrible."
Z'keliz G'nom, 23 and widowed by her Tihn'tharin mate who died earlier this year in a crossfire with AMFT insurgents- sobbed loudly as a passing H'dic-drawn carriage echoed beyond our house. Outside, the remnants of an imploded Tantalan hi-rise loom over G'nom's vertical Kh'elun, stretching for several hundred units into the sky as its shadow covers the greater residential area.
"Not a day goes by when a blast many lengths away reminds me of my husband who died fighting the A'hirin. Now I fear many more families have bore my grief."

Z'keliz G'nom was peddling her well-to-do fruit stand when the first stream of gunfire echoed into the plaza; immediately, she and two acquaintances ducked down and covered their heads right before more firearm munitions trailed its source's initial spawn.
"We were probably crouching for half an hour until the entire plaza was empty. One of m-my friends got hit in her arm."
S'krag V'az was one of the wounded counted in the casualty report. And this was not her first time getting hit: Two years ago, a high-explosive white phosphorous IED ruptured in a perpendicular alley when S'krag was walking to attend her son's initiation ceremony. That's when an aluminum slice of shrapnel grazed her right shoulder.
"Yes, s-she told me of her old wound eight seasons ago. Minor then, but now she's in critical condition."
Z'keliz and S'krag are not the only ones affected by violence. Last year, an all-time high of 206 deaths were attributed to the ongoing Insurgency and sympathizing Tantalan humans in the Transition Sector. Of these deaths, half were caused by IEDs, and another third were caused by shootouts in the separatist regions of T'iantaloum.
"We can't go on with half-measures while our very children are dying at the hands of these foul, barbaric monsters. We need to appropriate more Kh'uunate vessels to this system if we are to truly subjugate these animals and set them in their proper roles," Kh'uunari Pli'brozk N'mohn of the N'mohn Kh'uun sighed when we sat down for this interview. Scarred both physically and mentally by the ongoing violence, N'mohn's eyes gazed out of the porthole into the abandoned streets, their irises burning with revenge. "We exterminated most of the vermin many generations ago. Why, then, are we expending an infinite amount of effort to squeeze out every remaining pest?"
In his lap sits a chitinous respirator from three generations ago, its filtration organisms having long died from desiccation in the toxic Tantalan atmosphere. To N'mohn's right is an updated biorespirator, though half of its oral-nasal plate was chipped off along the nose.
"I was seated in a lounge when an explosion behind me threw me forward into the table. Though my mask broke the fall, the very thing broke apart at its seams; I thought I was going to die when someone lent me their spare cover."
When asked if he had been involved with a prior incident, N'mohn raised his left arm which bore a massive, jagged scar zigzagging down towards his elbow.
"You never forget the pain of having your tendons severed at the tenderest joints. Nor can one forgive his or her assailants for landing you in the care of a Nou'tarki shaman for half a year. My arm was paralyzed from elbow down until earlier this month- I still have tremors, mind you."

Faced with increasing hostility from relatives of injured Tihn'tharin, the Ulikio'tinate of T'iantaloum may have to make several amendments to security so as long as it takes six months for supplies to come in from the home world. To counter IEDs, some Kh'uunates are increasingly relying on volatile tracers dropped from passing vessels to expose regions of elevated phosphorous concentrations, giving the counter-resistance forces an opportunity to avoid certain locations until the munitions can be removed; already, this is being done under Tihn'thari M'koz Siz'len's command, where airborne Cet'pho release hazy mists across patrol routes to illuminate trails of leaking phosphorous.
"We've been able to prevent twenty deaths from rogue explosions by far this season," Siz'len had to concede with a smile when enquired. "Increasingly, through the use of this citywide tracer network, we hope to push back the frontlines in a final bid to terminate the Tantalan resistance. Only then may we succeed in bringing peace, prosperity and joy to our colonists."
With regards to shootouts between Tihn'tharin and Tantalan individuals, however, the Tihn'thari shook his head. "We have no way of stopping groups such as the AMFT, DRRT and such from pilfering agents through the sewers into abandoned towers. As such, we are forced to relay the advice of 'duck-and-cover' to both warriors and citizens at the first pop of thunder."

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The T'iantaloum Ulikio'tinate reported that rumors of AMFT involvement in the Western T'iantaloum Kh'uunate Attack are still unbased; further investigations are even placing doubt on partisan affiliations of the attacker.

"We cannot find any evidence that the weapon used came from the northern areas," came a response from a Xu'tharin who asked us not to use her name. "Even the AMFT has denied involvement in the attack in a broadcast- an especially unusual moment if they speak the truth, for this means that the Resistance must be gaining access to more weapons than the annual average. The thing I strongly dislike is the fact that if anyone can get ahold of such a derelict weapon, then so can the AMFT with its vast underground numbers."

Since the Tantalan slave exchange was halted fifteen years ago due to the U'drakim Incident, attacks by lone actors have gradually caught up with those committed by organized groups such as the AMFT and DRRT such that, as of the current year, one in three attacks originate from solitary gunmen without a political agenda.
"It is one thing to expect us to combat the ongoing insurgency; totalitarian purges intended to squeeze out those accountable for attacks like the one days ago is simply not politically feasible," said Kh'uunari S'yarik 'Kbud as he gestured us over to the busy plaza. Below from the crumbling Tantalan balcony, one could see farmers and their children hawking mycological produce near a leather-canvas tent. Dead center in the plaza stood the crumbling marble statue of a forlorn Tantalan hero originating centuries ago.
"I am afraid to say this out of fear for my own life, but we may need to grant those few Tantalan civilians lurking in the shadows of our society limited political autonomy over their segregated communes. Increasingly, we find ourselves spending more food, supplies and firepower than is economically feasible just to bandage our dwindling grasp over these southern latitudes. 'Ayub-Stinley,' whose foul name froths up my mouth in the sickest wave of nausea, may have us caught."
Last month, a Nou'tarki Publications Scribe released one report which highlighted rising prices in raw materiel attributed to sabotage, underdeveloped arboreal pathways, market discontent and terroristic threats made on a daily basis. Since then, conditions in the southern Tantalan hemisphere have deteriorated.
"We have tried to integrate the Tantalan humans into our society and failed; we will fail, too, at maintaining our presence if we do not address the penurious conditions of our neighbors."