Chapter 4: Pyroclastic Flow

(Transcript of the recording of an interrogation held by the Unity and Defence Force of the Free City of Shanghai)

A: "Please state your name for the record."

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A: "Please state your name."

CLA: "Oh, yes, sorry. My name is Claudia Marie."

A: "Claudia Marie... You are not Chinese then?"

CLA: "Ah, no, I am from France. I came here to study civil engineering at Tongji. My family has connections to southeast Asia..."

A: "But you do not speak mandarin?"

CLA: "No."

B: "Laowai..."

A: "Bì zuǐ! Very well..."

Papers shuffling

A: "Why do you think you're here Claudia?"

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CLA: "I would guess it's probably because of the 110 call?"

A: "Indeed. Do you... remember the evening in question."

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A: "I understand this may feel difficult Claudia, but I advise you not to make me wait for you to answer again."

CLA: "Oh, I'm sorr"

A: "Do not interrupt me! When I speak, you stay silent! You speak only when you are asked to speak! Is that clear?"

CLA: "Y-yes!"

A: "Good! Good. I don't want you to get hurt Claudia, but if you make this difficult for us we will make this difficult for you. Is that clear?"

CLA: "Yes!"

A: "Good. Now, let's get back to the matter at hand. Do you remember what happened when you called the police?"

CLA: "Yes."

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A: "I'm waiting."

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A: sigh "Please tell me what happened on the evening that you called the police."

CLA: "There... was something in the containers."

A: "I know. You said so in your call. I would like to hear the whole story. Please, tell me."

CLA: "Right. Well, I was heading out from the University, and"

A: "When was that?"

CLA: "About... 9, 9:15?"

Pen moving on paper

A: "Okay. Please continue."

CLA: "Well, I was heading to Shanghai tower. I had planned to meet some friends and have a night out. So I was walking past the cruise terminal, when I saw that there was a ship unloading cargo containers. I hadn't been in Shanghai for very long, granted, but I had never seen the terminal used for cargo shipping. So, I got curious."

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A: "Yes?"

CLA: "Oh, sorry. I... I got distracted. I wanted to know what was in those containers. I knew I wasn't supposed to, obviously. That I was supposed to mind my own business, just continue on with my evening. But, I just couldn't contain myself. There was no one else around, not even anyone to receive the cargo, which only made me more curious, so I figured that, if I was going to get away with it, I might as well see what was being unloaded. So I approached. After all, what was the worst that could happen?

It was pretty dark, but I've always had good night vision. One of the containers closest to me had a small hole in it, that looked like it had been bored. I looked around to check that there really wasn't anyone that saw me, which there still wasn't, and then I put my eye to the hole. And I saw something. It looked like a vehicle of some sort, I-I don't know how to describe it."

A: "Please, do your best. As much detail as you can remember."

CLA: sigh "Sure, I'll try. It was... Well, the closest thing I can liken it to is a tank. But it wasn't a tank, at least not any tank I've ever heard of. It had... legs."

A: "Legs... as in human legs?"

CLA: "No, mechanical ones. Two joints; three if you include the one that connected them to the 'body'. Insanely bulky, and heavily armoured. But shorter than I would've expected. And it had six of them."

A: "So, three on each side?"

CLA: "Well, it didn't really have sides so to speak. They were arranged hexagonally, in a ring."

Pen moving on paper

A: "Right. Continue."

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CLA: "So, the body to which the legs were attached was also hexagonal. It didn't really have a turret in the traditional sense. There were a number of small barrels sticking out from various angles."

A: "How many?"

CLA: "Oh I really can't say, I wasn't counting."

A: "Guess."

CLA: "Em... twenty-thirty, something in that ballpark. They were all very small though, maybe a decimeter across."

Pen moving on paper

A: "Continue."

CLA: "Right. The guns only lined the rims of the body. The rest of it was covered in... drones."

A: "When you say drones, you are referring to the FAE-O22s?"

CLA: "Yeah. Fairies."

A: "You didn't happen to see what variation it was? OAs, OBs?"

CLA: "No, I didn’t. I didn’t see them unfolded."

A: "What do you mean 'unfolded'?"

CLA: "Well the thing is, I didn’t actually see them in the form that they are when they fly around. The fairies that I saw were encased in a cocoon of some sort. Like a black flower bud. The only reason I even know they were fairies was because of what happened next."

A: "Hold on a minute. What exactly did these 'cocoons' look like?"

CLA: "Gee, how do I describe them? They were basically like hexagonal drill heads, that progressively narrowed the further out you went. Like a pyramid, but instead of being based on a square, it was based on a hexagon."

A: "I see. Continue."

CLA: "Then finally, at the very top of the machine there was an antenna. It bent under its own weight. It was the only part of the machine that looked fragile. It looked very out of place."

Pen moving on paper

A: "Is that everything you remember of the vehicle?"

CLA: "Yeah, pretty much."

A: "Very well. What happened next?"

CLA: "Right. I was staring at the machine in awe, when suddenly, a laser lit up from one of the barrels. And then it shone right into my eye. I probably would have been paralysed by the fear if not for the pain that the laser put me in. I pulled my head away and started sprinting as fast as I could. I hadn't actually processed the situation yet, I ran based on pure instinct. My gut was telling me that all hell was about to break loose. Turns out, my gut was right."

A: "What was the time? Approximately?"

CLA: "I'd say half past, around that time?"

A: "Half past nine?"

CLA: "Yeah. About 9:30."

A: "Okay. Continue."

CLA: "I was running away when I heard a terrible noise behind me. When I turned my head, the tank was wringing itself out of the container. It was so terrifying that I could barely even register what was happening. I turned forwards again and I didn't look back again. Even without looking, I heard with deafening clarity as hundreds of other containers met with the same fate. Hundreds of these terrifying creatures unleashing upon the city. I evidently was not the only one to have heard this, as the next sound that bombarded my ears was thousands of screams from all across the riverbank. But I didn't look back. Not once."

A: "Did you happen to catch the name of the ship the containers were delivered from?"

CLA: "I actually did, yeah. It was the COSCO Shipping Panama."

A: "COSCO? You're sure about that?"

CLA: "Well yeah, the font was pretty hard to miss."

Pen on paper

A: "Continue."

CLA: "I kept running. And the noise kept getting louder. More and more people headed outside, then screaming in terror at the machines behind me. And then the sirens started shouting. And then... I saw..."

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A: "Claudia?"

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A: "Okay, that seems like everything we're going to get from you. Dài tā zǒu."

CLA: "Wait, what are you doing?"

A: "Thank you very much for your cooperation. Your testimony has been truly invaluable. We'll show you the way out."

Chair scraping

CLA: "I really don't need... Hey, get off me!"

B: "Bì zuǐ!"

A: "Bǎ tā guān diào."

Shuffling

End of recording

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