Unlike the cold, lifeless void of outer space,
Forward Base had now fallen completely into chaos.
More and more people were raising the Rebel Army's banner and urging their fellow lower-class citizens to rise up with them against the City Council's tyrannical rule.
At first, the Coordination Committee had been so focused on the interstellar warships in near-Earth orbit that it had no attention to spare for the rioting crowds.
But they had missed their best chance to suppress the unrest, and now it had spiraled completely out of control.
Anyone flying over Forward Base now would have been horrified to see conflicts of varying intensity breaking out everywhere within a thirty-kilometer radius.
Muzzle flashes, blazing fires, and explosions that erupted from time to time.
The crowds seemed to have gone mad, charging at anyone with ties to the City Council they could see.
The soldiers were at a severe disadvantage in numbers. Even fully armed, they were powerless to stop the crowds.
When the riots began, the armed forces had been scattered across different districts to keep the peace. On top of that, no senior officer had taken unified command at first.
As a result, the soldiers had fought on their own from the very beginning.
The most organized groups were small squads, and they hadn't even had time to form up.
Faced with crowds attacking from every direction, they were routed almost instantly.
By the time Lu Bai had dealt with the interstellar warships in near-Earth orbit and the Coordination Committee finally turned its attention to the unrest at Forward Base, it was already too late.
Staff, ordinary citizens, the Rebel Army, armed forces... People of every kind were mixed together, and the scene had become a complete mess.
Even the residential districts monitored by drone swarms had