Chapter 154 A Big Fire
"Do you think it\'s bad?" Mega asked her husband. It had to be because of the way her daughter rushed out. What if she got herself injured out there?
"I don\'t know, but I should probably go and take a look." Dorian Su left the room, he was followed by all of his sons that were both curious and worried.
Esong had been fast enough to catch up with Scarlet and Tion, he suggested that travel in his mecha, it would be faster this way. Scarlet did not even argue, she just went along with him.
"How bad is it?\' she asked Tion. "How many fields have been burnt? How did it start?" Scarlet had so many questions. Of all things she planned for, she wondered why the outbreak of a fire never crossed her mind. Of course she should have thought about it, this fucking planet was mostly sunny!!! With the way the sun burned hot for the largest part of the year fires could break out if leaves were too dry and the heat was excessive.
The weather here was unpredictable, with the exception of the winter season. According to her father, at times it would rain heavily for two weeks and then stop suddenly. Sometimes for a month, other times it would just drizzle. The pattern was not easy to determine because it was inconsistent.
"I am not sure right now governor, I too was given little information." Tion answered.
"We will fix it, it\'s just a fire." Esong said.
"A fire in the fields!!, it\'s not good Esong." she replied in a snappy voice. "How do you put out fires in the capital?"
"We have never had a big fire in the capital." he replied.
"Oh greaaaaat!!" she said in a high pitched voice, That probably meant no fire fighters or Emergency medical services either. "Do you know if anybody is injured?" she asked Tion.
He shook his head and she sighed. At times, when she was nervous, Scarlet bit her nails and right now, that\'s what she was doing until she realized that it was not a nail in her mouth but the glove.
"Oh boy!!" Esong said and Scarlet looked up, that\'s when she saw it, the big cloud of black smoke up in the air welcoming them to the scene of the fire. No matter where one was in the blue star, they would probably be able to see it soon. "What\'s the plan? Should we use the space ships or mechas to send out air blasts?"
"No." she yelled immediately. "That might make it spread faster, we need water. How much water can your mecha suck up? Go towards the lake and just suck up as up you can. Relay it to the other mecha warriors who can help too. Water puts out fire, other things can too but water is what we have access to right now."
Esong pushed his code red button, "All mecha warriors on the blue star whose mechas can store water, suck up some from the lake and dump it on the field immediately. Water will put out the fire on the corn field."
The officers in the mecha warrior headquarters in the capital saw the code red and heard the instructions. Since it was not theirs, they relaxed a bit. For a few seconds, some of them thought the invasion of mutated beasts had started early.
"Guys, have you ever seen a fire?" one of them asked.
"How big can it be?" another asked.
"But if the general himself has made the announcement then it must be." This was the officer that passed a code red because he thought Scarlet was going to be eaten by Severus on a live broadcast.
He thought to himself that if general Esong was so calm back then in that situation, he must be worried right now for a good reason. It was best to take the threat seriously. All mechas had a video viewing option which the officers could access to help the warriors monitor their environment in the field. They could only use it in emergencies of course, to the officer, mecha warriors were suddenly facing an unknown threat, it was an emergency.
"Jeez!!, everyone look, I have footage from Admiral Folsom\'s mecha, this is a big fire. What in the world made a fire this big?"
"Are those people down there? We may not know much about fire but we know it kills."
"There is a special gas in cars and space ships which instantly quells sparks, they should use that."
"That\'s just a rumor which is not authenticated."
"But it\'s true, my brother works for Mighty star auto company, he told me this. If the gas was not used, cars and space ships would erupt when accidents happen."
"I am going to say something weird, the flames are beautiful." That officer earned himself weird looks from his colleagues.
As the mechas dumped water on the burning field and extinguished the fire, Scarlet was on the phone with Rodney who she told to make an announcement, requesting everyone to stay away from the field.
Then she called the hospital asking for a few doctors and nurses to come to the scene of the fire and assist anyone that was injured.
Twenty minutes later, the fire was completely extinguished and Scarlet was on ground to assess the extent of the damage. She walked with a few RGB officers, including their captain Zorl who was giving her a report.
"We don\'t know how the fire started and we are going to investigate carefully. From eye witness accounts, the fire started from the East, a few women were harvesting corn when it started. One of them was burned on the arm and three more were injured when they were running away."
"Did they see who or what started the fire?" she asked. That is what she wanted to know more than anything.
"Perhaps it was natural, the cold season is coming after all." an officer suggested.
"When the two suns were shining brightly we planted crops and nothing was burned. Now that the weather is becoming colder and only one sun is still up, a field catches fire!! It cannot be natural, not everything that happens at this time can be blamed on winter. You are well trained investigators, I expect better from you, the ordinary people can say that but not you." Scarlet informed and chastised that officer at the same time. She found it really ignorant that everything that happened during this time of the year was attributed to winter. Her own brother Adler had blamed their mother\'s early labor on winter, forgetting that this pregnancy had been problematic especially toward the end.
Captain Zorl also glared at his subordinate for making such an assumption loudly in front of the governor. "We are considering all aspects governor, nothing has been eliminated yet." he said.
Scarlet looked at the black field which was filled with ashes and she sighed, it was so painful to watch.
"No, noooo, the crops." she heard someone cry out loud, and she saw Oak fall to his knees dramatically. He was touching the ashes and crying as if an actual person had died.
Many other ordinary people who should not be on the field were coming to look, including some who were live streaming.
"Get the soldiers to help you keep unnecessary personnel off the field, treat it like a crime scene until you finish the investigation. These are standard practices, what are you waiting for?" She asked captain Zorl.
"Yes governor." he gave instructions to his subordinates and they dispersed.
"Hey Scarlet," Severus called, "I found something, I think someone deliberately did this."