"The Bug-Bug Plan is a lie!"
"Give us back our taxes!"
"Cancel the drills, cancel the pointless rules!"
In the streets, great crowds could be seen holding up placards with every kind of slogan, shouting loudly.
Among these people were old folk, the middle-aged, and even some who had brought their children along.
These people seemed to be at a carnival, shouting at the top of their voices.
Among them were also some of the wilder sort; wearing masks and face coverings, they overturned the cars beside them, stormed the shops beside them, smashing, looting and burning.
And on seeing soldiers appear across from them to block their way, they would throw the Molotov cocktails and stones they carried.
Clashes between the two sides were bound to break out.
But the people who lived here had long since grown used to this sort of thing.
Lately, such outbreaks had grown more and more frequent.
It had even set off a wave of strikes.
"Honey, are you sure it's all right for us to bring the child?" a wife said, looking at her husband holding a placard beside her, holding the child's hand with some worry.
But the man said, not caring in the least, "What's there to worry about? That hive-race crisis business is just a con. That damned company fired me just because I broke the so-called Bug-Bug Plan rules three times. I have to get justice. They have to pay me for emotional distress, and give me back my job! Three hundred thousand! No! A million!"
The husband roared and shouted, even stepping onto the roof of a car beside him and tearing open his clothes to show the slogan painted on his body.
And little did they know
that at this moment
the several space observatories that had been quietly watching the space around Dragon Star all along found, one after another, something different from other days.
"Report! Word from the Sky Eye One Observatory. In this area it's photographed several black dots appearing, moving at high speed, racing toward our Dragon Star. Very fast! The departments concerned are calculating these objects' speed and trajectory, and whether they might strike our Dragon Star!" Secretary Officer Barbara burst urgently into Zhao Chen's office and reported this news.
"Sound the nationwide alarm at once!" Without a word Zhao Chen gave the order.
"Yes!" Secretary Officer Barbara, without the least hesitation, ordered the alarm sounded across the whole of the Fierce Dragon Kingdom.
At the same time, she relayed this news to every country of the Dragon Star Alliance.
Almost within the same half minute, the other countries of the Dragon Star Alliance received the news one after another.
"Sound the alarm nationwide; all residents are to go into the shelters at once according to the plan!" the Nancy Empress said without the least hesitation.
"But… the Fierce Dragon Kingdom isn't yet sure whether what's appeared is the hive-race. If we sound the alarm now, isn't it a bit too hasty…" the secretary beside her said with some worry.
"Too hasty? If what's coming really is the hive-race, every second we delay now could mean hundreds or thousands of deaths!" the Nancy Empress said in a firm tone.
"Yes!"
Very soon the Nancy Empire sounded its alarm too.
The crowds still marching all froze for a moment when they heard the alarm.
Some, without thinking, began to disperse; it was a reflex trained into them over the past year and more.
But they were soon held back by their companions.
"What are you running for? This is just an alarm the Nancy Empire sounded on purpose to trick us into dispersing. This hive-race invasion business is just a rumor!"
Because of these people's words, some who had meant to disperse chose to stay, and went on marching and shouting, paying no heed whatever to the alarm!