Sol Bulletin #16

The following is excerpted from issue #16 of the Sol Bulletin, an ad hoc news sheet distributed electronically among survivors of the Battle of Earth in the chaotic period following the firing of the Crucible. Issue #16 was released eighteen days after the Crucible fired.

Mob Attacks Quarian Relief Team in UNAS
A Quarian relief worker is in critical condition today after a mob assaulted his team in New York City. The attack occurred as the combined Geth and Quarian team was working to repair water infrastructure in the district of Brooklyn. A crowd formed, apparently under the impression that the relief workers had come to distribute food. When the team began working on the water main, a rumor spread that the team was polluting the drinking water with an Indoctrination agent of some kind.

"I don't know what they were doing with the water," said Harvey Kingsley, a Brooklyn resident who denied taking part in the attack. "Maybe nothing, maybe not. But they shouldn't be working on our water anyway. It should be humans. What if we get an alien disease or something?" (The odds of Quarians carrying a disease that would infect humans are infinitesimal.) Kingsley said he did not support the attack, but he also didn't want aliens in Brooklyn.

The crowd started throwing stones and rubble and one Quarian was struck with an improvised club, breaching his suit. The team was unarmed, and took shelter in a derelict building until an Alliance biotic detail assisting with rubble-clearing operations in the area arrived on the scene. They used biotic shockwaves to disperse the crowd, causing several minor injuries in the process, and escorted the Quarians out of the area.

Admiral Zorah of the Migrant Fleet took the lead in appealing for unity in the Inter-species Summit. "This is a difficult time for everyone. This was a terrible thing, and obviously we need to do more to protect our recovery teams and to reach out about our mission, but we're still committed to helping Earth."

However, President Lisa Ford of the United North American States objected to the deployment of more fleet troops to UNAS territory and criticized the Alliance biotics. "People are afraid. They've been through a lot. More alien and Alliance soldiers on the streets will only scare them. We need to reach them with patience, understanding, and help, not biotic shockwaves and threats to 'rip them apart.'"

Migrant fleet officials announced that the injured Quarian was in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery. The Geth with the team suffered no injuries and declined to leave New York City with the Quarians, pledging to continue supporting the relief effort.