Azaly sipped graciously from his piping hot coffee cup, which was filled to the brim with only the finest Utopia Corp brew, making an active effort not to burn his thick lips in the process. He sat over the counter of his marble kitchen counter, watching the perfect orange sun rise over the great blue horizon of the ocean. He’d have to commission a painting of something similar at a later date. He took a short break from drinking his hot coffee and slipped the silk robe down to his shoulder to check the time on his hand-crafted platinum watch. Christ, I’ll have to be going soon.

Solika Oil was still recovering from the electricity crisis that occurred almost a year before, which made his job as Chief Operator that much harder. Every time a good drill went out was just another time he had to pray for it to work again.

A knock came from the front door, which was an uncommon sound since Solika had forced its executives to live in guarded compounds since the tip-off that they received last year. But Azaly was never a man to ignore guests; he set down the coffee mug and began for the door. Opening the door had revealed a compound guard holding a large, unmarked package. The face holding it was giving a slight, young smile, which contrasted to Azaly’s droopy features and ungroomed beard. The sentry simply extended the box into his hands and nodded, allowing the old, salt-and-pepper-haired chief operator to take in ungraciously and with silence. Before the man could ask any questions, the guard shut the door on his behalf, with fast footsteps on the new pavement being heard beyond the frame. Azaly simply nodded to himself and chuckled, heading back for the kitchen counter to reveal what laid within the unmarked package.

​

Only hours later several dozen Solika guards roamed around the smoldering wreckage of Azaly’s decadent ranch home, which smelled of burning wood and blood. No trace of Azaly could be found, however, and many Solika officers suspected his corpse had been propelled directly into the ocean from the blast, right over the abruptly-stopped peaks that made the border for his backyard.

[-5% fuel production & 10 instab until Solika resolves issue and fuel production can resume with efficiency]