Garbage Launcher Misfire Kills 48; Closes Desrini
DESRINI DISTRICT, CORUSCANT – The Desrini district of northern Coruscant is still closed following a catastrophic garbage launcher misfire that has killed at least 48 and has littered the entire district with dangerous industrial waste.
At 0801 this morning, Waste Canister Delivery Port 84-D-21 launched its regularly scheduled payload of industrial refuse sealed in a shielded container. The projectile came into contact with a sizable obstruction, causing it to shred apart within the launcher barrel. The entire cannon assembly collapsed, taking out the four surrounding city blocks.
Emergency rescue crews arrived on the scene in less than half an hour, and have been working since then to clear the rubble. At least 48 bodies have been recovered, and over 200 injuries have been reported.
The rescue crews have identified the barrel obstruction as a shantytown of refugees living within the launch chamber. “From the looks of it, there were at least four families of squatters living between the fourth and fifth accelerator gates. They had tapped into the cannon’s energy grid which disabled its obstruction sensors,” said Captain Nigella Mure of Desrini Rescue Ops.
The destroyed canister contained 115 metric tons of concentrated industrial waste, including hyperbaride run-off, tricorrinium hexifluorine and destabilized hrucium. The canister’s explosion has spread this waste over the disaster site, and emergency workers are dressed in full toxgear to carry out rescue efforts.
The Coruscant WeatherNet has canceled prevailing winds in the area, but natural air currents caused by undercity convection is spreading a dangerous cloud of industrial toxins. All non-pressurized structures in the surrounding 10 kilometer radius have been evacuated.
