March 3rd, 2196 - by the Staff of the Coloradan

Bear Creek Canyon, Co - In what many are calling the most barbaric attack in recent memory on our nation, a nuclear device has been set off in Bear Creek Canyon. Bear Creek is home to prominent resident Alexy Dimitry, who maintained a facility there. The weapon, which was set off at 4:19 pm (MDST) was almost certainly nuclear, according to the federal office of emergency preparedness.

The blast, which is thought to have been in the 7 kiloton range and is thought to have been detonated on the ground, which led to only a limited amount of fallout on the nearby boulder area.

When the blast occurred, AKD Pharma Colorado was having its annual picnic. In attendance were AKD Founder and Chairman Alexy Dimitry, his family and executive staff as well as a great number of the firm's reconstitution scientists. AKD's main research lab is sited in Colorado and is one of the States most important employers.

Of the approximately 1000 people who attended the picnic, only 259 are currently thought permanently dead, thanks to safeguards present in the implant system. The only surviving member of the Dimitry family from the party is Carmen Dimitry, Alexy's granddaughter.

"It is quite remarkable, really, that as many people were able to survive as did. We planned for this kind of thing heavily when creating the system. The standard reconstitution implant has a feature that detects when other people around it are dying, and in the event of enough people dying in a pattern that could match that of an expanding fireball, it will preemptively terminate its owner, hopefully keeping that persons personality transmitting ahead of the blast wave.", noted AKD Pharma technician Gael Paulson, "We were hoping that this function would never be needed, but I for one am very glad it worked."

A total of 1567 people died and were reconstituted as a result of the explosion. With the great majority (810) being caused by the initial blast effects of the weapon, the remaining non-permanent deaths were caused by thermal and radiation effects of the weapon triggering the auto-reconstitution settings of the victim's implants. Many are now seeking psychological help as a result of having so many of their friends having died. AKD Pharma employee Paul Cosson said, "I felt those burns for only a few moments, but it was the most pain I'd ever experienced in my life."

While the human effects were tragic, it could have been much worse, according to FOEP officer Dalton Jannik, "I can only say that the blast was very carefully managed, it was clearly designed to defenestrate AKD Pharma and not significantly harm Boulder. The blast was situated very carefully to keep the immediate blast effects contained and the secondary blast effects, like structure damage and fallout, really aren't significant due the lack of development in the area. The bear creek canyon area has essentially been a private park for AKD for 20 years now, after the company acquired it in trade for its downtown properties during the tax crisis of 2176."

"We're clearly talking about a few billion in repairs, but we spend more than that during a typical fire season. The biggest problem is how fast can we recycle all these bodies? Lots of them are covered in radioactive fallout which makes it very difficult to recycle them for later reconstitution, we'll likely have to intern them underground and abandon recycling for these people."

The most chaotic effect of the blast is the great number of people in the greater boulder area that were blinded by the blast. Some 20,000 people were instantly blinded by the attack, and the effects of this expected to the represent that majority of the damage and cleanup. Most opted to self-terminate and reconstitute shortly after being blinded. Boulder resident Jan Caldwell explained "I was heading down 21st when, bam, I couldn't see a thing. I rear ended a car ahead of me and heard the horn of a semi and a loud crunching sound .....that was enough for me, so I gave the command to self terminate. It was a good thing too as my car was totaled by that truck and that would not have been fun to ride out."

The FOEP representative had this to say: "It's strange; this kind of weapon simply isn't as fearsome as it once was. The fallout effects simply aren't important anymore now that we have reconstitution. It's a real shame that as many people died as did. I think that we could have probably saved another 120 people if we had an orbiting reconstitution system up there, a review of the records of the surrounding reconstitution network cells shows that the surrounding reconstitution receivers were overloaded and had to reject some incoming personalities. Some were routed to stations that were only slightly further away, but for some, there just wasn't anywhere for their personalities to go."

Office of Nuclear Security chief Jeff Myers, when asked about the source of the weapon, only had this to say, "All we can say at this time is that the nuclear materials match none of those in currently tracked arsenals. This is a very bad thing, as there could be more of these devices out there. We do have a lead on the possible perpetrators of this horrific act, in particular we think that it came from a radical group of anti-reconstitution terrorists, but for now, we don't know much. They had some skill though, creating such a small blast could indicate an extremely small delivery system, the size of a lunchbox or thermos."

A memorial for the dead is planned for next week on the grounds of the armory. AKD Pharma released a statement this morning lamenting the death of its employees and founder and hoped that the world would take a minute to "Enjoy the life that Alexy worked so hard to protect, and paid for with his own life."