Khrystalpol Incident
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The Khrystalpol Incident, also referred to as the K-17 Raid or the K-17 Massacre occurred around the restricted area around the K-17 Air Force facility, near the town of Khrystalpol, in which a group of Armed Security acted against orders and fired upon a crowd of self-purported "raiders" in retaliation for the assault of Security Officer Leon Kaliev.
| Khrystalpol Incident | |
|---|---|
| Part of Vakari Reintegration Tensions | |
| Location | Khrystalpol, Northern Irnac, Durakia |
| Date | November 16-19, 2021 |
| Deaths | 16 "raiders", 3 security officers |
| Injured | 50–150 |
| Assailants |
|
Background
Irnac War
The raid took place in the town of Khrystalpol, a former Vakari mining town south of Nov Martovgrad that later hosted a sizable Vakari airbase. This military presence made the town an important target during the conflict. Khrystalpol Airbase was bombed repeatedly, and on one occasion an errant missile strike landed in the town center, destroying a civic center-turned refugee shelter and killing 73 civilians. Khrystalpol was later occupied after heavy fighting along with the rest of Vakaristan before eventually being annexed into Durakia. Though the town was rebuilt, it remained a center for unrest after the occupation due to the death toll suffered during the conflict.
The Khrystalpol Sleeping Sickness
Beginning in January 2021, instances of a phenomenon known as "Khrystalpol Sleeping Sickness" began to occur in the town. Victims reported suffering from severe hallucinations and nausea before falling asleep for days at a time. Some individuals claimed to have been impacted on multiple occasions. Animals were similarly affected, and also sometimes showed signs of unusual aggression.
Vakari government reports uncovered in 2022 suggested that cases of "Sleeping Sickness" had been reported as early as 2013, but had been effectively silenced or misattributed by state security services. However, the relative openness of Durakan society along with a noted increase in cases initially created the impression in both local and global media that the phenomenon was both entirely new and rapidly expanding, with over a hundred residents falling ill over the course of 2021.
Researchers from the Durakan medical community issued a report in December 2021 indicating that the sickness could be attributed to gas leaks from the old and unmaintained Vakari mines, which had been previously overlooked by occupying authorities. In the months leading up to the Incident however, a widely popular theory began to circulate among the local population which suggested that the sickness was the result of a secret Durakan weapons project that was supposedly under development at Khrystalpol Airbase, now renamed K-17 by the Durakan Air Force and used to test experimental communications gear in cooperation with Rekelta. Though largely unsubstantiated, this theory quickly garnered support due to lingering resentment towards the Durakan authorities and the belief that the government was deliberately sacrificing the health of former Vakari. The K-17 Conspiracy was further aided by the town having recently gained internet access earlier that year. Durakan authorities reported sights of Khrystalpol residents crowding around the publicly available computers at the local library to discuss and research the crisis. The primary discussion site was in fact an Internet Relay Chat channel called #MartovLives, which was purportedly run by and for former Vakari learning to navigate the world wide web. #MartovLives apparently became a hub for the K-17 Conspiracy Theory, and also the centerpoint of a movement urging residents to "Storm K-17" in order to find and shut down the source of the illness themselves.
Later investigations of #MartovLives failed to determine the real life identities of any of its moderators, and reviews of chat logs suggested that the personal information they had provided to users consisted of false and nonexistent identities. Durakan security services would ultimately conclude that the moderators were likely not ordinary Vakari citizens both due to this duplicity and the fact that their apparent proficiency in hiding their trail was inconsistent with the wider Vakari population's inexperience with online technology.