The 2020 London unrest was a period of post-Brexit political crisis, social unrest, rampant crime, and economic downturn which plagued the British capital city of London in 2020. The unrest resulted in the implementation of a mercenary-run police state by the British government and the Albion private military company, as well as its gradual dismantling by the hacktivist and insurgent group DedSec with the support of the people of London. DedSec ultimately motivated Londoners, borough by borough, to disobey Albion's police and surveillance state, leading to the British government ultimately reviewing and cancelling Albion's contract.
Background[]
The controversial Brexit referendum of 2016 led to the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union on 31 January 2020 under the auspices of Prime Minister Boris Johnson (later succeeded by Dev Hassani) and his Conservative Party. There was widespread concern about the economic and social ramifications of Brexit, such as increasing economic inequality, isolation from the international community, and increasing political divisions. In addition, many pro-democracy activists feared the rise of far-right politics in Britain (often blamed on Hassani's inflammatory "London is Drowning" speech), including anti-immigrant sentiment, opposition to the settlement of refugees on British soil, hatred of Islam, support for a police state, and support for the implementation of the ctOS surveillance system in Britain. Former GBB (Global British Broadcasting) employees angered at their company's privatization left and formed the underground pirate radio network "BuccanEar", which hosted several political dissidents and analysts who attacked Britain's slide towards illiberal democracy and neo-fascism. The Conservative government enacted sweeping changes in addition to Brexit, such as ramped-up deportations of immigrants and asylum seekers, the mandating of self-driving electric cars in London to reduce traffic accidents and pollution, the implementation of Blume's ctOS surveillance system in London, and the privatization of the police. Increasing automation since 2016, rising economic inequality, and the COVID-19 pandemic led to massive unemployment and a rise in violent crime as criminal organizations such as Clan Kelley took over public spaces such as Camden Market and Spitalfields Market.
Conflict[]
Background[]
The hacktivist collective DedSec, led by Sabine Brandt, attempted to resist the decline of London and British democracy through a campaign of cyberwarfare against the government and corrupt corporations. However, the anarchist insurgent group Zero Day, covertly backed by both Brandt and Albion private military company CEO Nigel Cass, planned to escalate the situation for different reasons: Zero Day sought to bring about the destruction of British society to bring an end to technology's oppression of humanity, while Cass sought to create a situation in which his company would be empowered to crush political dissent across Britain and create an authoritarian state. In March 2020, Zero Day carried out a series of bombings across London, killing thousands in mass-casualty attacks on the TOAN conference, the Earl's Court tube station, and the King's College Hospital, while leaving DedSec flyers at the attack scenes in order to frame DedSec. DedSec operative Dalton Wolfe narrowly prevented the destruction of the Palace of Westminster, only to be killed by Zero Day drones after the other bombs were set off.
Protests in London in 2020
Over the next few months, candlelight vigils were held at the attack sites as Londoners temporarily came together, fed with the GBB's narrative that DedSec was responsible. The Prime Minister also invited Albion CEO Nigel Cass to 10 Downing Street, where he received a mandate to secure London and hunt down DedSec. Albion used cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems and autonomous drones to capture the remaining members of DedSec, destroying their network in London and driving them underground. Meanwhile, Britain's top corporations posted record profits due to increased efficiencies in production and distribution, enabled by the use of technologies initially developed and approved for security purposes. However, the GBB covered up the rise of unemployment caused by automation, which had caused massive street protests; in addition, many former Metropolitan Police Service officers protested against the privatization of law enforcement, while there were also protests against the British government's consolidation of the intelligence community into a singular agency, SIRS, which monitored people's social media, phone calls, and personal lives. The GBB went on to report that Britain's underworld was having a long-overdue cleanup, that crime numbers were taking a dive, and that illegal gambling, drug trafficking, and prostitution went down following the prosecutions of four of London's five largest criminal syndicates; the GBB proudly declared that the streets of Camden and Brixton would soon be safe to walk again.
Albion mercenaries on the streets of Westminster
At the same time, Albion's mandate was extended indefinitely, and, while the GBB claimed that life was returning back to normal. By October 2020, curfews and travel restrictions had finally been lifted in all boroughs thanks to the deployment of automated checkpoints. While the GBB reported favorably upon the security situation, everday Londoners were frequently halted and harassed by Albion mercenaries, and their civil liberties were frequently violated. In addition, the GBB covered up news reports of protests and conflagrations in Trafalgar Square, claiming that they were "greatly exaggerated, possibly by foreign meddlers pushing a false narrative through social media," and that "conspiracy theories" persisted in "dark corners of the internet, that the terrorist group DedSec were framed for the bombings..." GBB's reporters could not find a single Londoner willing to expound those theories on camera, and the GBB declared that "The facts simply do not support any other story."
Start of the Unrest[]
Protests in Trafalgar Square
DedSec London's chapter leader Sabine Brandt went into hiding in Northern England as her cell was shut down, but she decided to restart DedSec from exile, using The Earl's Fortune pub in Westminster - owned by her contact Connie Robinson - as its base of operations. She used a spiderbot to hack into the city's ctOS system at Blume Tower and locate DedSec sympathizers across the city, choosing Veronica O'Leary to restart the cell from scratch. O'Leary went to the basement of The Earl's Fortune to restart DedSec's AI system, Bagley, and pick up her kit before training in combat with Robinson. After she was ready, she set about building up a network, starting with weapons analyst Jack Hermosilla. DedSec's numbers grew exponentially as new recruits went on to recruit new members themselves, branching out. For instance, Hermosilla recruited gun enthusiast Caroline Buckingham, who then recruited construction worker Muireann Slattery and Charlie Robinson, who then recruited their own new members to the organization in turn. As the group grew in size, it also began to step up its resistance campaign, replacing Albion propaganda billboards with DedSec propaganda, stealing SIRS' artificial reality (AR) module and their watchlist (providing them with a list of potential recruits), and destroying Albion's base at King's Cross Station with an EMP. The latter incident encouraged the people of Camden Town to rise up against Albion's occupation, with DedSec freeing their first borough.
DedSec propaganda in Southwark
DedSec's numbers continued to multiply after Brandt held her first video conference with the new team, with former intelligence agent Vincent MacMillan (replaced by fellow former intelligence agent Riley Coyne after his death) liberating the City of London by derailing Albion's designs for a new surveillance drone (GogOS), taking down their "realignment clinic" in the Walkie Talkie building, and taking down Albion's automated propaganda hub at Carousel Plaza. With another borough free of Albion occupation, DedSec was again resurgent, having around a dozen operatives by that time. Shortly after, Lorence Johnson and James Tsoy liberated Southwark, with the final nail in Albion's Southwark coffin being the overloading and destruction of the Albion global information hub at Nexus Tower. The skilled anarchist Sadie Green then volunteered her services to DedSec.
The liberation of Westminster
Shortly after, Tsoy went on to liberate Westminster, shutting down the Albion propaganda in Buckingham Palace, rescuing the freedom fighter Bruce Rexhepi from New Scotland Yard, and hacked a propaganda billboard at Piccadilly Circus before meeting with Labour MP Charlotte Galloway at the Palace of Westminster. Galloway - who served as an informant for DedSec - expressed her anger at Albion for desecrating Big Ben and turning it into a propaganda billboard, so Tsoy shot his way past the Albion guards, infiltrated the tower, and used a spiderbot to climb the tower and shut down the propaganda. The people of Westminster cheered upon hearing the bells of Big Ben ring once more, and Galloway celebrated the liberation of the borough. Shortly after, former spy Carla Johnson joined DedSec. She went on to investigate the TOAN attack at the attack site, using Albion's AR system to recreate the events of the attack and discover that Clan Kelley and the police were responsible for the attack. She then headed to New Scotland Yard to investigate a spiderbot used by the police in the attack, and, in the process, she uncovered footage from inspector Kaitlin Lau's investigation into Mary Kelley's human trafficking operation (which had links to the European Processing Centre). With this information in mind, Johnson and DedSec decided to investigate both the EPC and Kelley's criminal operations.
Carla Johnson infiltrating the European Processing Centre
Johnson drove to the EPC, situated at "The Oval" stadium in Kennington, Lambeth, and she then infiltrated the facility and knocked out Captain Brendan Mokoena in the process. She went on to meet with the guard James McDonald, DedSec's contact within the EPC, and he expressed his concerns about some of the refugees going missing. After a shootout with the guards, Johnson was able to locate the EPC database, hack into it, use the EPC's AR system, and recreate the tortured Lopez's escape from the clinic, recapture, and transfer to an incinerator after his guards killed him by detonating a microchip in his head. Johnson deduced that the incinerator was the Southwark Incinerator, so she drove there to track him down. She proceeded to engage in a shootout with her lethal silenced pistol, and she discovered Inspector Kaitlin Lau being operated on in the basement after sliding down the rubbish hcute. Lau beat down the surgeon with a wrench after Lau distracted him, and Lau then helped Johnson locate Lopez, who was confirmed dead. Shortly after, Johnson recruited former Albion contractor Taanya Mittal following the Bondwick Square shootout.
Mittal then scoped out Albion Station Kennington before calling in James Tsoy to infiltrate the headquarters atop a cargo drone. Tsoy engageed in a shootout with the guards on the roof before photographic Albion's surveillance footage and leaking it onto the internet to reveal Albion's predatory activities in Lambeth. He then headed to St. Thomas Hospital, where he engaged in a shootout with the guards before using a window-washer lift to reach the roof and replace the massive Albion propaganda billboard with a DedSec "Keep Calm and Resist" one. Finally, he removed the propaganda billboard from the Imperial War Museum, encouraging the people to rise up.
The people of Lambeth celebrating their liberation
To finish off Albion in Lambeth, Tsoy met with informant Liz Nyoni on Lambeth Bridge and was persuaded to take down the Albion propaganda on the London Eye to give the natives the morale to resist Albion. Tsoy stole a prototype counter-terrorism drone from an Albion barge and used its missiles to destroy the Albion power stations around the wheel, while also using its machine-guns and rockets to destroy Albion drones and kill their mercenaries. He then set about hacking the "Terrorist attack threat: imminent" propaganda sign with the drone, and he destroyed several other drones in a dogfight before the upload was complete. With the Albion propaganda dealt with, the London Eye returned to normal, and the people of Lambeth celebrated their liberation. Drone expert Sharon Wanjiku then joined DedSec in gratitude.
DedSec was dealt a morale blow when Caroline Buckingham was killed in a shootout on the Nine Elms Walkway one night, with Albion guard Alfred Evans critically injuring her with a grenade and shooting her with his live-round submachine gun as she attempted to find new cover. Shortly after, DedSec operative and Albion contractor Taanya Mittal went to the bridge to avenge Buckingham. She stealthily took down several Albion guards before engaging in shootouts with many of them, and she also looted the ETO and other goods left around the walkway. Weeks later, DedSec operative Catherine O'Doherty recruited the anarchist Szymon Mazurek into DedSec after rescuing him from arrest by Albion guard Kenneth Desilva in Vauxhall.