The mass of ships hovering above Earth to watch the crawl - now a mini warzone with warships threatening to open fire.
Reported by Quasar in his arrival message. In the four days Carl was out of play it has been a class-9 shit cyclone: lots of legal movement in the inner system, and in Carl's system, 'that parking lot above the planet has devolved into a mini warzone. Warships threatening to blow things up. Syndicate Security intervening.'
His verdict is that most of this is good from Carl's point of view, even if some of it will cause legal pain. It is the clearest picture yet of what Carl's sabotage has done outside the dungeon: the audience's viewing gallery over Earth has turned into a standoff between armed fleets that the Syndicate's police have to break up.
A dense crowd of parked spectator vessels and warships in orbit above Earth, now hostile to one another.
The off-planet theatre of the story - proof that Carl's campaign has escalated into an armed political crisis in orbit.