Revenge is a Dish Best Served with a Side of C4

[Michael McBride]

Xaristan had started running flights out of the country again, and had started accepting a few in just a day ago. That's when they arrived. Ten men, on seven different planes had flown into the country from different places, some in South America, some in Europe. They stayed in hotels near the airports for two days before heading into Redemptio International Airport and Grancen International Airport for their multiple flights on Xaristan International Airlines into Ardoria.

Their bosses made sure the way was clear, lining the pockets of multiple airport staff to make sure the men and their luggage got onto the planes unmolested. Their luggage? To the naked eye, it would look like multiple six packs of Pepsi. Some men only had one in their checked luggage, others had two, but it came to a total of 17 six-packs, for a total of 102 cans... but not of Pepsi. It was of C4 plastic explosive, triggered by cellular phone call that would set off 10 at a time.

Once on their planes, staggered throughout the day into Atlanta, the men checked their passports. Each labeled them as a Croatian national. Their actual place of origin was unknown. The passports were expertly made fakes, and would pass even the most stringent test. They were ready, they were prepared, and they had their mission.

Their target: Suburban Atlanta.

OOC Note: Centurius approved the use of Croatian passports on IRC.

Edited July 13, 2009 by Pravus Ingruo

[JEDCJT]

OOC: Heh, this is somewhat ironic, seeing that Atlanta/Redemptio was the capital of your nation, the Federation of Pravus Ingruo...

[Michael McBride]

OOC: Heh, this is somewhat ironic, seeing that Atlanta/Redemptio was the capital of your nation, the Federation of Pravus Ingruo...

OOC: Everything happens for a reason.

[Raritan]

OOC: I was beginning to wonder when you were going to post this.

IC:

Over the past week when Ardorian airspace was closed, a review of security procedures at the major airports was done and a new government agecy would be created, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). However, it had yet to be organized and new procedures were still being created.

The airports, however, had reopened and Delta Air Lines as once again flying into and out of its hub at Atlanta, although passenger numbers showed a marked decline. This was true of the other airlines as well. As a result, security's job became much easier.

For the most part, life hadn't changed much in Ardoria, despite the fact that the aircraft used in the attacks belonged to an Ardorian airline and that the attacks had originated here. The land border remained closed and ports were scanning everything entering by sea, much to the dismay of the world's shipping companies.

[Michael McBride]

The flights went smoothly, as expected. Their carry-ons contained nothing suspicious at all, just some clothes for their time in Atlanta. Getting off the plane and walking down the terminal, group leader David Michaels smiled softly. All these people, going about their lives... unaware of what was coming to them through the coming days and weeks. His backpack was loose over his shoulder, clothes packed inside and passport in his pocket. He headed towards the customs section for international flights.

After waiting a few minutes in line, he checked his passport one last time. Andro Dragomir was his cover name, a name that ironically meant "precious and peaceful" in Croatian. Whoever said his Green Flag bosses didn't have a sense of humor was lying to themselves.

He stepped up to the counter, laying on a thick Eastern European accent. "Good morning."

[Raritan]

There hadn't been much international traffic since the attacks and as a result, there were only 5 customs desks open for the entire terminal, resulting in somewhat overworked customs officers.

He stepped up to the counter, laying on a thick Eastern European accent. "Good morning."

"Good morning. Your passport and customs declaration form?"

There were quickly handed over. He scanned them through the computer and checked the visa, which seemed to be legitimate and valid. He had nothing to declare and so was quickly waved through. The officer thought it was strange for Eastern EUropeans to be visiting, especially now, but it was near the end of his shift and quickly let the thought go.

[Michael McBride]

David smiled at the man and accepted his passport and papers back. He picked up his bag and walked out, grabbing his checked bag before leaving the airport and hailing a cab to a hotel on the outskirts of the city. The other nine members of the group got through customs with similar ease, all arriving at their particular hotels without issue (OOC: Agreed upon by Raritan on IRC). They would take a few days to relax, to scout out houses they were going to target, and to generally be tourists.

It was all a show, after all.

[Arkantos]

OOC: Don't you dare target Suwanee or Cumming.

Edited July 13, 2009 by Arkantos

[Michael McBride]

David Michaels sat in his hotel room, a video camera set up facing a blank wall. He turned it on and then walked over, script in hand. It was time for the charade to begin for the authorities.

"My name is Andro Dragomir," he said, his eastern European accent thick. "In protest of the Articles of American Sovereignty and Self Determination, me and my brothers have come to take back America for her rightful owners, Europeans. We have attacked Xaristan. We have attacked Ardoria. We will move our way across this land until every nation capitulates to European power, and moves back to their rightful place as colonies. Do not test our resolve, for we are the Reclaimers, and you will fall to us." Michaels ended the video and placed it in an envelope in his bag for the time being. Before he left, he would leave it in his hotel room to start the charade.

The attacks were not going to have the traditional Green Flag marker. There would be no green flags raised on this mission. This would not be a Green Flag-esque mission. There were no specific targets, no hardened places to infiltrate, no security to foil, no dignitary to assassinate. No, this was nothing like a Green Flag mission. It would be messy, sporadic, and, above all, random, which went against everything the Green Flag was. Still, the employer had insisted, so that's what they would do.

The entire team had touched base over the past few days. Everyone had their cans for the mission. David checked his bag for the expiration dates. The one that "expired" tomorrow was his can for tonight.

For a few days, Michaels and his team had been scouting potential targets in the surrounding Atlanta suburbs. Their targets needed to only fit a few criteria: they needed to travel by car, into the city, everyday at rush hour, and their car needed to be parked outside. The team had identified all of their targets and were now ready for night number one.

Michaels had given himself an easy assignment. A man two doors down was in Atlanta for a conference and tomorrow was the last day. Every morning, like clockwork, he got up at 6:30 to be on the road by 7:15 to be at the conference by 8:30. For three days, Michaels had listened to him complain about rush hour traffic, and knew he was the perfect first target.

That night, as couples pranced around the hotel and people came in and out, Michaels walked towards his car with what looked like a can of soda in his hand. Behind the other man's car, he intentionally tripped and his hand with the can slid out under his car, attaching the bomb under the gas tank using a magnet. Getting up and brushing himself off, Michaels looked as inconspicuous as possible until he reached his room.

He slept well that night, receiving confirmation messages from the rest of his team that their packages had been delivered successfully. Waking at 7:30, Michaels turned on the local news. He had a disposable cell phone in his hand that when he dialed, would call each of the first ten bombs, activating each instantly.

At 8:00am, the local news showed a traffic camera of I-285, which encircles the city of Atlanta. Dialing as they talked, Michaels pressed send as they talked about the traffic congestion. He knew it was about to get a lot worse.

It was just his luck that one of the targets was in view of the camera. A brilliant explosion of two pounds of C4 and gasoline lit up in the center lane of the highway, right in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic. Michaels turned off the television. He knew he would get reports on casualties later. He opened his door and walked outside. He was going for a swim.

OOC Note: The video has not been released yet. It's just a pre-setting for the end of the RP.

Edited July 14, 2009 by Pravus Ingruo

[Raritan]

"TV32, Atlanta Tower, you're cleared through the Bravo at or below 1000ft, squawk 1302."

"Cleared through the Bravo below 1000, squawking 1302, TV32"

"You have a clear shot?" the pilot/reporter asked his cameraman.

"Yep, the connector's really packed today. Looks worse than normal."

"TV32, dispatch, we need you over 285 ASAP, it's just north of the I-20 junction."

"Wonder what that's about. Let's go."

A few minutes later, they appeared over the site of the explosion. The good (and bad) news was that the traffic was bad as it usually was and the car was standing still. However, it resulted in several cars around it being burned very badly. The explosion fragmented parts of the highway surface as well. The man in the car was most certainly dead and the others around him had probaly sustained very serious injuries, though nobody would know until rescuers arrived.

[Raritan]

The rescuers eventually did arrive, albeit an hour later, too late to save anyone, although there 2 did survive being in the immediate are of the blast. Four people died from their injuries in this attack and there were several more injuries. The results were similar in the other attacks, resulting in 38 deaths and 89 injuries. for the most part, the attacks caused more psychological harm than physical damage, the only things destroyed being the cars, the highways, for the most part, remained intact.

Atlanta, GA (TBS) - Earlier today, several what are believed to be car bombs exploded along Atlanta's highways, causing 38 deaths and and 89 injuries. Police are saying that there were a total of 10 bombs and that as of now, the possibility of this being a terrorist attack is still being explored and that no conclusive reason or motive for the attacks has been found. President Briar held a press conference earlier today, saying that "if these turn out to be attacks on our nation, we will seek out and hunt down those responsible for theses heinous acts. These will not go unpunished and those responsible will be dealt justice." Much of what was said was very similar to his press conference two weeks ago after the Xaristani attacks. We will bring you more information as we recieve it.

[Michael McBride]

OOC: Timescale approved by Raritan.

IC:

A week had passed since the first wave of bombings. During that time, the group had still been busy. A little at a time, they had gone out at night, depositing the rest of their bombs on cars, and even a few on tractor trailers to give some added punch. The night they had finished, they had all packed their bags and headed for the airport. David Michaels would be the last one out of the country, and he carried two cans with him. Dressed up as Pepsi soda cans, they shouldn't attract any attention in the airport.

Michaels sat in his seat, waiting for his 8am flight. Somewhere in Europe was where he was heading, he really didn't know where... and it wouldn't matter. The tape was out on his bed, in the open, ready for the authorities. He was the only loose end... and that would all end after today.

Michaels calmly handed in his ticket and walked to his seat on the plane. Sitting in his window seat, he waited... waited... waiting until the plane was pulling away from the terminal before he started dialing quickly. Call after call was sent out, detonating the ninety bombs that had been planted in various cars over the course of the week.

After checking his call log on his disposable cell phone to make sure that all the calls had been made, Michaels dialed in a last number and typed the word "boom". The text was for the two cans in the airport itself, one by a busy store counter, the other under the seat he had been sitting in. He pressed send just as the plane lifted off the runway into the air.

Turning the phone off and sliding it back into his pocket, Michaels pulled something else out of his other pocket. A small baggie with three white pills. To anyone else, they may look like aspirin, but Michaels knew better. Just one of these would kill him, three were overkill, but necessary. He would simply slip off to sleep and die. He popped the three pills, quickly downing them with water as the plane arced to the east. He immediately began feeling drowsy. Yes, he smiled. Accomplishment was the last thing he would ever know.

[Raritan]

OOC: Timescale approved by Raritan.

OOC: Moving a bit too quickly, lol. Going back to when he dialed for the first set of bombs.

IC:

One of the bombs that was on the tractor trailer was on I-285, and happened to be pussing under Runway 10-28 at the airport. The explosion ignited both fuel tanks and shot part of the cab up against the overpass for the runway and severly damaging the runway. For Mr. Michaels, whose plane had just begun their taxi, would be directed to an apron to wait until the airport reopened, if it did...

----------

*The Hotel Michaels Was Staying At*

The housekeeping crew came down the hall, systematically cleaning the rooms as they normally did. When they got to Michaels' room, they found the tape. At first, they ignored it, simply throwing it back onto the cart which carried the cleaning equipment and the towels, sheets, etc. They returned the cart to the housekeeping closet, where the manager took note of the tape and brought it upstairs to the main lobby, where somebody finally had the good sense to see what it was and promptly called the police which came and took the tape into custody.

----------

*Atlanta Police Headquarters, Counter-terrorism Division*

The tape was played at the headquarters for the division's managers.

"Take an image of that guy and run it through the CBP's computers. Let's see if he came in through the airports. Check his name also, in case he was stupid enough to use his real one."

That they did. Half an hour later (there hadn't been that many entries into the country since the attacks), three possible matches came up. One of them was a (supposedly) Croatian man by the nme of Andro Dragomir.

"Who's the officer at Hartsfield?" one of the senior detectives asked.

"Guy named Andrew Seymour."

"Give him a call and tell him to go through the airline manifests. They computerized them now, right?"

"Yep."

"Alright, shouldn't be too hard. John, you, me, and Chip are going to the airport and see what we can find."

----------

*Delta Flight 3412 to Munich, Bavaria*

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, unfortunately, we're being held on the ground for the time being. Apparently, there's a ground delay program in effect. As soon as we know more, I'll make another announcement. Thank you for your patience."

[Michael McBride]

OOC: Not what you said on IRC, but whatever. Everything still stands from my post except the plane is on the ground. He still took the drugs and detonated the other two bombs.

[Raritan]

*Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Concourse E*

After stopping by the small police station at the airport, the three detectives took the list of flights which had people who matched the names they were looking for on their manifests. They proceeded to the international concourse where first flight on their list, Delta 3412, was supposed to depart from. It had just recieved instruction from the ground controler to return back to the gate, which it did. As the detectives entered the terminal, the last two bombs exploded, one less than 500 feet from where they were standing.

"I think that's our man."

"Yep, let's check the gate."

Sure enough, when they got to the gate, they found the remains of what was a row of seats in front of the jetway. The fligt had returned to the terminal and the three detectives showed their credentials and were allowed on board, finding that th man they were looking for seemed to be asleep and was unresponsive. They dragged him off the plane was best as they could and called for a helicopter to brring him to the hospital, although it would be of no use, since he was already dead.

----------

At the police station, another group from the Counter-Terrorism Division was reviewing the tapes to see if they could find anything that they might've missed the first time.

OOC: I need a post describing what's on the tape in a transcript-esque format.

[Razgriz 2K9]

OOC: Nice.....So, I assume this isn't the last we heard of Green Flag.

[Raritan]

"My name is Andro Dragomir," he said, his eastern European accent thick. "In protest of the Articles of American Sovereignty and Self Determination, me and my brothers have come to take back America for her rightful owners, Europeans. We have attacked Xaristan. We have attacked Ardoria. We will move our way across this land until every nation capitulates to European power, and moves back to their rightful place as colonies. Do not test our resolve, for we are the Reclaimers, and you will fall to us."

"'Reclaimers,' eh? Interesting name. Any word from the airport?" the senior investigator asked.

"The team's on their way back now. Two bombs exploded, the suspect, who used the same name in the video as on his passport, fake or real, we don't know yet, is found dead on the airplane, probably suicide. He's in the hospital now for an autopsy" another member of the CT Division responded.

"I don't like it. Doesn't make much sense."

"Since when has terrorism ever made an sense?"

"Get me the psychologist from the NIA and get me the head of the Federal Police's CT Division. I don't want to have to deal with any turf wars over jurisdiction."

[Raritan]

A tape was replayed for the psychologist and the others who had joined them from the Federal Police.

"What do you think?"

"You said he killed himself on the plane?" the psychologist asked.

"Yep, potassium cyanide, the usual stuff."

"I think that this man, whoever he may be, is lying. He claims that his group his attacked both us and Xaristan. However, if you look at the type of attacks and the targets, you'll see that they don't fit very well. The perpetrators of the two attacks have different MOs and have attacked different types of targets. The Xaristani attacks targeted military and political targets, as if to disable their government. The attacks against us were aginst civilian targets and were probably trying just to incite fear rather than to produce any real physical damage. These so-called 'Reclaimers' don't exist and its a fake group to try to throw whoever is on their trail off it. Can I see the transcript for the autopsy and the toxicology report?"

It was handed to him.

"Three capsules? He's definately got something to hide. He's on a flight out of the country. He detonates the last two bombs when he's on the plane and the takes 3-4 times what's necessary to kill himself. There's something more that we're missing. We need a timeline of everything happening between the attacks on Xaristan to when the last bomb exploded here. Somebody's trying to mess with us. It might just be saber rattling but you never know..."

[Raritan]

"I'm sure you already saw this, but here it is anyway," a secretary said as she handed the lead investigator a sheet of papar.

"When was this?"

"Ten days ago, three before the first set of bombs went off."

"What do you think of this?" he asked the psychologist as he handed over the paper. After a few seconds of reading it,

"Their reannouncement, eh? How's the timeline coming along?"

"Finished it yesterday," as it was also handed to the psychologist.

"I don't think the timing of this is a coincidence. It's almost immediately after the Xaristan attacks, and a little before the attacks against us. If I had to guess, it's a Green Flag operation. I can't tell tell you some of the reasons without going into classified stuff, but that alone should be more than enough for you to continue the investigation. The attacks against us aren't a continuation of the Xaristani attacks, they're retaliatory."