Five Minutes to Midnight

THE PREVAILING SERIES
Chapter 2: Five Minutes to Midnight
Chapter 1: A Prevailing South Wind: Prelude to Five Minutes to Midnight - The East Pacific - Tapatalk

[right]July 7th, 2019[/right]
Blue House
Liberty City, FPS

Christopher Arctoris, President of Free Pacific States, was quietly working in his office at the Blue House while listening to some classical music. Even with it being Sunday it was not uncommon to have government offices closed to the public but many in government still worked from late morning to late afternoon. It was about five minutes until noon, which meant he would be having lunch very soon, so he started to wrap up the document he was reading through when his whole office started to shake as if it was an urthquake but he realized something was wrong when the ballistic windows of his office cracked causing one to blow out and smoke started to fill the room.

He instantly rose to his feet and could see the Parliament building had collapsed and was on fire. By this time the security team was rushing into the room trying to extract him because the security and structural integrity of the Blue House had been compromised. “Go, go, go! We must move quickly Mr. President,” his chief of security was saying as they were making it out of the office. “EPTO has been bombed, the Parliament and Constitutional Courts aren’t looking too good…” at that moment a shockwave from another blast hit the building causing the left side of the building to collapse and everyone was thrown to against the wall and ground as they were hit with debris.

President Arctoris’ ears were ringing as his eyes opened. Everything was blurry and he was covered with debris. He would feel the blood running down his face as he tried to get up. He was trapped under a structural beam and could not free himself. As his senses improved he could see the outside and smoke rising from multiple places across the city. The level of damage done to the building was catastrophic at this point and he could hear the building’s structure groaning. In this distance he could now hear the sound of emergency services approaching the Blue House and from what was left of the building he could now hear the calls for help and the people searching for him. He was still trying to wiggle his way from under the beam as he could hear the sounds of snapping medal and then the horrifying realization that the building was collapsing floor by floor. It would only be moments before the weight of the above floors would meet him. He closed his eyes as the walls started to crunch down and thought of his wife and children and thanked Ademar they were not in the building today.

Boarder Crossing - Checkpoint 10
Ikram, Hoopland Metropolitan Area

Ground Force Ensign Marcus Hill was manning the security booth at the main road as the gate operator and the superior officers checked the resident cards and any vehicles for any illegal items. They noticed a small beat up truck coming down the road. They had countless signs set up letting approaching vehicles know they would be searched and to slow down as they approached.

The first red flag was they slowed down for a moment then a few moments later they hit the gas speeding towards the checkpoint. The Peregrinese officers signaled for them to stop but the truck continued towards them and when they crossed a certain point the officers drew their weapons. Marcus reported on the radio with a description of the truck that it was approaching and failing to follow orders at a high rate of speed. As he was reporting a black and red flag was being held up as people stood up from the truck bed with military grade weapons and started firing, which was heard over the radio, as the Peregrinese officers started to return fire, the public that was at the main pedestrian gate started to panic, trying to push their way past the walls. The officers tried to retreat to the security booth but were hit with weapons fire. Marcus at the start of the weapons fire had dropped the radio and started to close the gate and return fire. The security booth was riddled with weapons fire after the senior officers got gunned down. Marucs was hit in the left shoulder, arm and right leg but was still returning fire while doing the best to try and protect himself as he thought of the dream he had several nights earlier.

As the truck slimmed through the closing security gate, Marcus was hit again but his bullet proof vest stopped it, he noted that the people in the back of the truck also had military grade protective gear as he finally was able to strike a tire that caused the truck driver to loose control as it spun around and flipped then exploded as it slid towards the that was in the process of being closed. Shrapnel from the truck struck everything and anyone that had not been able to get to a safe distance. An order went across the radio to close all boarder crossings and to mobilize an emergency medical response and available ground forces.

Defense Command
Eastrovia, PGA

Director of Defense, Senior Admiral Mary-Jo Juneburg, was meeting reviewing paperwork in her office that oversaw the command center. The command center had a large digital world map that showed Peregrinia’s territories, interests, allies and enemies. It wasn’t uncommon to hear an alert to alarm for various reasons such as a lost of communication with a ship as it could happen from time to time depending on the weather in the area. She was reading a fleet movement report around the South Caven Sea when she seen a red ping show up in the Hoopland area and immediately stopped reading the report to observe the screen and the movements of the command center staff. If the red ping was not cleared after 45 seconds it would sound an official alert which she had already mentally started the countdown but noted the most of the staff were now at their consoles or had plugged in their headsets to a phone line. By this time she had already grabber her jacket and headed to her office door as the red alert klaxon went off, “report?” she said as soon as her door opened.

The chief of communication on watch, Rex Jackson, the person that directly gave updates to her or whoever was senior officer in the command center spoke, “weapons fire outside of Ikram at checkpoint 10. We’ve lost direct contact with the security booth but can hear weapons fire over the radio. We’re loading the security footage now.”

“Get DIRFAD and General Ley on the line ASAP. I want all crossings closed, all forces mobilized…” she stopped speaking when two red pings popped up in Free Pacific States then followed by three more red pings seconds later. “Alert Level One. Shutdown the government area of Eastrovia; mobilize all forces. All international deployment orders, with the exception of Hoopland, are hereby receded until we understand what’s going on. What are the exact locations of those red pings?”

East Pacific Treaty Organization Headquarters
Liberty City, FPS

The ground shook as a loud explosion was heard and followed by another explosion that could be heard in the lobby of The International Building, that housed the EPTO, that caused the lights to dim and flicker. It caused some people in the lobby to pause, while others went outside to take a look around, until another explosion could be heard and the security staff of the building started to clear the lobby and get the people that had went outside back in as the building was locked down. EPTO Military Forces started to close off the road in front of headquarters.

Meanwhile inside the building in the EPTO Command Center it was chaos as they lost contact with the Peregrinia and Free Pacific States commands. They could see smoke coming from the direction of the Blue House, the Capitol Complex and the Constitutional Court Building but could not reach any local government official. As reports were overwhelming their staff of an explosion outside of the Peregrinese embassy, outside of Cuttersville, and the Joint Training EPTO military base it was clear to the staff something major happened as they tired to restore a line of communication with their charter members before the EPTO would be required by treaty to deploy their forces if contact has been lost with more than one charter member.

Commander Felipe Castro of Lyon, who was the senior officer on duty when the attacks started was already on the phone with General Yann Thibault of FPS letting him know what the situation currently was and that they had already issued the recall for command staff to report to their stations and not to headquarters. As he was giving updates the line dropped as the building shook, the windows cracked and the power went out but came back on when the backup generators had kicked on as a fireball could be seen rising up in front of their now cracked windows. Luckily the building was built to withstand a direct attack but when the the building is breached the command would be transferred to another member nation with the coded message of “tsunami waves have breached the shoreline.”

[the following is an original post by [mention]Tuva[/mention] that has been combined into this post]

Major Yura Flestov, the Tuvalt EPTO Senior Officer had been in a briefing room the whole morning, because some junior enlisted hadn’t bothered to follow protocol and risked the safety of half of the corvette fleet. Now she had to spend hours to coordinate with her counterparts and subordinates to clean up the logistical mess that young seaman had wrecked. It had already been three hours since she arrived at the building, and the only thing keeping her going was the constant consumption of coffee. As she was making her way to grab her next cup of joe, the building shook and the lights in the break room flickered and dimmed for a few long moments. Flestov knew something major had just happened, and rushed to the EPTO Command Center. The sight before her was sheer chaos; alarms were going off, communications between some EPTO members had been lost, and in the distance from the window, she could see smoke rising from the city.

Running to the nearest Tuvalt personnel, she directed him, “Get me a line to Novosibirsk ASAP! Let them know the situation and request reinforcements!”

After hearing the confirming “Yes, ma’am!” Flestov turned around, and whilst making her way to the briefing room, she called up High-General Trimola Eknol.

A couple moments later, a “Hello?” broke the cycle of ringing, with Flestov beginning, “Good morning ma’am, it’s Flestov. Shit’s going down over here, and we need reinforcements sent over here ASAP.”

“Wait a second, what’s happening?”

“Liberty City’s on fire from an unknown attacker.”

A moment of silence, then Eknol said, “Yeah, that’s some serious shit. I’ll inform Mrs. Petrovavich and I’ll send out a correspondence to the other EPTO members.”

The phone hung up, and Flestov went back to the Command Center to help in any way she could.

[spoiler]ALCON,

For your SA: After being informed about the situation at HQ, I have made the decision to redirect military operations as needed to the impacted areas in Liberty City and any other affected locations. Please be advised that military drones will also be approaching the locations for surveillance purposes.

V/R,

H-G Trimola Eknol
Commander TUVNATCOM
[/spoiler]

[/end Tuva’s post]

Defense Command
Eastrovia, PGA

Director Juneburg was continually issuing orders as the news came across the news wires and from the intelligence agencies of the destruction reported in Liberty City. When the EPTO command transferred to Peregrinia, the scope of the attacks was becoming more clear to her. “I’m initiating Operation Falcon,” she said to her command generals and admirals around her as she went to a terminal to activate the command manually. “We need to secure the line of succession. We must prepare that another attack is going to happen on our soil at any moment.”

“Director, the Prime Emperor is already en route to Eastrovia, he embarked after the Hoopland attack,” Rex reported.

“Affirmative. Then I want Empress Jung directed to Dutch Gap. I want the boys secured in the palace bunker. Have the Speaker of the Senate and Chief Justice secured in their closest safe house. ETA on Director Briggs and Pink’s arrival to DC?”

Rex relayed the orders through his headset as she spoke, “Briggs is passing through security and Pink is on her way down right now.”

“Good. Has anyone been able to contact the FPS President? Vice President? Anyone in command?” the Director directed to everyone in the command center.

“Negative. News reports are saying that President Arctoris is currently missing. With it being Sunday the government offices are still in operation for a half-day, should have been mostly empty of civilians,” reported one of the communication officers.

“Understood. We need to reestablish the link with EPTO Command Center. I want all EPTO forces directed to secure Free Pacific States. As soon as the Empress is in the air, I want a secure link established to Imperial One.”

[right]July 7th, 2019[/right]

AuroraSEY Business Consortium Conference
Tarvov, Tivot

Empress Jung had decide to attend the weekend leg of a conference that promotes the smaller companies of Aurora and Southeast Yasteria so that she could showcase Pereginese eCommerce platforms that were promising. She had already spoken the day prior and today was listening to various CEOs and a few world leaders pitch their platforms or what their nation had to offer to small businesses. She was seated at a table that was on an adjacent stage that was set up for a QA session that she was scheduled to attend after the guest speakers had finished.

While the event was small it still received media coverage and with her in attendance it increased the reporters in the crowd, which she could tell who was a reporter based on their mannerism and their watchful eyes on VIPs, such as herself, but thankfully her security kept them away. She had been enjoying listening to the current speaker, the owner of a farm located in Tarvov that had an innovative new app that allowed consumers to purchase and pickup from the farm’s tower directly. She always admired the farm tower concept and typed a quick note on her custom PaddMicro phone that was about the side of a credit card to see about investing in the concept with her private investment firm. It was heavily encrypted with a technology known as World Wide Transceiver or WWT for short that enabled it to directly connect to the locked down Peregrinese government intranet. The top status bar changed colors depending on the status of defense command, it was green when she started typing the note, but had turned to yellow as she saved. It was nothing for concern as that could happen for various reasons and she didn’t select to access the system to see what it was reporting and continued to listen to the speaker.

About 5 minutes later she sensed the mood in the room had changed as all reporters eyes were on her and kept looking at their phone. She did a quick survey of the movements of her Imperial Guard, which she could tell they had tightened the ring of security around her and clearly speaking and listening with their radios. She also noted that her chief bodyguard, Jennifer Ward, was nowhere in sight which was another red flag to her. She accessed her phone again, seeing the status was now red, she quickly access the defense command system to see what was being reported. To the average eye what she was reading would make no sense as it used a mix of three languages in shorthand but to her trained eye it was all she needed to see to understand what was about to happen when she spotted Jennifer as she came up on the stage to speak with her. This did not go unnoticed by everyone at the conference but everyone continued as if nothing unusual was going on with the movements around her.

Jennifer leaned in close to her ear to speak where only they could hear each other, “Operation Falcon has been initiated. DC is bracing for a direct attack within Peregrinia or on a ranking official. Our security apparatus is assumed compromised until we get you in the air.”

“Understood. Let’s move,” Empress Jung said as she stood and followed closely behind Jennifer as her Imperial Guard security detail quickly closed in around her as she moved to exit the conference room to her motorcade that was waiting for her at the exit. The group moved quietly and swiftly with the public now taking notice that caused a minor disruption and it caught the attention of other leaders in attendance that had called their staff over to understand what was going on.

After leaving the conference…

The Boscow Overlook freeway was empty as Empress Jung’s motorcade sped down it towards the airport. The police force of Tivot had stopped all traffic from entering the freeway until after the motorcade passed by due to the emergency events happening and the possibility that Empress Jung could be a target with all the events currently happening.

In the Imperial Limo, Empress Jung was watching the news, and on her tabPADD receiving updates on the casualties and damages when Jennifer, who had been on the phone, spoke directly to her. "The lines to Defense Command are still busy, which I don’t understand why. We likely wont be able to get a direct line of communication until we get on Imperial One at this point.

“I should be able to have a line of communication with my military no matter where I am in the world. Something isn’t right,” as she typed in the website for the power grid," try Dutch Gap Emergency Command Center, they can rely my orders to Defense Command and execute them if needed to. With the path to the airport clear for us I believe we should arrive within 10 minutes and I found the problem with getting through to Defense Command," she then passed the tablet to Jennifer and took the phone out of her hand to speak with the general in charge at Dutch Gap directly.

Jennifer wasn’t shocked at all that Empress Jung snatched the phone from her because she was getting impatient with the situation of not having contact with her military but when she looked down at the tablet she knew she was getting angry on the inside. When they departed the conference a blackout happened within Eastrovia due to a unknown technical problem at the main power source for Eastrovia and power from the rest of the island was being diverted but it takes time for everything to come back online. She looked at over the Empress as she was giving order directly to the general at Dutch Gap.

“I want full deployment of all forces to secure Hoopland, Free Pacific States and Peregrinia. WestCo Power is to be seized and government is to take over the power grid of Eastrovia Island. I want naval forces to intercept and fire upon any unknown ship in our sovereign waters. The next breach of any type of security I want all people involved in that operation detained and interrogated. Sunset to Sunrise curfew is now in effect until after we get to the root cause of these attacks. Do you understand?” She listened for a moment as he spoke then replied, “thank you,” and promptly hung up the phone and passed it back to Jennifer.

[right]July 7th, 2019[/right]

Imperial One - Deck One, Empress Office
Tarov International Air and Seaport

As soon as Empress Jung boarded she made a call to the Defense Command as power was being restored to Eastrovia due to what was believe to be intentional sabotage to a WestCo Power energy facility while the flight deck of Imperial One was preparing for takeoff. She was finishing up the call as she knew they would be requesting her to cut the communication for their takeoff as it could interfere with certain classified protective measures the airliner had. Once they were in the air, they would be able to uplink to the WWT network, and resume communication. As soon as she ended the call one of the Imperial One flight attendant entered the office to see if she was ready as the captain wanted to take off. She let her know she was ready and the flight attendant spoke into her radio mic on her earpiece that they were “green.”

She could hear the engines powering up and feel the plane moving which was normal but she then she felt the plane suddenly go to full power and takeoff steep and start to turn in the opposite of what the normal flight plan of when they’ve taken off before from Tarov. About twenty seconds later Jennifer entered the office while the plane was still taking off and holding onto the railings to keep her balance and she instinctively knew something was wrong.

“We have a problem. StarAurora Flight 2957 isn’t responding to the tower and has diverted from their holding pattern and is now moving in the direction of the airport.”

“Maybe it’s a miscommunication?” Empress Jung said as she picked up her radio and earpiece so she could listen in on the flight deck…

“2957 isn’t responding to the Tower or to direct communication from us,” co-pilot Anthony Joon said to Captain Johnson Young.

“Damn. What’s going on today?” He asked rhetorically as he looked a the radar that showed a plane directly behind them, “we must have an breach.” He pressed a switch that activated another screen above the radar that did a lidar sweep to give them a better view of the position of Flight 2957. It took moment for the computer to compile the data and present a 3D model of everything around the plane. It showed Flight 2957 was about 2,000 feet above them and closing fast. “We’re at a disadvantage here, we need to lose them, activate the defensive systems” he said as the rest of the flight deck crew followed his orders as he increased speed and pulled up to get ahead of the unresponsive airliner.

Defense Command
Eastrovia, PGA

As the restoration of power to Eastrovia was in the process, Director Juneburg was speaking to Directors Brenden Briggs and Pink in her office.

If it wasn’t for Dutch Gap, we would be completely in the dark here, they have been giving us updates since they received a call from the Empress. I have a concern that this power failure is part of a larger attack. We’re trying to coordinate as best as we can with our emergency power reserves, but we’ve lost our CCTV as well as our ability to track movements. Any ideas on possible culprits?"

Director Briggs was the first to speak, “I mean… of course we have our share of unfriendly relations but on this scale I haven’t seen any reports from Triple-Y that indicated any of our foreign embassies would be targets and surely not Eastrovia but…” he paused for a moment.

“But what?” Director Juneburg asked to focus his train of thought.

“But I would have said the same about Liberty City before this afternoon.”

“I would have to concur,” Director Pink interjected. “Liberty City… hell, Free Pacific States, was by all means not an active target. Packilvania has been ultimately contained and put on a decades long leash of peace with us and by association with them. So that leaves… oh,” she paused for a moment, “1980.” Just a year was all she needed to say for them to understand.

Director Juneburg shook her head in agreement, “The similarities are actually too similar to be a coincidence. A border crossing, Liberty City and Libertyburg, EPTO headquarters and a military installation but this is a much larger scale and we don’t know what is happening right now. But could it be? That was 39 years ago. We haven’t heard anything from SLA that they were removed from the terrorist organization task force’s watchlist nearly 20 years ago now.”

Director Pink was looking around in her office when a horrifying look crept into her eyes. She was about to say something, but the power came back on and they all immediately went into the command center. The look in Pink’s eyes did not go unnoticed by Director Juneburg.

“Pink, what is it?” she asked in a whisper.

“Where’s General Ley? He should have been here a long time ago.”

“You’re right,” she agreed then turned to the chief of communications and spoke in a low voice, “Mr. Jackson since power is restored can I please get General Ley on the line?”

“Absolutely Director,” then he connected to the General’s secretary and Director Juneburg was standing right next to him and heard his end of the conversation and could see he was pulling up the door log as he was disconnecting the line. “Director, per the secretary, General Ley left his office for here before the power went out… and his door log indicates he was on his way to an exit when the power went out… and none of the emergency systems had been uploaded yet, and it appears he has left the building.”

She didn’t say anything but immediately went to Director Pink and whispered, “he started to leave the building when the attacks started and right before the power went out but he lied that he was coming here. We need to immediately revoke his…” She was cut off by a loud klaxon that drew her attention to the now restored digital display. “Is Imperial One at Alert Status Red. Connect with Dutch Gap. What in Mun’s name is going on.” She then turned back to Director Pink. “You understand me, do what needs to be done, and I’ll hold down the command center.”

“Understood,” Director Pink said and immediately left the command center and dialed a number on her mobile phone, “Teal. It’s Pink. Help me lock down Defense Command and kindly revoke General Ley’s access and get the team in the field. We have some hunting to do.”

“Director, we are getting reports of shots being fired on Embassy Row, Triple-Y is responding and requesting backup.” Mr. Jacksons reported.

“Damn it. This is all a distraction. Our focus is Imperial One and the Empress. All other emergencies are secondary. I don’t care if the brains of the Morstaybishlian ambassador are splattered all across the street of Embassy Row right now,” she turned to Director Briggs, "No offence of course and just a figure of speech so that everyone understands what is important. With a sigh she continued, “Advise Triple-Y that we will get reinforcements when we can at this point. We are not to redirect the Imperial Guard that is currently protecting the Imperial Palace and other important facilities. I know they are the closest but we all have to make sacrifices at this point.”

“Yes ma’am I understand” Mr. Jackson replied.

“Director we have received that information on Imperial One and are in communications with the Captain. They apparently have a hijacked commercial airline chasing them around the airspace of Tarov and he’s… he’s… requesting S2A support.”

‘Just one thing after the next,’ Director Juneburg thought to herself as she thought over the response the the consequences. “Authorize it.”

“Oh J-Burg,” a voice came from the main entry of Defense Command, “I’ve been waiting for this day for years. Finally I get to be your equal. Who would think that two females would be the nation’s top military officers. Males are so overrated. Sorry guys,” she said with a shrug.

Juneburg turned to the newcomer to the room. “The one and only Calla Mizuki. I’m surprised you’re not on Embassy Row right now. I hear it’s a real mess.”

Calla walked right up to Juneburg, “now, now Mary-Jo, is that how you greet your oldest rival? By my calculation we are now even in rank thanks to that scumbag Ley. Oh and no need to worry about Embassy Row. I sent in my Red Panther squad.” the Nekomimi Senior General chucked.

“Equals? Over my dead body. But that’s another story. Thanks for the Embassy Row support. They won’t know what hit them with that neko squad of yours. Are you up to speed?”

With a smirk Calla walked over to the central strategy table and started working one of the touchscreen consoles. “Oh course, we’re about to cause a diplomatic situation, and DFAD is obviously under attack. Thankfully we have that mal… Director Briggs over in your office on the phone with who knows who.”

“That’s the general basics, yes, but please try to be a little more respectful to cabinet members” Juneburg said with a frown.

“Mmhmm. Anyway I have secured a link to the East Gemica Defense Outpost. All we need is the Imperial One uplink to reset and to restore itself then we’ll be good to go. You know me, I love fixing sabotage, that idiot Ley thought he could take care of me.”

“Calla, don’t tell me you have a dead body in your office, please anything but that.”

Calla played with one of her pinna, “hmmmm… Oh no… You know I promise to take care of all that paperwork for you. Don’t worry about that.”

“Calla…”

“They’re just severely injured and I did take them to the medical center under armed guard. No worries J-Burg. If they die it won’t be as much paperwork, I promise”

“You should have told me we’ve been compromised in that way…” Juneburg stopped talking when the alert sounded at the launch of the surface-to-air missile. “I guess our systems are fully up now. Do we have CCTV feeds and WWT back up now?”

“Yes we are showing a little more than 75% and rising,” Mr. Jackson reported.

“Terminate all nonessential internet access to give us a boost. I want to see Embassy Row and whatever we can source of the status of Imperial One.”