As promised, a little update to the story. This fragment is still part of chapter one, which will deal mainly with non-directly related incidents. The events are still located in the United States, but that'll be changing soon. I didn't have as much time to prepare this one as I did with the previous one due to an unexpected turn in RL, but I hope you will still enjoy this one.
Date: 16 September 2001, 13:00 UTC
Toady One Network radio broadcast
Steven: “Hello, thank you for tuning in to the Toady One Network, bringing you almost un-censored news approved by the US government, I’m Steven Nester.”
Steven: “Yesterday, the NYPD has managed to locate and contain a small dwarven sleeper cell, who were apparently digging a large tunnel with the goal of collapsing the entire city of New York. Neighbors have reported the sleeper cell after hearing strange sounds coming from under the street when flushing the toilet. The police have alarmed the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tunnels and Fire prevention), the FDA (Food and Dwarf Administration) and the DHS (Dwarf Handling Service), they are currently laying siege to the dwarven hideout. If the dwarves don’t surrender within 24 hours, special agents from the Dwarf Extermination Agency have been authorized to enter the building with force. So stay tuned in to TON for more news about global tunnelism, right in your backyard.”
excerpts from: National Security Council standard forms: Top Secret Operations.
Operation DWARF
Date: classified Location:classified
Full operation name: Dwarficide Without Anticipating any Resisting Force
Operation goal: To remove a potential tunnelist threat from NYC, causing as much little collateral damage as possible.
Operation timeframe:
Preparation: 12 hours
Insertion and conflict: 37 minutes
Cleanup: 12 days ~ 2 months
Detailed Information: One squad of 7 men will be inserted 12 hours after the operation has been authorized by the president. They are to use deadly force to subdue all tunnelers, taking prisoners is discouraged. The operation itself will take approximately 37 minutes, the time it takes to sweep the whole building without any resistance is 30 minutes (the extra 7 minutes are for reloading and picking up shiny things). After the operation it is estimated that at least 12 days are needed for the cleanup. This cleanup operation consists of two parts: 1) to remove all evidence of the means used by our soldiers to remove the dwarves before the media gets their hands on them. 2) To release various contradicting statements to confuse the press. After 2 months it is very unlikely that anyone will remember the extreme violence used by our soldiers.
Target information: group/individual human/politician/communist/other
Group size (if applicable): 5 dwarves.
Additional details: group consists of 2 miners, 1 mother-holding-a-baby, 2 unknown individuals.
Threat level(s):
Miners - Low (no military training, probably exhausted from heavy manual labor)
Mother - None (seriously now, what harm could a female dwarf with only one free hand possibly do?)
Others – Most likely below Medium
Intelligence gathered by: Federal Bureau of Educated Guesses.
Forms filled in by: Tom Bridge, Office of Aboveground Security, Dwarf Extermination Agency.
Date: 17 September 12.30 UTC
Toady One Network radio broadcast
Steven: “You’re listening to TON radio, I’m Steven Nester. Today in our studio is Tom bridge, head of the Dwarf Extermination Agency and director of the Office of Aboveground Security, who will tell us more about the recent events in NY City regarding tunnelism.”
Steven:”Welcome mr. Bridge, so, what can you tell us about the current Siege in NY?”
Tom: “Yesterday at around 12 we received a call from NY local authorities warning us of a potential tunneling threat under the streets. When we got to the scene, it became clear that the neighboring building was indeed occupied by the feared dwarves.”
Steven: “Do you think they might be related to the Oaken Tome dwarves and the 9/11 digging?”
Tom: “Yes, we believe that these dwarves are supposed to establish a forward outpost after collapsing NY City. That’s why we are planning to send in a team of highly trained soldiers in about 3 hours from now.
Steven: “Have you tried to negotiate with these dwarves?”
Tom: “Yes we did, but the diplomat we sent hasn’t returned. The exact words of his last message were: “This almost looks like a dead end, where am I supposed to go now? Oh look, a puppy, it looks lost. Unbelievable, someone chained the puppy to a chain, I’m going to go over there and free the poor thing. *click* What’s tha—AAAAAaaaaa *splat*” We consider this reason to assume all diplomacy has failed.”
Steven: “You are going to be the first team to encounter dwarves in direct confrontation, are you expecting heavy resistance?”
Tom: “Not really, most of their defenses are based on traps, the locations of which our diplomat has discreetly informed us about. There aren’t even that many dwarves, there are about 5 dwarves, two of which are miners with no military experience who could never have a chance against well-trained soldiers. One of them is a female and seems to have given birth recently as she is carrying her child around, we don’t expect any trouble from her.”
Steven: “There will be children involved in the fight?”
Tom: “Not if it can be avoided, all of our troops are to attempt to refrain from using deathly force against little children unless absolutely necessary, and if forced to open fire on children they are to perform a non-lethal takedown by targeting limbs instead of vital organs.”
Steven: “Well, in that case, I suppose Child Protection can rest easy tonight."
Tom: "You know, one day that child is going to thank us for shooting his limbs off to hit his mother.”
I know this part isn't completely finished as it has yet to reach its conclusion. I'll be posting that one up in a couple days or so (I don't have much free time now due to RL)