Brky2020
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Post by Brky2020 on Dec 24, 2019 1:11:37 GMT
Not as dark as Rumsfeldia, though. I like dark timelines with a silver lining; this regime, for example, has no nukes.
Owen will be dealt with the same way anyone in his position would be dealt with by the victors, but he'll get off lightly compared to those who started all of this in the first place.
I haven't thought of a specific POD, just generally that it's in the 1970s, when the Moral Majority was getting started, and elements within it decided to back up their desired political clout with weapons.
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Brky2020
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Post by Brky2020 on Dec 24, 2019 1:55:42 GMT
We Got It All Wrong
Three years ago, after Nicolae ascended to the position of General Secretary of the United Nations, the entire evangelical Christian world lost its collective shit.
They were convinced of two things: 1) the Antichrist was on Earth and 2) the Rapture was imminent. Most believers glossed over such nuances as the timing of the Rapture (shouldn't they all have been caught up before Nicolae came to power?) but were convinced the rest of the world would worship the General Secretary, who surely would unite the world into a single government and make everyone take the 666 Mark of the Beast upon penalty of death.
Indeed, Nicolae proposed splitting the planet into 13 political regions, and was perhaps the only person on Earth that no one (besides those who saw him as Antichrist) had anything besides good things to say about. Many of Nicolae's actions over the next several months spurred comparisons to the central antagonist of the Left Behind: 666 Christian fiction series by Salem Kirban and Jerry Jenkins -- his Regional Commonwealth proposal; his attempts to change the 24 time zones into a single time zone (as Jimmy Buffett quipped, 'Nicky wants it to be 5'o clock everywhere once a day'), and his behind-the-scenes push to merge the US, European, Russian and Chinese currencies into a single Swiss-backed currency. He single-handedly talked the Kim regime into stepping down from power and transitioning directly with Seoul into a United Korea -- part of Nicky's envisioned East Asian Commonwealth.
Then came the reports that Nicolae had used his connections to seduce dozens of young men, then discard them once they were of no further use to him. The British tabloids went berserk after the Crown Prince was discovered in Cambodia, disheveled and depressed, and the Prime Minister began to push for the UK's withdrawal from the U.N. Once Nicolae's "prophet", Chief of Staff Leon Fortunato, confirmed Nicolae's homosexuality, his popularity plummeted in the more conservative portions of the planet. Muslim-majority nations began to push for his removal; the African Commonwealth -- many of its member nations being either evangelical Christian or Muslim -- demanded he step down. And the religious right lobby on Capitol Hill got President Bush to break off from both the Paris Accords (climate change) and the Babylon Agreement (to dismantle 90 percent of each nation's nukes and give the remaining 10 percent to the UN).
Nicolae went mad.
He ordered the top leaders of the military and intelligence wings of the now-renamed United Community to stage false flag events in Mecca, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Seoul, St. Petersburg...and Washington. Terrorist acts rocked the globe and killed thousands on May 1; Nicolae blamed "anti-globalists", but American, Russian, Chinese, British and European intelligence verified the weapons and the funding came from one source.
Before the story naming Nicolae as the ringleader hit the Times of London's website, the United States announced it was pulling out of the United Community. Russia, the UK, the EuroUnion, China, Japan, AfroCom, the South American Alliance, announced within hours they were withdrawing, and the list of nations leaving grew by the dozens every hour. In one of the only things they would ever agree upon, Israel and her hostile Arab neighbors jointly announced they could no longer be a part of Nicolae's vision.
By Day Four, only the United Community capital of New Babylon was still loyal to the man who began calling himself His Excellency; surrounding Iraq too had turned its back on him.. He told Fortunato that the entire world rejected him, and called him Antichrist, so he would give them what they thought of him. He still had nukes, and he'd send a message to the so-called Great Powers about who really was in charge.
Thanks to a pair of evangelical Christian pilots working covertly for the CIA, the Great Powers knew of Nicolae's plot before he could execute it. So, at 7 a.m. that fateful morning, United Community One took off from New Babylon International Airport obsentibly with Nicolae in tow...but he wasn't on the plane. He was at his palace in the city, trying to bargain with the devil himself.
Whatever deal he made was lost to history the moment the 20-megaton missile launched from a Russian sub in the Arabian Sea detonated directly over His Excellency's palace.
Days later, two men met in a Paris cafe. One, an evangelical Christian who believed the Rapture and Great Tribulation would happen; the other, an agnostic who believed the Book of Revelation to be an old prophet's fever dream.
"Do you still believe, my friend," the agnostic asked as he took a sip of his Moroccan-blend coffee. "The Antichrist ended up destroying himself -- well, mankind destroyed him, not a god."
"I do believe, my friend," the believer replied, between sips of his Earl Grey tea. "God is greater than any of us, even those who have designs on being Antichrist."
"The books you write, of future events I have told you I believe to be fables. Do you still believe the things you write, after all that has happened?"
The believer pondered his friend's query. Finally, he answered. "I do believe, just as surely as I believe in the Son of God and that He will return."
"Then how do you and your contemporaries explain Nicolae?"
"We got it wrong."
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Brky2020
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Post by Brky2020 on Dec 27, 2019 1:58:15 GMT
In My Mind's Eye
The first westerners to reach the New World were not the Spanish nor the Norse. Everybody knows that.
Sagittaron got there ahead of all of Europe. They went, were unimpressed, turned around and went back home. The entire continent of Kobol was like that at the time; if any one of the Colonies had an interest in the New World, North America would be the 13th Colony today.
I bet, about now, that President Adar wishes to hell the Sagittarons had stayed.
--Colonial Intelligence announced the arrest of four CIA agents today at a gas station in the town of Demeter. All four are suspected of collaborating with convicted terrorist Thomas Zarek and of involvement in the attempted bombing of the Arrow FC soccer team bus--
--President Graham vehemently denied the charges and called the arrests 'just another example of anti-American aggression from an ungodly pagan nation'--
--Zarek has been outspoken in his calls for Sagittaron independence or admission to the United States as its 52nd state--
The Colonies and the States never really got along, I suppose, even during the years they were officially allies. When Britain brought them together after the First World War, after the Colonies withdrew from the Central Powers. When the Colonies followed President Roosevelt's lead in declaring war on Hitler; by the way, it was Colonials who infiltrated Nazi territory and liberated the camps, or as many of them as possible, and Colonials who alerted the world as to the atrocities there. When both countries stood shoulder-to-shoulder against Soviet aggression, during the Liberation of Cuba, the sinking of the submarine Hermes by the Soviets in the North Atlantic, and when the KGB assassinated President Thoras, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation.
The late '70s brought perestroika and glasnost, along with disco and colorful outfits, and for a brief time the world got along. Even China wanted to open up, thanks to Nixon.
Then the fundamentalists took over in the U.S.
Reagan was killed by an assassin's bullet and Haig took over. Yes, Haig was impeached and imprisoned, and Mondale tried to right the ship. But the fundies had embedded themselves, and one day, the American people woke up and discovered that the fundies were in charge of everything.
Somewhere along the way, their drive to save their nation in the name of their God gave way to the desire for more, and total, power. When America's real allies -- including the Colonies -- wouldn't go along with the fundies' pleas for 'national repentance', America began backing away from its obligations to NATO. When America's so-called allies -- the alleged "anti-Communist forces" in Latin America and the Middle East -- turned on the U.S. and attacked it, America looked for reasons why.
9/11 happened. America lost the World Trade Center, the White House, their Capitol building, the Hollywood sign and a 25,000-seat megachurch building in Texas. The far-far-far right fundies who replaced their less radical predecessors began looking for a scapegoat. It wasn't bin Laden's fault; God, it was decided, was pissed off that America was following the lead of the liberal Colonials. The Colonies gave rise to al Qaeda; the Colonies funded the Mexican cartels lobbing petrol and tylium bombs into El Paso and Tucson and San Diego; and to top it all off, the Colonies were to blame for Ellen, Bingham, Caitlyn, Harris and every other LGBTQI and/or atheist inside God's Own Country!
If the infestation wasn't dealt with, God was surely going to destroy America.
So America got to work.
Ellen got the last flight out of LAX to, ironically, China. Harris is still living in the British consulate in Boston. Caitlyn was forced to become Bruce again, falsely charged with 1,000 counts of atrocities against children, then executed by the electric chair, live on television. Bingham was outed by a pretty television reporter during an NFL game, pelted with insults and mocked incessantly by everyone in the stadium, then escorted to one of those brainwashing camps in Utah.
After America put down its internal uprisings (the native Americans, the Mormons, the queers and various minority groups), the government turned its attention outward. The Colonies, more than every other nation combined save for Canada, had accepted millions of American refugees; it hosted the U.S. Government-in-Exile in Caprica City, led by former Senator and current President-in-Exile McCain. America wanted every last refugee, from McCain down to infants born to parents who had emigrated from America 20 years before, back.
President Adar, to his credit, wouldn't budge. He's a lot of things, most of them less than flattering. On this matter, he did the right thing and I am proud to serve as a member of his cabinet.
As the Secretary of Education, it has fallen to me and my department to educate the world on what freedom really means, and how ironic it is that the standards of liberty and freedom our professed Christian former allies-turned-enemies claim to be their birthright are actually held up, albeit imperfectly, by a nation that by and large worships gods and goddesses the rest of the world dismissed long ago as myth.
There's a knock on my door. I've been summoned; there's an emergency meeting of the Cabinet about to take place.
Despite the fatigue I've lived with for some time now, I hurry to the meeting room in the basement, near the situation room. I sit in seat 43, and wait along with the other Secretaries. Finally, four Marines walk in, followed by the Secretary of State, the directors of Colonial internal and global intelligence, and, finally, President Adar himself.
"No time for formalities, people," Adar says, waiving his hand downward. "You're going to want to sit for this."
We comply.
"At 1310 Colonial time, BSG-2 was in international waters, just outside the Colonial territorial line off Picon. It is one of 10 Battleship Groups surrounding the Kobolian continent; BSG-7 is deployed near Australia, BSG-4 near India.
Colonial cruiser Homas detected submarine activity near the group, and it wasn't one of ours. Commander Cain of the Pegasus authorized drones to visually investigate the vehicle, and confirmed it to be United States Navy. Air drones verified the approach of the American carrier group identified as Carrier Strike Group Five. That includes the USS George Washington supercarrier, which for those of you who don't know is identical to our Valkyrie-class supercarriers. Cain contacted Fleet HQ to request orders; at its direction, she ordered the Americans three times to stop; each time they refused to acknowledge her hails. Eight American fighters then lifted off from the George Washington, and Cain sent eight Vipers from the Pegasus to respond. The jets buzzed one another but did not engage. The George Washington carrier group is maintaining its position, as is BSG-2.
"At 1341 Colonial time, Colonial submarine Hermes began to be tracked by the American submarine Kentucky. The American sub continued to track the Hermes, until firing on the Colonial ship without provocation nor warning at 1349. Fleet HQ has lost all contact with the Hermes; we believe her to be lost at sea."
Lords of Kobol, I think, as I hear the gasps around me. The President isn't finished.
"Simulatenously at 1345, the American Secretary of State informed our ambassador in Washington to vacate the Colonial Embassy immediately. Emissaries from the White House were delivering similar messages to our other NATO allies; the President was reportedly on the phone with Canadian Prime Minister Harper demanding his country's surrender--"
"Over what?", yells Simona, the Secretary of the Interior.
"Colonial Intelligence tells me Graham demanded Canada peacefully surrender its sovereignty and military to the United States and the return of its 32 million American 'dissidents'. Harper's response was for the President to 'go frak yourself'."
Seven minutes ago, Colonial intelligence satellites detected U.S. and Russian naval activity in western Greenland and the Gulf of Alaska. Ships headed we believe for British Columbia in the west, Quebec or the Maritimes in the east. Our satellites also detected land forces amassing along the U.S.-Canadian border from the province of Alberta to far western Ontario, with three dozen US Air Force fighters heading north into Manitoba out of Fargo, North Dakota. This alone is an attack on a member of NATO, and as a member of NATO, our obligations to our fellow member have been activated. Ladies and gentlemen, as of this moment, we are at war."
There's silence in the room for a few moments. I'm half-waiting for the air raid sirens to begin blaring. Instead, Adar clears his throat and points to the large high-definition screen along the north wall of the room. Unlike my colleagues across from me, I don't have to turn in my seat to watch; I look up and see a Naval admiral from what I think is supposed to be an undisclosed location, but is probably the Colonial Air Command HQ near Picon City.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Admiral Nagala," he says, and proceeds to give an update on the current situation. Four minutes later, he allows for one question; it's Adar's way of throwing a bone to the Cabinet, to make us feel like we're being consulted at some level. We know full well we only know what they want to tell us.
"Admiral, how many Colonial troops will we be sending into battle?" asks Secretary Simona, who never was one to stay quiet at anybody's request or direction. "How will we get those troops to Canada? Will we reinstate the draft?" That's three questions.
"Madam Secretary," Nagala responds, "we will be sending troops to North America and, if necessary, to assist NATO forces in western Europe. But we'll only be sending a minimum of troops -- human troops. The Cybernetic Lifeform Node artificial intelligence military units are ready to be activated and deployed."
"I'm sorry, Admiral, the what?" Simona says. She's not familiar with the reference.
It dawns on me, and my blood suddenly runs cold. I momentarily think I'm having another attack.
"You know it by its more popular name, Madam Secretary," Adar interjects. "We're sending in the Cylons."
I don't know if it's the cancer or the chamalla or another vision from the gods, but all I see in my mind's eye is the end.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Dec 27, 2019 14:44:41 GMT
Flight 14
From RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, a pair of Typhoon multi-role fighters got airborne in haste. They were undertaking a QRA – Quick Reaction Alert – mission and were on standby to fly. Aircrews and ground personnel had sprung into action when the scramble message had come. The lift-off this morning was completed just a few seconds short of the yearly record for a QRA flight to get into the sky. Under orders to do so, the pilots from No. 3 Squadron went supersonic. Afterburners were lit as the Typhoons flashed across the late morning sky. There were sonic booms and a lot of confused people across the Midlands. The Command & Reporting Centre at RAF Scampton (also back in Lincolnshire) guided the Typhoons towards the contact in the sky which they had been sent up to intercept. It was a passenger jet, an Airbus on a trans-Atlantic journey, and there had been an ‘incident’ aboard not long after take-off from London’s Heathrow Airport. From the pilot of Flight 14, civilian air traffic controllers had been told of an underway cockpit intrusion. There had been an alert sent to their military counterparts before radio contact was lost. Flight 14 had then been observed on radar turning back around in a tight circle. It was soon heading back towards the British capital. The Airbus was met by those Typhoons when over Warwickshire.
The Prime Minister was informed. In recent years, QRA missions had been undertaken to intercept foreign military aircraft (always Russian) heading towards Britain and there had been passenger jets met with Typhoons too when radio contact had been lost. On a few occasions, the head of government had been told at the time but mostly this was done after the fact. Today was different though. He was in Downing Street and meeting with the Chief Whip when the news was broken that there was a possibly hi-jacked airliner coming towards London. In such a situation like this, the PM followed the advice of his civil servants. There were procedures to be adhered to. Exercises had been run for what to do in such a scenario. The script was thus stuck to. Discreetly, there was an interruption to proceedings in Parliament with PMQs – meant to happen in about an hour – delayed due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. A check was made on where senior members of the Monarchy were so, if necessary, they could be taken elsewhere. The RAF was putting another pair of fighters up from Coningsby and these headed towards London rather than to meet Flight 14 directly. A few other top-level government ministers joined with the PM below the Cabinet Office in one of the COBRA meeting rooms. Military staffers and civil servants outnumbered the politicians and it was they who were directing matters. From the nation’s senior-most military officer, the Chief of the Defence Staff, at eleven o’clock the PM and others were told that Flight 14 was now over Buckinghamshire. It was still on course for London, Central London in fact. Those Typhoons were alongside it and there still had been no response to radio messages. Visual examination hadn’t given anything of value: there were people in the cockpit but neither RAF pilot could be sure if those were on whether or not the aircrew were there. It was recommended that the Airbus be shot down.
In all the years since September 11th, when terrorists had used airliners as manned missiles in kamikaze attacks, no passenger jet had ever been shot down. There had been times when things had looked that they might have gone that way but those had been misunderstandings soon sorted out when radio contact with silent aircraft had been re-established and everything was confirmed to be okay. Shooting one down had been war-gammed though. A detailed passenger list was unavailable at this time but it was known that there would be a couple of hundred people aboard. This was an Airbus-340: a double-decked airliner full of holiday makers on their way to Florida. There would be men, women and children who would die. Every second that there was a delay brought Flight 14 closer to London where there would be thousands of deaths should it strike the capital. The PM, his deputy and the Home Secretary were the top politicians in the belowground room and the three of them agreed that there was nothing else that could be done: he quietly told his colleagues that he would resign after this. The Chief of the Defence Staff sent the orders out to those Typhoons. They were instructed to bring the airliner down and do so in a manner to avoid civilian casualties on the ground.
Those Typhoons were into the sky from Coningsby carrying a substantial war-load of missiles and cannon shells. The pilots had been trained in how to shoot down an airliner. They received orders to do so today. Neither man wanted to, aware of the human cost involved, but they had legitimate instructions on this: each was aware too of the consequences of what could happen if this clearly hi-jacked aircraft carried on towards London and was used to make an attack there. Missiles were shot at the engines after a final unanswered radio call. The guns were then used with many shells carefully put into the cockpit. There was some deviation from the flight path taken by Flight 14 at this late stage but by then it was too late. More shells were afterwards put into the tail section of the Airbus in an effort to make sure it went down where the RAF wanted it to. The Typhoons circled low in the sky when Flight 14 crashed nose first into the ground. Into the Chiltern Hills in rural Buckinghamshire the airliner went. There was a massive explosion on the ground where its jet fuel exploded. Casualties occurred down there with a trio of people killed… alongside the three hundred and forty-nine people aboard. This was going to change the world.
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lordroel
Administrator
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Post by lordroel on Dec 27, 2019 15:10:51 GMT
Flight 14From RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, a pair of Typhoon multi-role fighters got airborne in haste. They were undertaking a QRA – Quick Reaction Alert – mission and were on standby to fly. Aircrews and ground personnel had sprung into action when the scramble message had come. The lift-off this morning was completed just a few seconds short of the yearly record for a QRA flight to get into the sky. Under orders to do so, the pilots from No. 3 Squadron went supersonic. Afterburners were lit as the Typhoons flashed across the late morning sky. There were sonic booms and a lot of confused people across the Midlands. The Command & Reporting Centre at RAF Scampton (also back in Lincolnshire) guided the Typhoons towards the contact in the sky which they had been sent up to intercept. It was a passenger jet, an Airbus on a trans-Atlantic journey, and there had been an ‘incident’ aboard not long after take-off from London’s Heathrow Airport. From the pilot of Flight 14, civilian air traffic controllers had been told of an underway cockpit intrusion. There had been an alert sent to their military counterparts before radio contact was lost. Flight 14 had then been observed on radar turning back around in a tight circle. It was soon heading back towards the British capital. The Airbus was met by those Typhoons when over Warwickshire. The Prime Minister was informed. In recent years, QRA missions had been undertaken to intercept foreign military aircraft (always Russian) heading towards Britain and there had been passenger jets met with Typhoons too when radio contact had been lost. On a few occasions, the head of government had been told at the time but mostly this was done after the fact. Today was different though. He was in Downing Street and meeting with the Chief Whip when the news was broken that there was a possibly hi-jacked airliner coming towards London. In such a situation like this, the PM followed the advice of his civil servants. There were procedures to be adhered to. Exercises had been run for what to do in such a scenario. The script was thus stuck to. Discreetly, there was an interruption to proceedings in Parliament with PMQs – meant to happen in about an hour – delayed due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. A check was made on where senior members of the Monarchy were so, if necessary, they could be taken elsewhere. The RAF was putting another pair of fighters up from Coningsby and these headed towards London rather than to meet Flight 14 directly. A few other top-level government ministers joined with the PM below the Cabinet Office in one of the COBRA meeting rooms. Military staffers and civil servants outnumbered the politicians and it was they who were directing matters. From the nation’s senior-most military officer, the Chief of the Defence Staff, at eleven o’clock the PM and others were told that Flight 14 was now over Buckinghamshire. It was still on course for London, Central London in fact. Those Typhoons were alongside it and there still had been no response to radio messages. Visual examination hadn’t given anything of value: there were people in the cockpit but neither RAF pilot could be sure if those were on whether or not the aircrew were there. It was recommended that the Airbus be shot down. In all the years since September 11th, when terrorists had used airliners as manned missiles in kamikaze attacks, no passenger jet had ever been shot down. There had been times when things had looked that they might have gone that way but those had been misunderstandings soon sorted out when radio contact with silent aircraft had been re-established and everything was confirmed to be okay. Shooting one down had been war-gammed though. A detailed passenger list was unavailable at this time but it was known that there would be a couple of hundred people aboard. This was an Airbus-340: a double-decked airliner full of holiday makers on their way to Florida. There would be men, women and children who would die. Every second that there was a delay brought Flight 14 closer to London where there would be thousands of deaths should it strike the capital. The PM, his deputy and the Home Secretary were the top politicians in the belowground room and the three of them agreed that there was nothing else that could be done: he quietly told his colleagues that he would resign after this. The Chief of the Defence Staff sent the orders out to those Typhoons. They were instructed to bring the airliner down and do so in a manner to avoid civilian casualties on the ground. Those Typhoons were into the sky from Coningsby carrying a substantial war-load of missiles and cannon shells. The pilots had been trained in how to shoot down an airliner. They received orders to do so today. Neither man wanted to, aware of the human cost involved, but they had legitimate instructions on this: each was aware too of the consequences of what could happen if this clearly hi-jacked aircraft carried on towards London and was used to make an attack there. Missiles were shot at the engines after a final unanswered radio call. The guns were then used with many shells carefully put into the cockpit. There was some deviation from the flight path taken by Flight 14 at this late stage but by then it was too late. More shells were afterwards put into the tail section of the Airbus in an effort to make sure it went down where the RAF wanted it to. The Typhoons circled low in the sky when Flight 14 crashed nose first into the ground. Into the Chiltern Hills in rural Buckinghamshire the airliner went. There was a massive explosion on the ground where its jet fuel exploded. Casualties occurred down there with a trio of people killed… alongside the three hundred and forty-nine people aboard. This was going to change the world. You just described a nightmare scenario i do never want to see happening in real life. Reminds me of this show: 'Terror' movie: hero or murderer |
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forcon
Lieutenant Commander
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Post by forcon on Dec 27, 2019 21:32:04 GMT
Very good work. The government had no choice, no choice whatsoever, but to put the many before the few, providing the airliner was hijacked.
Now imagine the sheer fury if it turned out it hadn't been hijacked...
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
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Post by James G on Dec 27, 2019 22:17:09 GMT
Flight 14From RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, a pair of Typhoon multi-role fighters got airborne in haste. They were undertaking a QRA – Quick Reaction Alert – mission and were on standby to fly. Aircrews and ground personnel had sprung into action when the scramble message had come. The lift-off this morning was completed just a few seconds short of the yearly record for a QRA flight to get into the sky. Under orders to do so, the pilots from No. 3 Squadron went supersonic. Afterburners were lit as the Typhoons flashed across the late morning sky. There were sonic booms and a lot of confused people across the Midlands. The Command & Reporting Centre at RAF Scampton (also back in Lincolnshire) guided the Typhoons towards the contact in the sky which they had been sent up to intercept. It was a passenger jet, an Airbus on a trans-Atlantic journey, and there had been an ‘incident’ aboard not long after take-off from London’s Heathrow Airport. From the pilot of Flight 14, civilian air traffic controllers had been told of an underway cockpit intrusion. There had been an alert sent to their military counterparts before radio contact was lost. Flight 14 had then been observed on radar turning back around in a tight circle. It was soon heading back towards the British capital. The Airbus was met by those Typhoons when over Warwickshire. The Prime Minister was informed. In recent years, QRA missions had been undertaken to intercept foreign military aircraft (always Russian) heading towards Britain and there had been passenger jets met with Typhoons too when radio contact had been lost. On a few occasions, the head of government had been told at the time but mostly this was done after the fact. Today was different though. He was in Downing Street and meeting with the Chief Whip when the news was broken that there was a possibly hi-jacked airliner coming towards London. In such a situation like this, the PM followed the advice of his civil servants. There were procedures to be adhered to. Exercises had been run for what to do in such a scenario. The script was thus stuck to. Discreetly, there was an interruption to proceedings in Parliament with PMQs – meant to happen in about an hour – delayed due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. A check was made on where senior members of the Monarchy were so, if necessary, they could be taken elsewhere. The RAF was putting another pair of fighters up from Coningsby and these headed towards London rather than to meet Flight 14 directly. A few other top-level government ministers joined with the PM below the Cabinet Office in one of the COBRA meeting rooms. Military staffers and civil servants outnumbered the politicians and it was they who were directing matters. From the nation’s senior-most military officer, the Chief of the Defence Staff, at eleven o’clock the PM and others were told that Flight 14 was now over Buckinghamshire. It was still on course for London, Central London in fact. Those Typhoons were alongside it and there still had been no response to radio messages. Visual examination hadn’t given anything of value: there were people in the cockpit but neither RAF pilot could be sure if those were on whether or not the aircrew were there. It was recommended that the Airbus be shot down. In all the years since September 11th, when terrorists had used airliners as manned missiles in kamikaze attacks, no passenger jet had ever been shot down. There had been times when things had looked that they might have gone that way but those had been misunderstandings soon sorted out when radio contact with silent aircraft had been re-established and everything was confirmed to be okay. Shooting one down had been war-gammed though. A detailed passenger list was unavailable at this time but it was known that there would be a couple of hundred people aboard. This was an Airbus-340: a double-decked airliner full of holiday makers on their way to Florida. There would be men, women and children who would die. Every second that there was a delay brought Flight 14 closer to London where there would be thousands of deaths should it strike the capital. The PM, his deputy and the Home Secretary were the top politicians in the belowground room and the three of them agreed that there was nothing else that could be done: he quietly told his colleagues that he would resign after this. The Chief of the Defence Staff sent the orders out to those Typhoons. They were instructed to bring the airliner down and do so in a manner to avoid civilian casualties on the ground. Those Typhoons were into the sky from Coningsby carrying a substantial war-load of missiles and cannon shells. The pilots had been trained in how to shoot down an airliner. They received orders to do so today. Neither man wanted to, aware of the human cost involved, but they had legitimate instructions on this: each was aware too of the consequences of what could happen if this clearly hi-jacked aircraft carried on towards London and was used to make an attack there. Missiles were shot at the engines after a final unanswered radio call. The guns were then used with many shells carefully put into the cockpit. There was some deviation from the flight path taken by Flight 14 at this late stage but by then it was too late. More shells were afterwards put into the tail section of the Airbus in an effort to make sure it went down where the RAF wanted it to. The Typhoons circled low in the sky when Flight 14 crashed nose first into the ground. Into the Chiltern Hills in rural Buckinghamshire the airliner went. There was a massive explosion on the ground where its jet fuel exploded. Casualties occurred down there with a trio of people killed… alongside the three hundred and forty-nine people aboard. This was going to change the world. You just described a nightmare scenario i do never want to see happening in real life. Reminds me of this show: 'Terror' movie: hero or murdererEvery couple of months, RAF aircraft on QRA alert go up because a passenger jet is out of radio contact. I know its happened with aircraft approaching America too so I am sure this happens with many countries. It always turns out to be an accident. Hopefully it always will. Very good work. The government had no choice, no choice whatsoever, but to put the many before the few, providing the airliner was hijacked. Now imagine the sheer fury if it turned out it hadn't been hijacked... Thanks. Things would have been going very fast with little time. If it hadn't been hi-jacked, and it was all a mix up, then there would be one hell of a scandal. All evidence pointed to that being the case though. Yet, if it wasn't... yikes. |
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Brky2020
Sub-lieutenant
Posts: 406
Likes: 406
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Post by Brky2020 on Dec 28, 2019 0:28:54 GMT
Holy shit. They better have rock-solid evidence to back up the PM's order.
Why would the PM resign? Part of the PM's job is to make difficult decisions like this if necessary. Who is he/she trying to appease? I can't imagine a U.S. President quitting in a similar situation.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Dec 28, 2019 0:44:05 GMT
Holy shit. They better have rock-solid evidence to back up the PM's order. Why would the PM resign? Part of the PM's job is to make difficult decisions like this if necessary. Who is he/she trying to appease? I can't imagine a U.S. President quitting in a similar situation. I was thinking of the time constraints when I wrote this which would have cut down on the time to think. An Airbus coming to London intercepted over the West Midlands would mean... I don't know, maybe 15 minutes, probably less. Everything gave the impression that it was hi-jacked. My thinking on the decision to resign taken was done because he knew that there were going to be hundreds of dead innocents with the thought that he was responsible for that. Its more of a moral thing than a political one. Of course, it depends on the Prime Minister, and I agree that a US president would tough it out. |
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Brky2020
Sub-lieutenant
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Post by Brky2020 on Dec 28, 2019 0:58:04 GMT
Day One
Part One
1841 hours Colonial Standard Time
Caprica Bay
The CNS Galactica sat at the mouth of the large bay like a sentinel, guarding Caprica City against American aggression. It and the rest of Battleship Group-4 wouldn't have long to wait.
Less than ten nautical miles away, Carrier Strike Group Six, led by the supercarrier Ronald Reagan, approached Caprica Bay. Colonial Air Force Vipers and Stingers hovered over the city and the bay and Poseidon submarines guarded the bay from below the Galactica, ready to defend Colonial territory against the enemy's jets, bombers and subs.
Galactica's CIC was a beehive of activity; each person either ignored the tension or mentally pushed it aside, focusing instead on doing their jobs.
Lieutenant Felix Gaeta's job was monitoring the dradis that tracked friendly and enemy movements, and he watched the red triangles filling up the top half of the screen with the calm professionalism his commanding officer expected of him.
"Commander, the Americans have just crossed the line," Gaeta announced. "ETA five minutes."
"The damn bastards are making good time," said the ship's executive officer, Colonel Saul Tigh. "Won't have to worry about our aircraft burning up tylium."
"I don't like waiting," said the CO, Commander William "Husker" Adama, a decorated veteran of the Colombian and Angolan Wars. "I think it's time to send our guest that welcome basket."
"That'll piss 'em off," Tigh said.
"That can't possibly piss them off any more than we already are," Adama growled.
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Brky2020
Sub-lieutenant
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Post by Brky2020 on Dec 28, 2019 1:02:33 GMT
Holy shit. They better have rock-solid evidence to back up the PM's order. Why would the PM resign? Part of the PM's job is to make difficult decisions like this if necessary. Who is he/she trying to appease? I can't imagine a U.S. President quitting in a similar situation. I was thinking of the time constraints when I wrote this which would have cut down on the time to think. An Airbus coming to London intercepted over the West Midlands would mean... I don't know, maybe 15 minutes, probably less. Everything gave the impression that it was hi-jacked. My thinking on the decision to resign taken was done because he knew that there were going to be hundreds of dead innocents with the thought that he was responsible for that. Its more of a moral thing than a political one. Of course, it depends on the Prime Minister, and I agree that a US president would tough it out. Understood. I had wondered if it was a cultural thing, that the British people would expect the PM to resign. I also think someone like Margaret Thatcher wouldn't think of anything other than finding out who was behind the atrocity, then delivering hell upon them. |
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stevep
Fleet admiral
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Post by stevep on Dec 28, 2019 10:55:35 GMT
Flight 14From RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, a pair of Typhoon multi-role fighters got airborne in haste. They were undertaking a QRA – Quick Reaction Alert – mission and were on standby to fly. Aircrews and ground personnel had sprung into action when the scramble message had come. The lift-off this morning was completed just a few seconds short of the yearly record for a QRA flight to get into the sky. Under orders to do so, the pilots from No. 3 Squadron went supersonic. Afterburners were lit as the Typhoons flashed across the late morning sky. There were sonic booms and a lot of confused people across the Midlands. The Command & Reporting Centre at RAF Scampton (also back in Lincolnshire) guided the Typhoons towards the contact in the sky which they had been sent up to intercept. It was a passenger jet, an Airbus on a trans-Atlantic journey, and there had been an ‘incident’ aboard not long after take-off from London’s Heathrow Airport. From the pilot of Flight 14, civilian air traffic controllers had been told of an underway cockpit intrusion. There had been an alert sent to their military counterparts before radio contact was lost. Flight 14 had then been observed on radar turning back around in a tight circle. It was soon heading back towards the British capital. The Airbus was met by those Typhoons when over Warwickshire. The Prime Minister was informed. In recent years, QRA missions had been undertaken to intercept foreign military aircraft (always Russian) heading towards Britain and there had been passenger jets met with Typhoons too when radio contact had been lost. On a few occasions, the head of government had been told at the time but mostly this was done after the fact. Today was different though. He was in Downing Street and meeting with the Chief Whip when the news was broken that there was a possibly hi-jacked airliner coming towards London. In such a situation like this, the PM followed the advice of his civil servants. There were procedures to be adhered to. Exercises had been run for what to do in such a scenario. The script was thus stuck to. Discreetly, there was an interruption to proceedings in Parliament with PMQs – meant to happen in about an hour – delayed due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’. A check was made on where senior members of the Monarchy were so, if necessary, they could be taken elsewhere. The RAF was putting another pair of fighters up from Coningsby and these headed towards London rather than to meet Flight 14 directly. A few other top-level government ministers joined with the PM below the Cabinet Office in one of the COBRA meeting rooms. Military staffers and civil servants outnumbered the politicians and it was they who were directing matters. From the nation’s senior-most military officer, the Chief of the Defence Staff, at eleven o’clock the PM and others were told that Flight 14 was now over Buckinghamshire. It was still on course for London, Central London in fact. Those Typhoons were alongside it and there still had been no response to radio messages. Visual examination hadn’t given anything of value: there were people in the cockpit but neither RAF pilot could be sure if those were on whether or not the aircrew were there. It was recommended that the Airbus be shot down. In all the years since September 11th, when terrorists had used airliners as manned missiles in kamikaze attacks, no passenger jet had ever been shot down. There had been times when things had looked that they might have gone that way but those had been misunderstandings soon sorted out when radio contact with silent aircraft had been re-established and everything was confirmed to be okay. Shooting one down had been war-gammed though. A detailed passenger list was unavailable at this time but it was known that there would be a couple of hundred people aboard. This was an Airbus-340: a double-decked airliner full of holiday makers on their way to Florida. There would be men, women and children who would die. Every second that there was a delay brought Flight 14 closer to London where there would be thousands of deaths should it strike the capital. The PM, his deputy and the Home Secretary were the top politicians in the belowground room and the three of them agreed that there was nothing else that could be done: he quietly told his colleagues that he would resign after this. The Chief of the Defence Staff sent the orders out to those Typhoons. They were instructed to bring the airliner down and do so in a manner to avoid civilian casualties on the ground. Those Typhoons were into the sky from Coningsby carrying a substantial war-load of missiles and cannon shells. The pilots had been trained in how to shoot down an airliner. They received orders to do so today. Neither man wanted to, aware of the human cost involved, but they had legitimate instructions on this: each was aware too of the consequences of what could happen if this clearly hi-jacked aircraft carried on towards London and was used to make an attack there. Missiles were shot at the engines after a final unanswered radio call. The guns were then used with many shells carefully put into the cockpit. There was some deviation from the flight path taken by Flight 14 at this late stage but by then it was too late. More shells were afterwards put into the tail section of the Airbus in an effort to make sure it went down where the RAF wanted it to. The Typhoons circled low in the sky when Flight 14 crashed nose first into the ground. Into the Chiltern Hills in rural Buckinghamshire the airliner went. There was a massive explosion on the ground where its jet fuel exploded. Casualties occurred down there with a trio of people killed… alongside the three hundred and forty-nine people aboard. This was going to change the world. You just described a nightmare scenario i do never want to see happening in real life. Reminds me of this show: 'Terror' movie: hero or murderer
Very interesting thanks. I think that's the correct decision, to take down such an aircraft, especially if you know for certain its hi-jacked, which seems pretty certain in both cases. As one of the comments says there's no simplistic right and wrong, just the least bad decision.
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lordroel
Administrator
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Post by lordroel on Dec 28, 2019 10:58:49 GMT
Day One, part one 1841 hours Colonial Standard Time Caprica Bay The CNS Galactica sat at the mouth of the large bay like a sentinel, guarding Caprica City against American aggression. It and the rest of Battleship Group-4 wouldn't have long to wait. Less than ten nautical miles away, Carrier Strike Group Six, led by the supercarrier Ronald Reagan, approached Caprica Bay. Colonial Air Force Vipers and Stingers hovered over the city and the bay and Poseidon submarines guarded the bay from below the Galactica, ready to defend Colonial territory against the enemy's jets, bombers and subs. Galactica's CIC was a beehive of activity; each person either ignored the tension or mentally pushed it aside, focusing instead on doing their jobs. Lieutenant Felix Gaeta's job was monitoring the dradis that tracked friendly and enemy movements, and he watched the red triangles filling up the top half of the screen with the calm professionalism his commanding officer expected of him. "Commander, the Americans have just crossed the line," Gaeta announced. "ETA five minutes." "The damn bastards are making good time," said the ship's executive officer, Colonel Saul Tigh. "Won't have to worry about our aircraft burning up tylium." "I don't like waiting," said the CO, Commander William "Husker" Adama, a decorated veteran of the Colombian and Angolan Wars. "I think it's time to send our guest that welcome basket." " That'll piss 'em off," Tigh said. "That can't possibly piss them off any more than we already are," Adama growled. Nice, is this in space or on Earth. |
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stevep
Fleet admiral
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Post by stevep on Dec 28, 2019 11:03:28 GMT
Very good work. The government had no choice, no choice whatsoever, but to put the many before the few, providing the airliner was hijacked. Now imagine the sheer fury if it turned out it hadn't been hijacked...
Agreed on both points. Given that it acted oddly over the ocean and hasn't been responding to radio calls since I'm rather amazed that the a/c waited to intercept it until it was over Britain. Would have thought once there was doubt that the initial interception would have been over the Irish sea if not the Atlantic. If nothing else that gives more time to make a decision and potentially more information from the a/c intercepting it. Plus that precludes them switching targets for a city elsewhere they come near on their flight-path. Waiting until its over the midlands seems far, far too late for the initial intercept.
The nasty bit would be if a group of hi-jackers managed to take over a plane then tried to pretend everything was normal. Say that there had been an attempt but it had been overcome although not without damage to the a/c and possibly crew casualties hence limited radio and other contact. [Although that still leaves the passengers with their mobile phones in a 'non-hostage' situation so not that believable] However possibly enough to sow some doubt in the minds of the authorities.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Dec 28, 2019 16:09:07 GMT
Hostage crisis at the Russian Embassy
The Embassy of the Russian Federation in the United Kingdom is located on a road known as Kensington Palace Gardens. This isn’t a private road though had many of the hallmarks of one due to security checkpoints by armed police officers at each end. Kensington Palace itself wasn’t on this half mile long road but there were embassies and ambassadorial residences here. A few houses were owned by billionaires who had security like the diplomatic compounds did. Specialist Met. Police officers were here to stop a terrorist attack with the primary concern being the Israeli Embassy midway down. Those at the northern end of Kensington Palace Gardens, at the junction with the busy Bayswater Road, were taken under fire by a team of armed men and women who emerged from a van which stopped in the midst of traffic and also came out of a boarded-up shopfront too. Civilians ran for cover yet some were caught in the exchange of gunfire. There were fourteen attackers with two of them being killed by the policemen. However, three of those officers lost their own lives with another pair gravely wounded. Towards the Russian Embassy compound the now dozen attackers went. They were taken under fire by Russian state security officers reacting to the gunfire and lockdown procedures were underway at the embassy itself. The terrorist assault team, these men and women from the Caucasus, lost some more of their number but carried onwards. They had the layout of the compound in their heads and had been informed of security procedures. Four more of their number were killed but the other eight would eventually get inside. They’d failed to get the ambassador – who’d been hurriedly evacuated – but there were dozens of hostages soon under their control like the embassy building was.
Firstly policemen and then soon enough soldiers from Britain’s SAS would surround the embassy in which there were those terrorists with their hostages. Part of Bayswater Road itself would be closed off leading to traffic problems across West London come rush hour later that day. Contact was attempted to be made with those inside the embassy. What were their demands? Would they release the hostages? How could this situation be resolved? This went on for some time and got nowhere before, finally, there was contact with a spokesman of them in the early hours. He gave his demands. He would only release hostages when those were met. Resolution to this all would only come from the actions of the Kremlin. The official reaction from the British Government was that this was a terrorist incident on UK soil and that they would deal with it. Russia claimed sovereignty over its embassy and wanted to send a ‘special anti-terrorist team’ to London to put an end to it all. This was refused by the British and there was also the detention of a suspected Russian undercover agent at Heathrow Airport who flew in on a flight from Moscow: he was put back on a plane to the Russian capital and watch was made for others like him attempting to slip into the country. The ambassador had a residence – a fine building – down the road from the embassy and proved himself to be quite the pain in seeking to control events in the absence of men from Moscow. It was suggested to him by Britain’s Foreign Secretary that he de-camp to the Defence Attaché’s Office up in Highgate (another sovereign compound) for the time being because of the security issue just up the road but he scoffed at that. The media, kept back from the embassy but roaming around elsewhere, were here in Kensington Palace Gardens and he gave many interviews where he decried the ‘lacklustre’ British response to the terrorists and spoke of the infringement of Russian sovereignty… blah blah.
The terrorists started shooting hostages. The Kremlin had refused to do as they demanded and the deadline for that to happen ran out. Those demands were unrealistic politically as well as logistically. It was never going to be the case that they would get their way… leading to the suspicion among senior British officials that they knew that and this wasn’t about that at all. British negotiators failed to get more time to play with and so the killings begun. An embassy staffer was shot outside the building and an hour later another one was pushed out the door to be gunned down in the open too. Thankfully there was no media coverage of this, but the British Government was unable to stop the Russian ambassador telling the world that these murders had happened without the UK being able to stop them. The terrorist’s spokesman had said that another hostage was going to be killed every hour: he had another thirty-three to go through (Britons as well as Russians) before he ran out of those to shoot. Without telling Moscow – fearful of the ambassador blabbing it all over television –, authorisation was given for an assault on the embassy to commence. The SAS raided it. They went in using a good plan to retake control. Things went awry though despite all the effort put in to make it go as desired. There was gunfire and explosions. People were killed and hurt. Still, in the end, the British special forces soldiers overwhelmed the terrorists. They killed six of them – two wounded prisoners were taken – while having one of their own number killed with others badly hurt. A further five hostages lost their lives when one of the terrorists blew himself up using an explosive suicide vest. Further soldiers and then policemen came into the embassy afterwards. Hostages were searched and questioned unless there was a terrorist hiding among them before they were finally released. In Moscow, there was no gratitude for the resolution of the hostage crisis but public criticism instead. Secretly, among those at the very top in the Kremlin, there was woe. Their plan had gone wrong.
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