GWOT II - Round and Round
May. 29th, 2022 08:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkitty[The GWOT is a fictional series; GWOT II is especially fictional due to three preconditions: the Firecracker War and the destruction of San Francisco, the deployment of atrocity-prone Homeland to maintain civil order, and the rise of 'anti American partisans' aka the Resistance to fight Homeland. So don't try to read too much into this story. Then again, try not to miss the lessons either.]
GWOT II - Round & Round
Before the War, a quiet Sunday afternoon would have been exactly that. Maybe a few Employees working on site to catch up on projects. A janitor and a couple of guards, casually doing their jobs.
Now that pretty much everyone lived here, working around the clock to write the code that wins the wars, it wasn't quiet any more.
But it was subdued. A lot of unhappy people here.
Rumor had gone around that Homeland was going to visit us on Tuesday. A training team. The SLE - after having his people point guns at me - had given me a chance to be elsewhere. I hadn't taken him up on it.
The VP of HR and I had unfinished business. The last two times we'd tried to finish it, we'd ended up fucking. Not that there's anything wrong with fucking, mind you, just that it wasn't an answer to our unfinished business.
I could sense the calm before the storm. I wasn't the only one.
Without orders, the Reaction Teams - client volunteer armed personnel - and the security personnel I commanded as well - were cleaning equipment, packing gear, basically getting ready for something. They didn't know either. But they could make sure they were ready, so they were doing that.
The SLE wasn't happy. That was fine. I was fucking the VP of HR, which pre-War would have been a Big Deal. No one really cared now. That it was her idea, and not mine, and I really wasn't happy with it - no one cared about _that_. I was still a lowly Contractor, after all, even if I was a manager.
He also wasn't happy because Homeland had discovered that they could call out Site Security as an asset. This is how mutual aid works - when you're in trouble, you call your neighbors, and they come and help you.
Pre-War mutual aid agreements had trapped us into a corner where Homeland could call and the guys who protect the coders who win wars would also come running.
You would think they had police and deputies and their own elite tactical teams and Special Troops for all that.
They had.
Note tense.
A _lot_ of local and state law enforcement had gotten killed in the last few months. It was civil war. Not isolated terrorism. Insurgency. That meant no safety anywhere. Not on patrol, not at home, not even in the locker room.
Some had run away. Quit jobs, disappeared, used fake IDs and gone deep underground.
Not a few had changed sides. Joined the burgeoning Resistance, whose slogans on walls and daily explosions had forced even the rabidly pro-Homeland media to bitterly acknowledge that the Resistance existed. Evil, misguided, about to be defeated at any moment ... but the old line of 'anti American partisans' had just about played out.
Homeland's elite tactical teams were busy and overwhelmed. Asked to do too much for too long. I could feel for them, but I'd seen them at work. Smooth moves, skilled tacticians. They took no prisoners. Literally executed people with cameras running. So I wanted to feel for them was merely recoil.
Their Special Troops had more in common with the Special Olympics than special warfare. Large quantities of poorly trained, heavily armed goons whose primary attribute was a willingness to take any order and attempt to carry it out, with no regard for its feasibility or morality. Calling them brown shirts would be an insult to the espirit de corps and ethics of the Nazi S.A. Not only were they _not_ a deployable asset, there tended to be problems when they were moved out of any fixed location. Problems like missing children found raped and murdered, which was a gift to the Resistance if not to the grieving family.
In the past, local law had been the in-between. The perimeter control, setting up the incident, keeping the civilians back while Homeland settled the hash. Now local law frankly hid whenever they could, and came up with an amazing variety of excuses when they couldn't. "We don't have shields ... the suspects have ARs | grenades | armor | Silly String ... we're waiting for reinforcements ... instructions ... insufficient numbers to accomplish the objective ..." Homeland seemed to be divided between whether this was mass incompetence or treasonous rebellion, but didn't quite want to be caught sidewalking cops. Yet.
Site Security represented a potentially priceless asset for them. For that one reason. They _could_ sidewalk us, for not doing as told.
Resistance didn't like us either. We kept the computers and the code running, which meant the War. And the Resistance was pretty fucking vague about what they were Resisting, but clearly they had issues with the Firecracker War and therefore with Site because we were supporting same.
I dreaded the day Resistance would attack Site. Because they would, and we would resist, and I would find out the hard way how many of my Reaction Teams and how many of my own guards had gone over to the enemy.
Then there was the question of what side I would take.
Two thousand residents at Site.
It might just be, if I saw the Resistance winning solidly and with a good plan to ... pardon the expression ... resist the inevitable Homeland counterattack. That I too would change sides. And not be believed, and be sidewalked in turn.
I was starting to long for it.
###
BEEP BEEP BEEP
This is San Jose Control. This is a mutual aid request from Homeland for armed intrusion, Central Expressway Area. This is not an exercise...
###
They hadn't requested specific assets. They'd asked us to send what we could.
We'd established in the past that we could send three REACT teams, two security teams and an ambulance. So that was the floor.
I decided to add a fire engine and a stakeside truck. The stakeside would be loaded with three water pallets, one water bottle pallet, one mass casualty pallet, one fire hose pallet and a bunch of barricades. We'd regretted not having those last time, and they all said City of San Jose on them anyway.
I didn't bother asking the SLE for permission. We just rolled out.
At Site, to support us, Security Control opened up a conference room and set up maps and whiteboards for information awareness. They would also funnel our support requests to the Site's hackers. That would have to be handled discreetly.
It was also a dress rehearsal for a capability I didn't plan to advertise.
Many interesting buildings have cameras, doors and alarm systems that are controlled by, or at least speak to, the building's network. The same networks often enough are - in a criminally negligent manner - connected to what had been called pre-War the Internet.
We had Employee hackers who could remotely operate cameras, open doors, bypass or activate alarms. We'd done it a LOT at Site. We'd done it other places. It was absolutely a capability we needed.
If nothing else, my recon of Homeland San Jose had shown that they too had fallen prey to the convenience of TCP/IP aware security hardware. Someday, over the rainbow...
###
We didn't have good recon for the approach. In the past there'd been a public camera network on the expressways. They'd been systematically knocked out early in the Resistance.
The best we could do was to send a technical forward, leapfrog, and we didn't have the time. Our drones were too short-ranged to be effective. Again, we didn't have the time.
So by surprise and in underwhelming numbers, we pulled alongside the parking garage of the SIte, putting it between us and the main building.
On the other side, between the garage and the main building, a burning Homeland command vehicle demonstrated why that area was very unhealthy.
But it was the crowd of crying, coughing and in a few cases convulsing high tech employees on the 1st floor of the garage that showed that We Had A Problem.
"Echo 18, Engine 2, set up for mass decontamination immediately. Go On Air. Truck 2, Truck 3, go defensive on the 2-3 and 3-4 corners, mask up, stay in your vehicles. Everyone else, dismount with me, watch the wind, stay upwind of the injured. Form on me and wear your gas mask if you have one."
###
It was a clusterfuck of the first order. As ordered my fire crew started pushing people through a line of two water hoses set to 'sprinkle' - which still meant getting soaked, and then collecting the freshly washed out of sight of the building.
Explosions and gunfire indicated that the building was a very unhealthy place to be. So that was where we would need to go.
I went face-to-face with Engine 2's captain.
"I need you all to come with me. Delegate the engine and hose to someone and rig up for active shooter and for dynamic breaching. Bring your saws and your irons. And I know it's not much, but bring your gas alarm. If I go down, you're in charge."
Because the survivors would need leadership, and I didn't have a mask let alone SCBA.
WIth that we made our way across the floor of the garage in the direction of the burning Homeland command vehicle. Towards the sound of the guns and of the explosions. Because that's what we do.
###
To be continued ...
GWOT II - Round & Round
Before the War, a quiet Sunday afternoon would have been exactly that. Maybe a few Employees working on site to catch up on projects. A janitor and a couple of guards, casually doing their jobs.
Now that pretty much everyone lived here, working around the clock to write the code that wins the wars, it wasn't quiet any more.
But it was subdued. A lot of unhappy people here.
Rumor had gone around that Homeland was going to visit us on Tuesday. A training team. The SLE - after having his people point guns at me - had given me a chance to be elsewhere. I hadn't taken him up on it.
The VP of HR and I had unfinished business. The last two times we'd tried to finish it, we'd ended up fucking. Not that there's anything wrong with fucking, mind you, just that it wasn't an answer to our unfinished business.
I could sense the calm before the storm. I wasn't the only one.
Without orders, the Reaction Teams - client volunteer armed personnel - and the security personnel I commanded as well - were cleaning equipment, packing gear, basically getting ready for something. They didn't know either. But they could make sure they were ready, so they were doing that.
The SLE wasn't happy. That was fine. I was fucking the VP of HR, which pre-War would have been a Big Deal. No one really cared now. That it was her idea, and not mine, and I really wasn't happy with it - no one cared about _that_. I was still a lowly Contractor, after all, even if I was a manager.
He also wasn't happy because Homeland had discovered that they could call out Site Security as an asset. This is how mutual aid works - when you're in trouble, you call your neighbors, and they come and help you.
Pre-War mutual aid agreements had trapped us into a corner where Homeland could call and the guys who protect the coders who win wars would also come running.
You would think they had police and deputies and their own elite tactical teams and Special Troops for all that.
They had.
Note tense.
A _lot_ of local and state law enforcement had gotten killed in the last few months. It was civil war. Not isolated terrorism. Insurgency. That meant no safety anywhere. Not on patrol, not at home, not even in the locker room.
Some had run away. Quit jobs, disappeared, used fake IDs and gone deep underground.
Not a few had changed sides. Joined the burgeoning Resistance, whose slogans on walls and daily explosions had forced even the rabidly pro-Homeland media to bitterly acknowledge that the Resistance existed. Evil, misguided, about to be defeated at any moment ... but the old line of 'anti American partisans' had just about played out.
Homeland's elite tactical teams were busy and overwhelmed. Asked to do too much for too long. I could feel for them, but I'd seen them at work. Smooth moves, skilled tacticians. They took no prisoners. Literally executed people with cameras running. So I wanted to feel for them was merely recoil.
Their Special Troops had more in common with the Special Olympics than special warfare. Large quantities of poorly trained, heavily armed goons whose primary attribute was a willingness to take any order and attempt to carry it out, with no regard for its feasibility or morality. Calling them brown shirts would be an insult to the espirit de corps and ethics of the Nazi S.A. Not only were they _not_ a deployable asset, there tended to be problems when they were moved out of any fixed location. Problems like missing children found raped and murdered, which was a gift to the Resistance if not to the grieving family.
In the past, local law had been the in-between. The perimeter control, setting up the incident, keeping the civilians back while Homeland settled the hash. Now local law frankly hid whenever they could, and came up with an amazing variety of excuses when they couldn't. "We don't have shields ... the suspects have ARs | grenades | armor | Silly String ... we're waiting for reinforcements ... instructions ... insufficient numbers to accomplish the objective ..." Homeland seemed to be divided between whether this was mass incompetence or treasonous rebellion, but didn't quite want to be caught sidewalking cops. Yet.
Site Security represented a potentially priceless asset for them. For that one reason. They _could_ sidewalk us, for not doing as told.
Resistance didn't like us either. We kept the computers and the code running, which meant the War. And the Resistance was pretty fucking vague about what they were Resisting, but clearly they had issues with the Firecracker War and therefore with Site because we were supporting same.
I dreaded the day Resistance would attack Site. Because they would, and we would resist, and I would find out the hard way how many of my Reaction Teams and how many of my own guards had gone over to the enemy.
Then there was the question of what side I would take.
Two thousand residents at Site.
It might just be, if I saw the Resistance winning solidly and with a good plan to ... pardon the expression ... resist the inevitable Homeland counterattack. That I too would change sides. And not be believed, and be sidewalked in turn.
I was starting to long for it.
###
BEEP BEEP BEEP
This is San Jose Control. This is a mutual aid request from Homeland for armed intrusion, Central Expressway Area. This is not an exercise...
###
They hadn't requested specific assets. They'd asked us to send what we could.
We'd established in the past that we could send three REACT teams, two security teams and an ambulance. So that was the floor.
I decided to add a fire engine and a stakeside truck. The stakeside would be loaded with three water pallets, one water bottle pallet, one mass casualty pallet, one fire hose pallet and a bunch of barricades. We'd regretted not having those last time, and they all said City of San Jose on them anyway.
I didn't bother asking the SLE for permission. We just rolled out.
At Site, to support us, Security Control opened up a conference room and set up maps and whiteboards for information awareness. They would also funnel our support requests to the Site's hackers. That would have to be handled discreetly.
It was also a dress rehearsal for a capability I didn't plan to advertise.
Many interesting buildings have cameras, doors and alarm systems that are controlled by, or at least speak to, the building's network. The same networks often enough are - in a criminally negligent manner - connected to what had been called pre-War the Internet.
We had Employee hackers who could remotely operate cameras, open doors, bypass or activate alarms. We'd done it a LOT at Site. We'd done it other places. It was absolutely a capability we needed.
If nothing else, my recon of Homeland San Jose had shown that they too had fallen prey to the convenience of TCP/IP aware security hardware. Someday, over the rainbow...
###
We didn't have good recon for the approach. In the past there'd been a public camera network on the expressways. They'd been systematically knocked out early in the Resistance.
The best we could do was to send a technical forward, leapfrog, and we didn't have the time. Our drones were too short-ranged to be effective. Again, we didn't have the time.
So by surprise and in underwhelming numbers, we pulled alongside the parking garage of the SIte, putting it between us and the main building.
On the other side, between the garage and the main building, a burning Homeland command vehicle demonstrated why that area was very unhealthy.
But it was the crowd of crying, coughing and in a few cases convulsing high tech employees on the 1st floor of the garage that showed that We Had A Problem.
"Echo 18, Engine 2, set up for mass decontamination immediately. Go On Air. Truck 2, Truck 3, go defensive on the 2-3 and 3-4 corners, mask up, stay in your vehicles. Everyone else, dismount with me, watch the wind, stay upwind of the injured. Form on me and wear your gas mask if you have one."
###
It was a clusterfuck of the first order. As ordered my fire crew started pushing people through a line of two water hoses set to 'sprinkle' - which still meant getting soaked, and then collecting the freshly washed out of sight of the building.
Explosions and gunfire indicated that the building was a very unhealthy place to be. So that was where we would need to go.
I went face-to-face with Engine 2's captain.
"I need you all to come with me. Delegate the engine and hose to someone and rig up for active shooter and for dynamic breaching. Bring your saws and your irons. And I know it's not much, but bring your gas alarm. If I go down, you're in charge."
Because the survivors would need leadership, and I didn't have a mask let alone SCBA.
WIth that we made our way across the floor of the garage in the direction of the burning Homeland command vehicle. Towards the sound of the guns and of the explosions. Because that's what we do.
###
To be continued ...
