Kostroma City, Kostroma len, Realm of Cotland
13:20, Friday, 24 April 2020
Friday was customarily the day that marked the end of the working week and the start of the weekend in Cotland, with those who were able and allowed preferring to work a few extra hours on the other days of the working week so they could leave work early and start the weekend early. As such, the Metro trains underneath Kostroma City were starting to fill up earlier than normal. Life went on in eastern Cotland, despite the troubles that had taken place over the last month. While there hadn’t been any new physical attacks since April 18, when a bomb blew up a power transformer in Tarno in northeastern Kostroma, people were still wary and on the alert. The visible security presence everywhere had been significantly ramped up over the past few weeks, with Royal Gendarmes and police forces patrolling and stationed everywhere. The Royal Gendarmes had brought out the working dog units with them on patrol. The dogs had been trained specifically to detect explosives, and all public transport infrastructure was routinely searched by the sniffer dogs to try to find bombs that might have been hidden.
A four-man patrol from the Royal Gendarmerie had been stationed at the main entrance of the Kong Olav IV Street Metro Station in downtown Kostroma, providing a visible deterrent to any would-be terrorist and other troublemakers, while at the same time trying to instill a sense of security with the general population that the Government was taking the threat seriously and taking action to ensure their security. The patrol had been reinforced by a dog handler and his black Labrador partner. The Labrador, a four year old female named Kira, roamed around on a wide leash, sniffing the bags and coats of the people who passed her by on their way to catch their train. At 13:20, Kira suddenly bolted towards a man carrying a heavy backpack trying to make his way down to the trains. The man ignored the dog and continued on his way, causing Kira to start barking as she reached the end of her leash.
“Hey you! Stop!” The dog handler demanded, gaining the attention of the four-man patrol who immediately unslinged their rifles and started approaching. The man did not do as ordered, rather quite the contrary as he started running.
“Royal Gendarmerie, stop or we will shoot!” The Royal Gendarmes ordered, their shouts echoing in the black marble walls and roof of the entrance tunnel. Civilians nearby heard the shouts as well and did one of three things: most people understood what was happening and got out of the way rather quickly; some people froze in panic; and a few pulled out their phones and started filming. The actions of the latter ensured that the scenes that unfolded made their way to the Internet and social media, and thus across the world, very quickly.
The runner got maybe twenty meters down the tunnel towards the train platforms before a series of gunshots echoed in the marble tunnel and deafened everyone inside, and cut down the runner as twenty-odd bullets cut his life short. Many of the high-powered rifle rounds punched through the man’s body and slammed into the end of the tunnel, shattering the marble and narrowly missing hitting blissfully unaware people making their way from the platforms.
Moving carefully towards the runner, who lay face down in a growing pool of his own blood, the four Royal Gendarmes were taking no chances as they kept their rifles aimed towards the body. Kneeling down, one of the Gendarmes checked for a pulse, and finding none, informed his comrades. Very carefully, the Gendarme opened the backpack and peeked inside, illuminating the inside with a small flashlight. Almost as quickly, he got up and backed away.
“We need to evacuate the station, now.” The Gendarme said to his comrades quietly, trying not to cause a panic – perhaps a little late, as they had just shot down a man in front of a rather large crowd. “He’s got a bomb in there.”
After some rapid exchanges on communications later, all trains were directed not to stop at Kong Olav IV Street Station as the station intercom started announcing that due to a security incident, the station was now closed and that all persons should evacuate immediately. The Royal Gendarmes and a few arriving police officers started securing the area of the shooting and preventing evacuating citizens from getting close, and moving along those who just had to stop to see what was going on. As soon as the station was evacuated, an EOD team was summoned to disarm the bomb the man was carrying.
It was later found that the man, who was not identified until a month later as a Permian citizen, had carried a ten kilo SEMTEX demolition charge that was rigged with a timer set for thirty minutes. The working theory was that the bomber intended to plant the bomb on a metro train and kill a lot of people as they were making their way home during rush hour traffic.
”Friday Night with Pernille and Einar”
Airing nationally on Cottish TV2 at 20:00, Friday 24 April 2020
The Friday night talkshow with hosts Pernille Sørensen and Einar Leida was one of the most popular talk shows in Cotland, offering a fairly casual mix of current events, entertainment, musical bits, and interviews with invited guests that were in the wind for some reason or another. An estimated 150 million Cottish citizens tuned in every Friday either on TV2 or streaming via the Internet. Over the past few weeks, the topics had become more and more serious, with the terrorist attacks in the east taking up more and more room in the show. The culmination came this Friday as the special guest, who was scheduled to appear after musical prodigy Sigrid had offered a live musical rendition of her latest single, was introduced.
“That was Sigrid and ‘Times like These’!” Pernille said as she smiled into the camera. “And now, its time to introduce this week’s special guest. He’s no stranger to us, having appeared three times previously. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a solid round of applause for none other than the Chancellor himself, Andreas Riis Dahle!”
To a solid round of applause, the fifty year old Chancellor came out on the stage. Despite being dressed relatively casually, wearing a designer suit and a silk shirt sans tie, and being well groomed, there was no mistaking that the Chancellor had not slept properly for a long while.
After being greeted by the hosts, Riis Dahle took a seat in the guest sofa and offered the trademark smile that had helped carry the last election campaign, instilling a sense of confidence and calm.
“Mister Chancellor, welcome back.” Pernille started, “It’s been a little while since your last visit.”
“Yes, two years I believe?”
“Pretty close to that, yes. How have you been since last we spoke?”
“Pretty good actually. I’ve been blessed by the voters with the best job in the world, I meet new and interesting people every day, and no day is the same. What else can you want?” Riis Dahle smiled.
“Indeed,” Pernille said.
“You know us Chancellor. We’re devious bastards, so we’re going to be asking the tough questions tonight.” Einar said with a smile.
“I know you both, and expect nothing less.” Riis Dahle said with a smile. He fully expected the talk show hosts to do some digging. In fact, he depended on it.
“I’m sorry for being so direct, but you look a little more tired than the last time you were here. Long days?” Pernille asked.
“That’s one of the consequences of the job the voters have put me in. The country doesn’t stop at four PM, so neither can the government when almost four hundred million Cots are depending on you.”
“And lately, there’s been even more reason to work late hours I suspect.” Einar asked.
“Yes, that is true. As you know, we have an unresolved situation going on in the east of the country. Terrorists are sadly still at large, and over thirteen hundred people have tragically been killed in terrorist attacks over the past month. There are many, many people in all branches of the Government that are working around the clock right now.”
“Yes. As you viewers at home know, the last week especially has been an eventful one, and not in a good way. A week ago, you sir stood before the combined global press corps and announced to the country and the world that the terrorist attacks in eastern Cotland were perpetrated by people from the Confederacy of the Urals, and that the Urals haven’t exactly been very forthcoming. Then, the military started calling up reservists and deploying forces to the Cottish-Confederacy border. And as late as just a few hours ago, a new attempted bombing was very publically stopped in Kostroma City. I think that I’m not the only one that’s wondering what the hell is happening?! Can you help enlighten us?”
“Of course,” Riis Dahle said, clearing his throat. “Since the first bombings started in late March, the security services and law enforcement agencies have worked tirelessly to find and stop the guilty parties. As the bombings increased and the various investigations developed, we learned that the common denominator was that every suspect was not only a citizen of the Confederacy of the Urals, but indeed trained by their respective Special Forces units. That was confirmed by suspects that were arrested alive and interrogated. They, that is to say, the suspects claimed in interrogations that they were sent by the Confederate government to conduct the bombings.
“When we approached the Confederacy with these allegations, they have not only denied them out of hand. They have actively opposed supporting our investigations, contrary to their public claims in diplomacy and the open media.
“At the same time, the Confederate military has been mobilized since the middle of March, allegedly for wargames. These wargames were supposed to end on Tuesday last, but we’re not seeing any indication that they’re stepping down their activities and returning to garrison like they should. Quite the contrary. Right now, as we sit here and speak, the Confederate military has almost three quarters of a million men under arms, mobilized, worked up, and ready to go”
“Now, I’m no military genius, but that doesn’t sound good.” Pernille said.
“No, I agree with you completely. It does not sound good. It does not look good. In fact, it looks pretty bad from where we’re standing. We have what we believe to be Confederate Special Forces roaming around in the east attacking infrastructure and frightening ordinary, law-abiding peaceful people minding their own business, while the Confederate conventional military is ramping up its capability near our borders. Now, despite what most people think, the Government does know that two plus two usually makes four.” That caused a chuckle from the live audience. “That’s why the Government decided to mobilize our own forces and start deploying in force to the east. This has been done for three reasons: Firstly, to act as a deterrent towards the Confederacy, to show that we’re no pushover and that we’re willing to fight if we’re forced to. Second, to show the people in Eastern Cotland that the Government takes you situation very seriously, and that men and women from all over Cotland are coming to show their national solidarity and help defend you if push comes to shove. And third, to try to force the Confederacy back to the negotiation table.”
“Excuse me, force the Confederacy back to the negotiation table? They’ve left it?” Einar demanded.
“There’s been nothing but silence from the Confederacy on the diplomatic front for the past three days, at a time when dialogue is paramount. At the same time, we’re seeing anti-Cottish rethoric in Confederate media and internal statements.”
“Not good,” Pernille stated, before asking “Can you tell us how many attackers are there in eastern Cotland?”
“Our valiant security services and law enforcement agencies have worked tirelessly, and neutralized almost sixty attackers to date. Of these, seventeen are currently sitting in holding cells, while the rest have sadly died while resisting arrest. From what information we have available, there may still be up to twenty attackers at large. However,” Riis Dahle said before one of the hosts could interject, “The measures the Government has taken to date have severely limited their ability to operate freely, as the shooting in Kostroma earlier today showed. We have every confidence that the remaining attackers will be stopped very soon. That being said, the assistance the security services have received from the population has been extremely helpful, and I sincerely hope and ask that the people will continue to assist the security services.”
“A good point, and one that I think everyone in Cotland agrees with.” Einar stated. “Where does the road go from here?”
“That’s entirely up to the Confederacy. The Cottish government is willing to talk, as we always are, but the attacks must stop, and we must bring the guilty parties to justice. There are thirteen hundred Cottish lives ripped away prematurely and hundreds more unnecessarily injured to atone for.”
“Who do you mean when you say ‘guilty parties’?”
“Well, the people planting the bombs and conducting the attacks must be brought to justice, obviously, but we also need to bring the people who conceived and orchestrated the campaign of terror to justice. There’s too many people involved and too much sophistication for this not to be coordinated by someone. This has been clearly communicated to the Confederacy, but for some reason they’re not being cooperative.”
“Do you think the Confederate Government is responsible?” Einar demanded.
“Let me put it this way: They’re not doing much to convince us otherwise.”
“So yes.”
The Chancellor just smiled flatly.
“How far are you willing to go? Will we go to war with the Confederacy?”
“If the hypothesis is true, then Confederate military forces have conducted sanctioned attacks against Cotland on Cottish soil and killed Cottish citizens. That in itself is an act of war. Should this hypothesis prove itself true, then Cotland is well within its rights to defend itself.”
“And will we?” Pernille prodded.
“If we are forced to, we will fight. I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to that, but as the old Roman said once: sic vis pacem, para bellum – if you wish for peace, prepare for war. Cotland is prepared.”
“Chancellor Andreas Riis Dahle, thank you.”
