Operation Fortitude:
A Fall of Justice Story
"All units, all units. Suspect known as "The Doctor" has been spotted in the Downtown area. All officers, be warned: suspect is considered armed and highly dangerous. Proceed with extreme caution," the radio blurb came in.
Police Captain Jonathan Cope sighed as he pulled off the freeway and headed into the Downtown area. The Doctor had been spotted again. Hopefully there wouldn't be a body left for the police to investigate.
For the past three months, Jump City Police had found the city under siege. With most of the world's superheroes actively engaged in the battles with the Brotherhood of Evil, the burden of Special Crimes had fallen on the Major Crimes division of the JCPD. While most super villains were throwing down with the Brotherhood of Evil, there were still plenty of regular ones taking advantage of the empty T.
One such example was the current asshole Major Crimes had been following since the super war started. The Doctor, as the forensics techs putting together the case had dubbed him, had started a killing spree. Eighteen people in three months. All from different backgrounds, livelihoods, cultures…you name it, it was all different. Profilers were having an amazingly tough time nailing this guy down.
The break they'd gotten here could prove to be promising. ESU and S.W.A.T. had been on high alert the last three weeks, in hopes of catching a good lead and nailing the motherfucker.
"This is Captain Cope. Any more specifics than "Downtown?" he called in.
"Captain, portables cannot provide anything more specific than Downtown Business Plaza area," Dispatch reported back.
"Alright. I'm heading towards downtown. Tell ESU to be ready in five minutes," Cope radioed in. As one of the senior members of the investigation, Cope had been given authority to activate ESU if he felt there was a legitimate opportunity.
"Portable 4877 reporting from Downtown Plaza. Suspect walked into The Red Dragon Hotel. Appears not to know he's being followed," a beat cop called in.
With these words, several things were set in motion, the scale of which people could not even imagine. Within thirty seconds of that information coming in, three full S.W.A.T. teams were activated. Two minutes later, no less than fifty tactical personnel were rumbling towards the objective.
While all of this was going on, patrol cars from all over the city were rerouted to the area outside of the Red Dragon.
In fact, by the time Captain Cope arrived on scene, the area looked like a war zone waiting to happen.
Maybe it is… Cope thought darkly to himself.
Walking through security checkpoints, Cope saw the two detectives he'd given authority to. Jimmy Winkleblack and John McBride. Both of them were indulging in their chosen vices- Winkleblack was smoking what was probably his third pack of Marlboro Reds for the day, and McBride had a horseshoe of Skoal Straight in his lip.
"Evening, gents. Nice to see the tactical situation hasn't stopped you from enjoying your favorite ways of getting cancer," Cope remarked.
"Well sir, I'd rather smoke and be happy, than just bottle that shit up like you do and wonder each day if I'm going to snap loose," Winkleblack said.
"Yeah…it's a dance with death Jim. What're the particulars?"
"We got fifty SWAT and ESU bubbas getting ready to move in, including some units on loan from San Diego and LAPD. We got three hundred uniforms here for crowd control and emergency stop-gap procedures," McBride said.
"Attack plan?" Cope asked.
"Five floors, two five man teams per floor, searching every room. Each team is outfitted with a double load of flash bangs and CS gas grenades. We have rooftop snipers in position sighted in on important areas. We managed to get a Scout Sniper team from Camp Pendleton deployed here. Lucky break. Riot police are staged in various areas to appear in case things turn ugly. Every room that doesn't contain the suspect will be evac'd and taken to a staging area due east of here. Every possible problem has been accounted for. He's not getting away tonight," Winkleblack said.
"Alright gentlemen. Looks like it's time to take this asshole down. Initiate."
The buzz of activity seemed to stop as fifty well armed police entered the hotel and began going through the plan. Almost immediately, a steady of stream of people began to exit from the hotel.
While this was going on, several dozen beat cops were directing the human traffic to the staging area, replete with food and drink, in anticipation of the long night.
It was hard to tell when exactly the plan went wrong. It could've been minutes before they heard the shots. It could've been when they sent the men into the hotel to take care of business.
"Shots fired. Officer down."
It was at this point that Cope noticed something odd. There was a large group of civilians forming a large cluster in the middle of the hotel residents. They weren't reacting quite as badly as Cope thought about two hundred people forcibly removed from their rooms in the middle of the night. In fact…
"Rooftops, be advised! Keep some eyes and ears on that crowd in the middle of the staging area! We could have a problem! EMS, what's the status of that downed officer inside the hotel?" Cope spat rapid fire into the radio.
While the snipers adjusted their aim and EMS informed him that the officer was in critical condition, Captain Jonathan Cope saw his perfect night slipping slowly into oblivion. Adding to all the mayhem…
"Possibility of the group being armed. Be advised. Possibility they are armed," Cope warned.
As he said this, Cope wished the ROE was more like what the newer officers had encountered in the opening days of the Iraq War when they had still been in the service. They'd all heard the stories, but hearing it from someone who was there made it a little more real.
The problem was that there was almost three hundred and fifty cops at the operation. That many friendlies around, someone was bound to get hit if the bullets started flying. How could they possibly hope to limit casualties? Not to include the mass amounts of civilians at the scene. And there were an unknown number of hostiles inside the hotel.
More shots. More bursts from the automatic weapons carried by ESU. More indications that this op was doomed.
Then…
"Shots fired in the courtyard! Respond immediately! Say again, respond immediately!" Cope screamed into the radios.
The entire area erupted into gunfire. It was like a scene from a bad action movie, except the good guys were dying in this one. Every shot brought another officer down, another man not going home to his family at the end of the day.
In the morbid, tactical thinking center of his brain, one less man putting rounds downrange.
Taking cover behind a squad car, Cope started directing ESU to conduct sweep and clear ops inside the hotel and to shoot first and ask questions later. It would be mountains of red tape and paperwork to unfuck after the incident was over.
As the armed group started throwing Molotov cocktails into the area, Cope made a silent plea to the Titans.
Come back…wrap up your little battle and come back and finish the war here at home…
Aftermath…
"…Early reports indicate civilian casualties in excess of four hundred and police casualties in the range of a hundred and twenty…"
"…Several groups with cells operating inside the United States have claimed responsibility for the attack, but none of them seem likely to have the kind of resources required to pull off something with that scale…"
"…And as the smoke continues to rise from the ruins of the Red Dragon Hotel, citizens of Jump City begin to wonder: who did this? Why did they do it? What's next for the city?"
Downtown, One Police Plaza
"You wanna know what's next? I'll tell you what's next. Martial law has been declared. JCPD is coordinating enforcing stricter regs while reserve Army units are being called up. From this point forward the city is in a strict curfew, pedestrians off the streets by 10, vehicles off the streets by 11. No exceptions. From now on everything is tracked- from sales to what shops you frequent. As soon as we find more evidence uncovering exactly who was responsible for the attack last night, the new regulations will be dropped.
We do not intend for this to be a long term plan. We anticipate no more than three months of this plan being in place. Please bear with us during this transition period. Thank you," Police Chief Brian Parr reported to the press.
The war has begun…