43 Department of Homeland Security, Operations room 1, Washington DC November 22, 0015 Hrs (November 22, 0415Z)

Department of Homeland Security, Operations room 1, Washington DC November 22, 0015 Hrs (November 22, 0415Z)

Emily Hopkins hung up the phone and glanced up at the large displays. The Operations room was staffed by a skeleton crew: Just one person from each of the ESF's that were staffed plus the command structure. "GIS..." She said loud enough to be heard. "I need you to drop a pin on that map on Folsom New Mexico, please." "Yes, Ma'am." A voice said from the far side of the room, on the screen she saw the map zooming in. "ESF 12..." She said next. "Ma'am?" The person working the ESF 12 desk said, glancing up. Emily couldn't remember her name. "PNM, the power company that serves Folsom, New Mexico has reported what they suspect to be foul play. They had a transformer at a substation get shot at... Not once, but five times. Three holes in the side of the case, and one round each to take out the connections to the high voltage lines. In addition, the lights at the substation were shot out. This might be the same group, so Cyber..." She looked to the kid that was running the Cyber Desk. "See if their site has any information on this. The only difference between this and the incident in Metcalf is that this seems to be a single person, but was it were they working alone is the question..." "Yes, Ma'am." The kid said. She could tell he was scared shitless. Most of the people in the room were and it didn't get any better as each day passed. The folks in this room knew how disruptive a massive power failure could be. Everything would grind to a halt for most of the country that was affected and their work would get a whole lot harder. Sure their stuff would keep working, but a lot of things wouldn't. Eventually the generators that power the cell sites and switching for the internet would go off line due to lack of fuel. The emergency broadcasters would start to fall one by one as they ran out of fuel or consumables. The only thing that she could hope for was to stop the majority of possible attacks, limit the damage and clean up the mess afterward. Her brain suddenly switched gears and she wondered about the supplies in the National Strategic Stockpile. The NSS had been developed following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. It had existed before that date, but it's purpose had changed. Scattered around the country were stockpiles of stuff, ranging from vehicles for government officials and relief efforts, the big transformers used on the high voltage side of the electrical grid, to medical and food supplies. There was even water in the NSS. Exactly what was in the stockpile was a closely guarded secret. She knew that the stockpile contain a lot of other stuff too, all staged and ready to help get the country back on line after an attack. Nwo she was curious about something: what was the transformer that had been damaged; High voltage or medium voltage? She had a decent understanding of the way the power grid functioned because she had spent a few years working for an electric supplier in their internal operations center. One of the screens in teh front of the room flickered and caught her eye. It was the lower left quadrant of one of the screens that showed the feed from CNN. It now showed a bright pillar of flame in what looked to be an electrical substation. "Give me sound on the CNN feed, Please?" She was trying to figure out if the video was pre recorded and being played back or if it was a live feed. If it was a live feed, then the fire had reignited, which was a possibility. "Someone call the Region Six RRCC, make sure they are aware of what is going on..." "Here's what we know at the moment: A power substation in Folsom, New Mexico was apparently attacked by a sniper rifled according to a manifesto that we received from a group that calls themselves 'The Dawn Patrol'. It reads: "This is just the first step to showing America how vulnerable it's electrical grid is. With a few well placed and well timed attacks, the lights will go out and you will be powerless to stop our cause from marching forward." We haven't been able to determine if this is a real threat or if it is just some kids playing a prank." "That's a hell of a prank..." Emily said, picking up the phone on the desk.