Lone Star Odyssey- First Steps

by David Wilson

  Local law enforcement was on the scene within minutes and the Fairfax SWAT was called in. The chief engineer of the plant was called to the site to explain to the SWAT Commander exactly what the team was facing. He explained that the Ravensworth Station Reservoir was an underground storage facility that stored over 13 million gallons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The storage cavern was constructed or drilled back in the early 1960’s and was over 400 feet deep. Normally, the gas is kept in a liquefied state by a water cap to maintain geostatic pressure. If the water pumps were shut down and the pumping equipment left on the entire area would soon be covered in, well basically, propane. One spark or open flame would cause the entire area to go up. Just about the time he finished explaining this, massive clouds of what appeared to be smoke began bellowing out of the open windows of the pumping station. The SWAT Commander ordered everyone to evacuate the area but it was too late. The resulting explosion could be heard as far away as Philadelphia to the north and Richmond to the south, and registered between 3.5 and 4.0 on the Richter scale. The damage to the Braddock/495 overpass closed the outer loop to traffic and caused forest fires that destroyed several neighborhoods in the immediate area.

  Later that same night several small groups of men in white panel vans started their vehicles precisely at 0100 AM. Earlier that day the men had driven to predetermined staging locations near several of the water pumping stations servicing the Washington DC Aqueduct project. Two of the vans headed towards the Dalecarlia reservoir near Great Falls, Virginia. This was their main target, with the other vans targeting the smaller pumping stations scattered across the district. They would all regroup for follow-on targets after the night’s work was finished. For years security studies had warned how vulnerable the US water systems were to attacks, but security upgrades were expensive and no one had ever seriously attacked any major city water supply before. The terrorist leader had been surprised that all of the information he had needed to plan the attack had be easily found on the Internet. The entire water system to include maps of the system were downloaded and provided to each of the teams. He was pleased that none of the teams would have to use any explosives to completely disable any of the systems. A few smashed computers after shutting down the pumps and a few minutes with sledge hammers would do enough damage that within minutes there would not be enough pressure in any of the systems to provide water to most of DC residents and cut off any chance of the fire departments to stop any fires using the hydrants in the city. The Dalecarlia Reservoir was the main treatment plant for the district’s drinking water. After treatment the water is then pumped to reservoirs all over the district. The two vans pulled up to the main building at the Dalecarlia Reservoir, five men exited from each van, three from each van were carrying an AK-47 slung across their backs, and with suppressor equipped .22 pistols in their hands, the remaining men carried sledge hammers and tools to assist in the planned destruction. The terrorist leader had ordered his men to kill all the workers at the plant, with the rational being that the workers were some of the only people that could repair any damage they did. The ten-man team moved quickly and efficiently, eliminating any of the workers they came across before arriving at the control center. After killing everyone on duty within the control room, the leader moved over to the master control panel and began shutting down all of the pumping equipment. After everything had been shut down, the team destroyed all of the computers, control panels, and backup systems. Making sure the team recovered all of the hard drives from the computers the team turned their attention to the pumping equipment. This scene was repeated at all of the pumping stations the group had targeted within the district. By 0400 AM, calls were coming in from all over the district reporting low water pressure. By daylight all of the terrorist were finished and headed west to a remote assembly site outside the 495 Beltway picked well in advance. They would remain there until signaled to carry out their next attacks.

  At almost the exact same moment the terrorists started their vans for the attacks on the DC water supplies, twelve semi trucks started their engines at a truck stop in Baytown, Texas. The semi trucks had been leased almost six months prior and had carried several legitimate shipments of contracted supplies. But tonight was the reason the trucks had been leased. Earlier that day, right after the attack on the Mall in DC, the semi trucks with 50-armed terrorists had pulled into the ammonium nitrate plant just north of Waco, Texas. As the plant was normally closed on the weekend, the terrorists made short work of the two-man guard force at the main gate of the complex. The terrorists had rehearsed the plan many times over the last two weeks. The loading warehouse was large and easily allowed all twelve of the semi trucks to back up to its own loading bay. As the trucks came to a stop the rear door flew open and five ATV’s sped off the trailers to their assigned positions. All of the terrorists had been trained in their jobs and some headed to get fork trucks and others headed out to provide security and to plant demolitions around the compound. The terrorists had detailed plans of the plant and it only took them a little less than four hours to load all of the semi trucks with the material they had came for. Det cord was rigged and layered into the sacks as each of the pallets were loaded onto the trucks.

  Once the trucks were loaded, each leaving enough room for the ATVs to reload into the trailers, the trucks all pulled out and headed south. While the trucks were being loaded, some of the terrorists had spent the time to carefully plant explosives at predetermined spots in the chemical plant. Thirty minutes after the last truck pulled out of the chemical plants gates the entire compound exploded into a small mushroom cloud. Windows were blown out of houses as far away as five miles and the sound of the explosion was heard as far north as Dallas.

  The semi trucks pulled out of the truck stop in Baytown and headed towards the petrochemical terminal just two miles south of the truck stop. The lead semi truck slowly pulled ahead of the other trucks as they approached the terminal. The main gates of the terminal was a hard left hand turn off the highway but the turn was wide and allowed the lead truck to maintain a steady thirty miles an hour and it turned hard into the main gate. No one at the plant was really expecting trouble and the main gate crumbed like tin foil upon the impact of the semi truck. While the damage to the truck was enough to kill the truck’s engine, the speed of the impact carried the gate and truck out of the path of the other trucks coming in behind it. None of the trucks stopped to check on the first truck, they all had predetermined positions and they headed for their targets.

  The terrorists in the first truck finally got the doors open on their trailer and started to unload their ATV when the guards opened fire on them. Under normal conditions the reaction of the guards would have been more than adequate as all five of the terrorist were hit and down within seconds. But these were not normal times and one of the five was able to detonate his suicide vest that in turn detonated the truck load of ammonium nitrate, killing all of the guards at the main gate before any of them had had a chance to report the attack. It took the eleven remaining trucks less than ten minutes to find their targets, park their trucks, jump on the backs of the ATVs and speed off to their planned egress routes.

  None of the terrorists returned to the main gate, most had planned routes out of the terminal though the security fences. All of the teams were miles away and headed to safe house when the terminal tore Baytown apart. The Baytown terminal was one of the largest of its kind in the world. Dozens of massive tanks, some as large as 88 meters in diameter and a height of almost 20 meters each holding over a million gallons of gasoline products, paint thinner, finger nail polish remover, and other petroleum products. The explosion was estimated to be the largest ever in the United States; the death toll was in the tens of thousands, with many more seriously injured. Hospitals in the area were overwhelmed with the injured. The Texas Governor called out the State Guard and requested support from the Federal Government.

  Over the course of the next six hours additional attacks targeting elect
ric grids, water supplies, gas and oil holdings and pipelines, train tracks, major tunnels and bridges, black and Hispanic leaders and major left-wing Hollywood stars took place in at least 12 major US cities. Low income apartment complex’s were fire bombed and many intercity neighborhoods, schools and malls that had never experienced drive by shooting were hit with multiple acts of murder. The women and teenagers that had lived in northern Mexico and Canada for the last few years had remembered their training and committed many acts of atrocities before the night was done. The teams of women with their male driver had split up and dropped off their homemade IED’s. With so many terrorist attacks being reported the police systems were over loaded. Hundreds of police officers and first responders died because no one was warned about the poison gas and IED’s. Many of women committed attacks with suicide vests strapped in place and attacked any public gathering they could locate. All of the attacks seemed random, but created rage wherever they touched as some type of evidence was clearly left at every scene showing whom was responsible. All evidence pointed towards right wing radicals or militant black groups. This fed the hate and anger from all sides. The more one group would deny the attack; they in turn would be accusing other groups of committing acts of terrorism against their own interests. Attacks against targets of opportunities, many including children were perpetrated on the second day, school buses across America were either blown up or were found with bombs attached, creating mass panic among parents. As America had been gradually moving towards a two income sociality, with all the schools closed across the nation, at least one of the parents had to stay home from work, adding to the hysteria.

  By the end of the day after the attack on the Mall, every cop, fireman, or first responder in the nation dared not go into an intercity neighborhood without body armor and back up. Many of the firemen refused to respond to certain neighborhoods due to the trucks and personnel came under fire each time they tried. By the next morning after the DC attack America’s cities burned out of control. Most of the law enforcement, fire fighters, and first responders had not shown up for work the following morning, they had families too that had to be protected from the madness gripping the nation. Billions of dollars of damage to the nation’s infrastructure was done and with no end in sight.

  Chapter One

  After spending the last four and a half years working in Afghanistan I some how found myself driving back to the last place I wanted to be, Washington D.C. Such is life; in my line of business you have to go to where the work is. There is almost never any shortage of work in my expertise and normally the pay is very good, the down side of this is most of the jobs requiring my skills are in the worst areas of the world. And I have been to most of them, Haiti, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, if you name it and it’s a shit hole than I’ve probably been there. But as I want to be able to occasional go home to Texas I took a job near DC.

  After retiring from the Big Green Machine (Marines) I figured I would work for some government agency for a few years than retire retire. I was at that point where all I wanted to do was kick back on my ranch in Texas, watch the kids grow and enjoy life. Yes, I worked for a couple of different three letter government agencies for a few years after retiring at 38, even attempted to go back in the Marines after 9/11. They said no thank you at the time. So after 9/11 the money for contracting jobs was getting crazy and became very attractive, so I jumped to the contracting world. Been there ever since, jumping from job to job, some lasting several years, some only a year. Wherever the money was best and the job wasn’t boring and worthwhile at least in my opinion. I have always had a problem with boring jobs. I most often get myself into some type of trouble if I get bored and I always try now to move on once I begin getting that bored feeling. It normally goes like this, go overseas for an exciting and well paying job for a year or two, return to the States and work for a year or so, then off to the next adventure. That worked great until I got married again. This time I found a keeper. She is smart, beautiful, funny, and understands my world of work as she was “in the business” for about ten years before she decided it was time for us to have a family. Now I’m a few years older than her, well actually several, but I agreed to one. Ha, God is still laughing, we ended up with triplets. Don’t know how she did it but she pulled it off, but she carried them for almost the full term. Wouldn’t trade them for the world, now, but that first few months were hell (but great), as they were little eating and shitting machines. But they are growing fast and are all smart as hell, healthy, and good looking (thank God they took after their Mother).

  Anyway, that is why I ended up staying so long in Afghanistan this last time and why I’m heading back to DC. I have always sworn to never work up here again, but here I am. The last time I worked up here the job actually turned out to be a great job and I stayed until the program ended. The small company I had been working for had been brought out by one of the large defense contractor firms and they immediately ran the program into the ground. That is why I took the job in Afghanistan and ended up staying for over four years, as the money was good and with the arrival of the triplets I figured I’d best make as much money as I could, while I could. But as good as the job was, the government decided to do a drawdown and stop all combat operations so my billet was replaced by a government position. So I headed back to Texas to spend some catch up time with the family.

  After kicking around Houston for several months looking for a decent paying job, nothing turned up and I ended up heading back to the DC Area, it was that or a job in Tampa or Bragg. Neither of which paid anywhere near what a guy in my line of work can make in DC. It wasn’t perfect, but then nothing ever is. I hated to be away from the kids so much, and it did put a hell of a lot of stress on my wife. But it is what it is. The new job wasn’t difficult and it did appear to be interesting, plus it wasn’t downtown DC or Kabul. At least, I hoped anyway, it looked like I would be able to get to my new building, it was located near BWI, and the area was far enough away from Baltimore that the area should not have the widespread riots the downtown areas were experiencing. Pulling my vehicle into a parking stall in front of the Hampton Inn, I resigned myself that this would be home until I could find somewhere to rent or lease or arranged to stay with one of the many guys I know from the Corps. It seemed like almost all of the guys that stayed in the business after the Corps ended up in the DC area after retirement. The good thing about this new job (besides the decent pay) was that it was not downtown DC, have I said that before, don’t want you to get the impression that I don’t like DC, no really I HATE DC. So anyway the riots should not really affect me. At least that is what I thought as I checked into my hotel less than 1/4 mile from my new office and headed up to my room to lay down to get some much needed sleep before my first day at a new job.

  SHTF Day One - 1230 AM

  My first thought when I heard the electronic lock on my hotel room door click was someone was attempting to break into my room. As I felt around searching for my pistol, I glanced at the clock on the nightstand and saw the power was out. Not surprising with all the rioting that has been going on for the last 24 hours. So far the area I was in had not been affected, but it was only a matter of time if the government couldn’t get things under control. Finding my Glock 17, I eased out of bed as quietly as I could and quickly moved to the wall across the room nearer the hotel room door. After standing and listening for about 30 seconds I could hear nothing outside my door and no other attempts were made to open the door. Not that anyone could as it was double locked, with the deadbolt locked and the small joke of a panic bar engaged, plus the rubber doorstop I always traveled with under the door. Still I knew I had heard the electronic lock disengage. I stood there for another minute and then turned to retrieve my headlamp and flashlight from my go bag that was sitting on the unoccupied second bed. I pulled on my sweat pants and running shoes and stood to go check the door. As I moved to the door I heard voices from the room next door. It was the guy talking to his wife or gi
rl friend attempting to calm her down, I had met them in the hallway as we were both checking in at the same time, he was telling her to go back to sleep that the electronic lock on the door was not working but the dead bolt still worked.

  Walking over to the door, I kicked the rubber doorstop out of the way and disengaged my deadbolt and panic bar, sure enough the electronic lock was not working and the door opened as I turned the handle. Is that normal I thought, not knowing at the time that I would have that same thought many times over the next couple of days until I realized it was the new normal. After checking the hallway, I went back into my room and eased the door back shut, I made sure the deadbolt was engaged, the small worthless panic bar was closed and my door stop was back in place, I returned to bed in an attempt to get back to sleep. As I was laying there tossing and turning in my attempt to get back to sleep I realized what was wrong, there was no background noise of any type, upon realizing how quiet it was I really got a bad feeling. No noise of any kind, normally there would be the low rumble of traffic on I-395 and of course the noise of jets landing and taking off from BWI every few minutes.

  The hotel I was currently staying in was sandwiched between I-395 and BWI airport. It was the closest I could get at a reasonable rate to my new work building. After lying in bed for a few minutes the quietness began to weird me out a little so I threw back the covers and climbed out of bed. As I was getting up to look out the window I felt more than heard a jolt run though the hotel rooms floor followed closely by a muffled explosion. Before I could cross the ten feet or so across the room to the window, two more distant explosions closely followed the first explosion. I moved to the window but realized my room faced away from the direction the explosions had come from. The window faced south towards Washington DC and BWI was to the east about one mile in a straight line from the hotel. I was more than a little surprised to see a glow on the southern horizon, it didn’t look like the glow you normally see from a distance city, but more like the glow you would associate with a large forest fire. Realizing the power must be out, not only in the local area, but it looked like power was out for the District also. Standing there for a couple of minutes revealed no clues to the cause and I returned to bed. Contemplating the situation I dismissed my gut feeling and wrote it off to the power being out because of the riots.