Twa-ts'uk-men Incident
The Tjo-ts'jakw-men Incident was a terrorist attack on the Kien-k'ang railway station of the same name, in Themiclesia. The incident was perpetrated by a cultist movement who believed that the station was a safe haven in a coming apocalyptic event, which would see the Themiclesian emperor emerge as the ruler of the world or a deity. The cultists took control of the station with thousands of civilians trapped within; when authorities recovered the station, 112 civilians were found dead, in addition to 56 cultists and 182 police officers. The master-mind of the movement was later captured and sentenced to imprisonment, generating controversy internationally about the severity of the sentence.
Background
Takeover of the site
The TTM Station was the site of an violent incident between the Grjek-N-lu′ Cult and the Kien-k'ang Metropolitan Police, possibly the largest-scale terrorist attack in Septentrion up to that point. The cult attempted to barricade themselves in the building, haveing disseminated sarin gas in several other stations on the Kien-k'ang Metro. The cultists, who number over a thousand, arrived with firearms and other weapons close to 9:00 AM on December 30th, 2003, and began to open fire on the public, while closing off all entrances of the station. There are approximately 132 civilian casalties, and the police were notified promptly but not enough to prevent the cultists from exploding the main doorways, barring police entry. It is believed that the cult thought the Third World War was approaching, and the only place safe from its nuclear arsenals was the TTM Station. This is probably an extension of the popular saying that the Station was so deep that not even radiation could penetrate it. As a result, the Traverse Main Line was sealed off, and the Kien-k'ang Metro was suspended, as the Operational Control Centre was seized.
After the cultists secured the station, the police began to probe other access points, which included all the railway tunnels that led to the station in all directions; however, the cultists had anticipated this tactic and proceeded to drive locomotives into the tunnels to ward off police approaching from them. The police cut power, but there was an extensive source of backup electricity available in the station, as required by law. Since the station had more than 200 access points, a number of them were either unknown to the cultists or left unguarded. The police strove for entry in these points, but in every case they were expelled by cultist fire. Security forces additionally faced the challenge of distinguishing, in the complete darkness, between civilians trapped in the station and cultists, since the latter wore no distinctive clothing. The situation tended towards a stalemate by the middle of January 2014. The Themiclesian government appealed for assistance from foreign states, and many governments were forthcoming to send specialist teams.
The option of destroying the station was quickly dismissed due to the presence of large numbers of civilians trapped in the station, who were effectively hostages. The cultists did not attempt to establish communication with the outside world. In February, over 4,000 policemen were assembled in the capital city for a major offensive from all known points of entry. The idea behind this strategy is that the rebels had access to a working network of CCTV, which revealed the direction of the police's advance, allowing it to concentrate defences in that area; attacking in every direction at once would, theoretically, stretch the cult's manpower so thin that breaching it should be easy. Yet when the attack began, the police faced severe resistance in every front, sometimes receiving casualties from shots fired from rooms leading off a corridor. Many of these rooms did not appear on the building's floorplan, and additional hallways, alcoves, and hidden pipework entirely wide enough to allow humans to pass were discovered frequently.
Nevertheless, the police managed to make steady advances, if only room-by-room. By the beginning of March, they managed to compress the cult-held areas to a limited number of platforms and hallways, as well as the NRC level. Making headway, the remaining cultists were coralled into the NRC level, which was particularly poorly lit; even with floodlights brought in, pillars were staggered in such a way that blocked off all light in any direction. The police barricaded themselves with the platforms that laid before the switching yard. A fierce shoot-out ensued between the cultists and policemen for the next five days, claiming the lives of over 100 cultists and 89 policemen. Just as the shoot-out seemed to be over, the cultists broke for the secret stairwell that led to the level below, allowing some of them to attack the police's rear on the NRC level. Another 1,000 policemen from nearly regions were summoned to reinforce the police currently trapped inside; the new arrivals approached through emergency tunnels that connected the tracks between levels, which surprised the cultists. Eventually, in what could be described as a six-way shoot-out, the cultists surrendered. Yet their leader and dozens of his favourites escaped through the sewerage, to the exasperation of the nation's government.
The TTM Station was restored to normal operation at the beginning of April. Yet when asked what has the Station done to prevent a similar event in the future, its director replied that it was an "unfortunate event that could not be anticipated, and there is no reason to believe that it would ever happen again." The government stationed a few more policemen in the station in the aftermath of the incident.
Recovery
Trial and controversy
Taking of bail
After the apprehension of the Mastermind, the Attorney-General announced that indictments for sedition will be filed starting in 2004, fully eight months after the conclusion of the episode. The Mastermind was released on bail amounting to OSD$184 million, the highest, by an order of mangnitude, ever imposed by a Themiclesian court of law. Legally speaking, the court has the option of denying bail altogether, on a charge of sedition; the Master of the Court, however, decided that this trial must be "above suspicion in every way", and so granted bail to afford the defendant unimpaired legal counsel. The Crown did not contest this decision, but the Kien-k'ang Metropolitan Police was alerted to "take necessary measures to ensure safety of the public and the defendant".