Book of Stone: Operation Jawbreaker
(A Stone Soldiers Encyclopedia Entry)
Ever since the founding of the United States, the practice of witchcraft has been frowned upon. The Founding Fathers knew full well that the Salem witch trials, despite their murder of innocent men and women, did indeed root out witches living in the early American Colonies. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the United States Army to begin a secret initiative to locate and arrest witches in America. Following his assassination in 1865, and the formation of the Secret Service, that task changed, with American Forces not just arresting witches, but campaigning against them as enemies of the United States. This mission soon fell under the supervision of the U.S. Secret Service, which coordinated operations around the country, utilizing Federal troops when necessary.
By 1946, and the founding of Detachment 1039 as the War Department's primary line of defense against the supernatural, Washington realized the growing threats from witches, who used their abilities and dark magic to manipulate commerce and political power. In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an Executive Order authorizing the Detachment to coordinate and lead all counter-witchcraft operations. The Secret Service remained the primary agency tasked with identifying and monitoring witchcraft within the country, but all lethal force used against witches and their followers was performed under the supervision of the Detachment.
Chief among these operations were the Halloween/October assaults on Covens performing rituals within the United States--often including human and animal sacrifice. By the 1980s, the Operation had grown in size, with strikes carried out in dozens of locations around the Continental United States, primarily around the Halloween season. During this period, the mission was classified OPERATION JAWBREAKER, denoting its proximity to the Halloween season.
In October 2013, Operation Jawbreaker conducted its annual operation (Stone Soldiers #5, Black Knight Down), striking at five locations around the United States. Five Covens were all eliminated, each of which having abducted children for their rituals. In each instance, each hostage was rescued without injury.
Unbeknownst to the Detachment that night, the five covens eliminated were actually pawns of a larger coven. Sacrificing their sisters for a more sinister goal--the felling of the prehistoric Black Knight satellite, which the "Big Six" Coven (named for their hierarchy in the national network of covens). The Big Six believed that the Black Knight contained demons they would be able to free and use for their own ends. Instead, all six witches were killed and the beings held within the Black Knight, the Titans, were released into the world.
After this manipulation of JAWBREAKER, it remains to be seen if the program will continue under its current guise, or be replaced by a different operation.
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