Battle of the Appalachians

New York Police Department

Task Force Reaper

Slenderman kidnapping victims

Timothy Scott

Ryan Clark

Sheila Shellenberger

Nikolai Kalinin

Volodya Grinko

Vladimir Isayev

Stasya Danilova

Natalia Malenkova

Konstantin Tereshkov

Konstantin Ryzhkov

Kiril Krasilnikov

Hugh Collins

Dorothy Scott

Lydia Ross

Ellie Cohen

Helen Moore

Dorothy E. Sullivan

Holly E. Gaskell

Lauren Cole

Joyce Briggs

Alexis Gould

Rita S. Stevens

Theresa Derossett

Melek Aybar/Diadora Jones

Tamara Sultanovich

Laurette Sorel

Natalya Fashkova

Linda Defranco

Marcus Defranco

Anna Maria Esposito

NYPD officers

1 Miami PD officer

*"Where's Dorothy? I'm not asking again."*

- Timothy Scott

The **Battle of the Appalachians**(codenamed **Operation Bluebell**) was an armed conflict between a joint TACITUS-Law Enforcement-Task Force Reaper rescue force and the Children of Slender. It was originally a hostage rescue mission coordinated by all three organizations, which later turned into a full-scale shootout between the two combatants.

## Background

### Kidnapping

*Main article*: Abduction of Dorothy Scott

### Planning

The operation was a coordinated effort between TACITUS, Task Force Reaper, and law enforcement. Following a recon mission by police informants, it was determined that the hostages were being kept on a farm converted into a forward operating base by the Children of Slender, and that heavily armed guards staffed the place. Furthermore, the Children of Slender threatened to kill all the hostages if the police or anyone else got involved in a rescue op, meaning the rescue team had no choice but to ambush and lay siege to the farm.

## The Operation

### Escaping captivity

Prior to the official beginning of the operation, Dorothy Scott and her fellow captives developed their own plan to escape. After fellow captive Melek Aybar (operating under an alias) killed one of their captors when they attempted to molest Dorothy's friend Holly Gaskell, the other captors came with the intention of "punishing" Aybar, who then broke the other captives free and brutally assaulted the other captors before fleeing the compound under the cover of darkness.

### Eliminating the guards

The operation officially began when Derek Westbrook set up a sniper perch not far from the compound and started shooting the lights around the farm in order to leave the guards in the dark, much to the annoyance of Dorothy Scott's father Timothy, who wanted to go in guns blazing.

Following this, Derek began sniping the guards themselves, which tipped off the rest of the captors to police activity, though they had no idea the police had allies.

Derek abruptly changed plans after reinforcements returned fire on his position, joining Timothy Scott and many others in a brutal shootout.

### Shootout and massacre

After escaping the initial gun battle, Derek linked up with Vince Crosby, Timothy Scott, Nikolai Kalinin and his gang of friends, the St. Petersburg saboteurs. They broke into the building and opened fire on the unsuspecting militants inside, killing killing all of them as they tried to either shoot back, or flee through the crowded choke point of the narrow halls inside the farmhouse. Timothy was particularly brutal, coldly executing the injured militants on what everyone could see was a vengeful rampage against the people who kidnapped his daughter.

Reinforcements soon arrived and tried to ambush the vengeful father and his allies, but the St. Petersburg Saboteurs shot out all the lights, then proceeded to use strobe lights to disorient the militants before killing them off.

However, they failed to locate Dorothy and her friends: unbekownst to them, they'd already escaped hours earlier. They coordinated a search around the building, where the girls later caught sight of Timothy, but were ambushed by another squad of reinforcements, this time followed by their ringleader, the Defranco family and their enforcer, an assassin named Coyote.

### Standoff and helicopter chase

After disorienting the rescue squad with flashbangs, a standoff occurred between the captors and the rescue team. The captors used the diversion as an opportunity to transport the captives to another location to be used as "slaves" for Slenderman's personal pleasure. However, Laurette Sorel and Ellie Cohen were able to escape a second time. With help from Timothy and the others, Laurette, Vince and Ellie were able to hijack a helicopter belonging to the Children of Slender and pursue the captors' getaway chopper.

### Final showdown

Following a lengthy helicopter chase, Laurette angrily rammed the Children of Slender's chopper out of the sky, killing Louis Defranco, his son Marcus, and his enforcer Coyote, while leaving Laurette, Linda, and Anna-Maria injured. Despite their injuries, Laurette and her allies engaged in a final showdown against the Defranco family, killing them all.

## Trivia

* This is the first incident to be a curb stomp battle : a one-sided fight in which one side completely destroys the other with little to no effort.