by James Rosone
Before the general could continue, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kozlov interjected. “If General Chayko is able to break through and capture Prague, and even threaten Dresden, Nuremberg or Munich, we may be able to pursue a ceasefire with the Allies and secure a better peace deal than we would if we are only able to hold on to our current gains. I’m fairly confident we can get the Allies to agree to more favorable terms if we’re holding a large portion of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and parts of Germany,” he proclaimed with a sense of excitement in his voice.
Petrov wanted to bring an end to the war with the Allies as soon as possible. The longer this war dragged on, the more likely it was that his country would lose. Getting the British to withdraw from the war had been a real coup, but that could quickly change if it were ever discovered how PM Chattem had come to power. Plus, that flamboyant demigod in America had somehow managed to rally the majority of the country against the Eastern Alliance. Gates was no longer interested in winning a battle with Russia—he wanted to destroy Russia and China once and for all.
“Well, as long as I have nuclear weapons, it’ll never get that far,” Petrov thought.
“That is the goal, Minister Kozlov,” Egorkin said to the group, “to put ourselves in as good a position as possible for peace talks. This is why I’m not starting the offensive until September. When we launch this offensive, we need to hit the Allies with everything we have. If this attack does not work, then there’s a high likelihood that our forces will have to withdraw back to our own borders, and even then, I’m not sure we could stop a concerted Allied push.”
Sighing, Petrov surveyed the men around the table before settling back on Egorkin. “What about our Indian allies? Their troops have been arriving in strong numbers. Are they going to be of use, or not?”
“They will help,” Egorkin answered. “Right now, I have them working feverishly on developing a series of defensive lines near our borders, should the offensive fail. While I don’t believe we will be unsuccessful, since the Americans have shifted their military focus to the Pacific for the time being, I’m not going to risk leaving our borders defenseless. I plan on holding the Indian Army in reserve. Should our offensive collapse, we won’t be left having to rely on third-tier reserve divisions to defend our borders.”
Satisfied with the military part of his briefing, Petrov dismissed his generals and Minister of Defense. He needed to speak privately with Minister Kozlov and Ivan Vasilek, the FSB Director.
With the room now empty, Petrov leaned in and looked Ivan in the eyes. “We’ve known each other a long time, Ivan,” he said, speaking softly. “I need to know how much of a danger this Alexei Kasyanov is to our regime.”
Ivanov was prepared for this question. “He is a grave danger, Mr. President. I would like to say otherwise, but he’s now being supported by the American CIA, the German BND, and the British MI6. They are backing him with money, technology, and social media support to spread his message. He is steadily giving speeches across Russian radio waves and on internet platforms. I have every available resource looking for him as we speak, but he’s gaining traction with the youth and those who are weary of the war. The casualty lists on his website are the biggest draw. People go there to see if their family member has been killed or captured, and from there, they’re given a steady dose of Western propaganda. These poisonous lies are then spread and, eventually, believed,” he replied.
“We have to do what we can to squash them and find this traitorous swine,” Petrov asserted, venom in his voice.
“Yes, Sir,” said Kozlov. He sighed. “It would appear the West is doing to us what we have been doing to them for years.”
Petrov turned to his foreign minister. “Alexei, how strong is our alliance? Are the members holding strong?” he inquired, hoping this grassroots traitor was the only major concern they were having to deal with.
Minister Kozlov had been working hard to make sure the alliance stayed together. The Eastern Alliance was still a bit shaky, especially as the Americans rallied the rest of the world to stand against them. The quick dissolvement of NATO was met by the creation of the American-led Global Defense Force. While many of the GDF nations could not contribute much to the war in terms of soldiers and weaponry, they were contributing immense amounts of resources and manufacturing capacity to the war effort. Brazil had increased its ammunition production of 5.56mm NATO rounds from roughly 300 million rounds annually to more than four billion rounds—that added capacity in rifle ammunition alone was making a huge impact at the front line.
“The Asian alliance members are shakier than our Eurasian allies,” Kozlov admitted. “Indonesia is my big concern. While they’ve practically given their military over to the PLA, they are slow in growing their military and getting them properly equipped. Malaysia is even worse. They only joined under threat from the PLA, so they’re sluggish rolling everything out. The Chinese Army may be large, but it can’t be everywhere at once, and the Americans are getting ready to invade the Philippines. Once they secure the Island of Luzon, they’ll prepare to liberate Taiwan.”
Shaking his head disapprovingly, Petrov inquired, “And what of our Eurasian allies? Are they training their military to our standards and ready to assist?”
“Yes and no, Mr. President,” replied Kozlov. “They are training and growing in size. But they’re largely underequipped. They’re using very outdated equipment. Right now, most of these troops are moving to Iran, where they’ll join with their Muslim brothers for the fight against the Israeli-Saudi-led alliance. They’re not going to be of much help in our campaign.”
“You know, I don’t even care if the Iranians are successful in their conquest of the Middle East,” said Petrov with a snort. “Their campaign will draw further resources from the GDF and the Americans, which, in the end, will help us as we prepare for Operation Armored Fist.”
The president turned his attention to Ivanov. “I want this rebellion in our country crushed. Use our new pawn in Britain and find out what you can about this MI6 operation that is cultivating this rebellion. Let’s see if we can put Chattem to use in ferreting out these traitors within our country,” Petrov ordered.
The men then turned to discuss other matters of state, after which the meeting became more of a social visit among old friends. They stayed there late into the evening, drinking vodka and sharing laughs. The world was not worth defeating if there couldn’t be some enjoyment in life in the meantime.
Operation Strawman
Pushkino, Russia
Alexei Kasyanov added a few bullet points to his upcoming broadcast. True to his word, the Der Spiegel reporter, Gunther Brinkbaumer, had introduced him to a couple of men from the CIA, who had taken him in and become responsible for his personal security and housing. Now he was moved from one safe house to another after every broadcast to keep them one step ahead of the Russian FSB, which was dedicating more and more resources to finding him.
Once Alexei had agreed to work with the Allies, they’d collaborated on a social media campaign that would be designed to sow discord and distrust between the population and the Petrov administration. All the while, they continued raising the prospect of an alternative government to the corrupt Petrov regime that the country had been enslaved by for the past eighteen months. The CIA arranged a steady stream of news about the war to be provided to Alexei, who then compared that information to the official stories being shown to the people by RT and the other Russian news agencies.
The initial goal of the podcasts and radio broadcasts was to provide the people of Russia with a reliable alternative source of news to what the government was putting out. This caused the number of followers and listeners Alexei Kasyanov had garnered up to that point to swell from the tens of thousands to nearly a million people within a month and a half. People were starved for information and more importantly, the truth about the war. While there had been many victories by the Russian forces, there were also a number of major defeats, and these facts were being kept hid
den from the Russian people.
The CIA had also provided Alexei with a list of Russian prisoners of war that had been captured up to that point—as soon as he’d published this list on his website, the number of followers on his site had ballooned to nearly six million people. The government had been withholding the names of POWs and openly downplaying the number of casualties, causing many family members to wonder what had happened to their sons during the major battles, so they were starving for any explanation of what had really happened to their loved ones.
After several months of this, along with subtle questioning of the government’s motives, an underbelly of frustration and anxiety with the government was growing. Now that Alexei’s list of followers had grown substantially, he was prepared for a new phase in his broadcasts—one of more direct challenges to the Petrov regime.
Gordon Welsh, the MI6 agent who was helping to craft the speech for the evening, walked up to Alexei to try and pump him up for the night’s event. “This speech is really going to get people riled up,” he said with a smile.
Alexei was deep in thought and just nodded. He hated working with these foreign intelligence agents, but he knew that without them, he had no hope of saving his country from the destruction Petrov was bringing upon their homeland.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” he reminded himself.
“As long as we get the people to come to our side and we can rid Russia of Petrov, then that is all I care about,” Alexei responded.
The British agent got the camera ready and made sure everything was recording correctly on the computer before he signaled that they were ready.
After looking down at his notes one last time, Alexei looked at the camera and signaled he was ready to begin. The small red light next to the camera flashed on. They were recording.
“My fellow Russians, welcome to today’s Broadcast of the Truth, where we bring you the stories Petrov does not want you to know about,” he began. “As many of you are already aware, President Petrov has signed a no-longer-secret agreement with the countries of China, India, and Iran to form a new alliance called the Eastern Alliance. His never-ending conquest for war will surely lead to the ruin of Russia.”
“In response to Petrov’s new alliance, the Allies, led by the United States, have formed their own global alliance to defeat us. Just this past week, our forces were defeated in Finland, and even now, the Allies are less than two hundred miles from St. Petersburg. It won’t be long until we have foreign invaders marching in our streets.”
“We must demand an end to this war,” he continued, his voice becoming more forceful and passionate. “If you haven’t seen the list of casualties on our website, I highly encourage you to scroll through them. We’ve updated our lists with the most recent casualties from the battles in Finland. It’s time that we as Russians wake up to what the Petrov regime is doing to our great nation. We’re systematically being destroyed by Alliance bombing attacks, lied to about our young men and women dying in combat, and deceived about the causes of this war and its continuation. While I’ve called on the people of our great nation to protest peacefully, there’s going to come a time when peaceful protests won’t be enough.”
Gordon Welsh gave him a signal from the sidelines to say it was time to really push it home. Alexei nodded slightly, then went on. “We must be the masters of our future, not Petrov. Our nation has a wealth of oil, natural gas, and minerals, yet all that prosperity has been squandered for the last twenty years by the rich few who rule us like kings, and the military that protects their power. The time is coming when we must say enough is enough. I call on each of you to talk with your family members, to talk with your friends. When do we take control of our futures and end this war? Until next time, stay tuned for more information and instructions on what to do next.”
With that, Alexei ended his short speech. Immediately, he wanted to watch it and see if he needed to make any changes before they published the video. Once ready, the short speech would be transmitted multiple times a day across numerous radio frequencies on the AM and FM bands and promulgated across dozens of Russian-language websites and streaming services.
After a few minor edits, Alexei was satisfied with the speech. They uploaded it to the various servers that would spread the message across the internet inside of Russia.
Once the file was safely online, Mitch Lowe, the CIA agent in charge of Alexei’s security, announced, “It’s time to go.”
“Another day, another safe house,” thought Alexei in annoyance. All of the constant moving was getting tiring, and there was always the worry that someone might follow them. Constant vigilance was exhausting.
Still, Alexei had a certain respect for his handler. Prior to the war, Mitch had been a deep-cover CIA agent working for a Russian tech firm. When the war had started, he’d conveniently arranged for his official death to occur from one of the many American bombing strikes that had hit Moscow during the opening days of the war. This allowed Mitch to roam free within the city without him suddenly being missed by his employer. When Operation Strawman had become a reality, it had been determined that the CIA would run the security and financial arm of the underground resistance, while the British would focus more on the social engineering of the speeches and the stirring up of civil unrest in the major Russian cities. They did this by providing a lot of young people with money to protest and generally encouraging a lot of mischief between the youth and the government.
When played out over many months, Operation Strawman was having the desired effect. Popular Russian support for Petrov and the war had plummeted, and while he didn’t need the popular support to wage his war, their apathy to it was having a negative effect on the production of war materials and other essential tools needed to fight in the various conflicts. The popularity of the People’s Freedom Party, or PARNAS, and Alexei Kasyanov as an alternative to the Petrov regime continued to grow. Posters and pictures of Alexei and PARNAS symbols popped up all over Russia, and so did calls to end the war—especially once the people were able to get their hands on unfiltered casualty reports from the battles.
The next phase in the operation would call for direct recruitment of military commanders to switch sides and to openly rebel against the Petrov government.
Pacific Prep
Tinian Island
North Field
Looking over the Marines of Echo Company, Captain Long felt a great sense of pride in his men as they sat in a semicircle in front of him. He had worked hard drilling them during SOI and getting them ready for war. Thousands of Marines from the 6th Marine Division had filtered into the South Pacific as US forces continued to build up for the eventual invasion of the Philippines and Taiwan. While the Navy continued to clear them a path to the enemy, the Marines were ramping up their training and preparation for the coming battle.
Captain Long’s Marines were nearly ready for battle, and it was time to fine-tune some of their individual skills that would help to keep them alive. “Listen up, Marines,” he said. “Whether we hit the beaches or fight our way through the jungles of the Philippines or the mountains of Taiwan, you’re going to need to know how to shoot accurately under pressure and not freak out. Today, we find ourselves on the North Field of Tinian Island. This field was used to house the 313th Bombardment Wing, the same bomb wing that carried out the atomic bombing of Japan. It was from this island that the war in the Pacific was won, and it will be from this island that our generation will end this terrible war with the Eastern Alliance.”
Long could tell by looking at the crowd before him that he had them fired up, so he pressed in. “Today’s training will focus on a couple of critically important skills, which I can attest from my own combat experiences are vital to your survival and our success. We’re going to run through a series of firing drills. In the first drill, you will have to hit targets from five meters, fifteen meters, thirty meters, fifty meters, and one hundred meters while one of the Ranger officers fires a M240 and an
M2 several feet over your heads. I want you to hear it and know what it’s like to have to shoot your weapons while under fire, to feel that pressure to hit the target. You’ll also go through a series of magazine-changing drills while under fire. When the crap hits the fan, it’s going to get crazy, and you need to know how to react under immense pressure. With that said, I’m going to hand you over to the range control officers, and I’ll continue to monitor everyone’s progress.”
The rest of the day was spent running his company through a series of challenging shooting exercises and identifying those soldiers who would need extra training and those who were going to thrive on the pressure. This type of exercise was designed to get them truly ready for what they would ultimately have to face when it came time to evict the PLA from the Philippines and Taiwan.
*******
Two weeks went by as the Marines continued to train their units relentlessly in preparation for the final assault. Then, the word finally came down that it was time to retake the Pacific.
Captain Long walked through row after row of tents until he came to the tent that was being used as the brigade’s headquarters and operations center. He walked up to the entrance and made his way in to find Colonel Micah Tilman’s office. He quickly noticed a lot of the other company and battalion commanders in the tent as well.
“Maybe this was changed to more of a group presentation,” thought Long.
A couple of minutes went by before they were led further back into the tent to a small group of chairs and a map board with a lot of Post-it notes and other markings. The board was quickly flipped over to present a blank whiteboard, which Long assumed would be used as the backdrop for a PowerPoint presentation.
Walking to the front of the group, Colonel Tilman cleared his throat. “OK, men, it’s finally happening. We’ve been given our orders to attack. While many of you knew we’d invade soon, most of you had no idea where we would be attacking. The 6th Marine Division has been given the task of liberating the main Philippine Island of Luzon, and as such, our brigade will be assaulting the beach area around Dingalan, roughly twenty kilometers from the Philippine base at Fort Mag, where we’ve previously trained at in the past with the Filipino Army.”