Fedorov raised an eyebrow at that. Getting Mironov was looking like a very difficult prospect. He had the man right in front of him, and now he was likely to slip away. We had our chance, he thought, and again, I blew that all to hell, though maybe that will be for the best.
“Yes….” He began. “Getting Volkov does do a great deal to fix this mess. It eliminates the Orenburg Federation, and even if Sergei Kirov survives as he did, he at least has a united Russia. In fact, without the strong opposition Volkov organized in the White Movement after Denikin’s demise, Kirov may have also subdued Kolchak, so there goes your Free Siberian State.” He looked at Karpov.
“Easy come, easy go,” said Karpov. “I told you I was willing to let all that pass.”
“Then what do we do here?” asked Volsky. “Is it just Volkov we’re after now?”
“If we can get him at all,” said Karpov, “then this may be our only chance. He’ll slip away just like Sergei Kirov if we don’t act, and take this opportunity while we can.”
“Agreed,” said Fedorov. He had harbored reservations about killing Mironov, and was inwardly wondering if that would wreck their plan to get Absolute Certainty on this mission. But in his mind, Volkov was fair game.
“So then the four of us go blundering down those steps to look for Volkov?” Volsky folded his arms. “I’m not sure how much help I would be in that scenario. You younger men might have an easier time of things, but this old man will be of no use to you.”
“None of us have to go,” said Karpov. “I can send my Man Tyrenkov. He’s already seen Volkov there once, and that was on the very day of his arrival, June 30th. He could get back there, and with no time limit like we have to worry about. Tyrenkov is a very reliable man. With a couple good snipers, he’ll get the bastard. I’m certain of that.”
“Just how certain?” asked Gromyko.
“Absolutely certain….” Karpov smiled. “Then all we have to worry about is Orlov.”
* * *
All they had to worry about was Orlov.
The Chief had turned and started back down those stairs, reaching the bottom and groping for the door handle. He pushed it open, the grey light a welcome relief from the stuffy darkness of the stairwell. This was the only way Fedorov could have gone, he thought. He certainly didn’t get past me in the dark.
He pushed the door open, and stepped into the alcove near the fireplace. Easing out into the dining room, he saw it was empty.
“Fedorov?” he called, looking around. “Captain? Are you here?”
Then he heard something, not in the room around him, which was still and quiet, but on his collar microphone. His service jacket was on passive mode, listening, but not broadcasting, and he heard a voice he did not immediately recognize, sounding a rather plaintive call.
“Team Seven, this is team leader. Come in team seven, this is Volkov—over.”
“Well I’ll be a monkey’s ass,” Orlov said aloud.
The Saga Continues…
Book 31: Nexus Deep
Fedorov always thought Orlov would continue on up the stairs, appearing in the years or months ahead, but instead, the big Chief simply turned back. The mishap on the stairs of Ilanskiy sees Orlov now make a most unexpected choice, and it is already beginning to have an effect on the altered meridian where Fedorov and company try to reach a consensus on how to proceed.
Meanwhile, the war continues in Tunisia, and the unexpected power of the Soviet offensive Manstein fought to contain forces Hitler to make some very difficult decisions. How can the army continue to fight on all these disparate fronts and still have the power to launch Operation Downfall, their great summer offensive against Leningrad?
With Churchill’s blessing, Elena Fairchild continues her quest for the key lost aboard Rodney , as the Argonauts embark on a most hazardous journey through the passages beneath St. Michael’s Cave. If they should reach the year 1804, everything Fedorov worries about could now be put at risk by an intervention that takes place over a century before the strange event at Tunguska that fractured the continuum. The shifting meridians of time have become the sporting ground of two vain and foolish men, even as Britain and France begin to square off for the long 11-year war that ends on the sodden fields of Waterloo.
Reading the Kirov Series
The Kirov Series is a long chain of linked novels by John Schettler in the Military Alternate History / Time Travel Genre. Like the popular movie “The Final Countdown” which saw the US Carrier Nimitz sent back in time to the eve of Pearl Harbor in 1941, in the opening volume, the powerful Russian battlecruiser Kirov is sent back to the 1940s in the Norwegian Sea where it subsequently becomes embroiled in the war.
Similar to episodes in the never-ending Star Trek series, the saga continues through one episode after another as the ship’s position in time remains unstable. It culminates in Book 8 Armageddon , then continues the saga in Altered States , which begins the second “Season” in the series, extending through Volume 16. The series is presently in Season 4, covering the Allied offensives in North Africa, and the winter battles of late 1942. Boldly enters the crucial year of 1943 in Book 27, aptly titled “1943.”
How to Read the Kirov Series
The best entry point is obviously Book I, Kirov , where you will meet all the main characters in the series and learn their inner motivations. The series itself, however, is structured in “seasons” with 8 books in each season. In Season 1, the first three volumes form an exciting trilogy featuring much fast-paced naval action as Kirov battles the Royal Navy, Regia Marina (Italians) and finally the Japanese after sailing to the Pacific in Book III. Book 4, Men of War stands as a sequel to that trilogy and the bridge novel that links it to the second segment of Season 1, beginning with 9 Days Falling .
The 9 Days Falling trilogy focuses on the struggle to prevent a great war in 2021 from reaching a terrible nuclear climax that destroys the world. It spans books 5, 6, and 7, featuring the outbreak of the war in 2021 as Japan and China battle over disputed islands, and the action of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet against the modern US Fleet. It then takes a dramatic turn when the ship is again shifted in time to 1945. There they confront the powerful US Pacific Fleet under Admiral Halsey, and so this trilogy focuses much of the action as Kirov faces down the US in two eras. Several subplots are also launched that serve to relate other events in the great war of 2021, and deepen the mystery of time travel as discovered in the series. The season ends at another crucial point in history where the ship’s Captain, Vladimir Karpov, believes he is in a position to decisively change events, the season finale, Armageddon .
Season 2 begins with the Altered States trilogy, where Kirov becomes trapped in the world made by its many interventions in the history, an altered reality beginning in June of 1940. It is here that a sequential alternate history retelling of WWII begins that will extend to the war’s conclusion in 1945. The opening volume sees the ship pitted against the one navy of WWII it has not yet fought, the Kriegsmarine of Germany, which now has powerful new ships from the German Plan Z naval building program as one consequence of Kirov’s earlier actions.
The Altered States saga spans books 9 through 16, initially covering the German attack on the carrier Glorious , the British raids on the Vichy French Fleets at Mers-el Kebir and Dakar, and the German Operation Felix against Gibraltar. Other events in Siberia involve the rise of Karpov to power, and his duel with Ivan Volkov of the Orenburg Federation, one of the three fragmented Russian states. (And these involve airship battles!)
The second half of Season 2 begins with Three Kings. It covers the action in North Africa, including O’Connor’s whirlwind “Operation Compass” and Rommel’s arrival and first offensive, Operation Sonnenblume. The main characters from Kirov and other plot lines from the opening 8 book saga figure prominently in all this action, with a decisive intervention that arises from a most unexpected plot twist. Book 13, Grand Alliance continues the war in the desert as Rommel is suddenly confronted with a
powerful new adversary, and Hitler reacts by strongly reinforcing the Afrika Korps. It also presents the struggle for naval supremacy in the Mediterranean as the British face down a combined Axis fleet from three enemy nations.
Book 14, Hammer of God , covers a surprise German airborne attack, and the British campaigns in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. It continues in Crescendo of Doom , the German response as Rommel begins his second offensive aimed at Tobruk on the eve of Operation Barbarossa. At the same time, the action in Siberia heats up in a growing conflict between Vladimir Karpov and Ivan Volkov.
Book 16 is the Season 2 finale, Paradox Hour , where the ship faces the prospect of annihilation on the day it first arrived in the past, 28 July, 1941. This impending event overshadows all else as Kirov joins Tovey in a pursuit of Hindenburg and Bismarck as they break out into the Atlantic.
Season 3 then begins with Book 17, Doppelganger , where the aftereffects of the Paradox are finally sorted out. Fedorov is strangely displaced, and appears on the newly arrived ship, while Vladimir Karpov survives in Siberia, even as another version of himself defies paradox and appears on Kirov . Now Fedorov struggles to prevent the same dominoes from falling and keep the ship from engaging the Royal Navy as it did in Book 1. At the same time, the Siberian Karpov plots to seize control of the ship, and that action invariably involves Ivan Volkov, who has his own plans to strike at Ilanskiy in Nemesis .
The war then heats up on the East Front as the Germans launch Operation Typhoon, reaching a dramatic event on the outskirts of Moscow in Book 19, Winter Storm. These actions continue through Tide of Fortune , as Japan enters the war at Pearl Harbor, and the British again tangle with Rommel in Operation Crusader. The action then depicts the Japanese Malayan Campaign and the battle for Singapore, naval actions off Java and the invasion of the barrier islands, and then Operation FS, leading to battles in the Coral Sea and of the Fiji Island group.
In Knights Move, Montgomery is brought in to try and save Singapore, and coordinate the defense of Java. In the West, as the Germans battle for Gran Canaria in Operation Condor, Admiral Raeder turns his fast raiders loose in Operation Rösselsprung, but the Germans find something far more than they ever expected in the deep South Atlantic.
Turning Point resolves the fast naval actions in the Canaries as the German raiders attempt to return to Casablanca with their mysterious prize of war. Meanwhile, the Japanese invasion of Java is interrupted by an event that threatens to change the balance in the Pacific. A most unusual challenger to the ship they call Mizuchi appears on the scene. Meanwhile, in the Western Desert, the British launch Operation Supercharge to try and push Rommel off his Gazala line and liberate Cyrenaica.
In Steel Reign , the Japanese offensive reaches its high water mark as Yamamoto launches Operation FS in a bold attempt to storm the Islands of Fiji and Samoa and isolate Australia. He is opposed by a determined stand made by Admirals Fletcher and Halsey in the desperate battles of the Coral Sea and Koro Sea to decide the fate of Empires. Meanwhile Vladimir Karpov continues his long planned invasion of Sakhalin Island, but Japan now has a powerful new champion as the Destroyer Takami is detached north to join Admiral Kurita’s task force. The showdown is resolved in the season finale, Second Front , as the Allies storm ashore at Casablanca and Lisbon in September of 1942.
The series continues in the premiere of Season Four: Tigers East, where Rommel regains his lost glory in the deserts of Libya while Patton drives east in an attempt to enfilade Von Arnim’s defense in Algeria. Manstein takes his hammer east as well to Volgograd, where the grueling fight for the city begins in Thor’s Anvil. As the new year of 1943 dawns, the Allies now begin their war in earnest, and the outcome of the battles looming ahead will decide the course of the war.
Book 27, 1943 starts the critical middle year of the war as the action moves to the Pacific. The U.S. goes on the offensive, mounting a major push on Fiji, and amphibious landing by Halsey at Efate and MacArthur at Noumea. Carriers clash and the Japanese rush new hybrid ships into battle as the first of the new Essex Class carriers arrive to redress the balance on the US side. Then Japan’s secret weapon, the destroyer Takami, receives an unexpected order to return to Yokohama, but the journey there will open a door to new opportunities.
In Book 28, Lions at Dawn , the war moves back to North Africa, where Eisenhower, Montgomery, Patton and the Air Marshalls plan their drive on Tunis. General Patton has ideas of his own, and they do not involve waiting for Monty to fight his way along the Algerian coast. His plan presents a major crisis for Kesselring and Von Arnim when Hitler orders the withdrawal of all Germany’s elite paratroop units. The Führer has eyes on a new prize in the Middle East, and devises a daring return to that theater in Operation Phoenix. Meanwhile, General O’Connor’s British 8th Army begins its big push to capture Tripoli, but he meets a determined and skillful defense by the Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel.
An exploration of St. Michael’s Cave at Gibraltar by Fairchild & Company leads to a hidden mystery beneath the Rock, and far to the east, the isolated atoll at Eniwetok receives some very unexpected visitors. The surprising developments set the destroyer Takami on a dangerous collision course with Vladimir Karpov and Ivan Gromyko, when the Russians set out to cleanse the timeline of all contamination, including their own! Events lead to a dramatic battle at sea that neither side ever expected.
Book 29, Stormtide Rising , covers the Allied forces campaign in Tunisia. The Germans conceive a bold new plan that sends Rommel west to the heartland of Tunisia where he confronts the American Army under General Patton. The Axis forces launch Operation Sturmflut (Stormtide) as the famous names etched in the original history at Kasserine, Faid, Gafsa and El Guettar will again see the rising tide of war.
At the same time, Hitler presses his daring invasion of Iraq and Syria in Operation Phoenix , while launching the cream of his airborne troops against the British outpost on Crete with a much belated Operation Merkur . As Guderian pushes into the heartland of Persia, Hitler sets his eyes on the richest prize in the world—all the oil the Reich will ever need to fuel the fires of war. Yet before Guderian can drive south, he must first secure his lines of communication. That necessity leads to a dramatic battle for the ancient capital city of Baghdad, with both sides risking all they have to rule the hour.
Meanwhile, Fedorov and Karpov face the grim reality of their situation and come to a decisive conclusion about how they must proceed.
In Book 30, Ironfall , the war continues in 1943, as Japan launches a bold new attack against the Fiji Islands that leads to a decisive battle off Yasawa. In Syria, Erwin Rommel unleashes a classic flanking attack towards Damascus with “Operation Eisenfall,” as the Allies attack Kesselring in Tunisia with Eisenhower’s “Operation Hammer.”
Then, as the German 11th and 17th Armies slowly grind down the last of Soviet resistance in the Caucasus, tensions reach a breaking point when they meet Volkov’s forces dug in west of Maykop. The Führer has ordered his legions to take and occupy that place, and Ivan Volkov chooses to stand his ground. The war in the east now threatens to spiral out of control, with new fighting erupting on every frontier when General Zhukov opens his Spring offensive in a massive attack towards Kharkov that now threatens to reshape the entire front.
Meanwhile, Elena Fairchild finally learns the fate of the men she sent into the hidden passage beneath St. Michael’s Cave, and also makes a surprising discovery that will give her the means to find and retrieve the key that was lost on the Battleship Rodney . As she plans her mission, Fedorov and Karpov arrange a meeting with Volsky and Gromyko to discuss their new plan to shatter this altered meridian by traveling to 1908.
Detailed information on the battles covered in each book, including battle maps, is available at www.writingshop.ws.
KIROV SERIES - SEASON 1: Kirov
1) Kirov
2) Cauldron of Fire
3) Pacific Storm
4) Men of War
5) Nine Days Falling
6) Fallen
Angels
7) Devil’s Garden
8) Armageddon – Season 1 Finale
KIROV SERIES - SEASON 2: Altered States (1940 – 1941)
9) Altered States
10) Darkest Hour
11) Hinge of Fate
12) Three Kings
13) Grand Alliance
14) Hammer of God
15) Crescendo of Doom
16) Paradox Hour – Season 2 Finale
KIROV SERIES – SEASON 3: Doppelganger (1941 – 1942)
17) Doppelganger
18) Nemesis
19) Winter Storm
20) Tide of Fortune
21) Knight’s Move
22) Turning Point
23) Steel Reign
24) Second Front – Season 3 Finale
KIROV SERIES – SEASON 4: Tigers East (1942 – 1943)
25) Tigers East
26) Thor’s Anvil
27) 1943
28) Lions at Dawn
29) Stormtide Rising
30) Ironfall
31) Nexus Deep
32) Prime Meridian
More to come!
Discover other titles by John Schettler:
Award Winning Science Fiction:
Meridian - Meridian Series - Volume I
Nexus Point - Meridian Series - Volume II
Touchstone - Meridian Series - Volume III
Anvil of Fate - Meridian Series - Volume IV
Golem 7 - Meridian Series - Volume V
The Meridian series merges with the Kirov Series,
beginning with Book 16, Paradox Hour, when the Meridian team discovers the catastrophic damage to the continuum created by the battlecruiser’s unexpected shift into the cauldron of WWII.
Classic Science Fiction:
Ironfall (Kirov Series Book 30) Page 32