Battlefield Ukraine: Book One of the Red Storm Series

by James Rosone

  The briefing ended after a few more questions. The operators who had been assigned to the mission began to discuss the plans amongst themselves. They went over who would be responsible for taking out each guard, their sectors of fire, and how they would proceed. The men spent the better part of two hours deliberating every aspect of the mission with the briefers before they felt they had a firm grasp on exactly how things were going to go down. When they were done talking it through, it was 2300 hours, and they were set to board the C17 that would take them to their jump points at 0130. The real festivities were scheduled to begin around 0300, roughly an hour before the next shift change between the guards.

  *******

  It was relatively dark in the back of the C-17 as the Delta team got ready for perhaps their most dangerous mission in decades. The aircraft had reached its cruising altitude for the jump and the pilot had already dimmed the cargo lights and switched them over to a soft red tone. The two crew chiefs began to walk towards the back of the aircraft and started to lower the ramp at the rear of the plane. Their eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, until they could begin to see everything without additional lighting; the men began to get themselves mentally ready to make this dangerous night insertion into separatist territory.

  As the cool night air started to circulate through the back of the aircraft, Major Runyon wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. He stood up and moved towards the ramp with the rest of his team. The men began the ritual of checking and double-checking their equipment, and the aircraft tilted to one side as it made one final correction. As the aircraft leveled out again, the jump light turned red, indicating it was time for them to get ready. The crew chiefs lowered the ramp the rest of the way, opening the back of the aircraft to the black abyss below. Then the light turned from red to green, and the eighteen operators began to disgorge from the aircraft to attempt a high-stakes rescue.

  As the wind whipped past his face, Brian couldn’t help but think how insane this mission was…they were jumping into what was essentially a Russian Special Forces base. This was a far cry from the previous assignments they had undertaken, going after Islamic extremists and the occasional drug lord. This was a mission against a legitimate army, one that trained tirelessly to fight America.

  *******

  In the operations room at the airfield, the JSOC team (along with the CIA and SDO) watched the various helmet cams and drone feeds of the mission on large 50-inch screens, anxious as the team members began their approaches to the target. The first team was just coming into weapons range and would start to engage the guards soon.

  The four team members of Alpha broke off from the group and headed stealthily through the woods in the direction of the SA-19; they winded their way through the brush and undergrowth silently, like only trained operators could do. Once they arrived at their checkpoint, they would neutralize the guard force and prepare to blow up the missile system remotely. Two of Bravo team’s six-man group assembled their sniper rifles and moved quickly to their over-watch positions. As soon as they got settled into their spot 400 yards away from the compound, they would engage the guards on the roof. It was a good evening for them to get off clear shots--there was barely any wind, and it was just overcast enough to block some of the light of the moon, so the Russians would be less likely to see them coming. Once the roof guards had been taken out, they would shift their fire to the rest of the guard force, allowing time for the rest of the Bravo, Charlie and Delta teams to move into the compound.

  At the airfield, everyone held their collective breath for a minute as Charlie and Delta teams continued to move toward their targets. The Bravo team snipers cleared a path for them as they moved quietly through the woods. They stopped every so often to peer around the tree trunks and make sure that the enemy hadn’t spotted them yet. As they got closer to one of the air defense vehicles, one of the Charlie members spied two men manning the system and three more guards. He silently exchanged hand signals to explain how many men he had seen and where they were positioned. Within moments, they had neutralized all five men with surgical precision, barely making any sounds at all; their rifles had silencers, and they had all been taken down with two shots to the chest and one to the head, so none of them were making any noises either.

  A couple of the Charlie team members verified that the five men were indeed dead. Then they all walked around the bodies so that they could begin to place C4 bricks on the control panel and directly on the missile pods, which were wired up to remote-control detonators. Then they quickly moved on to the next task, continuing to clear the perimeter around the compound.

  Delta team approached the entrance on the south side of the perimeter wall. As they moved towards the parked enemy vehicles, they shot three of the guards with their suppressed rifles. They all dropped instantly, without hardly a sound. At that moment, a Spetsnaz soldier (who had been using the “bathroom” in the tree line nearby) saw his comrades go down and immediately knew they were under attack. He released the safety on his rifle and took aim at two of the attackers he saw move past where his comrades had just been. Then he fired a quick burst from his rifle.

  One of the Americans was killed outright when a bullet hit him in the neck and head, another was severely injured when he was struck several times in the chest and right shoulder. The other two operators returned fire, quickly killing the Russian before he even had time to zip up his pants. Unfortunately, the sound of roughly twenty rounds being rapidly fired had alerted the remaining guards and those in the compound that someone was attempting to attack their base.

  Delta team, which had been at the edge of the perimeter wall, immediately kicked in the door to the side entrance leading into the compound. In seconds, they were inside the perimeter and had taken out the two guards at the side door to the building. An unlucky Russian soldier was exiting the door as they approached. With a rapid three round burst, the man dropped immediately to the ground. A second Russian soldier had been right behind him, and was also hit by the bullets. He fell backwards into the hallway.

  Before any additional soldiers could run through the door, one of the Delta members threw a flash bang into the hallway, which would stun anyone rushing towards the exit with its excessively bright light and irritatingly high-pitched sound. As soon as it burst, several Delta members rushed in and began to move down the hallway, throwing fragmentation grenades into each room. These would spray anyone still in those areas with bursts of deadly shrapnel.

  Delta’s four-man team began to sprint up the stairs, charging forward to the room that was holding the hostages. Just as they approached the entrance to the second floor, several Spetsnaz soldiers opened the door to the stairwell, and they literally ran into each other. Shocked, there was nothing else for either side to do other than to open fire at close range. In seconds, four Spetsnaz soldiers were dead along with two of the Delta members. The other two Delta operators survived the shootout and threw several fragmentation grenades down the hallway of the second floor to clear out any remaining hostiles. Then they proceeded to head towards the third floor toward their priority target.

  As they reached the entrance to the third floor, one of the members threw a flash bang into the hallway and counted to two. Once the grenade went off, they both entered the hallway and neutralized the guards on the floor. They moved quickly to the room where the Americans were being held and shot the lock off. As they entered the room, they saw the two Americans, bound on the floor, bloodied and bruised. They quickly untied their hands and feet and instructed them, “Follow us out of the building!”

  Charlie team had just finished clearing the first floor; they moved quickly to help Delta. As Charlie moved up to the stairwell, they collected the bodies of their two fallen comrades. Then they assisted Delta team in moving the prisoners to the extraction point.

  Major Runyon sent a quick message to headquarters, “Mission completion. Three KIA. Requesting extraction and gunship support.”

  While the breach team
was moving the prisoners and casualties out of the building, Alpha and Bravo team were heavily engaged outside. Alpha detonated their charges on the SA-19, shooting a bright and loud explosion into the night sky. Soon after, the charges on the other air defense vehicles and armored personnel carriers were ignited as well.

  As the snipers of Bravo team continued to pick off enemy soldiers, they spotted several of them sealing themselves into one of the armored personnel carriers. Once inside the vehicle, they immediately began to work the heavy machine gun, pouring 30mm cannon rounds into the American positions near the perimeter wall and the main compound. All the noises from the shooting and explosions had also alerted several of the militia units that were staying in the surrounding area that something was going on. Those forces began to mobilize and head towards the Russian compound to see what all the fuss was about.

  The operations team watching the drone feeds sent a series of updates to Major Runyon, letting him know about the additional enemy forces converging on their position. As the Russian armored vehicle continued to discharge showers of heavy machine gun fire on the Americans, one of the Delta members unslung the AT4 from his backpack, mounted it on his shoulder, took aim at the troop carrier, and fired. In a split second, the rocket fired from the tube and impacted on the side of the vehicle, causing a small explosion. A few seconds later, smoke billowed excessively from its side, and then flames began to grow more and more noticeable.

  Runyon yelled into his radio, “Command, this is Striker one. We need air support. Take out those incoming reinforcements and keep them away from our LZ until our gunships arrive. How copy?” As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his rifle to fire another three-round burst in the direction of several enemy soldiers.

  “Striker one, this is Command. Good copy, standby for air support,” the JSOC operators radioed back.

  High above the battle going on below, Lightning One received the call to begin dropping ordinance. The F-35 pilot entered the targeting data and double-checked it before arming his JDAMs. In a matter of seconds after receiving the order to engage the ground targets, Lightning One dropped two of his 250 lbs. smart bombs and began to guide them in towards several of the vehicles heading towards the compound.

  As the Delta operators moved to the extraction point, the fighting began to die down until it eventually stopped. The two JDAMs demolished several of the vehicles that had been carrying additional reinforcements towards the Russian compound. The arrival of the two Apache gunships further eviscerated what little resistance remained in the area. As the gunships circled the area, the V-280s landed and picked up the team and began to whisk them away to safety.

  Wiping the sweat from his face, Major Runyon sat in the helicopter and began to run through the operation in his head and ruminate on the details of what transpired. Three of their comrades had been killed, and another four more were injured. However, they had recovered the prisoners before they could be transferred to Russia. They had also thoroughly destroyed a Russian Spetsnaz base and killed many separatist rebels.

  Repercussions

  Moscow, Russia

  Kremlin, Office of the President

  “The Americans did what this morning?!” demanded the Russian President as he stood up angrily.

  “The Americans carried out a raid on our Special Forces base camp early this morning. They recovered the two CIA prisoners, the ones that were scheduled to be transferred to Moscow later this evening,” Colonel General Boris Egorkin explained. General Egorkin was the head of the Russian Army, and apparently also the unlucky man charged with bringing the terrible news to President Petrov this morning.

  The President pushed his chair back and began to pace behind his desk, thinking. He looked up at his general and his Secretary of Defense. Indignant, he said, “The Americans believe they can do whatever they want. They believe there are no consequences to their actions. Fine. If they want to play this game, if they want to get directly involved in Ukraine with their military, then so will we.”

  Squinting at General Salyokov, he demanded, “What forces do we have in Ukraine right now?” The President was extremely angry.

  “We have suffered enough humiliation at the hands of the Americans,” he thought. “Those Yankees think that they alone can exert their influence on the world, that they alone are the arbiters of who should remain in control of my country. Well, enough is enough.”

  Colonel General Egorkin walked towards the President’s desk. Petrov signaled for him to take a seat at one of the golden chairs in the parlor near the fire place. He knew he needed to calm himself down, so he wanted to move away from his desk and change the scenery up.

  The parlor room was the section of his office where he liked to hold discussions with his senior advisors and world leaders when they came to visit. He found that if he changed his immediate setting, he could often change his perspective of a problem, which helped him think more clearly.

  Taking his cue from the President as everyone in the room took their seats, General Egorkin began, “We have 100 Spetsnaz soldiers in Ukraine conducting paramilitary training and acting as military advisors. Well…twenty-nine of them were killed this morning during the American raid.”

  Several angry murmurs and grumbles broke out in the room. He paused a moment to let them get it out of their system, and then he continued, “Mr. President, you asked what forces we have in Ukraine at this time. We have 1,500 soldiers listed in “unofficial” duty who are engaging the Ukrainian forces with the various militia units. Often, they are the ones leading the ambushes and attacks plaguing the Ukrainians right now. We have another 150 personnel operating the various air defense units throughout the separatist regions, and roughly 400 soldiers operating the various artillery and heavy mortar units.” He was reading the figures from a pre-prepared list that he always kept updated just in case the President asked this exact question.

  Throughout the last six months, they had increased the number of military members operating in Ukraine, in response to the introduction of NATO personnel. When the Ukrainian PM leased one of their former air bases to NATO, they donated nearly a dozen anti-aircraft systems to the separatists in response. They also increased the number and quality of arms they were supplying to the separatists. Now that the Americans (and to a lesser extent, other NATO member states) were providing military advisors, Russia began to step up the number of advisors in Ukraine as well.

  President Petrov paused for a moment, thinking. “I had hoped we would have been able to use those two prisoners in our next operation, but clearly that is not going to happen. What the Americans did this morning, however, was a brazen attack on our military. I want to use that for all the propaganda value we can. I believe this attack, as awful as it was, can be used to give us the pretext we’ve been looking for to move forward with Red Storm.”

  The President looked at each person in the eye, as if assessing their loyalty or the condition of their soul. Then he turned to his commanding general and asked, “What is the status of Red Storm? Are we ready yet?”

  General Egorkin responded, “Our ground forces are ready to begin, so is the air force. We just need the orders to be given.”

  Sergei Shoygu, the Secretary of Defense, interjected, “Mr. President, the challenge is getting the weapons and personnel into Ukraine without the American and NATO surveillance drones and aircraft detecting them because they are monitoring the border closely. The drones are also providing the Ukrainians with a substantial tactical advantage…there is no question that we need to neutralize the drones.”

  President Petrov sighed. He agreed; the drones were becoming a big problem that needed to be handled. “This needs to be rectified then, before we move forward with backing the referendum and additional troops. Let’s consider something else. Why not announce our intention to implement a “no-fly” zone to bring an end to the bloodshed while the separatists hold their elections?”

  Minister Kozlov replied, “I do not think it is advisable
to do this.”

  Petrov turned and barked, “The Americans have instituted a “no-fly” zone over parts of Syria. I say we institute a “no-fly” zone over the eastern half of Ukraine. The Ukrainians have made use of their air force against the separatists, the Americans used it this morning against our own forces. So, let’s implement our own “no-fly” zone.”

  He paused for a second while he looked over the maps again. He placed his finger on an area of the map near the border. “Here, move three of our S-400s to this location here. Let’s also deploy two additional S-400s and three S-300s in Belarus as well. I would also like to have one of our S-500s deployed at this location and guarded by additional S-300s. Finally, let’s move several squadrons of Su-34s and Su-35s to our airbases in this sector as well,” Petrov ordered.

  “Mr. President,” Sergei responded, “I agree that what the Americans did this morning is an outrage and something needs to be done. However, by moving these air defense systems forward like this, and then issuing this ultimatum, it will draw a lot of criticism from NATO and the US. We can walk up to the line with them, but we have to be willing to cross it if we do.”

  Petrov thought about this for a moment before responding, “This is the pretext we have been waiting on to initiate Red Storm. We need to seize it, especially since we have strong support from the Chinese.”

  Petrov sat back in his chair. He looked up at the ceiling, admiring the intricate work the designers had carved into the molding. Then he turned his gaze back to the men around him. “I understand the consequence of moving forward with Red Storm. We’ve been training and rebuilding our military towards this goal for years. We’ve been in secret talks with the Chinese for nearly as long, and we’ve finally gained their support. The Americans are at their weakest point politically and militarily in decades. This is the time to act.”