by Rosone,James
Colonel Dimitri Petkovic was the 13th Guard’s Tank Regiment Commander, part of the 4th Guard’s Kantemirovskaya Division (one of several elite Russian armored divisions). He was a career officer who was being fast-tracked to become a division commander until his capture. As he sat down, he thought to himself, “If only I hadn’t waved off my protective detail that evening…all I wanted was a few minutes to relieve my bowels in peace. ” Images of his capture were flashing through his head, and he felt himself being thrown to the ground, gagged and tied up with zip ties. He remembered a series of explosions as they left; the Special Forces must have destroyed his headquarters unit.
Colonel Petkovic was optimistic about the possibility of being broken out of prison by his own Spetsnaz, or escaping on his own, until he was flown from a small firebase to Fairbanks and then to northern Wisconsin. So far, his treatment had been better than expected; he had been given medical attention when he needed it, and he was fed three meals a day. He had made the mistake of mentioning the new Russian tank and how it was going to destroy the Americans to a fellow prisoner, who must have told the Yankees (the Americans had placed several of their interpreters among the prison population to gather intelligence inside the camp; this had proven extremely useful). This little slip-up was probably why he had been flown to Wisconsin instead of staying in Alaska. Petkovic thought to himself, “It doesn’t matter. The Americans will ultimately lose the war; the numbers are against them no matter what new technology they create .”
The Colonel had been at Ft. McCoy for five days, nearly all of it spent in isolation. What little he had seen of the base when he was driven from the airstrip to the prison camp, did amaze him. He saw thousands of American men and women conducting physical training and other types of military training. Clearly, the Americans were trying to train a new army, but it was too late. The Russian and Chinese alliance had already trained millions of soldiers and were in the process of training millions more. He knew that as soon as his division’s objectives would have been completed, he would have been heading back to the Western front to be equipped with the new T41 battle tanks. The Chinese were also training five million soldiers, specifically to assist the Russians in Europe. He felt certain of the inevitability of the victory on his side.
As Petkovic walked in to the interrogation room, he was not afraid. Of course, he was determined to do his best to resist; he had received interrogation resistance training, and he had been told that the Americans would not use torture, so that relieved most of the anxiety he might have felt. As the Colonel oriented himself to this new room, he saw a man in his late thirties standing before him.
“Hello, Colonel Petkovic. You can call me Mr. Smith.”
Petkovic was sure that this name was an alias, but that didn’t matter. There was an interpreter in the room with him, and a third person, a woman who sat in the back corner at a desk with a laptop. He assumed the woman was there to take notes for the interrogator, who looked all business. The interrogator shook his hand, and offered him some coffee or a bottle of water. Petkovic accepted both and thanked “Mr. Smith.” There was no reason to be rude.
Schafer knew that they were going to be talking for several hours, and one trick of the trade that he had learned was to humanize the detainee and his relationship with him. This would make it easier to develop rapport, and enable him to obtain the information he was looking for. He had the prisoner sit down, and then began to attach several wires to his hand, finger and chest.
“Colonel Petkovic, I am going to attach several sensors to your body; these will help us determine if you are lying or telling us the truth.”
“This is a lie detector?” asked Petkovic curiously as he looked at the instruments.
“Yes and no. We use the data to determine if you are telling the truth or hiding something. If you are less than truthful, I will know.” Schafer was very matter-of-fact.
“All I am obligated to provide you with is my name, rank and service number,” the Colonel said sarcastically.
Josh smiled before responding, “Technically, that is true. However, there are a lot of incentives I can provide to you that would make your stay here at the camp a lot nicer and more enjoyable, if you are willing to cooperate.”
Petkovic sighed deeply before he replied, “What could you possibly offer me that would make me want to betray my country?”
“If you are willing to talk openly with me, then I can have you moved to a single person room, complete with TV rights and room service. You can pick what you would like to eat, and each meal will be delivered to your room, or you may eat in the cafeteria with the other prisoners who have chosen to cooperate.”
“Those prisoners will never be allowed to return back to Russia; they would be shot for treason,” said Petkovic in a serious manner. The tone of his voice implied that he knew from personal experience what happens to people that the State determines to be traitors.
CW4 Schafer had heard this before, and had a response ready. “You should know that when the war is over, those who want to stay in the US will be allowed to do so. Those who wish to return back to their country will be swapped for our prisoners.”
Having presented the situation, Josh switched gears. He sat down and began to look through his questioning guide to start the interrogation. “Tell me about the T41 tank. What makes it so special?” Schafer actually had no idea if the tank was going to be called a T41; he was guessing at the name and figured this is most likely what it would be called.
“Hmm, so they know what the tank is going to be called. I wonder what else they know about it? ” thought the Colonel.
“I have nothing to say,” replied Petkovic with a look of determination.
Immediately, Schafer could see in Petkovic’s eyes that he was going to be a problem; he was not going to talk easily. He thought to himself, “That’s fine. I still have my ways of making you talk. ”
With a mischievous grin developing, Schafer answered, “That’s fine.”
Signaling for the guards to return, he directed them to hold Petkovic in his chair so he could not move. Then he lifted a syringe from a small black case that he had in the cargo pocket of his military trousers.
Petkovic’s eyes went wide with fear and surprise.
“I had hoped we could have a normal conversation, two military professionals discussing a host of topics. However, if you want to be obstinate, then we have our ways of making you talk. I am going to inject you with something that is going to make every nerve in your body feel as if it is on fire. It is going to be excruciatingly painful. Fortunately, the pain can be immediately turned off if I inject you with a counteracting drug. However, I will only do so if you are willing to answer my questions truthfully.” Schafer spoke in a cold detached voice. He had the look of someone who had done this many, many times before.
Prior to the outbreak of World War III, the President had authorized a secret military interrogation manual and a program that incorporated the use of pharmaceutical interrogations, using drugs to facilitate the cooperation of a detainee. There were two main drugs they used. The first, the “fire drug,” would indeed cause the nerves in the detainee’s body to feel as though they were burning in scorching flames. The second, the “lucidity drug,” was very similar to a medication often given to patients before surgery to relax them, Ativan. It quickly loosened the mind’s ability to resist. After some interrogation trials on US Special Forces and Navy Seals, the military had found that if you give the fire drug first, the lucidity drug worked even better (because the individual’s mind would have been exhausted from dealing with the fire drug). Part of the qualification process of being able to administer this type of interrogation required the interrogator to have gone through the process themselves. This ensured that the interrogator knew the type of pain the prisoner was being subjected to.
Petkovic was given the first drug, and within seconds, it felt like his entire body was burning from the inside. He started to scream, and tried to
wrestle himself free from the guards who held him firmly in his chair. However, their grip was firm, and they were unmoved by his cries for help…they had clearly seen this done a number of times before. After nearly ten minutes of not answering the interrogator’s questions, the Colonel finally gave in. “I will cooperate, Mr. Smith!” he cried. “Just take the pain away!” he pleaded.
Schafer gave him the counteractive drug, and then quickly injected him with the lucidity drug. Within seconds, he could see in Petkovic’s eyes that he was feeling relief and was ready to talk. Schafer calmly sat back down at the table. “So, tell me about the T41. What type of gun does it have?”
With the lucidity drug in his system, Petkovic responded almost immediately as if his sub-conscious had been laid bare. “It uses a pulse beam laser.”
“How many shots can it fire a minute?” asked Josh, wanting to establish a rhythym.
“Two.”
“How long until it needs to be recharged?” queried Josh.
“It can fire a total of fifteen shots before it needs to recharge.”
“And how long does it take to recharge?” Schafer continued.
“It takes three minutes to recharge enough energy to fire a single shot; the laser can fire a shot every thirty seconds. It can fire through its charged battery in six minutes, but then it takes forty-five minutes to return back to full charge.”
“What are the dimensions of the T41?” Schafer asked, continuing to roll through the questions on his list.
Petkovic continued to answer question after question for nearly four hours before Schafer ended the interrogation. Josh had obtained all the information he needed on the T41, and now it was time to write up the Intelligence Information Report (IIR) and get this information out to the greater intelligence community so they could decide what further information they would like from Petkovic.
Teach and Train
4 October 2041
Twenty-Nine Palms, California
Third Marine Headquarters
Following the various victory parades and time off, the Marines of the Third Marine Division reformed at their desert training facility in California, Twenty-Nine Palms. The division was conducting a series of armored training exercises and mountain warfare training, in preparation for their eventual deployment to fight the Chinese and Russian soldiers in Alaska. Fifth Marines, which was already fighting in Alaska, had sent several dozen advisors to help them get ready and to instruct them on what to expect when they arrived. They learned that the Chinese were making heavy use of artillery and armored forces in Alaska, much more so than they did with their forces in the Middle East.
The challenge US Forces were facing in dealing with the Russian and Chinese soldiers was one of numbers. Despite the tactical advantage the American soldiers held with the integrated HUD system and the M5 AIR, the Chinese relied heavily on overwhelming manpower. They would routinely overrun units and just move through them with human wave assaults. They would attack with waves of light drone tanks, supported by their heavy tanks, and then follow up with a sea of humanity and send in multitudinous infantry. While American armor was, more often than not, able to deal with the Chinese armor, the infantry would get overwhelmed, and this would force the American positions to fall back. Had the Americans not established such formidable defensive positions at Susitna and Cooper Landing, Alaska would have been lost many months ago. As it stood, it was only a matter of time until these positions collapsed. They were being bombarded nearly 24/7, and attacked by enemy drone bombers on a daily basis. The air defense capabilities simply could not keep up.
The introduction of the F41 had probably given these defensive positions new life. Despite their small numbers, they were making a huge impact, going after enemy ground attack drones and drone bombers.
Equipment updates were important, but the updates in key personnel were going to be essential in winning the war as well. Major General Lance Peeler had just been promoted to Lieutenant General, and given command of all Marine Forces on the West Coast. Despite being promoted, LTG Peeler was still going to retain command of Third Marines for the time being, until his duties required him to relinquish that control. His main focus right now was getting his Marines ready to fight the Chinese. His division had been given their replacements, and they were finally sitting at 100% strength. Now they were focused on training and preparation for their eventual deployment with General Gardner’s Third Army. Third Marines had been assigned the task of helping the Army get the new South American Multinational Force (SAMF) from South and Central America ready to participate in the war. One of the key training areas the Marines focused on was marksmanship. They were especially drilling on firing discipline, as well as small and large unit maneuvers. In the type of fighting they would be facing against the Chinese and Russian forces, these tactics were going to be critical to know inside and out, as well as how to coordinate them with their colleagues.
LTG Peeler had been given six weeks to get the SAMF ready to fight. The Army had assigned one armored division to work with the SAMF on tank and armored warfare tactics, something General Gardner was an expert at. While the training continued, new divisions fresh from basic combat training continued to filter in to the Army and were rotated immediately in to the field training exercises. Third Army was growing in strength at a rate of 30,000 new soldiers a month, and had just broken the magic number of one million Soldiers and Marines.
In addition to the Third Marines, LTG Peeler was in the process of training three additional 60,000 man divisions for future combat operations. The Marine base at Camp Pendleton, near Oceanside, CA, was a buzz of activity. They were responsible for the training of three divisions of Marines, with nearly 5,000 Marines completing basic and advanced infantry training every week. They were quickly rotated to Twenty-Nine Palms, where they trained with the large maneuver elements before being sent to their individual assignments or deployed as replacements.
After thirty days of R & R, Captain Thornton was relaxed and ready to get back to work. While on leave, he had spent some of his time in Key West doing some scuba diving and fishing, unwinding those thoughts in his head away from the war and the military. Now it was time to get back to the business at hand, training his Marines for their eventual deployment to the frontlines. One of the key things Thornton had learned during his near-constant year of combat was the importance of being able to fire and maneuver while taking enemy fire. Because the Chinese made heavy use of human wave assaults, it was imperative to keep your head up and place well-aimed shots at the enemy, as opposed to hiding in your foxhole or popping up and down like a gopher. This was hard to teach a soldier as most people’s instinct is to duck when they start to hear bullets flying nearby or over their heads. Thornton taught his Marines, “Remember, the enemy is just as scared as you are, and if you can throw more lead downrange at him or her, you might be able to get them to duck instead.”
The other area of focus was to practice training with the new Wolverine armored vehicle. It was a much improved upon vehicle from the traditional Marine Light Armored Vehicles (LAVs); the Wolverine was impervious to small arms fire and could deflect most RPG rockets, which made it very versatile. The railgun system could operate in air or ground attack modes, making the Wolverine a truly multi-purpose fighting weapon. It was perfect for providing light infantry the support they needed or accompanying the tanks for infantry support.
Thornton had his finger on the pulse, listening to as much information as he could about the battle to come. From what he could tell, they were in the fight of their lives once they arrived in Alaska, so he did his best to teach his Marines not just tactics and techniques, but mental readiness.
SecDef Pow-wow
5 October 2041
Washington, DC
White House, Oval Office
Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense, had arrived early for his meeting with the President. The offensive operation in Alaska had not gone well, despite the enormous losses they had
inflicted on the enemy. The Chinese just kept coming. The President was clearly starting to get concerned because if the Army could not stop the Chinese in Alaska, then chances were, they were going to break through their defensive line at some point and secure the entire state. That would be not just a political disaster for the President, but an enormous military one as well.
Julie Wells, the President’s secretary, signaled to Eric. “The President will see you now.”
Eric walked in to the Oval Office and saw the President sitting down on one of the couches, with one of his trademark Red Bulls nearby. The President looked tired and worn out, the stress was apparent in his face. The President normally looked determined and calm under pressure, clearly he was not feeling that way today.
Walking into the room, Eric moved to shake the President’s hand, and then quickly took a seat across from him. “Mr. President, I assume you have read the executive summary of the Susitna battle report?” asked the SecDef.
Looking up at Eric, the President said, “I have; I must say I am disappointed. We had given General Black 20,000 Raptor combat suits, all of our Wolverines, and the first batch of F41s, yet still he was unable to drive them back.” Looking down at the notepad again, and then back at Eric, he quipped, “He used 450,000 soldiers in his offensive, didn’t he?”
“He had, Mr. President; they sustained some pretty heavy casualties as well.” Eric was not sure if this directly answered the boss’s question.