Warrior Class

by Dale Brown

  The center of both legitimate and illegitimate commerce in northeastern Albania was the Kukes carpet factory, several kilometers from the center of town; it was by far the biggest industrial facility in the entire valley. The refugee camps that had been set up near the factory were smaller than before, but the remaining parts of the camp had evolved into a semipermanent series of shacks, tents, and wooden buildings, reminiscent of an Old West mining camp evolving into a real town, with ankle-deep mud streets, wooden sidewalks, almost no running water, and just as many animals wandering the street as vehicles. Several of the larger wooden buildings, two or three stories high, were saloons, restaurants, or shops on the ground floor, with offices on the middle floors and apartments on the upper floors for the wealthier merchants, government officials and bureaucrats, and underworld bosses and lieutenants.

  Behind the wooden buildings were the shacks for the workers, and beyond those was the tent city, built by NATO military engineers and international relief organizations, for Kukes' other group of residents-the Kosovo Liberation Army training center. At any given time, over five hundred men, women, and children as young as fourteen and as old as sixty were in training at the Kukes camp by Kosovar instructors, overseen and administered by the Albanian Army. They trained in handto-hand combat, mountaineering, land navigation, basic maneuvers, and small-arms tactics, along with political and religious indoctrination courses. The top twenty percent of each class were sent to Albanian regular army bases at Shkoder, Gjader, and Tirana for advanced military training; the top five percent of those, who showed especial aptitude in military arts as well as hotter than usual hatred for nonMuslims, were sent to training centers in Libya, Sudan, Egypt, and Algeria for advanced combat and terrorist training.

  Under the NATO peacekeeping umbrella, safe from hitand-run raids by Serb paramilitaries and border police, the Kukes training camp was allowed to grow and flourish. In exchange for food, housing, and training, the recruits worked the carpet factory and mines, provided security for the smugglers and drug dealers, and did odd jobs around the tent city. An hour before sunrise, with the first hints of the morning light fil-

  tering through the low overcast, the day shift workers were having breakfast and getting ready to head to work, and the graveyard shift for both the mines and the carpet factory were just getting ready to leave-when the Metyor-179

  Shadow stealth bomber began its bomb run.

  The first targets to hit were the antiaircraft defensive emplacements. Like most Soviet-era client-state factories, the Kukes carpet factory had several antiaircraft gun emplacements mounted on the rooftops, mostly twin-barreled

  37-millimeter optically guided units with a few single 57-millimeter heavy-caliber guns. Kukes had six 37-2 emplacements and two 57-1 emplacements, scattered throughout the compound, with the 37s at the corners and on the east and west sides of the compound along the river and the 57s in the center of the compound; two additional 37-2 units and two 57-1 units were situated near the hydroelectric power plant east of the town.

  But most of these weapon systems had been decimated by the Albanian civil war of 1997 and had been only partially refurbished in response to the Serbian aggression in neighboring Kosovo. The radars and electro-optical sensors had long ago been stolen and sold for food or drugs, leaving the guns with only iron sights with uncalibrated and grossly inaccurate leadcomputing mechanisms. The gun emplacements on the dam were not a threat-it was easy to maneuver around them, and the gunners never reacted to the jet's presence anyway. The smaller-caliber guns were probably not a threat, especially if they were only optically or manually guided. But the big

  57-millimeter guns could be trouble. They had to be neutralized.

  Using the infrared sensor, Yegorov targeted the two gun emplacements from ten miles away, well outside the antiaircraft gun's maximum range. The Mt- 179's laser rangefinder/ designator clicked down the range. Inside seven miles, the Mt-

  179 Shadow started a steep climb to three thousand feet above the ground. Inside five miles to the target, well outside the antiaircraft artillery's maximum range, Yegorov opened its right bomb bay doors and released a Kh-29L Ookoos, or "Sting," missile.

  The Kh-29L Sting missile dropped free of the right bomb bay, fell for about a hundred feet as it stabilized in the slipstream, then ignited its solid-rocket motor. The missile's semiactive laser guidance seeker homed in on the reflected energy of the Shadow's laser designator. Yegorov had only to keep the crosshairs on the target, carefully magnifying and refining his aimpoint. He steered the missile in for a direct hit on the base of the 57-millimeter gun emplacement, blowing a hole in the roof and sending the gun crashing through to the dozens of workers below. Yegorov immediately switched to the second

  57-1 emplacement and sent it crashing through the roof just like the first.

  Yegorov then switched his infrared sensors to the front of the carpet factory, targeting another Sting missile at the main administrative entrance to the plant and the last missile at the main worker's entrance, where hundreds of workers were leaving or entering. Each Sting missile had a six-hundred-pound high-explosive warhead, and the devastation was enormous. Secondary explosions from each of the Sting missiles fired on the factory blew out windows with tongues of fire, finally collapsing part of the administrative section. Rolling waves of fire belched from the workers' entrance as the Sting missile broke open gas and fuel lines inside the plant.

  Stoica started a steep climb, then rolled left to survey the damage. "Ahuyivayush'iy, Gennadi," he said. "Right where we planned it."

  "Shyri zhopy ni p'omish, " Yegorov replied. "Couldn't have missed that if I tried."

  Stoica flew outbound about three minutes-long enough for folks to think the attack was over and start coming out of hiding-then executed an easy turn back toward the plant at five thousand feet above ground. Yegorov immediately locked his infrared sensor on the last four remaining targets: the refugee center, which according to Kazakov's intelligence acted as the terrorist training center; the Red Cross/Red Crescent Aid Center, suspected of being a terrorist headquarters because supposedly it would never be targeted in an attack; the distribution center, where food and supplies were unloaded from trucks or rails, warehoused, inventoried, and disbursed to

  the camp residents; and finally the building with the largest restaurant and shops, suspected of being owned by and filled with Muslim terrorists.

  The Mt-179 made only one pass, dropping just two weapons-two PLAB-500 laser-guided fuel-air explosive canisters. Each FAE canister created a cloud of highly

  flammable gas several hundred feet in diameter. The gas mixed with oxygen in the air, and was then detonated by releasing explosive charges into the cloud. The resultant explosion, resembling a miniature nuclear mushroom cloud, was a hundred times greater than the equivalent weight of TNT.

  Over two hundred men, women, and children died instantly in the two huge fireballs; another one thousand persons died or were injured and thousands more were left homeless in the ensuing firestorm as the entire town was consumed in the galloping wildfires caused by the fuel-air explosives. The fires would last for days, spreading to char hundreds of thousands of acres of surrounding forests. Investigators would later find nothing but devastation.

  Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Xremlin, Moscow, Russian Federation

  Less than an hour later

  "Minister Schramm. What a pleasant surprise. Good morning to YOU."

  "Let us dispense with the pleasantries, Mr. Filippov," Republic of Germany Foreign Minister Rolf Schramm snapped. He was in the living room of his residence in Bonn, with only a jogging suit on, surrounded by his senior advisors. "I am watching the news of your little attack on Kukes, Albania. My God, man, has Sen'kov lost his senses? Or is he not in charge of the government anymore? Has the military finally taken charge?"

  "Calm yourself, Mr. Minister," Russian Federation Foreign Minister Ivan Ivanovich Filippov said in stiff but very passable German. "Albania? What-?" H
e was at home, not even dressed yet. He immediately ran out of the bathroom and

  flipped on the television. Nothing on Russian TV on anything happening in Albania. What in hell was going on? "I ... I cannot comment on what has happened, Minister," Filippov said. He couldn't confirm or deny anything-nor would he, even if he could.

  "I want you to pledge to me, Mr. Minister, that these attacks have ended," Schramm said. "No more attacks in the Balkans. You must promise me this is not the prelude to an offensive in the Balkans."

  Filippov was excitedly pressing his radio button that rang his aide's radio--there was no answer. "I will not promise anything, Minister," Filippov replied, winging it as best he could. He did not want to say he didn't know what was going on, but he didn't want to admit culpability, either. "Russia will act in its best interests. We will never negotiate or deal that away. Never." At that moment, his housekeeper opened the door, and Filippov's aide came rushing in with a thin file. He saw that the TV was on and switched it over to CNN International. Sure enough, there was a remote broadcast from somewhere in Macedonia-it looked like a plane crash.

  "What I cannot understand is the attack on the NATO E-3 radar plane," Schramm went on. "Why did you attack the radar plane? Are you mad? NATO will certainly find out it was Russia, and they will certainly retaliate!"

  "We categorically deny any such involvement!" Filippov retorted-it was an almost automatic response to any such allegation, no matter how truthful it really was. But he still gulped in surprise. Someone shot down a NATO radarplane? This was tantamount to an act of war! "What will Germany do, Minister?" Filippov asked cautiously. "You will participate in the investigation, of course. Has Germany already decided to punish Russia?"

  "If this is a prelude to an attack by Russia, Minister Filippov," Schramm fumed, "Germany and NATO will stand firmly against you."

  Russian Federation Foreign Minister Ivan Filippov suppressed a chuckle-he dared not make fun of NATO or Germany's part in it, no matter how ridiculous or unrealistic it

  was. Schramm was in no position to threaten Russia with anything, let alone a unified NATO response.

  "Mr. Foreign Minister, again, I assure you, Russia is committed to the peace and security of the entire Balkan region," Filippov said, still not confirming or denying any involvement in whatever was going on. "Russia has been the

  target of many anti-NATO and anti-peacekeeper attacks in recent weeks. We know for certain that the Multinational Security BrigadeSouth, under German control, was their target again. We will act whenever we see the threat is genuine."

  "Really?" Minister Schramm remarked. "Why did you not share this information with us? A combined Russian-German strike force would have been very effective and would have undoubtedly waylaid the criticism you most certainly will have to endure once word of this attack spreads."

  Filippov's head was still scrambling to catch up with the events swirling around him, but he noted a very different note in Schramm's voice-he wasn't talking about the incident anymore. His entire train of thought was moving in a completely different direction, and it had nothing to do with confrontation. "I do like the idea of Russia and Germany joining forces in the future," Filippov said, "and I am glad you have the courage and insightfulness to see the benefit of such a union."

  There was a slight but noticeable pause on the line; then: "I have long thought that the entire Balkan conflict has been a great economic and political drain on all concerned," Schramm said. "The atrocities committed by both sides in this conflict have been brutal and violent, and had to be stopped. But NATO and the nonaligned nations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to devise a peaceful solution, and the violence seems worse than ever."

  "I could not agree more, Minister."

  "But what is the endgame here?" Schramm asked, the frustration evident in his voice. "The factions in the Balkans have been fighting for centuries. There are acts of total barbarism on both sides, but it seems that only the Christian acts of violence against the poor Muslims are publicized in the world press. For some reason, the Muslims became the underdogs, and the Americans seemed to come to their rescue."

  "We have long spoke about the possibility of why the Americans supported the Muslims," Filippov offered, "namely, to garner support and friendship from the oil-rich Arab countries, in hopes the Americans would be allowed to build land bases in Persian Gulf nations so they could move their expensive, vulnerable aircraft carriers out of the Gulf They were so afraid of Iran or Iraq sinking one of their carriers in the Gulf that they made a deal with the devils in the deserts of Arabia to support their Muslim brothers in the Balkans."

  "I do not know the reason for why the Americans chose one side over the other," Schramm said. "But when America speaks, the rest of the world, especially Europe and NATO, must listen."

  "Nonsense," Filippov interjected. "Germany is not compelled to follow any nation, even the United States. You have the fastest-growing and most powerful economy in Europe, and your growth far exceeds any other country in the world, even America."

  "In any case, Germany has been forced to support a foreign policy that is not always in our best interests," Schramm went on cautiously. "We have been forced to stand back and watch as our own peacekeepers harbor Muslim terrorists that attack fellow Christians. Muslim bandits are now free to roam the Balkans, killing innocent Christians, selling drugs under NATO protection, and are still receiving and trading millions of marks in weapons from Iran and Saudi Arabia each year. It makes absolutely no sense at all to me."

  "To me as well, Minister," Filippov said. "I agree with you completely. But we must be careful. Russia's action against Kukes was an emotional strike against terrorists. I abhor violence, but I was glad to offer my support for the plan. We cannot let the situation spin out of our control, however. The Muslims will undoubtedly retaliate against KFOR peacekeepers. We must be careful that we do not set southern Europe ablaze simply because we wanted to avenge our soldiers' deaths."

  "The danger is real, Mr. Filippov," Schramm said. "Especially now, since the United States pulled out of KFOR."

  "I agree, Minister," Filippov said. "The only clear way of

  reducing tension in the Balkans and salvaging our own national pride is to disengage from the brutal but pointless course we have set for ourselves. The bloodlust between the rival factions in the Balkans is not worth the

  life of one German or one Russian."

  "I have long advocated constructive disengagement in the Balkans," Rolf Schramm said. "I never recommended anyone simply depart, like the Americans did-that only creates a power vacuum that aggressors on all sides will seek to exploit for themselves. The American president was exceedingly irresponsible in his decision just to pull out of Europe as he has done. But I have long pushed to find a way to develop a plan where our forces can leave the battlefield but still remain involved and active in steering the region to some sort of peaceful structure."

  "I know you have, Minister-as leader of the opposition, I remember you were an outspoken critic of the previous government always seeming to knuckle under to the twisted politics and logic of the United States," FiliPpov said. That was not entirely true-there was no doubt Schramm was far to the right politically of his predecessors, and he had made a few speeches in favor of getting out of the Kosovo Force, but he was certainly no Willy Brandt or Helmut Kohl-his European vision was limited to whatever it took for him to rise to his current office. "What did Clinton or Martindale know of European geopolitics? All they cared about was their legacy and their domestic political power base. They used the crisis in the Balkans for their own gain. Now that the Americans are gone, it is up to Germany and Russia to take a leadership position in Europe."

  "Very well said, Mr. Filippov: disengage from the fighting but still maintain a presence in the region," Schramm summarized. "The Americans tried and failed to force a peace not just in the Balkans, but in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, even Ireland. Now that the Americans have t
urned tail and run, we must take up the cause of peace and justice in our own land."

  "Very well put, Minister," Filippov said. "Russia is only concerned about one thing: supporting our Slavic brothers

  against the growing wave of violence and anarchy by Muslim separatists who seek to establish fundamentalist Islamic regimes in ma ority Christian nations. We care nothing if Kosovo becomes an independent republic or a Muslim enclave. But if they seek to trample the rights of Christians to their historical landmarks and their ancestral lands, we have an obligation to help. And if radical Islamic countries like Albania try to export their brand of murder, terrorism, and intimidation on the smaller, weaker oblasts in the Balkans, it is in our interests to resist those attempts by any means necessary."

  "And Germany wants only peace, security, stabilization, and freedom of commerce and communications in the Balkans," Schramm said. "We want our friends in Croatia and Bosnia to be safe from harassment and civil rights violations by the Muslims and Serb extremists. We wish no ill will toward the Serb people-we only want all to coexist in peace. We must forget the historical animosities that have ruined the peace in the Balkans for far too long."