Battlefield Pacific

Russian Resolve

President Petrov was fuming after the defeat of the Russian forces in Finland and Norway. He was furious that, despite months of reprieve and additional reinforcements, General Yury Bukreyev, the commander in charge of Russian forces on the northern front, had failed to hold his ground. His forces should have held for longer than a couple of days.

A short but fiery debate erupted amongst Petrov’s top leadership over what to do about this “problem.” Alexei Semenov, the Minister of Defense, had argued that Bukreyev should be publicly executed, to make an example of him. Colonel General Boris Egorkin explained that he felt this would erode confidence among the leadership with the army, that they might fear that if they retreated, even if it were for a tactical advantage, they would be executed too. Of course, there was also the legal aspect; capital punishment was technically outlawed in Russia. The last public execution was in 1996.

Ultimately, Petrov’s ire overruled any objections by General Egorkin. The law banning executions was speedily overturned after a little arm-twisting from the president, and within a few days, Petrov and his senior cabinet members were seated to watch General Bukreyev’s execution by firing squad.

Before the official presentation began and the cameras were turned on, Minister of Defense Semenov dared to protest one last time. “Mr. President, I must caution you that I feel this is a very bad precedent for us to set. The Soviet Army did this during World War II, and we lost far too many officers at a time when every competent leader was needed to defeat the Nazis.”

“You’ve made your point, General, and I have made mine,” said Petrov, half-surprised that Semenov had spoken at all. “We’re not going to win this war if we don’t hold our military leaders accountable for their failures. We have achieved an enormous success in getting the British to withdraw from the war. We won’t squander that victory by having generals squander their time and resources. I don’t want to discuss this matter any further, is that understood?”

“Yes, Mr. President,” answered Semenov dutifully.

“Good, now smile for the cameras,” said Petrov. “We will have our briefing after this.”

A few hours later, Petrov was seated in a room with the same senior leadership members. He turned to his General of the Army first. “What I want is an update from you. First off — when is our summer offensive is going to start?” he asked, not quite yelling, but clearly irritated. “We’re more than halfway through the summer, and it still hasn’t started.”

“If he doesn’t deliver, Bukreyev won’t be the only officer I make an example of,” Petrov thought.

“I know we’ve had a longer delay than we’d like,” conceded General Egorkin, “and I’m afraid we’re going to have to delay the start of our offensive by at least two more months, but please allow me to finish my brief so I can let you know why this delay is imperative.”

Seeing that he wasn’t immediately removed from the room, Egorkin continued. “At the start of the war, we had roughly 3,000 T-80 tanks and roughly 6,400 T-72 tanks in cold storage across the country. When the conflict started, we immediately brought these tanks out of storage and began a rapid modernization program. While the T-14 Armatas have been a game changer for us, we’re still only able to produce roughly 100 of these tanks a month. The T-80s and older T-72s may not be nearly as capable, but their sheer numbers will overwhelm the Allies, especially now that the British armored forces have been ordered home.”

“In two months, I will have the necessary number of tanks and new soldiers to launch Operation Armored Fist. Our offensive will start with a massive cruise and ballistic missile attack of the Allied front lines, and then a Spetsnaz attack of several dozen military airfields in Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. The Indian manufacturers are now delivering us thousands of missiles a month, and we intend to hit the Allies with such force that it will throw them off balance for our ground offensive.”

He pulled up a visual on the screen in the room, which showed the plan of attack and the timeline for achieving each objective. “General Chayko’s army group will hit the Allies at Ternopil with an armored fist of nearly 10,000 tanks and over 40,000 armored vehicles. Once his force breaks a hole in the Allies’ line, they will drive on Lviv, the provisional capital of Ukraine, and then head straight for Krakow. As his forces advance toward Krakow, two prongs are going to branch off. One will head toward Warsaw and threaten to cut the entire Allied lines off in Belarus and Lithuania. The other arm will drive down to Kosice, Slovenia.”

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.