“What an exciting time to be a soldier,” he thought privately.
“Viking-Five, this is Hammer-Three. We have three T-80 tanks and six BTRs at grid Golf Kilo 743 597. Do we have permission to engage over?” asked Sergeant First Class Tim Hanse.
His forward observer platoon had crossed the Belarus border nearly two hours ago, slowly moving along various dirt roads towards possible enemy positions. They had been shown several potential enemy positions via satellite reconnaissance and were tasked with getting eyes on them. His platoon had split up into squads to cover more ground as they tried to find targets for the guns.
His squad had found about a company-sized element located at Palyany, roughly thirty or so kilometers from the border, just where the satellite photos had said they would be. Now it was up to the folks at division to determine if they wanted to blow them up now or let them live a little longer.
The radio chirped briefly before it responded to their question, “Hammer-Three, this is Viking-Five. We copy. Proceed with fire mission over.”
SFC Hanse smiled that they had been given permission to engage. He looked at the coordinates one of the soldiers had given him, and briefly nodded. “Viking-Five, this is Hammer-Three. Requesting three rounds, HE at grid Golf Kilo 743 597. Fire for effect. How copy?”
A second later, they responded back and read the fire mission back to him. He acknowledged, and they stood by, waiting for the rounds to impact, ready to adjust fire as needed.
A couple of minutes later, the radio crackled to life again. “Shot out.”
After another pause, the radio came to life again. “Splash,” said the voice, indicating the rounds were about to impact.
“Copy that,” Hanse responded, and they waited for the sound of the incoming rounds.
Suddenly, a sound like a freight train raced over their heads as the artillery rounds began to fly in and saturate the area they had called in. One of the tanks took a direct hit, so did two of the BTRs. Several others had been damaged. Most of the troops near the tanks dropped to the ground. The survivors of the initial blasts immediately ran to their vehicles, knowing all too well that they needed to move to a new location.
SFC Hanse called in a second fire mission-this time destroying nearly all the remaining vehicles and flattening this small village in the process. As the buildings and vehicles lay in ruins, dark oily black smoke began rising into the air. Sergeant Hanse’s scout group got in their two HUMVEEs and began to drive to their next location, continuing to scout for their artillery brigade.
Reinforcements
General Boris Egorkin was reading through the reports coming in from Ukraine and Belarus.
“It would appear that NATO was launching an all-out ground offensive against their forces in Ukraine, and have now opted instead to invade the peace-loving people of Belarus,” he thought.
The 6th Tank Army commander was reporting contact with Polish and American ground forces. As he looked at the map, he could clearly see what SACEUR was trying to do. He was hoping to cut off the 6th Army and capture Minsk. This would force him to have to withdraw his forces from Ukraine to defend Moscow.
Before President Petrov arrived, he sent a quick message to his commander in Belarus. “Have your forces fall back to the outskirts of Minsk,” he directed.
“We are not going to allow ourselves to get surrounded and cut off, no matter what,” he determined.
While he was mulling over possible military responses, the President walked in and sat at the head of the conference table. “What is going on in Belarus?” he asked. “How does this change our plans?”
General Egorkin responded first. “Mr. President, General Cotton (the Supreme Allied Commander Europe) has devised a plan to try and force us out of Ukraine by threatening Moscow.”
Petrov raised an eyebrow at that response. The Minister of Defense, Alexei Semenov, replied, “I believe comrade Egorkin is getting a bit ahead of himself with that statement. The Americans have launched a multi-pronged attack across Ukraine and now into Belarus. The 6th Tank Army had been tying down too many NATO forces while it was deployed to Belarus. They are now moving to encircle the army group and then capture Minsk and remove that threat.”
Egorkin was not one to back down when he knew he was right, and jumped right back into the conversation. “Comrades, if NATO secures Minsk, where do you think they will move next? The obvious answer is Moscow. If they look to threaten Moscow, then I will have to pull most of my forces out of Ukraine to defend the capital. That is what they are going to do. The question is-how do we stop them from doing that?” he asked.
Petrov leaned back in his chair for a second, thinking what to do next. “Since that fool in North Korea used nuclear weapons against US and South Korean Forces, using them here in Europe is completely out of the question,” he realized. “The American President has proved to everyone that he is not afraid to retaliate with them either. No, we will have to find another way.”
“What forces can we draw from so that we would not take away from General Egorkin’s forces?” asked Petrov, hoping they may be able to try something different.
General Alexei Semenov thought for a minute while the others at the table looked at him, waiting for his response. “We have the 16th Spetsnaz brigade, which we have not deployed yet… we can rush them to Belarus. We can also move the 76th Guard’s Air Assault Division from Pskov, and the 106th Guard’s Airborne Division from Tula. Those two divisions and the brigade would give us an additional 26,000 soldiers that can rapidly deploy to Minsk. We can have them there within 72-hours. Shoot, the Spetsnaz brigade can get in position within twenty-four hours, once we give them the go.”
Petrov raised a hand to interject a comment. “That addresses the short-term need of getting forces into Belarus, but how are we going to address the bigger problem of stopping NATO from capturing the country and then threatening Moscow? Unless we heavily reinforce the 6th Tank Army, they are going to be in trouble.”
General Semenov responded, “I recommend we move the 90th Guard’s Tank Division from Chebarkul in central Russia, along with the reserve forces we’ve been mobilizing since the start of the war. We should also have the Air Force start to hit NATO ground forces with a lot more cruise missiles. We need to bombard them constantly from the air, so we can keep the pressure on them.”
Semenov took a breath and then continued, “The Chinese are going to attack the Americans within the next 24 hours. When that happens, the Americans will not be able to support and sustain NATO and their forces deployed on the Korean Peninsula. They just do not have the sealift capability or the personnel.”
“That is partially true,” Petrov corrected. “The Americans are conscripting a massive army, and they will be able to deploy hundreds of thousands of soldiers by February 2018. The Chinese have to take the Americans out of the war quickly, and that is not something I am confident they can do.”
Missile Swarm
Major Chen’s squadron of H-6 bombers (which were essentially Russian Badger bombers) were now entering their maximum range for their anti-ship cruise missiles as they flew over the city of Tangshan. Off in the distance, the pilots of his squadron could still see the orange glow at the edge of the horizon from the destruction of Shenyang. It boiled his blood to know that such a great and beautiful city had been so violently taken from them. His squadron, along with the rest of the H-6 bomber squadrons, would now exact China’s revenge on the Americans who had killed so many of his countrymen.