To the southwest, a smaller but highly sensitive zone lit up: Kaliningrad Oblast — a Russian exclave wedged between Lithuania and Poland, completely landlocked from Russia proper. “There’s no overland access to Kaliningrad,” Ashford noted. “Only way in is by sea or air. I’m going to hand things over to the S2 to bring us up to speed on the bigger picture of what’s going on and what this ‘exercise’” — he added air quotes — “actually looks like.”
He stepped back.
Major Grace Elliott, the brigade S2, stepped forward. Her voice was calm, clipped. “Bottom line up front: this isn’t just a training event. The scale and logistics footprint suggest it’s meant to prove they can surge fast — and sustain it.”
She tapped a control. The display zoomed on Kaliningrad’s coastal ports.
“Over the last ten days, we’ve seen a sharp increase in sealift traffic inbound to Kaliningrad, especially into Baltiysk and Kaliningrad Port. Cargo manifests are either sealed or falsified, but imagery shows military containers, vehicle crates, and radar assemblies being offloaded under security.”
A new frame snapped up — satellite stills of freshly cleared terrain, dirt berms, and defensive batteries under camo netting.
“They’re also building out new air-defense positions — likely short- and medium-range systems. Possibly Pantsir-S1 and S-400 being repositioned around key airfields. There’s movement at every known site.”
Elliott shifted the slide again — this time to a broader theater map showing European Russia.
“Same pattern north of Kaliningrad, across the Leningrad Military District. We’ve picked up increased activity at major airfields from Pushkin to Olenya — more sorties, more ground crew, more aircraft moving. On the surface, it’s a readiness drill. But it’s a big one.”
She paused. A final overlay filled the screen — a simplified representation of Russian and Chinese rail lines stretching from the Far East across the continent.
“We’re also watching a significant spike in Chinese rail and road traffic coming out of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, feeding west into central Russia. Large convoys — armor, fuelers, containerized equipment — headed toward staging areas in Moscow and Leningrad Districts. This has been building for about two months.”
She looked out across the room.
“No way to know how long it took to prep that much equipment — but it didn’t happen overnight.”
She nodded once, then stepped back.
Ashford returned to the front, his tone flattened. “None of this changes our immediate orders — but you need to understand the environment we’re stepping into. This isn’t just Baltic theater noise anymore. It’s a full-spectrum, multifront show of force. NATO wants presence. Visibility. We’re part of that line. We’re not here to provoke. But we will be seen.”
Ashford turned to his S3, Lieutenant Colonel Tony “T. Z.” Zitrion, motioning for him to speak on the deployment orders the brigade just received. As he walked forward, the map behind them zoomed in again — Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. Icons bloomed blue and amber as NATO units repositioned eastward. Sweden and Finland glowed green along the upper edge of the display.
“This is where we come into the picture,” T. Z. explained, his tone sharp, his piercing. “Washington, Tokyo, Seoul, and Brussels are spooked with the scale and scope of this exercise. SHAPE, and our Asian allies, are right to be suspicious after what happened in Ukraine in ’22. No one wants to be caught unprepared, so as a precaution, EUCOM, in coordination with our NATO allies, is going to temporarily reinforce the border regions where they plan to conduct their exercises.
“In short, NATO wants to establish an anti-access, area-denial capability over the Baltic Sea that can extend to include Kaliningrad and the northeastern NATO border. The land component of this JTF will consist of the US 173rd and the US forces that’ll comprise the A2/D2 element that’ll deploy to Gotland and Sweden proper — more on those units later. The rest of the JTF will consist of Swedish and Finnish local ground, air, and naval forces. Additional NATO naval assets will come in the form of German and Danish corvettes to augment the local Swedish and Finnish naval forces. Outside of local air assets, NATO will provide an air element from a Dutch F-35 squadron, and US AWACS support from England,” T. Z. explained as he stepped back to let Ashford close the briefing out.
“Look, I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you if this is just a training exercise and show of force by this new Pan-Eurasian Alliance or the prelude to some massive war that’s about to start.” Ashford paused to look his battalion commanders in the eye. “What I can tell you is this. Regardless of what happens, this is a great opportunity for us to do some hard-core training, and that’s how I intend to look at this until it materializes into something more. For now, prepare yourselves and get your commands ready to deploy. The first units are rotating north on the first of April. We’re to be in position and ready by the fifteenth. A lot has to happen between now and the end of March. Let’s show Big Army and everyone else why we’re the best. Dismissed.”
Chapter Fourteen:
Steel Across the Atlantic
Salt wind cut through SFC Ramon Torres’s OCP combat blouse, the fabric stiff with sea salt and cold as he stood on the dock, watching the morning sun paint the Baltic a gunmetal gray. The USNS Watkins loomed above him, her cargo cranes swinging M1E3 Abrams tanks from her hold like toys.
“Sixteen years in, and it still makes me nervous watching them dangle my tank over water,” SFC Ramon Torres said to himself. He didn’t take his eyes off Alpha-22 as it swayed above the dock.
First Lieutenant Adam Novak appeared beside him, his collar pulled high on his combat shell jacket, shoulders hunched against the wind. “Three years in, and I’m just trying not to throw up watching it.”
Torres grunted agreement, eyes locked on Alpha-22 as it swayed thirty feet above the concrete. That was his tank, his crew, his responsibility.
“Least they made it.” The LT’s breath hung in the frigid air like smoke. “When I heard they were routing through Hamburg first, I figured we’d be here till April.”
“Hamburg’s backed up with commercial traffic. Gdańsk gave us priority.” Torres thumbed on his tablet, scrolling through the manifest on its cracked screen. “All four tanks are accounted for. Ripsaws are coming off the Fisher in about an hour.”
The port bustled with controlled chaos. Polish longshoremen worked alongside US Navy cargo specialists, their shouts a mix of English, Polish, and the universal language of arm-waving. A platoon of Polish land forces patrolled the perimeter, MSBS Grot rifles cradled casually but ready.
“You sleep on the flight?” Novak asked.
“Some.” It had been twelve hours from Fort Bliss to Ramstein, another fourteen by bus to Gdańsk. His body still thought it was midnight in Texas.
“How’d Maria take it?”
Torres watched Alpha-22 touch down, chains rattling as dockers rushed to secure it. “Like she always does. Strong in front of the kids, fell apart after.”
“Sixteen years, four deployments—”
“Five,” Torres corrected. “Syria counted, even if it was just six months.”
“Right.” Novak shifted, uncomfortable with the personal talk. Torres thought Novak was a good kid, but even as a West Point graduate, he was still learning that leading meant knowing your NCOs as people, not just soldiers.