Blue Dawn, 1994

[James G]

This story shall return this coming weekend.
Leaving it unfinished will only bug me.

[stevep]

Jun 16, 2020 11:56:28 GMT James G said:

This story shall return this coming weekend.
Leaving it unfinished will only bug me.

  James G,

  Excellent news.   Very difficult deciding what Robb and his government will do and the levels of chaos that are likely to result from any way but as you say not trying to resolve it causes a hell of an itch.

  Steve

[sandyman]

Thankfully the story is still on the go why do we not have time travel we could pop in for a good read and pop pop out on each we have finished

[James G]

We are back.

[James G]

Part Six – Vengeance


90 – End of major combat operations


Gromov’s regime has fallen and he is on the run. Orders from on high, with STAVKA switching sides in defeat to join with Primakov, instruct Union military forces spread throughout Western Russia still fighting to stand down. Communication difficulties, many of them due to Coalition activities, have meant though that not everyone has received such instructions. In addition, among those who have been informed of the new reality, there are those who refuse to give in. They want to fight either American-led invaders from the west, Primakov’s armies in the east… or both.

The end of major combat operations has occurred but there is still much fighting, and dying, to do.


The West Siberian Army Group crosses through the Urals. Soldiers with the previously pro-Gromov Urals Front allow for Primakov’s troops to make transit through mountain passes without having to fight their way through as they were attempting to only yesterday. A few shooting incidents still occur and everything doesn’t go as planned, but the bulk of Primakov’s armies on the frontlines spend today crossing over the barrier between Western Russia and Siberia. Officers and men of the Urals Front aren’t disarmed nor do they surrender. Their allegiance has been switched from the defeated side in the civil war to the now clear victor. There will be staff replacements and a lot of mistrust remains yet the promises of Primakov, now in Moscow, about an amnesty have been believed and are being kept. The WSAG is doubling in size with this too as the Urals Front is folded in.

The Fifteenth Army reaches Yekaterinburg and heads towards Perm on the western side of the Urals while on their right, the WSAG’s Thirty–Fifth Army enters both Nizhniy Tagil & Serov before likewise going through the mountains. Away to the south, Primakov’s First Guards Tank & Thirty–Sixth Armies secure Chelyabinsk on the way to Ufa in Bashkortostan and also reach Magnitogorsk while pushing for Orenburg. The Urals Front has some of its defending troops inside the slivers of occupied Kazakh territory near to where the frontlines had only recently been and into those WSAG troops move into as well. First Guards Tank Army elements move on the ground as they go towards Orenburg though there are heli-lifts of men with that army’s 83rd Airborne Brigade who extend themselves far forward across the oblast named after that city. The airmobile troopers are joined by military intelligence specialists in using plentiful Mil-8 helicopters to get to the ICBM silos of the 13th Rocket Division. General Sergeyev has already send instructions to his RSVN units in the area to confirm the switching of allegiance but there is now physical control on the ground by Primakov’s forces of the Dombarovsky missile site. A major boost to the nuclear strength of the Primakov regime has just occurred.

Independent of the WSAG’s operations, Spetsnaz commandos in the service of the FSB launch an assault upon Totskoye Airbase also in Orenburg Oblast. Antonov-12 transports fly in low with the armed assailants making a combat jump over Totskoye. They are met with resistance from pro-Gromov troops on the ground who have received no orders to stand down and neither would be likely to if they had either. Ultimately, the attackers will prevail yet there is no sign of Gromov: who these Spetsnaz have come here to seize. He’s gone and there is no capture of Primakov’s sworn enemy whom he wishes to sweep up away from any American effort to get him first.


Coalition forces inside Union territory move much quicker and over a greater area than the WSAG does. They have more transport assets and are in a far better situation with regard to supplies. Army National Guard troops from the US VII Corps secure a large area of Russia between Moscow and the Ukraine. The 28th Infantry Division reaches Kursk and then Belgorod; the big Union Air Force airbase at Lipetsk and the city of Voronezh are taken by the 29th Infantry Division. Around Ryazan, where stubborn and determined resistance from Union Airborne Troops had been taking place until last night, the 35th Infantry Division is finally able to secure the military site there when those VDV paratroopers step aside. The 40th Infantry Division take Tambov but carry on heading eastwards towards the Volga River far beyond in the heart of Western Russia. These national guardsmen are now holding onto a major chuck of territory where there has yet to be an official surrender of enemy forces taking place. Military facilities are taken over as they keep on advancing.

To the south, US Marines held up for so long outside of Rostov are now free to move on. They don’t go into that city – it has no value – but instead the orders run for the 2nd Marine Division to go up to Volgograd. Around that city once known as Stalingrad, Gromov had been mobilising reservists into one of those late formed field armies. By airlift in helicopters, though with road convoys following, lead detachments go. They find no one willing to fight them: the commander of the Twelfth Army (a big name for a small force) has followed STAVKA instructions to switch his allegiance. No gunfire is met from those who were supposed to defend Volgograd against the second time this century that foreign invaders have reached here. US Army troops with their 5th Infantry Division move away from Stavropol into the Caucasus Mountains. They advance towards Maykop in Adygea first and Sochi on the Black Sea shore next: there is a small skirmish at Sochi where Cossack militiamen come off badly against American tanks. Reaching the Georgian border is the overall goal and this means that the 5th Infantry Division isn’t tasked for operations in a south-eastern direction away from Stavropol towards North Ossetia, Chechnya and Dagestan. Those on the ground are grateful for that because at this time, while few in number in this region, the US Army isn’t keen on going to such places with complicated ethnic issues at all. Into Georgia, arriving after the fighting has ended though, there is finally a significant boost in troop numbers for the Coalition forces fighting here. American paratroopers who’d been fighting with the US II MEF first in the Crimea and then mainland Ukraine arrive by air in Batumi along with a battalion of Czech airmobile artillery as well. The Fourth Army still maintains a strong force on Georgian soil but it is clear now that is answerable to the newly-independent Azerbaijan and will not be conducting any more offensive operations. Still, the reinforcement is made of Joint Task Force Thunder’s precarious defence of Batumi just in case things change over in Baku. An end to the fighting here means that more supplies can be flown in and casualties air-lifted out too. A ceasefire is in-place but the Americans are getting ready for round #2 if necessary.

Outside of Moscow, Canadian troops see action near to the town of Sergiyev Posad. Their 1st Division has spent several days fighting as part of the US V Corps against the remnants of the Union’s Fifth Guards Tank Army who arrived too late to save Moscow from Coalition occupation. Enemy units are standing aside everywhere – not surrendering but instead are now ‘allies’ – yet there is a determined colonel with a few thousand men who wants to fight against foreign invaders of his country regardless of who is in the Kremlin. The American’s 3rd Infantry Division join with the Canadians in overcoming the resistance put up and securing the Sergiyev Posad area yet it is the Canadians who do most of the fighting here today. They end up with that colonel in their custody and find that he, and most of his command staff who joined him in leading an ad hoc force in the fight, consider themselves to be true patriots. These POWs condemn everyone else who has surrendered or defected in the face of foreign invasion. Other prisoners taken, the fighting men, aren’t as outspoken but they fought until the end all for the defence of the Rodina.

British forces up near to Kotlas encounter more of these zealous patriots. The 19th Light Brigade follows orders to go to this communications centre far out ahead of where the rest of the British I Corps is. An airlift takes brigade elements to Kotlas Airport where local officials are now supporting Primakov and the mission is to secure weapons stocks in the general Kotlas area as well as its extensive communications links with the barren north. Two battalions of infantrymen are with the brigade on this mission deep into previous enemy territory because intelligence information suggests that there might be resistance from the nearby Savatiya Airbase where other Union forces are located. Late in the day, men with the Grenadier Guards coming down from Kotlas encounter an unexpected opponent at Savatiya. It isn’t the Union Air Force but instead Union Naval Infantry they meet with. These marines are with the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade, a force home-based in the Kola who missed the fight there because they were in the Urals. They are heading back to Russia’s North-West by way of Kotlas and the orders received from STAVKA for them to stand down have been ignored by the brigade commander. He thinks it is American troops coming towards him and establishes strong defensive positions at Savatiya. Upon discovering it is the British instead, far fewer in number than his brigade, the 61st Brigade’s commander orders his men to open fire regardless despite such a nationality. They are invading his country and he will fight. The Battle of Kotlas begins and the British are at once in trouble after foolishly being send deep into the unknown depths of Russia on their own.


Gorki was the furthest point eastwards inside Russia that Coalition forces had reached yesterday ahead of the fall of the Gromov regime. The Americans have their III Corps outside the city and also spread over a wide area through where the Oka River meets the Volga. Union forces here with the wartime-raised reserve Second Army spend today surrendering (instead of suddenly becoming new allies) to the US III Corps. Large stocks of weapons and munitions are taken by the Americans and they also take over river crossing points over the Volga too. In an operation directed by the Seventh US Army, 1st Cavalry Division detachments join intelligence teams in going to the small town of Arzamas-16. This is one of the Union’s ‘closed cities’ because there is a nuclear research facility there. Arzamas-16 is located some distance away from the actual Arzamas (a small town) and far to the south from Gorki but 1st Cavalry Division tanks and soldiers are soon there after moving across undefended terrain on the way. There are security forces stationed at Arzamas-16 to defend it and, if need be, destroy as much of the place as possible. However, due to communications mix-ups, their commander is confused over the current situation with regard to whether he is to fight or not in light of the collapse of resistance in so many places. He orders his men to stand down when the 1st Cavalry Division approaches and an intelligence goldmine for the United States falls into their hands.

The Republic of Tatarstan yesterday was the key player in the moves made by internal semi-autonomous republics within Russia who defected from Gromov to Primakov. Tatarstan is downstream along the Volga from Gorki and, with the fall of Gromov’s regime, Tatarstan authorities have taken control over most of the reservist-manned Sixteenth Army that was being formed up around Kazan and other urban centres across the republic. Part of the Sixteenth Army is across in the Mari El Republic though, a smaller region directly between Gorki and Tatarstan. Mari El joined in the rebellion yesterday which helped to sink Gromov’s regime but as the local authorities today seek to take control over those reservists on their territory, they find that power lays in the barrel of a gun and not in political ambition. Mari El security forces take casualties. Those on their territory want to keep fighting, for the Rodina, against enemy invaders and gleefully engage those who they regard as traitors.

This fighting in Mari El is something that the Americans become aware of during the day. General Maddox’s Seventh US Army has operational control of American, British, Canadian and Polish forces spread across Western Russia with the III Corps in the Gorki area subordinate to him. His previous instructions from General McCaffrey as EURCOM commander were for the III Corps to stay where they were around Gorki and not to advance any more to the east due to the WSAG coming over the Urals to bring troops into Tatarstan, Mari El and elsewhere. Those internal Union instances of fighting seen in Mari El are the official reason given for the change in orders today for the III Corps – to be followed by US V Corps elements behind them as well – to prepare to move forward tomorrow and go onwards. Pro-Gromov forces who are continuing to fight will be engaged, the orders run. In good faith, Maddox tells this to his corps commanders. It is only afterwards does he learn what is really going on. McCaffrey has been told something top secret by Washington and that is now passed on to Maddox.

Both generals want to know what exactly President Robb and those back in Washington are going to do about the revelation that Primakov, not Gromov, was behind the assassination of President Kerrey. They are receiving orders to send American soldiers towards Primakov’s approaching armies but what is the ultimate goal? Each senior officer also wants to be told who else knows about this infamy too and when the news is going to be told to the world. Something has to be done about that because American forces are moving into position ready to restart major combat operations with the clock ticking on that. Those who look likely to see action once more should be told the truth.

[lordroel]

Jun 21, 2020 17:44:32 GMT James G said:

We are back.

Nice to hear that James G.

[James G]

Jun 22, 2020 2:56:17 GMT lordroel said:

Jun 21, 2020 17:44:32 GMT James G said:

We are back.

Nice to hear that James G .

Thanks.
Back with a vengeance too.

[stevep]

   James G ,

  Good to see this resumed and I'm also wondering what Robb is planning.  The fact he's started telling elements of the military in the field suggests he's not going to try and hide things but is he, with forces already very thinly stretched and a lot of potential enemies behind them, even if most are disarmed, going to try and fight Primakov's forces as well?  Especially since their now been joined by quite a lot of the forces formally loyal to Gromov.  That would be a huge ask on the military as well as political support for the operation.  Especially since a lot of the Russian forces from either side are likely to refuse to believe any claims that Primakov was responsible, which provided he's still free Primakov will be loudly denying.

  He might be trying to secure enough territory, denying it to Primakov's forces while trying to organise a new 'leader' possibly from among the captured military figures as an alternative to Primakov?  However again that could be difficult as many are unlikely to accept someone presented by the invading westerners.

  Another option is that Robb is planning to secure as much of Russia as possible, especially including nuclear and other assets then seize Primakov and his supporters in Moscow.  Then announce what they have discovered and ask/suggest the 'Siberians' to organise a new leader themselves to take over?  Although how things go if whoever took over from Primakov is hostile how does things go from there.

  Probably something totally different but wondering what you will come up with.

  Best of luck on a very difficult story to resolve.

  Steve

[James G]

Jun 22, 2020 10:27:28 GMT stevep said:

   James G ,

  Good to see this resumed and I'm also wondering what Robb is planning.  The fact he's started telling elements of the military in the field suggests he's not going to try and hide things but is he, with forces already very thinly stretched and a lot of potential enemies behind them, even if most are disarmed, going to try and fight Primakov's forces as well?  Especially since their now been joined by quite a lot of the forces formally loyal to Gromov.  That would be a huge ask on the military as well as political support for the operation.  Especially since a lot of the Russian forces from either side are likely to refuse to believe any claims that Primakov was responsible, which provided he's still free Primakov will be loudly denying.

  He might be trying to secure enough territory, denying it to Primakov's forces while trying to organise a new 'leader' possibly from among the captured military figures as an alternative to Primakov?  However again that could be difficult as many are unlikely to accept someone presented by the invading westerners.

  Another option is that Robb is planning to secure as much of Russia as possible, especially including nuclear and other assets then seize Primakov and his supporters in Moscow.  Then announce what they have discovered and ask/suggest the 'Siberians' to organise a new leader themselves to take over?  Although how things go if whoever took over from Primakov is hostile how does things go from there.

  Probably something totally different but wondering what you will come up with.

  Best of luck on a very difficult story to resolve.

  Steve

I had absolutely zero in my planning the other week and had to stop. Now I know where I am going. Post lockdown shock is over.

What is happening is a mix of what you speculate, plus a few more things. There is a gear up to continue the fight on the ground, taking on all comers, though a plan forming to avoid that. Hardcore Russian patriots have been met throughout the war but now, as it ends, a lot of that is intensifying too. The Coalition will win any fight with a new, larger force even with enemies in the rear... but it will be even more bloody than it is.
Talking of casualties, there are allies (domestic and foreign for the US) to consider too. They are now being told the 'new truth' as well.

[James G]

91 – Those in the know


There is a growing number of those in the know. In Washington, those at the very top of the Robb Administration were the first to realise that the United States, and its Coalition allies too, have been tricked into fighting a war against the wrong regime but more and more people are being told. The information is meant to be top secret with only those with the highest security clearance in the know yet those being informed that Primakov’s FSB, not the Gromov regime, assassinated Robb’s predecessor are fast becoming outside the very top rungs of power. Called into the White House are the Congressional leadership: the House Speaker and the majority & minority leaders in the Senate & the House. Robb speaks with them in the strictest of confidence and asks for their counsel on how to proceed. They are sworn to secrecy… yet how long can it reasonably be before word leaks out from Congress? Intelligence and military officials are being told while White House staffers are aware. The number keeps rising.

In Washington, it is oft said that a secret can only be a secret if only two people know it... and one of them is dead. There is a ticking clock on how long before someone goes blabbing to the media.

Speaker Foley doesn’t “lose his sh*t” (words spoken by Robb’s chief-of-staff due to the blue language and furniture breaking) like others do upon hearing this. Instead, while still angry at how his nation has been duped, Foley openly ponders over whether all the initial intelligence gained, which is now being dismissed, is truly inaccurate. Maybe there is more to the whole assassination plot to be yet understood? Powell – in on the meeting with the politicians – asks what is meant by this with Foley thus explaining. Is it possible, the Speaker of the House of Representatives asks, that maybe both Gromov and Primakov had a hand in Kerrey’s death in an exact sequence of events that the United States doesn’t yet understand? Such a suggestion raises eyebrows and gets minds ticking over. A fellow Democrat but also a personal political ally of Robb too, Foley hasn’t intentionally given the president a life-raft yet that is what he has done.

In further decisions with his National Security Council and key administration figures following the meeting with Foley & others from Congress, such an idea is one raised among them. It is asked of those figures from the US Intelligence Community whether there might still be more to uncover. Primakov looks guilty of the Kerrey assassination but those were Gromov’s gunmen there in Maryland back on Independence Day. Perhaps Moscow knew that Novosibirsk was up to something and didn’t stop it? As to why… maybe that is something more that needs to be uncovered?

There isn’t anyone in the Robb Administration who wants to believe that the war with the Union has been fought on the back of a deception. They’ve only just got their heads around that idea and have been preparing the way for wider revelation before this sudden new outlook on the whole matter comes up. A joint guilt by Gromov and Primakov is latched onto by many. Not everyone wants to go along with it – a few watch the madness unfold with disbelief – but the president is swayed by such thinking. Robb is reminded by his top people that Gromov isn’t exactly innocent in other ways too. Alongside having an assassination team inside the United States, whom Primakov had his people give fake orders to, or maybe not, the now deposed military dictator of the Union of Sovereign States has recently made use of chemical weapons against civilians inside the Union’s borders and outside them too. He’s gassed American troops, sent bombers on strike missions to hit the United States from the air, launched missile strikes across the whole of Europe (including into neutral countries) and overseen other serious war crimes including ethnic cleansing. This man is an enemy of America and the right thing has been done in taking him down.


Primakov is now an enemy too.

He’s sitting in the Kremlin where American troops have put him. Robb wants him out of there, preferably not breathing any more either. He’s never had a real personal connection with the Union’s legitimate head of state – after Lebed’s death, the leadership wasn’t Gromov’s to take no matter what the circumstances were – but Kerrey’s successor wants to see the guilty party behind killing the man who sat in this chair before him dead for what he has done. Operation Flaming Phoenix has seen no direct attacks made against Gromov during his time in power for fear of the consequences and those consequences – i.e. the very real chance of a nuclear exchange – remain. Therefore an overt military attack is out of the question and there are discussions among the National Security Council concerning as to where covert means might be used to get rid of Primakov. There are legal barriers to that, Robb is reminded, though ones that can be removed at the stroke of a pen: a presidential finding on the matter.

Doing this, killing Primakov with American firepower, has supporters. Many of those with Robb are keen on the idea yet are unsure of the consequences. A different idea is floated. It comes from the DIA head, a man who came very close in losing his post in recent days as he stuck his neck out in support of his organisation’s people while they teased out the truth behind the murder of Kerrey. He suggests that the United States gets someone else to do it. Who? Well… one of Primakov’s own people. He names someone at the top of the Novosibirsk regime, someone who has yet to join the Union’s Acting President back in Moscow. Such a man has shown a friendliness to the United States since the alliance between the anti-Gromov side of the Union and the Coalition. That might translate into a willingness to get rid of the ‘Primakov problem’. It depends on several things, the Director of the DIA concedes, but he lays out the reasons behind his thinking on the matter.

The Union’s (Novosibirsk) Defence Minister, Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, is to be approached to see if he wants to knock off his boss.

Shaposhnikov has been working extensively with American forces deployed in Siberia. The CIA & NSA agree that he is someone with both great ambition and isn’t close to Primakov despite his high role: they aren’t so sure on the DIA’s assessment that he might be so willing to turn on Primakov yet don’t stand in the way of such an effort of the DIA trying to find out. Those here in Washington are talking about powerplays with in the rapidly reuniting Union but the heads of the US Intelligence Community continue to make their own… especially in light of the absolute disaster where America’s spymasters have so recently been caught out in the greatest of lies ever told. If the DIA wants to get its fingers burnt, those from Langley and Fort Meade are prepared to move in afterwards and pick up the pieces.

With this matter of getting rid of Primakov not yet resolved but movements made to begin that, the Robb Administration has related matters of importance to deal with too. Close allies, those also fighting the war against Gromov which has just put Primakov into Moscow, are being told of the revelations about the latter’s now suspected guilt. There are explosions of anger as well as dismay. In addition, results are being waited upon with the underway Operation Fox Hunt.

Just as Primakov’s FSB-controlled Spetsnaz are doing, there is a chase on for the running Gromov with the US Armed Forces going after him too. Word now reaches Washington of the outcome of Fox Hunt.

[stevep]

   James G ,

  I think their on dodgy ground trying to blame both Union leaders as that would make things too complex to really be believable.  Suspect many would assume that what their trying to do - which I think is the case in a number of cases if not Robb himself.  Plus virtually all what they could accuse Gromov of is basically defending his state and people from an attack by the US and its allies that is now shown to be flawed.  As such I think this is a dead end that will have a negative impact overall.

  I would be tempted to seize Primakov already before he learns about what's going on and leaves Moscow.  Which is very likely as the news is spread of the 'truth'.  I think there's a modified version of the statement you made that is something like two people can share a secret without it leaking IF one of them is dead.  There's going to be a huge shit-storm when the news becomes public.  Then seek to arrange a relationship with a new leader such as possibly Shaposhnikov.  Bascially saying we're realised we were fooled by Primakov so he has to face justice but we're willing to work with some replacement for him, including from the 'Siberian' regime to bring an end to the fighting, peace and economic recovery for the Union and a rapid withdrawal of western forces from it.  The last I think being a big incentive for at least some in the regime to decide to support his removal.

  Anyway have to see how things go.  From your previous stories it tends to be that carefully laid plans end up in chaos and devastation and it could well be the same here.

  Steve

[James G]

Jun 23, 2020 14:31:12 GMT stevep said:

   James G ,

  I think their on dodgy ground trying to blame both Union leaders as that would make things too complex to really be believable.  Suspect many would assume that what their trying to do - which I think is the case in a number of cases if not Robb himself.  Plus virtually all what they could accuse Gromov of is basically defending his state and people from an attack by the US and its allies that is now shown to be flawed.  As such I think this is a dead end that will have a negative impact overall.

  I would be tempted to seize Primakov already before he learns about what's going on and leaves Moscow.  Which is very likely as the news is spread of the 'truth'.  I think there's a modified version of the statement you made that is something like two people can share a secret without it leaking IF one of them is dead.  There's going to be a huge shit-storm when the news becomes public.  Then seek to arrange a relationship with a new leader such as possibly Shaposhnikov.  Bascially saying we're realised we were fooled by Primakov so he has to face justice but we're willing to work with some replacement for him, including from the 'Siberian' regime to bring an end to the fighting, peace and economic recovery for the Union and a rapid withdrawal of western forces from it.  The last I think being a big incentive for at least some in the regime to decide to support his removal.

  Anyway have to see how things go.  From your previous stories it tends to be that carefully laid plans end up in chaos and devastation and it could well be the same here.

  Steve

It is complicated... but it could be made simple: 'two bad guys, not just one'.
They are grasping at straws in the White House and a simple story like that is seen as something that might fly.
The chemical attacks in wartime and those missile hits in Germany - plus the ones which failed to reach the Netherlands too - paint Gromov as a bad guy.
The growing thinking in DC is that this is possible and most people will ignore the details.

He's gonna fast become aware something serious is up. Whether he'll see the whole picture before it is too late is another matter.
Changed that, thank you. I could see something wrong that but too many trees to see a forest.
Sh*t storm it will be: first in London and Ottawa.
Getting out of Russia - plus the Union countries - is the smart move to play, I agree. That was the initial war idea.

A destruction of carefully laid plans can be guaranteed!

[James G]

92 – We got him


Totskoye Airbase, where Primakov’s FSB sought to capture him, is inside Russia but Gromov is now in Kazakhstan. Still on the run, Gromov has fled to Union occupied territory in the border reaches of a country which broke away from the Union when he took power six months ago. There isn’t much of Kazakhstan under occupation but where the rule of Nazarbayev doesn’t run to, pro-Gromov Union military forces remain. STAVKA is nearly finished managing to get them all to face the new reality and come over to the long-opposed Primakov side and soon enough where Gromov is at Ural’sk will be unfriendly towards him too. For the meantime though, he is safe from Primakov’s hunters. Gromov still has supporters with him yet their numbers have shrunk to only a handful. Only the most dedicated followers are with him, those who do not believe that Primakov’s amnesty will apply to them: like Gromov, his followers believe their fate will be a lonely grave somewhere in the depths of Siberia. In Ural’sk, Gromov is trying to rally more support. He is using a satellite phone to talk to those previously loyal to him back over in Russia. One of his closest followers, a GRU officer with a lot of blood on his hands (from the mass of extrajudicial killings of FSB people and Primakov-aligned politicians slaughtered at the start of the civil war), urges Gromov to give that up and flee further. Hope here is lost and the best safety is abroad. One of the Union Army officers in the small party (he’s one of those intimately involved in the missile firings against Poland which recently killed so many innocents) questions where Gromov – i.e. they all – can go: escaping far overseas to somewhere like China, Cuba or North Korea is out of the question.

Kyrgyzstan is the answer given, that small Central Asian country which may have broken away from the Union with the others but only under duress. Nazarbayev, but also Primakov too, is hated in Kyrgyzstan and the nation is on the verge of conflict as it seeks to go its own way and not be dominated by its larger neighbour. The GRU man says that there could be safety there among friends. No one else agrees with this, especially not Gromov. He takes the time to disagree and put an end to that before being back on the phone and talking with a senior general whom he thinks is still loyal to him down in Volgograd. Gromov doesn’t realise he is being strung along. The Twelfth Army’s commander has followed STAVKA’s instructions to switch allegiance and there will be no safety that would come by Gromov going there… he doesn’t know too that US Marines are landing in helicopters outside that city at this current moment.

Gromov’s satellite phone is just that: a phone which uses a satellite connection. The call is supposed to be encrypted and that is a Union military communications satellite. Unbeknown to Gromov – nor even STAVKA and Primakov – the Americans are all over that satellite. They haven’t put a physical hand on it but it might as well be theirs. All communications through it are being traced and decoded (where possible with the latter). Off in distant Fort Meade, the NSA are able to say with near certainty that they are intercepting Gromov’s calls and can provide a location for him. Him being in Ural’sk comes as a bit of a surprise yet it isn’t completely implausible. Like the FSB, the Americans knew that Gromov was at Totskoye yesterday when everything fell apart for him and Ural’sk is only a hundred odd miles off.

Task Force 112 receives instructions to go into Kazakhstan and undertake Operation Fox Hunt.


Just after dusk, using the cover and opportunity offered by twilight, TF 112 strikes. American special forces drop by parachute from a low-flying plane, reaching the ground ahead of darkness falling and are fast to move into position by the time daylight is gone for good. They are unseen and have secured overwatch positions to surround a location on the edges of Ural’sk. With snipers, laser-designators and radios, these pathfinders are in-place. TF 112 contains military and intelligence personnel working together in a unit which has spent the war hunting high-value targets including the GRU head. Detachments have seen service all across the western reaches of the Union though this is as far east as they have gone so far during this conflict. Here just inside Kazakhstan, those out ahead mark drop zones for more paratroopers arriving after sunset while keeping Gromov’s suspected location under observation from the ground. There are other eyes on it too as Fox Hunt is being watched from above via satellite with images beamed to those back at the Pentagon. Those here though aren’t aware of that. Their focus is on the mission and the enemy threat. TF 112’s commander, a veteran of many Ranger and Green Berets missions through the years, taking place across the world, bring his men forward once they are on the ground and properly assembled. Moving from three of the drop zones to converge upon their prize as one, TF 112 also keeps open two different extraction routes too. This is unfriendly territory and a fast way out is necessary if everything goes very wrong here.

It doesn’t.

Gromov is right where he is thought to be. He’s in an aircraft hangar at dilapidated airport outside of Ural’sk. Dozens of armed Americans swoop in. Some of his party are killed but others throw their hands up in surrender. Gromov doesn’t run any more. He fights instead. With an AK-74 assault rifle, he leads from the front in the somewhat heroic but ultimately doomed effort to fight off the enemy. One of the Green Berets, a trooper from the Army Reserve’s 11th Special Forces Group, takes a careful shot and shoots the weapon out of Gromov’s hand. If it was anyone else, a headshot would have been used to ‘disarm’ such an opponent, but the mission orders are for a live capture. Gromov is left hurt yet not in any serious way.

A hood is thrown over his head and plastic ties bind his hands. Suspected intelligence material from him and those dead or alive among his party is gathered up. There is soon the arrival of two aircraft which make landings on the airport’s lone runway. Combat forward air controllers are with the TF 112 people on the ground and while they are trained in guiding in close-air support (not needed here tonight), they have a role on this mission of getting those two turboprops down safety. One after the other, the US Air Force MC-130H Combat Talons land, are loaded & then proceed to fly out of here. The bodies of two dead Americans killed in exchanges of fire are removed and there are battle casualties to lift out as well, receiving treatment in flight. No one is left behind. Westwards the aircraft fly with a destination being Kubinka Airbase near Moscow: now known as Camp Glory by the Americans who are operating from there running special forces air support missions across Western Russia.

Gromov is in American custody.


Only when the MC-130s are on the ground at Kubinka does Secretary of Defence Nunn make his Pentagon press conference. The media event has been on-hold for a couple of hours with assembled journalists waiting for an announcement ‘of significant importance’. The rumour has already begun that it is about Gromov among the press corps though the thinking was that Nunn would announce that he’s been killed. They get a surprise.

“Ladies and Gentlemen… we got him.” Those are Nunn’s opening words on the matter of the successful Operation Fox Hunt.

[stevep]

   James G ,

  I wonder if it would have been better for the US if that Green Beret had actually taken that head shot?  A corpse can't contradict what allegations are made about him and given what Gromov's accused of it would be politically very difficult to avoid some sort of public trial.  True no one expects Gromov to admit guilt, especially since US intelligence is now confident he wasn't responsible for the assassination.  However he could raise awkward points that would raise doubts about the US case.  Think he would be especially outraged at the idea that he was co-complicit in the killing with Primakov since its a pretty stupid idea.

  Sounds from your comment in reply to my previous post that things are going to end up very badly for everybody, except possibly the Chinese and assorted Muslim reactionary groups.

  Steve

[forcon]

Good work, although I'm surprised that anybody wanted Gromov taken alive. Still, accidents happen, and federal prisons can be dangerous places. What are the chances the guards fall asleep and don't check on him for three hours?