Arknights: Starsfall II

Chapter 37

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все не так хорошо

Rain was falling on this side of Europe. Radio and Television signals were having a hard time getting through.

Not that it mattered, much of the stuff out here is still pretty old and getting any secure signal after that nuke was only made significantly harder.

"...With Washington still calling for the end to these sea monsters after deliberate attacks on the American cities of New York and Parris Island," a news broadcaster was heard through crackled static. "President Hawthorne promises that..."

"Ну бля," was suddenly heard, as well as the shifting of a plastic chair against a dirtied floor, "у пиндосов там война с морскими чудовищами," he goes up to a map and slams it, "а у нас ёбаная гражданская здесь."

He starts walking away, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Просто пипец полный."

The fellow Loyalists near him chuckled at the sentiment, one taking a swig from a bottle of Vodka, "Ни хуя себе."

A sigh was heard, as another soldier gets up, "Hey hey," he let out, "Don't worry about those Americans, worry more about us." He grabs his AK-12 and racks it, "St. Petersburg has called, they want us to start getting ready." 

The other soldiers gave a tired or offhanded wave, as he sighed before exiting the building. It wasn't the best shaped building in all of Volgograd, but it was something. 

The city has seen better days, thanks to the civil war, many cities that are within proximity of the Urals or in the provinces near to it started to suffer dearly. Airstrikes, Artillery, Ultranationalist probing attacks.

A combination that proved to be a massive nightmare as the ultranationalists didn't seem to be too keen on showing mercy. They were growing increasingly radical, especially as the Chinese was now moving north into Magadan to "restore order."

Most know it IS a bold faced lie and that the Chinese are just stringing the world along. They have enough supporters around the world to ensure that they don't lose favor, especially thanks to many of the populations still haven't a gullible, "justice-seeking" population that most of the time attack the national interests of their home countries.

For the Russians that were fighting against the ultranationalists, this didn't help them. However, what did help them was the fact that the European Federation has become more friendly to them and was starting to feed whatever remains of the Ministry of Defense some much needed rations and much needed munitions.

The soldier starts heading over to a crew that was working on fixing a BMP-2M that they owned, "How is the work on this old girl?" he questioned down to the crewmembers who were working tooth and nail.

One of them revealed themselves, wiping their head of sweat and oil, "Could be better, those parts from Poland is helping us keep her working, but at the rate things are, I do not think she will last 'till next month!" the soldier laughs and pats him on the shoulder;

"Comrade, think of it this way," he leans down, "if that thing breaks or gets destroyed in battle, we get new machine from St. Petersburg. Is simple as that, Да?"

"Да... you're right," he goes back under, "Tell me if anything interesting happened."

"Ah!" the soldier sits down on a few crates and began, "The Americans are fighting the fish," the crewmember scrolls back out and looks at him incredulously.

"They are fighting the fish?" 

"Да, they are. Well, some sort of monster from the sea." The crewmember had the same reaction as the other soldiers that were in the building near to them.

"Боже мой," he uttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Everything's been going very, very strange ever since that whole... Terra thing came up?"

"Mhmm," the soldier gets up, "I must check on officers, they are getting drinks in preparation for operation ahead." With a simple hum, the crew member scrolled back under the BMP and started to work on anything else down there.

The soldier started to pass some civilians, who were sitting on some plastic chair and watching the soldiers go about. He paused by them, and decided to ask them how things are doing. 

"Citizens," he began, slinging his rifle behind him, "What is life for you?" 

One of them snapped her head at the soldier and gave an exasperated laugh, "How is life?" at that, she began to go on a bit of a tangent,"Нас ядеркой разбомбили, и вот услышал недавно что америкозы самих себа смогли ударить." Same old it seems.

He leans up, "Да, and it is because of some морскими чудовищами, is silly, Да?" She shakes her head.

"They get that, and we get to fight our fellow sisters and our brothers?" she spits out something, looks like some sort of gum, "Is bullshit."

The soldier stands up, "I understand," he looks around, "But I'd rather fight something we know than fight whatever the Americans are stuck fighting." She pauses for a moment and just takes a swig of her drink.

"Makes sense, Да," she stops and stares at him, "Give those traitors hell."

"We will, we will." The soldier looks at the other person and gives them a salute, before walking away. He began moving towards a hotel that was transformed into a local command center. 

From there, he can find his captain and his officers either drinking or preparing for the next mission. He saw some Wagner owned vehicles too, and he shrugged. The PMC was itching for some action, and perhaps they will be a great boon to the operation ahead.

Whatever it takes to win against the traitors. Besides, even Wagner itself was split as there was breaks who went to the ultranationalists and those who stayed with the Russian government, whether it be through payments or through some benefits.

They did ask for more autonomy back and it appears that the president was willing to follow through with that. 

The soldier starts entering the lobby of the hotel, seeing officers and lieutenants rush about, carrying orders or speaking with each other. He took a breath watching it all. Seeing the lifeblood of Russian command out here was a beautiful sight sometimes.

Or it can be a mess that makes you wish you had several bottles nearby.

That said, he starts going over to some of the rooms. The cafeteria area was designated as a command center, and he can see a bunch of wires that ran from the door from outlets on the outside to the in.

Inside was a flood of chatter and noise, words and jargon thrown about, intended to make operations and direct troops and other movement to where they have to go. The military present was hellbent on trying to get everything west of the Urals under Russian control definitively.

The ultranationalists were the only thing stopping them.

The Ultranationalists have taken over a massive section of central and eastern Siberia, while Western Siberia is increasingly contested thanks to the Russian military. The Far east was being handled by the Americans and the Japanese, at the behest of the new Duma in St. Petersburg.

As long as those Yankees can keep things over there occupied? Russia can focus efforts on consolidating everything they have in the east. For now, the Americans were doing a very good job at it.

Now it is up to them to get these Ultranationalists back over the Urals and into Siberia, where they can hopefully level the playing field.

The soldier goes nearer to the command center, the words of information and of orders getting louder before it got near deafening. He walked in, after taking a deep breath, knowing that deep down, he is going to need it if he wants to prevent himself from going insane.

"What is the threat we are facing when we begin our march east?" he heard from one end of the room. From that same end, he can also hear, "That traitor Barkov and all of his minions."

"Barkov? That bastard?" 

"Да! That one!" the soldier kept his laughter to himself as he heard immediately after:

"Well he can go fuck himself!" that simple proclamation almost made the man laugh as he finally approaches a center area, where using plexiglass maps and various computers, a grand strategy was being developed for so called 'Operation Katyusha'.

"Comrades," he heard, and he stood at attention as a few officers enter, including his sergeant and some lieutenants from other companies, "We have work to do."

A map was immediately laid out, and on any screens, it appeared in a digital lay out. Using a tablet, a commander began to modify markers and start drawing out how exactly they were going to beat some traitor asses.

"Listen up," his sergeant stated, readying his stylus. A few taps on the side and the various emblems and markers for Russian forces appeared. "We need mechanized infantry to push up on the north side, and surround enemy here," he tapped at a point, which was the last major road to the Ural mountains.

"We trap them there, they lose access to their supplies and reinforcements, is simple comrades." He starts again, "We need airborne forces to land into the city of Neftekamsk, that is where we are pushing and that is where enemy has significant hold." 

He looks up to see if anybody had anything to say, to which nobody had their hand up nor did anybody have anything to say. To which he was thankful so he can go back down and move on.

"I need some armored brigades to lead a spear into the city from the east," he draws that path, before also drawing another path, "I also need tanks to supplement the mechanized forces going to the west to cut them off and complete the encirclement."

After that was given, he began to go over the final details, "We will have jets watching over us, artillery on standby, all of the stuff we love." He chuckles as a cheer began to go up. The battleplan was fully laid out on the screen.

That was the most basic strategy, how it will all go on a tactical level? It completely and utterly depends on how the squads perform, how much intelligence they get, and if things will go according to plan.

The soldier was satisfied, so he began to go outside once more, as the commanders start finalizing the plans. His AK-12 tapped against his back lightly, as he saw the gloomy skies of Russia once more.

This entire area of the world has been growing gradually more unstable as a major center of power was now locked in a civil war. China has been gradually using this gap to start expanding more influence and trying to replace the fallen influence center with Beijing's reach.

Not many wanted that, and especially Europe. 

What was the reason that Dublin was sending out to the world?

Better the Devil ya know than the Devil ya don't.

And to Europe, the devil they knew was the Russian government, granted slightly more free. The devil they don't was the Ultranationalists and the Chinese. 

Brussels wants the Russians to take out the ultranationalists. But this soldier, like many others in this war, was wondering if they can do it?

Russia has been politically and economically crippled with the nuking of Moscow, the people were growing more away from the moderate conservatives and liberals that were running the country after Putin's departure.

The Military was doing better, but they were vulnerable to ideology. Which... now that I think on it, that's probably why they were sending the reserves to 'Terra'.

Preventing the factions from getting their hands on a massive reserve of malleable manpower and equipment.  

Saved the people from undergoing a large split or schism in the long run, but that means that this war needs a lot of outside support in order to keep everything going.

The only other alternative was fall to the Ultranationalists and allow them access to thousands of nuclear weapons that they might use more liberally, uncaring of the consequences that could follow.

And the only thing between nuclear annihilation across earth and peace for this side of the planet was the boots on the ground with the rifles, tanks, and planes. 

How fun...

The soldier chuckled to himself, one more, just as the whistles began to go off and the alarms began to ring. "Operation is go... I see," he firmly holds the AK-12, admiring it for what possibly the last time he can do it in peace.

Train horns was also heard, and so was the rumbling of trucks. American and German leased trucks in order to supplement transportation and logistics. 

Planes above began to fly off in the direction of the target city, loaded with missiles, dumb-bombs, and plenty of ammunition. They were going to soften the city up before the main operation can truly begin.

The soldier appreciated the noise around him. Watching everything come to life, with a purpose, with a goal in mind. And to him, it was glorious after doing nothing and feeling nothing for so long.

He gave a few more breaths, enjoying the sights, smells, and the organized chaos of it all.

Before finally marching off, to join his comrades in their goal of getting onto those APCs, helicopters, trucks, and IFVs.

Keeping a calm and steady face, amidst the whirring and the bells of helicopters preparing to head off to the most important operation to occur in this un-civil war.