Liberators

The Airport

Chapter Twenty-three: The Airport

Above Sonolovichyrevko Airport, Rivymiyitevko

November 7, 2008 2355 Rivymiyitevko time (2155 Krakozhian time)

The mission to take Sonolovichyrevko Airport was far different from the one to take Rivymiyitevko Air Force Base. This time, there were no prisoners of war to rescue or help them retake the base. They had to take the base all by themselves.

Due to reports of a lack of anti-aircraft defenses in the airport, Vyacheslav Klimov had managed to convince Gavrina Kumilyova to commit to an overhead drop. Although the plan was dangerous on face value, Gavrina trusted Vyacheslav's judgment, which was why she had approved of it.

Now, ten thousand feet above ground, and outside the safety of the Antonov An-12 transport, Gavrina was beginning to have second thoughts. The mission had gone according to plan for the last few minutes, and common sense said that their good luck could only last for so long. Maybe that explained the presence of rows of Yakovlev Yak-1 fighter planes lined up in a peacetime formation below them, and why the whole airport was bathed in bright white floodlights. Surely, there was a reason behind those things, but right now she didn't know what it was.

After a hard landing of sorts, Gavrina had two men check the barracks for any signs of life. Their report was astounding, at the very least.

"Nothing?" she asked. "What do you mean nothing?"

"I mean there's nothing in here, Comrade Lieutenant," replied Adan Galdirov. "Nothing alive, at least."

"Everything a person needs to live is in here," added Kostya Seranovsky. "Food, water, clothes, toiletries; this place is full of them. All that's missing are the people who used them."

"We found a few places where the anti-aircraft guns had once been, but obviously, they're gone now," said Galdirov. "It looks like they left behind that ZPU over there, though." He pointed at the weapon in question.

"I wonder why," said Seranovsky.

"Go and find out," Gavrina ordered.

"I guess we went through all that hype for nothing," said Vyacheslav as the two privates left to man their defensive positions.

"Da," replied Gavrina. "Send the mission success signal. I have to stretch my legs."

As Vyacheslav was about to speak on his radio, he heard a series of loud booms coming from afar. For a few seconds, he thought it was thunder, and then suddenly, the runway exploded in a geyser of hot rocks. "What the hell?" he shouted to everyone in general and to no one in particular.

"Fire!" The four SU-76 self-propelled guns parked side by side on Great Patriotic War Avenue loosed off another volley, and the 2600th Platoon of the 100th Motor Rifle Division advanced slowly towards the gate that separated Sonolovichyrevko Airport from the rest of the city. Its commander, Lieutenant Dimitar Kezhanka, was leading the attack on foot; he had turned over his T-72 to another tanker named Pavlokovsky, who was more than eager to prove that the lieutenant had made the right choice. Meanwhile, he was being supported by the 5th Mobile Artillery Company of the newly resurrected Rivymiyitevko Provincial Militia, which was, for the time being, made up of Krakozhian reservists.

"Bring down that gate!" ordered Kezhanka. Pavlokovsky replied with a single shot from the T-72's cannon, which broke through the gate's locks before slamming harmlessly into a concrete wall. Crossing the street, the T-72 ran through the already broken gate and entered the airport. Suddenly, Kezhanka's radio crackled and blared, "Krakozhian Army unit, cease fire! Cease fire!"