Liberators

Behind Bars

 Chapter Six: Behind Bars

 Rivymiyitevko Air Force Base

October 2, 2008 0932 Rivymiyitevko time (0532 Krakozhian time)

The Rivymiyitevko Air Force Base was a simple airfield, with only a single paved runway running the length of the complex. The control tower and administrative facilities were located north of the runway, and the crew quarters and aircraft hangars were south. But it was the group of huts beside the control tower that was an obvious addition because it was a prison camp.

The prison camp was erected upon the conclusion of the Arctic Revolution to hold two thousand prisoners of war, members of the Rivymiyitevko Provincial Militia and the Krakozhian Army. There were about two hundred huts inside the complex, with each hut accommodating ten to twenty people inside. There was also a medical shack which served as the prisoners’ hospital, as well as a few recreational huts. All in all, the living conditions inside the camp were better than those in Sonolovichyrevko.

The inmates and guards kept a cordial relationship with each other, at least as cordial as their conflicting ideologies would allow. The prisoners were allowed to work in the administration complex, decoding intercepted Krakozhian radio and message traffic, but only under constant supervision. They were also allowed visits to the nearby town of Gratavsky, where rumors were saying resistance leader Mikhail Dopov had based his operations.

A man wearing the khaki combat uniform of the Rivymiyitevko Provincial Militia stared at the flight line beyond the fence that separated the prison compound from the rest of the airbase. Thirty MiG-19s had once been there when he was assigned to the base, but now, only nineteen remained, and more could be lost now that—something—was gaining air superiority over Rivymiyitevko. He had flown the MiG-19 before, trained pilots in it, and would have been his aircraft of choice had not newer aircraft like the Mikoyan MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-27 came along. For him, the Farmer was a clumsy yet reliable aircraft.

Aviation Major Vladimir Malenkov, former commander of the now-defunct 995th Air Wing of the Rivymiyitevko Provincial Militia, was a prisoner in his own land. Forced to surrender after the withdrawal of the Krakozhian Army, he still bore a grudge against the country that had left him and his men for dead. He was sufficiently isolated from the outside world that he didn’t know about the two conflicts Krakozhia had gone through a few years before, but he did know that something was agitating the people of Rivymiyitevko, and that made him think: could it really be the Krakozhians? Malenkov didn’t think it was possible, because the commander of the Krakozhian Army was a coward, and to think that he was finally coming back to the island was a huge leap of faith. He had no way of knowing that that man was already dead, abandoned by his people.

He watched as twelve MiG-19s landed on the runway. That was seven less MiGs than there were two days ago, which meant that they had gone on another mission against their enemy and lost. The pilots looked glum and sullen, as if they had lost the nerve to fight. It was very different from almost a week before, when those young pilots had been so eager to climb into their planes and kick some Communist butt.

Malenkov watched as six Chinese Q-5 fighters took off from the airfield, followed by four Sukhoi Su-7s. He had noticed recent influx of Chinese military hardware into the island during the last year, and he could safely bet that those fighters had once been part of the People's Liberation Army Air Force. He could still see the red star with Chinese lettering on some of the aircraft.

Malenkov waved for a man talking to a Rivymiyitevko soldier through the fence. "What did you say to him?" he asked when the man arrived.

"STDs were on the rise once again, Comrade Major," replied the man. "I've been giving him some of the pills you told us to make. It's amazing, Major; they do work. How come?"