Continuing…
He smiles, pockets the money, and scurries off to accomplish his tasks.
I’m sitting in the darkened, warm, and well-used pub; sipping at my drinks, puffing on my cigar and noting that I was more or less alone here. I was enjoying my comfort of solitude and familiar surroundings greatly.
Suddenly, a gruff hand grips my right shoulder.
I hear a guttural voice complain “Why don’t you put out that fucking smelly cigar?”
My Hapkido training kicked in as I was about to spin around and clock the klutz that dared intrude on my seclusion and risked to grab my person.
However, there was something familiar about the voice that made me hold my hand in the split second before I was to deliver a stunning kidney-punch.
“Toivo!”, I shouted, “You gnarly bastard! What the actual flying fennec fox fuck are you doing here in Moscow?”
Toivo has already backed up, out of swing or kick range, and is laughing out loud.
“You should have seen yourself jump!”, he chortles, “I didn’t know you still had it in you, ya’ old fart.”
“Yeah”, I snicker back, “And you’re still one deaf MOFO.”
Toivo laughs long and loud as he helps himself to one of my cigars, and the seat on Mahogany Ridge next to me.
“Still, Toiv”, I continue, “You haven’t answered me. What the hell you doing in Moscow during this briskly foul month of the equally foul year 2020?”
“Just whorin’ around for money”, Toivo chuckles as he instructs the just returned barkeep to make with new rounds of drinks. “As usual. No one else out schmoozing for oilfield services during the lockdown. I can’t afford not to have work, so I’m taking advantage of having a working immune system and flying all over setting up contracts. Working a treat, I might add…”
“So”, I reply between sips, “Still have your own service company. That’s rare in this day and age. With all this COVID crapola, even the big guns are hurting bad.”
“That’s right”, Toivo adds as he filches my new Montgolfière lighter and fires up his cigar.
“They can’t just order people indefinitely indoors and want everyone to work from home. Does not work that way for me or my guys. Seriously difficult to do a workover or well completion over the phone. I pay real well and ensure my people take all precautions and get tested after every job. A few got the ‘Vid’, and I paid for everything until they feel they can return to work. Haven’t lost a soul and damned if I’m going to let that happen on my watch. But damned if I’ll let any of my people go, cut hours, half-time, or close-up shop either. Common sense, situational awareness, and ‘don’t be a fucking idiot’ goes a long way in the world today.”
“Having a well-tuned and actively working immune system doesn’t hurt as well”, I add, as I finish up the bowl of Irish Stew; which was incredible, as usual.
“So where you off to this time, Rock?”, Toivo asks. “Or are you just returning from a vacation out in Yakutsk? I mean, it is November…”
“Nope”, I reply between sips and high signs to our bartender for another round. “I’m only here for the convenience of some of my handlers. I’m actually headed to South America, and that’s as much as I can tell you unless I immediately neutralize you afterwards.”
“Ya’ know”, Toivo says without a hint of irony, “That line is a trite cliché. Except when it comes from you. Fine. Need to know basis and I don’t need to know. Gotcha.”
“Sorry”, I reply, “It’s really nothing personal, but the fewer who know what I’m up to these days, the better off the world will probably be.”
“Yeah”, Toivo replies, “I thought you were doing some academic schtick. Getting another couple of degrees or some shit like that.”
“Who says I can’t do both?” I chuckle in return. “Yeah, I’m teaching at [REDACTED] university and getting my DSc. In the meantime, I take odd jobs for fun and profit.”
Toivo accepted that and as long as I was on expenses, he decided to see how much hypermath he could use in running up an enormous bar tab. Over drinks and some bar snacks, he told me he was headed back to the US and home for the holidays.
“Shit!”, I exclaimed, “I completely forgot that it was Thanksgiving this week. Thanks, Toiv. I’ve got to make some calls and get some food catered.”
Toivo snickers and makes some reference as to how I can recall the chemical formula for Eggletonite [(Na,K,Ca)2(Mn,Fe)8(Si,Al)12O29(OH)7.11(H2O) if you must know], but can’t remember my own damn phone number.
“Priorities, Herr Toivo, priorities,” I say as I’m dialing the local caterer back home. I make certain Es and the girls have their Thanksgivings taken care of…
A few hours later, Toivo’s flight is called and we part after a manly handshake ensues. We pledge to get together, families and all, once the holidays are over. Maybe the new year might just be a little less revolting than the year we just endured.
Flight time from Moscow to Caracas is just under 15 hours and I’ve got at least two more to wait until boarding. I check the flight tote board and note that besides Aeroflot, there’s another flight to Caracas on another airline, this one from Turkey. It leaves in an hour, but a quick call to the airlines quashes the idea that I can get out of Dodge, as it were, a bit earlier.
So, I waste an extraordinary amount of time and money in the Irish Pub. I can’t smoke on the flight, nor in the waiting area, nor anywhere outside the Pub, so I sit and fume like a foundry chimney until they call my flight.
Once again, it’s Business Class on Aeroflot and once the snickering over my attempts at Russian die down, the flight crew were top-notch. The plane seems almost brand new, it was clean, painted where it was supposed to have paint, carpeted where carpet would be a good idea and even the heads sparkled.
After a short taxi to our take-off runway, we were wheels-up once again, heading west this time.
The flight was 15 or so hours long so I had several pre-nap tots, took a great snooze in the mostly empty aircraft, tried to watch the Russian version of an Avengers movie (The Guardians, 2017. Get a copy. You won’t regret it.) while trying, and failing, not to laugh too much. After a lovely Russian repast of black and red caviar, smoked sturgeon and salmon, blinis and borscht, I decided to have another nap, to bank some snooze-time as I had no idea what I’d be excepting once I land in Venezuela.
I am jolted awake by Captain Kangaroo and his overly bouncy touchdown at Maiquetía "Simón Bolívar" International Airport. Here we taxi for what seems like another eternity before we finally find an empty jetway and squeeze the oddly non-Russian-built Boeing 777-300ER into space for our deplaning pleasure.
Caracas airport is not world-renowned, or perhaps it is more than just infamous. Many, many airlines, including all US carriers, refuse to fly here due to labor strikes, crime, shortage of qualified ground personnel, stolen baggage, and problems with the quality of jet fuel and maintenance of runways. Needless to say, add the COVID to this stew of infamy, and the whole bloody airport is practically empty.
I’m off the plane, down the jetway, and am greeted by a for once, a non-euphemistically monikered brace of Federales.
“You are Dr. Rocknocker”, the one on the left, blocking my passage, asks.
“Yes, sir. That’s me.” I reply in my inimitable style of international amity.
“You will come with us.” The brusquely says.
“Ah. Well, umm, you see, no I won’t. There’s this little problem of identification.” I note, “You characters may know who I am and should be awed enough by that, but I have no idea if you say you are who you really say you are. Papers, please?”
Yep. That’s me. Giving the police and/or military the business in their own country.
“We need to show you nothing. You will come with us now.” The other unsmiling dolt says.
“Now gentlemen”, I say as I pull out my cellphone telephone, and hit speed dial. “Let’s see what Senor Nicolás Maduro has to say about all this.”
That’s right. I’m ringing the president of the country. I have a ‘special number’ to cut through all the red tape.
The two Federales look on in either hilarity or despair.
“Hello? Senor Maduro, por favor? Bueno. They’re going to connect me” I say to the befuddled guards.
“Buenos dias, Cilia...Com esta?” I cover the phone, “It’s his wife Cilia. Evidently Sr. Maduro is indispose.”
The two federales go white when I put Cilia Flores on speaker.
“Si, gracias. Just got in, and there’s these two characters here demanding I go with them. Did Carlos arrange a welcoming party for me? He did? Bueno. Their names? Let me ask…”
“You, on the right. Name for Senora Maduro?” I ask politely. “Come, come, let’s not keep the president’s wife waiting”, I say, snapping my fingers.
“César Fontana Braz” stammers the first.
“Armando Quadros Garcia” stutters the second.
“Cool. Cesar and Armando. Names go in book.” I say as I ring off the phone after politely asking Cilia to have Carlos give me a ring when he is not so occupied.
“Now, Cesar and Armando, where were we?” I asked, smiling like a reptile.
They were falling all over themselves getting airport transport so we could go and collect my luggage, and get the proper stamps through passport control and customs. They blanch when they see my Red Diplomatic Passport. The Russians are the only remaining friends of the current administration and that situation is tenuous as best.
Hanging by a Damoclean thread is more appropriate.
Once we breeze through customs and passport control without so much as a flinch, I get a message that my reservations at the JW Marriott hotel have been received and approved. The hotel is only a dozen miles from the airport and Cesar and Armando are trying mightily to ingratiate themselves by finding the least corrupt taxi.
As if by magic, Lucas shows up and makes a big scene that he will take the situation over from here. There is some staccato, machine-gun level hypervelocity Spanish going on, and I’m in way over my head linguistically.
So, I do what I normally do in such situations.
I pull out an emergency flask and fire up a cigar to await the outcome of this verbal boxing match.
Suddenly as it started, it ends with Cesar and Armando skulking off empty-handed and Lucas looking at my cigar longingly.
Of course, I offer him one.
And ask what that was all about.
“Each wanted a different cab for you as it was one run by his relations. Everything here is relations and kickbacks. You will quickly learn anything is available, just have to ask the right cousin, uncle or monster-in-law” Lucas chuckles at his own little joke.
“Right, Luc”, I quickly agreed, “Things never change around here. It was that way when I first came to Venezuela some 35 years ago.”
Lucas realizes he’s trying, metaphorically speaking, to teach his grandmother to suck eggs, as I was in Venezuela way back when even before he was born. Just a little humility lesson from the Doctor, free of charge.
Lucas stashes his filched cigar, grabs my luggage, and stows it in the boot of the car. I have to sit in the back of the sedan as Lucas has all his tat covering the passenger seat. Laptop, cellphone, GPS, several errant dossiers, a bottle of Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva Rum, an eight pack of Cerveza Tovar, his service revolver and a couple of speed loaders, his sap…just the necessities.
I barely have time enough to sit and Lucas is punching the throttle, blaring the horn and we’re off to the hotel.
I do love driving in South America so much. I quickly tuck my hot-loaded Glock into a shoulder holster and don my Agency vest.
Just as a precaution. There are banditos at large around here.
But, they were all either siesta-ing or couldn’t keep up with Lucas as he careened around one corner and slalomed around another. Soon, I found myself standing as the only gringo. Hell, the only other vertical biped, at the front desk of the hotel, waiting for my check-in.
Suddenly, appearing apparently out of the vapor, one Chief Hotel Clerk, one Jose Antonio Hidalgo Juan Antonio Enríquez, Jr., asks if I have a reservation and if I was alone.
“Yes to both”, I replied as Lucas had someplace where I didn’t ask and he didn’t tell me where he was bunking for the night. Just that he would be calling around 0900 so he could partake of the hotel’s famous buffet breakfast, all 100 or so meters of it. Then he’ll take me to the Presidential Palace as I have an appointment with my old buddy, Herr El Presidente.
I am checked in and escorted by the bellman to my suite. I thought it was odd that when we got off the elevator on my floor, he was replaced with another person, one Chief Bellman Xabier, and he’d be escorting me to my room.
“Things is just plain weird in Venezuela”, I mused to myself as we made the slog down the long, carpeted hall towards my “Vice Presidential” suite. Seems the Presidential Suite was constantly on reserve in case the real President wanted a room.
As we’re shuffling down the corridor, I notice the nametag on my “Chief Bellman” looks as if it had gone through the laundry many, many times, it was that battered and washed out. And while he had one hand on my luggage as we wheeled along, he kept his other hand in his right front pocket.
“Must be concerned about pickpockets thereabouts”, I thought to myself.
We arrive at my suite and he asks for my card-key, which was unusual even in Venezuela. Most bellmen, particularly the Chief Bellman, would be carrying a master-card to unlock the doors for any swell or VIP (vaguely important person).
“Well, here you go”, I said with a flourish, as I swiped the card myself and let both of us into the suite.
Xavier entered first, and I followed close behind.
I tossed my briefcase with all my irreplaceable papers and emergency flasks and cigars on the bed when Xavier asks if I’d like for him to hang my clothes.
“Sure”, I said, from the depths of the minibar. I was interested in seeing if there was any Pisco Capel available, as I like that stuff just fine.
Xavier is taking his time going through a couple of shirts, a spare pair of pants, and my unmentionables from my Scramble Bag, when he sees that I have a spare wallet, a couple of Zenith's and my Breitling Emergency watch in a separate zipped close but unfortunately not independently locked case. He suddenly stiffens, as he doesn’t realize that I’m watching him from the mirror in the back of the minibar.
He looks at me, at the watches, at me, at the watches again, the door, out the window, and around the room.
He pockets my Breitling and Zenit watch quick as a bunny fucks as I pretend to be ever so engrossed in with what the minibar was stocked.
I’m making idiot noises to distract him as I see he’s finally hung all my clothes. Without turning, I ask him if he’s going to return those watches or if I will be forced to kill him.
He solidifies some more, stammers, and pulls out a scabby looking straight-bladed knife. He stands there behind me making the first overtures of a series of really bad life decisions.
With a fresh cold beer in my left hand, I turn around and point my Glock, of caliber millimeters ten, point-blank between his eyes.
“Now I’m not saying that you should drop that knife. Nor am I saying that you should return my watches. However, this is a Glock ten-millimeter pistol, one of the most powerful handguns in the world, and at this range would blow your damn fool head clean off. It carries eight ‘Eviscerator 145 grain Black Talon’ hollow point cartridges in the magazine, along with eight 10mm ‘Auto 155 grain Xtreme Penetrator Defense®’ loads with another up the pipe. The one question you have to ask yourself is would I miss ventilating your skull all 17 times or only 16? The real question really boils down to: ‘do you feel lucky, punk?’
“Well, do you?” I asked as I sipped my beer while tapping my foot in irritation waiting for his answer.
Xavier suddenly has an attack of the mutes. I think he’s trying to say something, hoping to whatever deity he prefers that they won’t be his last words. He is also transfixed by what appears to be the Holland Tunnel that suddenly appeared and is staring him right in the face.
I set my beer down on the table and rack a round into the Glock’s guts just to let Xavier know that I’m not fucking around. If he doesn’t make a choice pretty damn quickly, that I’ll gladly paint the back wall of my suite with a fascinating new color: “Hint of brain”.
He drops the knife to the floor, and slowly, painfully slowly retrieves my watches and sets them on the table. He also irrigates his trousers soundly as I snort all sorts of nasty, and personal, derision his way and nary vary my aim one millimicron.
“OK”, I say, “Good boy. Now, drop your wallet, keys, and anything else you have in your pockets on the table as well.”
“Oh, señor…” he begins to protest.
I nudge his forehead with the Glock and remind him I’m not anywhere near the mood for fucking around.
“Look, Scooter”, I say in my most threatening ‘you do know that you’re keeping me from my drink’ voice. “Either you do as I ask, or your family will be meeting to split up your belongings. When I see President Marcos tomorrow, we’ll both have a good chuckle about some idiot fake bellman and how they can’t catch high-velocity lead slugs worth a damn.”
“But, señor”, he continues to protest, “I am poor. My family is poor. I only have a few céntims…”
“I didn’t ask for your biography or family history, dick-cheese”, I growled, “Now give, asshole” as I pressed the Glock a few millimeters forward.
He empties his pockets and I eventually lower the Glock.
“Now run, you cur”, I growled even louder, “You run and tell all the other curs that Doc Rock is comin’ And hell’s comin’ with me. You hear me? Hell’s comin’ with me!”
He evidently didn’t get the movie reference, but he hit the hallway flat-out running as I slammed the door, parked the Glock back in its holster and called the front desk.
“Hello? Front desk? Yeah, Doc Rocknocker here in the VP suite. In about two minutes you’re going to see some sorry schmuck in soggy slacks come screaming through the lobby. He tried to rob me in my room, but I got the drop on him. Please send someone up to recover his possessions. What you do about and with them is of no concern of mine. And send up a bucket of ice, some bitter lemon and a bottle of best vodka. Got that? Cheers.”
“Fucking local idiots”, I muse.
The real concierge arrives a few minutes later with my order. He also carefully takes the departed miscreants' belongings, telling me that maybe they can get his fingerprints and have him prosecuted.
“One more minute and I’d have all the blood spatter analysis for DNA you could handle”, I snorted as I tipped him generously and bade him out the door.
I drew a bath and double-checked the doors were soundly locked. I’m not paranoid but it’s a good thing the Glock is primarily made of polymers. They don’t rust.
The next morning, I’m fresh as a daisy downstairs at the breakfast buffet with Lucas. Of course, I had on my best shorts, Hawaiian shirt, and Agency vest, but I decided to leave the Glock behind in my room in the safe. The magazines I left in the safe behind the check-in desk. Not every day you get a private meeting with the president of a country.
I need to be a bit vague about the meeting, but other than the fine rum and cigars I was offered, I was given a series of tasks by El Presidente in exchange for carte blanche travel in his country.
He wants a signed copy of the book I am researching in Venezuela when it goes to print.
He also wants a copy of the data I uncover before I leave the country. Believe me, the original data will be scrubbed and gone long before I present it to El Presidente. He’ll get the ‘Reader’s Digest’ version.
Finally, he wants me to extend an invite to Esme to come to Venezuela and meet with him and the First Lady.
I can’t promise anything, but if shopping is involved, I doubt even a shooting war could dissuade Esme.
Figuring that I’ve done a full day’s work as it stands, I decided to have Lucas drive me back to the hotel where I need to makes some serious notes in several dossiers. I also need to call Esme to tell her of the invitation at the behest of El Presidente and the First Lady.
I place a cellphone telephone call to my darling Esme and we have an absolutely lovely conversation. She’s thrilled at the prospect of going shopping with the First Lady of the country and hobnobbing around the land as a VIP. She regales me with the tales of Khan and the ravens. How they steal from his outside food bowl and he’s absolutely inept on chasing them because they take flight before he can get within 20 feet.
Perhaps if he wasn’t barking a blue streak, he’d be more stealthy and successful.
Esme tells me that Agents Rack and Ruin have been calling all day, wondering where the hell I was.
“Is there some problem there?” She asks me.
“Well, the country is on the brink of civil war. There is factional fighting. Rampant inflation: a cup of coffee now costs 1.55m bolivars; an increase of 6,639% in the past 12 months. The economy’s all but collapsed. Bolivars are damn near worthless, the US dollar is the hardest of hard currency. Millions have left the country and there’s widespread crime, cases of killings, torture, violence, and disappearances. Shortages of staple items, as well as medical care…you know, sort of the ‘Just after the wall fell’ sort of Russia Syndrome.” I replied.
“Well”, Es replies, “Rack and Ruin are having kittens. They’re desperate to talk with you. Call them and tell them it’s not all that bad.”
“Well”, I reply, “It’s actually worse, but I didn’t want to upset you.”
“Are you safe?” Es asks.
“Aw, hell”, I snort, “I’m fine. I’ve been through a lot worse. Still, if Rack and Ruin are antsy, best pull the big brown box out of my office. After I talk to R&R, they’ll probably be wanting to send me some bits and pieces. I’d prefer my own stuff if you know what I mean.”
“Will do”, Es replies. She knows the shorthand for ‘I want my own large-caliber weapons’ and associated items of personal defense.
“I’ll get ahold of Rack and Ruin”, I note, “They are going to want to send me some kit, if things are all that nasty, even though I only saw a bit of low-octane attempted crime. Just pull my ditty-box and I’m sure they’ll send someone over to collect it.”
We covered a few more items, professed our undying love and I rang off.
Once I had procured about 300 milliliters of Old Thought Provoker, on ice, I placed the call to Virginia.
Agents Rack and Ruin are more or less unflappable, but today, they were flapped.
They wanted me to exercise(!) extreme caution. They wanted me to only spend a few more days in-country. If nothing else, they wanted me to chuck the whole fucking project and hightail it home.
“Are you high?”, I asked of the perpetually sober Agent Rack. “Quit a job before it’s finished? You know as well as I that’s not the Agency way. And it’s not my way either. Perish the thought.”
Agent Ruin takes over the phone and tries to reason with me.
I reply that I’ve never failed to complete an assignment before and I’d be goddamned if I’d let a little thing like a shithole country’s 33 and 1/3rd revolution run my happy ass off location.
“OK, then”, Agent Rack exhales in defeat, “Then sit tight for a day or so. We’ll get you a parcel through the Diplo Pouch. It’ll contain a few items that will make us all rest easier here.”
“OK, that I can do”, I reply with a snort, “Pantywaists”, I sneer under my breath. “Since you’re sending some goodies my way, have someone who’s not afraid of huge dogs drop by the house and have them include my big, brown box in the DP.”
They readily agreed and told me to expect the pouch, which can vary from the size of a tin of tobacco to something big enough to overnight an aircraft carrier, within 24 hours.
“OK”, I relent, “I’ve got a bunch a writing to do after meeting with El Presidente today. This will work out great. I get ample time to update my dossiers and you don’t have to worry so much about your best agent getting a boo-boo.”
“Doctor”, Agent Ruin ripostes, “Please treat this situation with all affordable circumspection. This is no charade; this is a potentially real, and doubly dangerous, situation. Pay heed.”
“Agents”, I snort after pouring another 300 mils of Old Thought Provoker over ice, “You are speaking to a Doctor of Geology, one who is an international Master Blaster and plays with home-made nitroglycerine for shits and giggles. ‘Circumspection’ is my middle name.”
“We thought it was ‘Danger’…”, They replied as one.
“Well”, I chuckled back, “That’s my Confirmation name…”
Somewhat mollified, Agents Rack and Ruin again warn me to be careful and to keep an eye out for a parcel that should arrive within 24 hours.
“Thanks, guys”, I say before ringing off, “What would you ever do without me?”
I hung up before they had time to formulate a reply.
So, with nothing much else to do, I resigned myself to getting all my necessary writing out of the way. I needed to formulate another of my unbreakable codes, encrypt all my writings and do the dossier needful so I could send off the information before anything goes south.
To be continued…⇝

OPERATION - MARCH OF TEN THOUSAND

Part of the People's Federation of Canada's - WAR PLAN - 14
Approved by the National Champion - Elizabeth "WEEABOO" May
Approved by the Director of the Armed Forces - Felix Moraine
In cooperation with the United Commonwealth Realms
Note all operations are occurring concurrently
SITUATION AND INFORMATION

Situation: With Chinese operations beginning in North-Eastern Russia alongside Japanese expeditionary forces, it becomes ever important that the People's Federation of Canada acts in order to eliminate the growing Unity threat in our backdoor. Therefore the East Watch and Black Watch alongside other units have been ordered to make immediate landfall establishing footholds within the Siberian Region.
This will prove to be a primarily maritime operation with heavy focus on the use of air superiority and specialized units in arctic operations including the multiple Canadian Ranger Chapters designated for Arctic Operations.
Further under the support of overwhelming air superiority, we will seek to operate freely within the Far North after sufficiently destroying the Unity military grasp on the Far North. The ultimate goal is to see the Unity immediately surrender the Far North deeming it unfeasible to retake, as the Unity will suffer from the Arctic Winter in ways that Canadian Forces will not thanks to extended training in the field. Additionally it is hoped that the Chinese-Japanese attacks on Unity Siberia/Kamchatka/Pacific Russia will see the majority of Northern Forces dispatched and moved to differing positions.
Throughout operations the United Commonwealth Realms will be acting in tandem to ensure the maximum efficiency in achieving tactical and strategic goals against the Unity. For the time being - Canadian and Commonwealth forces will be cooperating closely in order to ensure the destruction of a common enemy that has proven it's danger to world security on numerous occasions.

Involved Units

1st Canadian Corp
6th Canadian Division

11th Canadian Chapter (Black Watch/Alpha): "Six Feet Down" is the Motto of the premier SIDs Chapter, the Black Watch Special Infantry Deployment Regiment alongside their Special Armoured Deployment Regiment are one of the few elite SIDs regiments, and given the extreme danger of the Unity it has been decided that the use of multiple SIDs regiments will be required. The Black Watch are also our most outwardly experienced SIDs regiment excluding the Glamour Boys - having operated in Timor Leste, Guyana, and multiple other frontiers. They additionally received arctic weather training in the former USA NWTC which will prove extremely helpful moving forward.
12th Canadian Chapter (East Watch/Omega): If the Black Watch are heading Six Feet Down, then the East Watch are always First Into Hell. They will be deploying ahead of the Black Watch in an effort to secure an operational area for future use. Additionally they have received arctic training in the former USA NWTC just as their sister chapter has.

7th Canadian Division The 7th Canadian Division is one of our premier Reconnaissance and Arctic Warfare Divisions, working in tandem alongside the 13th Canadian Division, they have multiple legacy era Arctic Training Operations under their belt alongside further arctic training and including active deployment experience in Alaska.

13th Canadian Chapter (Pinewood Foresters/9th RADR): Consisting of the 3rd Mobile Reconnaissance Regiment and 9th Rapid Armored Deployment Regiment, the 13th Canadian Chapter combines "Forester capabilities" and rapid deployment capabilities, as seen in the "Important Army Formations" piece. Additionally as one of the main units involved during the Assault on Juneau - they come with additional combat and live Arctic training experience.
14th Canadian Chapter (North Wind/4th AR): Consisting of the 5th Infantry Regiment "North Wind" and 4th Armoured Regiment, the 14th Canadian Chapter has been trained both in arctic warfare and cold-weather warfare primarily in CFB Suffield, CFB Enterprise, and various CFS-SB locations in the Arctic. Additionally as one of the main units involved during the Push for Fairbanks - they come with additional combat and live Arctic training experience.

11th Canadian Division:

21st Canadian Chapter (Glamour Boys/3rd SADR): Consisting of the 48th Special Infantry Deployment Regiment and the 3rd Special Armoured Deployment Regiment, the 21st Canadian Brigade is a specialist brigade, acting as one of our elite "cleaner crews" capable of taking on any warzone and operate in any environment. They have an additional bonus of having operated within the Alaskan Front during the American Civil War and therefore come with greater experience.
22nd Canadian Chapter (North Shore/2nd AR): Consisting of the 3rd Infantry Regiment and 2nd Armoured Regiment, the 22nd Brigade is a premier "standard-infantry" brigade, capable of all forms of operations. They have an additional bonus of having operated within the Alaskan Front during the American Civil War and therefore come with greater experience.

12th Canadian Divison: the 12th Canadian Division features the premier Forest MRR unit. Having experienced extensive woodland and highland legacy operations and having been involved in past deployments to the dense Jungles of Brazil the units featured within the 12th are of the utmost elite. They additionally benefit from having experienced live-arctic conditions during Alaskan operations

23rd Canadian Chapter (Westies/Columbian Dragoons): Consisting of the 6th Infantry Regiment and 5th Armoured Regiment, the Westies-Columbian are a premier standard Canadian Brigade and had been primarily involved in the push to Gakona, Alaska during the American Civil War.
24th Canadian Chapter (Simcoe Foresters/Yukon Rangers): The Simcoe Foresters and Yukon Rangers are our premier Mobile Reconnaissance Regiment specializing in forest environments. The Yukon Rangers being the 5th Rapid Armoured Deployment Regiment will also prove useful in ensuring fast responses to potential threats. They also participated in the push for Gakona during the American Civil War

13th Canadian Division: The 13th Canadian Division is one of the primary Arctic Divisions, having experienced multiple legacy era Arctic Training Operations and conducting further arctic training alongside active deployment experience in Alaska.

25th Canadian Chapter (Snow Walkers/Shilo's Dragoons): The 25th Canadian Chapter is made up of one of our premier Arctic-Cold Weather Infantry Regiments/Armoured Regiments, the 9th Regiment "Snow Walkers" and the 6th Armoured Regiment "Shilo's Dragoons" are specialists in harsh arctic-cold weather environments. Additionally as one of the main units involved during the Push for Fairbanks - they come with additional combat and live Arctic training experience.
26th Canadian Chapter (Lucky 13/North Star): The 26th Canadian Chapter was the brigade initially deployed to defending the Canadian Arctic, ergo the 13th Infantry Regiment was unofficially known as the "Lucky 13". Their constant training will prove extremely useful during this operation. Additionally as one of the main units involved during the Push for Fairbanks - they come with additional combat and live Arctic training experience.

1st & 2nd Canadian Rangers Regiment: The Canadian Rangers which themselves are Locally raised infantry based on the idea of army-trained reconnaissance, scouts, guides, and independent/semi-solo operators will be operating alongside Canadian Army personnel in order to establish sovereignty and control over the vaster and far more isolated portions of the Unity Arctic/Siberia. They also benefit from having trained and actioned on said operational strategies during the Alaskan War in which Ranger Regiments proved crucial in wrestling for control over the vast Alaskan Wilderness.
Canadian Wildlife Services: Recently recruited expert hunters which even included Steven Rinella will be operating alongside Canadian Army and Ranger units in order to facilitate logistical concerns within the Arctic Tundra. These highly trained experts in hunting above the Arctic Circle, will prove invaluable to our operations which will see the environment as a far more dangerous thing than the Unity military presence in the area.
CANSOFCOM

Mobile Task Force 3 "Sunshine": MTF-3 "Sunshine" is specifically involved in counter-insurgency and anti-guerrilla warfare, trained both in the conducting but also hunting of insurgents. They are the premier MTF in terms of eliminating the "hard to find" organizational structures of insurgents, terrorists, and other irregular and non-conventional forces. The MTF-3 most recently conducted operations against American CSS operators successfully.
Mobile Task Force 9 "Denny's": MTF-9 is a "recovery" team, capable of rapid insertions to terminate or recover targets and trains for both urban and suburban warfare. Where the MTF-1 and standard army forces can conduct operations in "natural environments" the MTF-9 specializes in populated environments. The MTF-9 has also operated alongside other operations within Alaska, gaining increased arctic warfare experience
427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron (SOAS): The 427th is the Special Operations Aviation Squadron for CSOR. They provide aviation support to the JTF-2 and other special forces, and can operate in any environment or condition. They number at 300 and are divided into 3 teams of 100. The 427th has also operated alongside other operations within Alaska, gaining increased arctic warfare experience
343 Armed Aviation Overwatch Squadron AAOS: The 343 AAOS is designed as a specialized Armed Overwatch force with the objective being to protect and support other CANSOFCOM units in the field. Furthermore the 343 AAOS is also designed to be an elite team of pilots, in order to counter and eliminate elite hostile air units. They utilize lighter strike fighters and air superiority aircraft, unlike the current doctrine of Canadian Air Force units. This creates a highly versatile and aggressive unit, capable of easily destroying hostile elite air units from other countries.
JTF-3 Task Forces: A larger-scale unit designed to tackle special forces that operate in larger units such as lower level Spetnaz, American Army Rangers (And APR equivalents-Phoenix). The goal of the 5,000 strong JTF-3 which is broken into teams of 100, is to facilitate larger scale operations under the command and guidance of the JTF-2. And to facilitate operations under the broader CSOR.
Naval Tactical Operations Group: A small-scale unit as part of CANSOFCOM-NAVY, that will be assisting MTF-3 and JTF-1/3 in securing landing sites.

The Tsai Conglomerate: The Tsai Conglomerate will be providing logistical and combat support - augmenting Canadian Forces.
The Hudson Bay Company: The Hudson Bay Company which specializes in cold-weather warfare, will be providing combat and logistical support in order to augment Canadian Forces.
The Cascade Company: Is the Premier PMC Company, famed for taking St. Pierre and Miquelon among many other isolated and cold-weather locations.
The 1st Commonwealth Field Corp: The 1st Commonwealth Field Corps include officers with critical experience from OPERATION EXODUS.

OPERATIONAL INFORMATION

Operational Review: As Canadian Air Force and Navy operations continue to hammer the Unity techno-plague with extreme lethality - the Canadian Army supported on the ground by CANSOFCOM, Contractors, Canadian Rangers, and the Canadian Wildlife Services will begin marching through Russia with the intent to wrestle control over the Russian Far North.
Initial goals will include the establishing of basing areas within the Russian Arctic - following strikes as part of broader operations under [OPERATION WINGS OF FREEDOM](). Additionally Canadian Forces alongside Commonwealth and Pacific Republic Forces will move through Unity controlled Russia via NATO Allies.
Strict adherence to the Rules of Engagement are being demanded - which broadly means Kill On Sight, there are no innocent.

OP - LONE DARK

MAP
OP - LONE DARK represents an extremely important operation acted upon by the CANSOFCOM forces previously listed. The goal will be to secure future forward operating bases for larger numbers of Canadian Forces - and the operations will occur immediately following OP - EXECUTIONER and OP - DARK ANGEL while simultaneously receiving air superiority cover via [OP - FREEDOM]().
OP - LONE DARK has been split into three distinct categories, owing to the increasing threat as you move further south. We will cover each by phase.
Phase 1 - Green: Locations encircled in Green, represent the easiest targets for CANSOFCOM operations due to isolation and the destruction which will be caused by air and sea operations. They also represent important stepping stones into the Unity Lands, and will allow Canadian Forces to operate with impunity from highly secure air bases.
The CANSOFCOM will therefore following the total destruction of Russian Force Capabilities, launch simultaneous assaults on the airbases encircled in green, further supported by Navy and Air Task Forces to ensure victory. It is the hope that all defenses at all locations will be completely destroyed prior to the assaults made by Canadian CANSOFCOM (our special forces) in order to maximize our potential success. JTF-3 Teams (100 personnel per team x 2 teams per location) will launch their initial assaults against Sites 2, 4, and 5 - and will be heavily supported by Navy, Air, and Army personnel. Meanwhile the Naval Tactical Operations Group will be charged with the assault on location 1 while the MTF-3 "Sunshine"/a JTF-3 support team will be tasked in delivering the final blow against location 3. These choices have been made due to the presumed build-up or lack thereof of forces, allowing the JTF-3 teams to take the lesser defended locations while ensuring our most elite the NTOG and MTF-3 will handle the more defended locations.
In all cases however, the Unity lacks any significant Army personnel - and it is expected that the vast majority of survivors will be non-combatant support personnel who despite having the technical knowledge - have proven before that they can coordinate in excess but lack physical qualities and skills necessary to remain efficient. Once again it should be noted that the Air Force and Navy operations conducted against all locations - should ensure very little if any survivors.
Once the bases are secure and any Unity personnel remaining now eliminated, CANSOFCOM will begin the immediate reconstruction of airfields and bases using supplies provided by the Navy and Air Force in order to rebuild the airfields/logistical navy facilities for our own use moving forward. CANSOFCOM Forces will also establish pre-fabricated high-volume radio frequency emitters (radio towers) in order to bring down the Unity efficiency further.
Additionally Navy and Air units will deploy THAAD and Patriot systems to each location in green once secure, providing an additional layer of cruise missile and SAM Defense to ensure security moving forward alongside air superiority. Each green location will receive 1 THAAD System and 2 Patriot systems with full payloads.
Phase 2 - Purple: The Purple Phase will be conducted solely by MTF-3 "Sunshine"/JTF-3 Support and will move to take the purple location (6). Again the purple location will have received a secondary round of bombardment following the initial strikes in order to ensure that there will be no response. This operation will be conducted immediately after securing Green Location 3 in order to rapidly take control of the East Siberian Sea area. Once again we expect to face similar resistance as in Green Locations - however JTF-3 Team 2/3 (tasked with taking green location 2) will be present to support operations should it be necessary. Once secure, the same rebuilding procedures will occur, and the Purple Location will receive 3 patriot systems and will also be under the umbrella protection of the THAAD system in Green Location 3. Likewise with Green Locations, the Purple location will also receive pre-fabricated high volume radio frequency emitters.
Phase 3 - Blue: Phase 3 will not occur until forces of the Pacific, Commonwealth, and Canada move on their European based targets. This is to ensure that any Unity air or army forces moving to Blue Locations 7/8 are diverted to respond to the much larger forces moving on Murmansk and through Europe to Belarus. Additionally Blue Locations will receive have received a third round of bombardment and will be under the cover of Canadian/Commonwealth Air Superiority and so the taking of both locations should occur simultaneously and end in victory. Additionally movement on Blue Locations will not occur until the Commonwealth Navy is confident in it's control of the Barent/Kara Sea as part of OP - EXECUTIONER. However the taking of Blue Locations 7/8 is extremely critical to broader strategic goals as it will provide total air superiority for Canadian Forces moving forward.
Once NTOG/JTF-3/MTF-3 teams are confident in their security and with Commonwealth confidence in control of the Barent/Kara, they will move on locations 7/8 following additional air strikes. We once again expect there to be limited personnel as these are not commonly known or inhabited bases - and any reinforcements would have been turned back by the Air Superiority and Navy Superiority Operations. Once secure, the bases will each receive a THAAD System and 2 Patriot-3 Systems. This will when combined with future air and sea dockings, ensure the security of the bases and will guarantee our striking capabilities on the rest of Russia. Naturally damages to airfields and logistical depots will be repaired. Likewise with Green Locations, the blue locations will also receive pre-fabricated high volume radio frequency emitters.
Post Phase: Following the successful taking of the airfields in question, and with radio frequency emitters operating at full charge in order to reduce Unity capabilities (hopefully increasing our own defensive capabilities), CANSOFCOM units will begin augmenting forces in Murmansk and Yakutsk/Siberia. MTF-3 Sunshine and the JTF-3 teams will then be operating closely with Canadian Rangers as part of OP-RANGER while the NTOG focus on defense.

OP - HUNTER & RANGER
MAP

Similar to their operations during WAR PLAN - HOPE and as part of the Arctic Ranger program, Canadian Ranger Regiments will be tasked in reconnaissance and sovereignty control over the Canadian (formerly Russian) Siberia. As Canadian Rangers are recruited solely from Arctic/Alaskan Natives who specialize in subsistence living and isolated hunting/scouting operations, and are then trained to Canadian Infantry Standards, they will prove vital in wrestling for control over Siberia. Furthermore they are augmented by 20,000 professional hunters who specialize in arctic hunting and subsistence living and received limited Infantry Training before deployment. The OP - H&R has been broken into two distinct parts, coinciding with the growing air umbrella as part of OP - LONE DARK and OP - FREEDOM/EXTERMINATION.
Phase 1 - Yellow Phase: One Canadian Ranger Regiment alongside 10,000 professional subsistence hunters, operating from Canadian Arctic Explorer Vessels and Clarence Shipping Northwest Passage Freighters, will begin making landfall under the cover of air superiority and bombardment.
In the Pacific MAP region, following mass bombardment of Unity Towns within the region (all towns) under OP - EXTERMINATION, landings will be made at the now largely uninhabited/disarrayed towns in blue by standard infantry Canadian Rangers. Meanwhile Licensed Hunters will make landfall at completely uninhabited purple areas, and begin pushing in as recon units.
In the Arctic-Siberia MAP region, once again following mass bombardment of all towns under OP - EXTERMINATION, landings will be made both within the larger Bol'shoy Arkticheskiy Area, and also at the blue-outlined towns. It is once again expected that these towns will now be uninhabited thanks to the use of extreme force. Unlike the Pacific Region however, Hunters will be offered freedom to roam within the confines of the initial Yellow Lined Region and will work in far more proximity to Dikson and the Canadian Ranger units in the area.
In both cases, the goal of Canadian Rangers and Licensed Hunters will be to act as spotters and scouting units on the ground for the Navy and Air Force operations. Confirming the locations of towns and settlements and then remaining in the area until the strikes are followed through with. They then determine the approximate casualties before proceeding in ordering another strike or moving in to eliminate the wounded. As all Rangers and Hunters are operating within FSP-3/4 suits, they will be protected from Napalm, Incendiary, or White Phosphorous related munitions which are being used to ensure maximum destruction. However they will wait a period of 10-12 hours to ensure the affects of White Phosphorous have dissipated, while utilizing the Raven Mk.2 Drones for surveillance. The use of Raven Mk.2 Drones will additionally allow Rangers/Hunters extended distances for surveillance purposes - ensuring maximum security.
Phase 2 - Pink Phase: Following the successful reaching of Yellow Phase, and the taking of Purple Location 6. The Canadian Rangers and Licensed Hunters operating in Arctic Siberia and Pacific will begin working in tandem to bring a rough line of control up to the pink line on the map. Once again they will be acting as spotters/recon units in addition to maintaining logistical support for Canadian CANSOFCOM and Army Units operating under EASTWATCH OR LONG MARCH. The same protocols within Phase 1 still apply. Focusing on eliminating and scouting the smaller towns and settlements (below 20,000 inhabitants) which can pose a problem for other ongoing operations. Largely in thanks to the subsistence training, the Rangers and Hunters will be able to operate for extended periods of time within the Arctic - while receiving constant resupplies from mother ships and bases. However due to OP - FREEDOM/EXTERMINATION, they will also be inspecting towns such as Norilsk, Novy Urengoy, etc, however will avoid direct confrontation - instead relying on raids to ensure the death of the population centers.
Post Phases: Following the success of Phases 1/2, now uninhabited towns will be turned into forward operating bases for Ranger and Hunter units, receiving constant supply from Canadian Arctic Vessels and Air dropped supplies. This will help extend the range and time of solo-operators while also allowing Rangers and Hunters the capability to begin assisting in establishing further logistical support for Canadian Army units operating within the area. Additionally Rangers will begin assisting Canadian Army Engineers in establishing an ice-road (akin to those in Alaska that are used by semi-trucks) along the flat lands towards Yakutsk from the base of Tiski (Purple Circle)

OP - LONG MARCH

The 11th, 12th, and 13th Canadian Divisions under the 1st Canadian Corps have been tasked with securing a Canadian foothold in Eastern Siberia. This will be achieved following the completion of OP - EXECUTIONER and the establishment of OP - FREEDOM which will ensure complete naval (surface/sub-surface) and air dominance in the Eastern Siberian/Pacific Region.
Following the mass bombardment of Magadan, Balagannoye, Talon, Tauysk, Arman, Ola, and Sokol under OP - DARK ANGEL and with confirmation of naval supremacy, the 11th, 12th, and 13th Divisions under extreme carrier escort (2-4 CSGs/40 Submarines) will in BFG vessels move to make landfall at the areas around Balagannoye, Tauysk, and if Magadan appears to offer limited resistance - Arman as well. From here the 11th, 12th, and 13th divisions under cover of total air superiority and naval supremacy, will move along the P/R481 Roadway while also establishing a beachhead to receive Canadian Contractor landfalls. From here, the Canadian Army augmented by Canadian PMCs will move along the P481 until reaching the junction known as "Mask of Sorrow". It is expected that all towns including those being landed at, will have very little resistance both due to the lack of Russian Army units or QRF forces in the area - and as we are bombing them with White Phosphorous.
Once the Junction is reached, the 11th, 12th, and 13th Divisions will proceed to cut across the P481 towards the P-504 Main Highway alongside the Tsai Conglomerate Forces (Blue/Green Arrows), meanwhile the Hudson Bay Company will take up a defensive position within the Mask of Sorrow Region - establishing checkpoints and defensive points to ensure that Unity techno-plague movement does not occur beyond that point. Likewise a force of 10,000 Tsai Contractors will proceed to break off (green arrows) moving along the secondary road out of Magadan, once again establishing defensive positions. The City of Magadan which will have previously been heavily bombarded by cluster, white phospherous and a mixture of other munitions under OP - FREEDOM will have very little in the way of survivors. The Tsai and Hudson Contractors will therefore be expected to take control of the City of Magadan - utilizing whatever means necessary. Once control of Magadan is achieved - the process of eliminating any remaining Unity survivors will begin alongside the establishing of Magadan as a significant basing of port operations for resupply into the Siberian Pacific. MTF-9 Denny's will be supporting the Contractors in their assault on the City of Magadan, as they specialize in urban warfare.
The 11th, 12th, and 13th Divisions alongside Tsai Contractors will proceed to meet up with pre-established support units from the Canadian Rangers and Hunters as part of OP - H&R and will then move along the P-504 Major Highway in order to reach the nearby town of Sokol which also features a major airport. Sokol which will be a target of heavy bombardment prior the landings, will again be expected to be largely uninhabited due to the types of munitions used. As the Canadian Forces secure Sokol, the Canadian Army Engineers assigned to each Chapter will proceed to rebuild the Sokol airport if necessary - in order to facilitate deeper sorties into the Unity. This technique of "Mass Strike" under OP-FREEDOM followed by the Forces moving and establishing themselves in the next town, will continue until they reach Teply Klyuch at which point they will establish an extreme forward operating base and then will slowly begin moving forward again under the same principal as the air raids against Yakutsk will have been completed - with secondary phases beginning now.
For a clearer image of the road being utilized, see here from Magadan to Yakutsk.
As the Canadian Rangers and Hunters continue with their task of ridding the more isolated surrounding settlements of Unity presence - around the Canadian Army. The Canadian Army will begin the assault on Yakutsk supported by MTF-9 Denny's who would have completed the assault on Magadan will begin to assist the Canadian Army in the assault on the ruins of Yakutsk. With the vast majority of Unity Forces focused on the fight against the Chinese and Japanese, it is hoped that the air raids which isolated Yakutsk under OP - DARK ANGEL will be able to buy enough time for the approach and seizing of Yakutsk. Additionally any Unity forces attempting to move up the sole main road to Yakutsk from the South, or the smaller road from the West will be under constant attack by OP - FREEDOM and the Air Superiority which will continue to prevent a Unity approach on the city.
Canadian MTF-9 alongside the 11th, 12th, and 13th Divisions will launch the assault on Yakutsk using techniques learned from the Second American Civil War under OP-Watching Eyes. We will therefore semi-replicate the American Republic's own techniques against American Cities. Additionally they will be supported by FSP-5 Autonomous Android Soldiers which will assist in reducing overall casualties (not the AAS do not have sentience). Additionally river crossings will be made possible thanks to the high amount of combat engineer personnel and vehicles present for these operations. Furthermore due to the isolated nature of Yakutsk itself, being primarily isolated to the West bank of the Lena River, mobile SPG VII units will be able to operate within the East Bank area with impunity. Especially given the lack of a Yakutsk barrack of any equivalent unit size or equipment. Crossings into Yakutsk will be made once the vast majority of the cities population has been killed via the use of White Phosphorous and other similar munitions - and after time to dispel the poison has been given.
Furthermore throughout this time, the Tsai Conglomerate will be establishing logistical supply points along the P-504 akin to those found in Alaska, which will serve to act as a chain of supply/fallback positions for Canadian Forces pressing forward. This will significantly reduce logistical stress on all operations. Once Yakutsk has been completely secured, Canadian Forces will continue down the main road and establish response points at Neryungri, Lebediny, Aldan, Tommot, and Ulu which will provide a system of layered defense. (Naturally all these towns will be wiped out by air strikes). The units will then proceed to hold and utilize Yakutsk as a forward operating base so that Canadian Rangers and Hunters can move the Pink Line into place.

OP - EASTWATCH

First into Hell / / Six Feet Down
With approval from our Nordic Allies of Finland, Sweden, and Norway, Canadian Forces will immediately move into place utilizing Bardufoss Air Station & the Finnish city of Rovaneimi as a staging grounds. Following the beginning of OP-EXECUTIONER and OP-EXTERMINATION which are the sea and air operations against Unity targets, the 12th Chapter "East Watch" and 14th Chapter "North Wind" will make their lunges into Murmansk alongside Pacific Republic Forces - coming from the Northern Road to Murmansk. As is the case with the Yakutsk Lunge, each town will be destroyed by varying munitions before entry by the Canadian Forces. Additionally Finland and Sweden (which has Pan Euro Armies) will be assisting in logistical support. Also similar to Yakutsk, the Canadian Forces will establish themselves on the bank opposite (as it's what we have) of Murmansk which should be totally destroyed by White Phosphorous, Cluster Munitions, and other such munitions by the time of our arrival. And they will then begin the assault on the city itself alongside Pacific Republic Forces. Due to the operational skill of the Special Infantry Deployment "East Watch" Regiment, the SIDs will lead the way for the North Wind which is a standard Infantry Regiment. Despite the mass bombardment of Murmansk, it is expected that our forces alongside those of the Pacific will be walking into a Hell. Luckily however both the East Watch and North Wind specialize in urban warfare, and the North Wind also was part of the Push through Alaska - gaining extreme experience. Additionally the geographical terrain is extremely similar to the East Watch's home training grounds in and around GandeCape Breton (former highlanders). The East Watch will also be supported by several JTF-3 Task Forces (300 personnel) in order to ensure the fall of the city alongside 20,000 Cascade Contractors who previously worked during OP - EXODUS.
A metaphorical "Six Feet Down" from the assault on Murmansk, will be the 11th Canadian Chapter and 13th Canadian Chapters launching an assault on the small and militarily occupied area of Alakurtti. Once again OP-EXTERMINATION and OP-EXECUTIONER will have seen the forces in the area significantly softened up, however a fight is nonetheless expected. Due to overwhelming force, and the lack of a QRF force from Unity South or from the pre-occupied forces in Murmansk, it is expected that Alakurtti will quickly fall, and the Black Watch and Pinewood Foresters will proceed onward. Upon reaching the junction, the Pinewood Foresters who apt to their name specialize in combat within dense forests (which is the terrain) - will proceed South, establishing a foothold in Zelenoborsky while the Black Watch will proceed north in a effort to relieve their brethren East Watch (SIDs) and deal the death blow on Murmansk. Throughout these operations they will have constant air superiority.
As these two pushes by Canadian Army Forces occur, there will be two additional lunges by Cascade Contractors to the cities of Segezha and Kem, each lunge equating to 10,000 Contractors. The goal will be to slow any forces moving from St. Petersburg with rapid withdrawals to the Pinewood Foresters being available if necessary (although not preferred). In this regard speed and air superiority are the name of the game. Further, once Murmansk falls, and Zelenoborsky is secure, the Canadian Forces will move South to Segezha and then beyond establishing themselves alongside Pacific Republic forces in Medzezhyegorsk. The 20,000 Contractors as part of the initial push will remain throughout Northern Unity lands to maintain sovereignty and control - thus allowing the Army to continue it's push without dedicating forces elsewhere. From here the Pinewood Foresters and North Wind will move to take Petrozavodsk alongside the flanking Commonwealth Forces.

OP - WHITE DEATH

The 3rd Commonwealth Corps will be tasked in preventing a surge of Unity forces from St. Petersburg. Despite the mass bombardment campaign against the forces this far south, it is still a concern that Unity Forces will break out. Therefore the 3rd Commonwealth Corps will move to take the small strip of land north of Priozersk basing from Lappeenranta, and then from here shall split their forces, sending two Mechanized Brigade north towards Petrozavodsk.. Meanwhile Finish Reserve and Army personnel should immediately activate to protect their own borders. (Fins are blue, UCR is green/red). The UCR will then proceed to establish a second line of defense, utilizing Irukandji/Sunbeam ATGMs to prevent the mass movement. This of course will all be done under cover of air superiority.

Most people know the story of Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, who ditched US Airways flight 1549 in the middle of New York’s Hudson River after birds destroyed both engines, saving the lives of everyone on board. Also well-known is the story of flight attendant Vesna Vulovic, who survived a mid-air bombing at 33,000 feet and went on to become a Serbian folk hero. These are remarkable tales of survival against the odds that stick with us through the decades—those moments when everyone lived, when some should have died; or when one lived, when all should have died. But there are more of these stories than you think. What follows are two obscure sagas of survival from the skies over Russia, both of which easily rival those that have become household names.
◊◊◊
A Falling Star: the crash of Aeroflot flight 811
Crashes in the former Soviet Union were sometimes brought to light years after they actually took place, while those whose loved ones died were given no official explanation. In an effort to avoid embarrassment, the Soviet government frequently covered up crashes involving its state airline, Aeroflot, especially if the government itself was at fault. Aeroflot flight 811 was one such incident.
Information about what happened to flight 811 is scarce, even in Russian, but there is enough to sketch out a basic sequence of events. The flight in question was a twin turboprop Antonov An-24RV operating a scheduled commercial service in the Soviet Far East, beginning from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island and ending in the city of Blagoveshchensk on the Chinese border, with a stopover in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. (A map of these locations and other places important to the story can be found here.) On the 14th of August 1981, Aeroflot flight 811 landed in Komsomolsk-on-Amur after its flight from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. However, before continuing on to Blagoveshchensk, the plane was delayed for four hours due to a passing storm system. When the weather finally cleared, 27 passengers and 5 crew boarded the plane for the approximately 1.5 hour flight. Among them were 20-year-old Larisa Savitskaya and her new husband Vladimir. The newlyweds from Blagoveshchensk had been celebrating their honeymoon and were now on their way back home, though they were very much still in the honeymoon mindset. Not much is known about the other passengers, except that they included a small child.
Flight 811 took off at 14:56 and proceeded west toward Blagoveshchensk. Approximately one hour later, air force personnel at Zavitinsk air base east of Blagoveshchensk prepared to conduct a weather reconnaissance mission. The plan called for two Tupolev Tu-16k strategic bombers to fly in formation up to 8,000 meters, perform the mission, and then return. The plan also called for an intermediate hold at 4,500 meters. Their flight plan was sent to the regional authorities in Khabarovsk, who approved it without any changes. The plan was then filed with the military air traffic control centre in Blagoveshchensk, where controllers were supposed to inform their civilian counterparts. However, the civilian controllers were only informed that military planes would be operating between 4,200 and 4,500 meters, and not that they would then climb to between 7,900 and 8,100 meters. There was poor communication in the other direction as well: civilian authorities only gave military authorities scheduled flight times, which could not be updated to reflect delays. Military controllers, if they knew about flight 811 at all, probably assumed that it had already arrived in Blagoveshchensk three and a half hours earlier as originally scheduled.
Military controllers at Zavitinsk air base made a critical mistake as well. Although radar was installed at the base, controllers there did not use it to track the two Tu-16k bombers. Official reports do not clearly explain the reason for this, but such lack of depth was typical of investigations in the Soviet Union, which only dug deep enough to discover who made mistakes and did not typically attempt to find out why those mistakes were made. Based on what little information exists, it is likely that controllers either were not accustomed to using the radar, or they did not believe there would be any conflicting traffic to warrant its use.
Descending through 5,400 meters, Aeroflot flight 811 entered airspace covered by Zavitinsk air base as well as civilian and military controllers in Blagoveshchensk. However, none of these three entities knew about both flight 811 and the military weather reconnaissance mission. With Zavitinsk monitoring, Blagoveshchensk military controllers cleared the Tu-16k bombers to leave 4,500 meters and climb to 8,000 meters. No one knew that they would pass right through the air corridor along which flight 811 was traveling. A collision was imminent, but the only control centre in the area that had radar wasn’t using it.
At 16:21, one of the Tupolev Tu-16k bombers crashed headlong into Aeroflot flight 811. In all likelihood, neither crew ever saw the other, even though they were flying in clear conditions. The impact was incredibly brutal. Both wings were ripped off of the An-24 while the Tu-16k broke in half and caught fire. As it plunged to the ground, the ruined An-24 split into several more pieces, spewing debris and passengers into the summer sky.
By all rights, the story of the crash should have ended right here with, “All 38 people on both aircraft were killed.” But it did not. All six crew members on the strategic bomber lost their lives, as did all five crew of flight 811, and 26 of its 27 passengers. But, against astronomical odds, Larisa Savitskaya survived the crash. And even more remarkably, she remembered the whole thing from beginning to end. What follows is a translation of an interview she gave to Izvestiya in 2002.
“The planes collided tangentially. The wings of the An-24 were ripped off together with the fuel tanks and the roof. For a few very long seconds the plane turned into something like a boat. At that moment I had been sleeping. I remember a terrifying impact, and a burning sensation—the temperature immediately dropped from 25˚C to -30. There were terrible screams, and the whistle of the wind. My husband died immediately—in that moment, life ended for me. I didn’t even cry. Due to the grief, I couldn’t feel fear.
“The ‘boat’ then broke into two pieces. The tear passed right in front of our seats. I turned out to be in the tail section. I was thrown into the aisle and straight back to the bulkhead. At first I lost consciousness, then as I came to, I lay there and thought—not of death, but of pain. I didn’t want the fall to be painful. And then I remembered an Italian film called ‘Miracles Still Happen.’”
The movie she referred to is a 1974 film by Giuseppe Maria Scotese documenting the true story of Juliane Koepcke, who survived a 10,000-foot-fall after LANSA flight 508 was struck by lightning and disintegrated over the Peruvian jungle in 1971. All 91 other passengers and crew were killed, but Juliane survived after her row of seats acted like a crude helicopter and slowed her fall, such that she was not severely injured on impact with the ground. (Some other passengers also survived the fall for similar reasons, but were too badly hurt to move, and subsequently died.) Finding herself alone in the Amazon, she wandered through the jungle for 10 days, until she was rescued after stumbling across a logging camp. Suddenly faced with the same situation she had seen in “Miracles Still Happen,” Larisa Savitskaya decided that she would try to learn from Juliane Koepcke.
“Most important of all was one scene, where the heroine survived a plane crash while strapped into her seat. Somehow I got to a seat. I didn’t even think of buckling up; action preceded conscious thought. I started to watch through the window, in order to “catch” the ground. I needed to anticipate the impact in time. I’d given up any hope of survival; I just wanted to die painlessly. There was a very thin layer of clouds, then a flash of green, and impact! I fell in the taiga, on top of a birch tree—lucky again! I had a concussion, my spine was damaged in five places, and I had fractured hands, ribs, and feet. Almost all my teeth were knocked out.
“I was in the taiga for three days. When I woke up, my husband’s body was lying right in front of me. I was in such shock that I didn’t even feel pain. I was even able to walk. When the rescuers found me, they couldn’t say anything except “Mu-, mu…” I understand them. For three days they’d been collecting pieces of corpses out of the trees, and suddenly they saw a living person. And I kind of looked like a dead person. I was entirely coloured like a prune with a silver shimmer—the paint from the fuselage was extremely annoying; mother of god, I was picking it out of my hair for a month! And because of the wind, my hair had turned into something like a big lump of steel wool. Surprisingly, by the time I saw the rescuers, I could no longer walk. Then, in Zavitinsk, I learned that they already dug a grave for me. They dug them based on the passenger list.
“I think the military was at fault for the crash. They approved a flight path without verifying it with the civilian controllers. But I only learned about this two years ago. The official investigation came to the conclusion that both crews were responsible.
“They say that Voice of America covered the crash. But the news was first published in the USSR in 1985—curiously, in ‘Soviet Sport.’ Apparently they really wanted to write about it, but it was forbidden to mention the crash. So they wrote that I, like a female Icarus, flew on a homemade glider and fell from a height of five kilometers, but I survived because a Soviet citizen can do anything.
“Investigators later concluded that the piece of the plane in which I fell was shaped like a leaf, and a leaf either falls around the circumference, or from side to side like a swing. This depends on its shape. I don’t know how my piece of the plane was shaped. Eventually I read an investigation into my fall somewhere on the internet. One scientist by the name of Gorbovsky considered my case alongside those of children and cats that have the ability to fall from great heights without dying. By the laws of physics, the force of the impact depends on one’s weight, the height of the fall, and the amount of air resistance. He concluded that in my case, and with cats and children, some of these quantities don’t follow the laws of physics, and that in stressful situations a mechanism is activated that blocks the force of gravity. I don’t know if he’s right, but I like the comparison with cats.
“I didn’t have any sort of spiritual awakening as a result of this experience. I didn’t turn to religion, or drunkenness, or depression. I love life. But sometimes I say half seriously and half-jokingly that I am ‘God’s favourite little girl.’ Because he only sends such experiences to his favourite creatures.
“I live as I lived before. I only think about it around the 24th of August, when I celebrate my ‘second birthday,’ and also in the spring and fall when the pain returns. And of course whenever there’s another plane crash. At those moments I relive everything that happened. All crashes are my crash. I have a feeling that part of me is still back there. It still hasn’t landed.
“Five years later my child was born. At first I worked as a teacher, then when Gosha got sick, I took any job I could find. I worked as a typist, sold books, and went hungry. After Perestroika I started a company selling shoes. Then I worked as a representative of Borzhomi, until I was paralyzed. That was the result of my traumatic brain injury. But then I got better. Now I work as an office manager in a real estate company. After work I try to go straight home because my spine is very tired. Did you know that I’m in the Russian Guiness Book of Records twice? And do you know what the second one is? The smallest compensation ever received for bodily harm. One single payment of 75 rubles.”
At the time, 75 rubles was equivalent to about $20.
“By the norms of the state insurance company, the dead were entitled to 300 rubles and the survivors received 75. I can only hope that Tatiana and Arina won’t have to beat this record. [Here she refers to two flight attendants who survived the then-recent crash of a Pulkovo Airlines Ilyushin IL-86 during a repositioning flight without passengers.] Fortunately, I healed, not thanks to the health ministry but by a civilian healer-chiropractor from Amur oblast. I think his last name was Volkov. The whole year, he worked for free, because I was such an interesting patient. He re-broke my bones and then set them back properly. He did everything he could, but he said that if I’d come to him immediately, I could have been good as new. And I didn’t have new teeth put in until ten years later. A wonderful person helped me with that.
“I know that a Yugoslavian stewardess who fell from a height of 10,000 meters in 1972 is still alive. [Here she refers to Vesna Vulovic.] In a recent interview with some Germans, they told me that in Germany there’s a woman there who fell from 3,000 meters. [She probably means Juliane Koepcke.] And now there are two Russian stewardesses as well. I’ve always had a strong desire to speak with a person who survived what I did. I’m very happy for Tatiana and Arina. Once they’ve recovered, I’d like to get to know them. I’m always holding on to the idea that it’s possible to learn how to survive in such situations. For example, why are basically all such survivors women—are they simply more receptive to the quiet voice of intuition? It seems to me like it’s necessary to take the research in this direction.”
The investigation, like most in the USSR, did little to bring about change. It is not at all clear what safety recommendations were made, if any, or whether anyone was punished as a result of the crash. Although the civilian investigation blamed poor coordination between civil and military sectors, the military investigation blamed both crews for failing to see and avoid each other. Of course, the 11 crew members from both planes conveniently were all dead. The fact that Larisa Savitskaya survived and remembered everything so clearly was somewhat of an inconvenience for Soviet authorities, but she never broke her silence as long as the crash remained an official secret. The Soviet Union’s reluctance to allow the news to cover accidents prevented Larisa Savitskaya from achieving the fame afforded to Juliane Koepcke and Vesna Vulovic, and to this day she lives in relative obscurity, receiving virtually no recognition outside of Russia. That’s not to say that she wants any—based on her interviews, she’s perfectly content to live out the rest of her life as one more face in the crowd.
◊◊◊
The Siberian Miracle: the crash-landing of Alrosa Mirny flight 514
So many crashes in Russia are the result of sheer incompetence, often by the pilots, that it becomes easy to forget that Russia has good pilots too. In fact, there is one story that stands out from the crowd: Alrosa Mirny flight 514, an incident sometimes referred to as Russia’s own Miracle on the Hudson. The sequence of events that took place aboard that flight on the 7th of September 2010 simply defies belief.
Alrosa Mirny Air Enterprise (now known as CJSC Aviakompaniya Alrosa) is a Russian domestic airline specializing in flights to, from, and within the Sakha Republic, the largest federal subject of Russia. Covering a swathe of eastern Siberia three times the size of Alaska, the Sakha Republic is dotted with extremely remote towns and cities that are sometimes accessible only by air. One of these is the mining town of Udachny, located 965km (600mi) northwest of Yakutsk, the main urban centre of the Sakha Republic. Udachny (which means “lucky”) is served by Polyarny Airport, a main hub of operations for Alrosa Mirny.
Alrosa Mirny flight 514 was a regularly scheduled flight from Udachny to Moscow on the 7th of September 2010. The airline operated the 5-and-a-half-hour flight using a Tupolev Tu-154 trijet, a mid- to long-range passenger airliner analogous to the Boeing 727. The Tu-154 is an extremely tough airplane, capable of landing and taking off on dirt runways in polar conditions. The Tu-154 involved in this incident was 20 years old and still had plenty of service life remaining.
Early in the morning of the 7th of September, flight 514 took off from Udachny with 72 passengers and 9 crew on board, bound for Moscow. For several hours, all was normal. Then, shortly before 7:00 in the morning, while cruising high over Siberia, the crew became aware of the first signs of trouble.
The specifics of the technical malfunction that occurred are not publicly known. However, investigators later reported to the press that one of the plane’s main batteries suffered from a thermal runaway, where the overheating battery started a feedback loop that caused it to get hotter and hotter. The most likely cause for such a failure is a manufacturing defect. Regardless of what started it, once the thermal runaway began, it caused the progressive failure of all the plane’s electrics. Within 30 minutes, the failure became catastrophic, disabling the Tu-154’s autopilot, navigational equipment, and fuel pumps. The last of these items proved to be the most problematic. Because all three engines were located at the tail of the plane, they all drew fuel from the two centre tanks. Without pumps to move fuel from the wing tanks into the centre tanks, the engines only had access to the 3,300kg of fuel that happened to be in the centre tanks at that moment. This was only enough for 30 minutes of flight, which was insufficient to reach any airport marked on the pilots’ charts. Flight 514 was at that point cruising high over the Komi Republic, a sprawling, sparsely populated autonomous region near where the Ural Mountains cross the Arctic Circle. Ditching the plane in this remote and heavily forested region would be positively nightmarish. Further complicating matters was a layer of low clouds at an altitude of 400m (1,312ft) that would make the search for a place to land very difficult.
The crew declared an emergency, and shortly thereafter, the cascading electrical failure knocked out the plane’s radio. They were now completely on their own. In an effort to find a field or a river in which to ditch the plane, the pilots flew down to 1,000 feet to get below the clouds. By this point, all of the plane’s instruments that required electrical power had failed, including the attitude indicators, which display bank angle. The pilots allegedly determined how much they were banking by observing a glass of water. Furthermore, some flight controls couldn’t be used because the cockpit switches were electric, even though the controls themselves used hydraulics. This meant that it would be impossible to deploy the flaps, slats, or thrust reversers on landing.
After contact with the plane was lost, controllers rushed to figure out where it might try to land. One potential location jumped out at them: not far from flight 514’s last known position was a disused airfield in the town of Izhma. Controllers informed local authorities that the stricken plane might attempt to land there, and emergency services were put on standby.
The pilots didn’t know about this airfield because it wasn’t on their maps. But as they flew over the trackless forests searching in vain for some kind of clearing, they suddenly caught sight of the Izhma airstrip. The pilots reportedly thought they were hallucinating, because a runway was the last thing they were expecting to see. Unable to believe their luck, they lined up to land on the disused airstrip.
The airport at Izhma had not been used by fixed-wing aircraft since 2003, after which it was only used by Russian military helicopters. However, the airport’s sole employee, Sergei Sotnikov, had taken it upon himself to keep the runway clear of plants and debris in the hope that planes might one day return. As a result, the runway was still in good enough condition to handle an aircraft. But flight 514 still faced a much larger issue: the runway was obviously too short to accommodate a Tupolev Tu-154. A safe landing under normal conditions usually required a 2,400-meter runway, and this one was only a little more than half that. But these weren’t normal conditions. The flaps and slats increase lift when deployed, allowing the plane to fly at lower speeds; without them, they would be coming in hot. And once they were on the ground, they wouldn’t be able to use reverse thrust to slow the plane down. Landing under these conditions required nerves of steel, and at first the pilots balked. The first attempt ended in a missed approach as the pilots decided to climb out, loop back around, and try again. A second approach also failed. With barely any fuel left in the centre tanks, they had one last chance to land. There would be no fourth approach.
The pilots ordered the flight attendants to move all the passengers to the front of the plane to increasing the weight on the wheels and improve braking power. After that, nothing remained but to give it their best possible shot. Coming in at well over the normal landing speed, the pilots greased it onto the tarmac as close to the threshold of the runway as possible. With what limited braking power remained, the crew fought to slow the aircraft, but it was evident that the runway was nowhere near long enough. Still moving at considerable speed, the Tu-154 ran off the end of the runway and into the taiga, smashing into bigger and bigger trees as it plowed through the forest. But then the wheels dug into the muddy ground, and the plane suddenly lurched to a stop, coming to rest 160 meters (520ft) past the end of the runway.
To everyone’s amazement, the plane was intact and nobody was injured. The 81 passengers and crew evacuated using the emergency slides and emerged into the taiga. While waiting for firefighters and police to arrive, passengers discussed the flight and gathered mushrooms in the forest. When firefighters came, they found that there was nothing for them to do, because everyone was fine.
The small town of Izhma didn’t have hotel rooms for 81 people, so most of the passengers spent the night in a sports complex. The next day most were transported to the town of Ukhta by helicopter, where they flew on to Moscow on another Tu-154. Just two of the 81 passengers and crew chose to continue their journey by train. In recognition of their heroic flying, Captain Andrei Lamanov and First Officer Yevgeny Novoselov were both named as Heroes of the Russian Federation, Russia’s highest honorary title, and were personally given awards by then-president Dmitry Medvedev. In a heartfelt gesture, Sergei Sotnikov, the man who kept the runway clear for 7 years, also received an award for his role in the safe outcome of flight 514.
Despite considerable damage, both from the original failure and from the landing, Alrosa Mirny decided to recover the plane. It was towed out of the Taiga, partially repaired, and stripped out to make it lighter so it could take off on the short runway. Six months after the accident, the plane lifted off from Izhma and flew to Ukhta, then to Samara, where the damage was fully repaired and the plane returned to service. The Tu-154, now nicknamed “Izhma,” continued to fly passengers for Alrosa Mirny until 2018, when it became one of the last Tu-154s to be retired.
Much more could be said about Alrosa Mirny flight 514 if it weren’t for the bureaucratic nightmare that is the Russian government. A preliminary report identifying a thermal runaway as the cause of the electrical failure was released seven days after the accident, but no final report ever materialized. To this day, it is not publicly known what caused the thermal runaway, how specifically it led to the total electrical failure, or even whether a final report was written at all. If it was, it certainly has not been released. In all likelihood we will never know all the details of what almost brought down flight 514, leading to the Miracle at Izhma. The least we can do is recognize the heroism of its crew, who against all odds saved 81 lives on that cloudy September day.
◊◊◊
The lesson to be learned from these two accidents is that tales of survival and heroism can be found in Russian and Soviet aviation. Nevertheless, both incidents also remind us that these stories are often tempered by injustice. Larisa Savitskaya received only $20 in compensation for surviving a fall from a height 5,200 meters, and the crash that almost killed her (and took 37 lives) was a state secret for years. Matters have since improved drastically, with all the heroes of flight 514 duly recognized for their efforts. But major steps remain. Without a final report, the near disaster on board Alrosa Mirny flight 514 won’t provide any safety lessons, even if government agencies are willing to make changes, as they were so reluctant to do after the crash of Aeroflot flight 811. But, regardless of their impact on aviation safety, or lack thereof, these are both tales that are worth telling. And so I have told them as best I can with the sources that are available to me, even in the face of a frustrating lack of answers.

I remember looking out the helicopter window, down at the vast Siberian forest -- rising here in a mountain, cut there by a river -- and thinking how incredible the planet was, and what a trivial thing a human being was in comparison. That may be a strange thought to occur to an archaeologist, or perhaps not. After all, I was familiar with entire civilizations come and gone, the only remaining traces a few shards of pottery buried deep in the dirt; then too, entire species along the path to homo sapiens, now nothing but fragments of nameless bones.
The trouble began shortly after we touched down in a small clearing by the village. The five of us unloaded our gear and provisions beneath the whirling and roaring rotors, and then watched as the pilot -- who was to return for us three weeks hence -- lifted the helicopter back into the sky. Moments later, a man emerged from a path in the woods with an uneasy look on his face.
This was Alyosha, the villager who had made the initial discovery that had brought us all out to the far northeastern reaches of Siberia. While hunting, Alyosha had spotted some bones jutting out of a stretch of recently thawed permafrost, along with some artifacts that appeared ancient. When the winter roads were in service, he had sent word through a relative back to Yakutsk, whence word was sent to Moscow, followed shortly by the bones, which were there tested, and determined to be approximately 40,000 years old and almost certainly homo sapiens. This was remarkable, as all previous evidence had indicated that human beings had not arrived in that area until 20,000 years ago.
Alyosha stepped tentatively towards our group, and I could sense that something was wrong. I whispered as much to my husband, Carlos. Carlos shrugged and reached for my hand, smiling. As a climate scientist, Carlos had managed to hustle up a grant to study the melting of the permafrost itself – which was happening far faster than projected in that region – and we had been absolutely delighted. It was our first expedition together.
Alyosha began speaking in a low voice. He seemed very nervous to me, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. Only Ivan could. I watched as the smile that Ivan had greeted Alyosha with melted into a scowl, and I squeezed Carlos’ hand tight. Alyosha went on, looking down at the ground as he spoke. When he was finished he lifted his head and looked directly into Ivan’s eyes.
Ivan laughed. There was nothing good-natured about that laugh; it was menacing. He looked down at the ground for a moment and when he lifted his head, his smile was back. He looked Alyosha in the face and started shaking his head, indicating something like, “I can’t believe this,” or else, more simply: “No.” Without looking back, he extended his arm behind him, pointing at the rest of our group. Then he said something, slowly and deliberately. Alyosha looked at us over Ivan’s shoulder, then spoke a few soft words. Ivan laughed that same horrible laugh.
“Something’s wrong,” I said again, this time more loudly so that Bradley and Amy could also hear me. They had been flirting with each other and not paying much attention to the exchange between Ivan and Alyosha.
“Ivan, mate,” said Bradley. He was an old friend from grad school, currently stationed out of his hometown of London. He was the one who had managed, through extensive favor-calling, to secure Amy (my protégé, of sorts) and me spots on the trip. He was also the only one of us who had ever met Ivan before. “Everything okay?” Bradley asked.
Ivan ignored Bradley’s question and said something rapidly and loudly to Alyosha. Alyosha shook his head, and then Ivan was upon him, grabbing a bunch of his shirt and actually lifting him off of his feet so that his eyes were now level to Ivan’s, as Ivan was a tall and powerful man. When this happened, Carlos let go of my hand and ran over to where the altercation was happening. He gripped Ivan’s shoulder in his hand, but Ivan paid him no mind. Ivan shouted something and then Alyosha was flying through the air until he crashed to the ground on his backside.
“Ivan!” said Carlos. “Stop this!”
Ivan reached into his coat, withdrew a pistol, and pointed it at the supine Alyosha. The air was filled with shouts, as Amy, Bradley, Carlos and I all begged Ivan to put the gun down and tell us what was going on. Ivan ignored us and spoke at length in Russian, keeping the gun aimed at Alyosha. When Ivan had finished, Alyosha stared at him for a few moments, looked back to us with terrified eyes, and then nodded slowly. Ivan laughed once again, tucked his pistol back into his coat, and then offered a hand to Alyosha, who took it and rose to his feet.
“Ivan,” said Bradley. “What the bloody hell was that about?”
“The simple people,” said Ivan, “they are, what is the word?… Superstitious.”
“What did he say?” asked Carlos.
“He did not want us here anymore. He did not want us staying at his house. He did not want us going to the site.”
“But… where are we supposed to stay? I thought this was all arranged?” asked Amy.
“We will stay at his house,” said Ivan. “But he will not be staying with us. He will draw a map to the site, but he will not be going with us.”
Alyosha was looking down at the ground. He still looked terrified.
“Ivan…” I said.
“Yes?” he said, looking me in the eyes and raising his eyebrows.
“Why did you bring a gun?”
Ivan laughed, this time without menace. “There are many dangerous animals in these woods.” Then he pointed at Alyosha. “He would cut your throat for your coat.”
I looked over to Alyosha, who was still staring down at the ground. He did not seem to be the dangerous one in this situation.
*
We had to make the mile long trek between Alyosha’s house and the helicopter landing site a few times in order to carry all of our gear and belongings. Ivan insisted that somebody stay with the equipment left at the landing site, and somebody else stay with the equipment at Alyosha’s house during each trip. When Amy had volunteered to stay at Alyosha’s house during one of the trips, Ivan shook his head and said that it had to be a man. I jumped on the opportunity to volunteer Carlos to stay. I wanted a chance to talk with Bradley, as he was the only one who knew anything about Ivan.
“Fine by me,” said Carlos, shrugging. “Those solar panels weigh a ton.”
“Nice,” said Amy. “Make the women carry all the heavy shit.”
A half an hour later, Amy, Bradley, and I were trudging through the forest with the solar panels and batteries. “I can’t believe Ivan pulled a gun on Alyosha,” I said. Neither of them responded. “He was ready to kill,” I said. “I saw it in his eyes.”
“Jesus Christ Alicia,” said Amy, “how did you want that to end? With us sleeping out in the open? We don’t even have tents.” She grunted as she shifted a battery from her right side to her left side. “Ivan did what he had to do.”
We walked along in silence for a few minutes, then I said: “Just what do you know about him anyway, Bradley?”
“Eh? Ivan? Next to nothing. I met him in Moscow one night while I was out on the town, and he sort of took me in and showed me around for the week. Introduced me to all sorts of people. He’s got connections, in the government.”
“What I want to know,” I said, “is why is he here? He’s not an archaeologist, is he?”
“Biologist,” said Bradley. “And he’s here because I called him in the first place, trying to get us access. You know this has to go through the Russian bureaucracy. Plus he knows the terrain… don’t know if he’s been to this village before, but he knows the ropes, Alicia. Like what happened back there. He knows what’s he’s doing.”
I thought about that for a minute. “I’m sure he does,” I said.
*
Once we had set up the equipment at Alyosha’s house, we were all exhausted from travel. There were three rooms in the house, two bed rooms and a communal room. They were all small. One room had a set of bunk beds, which is where Amy and Bradley retired to. Carlos and I headed to the other bedroom, with a single bed, crude by U.S. standards (as everything there was, of course). Within a few minutes of stripping down, Carlos was snoring. But I could not sleep, despite the exhaustion. Now that we were settled in, I was awake with excitement, as I always was on the eve of a dig in a new, far flung location.
It was 9 PM, but sunlight was still pouring in through the window, through and around the curtains. After an hour of staring up at the ceiling, I decided to step outside and write in my journal for a bit… maybe read some. I crept into the communal room, where Ivan was to sleep, and saw that he was not on the matt that he had lain out on the floor. For a moment, I considered turning around and suffering through Carlos’ snoring, but finally decided against it.
When I opened the front door to the house, I saw that Ivan was sitting outside in a wooden chair, smoking a hand-rolled cigarette, staring up at the sky. He turned his head enough to see me, then looked back up at the sky, still quite bright with the sun. He reached down to the ground, brought up a bottle and took a long drink. Then, without looking at me, he reached back and held the bottle up. I took it, put it to my lips, and had a swallow of vodka. He smiled as I handed the bottle back.
“You did not like what I did before,” he said, still not quite looking at me.
“No,” I said.
“You are kind,” said Ivan, “but a fool. Weak.”
“Do you think that’s a microphone and not a bottle?” I said. “Or are you going to drink?”
Now Ivan turned to me as he laughed. It wasn’t a laugh like before. But it made me replay the scene in my head, for the fourth or fifth time. He lifted the bottle, drank, and passed it to me. I took a deep swallow, feeling the warmth spread through my tired body.
“What did you mean?” I said. “You said that the villagers were superstitious. What did Alyosha say to you? He was frightened. Why?”
Ivan shrugged. “His friends died. They got sick after they go to site. ‘Dyaval,’ he tells me. The devil. But that is not it, right Alicia?”
“Anthrax,” I said, passing the bottle back to Ivan.
“I try to tell him. It has happened before. The deer have anthrax and they are frozen for long time and when they thaw, the anthrax comes too. You know. But he would not listen. What would you have me do?”
I thought back to that terrible laugh, and the ease with which Ivan had thrown Alyosha through the air like the cigarette butt that he now tossed to the ground. “You didn’t have to point a gun at him.”
Ivan shrugged again. “He listened to that.”
We were silent for a moment, and then Ivan spoke up again. “Shh,” he said. “Listen. The wolves are out.”
In the distance, I could hear wolves howling in the white night.
*
In the morning, we ventured out, leaving my husband behind at Alyosha’s house. Ivan had insisted. “They will steal everything,” he said, “so one of us must stay behind.”
“How about you?” I said. “You stay behind.”
“I am afraid that is not possible,” said Ivan.
“Hell, I’ll stay,” said Carlos. “You archaeologists do your thing and I’ll come out tomorrow.”
“Is this really necessary?” I asked, upset that I wouldn’t get to spend that first day uncovering new wonders with the love of my life when he was so close, and we had traveled so far together.
Ivan nodded. “It is time,” he said. “Follow me.”
According to Alyosha’s map, the site was two miles away, but we never made it there, that day or any other. Rather, we made our way deeper and deeper into the woods, burdened with gear, for about one mile when suddenly Ivan, who was leading the procession, stopped dead in his tracks. Amy, who was directly behind him, ran straight into his back. “What the hell Ivan?” she asked.
He turned around and held his index finger to his lips. We stood silently. I strained to listen and finally I heard something snap in the woods to our west. “Get down,” said Ivan. He whipped the pistol out of his jacket and fired westward, the sound a brutal crack in the still air. I dropped to the ground along with Ivan and Bradley, but Amy did not, not until a few seconds later. And when Amy dropped to the ground, she had the shaft of an arrow sticking out of her forehead. She was staring at me with dead eyes, a trickle of blood working its way down her face.
“Jesus fuck!” said Bradley.
Ivan roared and was up, running westward, pistol in hand. I heard a twang and a thump and looked over, I looked away from Amy’s dead and horrifying face, to see an arrow stuck in the ground a few feet away from my own head. Then I heard three explosions, three gunshots, drowning out Ivan’s animalistic roar. I closed my eyes and heard many branches snapping. Ivan had stopped roaring. The sound of the snapping branches was getting louder. Getting closer. I kept my eyes closed.
“It was Alyosha,” said Ivan. “He killed Amy. I killed him.”
I opened my eyes and saw Ivan standing there. Then I heard Bradley. He began to wail. “We have to get her help!” he choked out, in between sobs.
“She’s dead,” I said, standing up, my face wet with tears.
“She is,” said Ivan, tucking the pistol back into his coat.
“I want to go home,” said Bradley, still on the ground. “Please.”
“We will collect her on return trip,” said Ivan. “Come.” He started walking.
“Come on Bradley,” I said. “We have to carry her back to the village. Do you think you can do that?”
“I want to go home,” said Bradley, staring at Amy’s dead body.
“We will,” I said. “We should bring Amy with us. We can’t leave her out here. The animals will get her. Could you help me carry her?”
Ivan stopped walking and turned to us. “Come,” he said. “We are almost there.”
“I want to go home,” said Bradley.
“Dammit Bradley,” I said, “we’ll go home, but we can’t leave Amy here. Do you understand?”
Bradley nodded and rose slowly to his feet.
“Good boy,” I said. “We’ll leave the gear here, okay? Just drop your pack and help me with Amy. Then we can call for the helicopter on the radio and go home, okay? Can you do that?”
Bradley wiped his nose with the back of his hand and nodded.
“Come,” said Ivan. He had the gun out again and was pointing it at us now. His eyes spoke of insanity. “We are almost there. We are almost to the hole.”
I bit my lip until it bled and then I took Bradley’s hand in mine and said, “Listen to me Bradley. We are going to go home. We are going to take Amy with us. But first, we have to go to the hole. Okay? Can you do that?”
Bradley nodded. Ivan turned around and resumed walking, gun in hand. We followed.
*
“I loved her,” said Bradley, as we trudged along behind Ivan. Bradley had only met Amy in person a week before, at an airport in London, so I didn’t think it was true that he loved her – at least not as I understood love – but I decided that it wasn’t my place to determine that.
“I’m so sorry, Bradley. Amy was an amazing person. I’m going to miss her dearly.”
“Why did we leave her there?” His face was twisted in pain. “Where are we going? Why aren’t we going back home?”
We were going to the hole, whatever that was. “Just hang in there, Bradley. This is almost over.”
“It’s his fault,” growled Bradley, glaring up at the back of Ivan’s head thirty feet in front of us. “His fault she’s dead. He knew exactly what we were getting into. We should have turned around after that fight with Alyosha right when we landed in this hellhole.”
Ivan stopped walking and turned towards us, waiting for us to get closer. “Just ahead,” he said. “It is time for suits.” We unfurled the hazmats suits that were strapped to our packs and stepped into them. “Just on the other side of this hill,” said Ivan. “Come.”
We climbed the hill and standing at the top I saw it, what Ivan was calling “the hole.” It was a massive crater carved into the valley floor, the likes of which have begun appearing in Siberia in the past several years, supposed to be caused by explosions of methane released by melting permafrost. I had seen photographs of them, in the news reports and in my husband’s files, but seeing one in person was something else entirely. It was breathtaking, and reminded me of the first time, as a teenager, I had seen the Grand Canyon in person. I had been driving through a forest with my family and then all of a sudden the world seemed to drop off in an unreal way.
I estimated that it was about 100 feet in diameter, but there was no telling, from that vantage point on the hill, how deep it was, for it dropped off into pitch black darkness. But then, after the darkness, there was a faint red glow. Certainly, that aspect was unlike any of the other craters I had seen in the photographs, or that Carlos had described.
“What is that glow?” I asked.
Ivan turned to me, and through the plastic shield of his hazmat suit, I saw that his eyes were lit up with excitement and he was grinning like a child. “That, Alicia, we are going to find out. Come.”
We climbed down the hill and then we were next to the crater. I looked down, perhaps 75 feet, and there at the bottom was a sheet of something bright red, glowing, lighting up the sides of the crater. The sheet of red was moving, as an ocean, or something alive. “What is that?” I asked without realizing it.
“Rope,” said Ivan, tossing his pack to the ground. “Give me your rope.” He opened his pack, reached in, and pulled out his loop of rope.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“I am going down there,” said Ivan.
“With rope?” I said. “Do you have a harness? Because I don’t.” Ivan shook his head. “That’s insane.”
Ivan shrugged. “Do you want to know what that red ocean is?” I did, very much.
“Let him go,” said Bradley. “If he wants to go, let him go, and let’s get this over with and go home.”
“Just right, Bradley,” said Ivan. “I will go down, get sample, come up, then we go home. Simple. Alicia?” I nodded and handed him my loop of rope. He tied one end to the end of his loop in a tight knot, and then tied the other end to Bradley’s rope, for a total of 150 feet of rope. He wrapped the rope around the trunk of a nearby and massive pine tree. Then he walked over and threw the loop into the crater. He clipped a few items to his suit with carabiners: a flashlight, a knife, a metal jar, a camera, a ladle, and his pistol. He nodded to me and Bradley, and stepped into the crater.
The first 20 feet or so were steep, but jagged, and there were many footholds. Ivan traversed this portion easily. But then the crater fell into a sheer drop, and the walls became smoother. Ivan paused here, gripping the rope tightly, looked down, and then began to lower himself slowly and carefully, searching with his foot for any jut or nook that it could find. I realized that I was holding my breath. Ivan worked his way down, and when he was halfway to the bottom, I turned and saw Bradley going through his bag. He came out with a knife.
“Bradley… what are you doing?”
“I’m going to cut his bloody rope and then we’re going to walk back and take Amy home.” I saw that his eyes were full of rage.
“You will be killing him. He can’t make it back up without that rope.”
“No more, no less than what he did to Amy, eh?” Bradley said, clenching the knife so hard that his hand shook.
“I can’t let you do that Bradley.”
“No, Alicia? You give a shit about him? He’s a psychopath. You know that. You knew it right away.”
“When we get back to Moscow, we will see that Ivan is reprimanded for his actions here. But we’re not killers, Bradley. Put the knife down.”
Bradley glanced at the taut rope stretching down into the crater, looked back at me, and threw the knife down to clatter on a rock. “Fuck!” he said.
“Thank you,” I said, my heart slowing down, my head decompressing. I turned back to the crater. Ivan was inching his way down to the strange glowing red ocean. His foot slipped and I gasped as his hands slipped through the rope for a few feet until he was able to brace himself against the wall. After several minutes, he was close enough that he could jump down to a ledge just above the red material. He lay on his stomach and peered down below him.
“WHAT IS IT?” I shouted. He looked up and shouted something back, but I couldn’t make it out. “WHAT?”
This time I heard him, the word echoing up from the crater walls: “WORMS!”
​
Part 2
​