A/N: Apparently it's custom to declare that you don't own Black Lagoon, etc. even though it's pretty obvious
Badlands
"Alright, so let me get this straight, you want to send us South so the problem here up North can be fixed?" Balalaika began rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Mhm. It'll free up the occupied troops in the town of Khost."
"What's going on there anyway?" Boris said as he traced his finger down the Salang Pass on the map. "GRU (1) intelligence suggests that it isn't the usual rabble that come through Khyber, some of them barely speak Arabic and use a plain white flag as their colors." (2)
"The flag of surrender maybe?"
"No, far from it. It's apparently one of the Mujahideen factions vying for control."
"Well Major, what's this operation about? You're only telling us opening details hurry it up."
"Just a minute Captain, I'm looking for something." The badly lit office room was in a dilapidated state compared to the rest of the Airbase. Occasionally Balalaika could hear trucks and APCs move around outside but for the most part it was quiet. "Ah, here it is." The Major laid out several files and a large map over his desk and scrawled a few extra notes on the map. "I'll give you a minute to give the route and overall map a look-over, this might be the last time you look at this." Just like the office itself, the map was badly kept as there was multiple stains, wrinkles, and creases in the thick paper. Nevertheless, its contents seemed more pressing than whatever the Airbase commander presented to her.
Question marks and Xs were dotted randomly across the chart prompting Balalaika to question what they were. "What is this?" She pointed to the large X and question mark on the main highway into Khost and the city itself. "We don't have a clue what's going on there so we usually just mark it off and tell Kabul that it's a no-go zone."
"You don't send anyone to investigate?" Boris scratched his head, looking at the mess around the room. "We used to, if the commander didn't tell you already we had a shitload of guys go missing in those question mark areas. The Muj usually just ransom them off back to us but we haven't heard anything since and the first case of this happening was back in what – 1984?"
"So it's been three years since and you haven't bothered to actually tell the Kremlin what's going on here? You guys are shit." The Major scowled, "Don't give me any grief for this, we're stretched thin and the last thing we need is to tell the Kremlin that we're like this. They'll cut whatever we had left to nothing." He drank a bit of whatever was behind his desk and coughed. "Moving on." His finger delineated to the main highway just south of Kabul. "You're gonna pass through Kabul first and take this highway onto the one linking Khost and the rest of the country. Our planes here have fuel to go farther than thirty miles but due to those things (3) flying anywhere beyond Kabul is a risk, so air support is a no for the time being."
"And the overall Operation?"
"Oh, I almost forgot, you're taking part in Operation Magistral, (4) maybe if you do good enough you can earn a stripe and get that 'Guards' designation." He chuckled to himself. "Anyway, you are to take this strategic point on this hill here, hill 3231." Balalaika's eyes followed as he traced his finger to the hill. "You'll be traveling in a convoy of two BMP-2s acting as escorts, one Ural-4320 for any extra equipment and or transport, three BTR-80s and a supply contingent, which is around three fuel trucks and four Kamaz trucks loaded with ammunition. That sound good?" Balalaika nodded to the Major. "Okay, since we have the vehicles sorted out I'm gonna tell you this once and one time only, the drivers, and whoever is out there has more experience than you. Everyone in your unit is considered to be inexperienced so they'll teach you how to survive in this pisshole, understood?"
"Sure." The Major got up from his chair and held a hand out, first shaking Boris' then Balalaika's hand. He itched at his head and sat back down. "You're one-hundred percent sure that you'll follow their instructions to a T, correct?"
"Yes, for the second and final time we will follow through with them, no need to worry Major my men have prior experience, we'll tough through it."
Balalaika took one last good look at the capital, Kabul, before turning around to face towards the front again. All around her were vast amounts of mountains and desert, with the occasional civilian car speeding past in the other lane. The Earth was eerily quiet too, even as they passed through the villages on the outskirts of Kabul, many people ran at the sight of the Soviet columns and gunships. The BTRs commander was unbuttoned, sitting on the side of the hull, and eating a piece of watermelon. "You look disappointed Captain." The commander laughed heartily at her. "Were you expecting constant ambushing and landmines lining the road?"
"It's just that it's quiet, the lack of noise out here is getting to my nerves." She said as she re-adjusted her Panamanka.(5) "Get used to this Captain Balalaika, you'll miss it once we start fighting the Mujahideen." He laughed again as she obviously began to show discomfort in his words. The column continued for a while before stopping at a fork in the road with a Sarandoy (6) checkpoint stopping them. A few words were exchanged and the convoy started its journey again. After a painstaking hour of travel, they managed to reach the outskirts of Pol-e Alam. "Just a quick tip Captain,"
"What is it Lieutenant?" She turned her head towards him. "Don't pick up these parrot-shaped (7) things off the ground, they're landmines. You'll get fucked up bad if you manage to."
"Thanks for the heads up..?" Balalaika looked around the soil trying to spot said mine.
UNKNOWN POV
The VHS began recording, the image on-screen blinking several times before managing to focus. The date read "NOV. 16 1987, 2:30 PM." It was panned onto a grumpy looking figure on the back of the BTR with several other men. "Sergeant Boris, wave to my family back home!" The cameraman said. Boris grunted, doing a small wave before returning to reading his book. Others on the ride waved and cheered at the camera, seeing as it was their only connection to their families back home and the rest of the USSR. The camera's owner did a quick portrait shot of their surroundings and resumed its original recording of the back of the caravan. It shot a blonde woman speaking to a commander in the back, zooming in on her face for several seconds. "There is our beautiful commander." Said the owner jokingly. "She'll kill you if she figures out what you're saying, besides what will your girlfriend say?"
"Haha, she knows that I'm only joking besides my girlfriend won't figure out what we're doing he-" The camera was ejected from its owner's hands, and onto the hard dirt. It took several seconds for the camera to process what had happened, as a part of the film became damaged. Sound was restored to the tape and an explosion could be heard in the background. This kicked up dirt everywhere and covered the top portion of the camera with dust. A figure was seen crawling on the floor, bloodied. He rolled around on the ground holding whatever was left of his upper thigh and looked like he was screaming. The camera again could not capture this as the audio became distorted for a few seconds again. Muffled shouting and groans of pain became audible once more. The BTRs damaged engine produced a loud humming noise that mainly drowned everything out. The camera was picked up again, this time by a different voice. "Is everyone okay? Where is Grennadiy, I have his camera!"
"Fucking assholes, I'm going to die!" Someone frantically screamed. The picture was shaky for a while as the holder was running back to the BTR. Large amounts of blood and pieces of someone's body was visible. Again, the camera was placed onto the floor. The shouting and cries of pain resumed as people could be heard moving in the background. Three minutes had passed since the beginning of the tape and gunfire was becoming increasingly prevalent around them. Nearly destroyed and on fire, the BTR slowly traversed its turret towards the hill and began firing. Loud pops with varying intervals reigned supreme over all the other commotion. A distant thud echoed throughout the mountains, with a rocket striking the BTR and ending the VHS recording.
A/N: Something a bit longer, since the last chapter was quite bare. Also if anyone is wondering why I haven't used any names other than Balalaika and Boris, it's due to the anime being very limited in what they share on Hotel Moscow's actions in Afghanistan. (another part being my laziness and the difficulty of fleshing out individual characters that aren't plain Gary-Stus) Hope you enjoyed.
EDIT: i read over balalaika's info on the wiki again and it stated that she was discharged back in 1986, the reasoning and action behind the discharge was kinda stupid to me so i just skipped that event entirely.
1 – Main Intelligence Directorate for military affairs in the Soviet Union. (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye)
2 – This is the very early formation of the Taliban/Al-Qaeda, as they had more prevalence in Southern Provinces. Early Taliban (and sometimes even modern) flags were simple plain white pieces of cloth.
3 – A reference to US-supplied FIM-92 "Stinger" MANPADS that the Mujahideen used to take down Soviet aircraft.
4 – An actual military operation that took place under the Soviet command to free up the route from Gardez to Khost, to relieve government forces besieged by the Haqqani network, Taliban, and others.
5 – This hat was standard issue among Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Had a booniehat-like brim, with a traffic coned shaped mid-section. Later on in the war, (same time around Balalaika being deployed) the quality of these hats deteriorated severely, as the cloth was replaced with a cheap substitute and the metal full-colored pin of the Soviet Union was replaced with a sewn on, dull plastic star.
6 – Paramilitary belonging to the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. Nicknamed "The Defenders of the Revolution."
7 – Soviet PFM-1 anti-personnel landmine. Rather than being colored sand, the stocks in the Soviet Union still had the European Green scheme on them. Children mistook these as toys and thus many of them died by accidental detonation. Nicknamed "Butterfly mine."
