Well...This has to be the most awkward AN I've ever written ever, and hopefully it remains the most awkward one. So I'm sure you all are wondering where i went, so here is what I got. I recently entered a shaky period of my education, with grades slipping and my family getting on my back to get it all done before I fail this year and fail to graduate, so there is that. Now this alone does not excuse nearly two months of no updates, which comes to my second reason for the massive delay, a serious case of writers block, more then one of the scenes in this chapter were put off and dreaded by me due to a lack of how to properly write them. Even now I don't feel 100% about those scenes, but I wanted to get this chapter out there. Once school ends, and the summer rolls around, ill try for a more regular upload time table. Enjoy Chapter 4
Ivan stood over the Test Site Crater, admiring the sheer destruction wrought by Project MOLNIYA, a massive crater surrounded by scorched earth and the empty husks of trees. The pure destruction and scars left awed him, even behind the foggy glass screen of his Radiation Suit, overseeing as trucks and men in radiation suits scoured the region. Here he was given, as quoting the Tsar himself, 'The single most important task of a scientific nature in all of Russian history.' He was to discover the truth behind the quake, what exactly caused Russia to move, and if it was possible for Russia to return to earth, and how exactly that would be accomplished.
But this Task seemed completely impossible to Ivan, there was no scientific explanation, no theory or even rough concept from the greatest scientific minds across all history. A singular nuclear explosion, nowhere near as powerful as some of the greatest weapons of the worlds superpowers, could have nowhere near the power, force, strength and energy to cause what to be near instantaneous travel of an entire geographic region to another world without serious damage. Ivan almost wanted to drown himself in Vodka until a drunken craze gave him the answers, or killed him in an alcoholic stupor of insanity brought about by not knowing the answer.
Yet, he felt off this entire time, initial air and soil samples said their was some other unknown element, besides the radiation from the bomb. Whatever this mystery element, it was having an extremely volatile reaction to the radiation particles, causing god knows what to organic life, something no one wanted to test just yet. This element however, wasn't alone, a few other elements that seem almost identical to the additional element are popping up, having similar if not the same reaction to radiation particles. This entire situation baffled Ivan.
Then as he drifted further into thought and prepared to head back to base for some good old Vodka, he heard a short from the crater as workers and scientists rushed over to one man, who seemed to have found something. As Ivan made his way over, he could hear men question what they were looking at, and others began to give off prayers. Then Ivan parted the Sea of Rubber and Plastic, and froze in place as he stared upon...something. Only 3 words came to him as he spoke
"What the Fuck"
Hans Slowly walked through the charred remains of the village, located just 90 miles north of Grozny in the Caucasus Region. His unit had been deployed to root out a local Sub-Human Terror Group, who had been using the isolated Forest Village to Launch attacks against the Oil Supply Lines of the Reich. He was carefully observing the charred buildings and corpses, looking for any sign of life, hoping to not get jumped by terrorists or the vengeful locals not at all happy about their village being burned down. Why exactly his unit was needed he didn't know, plenty of other units were closer to the village, and more well equipped to deal with such a mission.
Overhead, he heard the screams of Reich bombers as they flew back towards Grozny Airport, having emptied their napalm payload on the village before the 36th's arrival. He could see the Black Painted Tails, the sign of the Barons Butchers, the informal name for the bombers of Reichskommissariat Kaukasia, after the Oil Baron and Reichskommissar, Paul Pleiger. The bombers were as deadly as they were wealthy, each pilot making more in a month then he would ever make in a year, something that caused more then a little tension between the Heer and Luftwaffe in Kaukasia, and a grand show off of the Baron's wealth and power.
Hans was quickly brought out of his thinking, seeing movement in one of the larger buildings charred remains, he without thinking, empties a magazine into the ruins, before lowering his gun and approaching structure, staying on guard as he looks around the area for any more threats. As he neared the charred remains, his nostrils were overtaken by the smell of napalm and coking human flesh, a smell he was quickly becoming accustomed to, but before he could reach the building.
"36th, fall in, we are leaving!" The voice of Lieutenant Siegfried echoed across the village, causing Hans to jump and jog over towards the units trucks, loading into one as the men counted their kills. 24 confirmed kills in total, a man wrote it down in a small black book, before returning it to a bin at the front of the trucks seating area. The men began to chat among themselves, the smell of the village slowly being forgotten as they rolled away, leaving a smoldering ruin without a second thought.
Never again would any of them think about this small forest village they wiped off the map, never again would they think about this small strike of terror that would spread sadness and fear across the region, and Hans would never think or even know about the 12 year old boy in those charred ruins he gunned down, a child who rushed to save a small toy belonging to his little sister.
A convoy of Armored trucks and black cars rolled past the gate, the guards giving a passing glance to the convoy as they continued their duty. What kept the guards focus however, was the massive white...Airship just sitting in the middle of the Runway, menacingly. As the convoy came to a stop, soldiers jumped out of the trucks and set up with the local garrison facing the mystery ship and its own crew. Out of one black car stepped Foreign Affairs Minister Nikolay Uktomsky, followed closely by two members of the Imperial Royal Guard and a member of the Reforged Okhrana.
Uktomsky strode through the Murmansk Airport, observing the mysterious vessel with a thick eye of suspicion, a small prayer to god escaping his lips as he thought over all the possible scenarios he could perceive, each one getting closer and closer to something akin to a second Nazi Empire. These fears were not at all alleviated when he stopped to admire the thing, larger than any aircraft he had ever seen, this bulky of metal as far as he could have known may take hundreds of missiles and dish out more damage than anything Russia was capable of beyond its most secret and rare weapon.
The main vessel of the ship was painted black, and what he seemed to be wings for the vessel, painted on the side was what he could only assume was the nation's symbol, black and white rings overlapping with a central white looking staff, meaning something he didn't understand, time to understand that later.
It was to fucking early and to fucking cold for this, why couldn't these mysterious strangers have waited just 2 maybe 3 more hours, the man was dead tired and hadn't even had the chance to drink a single cup of coffee or even have a proper breakfast. He quickly pushed these worries to the back of his mind, he had a job to do, as a man dressed in what was most obviously a military officers uniform approached while escorted by soldiers in way to white and way to bulky armor. So dusting off his dust, Uktomsky begins to speak.
"I am Nikolay Uktomsky, Foreign Affairs Minister of the Russian Empire, serving its Imperial Sovereign, Tsar and Autocrat of all of Russia, Emperor of all the Rus and Holy Sovereign of Mother Russia Mikhail Andreevich the Second of the House of Romanov. Who is it that has entered the territory of Holy Russia uninvited and armed"
The Man across from Uktomsky maintained a Stoic expression, while those around him were hidden under rather bulky looking armor. He took a moment to examine him, the man stood at around 6 foot, clean shaven with hazel color eyes and jet black hair. His right hand was hidden by a black glove, and on his left was a wedding band around his ring finger. The Man seemed to be in his early 30s, but had in his eyes a steel resolve that he had seen before in hundreds of military officers.
His answer was instant, without any hesitation and that steel resolve laced into it "I am Captain Alban of the AWS Fortitude, in service of the Kingdom of Atlas, we have come to open up diplomatic relations with this Russian Empire" where was this Atlas, what kind of Kingdom, They Speak English? These questions were flying through the head of Uktomsky, but he maintained his calm demeanor, focusing on the task at hand. It was going to be a long meeting
"Fall in!"
The shout went out, causing the men of the 23rd Siberian Rifles Battalion to fall into formation, numbering around 1000 men, the 23rd Rifles were an elite core of soldiers who had been serving the Imperial Army since the days it spent isolated in Transbaikal Chita, fighting the Fascists of Amur and Magadan, the Communists of Buryatia and the religious fanatics of the far north. For nearly 15 years these men had laid down their lives, to do their duty for Holy Mother Russia, fighting all sorts of enemies of Russia. The unit also just so happened to be filled with men who had a singing voice, which was used to great extent when the unit attended parades and celebrations, where they sang several national songs, including their commanders personnel favorite, March of the Siberian Riflemen.
However, the song itself was actually controversial for the unit, seeing as several different versions of the song were in circulation and sung by different groups, the 23rd itself sings a older version of the song, as opposed to a newer version. That being said, no one could fault the commander and his men for the song they enjoy
"23rd, please sing for the foreign dignitaries, show them our love for Mother Russia"
From Taiga, the dense Taiga
From Amur, river Amur
As silent, fearsome thunder
Into battle march Siberians
As silent, fearsome thunder
Into battle march Siberians
Made them tough
Silent Taiga,
Ruthless storms of Baikal
And Siberian snow.
Ruthless storms of Baikal
And Siberian snow.
No tiredness nor fear,
They fight for night and day,
Only the grey papakha*
Fell on one side.
Only the grey papakha
Fell on one side.
Huh, Siberia, my home Siberia,
We'll stand up for you.
To the waves of Rhein and Danube
We'll send your greetings.
To the waves of Rhein and Danube
We'll send your greetings!
Just remember, Siberia, in the dark times
As an ode to old glory
The honor of gorgeous folk
Your sons will defend.
The honor of gorgeous folk
Your sons will defend.
Freedom of Rus is bound to rise
Blazed by our faith
And this song will hear
Walls of ancient Kremlin.
And this song will hear
Walls of ancient Kremlin.
The song was met from a few cheers and shouts of joy from the other soldiers at the Airport, while this Atlas Captain observed with a steel cold expression of analyzation.
After observing the musical performance, the two groups entered a conference room in the airport, on one side sat the captain and two other individuals that Uktomsky could only assume were government reps, along with his two guards. On Uktomsky's side, was several important figures he began to introduce.
"Allow me to introduce my compatriot, this is Agent Yuri of the Okhrana, and this is Nicholas Oleg, Representing Prime Minister Sobchak and the Imperial Duma in these negotiations." Captain Alban analyzed both men, Yuri was an aged man in his late 40s, hair turning a steel grey and skin showing the signs of stress as wrinkles formed under his eyes. Nicholas seemed younger, clean shaven and a well kept uniform, the man clearly had little experience in this roll with caused Alban to raise an eyebrow before he began speaking.
"This is Lion Mag, official representative of the Atlesian Council, and this is Magnolia Tera, Second in command of the Fortitude." Two things came as a shock to Uktimsky, first was the names of these individuals, such strange names that seem to come from a story book and not a real nation. Second was the fact the second in command of a warship was a women. While he wanted to question it, he but his tongue as to not offend the delegation.
"Then allow me to be the first to welcome you three to the Russian Empire, I only wish that welcome was more friendly and less militant. But when an unknown airship approaches your airspace and no one can understand you, men tend to get frightened"
"We completely understand, Atlas would have responded in much the same way if not more in defense of our homeland. Though, how exactly are we conversing if the majority of these soldiers don't speak(I can't find any reference anywhere to what the language is called, so we are going with this one) Remnant Basic(god I am so uncreative)."
"Remnant Basic? Well to us it is simply English, we are having a hard time understanding how nations we have no we interacted with speak It. The names United Kingdom, America, England and United States don't mean anything to you"
"No, I have never heard such names before, why do you ask?"
"No matter, we can discuss that at a later date, for now I want to know how you found us"
"Simple, my vessel was on a standard patrol over seas east of Soltaris, our homeland. While on patrol we intercepted an unknown radio transmission in an unknown language, your language, and began to track the signal alongside our affiliate ships and bases."
"If may be so bold, may we stop this topic of discussion, and move on to something of more importance. What exactly is this Russian Empire and what are it's intentions" It seems this Lion Mag cares little for tact and casual discussion, something he could keep an eye on and use if he ever ends up in the same room as him.
"That is simple, our Russian Empire is a nation with a history going back thousands of years, we serve our Tsar and Autocrat Mikhail Andreevich the Second of the House of Romanov, rightful ruler of all Russians and Russia, he blessed and ordained by God to rule with the grace of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the United will of his armies and loyal subjects. Right now, the intentions of the Tsar and by extension that of the Empire is the reclamation of our lost territories and the rebuilding from the age of warlords."
"By the Grave of God? Reclamation of Lost Territories? Age of Warlords? Mind elaborating"
"Of course, it all can be said to have started in the Year of our Lord 1914..."
And it will be there I cut off Chapter 4, a nice little cliff hanger for what I have planned in chapter 5.