THE SIBERIAN WAR-ACROSS THE RIVER
By Red Star
NOTE: I do not own any real or anime characters in this fic.
A Mil 24 lifts off to do battle
AMUR RIVER, 4:00 A.M.
From the Russian occupied west side of the Amur came small rubber rafts. Painted black and propelled by carefully moved paddles, they crept toward their respective assigned points: Islands in the Amur River that dotted the long line of water.
Perhaps 30 miles away from Khabarovsk, a small group of black clad men landed on such an island, and made their way into the brush toward the Japanese camp.
The 345th Infantry Company rested lightly that night. They had heard the reports; Russian forces were on the move and had the 5th Combined Arms Army and the 2nd Independent Tank Corps pointed at Khabarovsk, which had become the headquarters of the 2nd Army.
These troops themselves were facing the Russian 9th Combined Arms Army and a freshly arrived 2nd Division of the Russian Imperial Guard, elite soldiers who were veterans of the wars in Chechnya, Greece, and Turkey who were fanatically devoted to the Emperor. They were used primarily for mopping-up operations and were rumored to have destroyed an entire Japanese Armored Battalion with about 23 men, 5 bazookas and 8 grenade launchers. They were the toughest troops in the Russian Armed Forces and they guarded the Emperor well. But they would not face seasoned soldiers in the battlefield tonight…
The black clad men lightly marched to the edge of camp. Whispering and stepping lightly, they made their way to the commander's tent. There, one of them opened the flap and clipped a silencer onto his pistol. He then proceeded to pump two rounds into the commanding Captain's chest as he lay in bed. The soldier then withdrew out of the tent.
Outside, two men set up a mortar and aimed it. They fired a single grenade…straight into the gas tanks. The massive explosion awakened everyone in camp. Now was the attacker's chance! Lights flipped on in the tents, revealing the soldiers rising from their beds. The men in black fired sub-machine guns into the tents, killing many before they even had a chance to group. The platoon of SPETSNAZ troops fired off a few more rounds and then faded into the night, their deadly mission completed.
At 4:45 that night, the frightened Japanese troops heard a splashing sound, and the hum of powerful engines going. A few minutes later, three Russian Infantry Carriers rolled into camp, machine gun blazing. Russian troops tumbled out of the vehicles and proceeded to round up the remainder of the Japanese Company.
The scene was repeated across the Front that night. By 5:00, the islands were alive with Russian Engineer troops, tanks, Infantry vehicles, and bridge parts. Russian Battalion commanders checked their watches and looked into the sky just in time to see the sky light up with Artillery fire.
Operation Fiery Blizzard had just begun.
KHABAROVSK, 2ND ARMY HEADQUARTERS
Darien found the General's command room in chaos. Officers were shouting orders into radiophones, map positions were being shifted, and the General was sitting at the map table with his right hand massaging his right temple. Russian Imperial Marines, fresh from the Empire's Baltic Fleet Command, had just captured two strategic islands near the city and the Russian 24th Tank Division of the 5th Combined Arms Army was waiting for Engineers to finish constructing 3 barge bridges. After that, 200 tanks would stream toward Khabarovsk. General Nohitomo had already ordered the 2nd Army to prepare to retreat and regroup. Outside, Japanese tanks were racing through the streets to take up defensive positions outside the city.
In those streets, Tenchi sat, exhausted, on the hull of his tank. Tai slurped down some water out of his canteen. Tenchi's eyes narrowed as he heard a strange sound coming out of a nearby apartment building. He motioned for Tai to be quiet as they crept to a window with a light on. He peered inside. There were Russian civilians inside, gathered together with broad smiles on their face around a Russian Imperial Flag and a portrait of the Emperor Dane I. Young and old alike, they were singing:
Unbreakable nation of glorious peoples,
Great Russia has welded forever to stand.
Created in struggle by will of the Czar,
United and mighty, our Great Russian land!
Sing to the Motherland, Holy and Free,
Her children united in brotherhood strong.
O mighty Emperor, our noble defender,
To Russia's great triumph, lead us on!
Through tempests the sunrays of greatness have cheered us,
Along the new road that Dane has forged.
To glorious deeds he summoned the people,
Inspired them to labor and valorous deeds.
Sing to the Motherland, Holy and Free,
Her children united in brotherhood strong.
O mighty Emperor, our noble defender,
To Russia's great triumph, lead us on!
In the vic'try of Russia's eternal heartbeat,
We see the future of our dear land.
And to her fluttering Tricolor banner,
Selflessly true we always shall stand!
The Hymn of the Russian Empire. The Russians knew that liberation was coming.
Tenchi and Tai walked quietly back to their tank as the other tenants began tossing out Japanese flags and sent the Imperial Eagle Flag flying above their building.
Marshal Lakov's Mobile Command Post rumbled as his crew drove toward the captured islands. Lakov was going to personally see the city reclaimed by Russian Imperial troops.
Behind the troops came SMERSH, the MGB's military arm that kept the troops in line. The Ministry of State Security was in charge of rounding up spies and collaborators. Lakov's troops had scared up many in it's advance. The MGB had already shot about 345 Russians who had helped the Japanese administrate the conquered territories and had liquidated the "Russian Liberation Army", an insignificant organization that attracted about 12,000 Russians, 9,000 of which took their Japanese weapons and vanished into the hills to join Guerilla forces. The remaining 5,000 were used as policemen.
God help them if they ever fell into the hands of MGB agents, guerilla squads, or had the misfortune to be sighted by a Russian Recon Patrol. They were often shot as soon as they were sighted. Thousands were captured by the Imperial Army and loaded onto trains and trucks destined for Gulags deeper into Russian territory. It's leaders were shot, and their Japanese puppet-masters were shot for encouraging rebellion.
OUTSIDE KHABAROVSK, FOUR HOURS LATER
The Japanese 11th Armored Division and 34th Infantry Division waited on it's side of the Minefield that guarded the city. General Nohitomo had moved his headquarters out of the city. Before this defensive force approached the Russian 5th Combined Arms Army, with a regiment of Mil-28 helicopters hovering overhead. The general commanding the city defenders, Brigadier General Nakasi, smiled grimly to himself. The minefield standing between the Russian tanks and his own divisions would chew up the Russian invaders, he could then keep them back with his own tank forces. "General!!" the commander, who was watching Russian and Japanese fighters dueling in the sky, turned to see a captain running up to him. "Sir, the Russians are approaching!!"
Marshal Lakov licked his lips nervously as he saw Khabarovsk through his binoculars. Beside him stood the 5th Combined Arms Army commander, Colonel General Yuri Markov. Markov was smiling uncontrollably and he wringed his hands. Lakov turned to him and said, "Instruct your tanks to halt." Markov saluted and carried out the order.
Nakasi had just arrived on the lines and was impressed by what he saw. A wave of Russian T-90s were approaching the minefield. It was only a matter of time before the explosions would start.
And then, the tanks stopped. About ¾ a mile to the minefield. Nakasi was shocked, and peered at them through his binoculars. He then saw some sort of armored vehicle approach. It was a tracked machine, box shaped, and some antennae stood out on it's roof. It rumbled past the T-90s and stopped about 12 yards from the tanks. A long, box like device was lowered mechanically to the ground. Inside were Russian troops with Artillery insignia. As soon as the object landed on the ground, the men inside began working at something.
Suddenly, the minefield exploded.
It didn't explode all at once, rather like a wave. It began in front of the strange armored vehicle, and explosions tore up the soil, approaching the Japanese and stopping only where the minefield ended. Nakasi was gulping for air. Whatever was going on was impossible! But out of the mist, like a horrible army of monsters emerging out of the fog, the Russian tanks rolled forward. Overhead, Mil-28s raced into battle, rapidly turning Nakasi's tanks into heaps of burning metal and bones. Nakasi's front lines deteriorated as the Russians entered the city. Nakasi leaped into his jeep and roared out of the city limits as fast as it could go. He joined up with a column of Infantry troops and proceeded south, as soon as a tent had been set up for him, he sat on his cot and began sobbing.
GENERAL NOHITOMO'S COLUMN
The news had come in as the General had halted the column. Khabarovsk had fallen to the Russian Imperial Army. MGB squads were raking the city for traitors. The joyful citizens had dragged collaborators out of their homes, and sometimes personally hurled them into the trucks. Portraits of the Emperor decorated the streets and Marshal Lakov sent Dane I the captured Japanese banners.
Darien leaned against an APC. Two young men sat on a tank that had pulled up nearby. Tenchi was sipping a canteen and Tai was cleaning his goggles. General Nohitomo emerged from the APC with a gloomy look.
"The Russians have thrust forward in about 3 points. One of them just cut off the 6th Army at their beachhead. They've got what looks to be 10,000 guns and 500 rocket launchers pointed at our boys in the 6th. They're also bringing down the 34th Army to try to drive them into the sea." He looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Major, do you know anyone named Ami?"
Darien's whipped around to look at his senior commander, "Yes, why?"
The General sighed, "A message just came for you; Ami has been captured by the Russian Imperial Navy, apparently by Admiral Victor Kolsov himself."
Darien went back to his position on the APC. His eyes were wide, and he said out loud,
"What is happening to us all?"
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hymn of Russian Empire is to the tune of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union.