The videos I was inspired by:
(erase the spaces in the link)

Convoy:
ht_tps:_/_/_www._youtube._com_/watch?v=BTl4-c8tcXA

RPO "Shmel" Reactive Flamethrowers:
ht_tps:_/_/_www._youtube._com_/watch?v=lEQsjtHZpgg
(In the first shots you can see an armored vehicle BMO-T).

See the end of the chapter for explanations of incomprehensible words and abbreviations.


Russian Federation,
Military base No. 54096,
08.08.2016.

The Far Eastern sun, no longer particularly hot in August, was hiding under leaden clouds that scattered its light, making the already damp weather even nastier.

The full strength of the Sixth Separate Tank Brigade was assembled at the huge airfield, which had been hastily turned into an improvised parade ground, and they waited with weariness until their commanders appeared and explained everything that was going on. Lieutenant Yaroslav Smagoda, commander of the second squad of the first "light" company of the thirteenth individual flamethrower battalion of the radiation, chemical and biological defense troops, was well in the rear of the many thousands strong formation, among which even the blue uniforms of the Rosgvardya were glimpsed. Therefore, the lieutenant, without fear of his superiors, allowed himself to stand at ease, for the full dressing and several hours of standing in it were very tiring for the young officer.

The last two weeks were extremely tense for Yaroslav, and for the whole brigade: first the FSB agents came to their base, who were slowly and meticulously inspecting various services, then all conscripts were transferred from the unit, depriving the brigade of a fifth of its personnel, and then the bureaucratic hell began! Each soldier was handed a small package of documents, which asserted an incredible level of secrecy about the brigade's actions, from the moment the papers were handed over. Then there were piles of confidentiality agreements that foretold the worst penalties for anyone who broke them... And a few days later, without warning, the entire brigade was mobilized and transferred from the Southern Military District to the Eastern District! Several thousand men, huge echelons of equipment...

The Far East greeted the soldiers with unfriendly weather and even less friendly FSB agents, who flooded the brigade. Among the staff were rumored that the brigade was going to put some experiments or test some secret weapon, or even all this was preparation for war, whether with China or Japan ... The latter is quite possible, because all the world's governments feverish from the Japanese opened the gate, to which the narrow-eyed carefully kept out even their masters — the United States.

Finally, the brigade commander's loudest commands began to come through the powerful loudspeakers:

— Br-rigade! Attention!

A man in a black overcoat without any insignia stepped up to the small tribune that held the brigade's highest officers and those closest to them.

— Soldiers! — a soft, authoritative voice rang out over the thousands of men. — You are the faithful soldiers of your country, and now the Motherland calls you to battle! For centuries our country has been ready not only to defend itself against foreign invasion, but also to help those who need this help. So, in the bloody years of World War II, our grandfathers not only defended their native land, strangling the Nazi scum, but in the liberation campaign carried the red flag across Europe, cleaning up the Nazi filth with fire and sword. They swore then that they would never again allow the greedy ambitions of individuals or nations to destroy world peace, and our army has carried this duty with honor during all these decades! Now our country and our people need you again. And not only ours! Like your fathers and grandfathers, on your shoulders rests once again the burden of international duty! Your sacred mission is to protect your own and the other world from the impending threat of the Third World War! So do not disgrace yourselves and Russia, fulfill your mission with honor, once again confirming that "The world was saved by the Russian soldier"! Let's go, brave sons of Russia! Ura! — the man raised his hand to his cap in a military salute, his example was followed by the officers standing beside him, and several thousand soldiers shouted a belligerent "Urr-a-a-a!" with a tear.


About an hour had passed since the parting speech, and Yaroslav was still in a light prostration, immersed in his thoughts, despite the fact that he had already received a full ammunition — four magazines for his life-worn AKS-74, two grenades RGD-5 and two spare magazines for the PM pistol; all this was quickly distributed on the obsolete unloading vest "6Sh92" on the army armor "6B23" in camouflage "flora". This late-nineties and early-twenties gear clearly hinted at not the best supply.

"Another world! Another damn world! We weren't even sent somewhere in Africa or Syria, but to another world! "International duty", my ass! The same Gate, only we have... What if the Japs are there? What do you mean "if"? They'll be there! Do we have to go to war with them? I don't doubt our strength, in fact, we'll blow the Japs to smithereens, but won't that start World War III? Our commanders must know what they are doing..."

In his pondering the lieutenant immediately flew into the stern of his BMO-T, firmly bumping his helmet on the armor, accompanying all this action with a brief, but significant "Blya". BMO-T, by the way, is a fighting vehicle made specifically for flamethrowers, based on the T-72, but with an armored superstructure for the troops instead of the turret. It accommodated two crew members, seven soldiers, and as many as thirty pieces of flamethrowers RPO "Shmel", capable of giving fire hell to any enemy within a radius of 50 meters. Shaking his head, beating out of it completely inappropriately useful knowledge of the "Behemoth", Jaroslav dashingly jumped onto the armored vehicle and slid into the top hatch, slamming it behind him.

Inside the landing compartment, in addition to the lieutenant, sat six more men, and around them on racks stood ready to fight "Shmels". In addition, for the "probable struggle with aggressive flora and fauna of the other world," each flamethrower squad was given a set of backpack flamethrower LPO-50, which the lieutenant had previously seen only on pictures in the military academy, but his specialization obliged him to know how to use even such an archaism.

There was relative silence in the compartment of the BMO-T, disturbed only by the hiss of Yaroslav's radio and the sounds of the tank brigade outside. After a few minutes the "Behemoth's" engine started and blasted, the vehicle rocked and moved as part of the first convoy that had the honor of being the vanguard of the brigade. In the convoy, in addition to the two BMO-T in the center, were BTR-80 and BMP-2 motorized riflemen and a couple of units of Special Forces, walking in front of all, and at the back of the convoy was "Tunguska", KShM "Chaika", a pair of RHM-4 chem-bio intelligence and MT-LB with the attached specialists.

After about an hour of continuous driving, during which the soldiers recovered a little from the shock and began to whisper, discussing the situation in which they found themselves, Yaroslav suddenly felt the car begin to go down some slope, and then stopped abruptly. In the lieutenant's pouch, the radio on the RHBZ unit's channel started talking:

— To all RHBZ units, I am "Smoke": command "gases"! Repeat, command "gases"! Put on gas masks, and do not take them off until the appropriate command. Company commanders, report for readiness.

Yaroslav reluctantly took his PMK-2 gas mask out of his bag and pulled it over his face, then inspected his subordinates, who performed the same procedure, and pressed the tangent, reporting to the company channel on readiness:

— "Flame 1-1", I am "Spark 2-0" — the second squad is ready!

The platoon leader, having received reports from the squad leaders, reported to the company commander, the latter to the combatant, and so on up the chain... Until a new order came.

— "Smoke" to the whole RHBZ unit: get ready for combat! In ten minutes we will enter the Gate, be ready to face the enemy! Company commanders, report ready...
The squad, consisting of seven flamethrowers, two tankers and the "under-tank-over-BMP" — BMO-T, prepared for battle: the magazines were inserted, the safeties were removed and the bolts clanked predatorily. The lieutenant put the machine gun between his legs and reported readiness, although he himself was completely unprepared for what was happening inside. It was only three months since his graduation from military school, he had just started to get used to his unit, and then... this.

After sitting like this for five minutes, Yaroslav decided to open the hatch and look out to see what was going on around him. Clicked a handle, quietly hissed hermetic seal and lieutenant lifted the hatch cover, creating a small gap in which he tried to look out. The result was a brief glimpse of high metal walls and sprayed directly into the lens gas mask tight stream of foamy liquid, most likely disinfectant.

Falling down on his seat under the clap of the closed hatch and swearing, causing a fit of laughter from the soldiers, the lieutenant began to erase the liquid from the glass of the gas mask, cursing his , a procedure of disinfection and cleaning of equipment was going on outside, so as not to drag our dirt and microbes into the other world. Accordingly, gas masks were put on the soldiers so that they wouldn't catch any of the nastiness from the other world.

"Thank God they didn't order me to wear a full set of OZK... They could have made me do it". — Yaroslav thought with relief. As a member of the RHBZ troops, he knew firsthand what a day in the heat in OZK and full gear was like.

Through the channels of the crews of armored vehicles passed the command "Forward!" and Yaroslav's car moved from its place, slowly rolling as part of the vanguard column.

— "Smoke" to all RHBZ unit: the column will enter the Gate in five... four... three... two... one... The head car is in the Gate, keep moving. Report any incidents immediately!

There was an anxious silence in the "Behemoth" compartment again. — Yaroslav thought with relief. As a member of the RHBZ troops, he knew firsthand what a day in the heat in OZK and full gear was like.

The lieutenant pulled the radio to his face, pressed the tangent and quietly turned to the commander of the BMO-T on his squad channel:

— Sarge, what's up? Can you see anything? Where are we?

— Comrade Lieutenant, I can't see a damn thing. I can only see the BTR coming in front of me in the headlights... And there's darkness on the sides, like outer space. Nothing, not even light is reflected. It's creepy. — Yaroslav heard the sergeant very badly, the interference was growing with every second, but the connection had not yet broken.

— How much longer till it's over?

— I don't know, I can't see. It's like we're driving in a vacuum. But when I see something, I'll be sure to let you know.

— Copy that.

What the sergeant said was really creepy. Vacuum, space, impenetrable darkness... Fantastic. But after a few minutes the lieutenant almost relaxed and closed his eyes, thinking about the fact that here they had a whole armed to the teeth convoy with armored vehicles, guns, machine guns and even flamethrowers, somewhere with them rode the army special forces, and behind generally a tank brigade, artillery, helicopters and all Russia...

Suddenly the radio hissed, making unintelligible noises from two channels at once. It could mean either a malfunction in the equipment, after all, the tunnel to another world; or that something was going on around, but because of the strong interference it was unclear what.

The car shook violently from the sudden braking, the lieutenant almost fell from his seat, releasing the automatic rifle that rattled on the metal floor. Bending down and picking up his weapon, Yaroslav noticed the concerned looks in the eyepieces of his soldiers' gas masks. Deciding to check what was going on behind the armored walls of the "Behemoth", the lieutenant again threw open the hatch, this time fearing not the foam jet, but what caused the convoy to stop.

As it turned out, he wasn't the only one looking out of his car, and everyone was staring at what was going on in front of the convoy. Fifty feet away from the convoy there was a light at the end of this tunnel of darkness, but a huge "bubble" of black matter, with a pulsing scarlet center, was hanging from the ceiling, barely visible in the darkness. The "bubble" looked like some kind of jelly, twitching disgustingly as it moved...

And then the unexpected happened: the "bubble" flashed red for a moment, and there was a heartbreaking, inhuman cry of many voices that seemed to come from everywhere... Many simply froze with horror, and dozens of people nearby instantly had a stroke or their hearts exploded.

The lieutenant squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed his ears, the eardrums in which were barely able to withstand the onslaught. When Yaroslav looked again at the beginning of the convoy, instead of the first two BMP, he saw a "bubble" in their place. And then this thing moved on the rest of the convoy, releasing from its amorphous body dozens of black limbs, which immediately rushed towards the people, not hidden by the armor. The black "arms" of the creature grabbed the soldiers and then, piercing through their armor and entrails, tore out their hearts, immediately pulling them into the general mass of the "bubble" and tossing the dead bodies aside.

Yaroslav was gripped by a horror the likes of which he had never experienced in his life, but he was able, with difficulty, to raise his assault rifle, with trembling hands to release the safety, and with all his might to squeeze the trigger, emptying the magazine in three seconds into the monster that had already killed about fifty soldiers.

A few more people woke up, firing from the entire convoy began, and in a couple of seconds the large-caliber machine guns of the BTRs and the automatic cannons of the BMPs hit. The transporters closest to the creature began to pull back, but ran into the still standing vehicles behind them. The convoy became a mess, created by the lack of communication with the command and the fear of the unknown monster, inexorably approaching the convoy. Soldiers began disembarking from their vehicles and immediately began shooting at the monster with dozens of automatic rifles. The officers shouted at the top of their lungs, trying to control the chaos...

Bullets and shells tore off the creature's limbs, but each severed arm was replaced by ten new ones, and all that was left in its body from the guns and machine guns were holes that were immediately overgrown with dark matter. Dozens of soldiers near the monster were swept away by a stream of limbs in just a few seconds, and the thing itself crawled onto the stranded BTR, after which it stopped firing, and it was not difficult to guess what had happened to the crew...

Panic ensued. Some soldiers simply turned and ran towards the end of the column, others continued to hold their positions, reinforcements gradually approached, but nothing changed, some limbs of the creature stretched for more than fifty meters, snatching fighters out of the line already almost before the "Behemoth", in which there was Yaroslav with his squad... And suddenly another bunch of "arms" hit a dense stream of fire, coming out of the backpack flame thrower of the first platoon of firebattle! The limbs instantly vaporized and the creature let out a shrill squeak, followed by a new, more furious attack.

Sergeant Lavrinenko, the vehicle commander, apparently aware of what was happening, looked out of the BMO-T's command deck and immediately grabbed the Kord machine gun that was sticking out nearby. Another large-caliber machine gun rang out, cutting off the disgusting offshoots of the bubble.

Yaroslav woke up as if from a dream. He abruptly lowered himself into the landing compartment, where his frightened and unaware of what was happening, the soldiers were sitting. A scream came out of the officer's gas mask:

— "Shmel's" to the fight! All right, everyone out. Now! Now! — The lieutenant yelled, grabbed his RPO and jumped out through the hatch.

He mechanically, on the move, putting the grips of the RPO in the firing position, he put the flamethrower on his shoulder, raised the diopter sight, aiming at the black monster, threw back the safety catch and pressed the trigger. There was a pop behind him, and his eyes were briefly blinded by a rocket jet; a thermobaric ammunition went into the enemy.

A second later the creature's right side ruptured with a high-temperature pulse, accompanied by a sharp pressure differential that literally annihilated one-sixth of the creature. The answering squeal on the verge of ultrasound made Yaroslav sick, and the directed blow of dozens of "hands" in its direction could well have been the last, but a squad of motorized riflemen and a soldier with a LPO-50 backpack flamethrower stood in their way and immediately released a jet of flame on the enemy. The creature had learned from its mistakes, however, so some of its limbs escaped by moving sharply upward and then collapsing on the line of soldiers.

A pair of "hands" grabbed the plucky soldier with the flamethrower by his legs, pushing him onto his back and dragging him toward the creature itself, which was consuming another BMP. But it wasn't: the soldiers standing around rushed to the aid of their comrade, grabbing him by the arms and preventing him from being dragged away. Jaroslav threw away the empty RPO and grasped the fighter, too, holding him by the straps of the unloading. There were literally about ten men hanging onto the flamethrower. A few more "hands" grabbed the soldier's legs and he screamed in unbearable pain, and a moment later he was torn in half with a nasty crunch. The body up to the waist remained in the hands of the "rescuers," and the legs and pelvis flew off into the depths of the tunnel; the guts and other innards of the unfortunate man were scattered for several meters around.

The lieutenant collapsed with the others, holding the "half" of his comrade in his hands. The windows of Yaroslav's gas mask were completely covered in blood, and his throat was already vomiting. On all fours, crawling away from the pile of moving bodies, the officer got to his feet and drew his Makarov pistol from its holster, because his automatic was lost somewhere in all the commotion. As he pulled the trigger repeatedly, he sent 9-millimeter bullets into the monster with a yell of rage that did no harm at all.

Finally turning his attention to his platoon, Yaroslav noticed his six men, two of whom were already dead, while the rest were backing away from the Behemoth, which was floundering helplessly in place, propped up by an BTR from behind. Then, it suddenly stopped, and out of the hatch for the crew came out the gunner, lance-corporal Molchanov, who rushed straight to Yaroslav.

— Comrade... Lieutenant! There Lavrinenko was going to... to ram him!

— What do you mean ram?! Tvoyu mat'!— The officer, who was already in shock from what was going on around him, went nuts.

— He said he's gonna ram this suka and you're gonna shoot him with an RPO and there's thirty more "Shmel's" inside the BMO-T... They're gonna detonate! He's gonna blow this motherfucker wide open! Otherwise, he says, we're all fucked up!

The lieutenant wanted to shout and rush to the car to stop this stupid initiative, but the "Behemoth" already roared and took off, skirting the convoy from the side, rushing into a suicidal attack.

— Give it to me, blyat'! — The officer pushed the hapless tanker away and swooped down on the nearest subordinate, snatching the still loaded flamethrower from his hands. A moment later he caught in his sight the receding figure of the BMO-T, pushing with an armored wedge the piles of equipment in its path; the "Behemoth" already unsuccessfully hammered black limbs, so far unable to penetrate the thick frontal armor, but each such blow left impressive dents on the tank armor plates. As if sensing the threat of the rushing BMO-T, the creature concentrated all its blows on it, but it was too late: the vehicle crashed at high speed into the monster, which immediately began to suck it into itself like a huge nasty jelly.

— ...And tremble, for in the flames oblivion shall fall on your head! — The lieutenant whispered furiously, and pressed the trigger. — Amen!

Time seemed to slow down... The shell carrying the fiery death howled from the tube, the "plummet" opened and the jet engine directed the "fiery spear" to its target. The waiting moments lasted for ages, but the thermobaric ammunition reached the enemy in time: the "Behemoth's" stern had no time to hide in the amorphous creature's carcass. The aerosol sprayed an explosive substance that filled all available space around it and entered the BMO's combat compartment through the open hatches. Spark. Flame. EXPLOSION!

About thirty RPO "Smel's" detonated simultaneously. The darkness of the inter-world tunnel blossomed in a huge explosion that engulfed the shrieking monster. All who looked at the explosion were blinded and stunned by a powerful flash, some were concussed and almost all were swept off their feet by the blast wave... But most importantly: when the smoke cleared, the monster that killed dozens of people today was not at the site of the explosion.

The soldiers cried out triumphantly, relatively fresh reinforcements came from the rear, and the soldiers, in a strange impulse, with their machine guns in hand, chanting a bloodthirsty "Urr-ah!", rushed to the end of this tunnel — the entrance to another world!A world for which Russian soldiers had already shed blood, now thirsty for revenge... A world for which much more blood would be shed... A world into which real war had come.


*RHBZ ([Voyska] Radiatsionnoy, Himicheskoy i Biologicheskoy Zashchity) — Radiation, chemical and biological defense troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - special troops in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, designed to protect the armed forces from the effects of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the elimination of the consequences of its use. The Western equivalent is NBC troops. Also in the RHBZ there are unique special units — flamethrower battalions (Ognebat's).
*OZK (Obshchevoyskovoy Zashchitny Kostyum) — Universal protective suit — a means of individual protection designed to protect a person from toxic substances, biological agents and radioactive dust. The Western equivalent is MOPP protective gear.


Privet. Translating into English is very difficult for me. I'm sure there are a lot of mistakes and nonsense in the text, so I'd be glad if someone would point them out to me. It would also be interesting to read your opinion on this chapter.