Quick reupload, had some formatting issues

Chapter 3: Vanguard

Svetlana remained crouched in a defensive fighting position as a bitter wind howled through the valley. As she glanced down to review her watch, the Spetsnaz soldier could see her breath freezing with each exhale. She put on a hard protective mask that was part of the newer generation Ratnik gear before continuing, finding that the time was 14:10 in Moscow, so about 20:10 here... Wherever 'here' was. The temperature was already quite frigid when they arrived three hours ago, only in the low positives of Celsius. However, now, dragging her eyes down from the clock and to the thermometer on her watch, she could see that the temperature had dropped to -8°C as the night dragged on.

All in all, not great, not terrible.

"Got a squadron of wyverns, eight o'clock high." Ilyona Zaytseva whispered from her side.

Svetlana shuffled over and laid down next to where the sniper was looking out from before pulling up a handheld LPR-9 laser rangefinder. She closed her eyes and pulled up the NODs mounted on her helmet before flicking the rangefinder onto thermal imaging and looking through the rangefinder. It took a while of searching through the sky to find the formation of wyverns despite the assistance of the thermal sights, as it seemed that this particular species had a very small thermal signature.

"Can you tell if they have riders?" Svetlana whispered back.

"It doesn't look like it... Maybe they're wild?" Ilyona wondered, detaching her eyes from her sniper scope and looking over at Svetlana.

"Perhaps. I don't think any human could survive that long up there in this weather." Svetlana conceded before clicking in her radio, "Vampir Actual, this is Vampir-1."

"Vampir-1, Vampir Actual. Send message." Malyenko replied a few seconds later.

"We've got eyes on six plus unidentified aerial creatures off about..." She checked her compass, "250 degrees high."

She waited almost a minute and was just about to repeat her message when Malyenko returned, "Vampir-1, we've got them on radar. Could you describe them?"

"Copy." She replied, "They look like wyverns without riders. They've got barely any thermal signature so it's hard to get a good look, but at a guess they might be... Maybe about fifteen metres in length, twice that in wingspan."

It was a wild guess, to be honest. The images were so far away and so vague that all she could do was roughly equate it to being the size of a MiG-41SPD Fable stratospheric fighter.

"Copy that..." Malyenko replied slowly, "Keep an eye on them, Yezh-1 has locks on all of them but if they're just the local wildlife we don't want to give away our position."

"Solid. Vampir-1 out." Svetlana tapped Ilyona on the shoulder, "Did you hear all of that? Just keep an eye on them and tell me if anything changes."

"Got it, Ma'am."

The Lieutenant switched to the squad net and told Volkov to keep the 9K44 Drotik handy just in case. With the flock of wyverns flying away, Ilyona and Svetlana settled into a comfortable silence permeated by the soft thrumming of hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles.

"God, this is boring..." Ilyona muttered, making Svetlana chuckle, "What?"

"How are you not used to this by now, Ilyona? You've been in the army for years."

The sniper turned to Svetlana with a faux-hurt look, with Svetlana returning a smirk, before quickly going back to scanning the terrain through her rifle's scope.

"I'm used to it, it doesn't mean I like it!" Ilyona hissed back.

"...aren't you a sniper?"

"...stop talking, Ma'am."

Svetlana laughed quietly to herself before cutting herself off and settling back down for a long night. She missed being able to do this with Ilyona as often. Before she assumed command of Vampir-1 two months ago, the two of them had functioned as a sniper-spotter pair for more than a year. With any luck, the two of them would be able to perform that role for Vampir again. God only knows what the brass was thinking, compiling the two of them into Vampir-1 and leaving the entire platoon without a sniper team. It was a must have for special operations units and more high calibre 10.4 mm rifle rounds would certainly not be missed with all these fantasy creatures.

"Don't worry, we'll rotate out with Solovev in two hours." Svetlana said, breaking her internal monologue.

Mendenetsa jumped down into the fighting position, patting Svetlana on the shoulder as he spoke, "Aren't you the one always ragging on the Captain to stop tempting fate like that?"

She turned to look at her SiC and opened her mouth to retort... before closing it again and nodding, "Fair enough."

"It's all quiet over on the right." Mendenetsa said, "The first battalion of the main force should be arriving in six hours."

She nodded lightly. The 40th Guards Tank Brigade and the 27th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade had been chosen to lead the charge whilst a battalion of men and women from the SSO, herself included, held down what the GRU had labelled as Hill 2446 and bought them enough time to get out of the fatal funnel and into their combat formations. That was over 200 tanks and 400 other AFVs dedicated to the invasion. Not at the same time, of course, but they were just on the other side of the Gate if they were required. The only thing they were missing was fast air because it was deemed far too risky,bhn even if the V/STOL Yak-45 Firefly could take off with the limited space.

"Do you think the locals will attack before then?" She questioned.

"Provided that they follow the same ideals as our own history at this period, probably not. Fighting is done in the day and ceases at dusk." He said.

"Trust the history buff..." Ilyona murmured, before flinching slightly as Mendenetsa cuffed her over the head.

"Ladies..." Svetlana warned, earning Mendenetsa's eye-roll, "Even if it is a fool's errand to attack up this hill, we can't rely on the enemy being predictable, so keep an eye out."

"They're already on it."

"Good. Let's-"

A network-wide message interrupted the Lieutenant's comment, "All units be advised, meteorological data indicates an incoming snow flurry. There should be no changes to the current timetable."

"...Yaaaaaay, snow..." Ilyona said, completely deadpan.

"Lieutenant, ma'am... I'm not on watch duty again tonight, so what is it?" Mendenetsa asked, slowly getting up from his cot as Svetlana walked by.

"The expeditionary force is here, the attack starts in one hour."

It had been decided that the Russian army would take a proactive role in this fight and give the enemy no time to respond to their appearance on Hill 2446. The plan was a simple one. Since there was only one road large enough to accommodate the Russian AFVs and it only got anywhere close to one of the twelve enemy camps, the 40th Guards Tank Battalion would secure Hill 2446 with their heavy armour and self-propelled guns and will secure accurate sight lines down into the forest. Meanwhile, the 27th Motor Rifle Brigade alongside the SSO troops would dismount from their mechanised transports and proceed through the forest alongside BKP-34 armoured infantry exosuits and a few of the lighter vehicles. Each squad had been given extra anti-tank weapons alongside the BKP-34s just in case they came across a large amount of the Empire's 'heavy organic units', as they were referred to in intelligence reports.

"So I should gather the rest of the platoon." He stated more than asked, getting up and grabbing his rifle.

Svetlana nodded and walked further along with Lieutenant Solovev towards where Captain Malyenko and a Captain from the 27th Motor Rifles stood.

"Sirs," Svetlana saluted, "Vampir-1 and Vampir-3 will be ready in five mikes."

"Good," Malyenko nodded, "Captain Azin, this is Lieutenant Vesilya. Vesilya, Azin. The Captain here will be commanding the BKP section supporting our element."

Svetlana and Captain Azin shook hands and exchanged respectful nods.

"A pleasure, Lieutenant." Azin turned back to Malyenko, "I need to get going. It take a while to get suited up."

"Of course, Captain." They exchanged a salute before Azin departed at a jog towards a small pool of mechanised suits some hundreds of metres away.

"How are you doing, Lieutenant?" Malyenko asked, guiding the two of them and Solovev away from the rest of the troops so they could talk more casually as officers – and friends.

Svetlana let out a quiet sigh before replying, "Honestly, I just want to get Mendenetsa that promotion so I can hand-off command to him. This commanding a platoon thing..."

"I get it," Malyenko nodded, "Platoon and company level isn't for everyone and you've always craved shooting."

"...Make me sound like a addict why don't you." She said as Malyenko rolled his eyes in response.

"Relax, I'll take it up with the Colonel after this Op. I'm sure Zakhar will back me up..." He remarked looking towards Solovev.

Five minutes later, the rest of all three of Vampir's three squads of Spetsnaz troops came over and sat around in their teams, checking their kit and talking casually in the preamble of the first offensive in this new world. A few minutes after that, two dozen hulking suits stomped over. They were eight foot tall and covered in thick titanium alloy plates. On one arm, a single 20 mm autocannon remained retracted, whilst on the other micromissiles with penetrating tips hid in their protective casings. In the modern battlefield, these BKP-34 suits were rapidly becoming the new IFV, able to provide fire support to infantry far faster than any vehicle and with a much smaller profile.

After a few more minutes, the radio crackled to life with a message from the General: "Phase I of Operation Red Tide is live now."

Captain Malyenko spoke up as the crackling of the radio faded away, "Vesilya, that's you! You know your role, we'll follow in twenty mikes."

"Got it. Vampir-1, with me! We're moving!" She shouted. The two fireteams of Vampir-1 quickly sprung into action, leaping to their feet and rushing towards her and a selection of ATVs.

The Spetsnaz Lieutenant hopped on the lead ATV and Ilyona clambered on behind her, holding onto her waist as she turned on the engine. The other operatives jumped in groups of two onto seven other ATVs around them, apart from two which were single-seat cargo variants carrying ammo, rations, and extra AT and AA. Once everyone was ready, she squeezed down on the accelerator handle and took off out of the Russian encampment, followed by the other ATVs. They streaked past rows upon rows of preparing infantry and light mobility vehicles until finally flying past the exterior cordon and down the only large road in the region.

The team followed the road down for one klick before turning the corner and coming face to face with a scouting party of horsemen a hundred metres down the road, concealed from the overwatch UAV's camera by the dense tree lines.

"Dismount! Fire at will!" Svetlana shouted, jumping off the ATV and pulling up her rifle as the cavalry began charging.

To her right, she heard the loud cracking of Ilyona's DXL-5 snapping out 10.4 mm rounds, quickly joined by Kozlov's Kord-5.45 light machine gun lashing out in bursts. In the following seconds, the rest of Vampir-1 opened fire with their rifles and a single RPK-16.

"Vampir Actual, Vampir-1." Svetlana said, clicking the radio on as the horses were cut down piecemeal, "Contact made with enemy scouting party."

"Copy, Vampir-1. Do you need support?"

"Uhhh..." She waited a couple more seconds as the few remaining horsemen turned tail and fled, "Negative, we're good. Proceeding to Phase Line Volga."

"Copy, good work. Vampir Actual out."

"Anybody hurt?" She called out as the gunfire subsided. Upon receiving a series of negatives, she continued, "Good. Popov, Kozlov, Volkov, Ilyich ride up there and make sure they're all dead."

She received affirmations from the three men and they jumped onto their bikes and rode forwards as Mendenetsa ran up alongside Svetlana and looked over.

"What's the move, Ma'am?"

She pulled up a map on her wrist case.

"If we continue another klick down, we'll encounter the first enemy camp." She murmured, looking at the map and pointing out a route whilst raising her voice to be more audible to Mendenetsa, "It's the biggest of the lot so we'll cut off to the North here and recce it from the high ground. Get eyes on, call in arty. Then we'll wait for the rest of Vampir and the BKPs to catch up and we can attack our primary target."

This world's sun was just beginning to properly peak up over the mountains, bathing the valley in a godly sheen as they turned off the road and into the forest of 40 metres high trees. In the rough off-road terrain the ATVs shined and they made great progress up the forested ridge. Even on the back of ATVs, it took them thirty minutes to manoeuvre through the brush and around the trees before they made it to Hill 2214. They dismounted the ATVs before the ridge and hiked the two hundred metre distance up the shallow incline before coming up to a shear cliff drop down thirty metres.

"Zaytseva, come up there with me. The rest of you retain security." Svetlana ordered before crawling up to the edge of the cliff with Ilyona and a spotter scope.

Svetlana set up the spotter scope whilst remaining prone as Ilyona pulled open the bipod on her DXL-5 and set it down pointing off the cliff and into the valley below. In the far distance, the camp they were sent to direct the artillery onto was unmissable. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of tents stretched across a massive kilometre long-hill.

"Hot damn, that's a lot of people." Ilyona muttered

"Best get on with those calculations..." Svetlana replied .

The Lieutenant unfolded a map and carefully started working out the measurements she needs whilst Ilyona checked windage and the ambient temperature in case she was called to take a shot.

"White Storm, this is Vampir-1, Adjust fire, over." She stated into the radio, calling for one of the 2S35 self-propelled gun batteries back at base.

"Vampir-1, this is White Storm, Adjust fire, out." A female voice mirrored what Svetlana sent.

"Grid Anna Leonid 233 588, enemy encampment in the open, over."

"Grid Anna Leonid 233 588, enemy encampment in the open, out." White Storm said over net, "Message to Observer, A, E, HE in effect, 5 rounds, 12 seconds, over."

Svetlana clicked the radio back on and said, "Message to Observer, A, E, HE in effect, 5 rounds, 12 seconds, out."

She centred the spotting scope on the middle of the hill occupied by the Imperials before White Storm sent another message.

"Shot, over."

"Shot, out."

Seven seconds later, "Splash, over."

"Splash, out." Svetlana sent back as an explosion a little ways behind and to the left of the enemy camp kicked up tonnes of smoke, dirt, and dust. Svetlana checked the notches on the spotter scope before calling back to White Storm, "Drop 100, Right 50, over."

"Roger, Drop 100, Right 50, shot, over."

"Shot, out."

Once again, seven seconds later, "Splash, over."

"Splash out-" She cut herself off as the spotting shell landed directly on target. She quickly ordered: "Fire for effect, over."

"Fire for effect, out." White Storm replied. Seconds later, their exchange was accentuated by twenty thundering sounds in the distance.

Twelve seconds later, Svetlana and Ilyona were counting down 20 high-explosive artillery shells as they devastated the core of the encampment and wracked the hill with craters. They were so far away that they only heard the cacophony of explosions six seconds later. Down in the camp, a rather horrific scene was taking place as hundreds of bodies littered the ground between shell craters, killed by the shockwave or shrapnel whilst the survivors were either left frozen in fear or trying to rapidly escape the hill.

"Fire mission complete, request BDA, over."

"Jesus Christ, do these guys even know what artillery is?" Ilyona said, looking down into the camp with her scope.

"Doubt it, these guys are real primitives. Do you see anything important that survived?" She asked, scanning the target.

The hill was effectively just a series of smouldering craters with some small fires slowly spreading amongst the surviving tents, with rips and tears from shrapnel and other debris littering the weak coverings as well.

"Uhhh, Negative... Looks like we got it all... The wyvern pens are gone, heavy infantry are in pieces. Unless you want me to start picking off lone targets, we're done here." Ilyona replied.

"Copy." The Lieutenant clacked in the radio, "Enemy encampment destroyed, end mission, over."

"Roger, enemy encampment destroyed, end mission, out." White Storm sent back, ending the exchange.

"Our job's done," She said, tapping Ilyona on the shoulder, "Let's go back down."

Ilyona nodded and turned around and slid down the hill with Svetlana quickly following her down after packing up the spotter scope.

"Aurora-85 will clean up here. Time to hunker down until the Captain finally turns up."

"Alright... The catapult is powering up now. Switching cameras on..."

Two monitors flicked on with a front and rear view camera. The forward camera showed the dark sky with a bleeding of sunlight in the distance whilst the rear camera showed an olive green catapult system surrounded by Russian Aerospace Force engineers.

"We're good. How is it on your end, Aleks?" The drone pilot asked.

"One second, just switching on the sensor ball..." The sensor operator flicked a switch and saw the multi-spectral targeting sensor suite come online, "Alright, that looks good. It's detecting all the weapon systems... we're good to go."

"Excellent." Said the mission coordinator, keying in a radio, "318, this is base. Clear for launch, over."

"Clear for launch, out." 318 replied.

"Clear catapult!"

The engineers fled the immediate area as a high-pitched whine permeated the air.

"Launching in: 3! 2! 1!" The catapult operator pushed down on the red button on his control set, highlighted in white cyrillic text.

The whine grew much louder and was accented by a soft grating sound as the S-120 Treker-D-II UCAV was electromagnetically launched into the sky with a payload of six 9K991 Goplit air-to-ground missiles.

"Launch successful."

"Begin assent."

The drone pilot pulled back on the stick and rapidly gained altitude until the Treker-D was just a speck from the ground.

"Proceed west." The coordinator ordered, "We're to provide advanced reconnaissance for the 348 battalion.."

"Are the 348 in the field already?" The pilot asked.

"Yes, they deployed thirty minutes ago. The GLONASS system is unavailable so we will be relying on IR signatures and strobes to identify friendly forces."

"Copy."

The pilot adjusted the course and the drone soared at speed to the north-west as it continued to climb. The three-man crew flew without worry for twenty minutes before they reached an altitude deemed to be safe from low tech armies such as the insurgencies found in Chechnya or, back in the day, Afghanistan. No one knew if it would be safe here, but they had to start from somewhere.

"Levelling... assuming orbit now."

"Excellent. Turn on the assisted tracking module and begin a search pattern of the region. Let's see if we can't find where these bastards are at..."

The order was directed at the sensor operator who, quite dutifully, flicked a black switch with the caption 'UAT'; User Assisted Targetting. It used advanced AI routines to help the sensor operator process information faster. With this, the operator could search a kilometre of land in just half of the time as before.

"Looks like we have the 348th, I've got a repeat on the IR strobe."

"Perfect. Move the camera west, let's see if we can't spot any advance forces."

"The Japanese are doing what?" President Tarasov asked, incredulous, "You are telling me that Prime Minister Hōjō has declared that the other side of the Gate is part of Japan?"

"Ah... yes, Mr President."

"...Well, that was bad move." He grimaces, "Get me Ambassador Elkin... We will give Prime Minister Hōjō one chance to correct this mistake."

"Well this went fucking wrong!" Ilyona shouted, having let her bolt-action rifle fall limp around her body suspended by the sling wrapped around her back. In place of the rifle, she had pulled up a PP-2000 with +P+ rounds and was rattling off rounds.

Rifle rounds were flying over their heads as Vampir-2 provided fire support. A hundred metres away, a burst of 20 mm cannon fire tore up a tree and a small unit of legionaries whilst micro missiles slammed into hulking ogres. Barrages of arrows and uhhh... magic were exchanged in return. Already one of Solovev's men had taken a hit to the arm and one of Malyenko's had been hit by a ricochet from the... magic. The second one was mostly fine, just slightly singed. The first was in the rear being treated by a medic from Vampir-2.

"Tell me about it!" Svetlana yelled back, clicking the mag release and effortlessly sliding a new magazine into the AK-12M before firing another shot down-range.

Going into this battle, the SSO troops of Vampir and the exosuit infantry of the 337th Armoured Infantry Brigade, Section 7 had been expecting to do the ambushing. They had not expected to be beset upon by invisible fucking giants and a couple thousand legionaries. Oh, and the mages. Can't forget the mages. That was ten minutes ago and, whilst the casualties suffered were still very low, they had been on the back foot.

Then it got worse.

"Contact, right side!" Ilyich called out over the platoon net. Looking over to the right, another pair of centuries had appeared backed up by several large ogres.

Svetlana's radio cracked to life, "Vesilya, relocate and pin them in place! Azin, get a fireteam of BKPs to take their place!"

Five BKPs immediately sprinted up behind them, firing their 20 mm autocannons.

"Rose Team!" Svetlana shouted, grabbing their attention, "Deploy smoke for us!"

"Copy, LT!" Slits opened up on the backs of the exosuits. Loud thumps were drowned out by gunfire and shouting as 40 mm grenades were launched in high arcs in front of Vampir-1. They exploded upon contact with the ground, sending out white dye over a large area and obscuring the vision of both sides.

Now clear to move, Svetlana shouted the order and Vampir-1 relocated to the right flank under the cover of the BKPs. Sprinting into position, they then threw themselves onto the ground and immediately began engaging.

And then...

Click.

Svetlana's last magazine ran dry. She cursed loudly and let go of the AK-12M, letting it fall with the sling against her body before pulling out her sidearm: an an SR-1 Vektor and engaging whoever was in range.

Over on a small hill overlooking the bulk of his forces, Malyenko was observing the rapidly deteriorating situation. By a quick estimate, there appeared to be around 1,500 enemy combatants, though their numbers were obscured by all the trees. This included almost one-hundred 'heavy units' such as ogres and trolls. In comparison, there were thirty spetsnaz soldiers and fifteen exosuit soldiers who were rapidly running dry on ammo and were being outflanked.

It's time to retreat. He concluded.

"Chayka," He called, "Prep a fire mission on our forward positions!"

"Copy, sir!"

To Chayka's credit, he didn't question his orders when his commander told him to prepare an artillery strike on the heads of their own forces.

"Captain Azin," Malyenko continued, "Cover Vampir-1 and 3 whilst they pull b-"

His orders were cut off as a series of explosions bracketed the squads in the gully. Dust and dirt were thrown into the air and Malyenko lost sight of everyone below.

When Svetlana opened her eyes, she was in a position completely different to before. Her vision was blurry and shards of stone and wood had ripped into parts of her uniform. She suddenly felt herself being pulled to her feet and dragged back.

"C'mon, Lana!" Ilyona's voice called from beside her, "I know you're not out of this yet."

"Yeah, yeah..." Svetlana murmured sedately, blinking the blood out of her eyes and reaching down to Ilyona's thigh to grab the sniper's sidearm. Still feeling the dizziness from her sudden bout of unconsciousness, she held on to Ilyona's arm as the pair of them expended the last of their ammunition.

Around the battlefield, the Russian troops had largely weathered the storm of the explosions. They had fallen a little short and the Russians were protected by a shallow ditch that funnelled most of the blast over the top of them. However, pretty much everyone was at least lightly wounded and at least six had more serious ailments. Being the superb soldiers they are though, anyone with ammo was still shooting.

"Ev-ry-n- fal b-ck - th- r-ge!" Malyenko shouted over the radio, his voice much distorted indicating that something must have damaged it, but the general message was obvious enough.

All of the remaining BKP units that had been held in reserve, a mere five, fired off all of their smoke grenades into the gully.

"Let's go, Ilyona." Svetlana said quietly before raising her voice, "Vampir-1, we are fucking leaving! Let's go!"

"Hm? A...Alright, sir. Copy, will do." The drone coordinator put down the handset down, "Change search area to the north-east. We should be able to see a cloud of debris..."

True to his word, the sensor operator changed the orientation of the sensor pod and a small cloud of brown debris could be seen in the distance. On top of that, a locator beacon was blaring brightly on one of the scopes.

"Aleks, lock onto that beacon and fire everything, ten metre spread North."

"But... Sir, there's Spetsnaz beacons just fifty metres south of that position!" The sensor operator objected.

"The order comes from the Spetsnaz."

"...c..copy that."

The sensor operator locked onto the beacon with the drone's own laser designator before using the AI assist to set up a fire pattern for the Goplit missiles. He flicked up the plastic case on the red fire button and placed the palm of his hand over it.

"Confirm fire, sir." He requested.

"Confirm fire." The coordinator repeated.

"Firing."

He pressed down on the button and the drone's cameras shook violently before the bright yellow fire of a Goplit missile came into view. Then two. Then six more, all streaking down towards the beacon. In just a few seconds they impacted and engulfed the entire target.

"What the fuck happened?!" Solovev shouted at no one in particular, though the question was certainly dancing around everyone else's heads.

"The GRU fucked up, that's what happened." Captain Azin grimaced, a massive scorch mark on the chest of his BKP suit having seemingly tanked a direct hit from a mage.

Off to the side, sat on one of the ATVs, Svetlana was being treated by Ilyona. Neither of them were qualified medics, but being career snipers, both of them knew how to treat basic wounds and Svetlana just had a few cuts from shrapnel... and a concussion, but that was neither here nor there. The trained medics such as Kovaleva were all required to treat the more critical wounds.

The truth was that the GRU really had fucked up, big time. Their reconnaissance reports indicated that the camp they were going to assault was one of the preliminary ones, just a few hundred strong. Hence, less than 50 Spetsnaz and exosuits were sent against it. Given the statistics of the Two Gates Incident. Alongside the artillery support offered by the 40th Guards Tank Brigade, this force should have been plenty enough to destroy the target.

What they had faced instead was a force fifteen times of what they were expecting, backed up by heavy infantry units such as ogres and trolls as well as what could only be described as magic users. Thanks to how much the GRU had underestimated the strength of the enemy forces in this region, fifteen Spetsnaz and two BKP soldiers all had light wounds, including Svetlana, whilst six more were laid out with worse wounds. Two of which were life threatening and one of whom was... unlikely to make it.

Osip Elkin. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Japan. That was the full title, at least. Most people shorten it simply to the Russian Ambassador to Japan.

Currently, he was sitting directly across from Prime Minister Shigenori Hōjō having had his 'request' for an audience accepted. In truth, it was more of a demand for an audience.

"I won't mince words." Elkin said, clasping his hands together in front of him, "You will retract your recent statement regarding the so-called 'Japanese Special Region' and will not pursue to pass a bill for it through the National Diet."

"Pah. What are you talking about, Mr Ambassador? You have no rights to make demands of my administration."

Elkin narrowed his eyes dangerously. Since when did Japan become so unreasonable...

"With all due respect, Mr Prime Minister, you are being ridiculous. If you have not already realised, Russian military forces have already passed through the 'Gate' and into this 'Special Region'. Under what you claim, that means Russian troops have invaded Japanese territory."

He paused for a moment to let that implication sink in.

"If you would like, I can pass over this letter from President Tarasov making this invasion official."

"You would not dare..." Hōjō said, half-doubting himself.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. If you will not reconsider, Mr Prime Minister...?" He paused to let Hōjō answer, though, upon receiving none, continued, "Very well. I suppose this meeting is over. I had hoped you a more reasonable man."

Elkin left without another word. Russia was never truly considering declaring war on Japan - with America backing them up it would be suicide. All he was there to do was convey the Russian government's thoughts on Hōjō's political manoeuvrings. They did not really matter in the long run - Russian troops will continue operations regardless of whether Japan considered it 'their sovereign soil' or not because the rest of the world certainly wouldn't. In all likelihood, all this has actually done is alienate the Americans from their Japanese allies.

Of course, the next step is for Russia to contest Hōjō's claims in the United Nations, get a UNSC resolution signed condemning the claims and then moving forward from there with the international community backing them.

Truly, Elkin had no clue what Hōjō was thinking.