AN: Hooray it's another sitting around talking chapter! How exciting.
While the above is true, I've taken this opportunity to rather lazily present information regarding a timeskip of a couple of years. Before we were in 1948, now we're firmly in 1950. The later date is meaningful in relation to several of the developments mentioned in this chapter. It gets pretty obvious toward the end but try to guess as the chapter progresses.
This is also notable due to the affects events have on a particular person's outlook and their position within the Soviet strategic hierarchy. Have a look regarding that person's burial arrangements for more on this.
We are also approaching the point where ITL there are beginning to be significant changes vs OTL. One change I can't really present because it's not relevant to the story is that the Greek Civil War is still going strong when it had already been decided in 1949 in real life. Because of the developments in the fic so far I don't think this is particularly implausible, but perhaps other events may seem so. There's not really much to do about this I'm afraid, as I know more about Stargate than I do Cold War history, but if you do find something implausible please let me know. I can't do anything about it if I don't know about it, but I'll certainly take any feedback.
Some characters here are real people, others are joke names.
-x-
The rings flashed once and then rushed down into their slots, leaving several officers standing on the platform.
Durov saluted smartly, his welcoming committee copying him.
"Colonel!" declared Georgy Zhukov, stepping down from the ring platform the Program had salvaged from an alien world, "A long way from Vyazma isn't it!" and he shook Durov's hand.
While the Colonel would have liked to think Zhukov legitimately remembered him it was an old trick of command. They had indeed met before and the Marshal had given him a medal during the war but he'd been one of a crowd of officers and he doubted the man would have recognised him if he hadn't been in the Program now.
But Durov couldn't maintain such a gloomy attitude in the face of his superior's enthusiasm and they swiftly covered the short distance to the main conference hall deep within the bowels of the Magnitnaya base.
"We're still in the preliminary phases sir." Durov said, "We've announced the initial strategic working groups and the General had led a plenary but so far we've found it useful to hold at least one general discussion, simply to update the different divisions on others progress. This aids in the general effort and we've occasionally had breakthroughs because a soldier heard about a scientific problem or similar."
"Very good, please proceed." Replied Zhukov.
The guards at the door saluted and one led them in. Durov had sent warning ahead and the room was on its feet, or in Abramovich's case, foot and prosthetic leg.
"At ease! All of you!" said Zhukov coming in and they relaxed somewhat, although some of the junior officers still looked rather stiff. The Marshal came to the head of the long table and leaned in to Abramovich to say something and the crippled general smiled a reply and a nod. Zhukov turned to the room, "I have consistently received excellent reports of this Program's progress, and I'm sure none of you intend to disrupt that. This is perhaps the most important Program in the Union, if not the world, and I won't get in your way!" he laughed and the men politely chuckled. "But I'm here to inspect the 'Buganak Institute of Metal Testing' not attending a conference on our alien activities for the next two hours, so please proceed as if I wasn't here." However, he still went to sit just to Abramovich's right, his aide-de-champ setting up in a corner near him.
There was another laugh at the fake name of the facility and Durov acknowledged that Zhukov had expertly defused the tension his rank and reputation brought. The Colonel was impressed.
Durov took his own seat and after the initial introductions among the various departments representatives he began: "While we maintain a standard of communications I'm confident in, I've always found it useful in large organisations to keep an awareness of the general state of affairs. The General gave you all the history of the Program, our objectives and so on earlier today, now though I intend to present a general account of the Program as it is currently. Please all of you consider what your own departments can contribute to our efforts, in addition to what your own projects require or ensure. Furthermore, I intend that this be a discussion and not just a series of reports, so if you have a question introduce yourself and speak freely."
Through the influence of Durov and Abramovich the base had always maintained a more informal structure than other parts of the military. This had been a holdover from their war days and the General's commando unit, but it had been sometimes difficult to persuade new personnel to follow the tradition.
"To begin, we now have a fairly extensive range of contacts associated with the Stargate Program. All these contacts have different levels of awareness of our activities, and some officers have raised concerns as to the proper utilisation of these connections." Durov said with a nod to Basin.
The Commissar had been promoted and now ran what was essentially their Foreign Ministry, his political officers serving as half diplomat, half intelligence officer and liaising closely with the different alien civilisations they'd discovered. While both Durov and Basin had always been confident in the political capabilities of the officers of the Program, it was a misuse of resources to have combat soldiers conducting trade missions or supervising archaeological digs.
Durov continued, "As some of you will have seen on your way in, we now have three additional bases in the immediate area." And he nodded to the commanders of each base sitting at the table, "These comprise one motorised rifle division, one infantry with adjoined artillery training and testing base, and we've expanded the airstrip at Davletovo. There are currently plans for a mountain division to the north but this is currently only in the planning stages. These facilities serve two purposes: Firstly, forces for the immediate support of this facility in cases of either attack or defence, with particular emphasis on contingencies for Foothold situations. Secondly, they increase our ability to conceal movements of forces in and out of the mountain, while also allowing us to poach officers and men via the strategic transferring of personnel and equipment around the area. All senior officers at these facilities have been briefed on the Program and we've set up training exercises at each base to simulate their functions in relation to this Program."
He paused and turned a page, "Off-world, the expansion of new bases is proceeding to plan. We are currently established on a permanent basis on 26 planets, with teams deployed on various shorter term missions on many more. Of these, we've established 8 colonies under direct administration, and 2 more of relocated alien civilisations. On average these colonies have a population of 10,000 but as you imagine this varies significantly by location. We are planning another 12 colonies, having ensured a minimum of 2000km2 of arable land on each planet before bringing in the colonists. Our penal colonies are going equally well, and in some cases more efficiently than our civilian operations. These facilities are larger, with 20,000 in each settlement, but we've so far essentially left them to their own devices. Each of these colonies has a concrete bunker protecting the Stargate and the populations serve as the initial wave. After a suitable period of good behaviour certain privileges are established and we've had good results so far."
Durov gave a signal and an officer by a board set up several enlarged photographs. "Here are some of the facilities now, this is the central square of one of the colonies, you see in the left the administrative building and on the right the central barracks, defences, and so on. Next! And here P-56A, where we've discovered a large oil field and have therefore specialised that colony for that purpose. Generally, though we're trying to keep a more generalist outlook for each colony, in case of any interruption in our supply situation." He walked them through several other photographs before they came to one of Nova Roma. "However, Elysium still represents our largest investment in terms of men and material. It has become our main logistical hub for the rest of the colonies, which significantly assists our ability to send out various resources and receive others. Here you see the main train yards to the east of the city, next, here the scientific facilities, next, Vulcan's crashed ship. We have surveyed around 200,000km2 of land, the majority of the continent."
"Currently Comrade Lokot is supervising the second expansion of the main Elysium base, that is, our facilities directly surrounding Vulcan's old base, and is managing personnel from the Committee of Expansion meaning thousands of tractorists, famers and others going beyond the mountain range which separated the Unas territory and the Romans. The land beyond is largely uncultivated pasture, and we're working hard to maintain the quality of the soil and prevent any ecological damage from our industrial and mining areas in the mountains. We've also assisted in the Roman land, supplying them with machinery and fertiliser, next, meaning that we don't expect any of this land to produce a harvest any time soon, at the current rate, for another 2 years, and we expect it to be 5 before the off-world bases will be self-sufficient, at least in terms of food. Comrade Zazaknik has been managing the establishment of forest belts across the plains to prevent erosion and Zonn has designed a modern seed dispersion system, taking over from Sukachev who's been posted back to Moscow to take over after Comrade Lysenko's accident. Furthermore, our scientific division has made some advances, I understand Doctor Medvedev was working on protein structures in relation to the Goa'uld parasite and managed to enhance our wheat crops. We are on track to hit our targets, and plan to have an area the size of the Ukraine under cultivation in 7 years. I draw particular attention to the work of Comrade Lokot and Comras in the rapid and efficient expansion of these facilities.
The men around the table drummed their fists enthusiastically a few clapped Lokot on the back while the man smiled happily, they'd made great strides in that area alone and Durov been pleased with the work they'd done.
"Around the base itself we've built laboratories, a chemical plant, weapons testing facilities, a larger airport and a hospital with adjoining medical school."
He showed off a few more photos, one of them showing several Unas training at a shooting range.
"How are the aliens there?" Asked Zhukov, regarding the photo with fascination. "You've taught one to speak I hear?"
Durov nodded, "We can him 'Ivan' sir," he began, "Go to," he started at the photo operator, glancing down at his notes, "17C."
The photo showed Ivan the Unas attending a lecture by Basin along with one of the political groups for young officers, the alien looking utterly out of place, hulking over the other students, bony crest rising from his head and claws grasping a pen.
"We supplied him with equipment and he's pacified the mountains around the pass, and driven the other tribes out of the area, into the lands beyond."
Zhukov nodded, "How do you rate them as soldiers? I saw the report on their new rifle."
"Captain Zverinsky has been liaising with them, Captain?"
A young man at the end of the table stood up stiffly. "Sirs, while we initially assumed they were essentially clever bears, limited by their cognitive abilities, we now know their society is, or rather was, too primitive to understand higher concepts. For centuries these particular tribes have been affected by Vulcan's radio weapon which induced them into a rage state for his use against the Roman population. For example, their concept of battle is just a high level of personal conflict, while we had significant difficulty stopping them from using their rifles as clubs. The Molotok rifle was a way around that, with its rounds powerful enough to down an Unas and its frame robust enough to tolerate close combat. Our aerial reconnaissance informs us that there are cities of them on the other side of the continent, presumably unaffected due to range by Vulcan's technology. However, we've made significant strides in understanding them, and we are currently considering their use as shock troops. Universally they hate the Goa'uld."
The man sat and Durov shuffled his papers as a general discussion broke out. Some officers were reluctant to employ tactically unreliable troops but others seemed excited at the possibility of going into battle with aliens. At the very least the Unas were immensely strong and had little fear of death. The rifles they'd been given were semi-automatic, 10 round beasts, and kicked like a mule which is how they'd gotten their name. As the discussion moved on Durov cleared his throat, "We'll continue with the discussion of foreign relations, Basin, if you'd go over the other aliens we've encountered?"