Prologue Part 2: The Eagle and The Bear
"I like single malt Scotch, Commander. The good stuff mind: twelve years old, at least."
"If what I'm seeing here is accurate, George, I'll get you a case. Assuming there even is a Scotland left when we get back to Earth. "
Bradshaw laughed dryly. "A bit melodramatic, don't you think sir? If the Reds had wanted to alter history, they already would've, and we wouldn't know about it to begin with."
"That's the problem George." he retorted, a bit of anger creeping into his voice. "They could have changed god knows what already, and we'd have no way of knowing. For all we know, they've changed a dozen different things, and this is just another attempt to start the whole damn cycle over again!" He threw the data-pad into the wall as he stalked angrily over to the observation window and stared at the Earth. He regretted the action immediately: he was the Supreme Allied Commander, not a ten year old child throwing a temper tantrum.
"Maybe you're right, maybe I'm overreacting, but we've seen firsthand what the results of time travel can be. Sure, we used it to stop Yuri from taking over the world, but if what Einstein told us is true, he tried to prevent a devastating war, only to cause an even more devastating one. Not only that, but it allowed Yuri to attempt that psychotic plot of his, and we both know that the human race has never, not once in nearly a quarter of a million years, been as threatened as it was when he activated his Dominators. He might never have been able to even attempt that if events had just played out naturally. The fact is, any change to the timeline has the potential to be unbelievably disastrous. And now, we find out the Russians have their own working time machine!"
He reached up and rubbed his temples, hoping to quell the headache he could already feel coming on. He wasn't sure what he found harder to believe: that the Russians had a time machine, or that they hadn't used it. If flew in the face of nearly everything he'd come to expect of the Soviet High Command. If they had an opportunity to reverse the war in one instant, they would've taken it. They did it with Yuri when they disabled every ICBM and MRBM the Allies had in one fell swoop. He couldn't see why they wouldn't do it again, and it baffled him.
"Maybe Soviet High Command isn't running the show anymore." said Bradshaw. He hadn't realized he'd spoken that last though out loud. The general continued. "We've been steadily dismantling their leadership for months now. It's possible one of the other Soviet Commanders had some common sense and managed to stop Krukov before he could act. That would explain why the coup failed to begin with. And in Einstein's defense, he did what he did with the best of intentions. There was no way he could've foreseen someone like Yuri."
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," replied the Commander bitterly, "over the bodies of good people who got in the way." He paused. "But I suppose you're right about Yuri. If you'd told me I'd be fighting an egomaniacal madman with psychic powers and genetically enhanced monsters at his beck and call when I joined the force after WWI, I'd have called you crazy."
He walked back over to the desk and sighed heavily. "Alright, let's sit down and go over this one more time." he said, sitting in a padded chair as he motioned for the General to do the same. "The Russians are on Mars. How they managed to figure out we had a base there, we may never know, and I'm not sure it even matters. The fact is, they managed to develop a working time machine, which apparently can also function as a chronosphere. That would normally be disturbing all by itself, considering chrono technology is one of the only true edges we have over them at the moment. But, rather than use the time machine to alter the past and try to win the war, they used it to stop someone planning exactly that, and turned it over to us, on a top secret base they shouldn't even know exists no less." The Commander chuckled ruefully. "If I didn't know better, I'd say I was drunk just for saying those words out loud."
"Well Commander, we can get to that part later." said Bradshaw with a chuckle of his own. He couldn't help but grin a little at that. Bradshaw might be his subordinate, but it was nice to have someone he could blow off steam with during what little off time he had. "First though, I think we have to give the Russians some credit. They had the foresight to stop Krukov from using that damn thing, even knowing it was the only possible way they could win the war. To be honest sir, I don't know that I could've done the same. The US hasn't been on the losing end of a war since eighteen twelve, and if our positions were reversed, I might've said the hell with it and changed the time line, consequences be damned. Now, with that in mind, there's only one Soviet Commander that I know of that has the strength of character and the wisdom to do just that."
"The Bear." said the Commander, almost completely monotone.
"That's the one." Bradshaw said with a curt nod. "Now, I know we have next to no intel on the man. Hell, we knew more about Yuri when he showed himself, and even that was damn little at the time. The fact is though, he's the only one the Russians have that ever managed to take you in a fair fight. Sure, Vladimir might've given you hell time and again, but only because he had a wall of armor to throw at you. Even then, you managed to hold the Air Force Academy in Colorado with relative ease."
"I'd hardly called that particular assignment easy, George. Though compared to those that came after, it was almost pleasant." he said, images of Chicago coming to mind immediately. "That said, The Bear always struck me a little different than the rest of the Reds. Maybe it was the way he fought, maybe it was his skill. I don't know. As strange as it sounds, he almost seems like a general of old, like Hannibal, or Caesar, or Scipio: respectable and honorable, even in this day and age. Maybe I'm just an old foggy, but I have to admit I admire that in the man. There was a time in war where a general would surrender in person, turning over his sword to a man he acknowledged as his better. And his opponent would return it. Then, they'd sit down and have dinner and talk like civilized human beings. I'd thought that era was long dead." Something crept into his voice at the end there. Something sorrowful. Bradshaw caught it.
"You took Ben's death a lot harder than most of us." he said. "You know him better than anyone else except his wife, and you had to watch it happen. Maybe there's one good thing that came out of this time travel, time line, causality crap."
"Yeah, I suppose there is." he said with a slight smile. "Back to the matter at hand though: what do we do about the Russians on Mars? We can't let them stay there any longer than necessary, not without figuring out why they're there in the first place. And I'm damn hesitant to go charging in with guns blazing. Not only do they have Einstein and his entire team hostage, they still have that damn time machine. If we send those boys in hot, a bloodbath could be the best case scenario."
"Do they really have them hostage, though?" Bradshaw asked with a knowing look in his eye.
"What do you mean, do they have him hostage? They're there, aren't they?"
"True, but the fact of the matter is that they've been there for a while. As I see it, there are only two real possibilities. One: the Russians took the base by force, and Einstein barely managed to get the first transmission out trying to warn us. If that were true, then why the second transmission? The Reds had us cold, and they could've had the entire base locked down and bursting at the seams with conscripts. Sure, we could storm it eventually, but it'd be damn costly. They could just grab the research, take Einstein, and skedaddle, and we wouldn't know a damn thing until we got there. By then, it'd be too late. Instead, they sent us a second message with details of their presence, and told us flat out they have a time machine. Unless they had a sudden attack of crazy, that doesn't make any damn sense."
"OK, fair enough." admitted the Commander. "But what else would explain all this nonsense? Why the cryptic messages? Why didn't Moscow just call us in the first place? I have a red phone on my desk that goes straight to the Kremlin. It's buried in papers and covered in dust, but it's there. Why would the Soviet High Command go to all that trouble to put a team on Mars, and then just casually tell us about it in such an obtuse and indirect fashion?"
"Like I said, maybe they aren't running things any more. My second theory is this: The Bear is on his own." said the general, emphasizing the last three words. "He stopped Krukov from using the time machine, but knew if he turned it over to the Soviet High Command, they'd use it anyway, and possibly damn us all. So, he went to the one place he knew they couldn't reach him instead. He was willing to sacrifice his only chance to turn the war around, so maybe… maybe he's accepted the loss and is willing to hand his sword over to the better man."
That gave the Commander pause. He hadn't considered the possibility that The Bear would defect. Then again, this wouldn't be a defection so much as it would be a surrender. Bradshaw pressed on. "That might explain the cryptic messages. If The Bear was afraid of being discovered, he might've asked Einstein to limit his reports as much as possible on the off chance they were intercepted. You know as well as I do that the Reds don't take kindly to traitors."
The Commander nodded. "True, but I wouldn't call this treason. This is more akin to a surrender."
"Sir, you wouldn't call what George Washington did treason either, but then again, history's written by the victors. If his actions bring an end to the fighting, not just temporarily, but once and for all, he'll be considered a Hero of the People in Russia. It'll make his superiors look like a bunch of proud idiots who would rather sacrifice the lives of millions more than they already have in a hopeless attempt to turn things around. But there's no guarantee of that. If he was discovered, they'd string him up by his thumbs, war hero or not. This may've been his only option. He could just be there to turn over the time machine and discuss terms. He may even figure that by approaching us outside the normal chain of command, and with the time machine as a good will present, we'll put him in charge of what's left of the Union when this is over. After all, we have been doing our damndest to dismantle what leadership they have left."
The Commander considered that for a long while. It made the most sense of anything else he could think of, and it did explain all of the craziness that'd been going on. Still, it was almost too good to be true, and that always made his hackles rise. Once again though, his friend had talked the Commander into doing something he knew he shouldn't, strictly speaking. But, if he had a chance to end this, once and for all, he was going to take it, consequences be damned.
"Alright ladies, let's get this show on the road!" Bradshaw intoned, his voice strong even through his protective suit. "We know the Commies have boots on Mars, but our best guess is that they're friendly." There were some surprised and disbelieving mutters from the assembled commandos, but Bradshaw cut them off with a wave. "Yes, you hear right. I said friendly. All of us are going up there in one wave, and we're gonna see if they came to talk or to shoot. Now… I don't want anyone doing something stupid here. We have a lot of people on that station, and most of them are scientists, Doctor Einstein included. With the Commander and me riding shotgun on this one, we can't afford for this to turn into the O.K. Corral. You are not to fire unless fired upon." He emphasized the last three words. "I don't care if the entirety of the Red Army is there; you are to treat anyone you see as a noncombatant until they do something to show they're not. Is that understood!?"
The commandos and legionnaires assembled on the embarkation platform all responded with a salute as they shouted "YES SIR."
"Good. Be on your toes people, we're going into this one blind. Chrono control, transport when ready." he said, looking at the dozen or so techs in the control room.
"Yes sir, transport in five. Four. Three. Two. One."
And suddenly they were there. Chrono travel wasn't like the movies, where teleportation involved beams of light, or flashes, or a person slowly fading into and out of existence. It was sudden, like the snap of the fingers, and it could be jarring for someone who'd never done it before. Fortunately, every man and woman in the squad had been through the process hundreds, perhaps even thousands of times. The only exceptions were the Commander himself, and General Bradshaw.
'Strange the way that works. I live two hundred yards from the largest chrono travel hub in existence, and I've only ever gone through a few dozen times. Maybe I need to get out more.'
The first thing the Commander noticed as smoke from the transport cleared was the five conscripts. He'd been expecting them, of course, although not quite so few. Then again, a fairly primitive chronosphere knockoff like what the Russians had probably couldn't hold more than a dozen people, so maybe anticipating an army of them was expecting a bit much. What he wasn't expecting was for them to be playing cards and drinking vodka with one of the SAS snipers and the two SEALs assigned to the base.
He also hadn't been expecting the other five people he could see, nor the situations they were in. Doctor Einstein was bent over a set of what looked to be technical drawings on a small table, and was making notations on them while speaking to another scientist the Commander didn't recognize. Based on the red hammer and sickle patch on the arm of his lab coat, he was probably a Russian, which was an odd choice for a strike team.
Near the disembarkation platform, three women were sitting around a table, discussing something while drinking from coffee mugs and laughing. One of them was Major Eva Lee, the CO of the Mars base, and a good friend of his. She'd been his adjutant for most of the war, and with her skill and dedication, had ridden his coattails through the ranks. Seated to her left was a Russian Lieutenant, who looked vaguely familiar, which seemed odd considering he hadn't personally met a Russian in nearly a year, and she had a face and figure not easily forgotten. The person at the table was a rather petite, almost fragile, looking woman who had her back turned to him. She was in a Russian officer's uniform, but he couldn't see any rank insignia beneath her short hair, so he wondered who she could be.
The Commander took all that in a little over a second before letting out an almost hysterically shout. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?"
The sudden appearance of nearly fifty chrono legionnaires and commandos not twenty feet away, coupled with the sudden outburst from the Commander, had an effect that could almost be described as comical, if it wasn't occurring in a top secret base on Mars. One of the conscripts who'd been drinking from a bottle and leaning back in his chair lost his balance and fell backwards to the floor with a yelp. The Russian Lieutenant spilled her coffee on her uniform and suddenly exclaimed something in Russian with a mixture of anger and embarrassment in her voice. The Allied soldiers in the room, Eva included, suddenly snapped to attention and saluted the Commander, sporting sheepish and ashamed looks on their faces, and in the case of the sniper, poker cards in his hand. Most of the Russians, the scientist included, looked downright dumbfounded at the instantaneous appearance of four dozen of the deadliest men on earth, and only stared stupidly. The only people to maintain any semblance of dignity were Doctor Einstein and the Russian officer. The Doctor didn't look up immediately, and finished what he was writing. Conversely, the Russian immediately rose to her feet smoothly and faced the Commander after setting down her coffee.
"Ah, Commander, it is good to see you again." said Doctor Einstein as he turned to face the now thoroughly baffled and increasingly furious Commander. "I vas vondering ven-"
"Commandos, secure the exits and everyone in this room, including Major Lee and the Doctor! If anyone here moves for a weapon, shoot them!" snapped the Commander, cutting the scientist off. He was now completely out of patience with the situation at hand, and it showed. "Until I get to the bottom of this, no one does anything without my authorization, and that includes talking! Now, Major Lee!" he yelled menacingly, whirling to face the startled woman. "What in the HELL is going on here!?"
She opened her mouth to answer but stopped suddenly as the chrono commandos used their suits' built in transporters to appear behind or beside every single person in the room, P-90's pointed at their heads. She gave a nervous glance at the two commandos that had suddenly teleported next to her, and then pressed on with her explanation, a bit of nervousness and fear in her voice. "Sir, the Russians are friendly. They came here to turn over a time machine developed by Dr. Zelinsky." She threw a glance at the Russian scientist as she continued. "Sir, we would've contacted you with more information, but the Commander here didn't want her superiors to know what she'd done. She was afraid that if we told you too much, they'd intercept the message and she'd be branded a traitor." Her explanation spilled out of her mouth in a continuous stream of words, slowly getting faster as she progressed. Despite the fact that it was very nearly exactly what the Commander and Bradshaw had theorized before leaving, it did little to quell his anger.
"And since when you, any of you" he snarled, sweeping his hand across the room, "take orders from a commie? This is an unbelievably serious breach of protocol, Eva! From what you've just said alone, every single person in this room, including you and the Doctor, could be shot, either for espionage, or for treason!"
"Sir, I- I- I- …" Eva stuttered, her eyes going wide at the idea of what the consequences of her actions could be. Surprisingly though, it was the Russian officer who answered. Saluting primly, she replied.
"Commander, please, if anyone here should be punished, it is I. These men came here under my authority, and it was I who asked the Major and the Doctor to restrict their reports. Do not punish them for my mistake."
"And who exactly are you?" he asked, anger thick in his voice.
She started a bit at the question, but then a small grin crossed her lips. "Isn't it obvious, Eagle? I'm The Bear."
That caused when could best be described as a cognitive train wreck in the Commanders' thoughts. Staring blankly at her for a moment, he asked in a flat voice "You… are The Bear?"
"Da. Do you have a problem with that?"
"I… Ah hell." he remarked as he walked over to the table where the poker game had been going. He picked up a half full bottle of vodka and took a large swig.
"I'm too sober for this"