OR2-EP1: Perun Awakens (14)

The OUN is an ancient organization with a history of over a hundred years, of course it can't compare to behemoths like the Church in terms of legacy, but in the midst of a human society where thousands of new organizations are being born every day, being able to sustain itself for over a hundred years is a miracle in itself. The OUN, created to rebuild the Ukrainian state at the end of the Russian Civil War, had been in existence for nearly a hundred years, clinging to various foreign powers that could provide it with support until it found stability in the United States, a support that was guaranteed by the CIA, and the OUN thought that it could regain possession of its homeland. However, after Ukraine's independence, the United States threw away its promises for the sake of its global strategy, handing Ukraine over to other, more compliant allies. In the eyes of the United States in the late 1990s, OUN was too extreme, and fostering such an organization would only make the United States the new Evil Empire in the eyes of its allies and adversaries. The OUN did not give up, they tried to seize any opportunity to gain more support and higher status in Ukraine and managed to get themselves out in the sunlight after the Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine in the 21st century decade, becoming a major force capable of playing the Ukrainian game. Now that they have accomplished what they wanted and the OUN is now the masters of Kiev, they will quickly take control of the whole of Ukraine and destroy any foreign power that dares to make an enemy of them under the Rurik insignia and the blue and yellow flag.

No one likes to foster a power that turns against them, and the rise of the OUN was undoubtedly folly in the eyes of the United States: these men had no chance of fighting back against Russia, and the end result was akin to giving the whole of Ukraine to the Russians for nothing. The OUN had to be overthrown, and under no circumstances was it to be allowed to continue to dictate terms in Kiev. However, the defeat of the U.S. Army - despite McNeil's hitherto unawareness of the truth on the front lines - left the United States temporarily powerless to make a direct move against the OUN, and U.S. forces trapped on the Eastern Front would have to continue to work with their allies to fend off the Russians.

"I never thought we'd have this day." McNeil lay back on the couch looking at the chandelier on the ceiling, he was still reflecting on the orders that had been relayed to them by the military attaché abroad, "The special forces that are really supposed to be doing this kind of stuff are slow to show up, we've already cleaned up their mess for them once and now we're going to have to do it a second time."

McNeil would have preferred that other special forces of the Marines or the CIA field be out and rescuing the foreign hostages trapped in the hotel as soon as possible at that time, but the delayed response on the part of the United States gave them a chance to take their chances. As a result, instead of flowers and applause, they were greeted with handcuffs and barred windows from the Embassy side. Corporal Randal lay on the other couch cursing as his officer stood awkwardly watching Tom play a game.

"Something like sneaking into a hotel to rescue a hostage is well within our capabilities, if anything, but a direct decapitation operation against the OUN is clearly a desperate mission." Captain Shields was searching for all the foreign subversive operations in the United States in recent times, "Even really well-trained agents have a certain probability of failure, let alone the fact that we're just a bunch of ordinary soldiers who got together because of a coincidence."

The chaos caused by the OUN revolt lasted only a few days, and the White House then judged that the OUN was completely useless, and that rather than allow the OUN to occupy the land of Ukraine and continue to be an ungrateful enemy of the United States, it would be better to take advantage of the opportunity to foster new allies. Most organizations have serious internal conflicts, and the OUN is no exception. If the head of the OUN were to die violently at this time, the major factions within the OUN would fight amongst themselves for power, and as long as the OUN is thrown into disarray, the United States will have the opportunity to regain control of the Ukraine and continue its operations against Russia. When the bigwigs in the White House heard that several Marine soldiers had successfully infiltrated an OUN-controlled hotel and rescued American hostages, they rightly assumed that these soldiers had the potential for other dangerous missions. Carrying out an assassination of the OUN leader would surely be able to fracture the OUN, which relies too much on the leader rather than the organization.

After the president fled to Romania, the OUN's actions were temporarily toned down; they had managed to come to power and could not afford to make too many enemies at this point (and the men subconsciously forgot that their earlier killings had attracted widespread international condemnation). So, to stabilize the Americans, who had suffered no real damage in the chaos, the OUN decided to restore water and electricity to the embassy, much to the relief of the Americans. The hostages, who were closely guarded by the embassy, were contacting their families, while others were tightly engaged in a new plan of revenge. They cannot afford this humiliation, the audacious OUN must be prepared for retaliation since they dared to kidnap them. These socialites have said they will use all their resources in Ukraine to assist the gallant soldiers against OUN as much as possible, but they will not send any manpower. Captain Shields accepted their gesture of goodwill with a false sense of humor and returned to the room with these messages to continue discussing the plan of action with the crowd.

"The first question is whether or not to carry out the mission." McNeil created a new document on his tablet, "Granted this is a mission and we can't get away with desertion at the moment, I believe we should have a free choice."

There were no objections, and the crowd reached a unanimous opinion that the OUN would try to attack any and all imaginary enemies in their final frenzy, and that they couldn't rule out the possibility of retaliation from the OUN even if they were holed up inside the American Embassy. Cases of American ambassadors being dragged out and beaten to death on the spot had happened in the past, an embassy was only the best talisman when the other side wanted to abide by the norms of civilized people, once the other side was completely out of control, not to mention the district's embassy, even if the Americans drove the Marines in front of them they couldn't make the group of lunatics give up their resistance.

"You're asking knowingly." Captain Shields sat next to him nibbling on an apple, "We don't have a choice, Senator Curtis is only willing to step in and keep us safe because we're still of use ... we saved his son and have the skills to get young Curtis back home unharmed. "

"I've heard that your parents made a lot of money in business in California, did they have any previous business dealings with Senator Curtis?" McNeil suddenly brought up the question, knowing that Captain Shields had been born into a relatively wealthy family, and that not everyone could afford to take a few million dollars and speculate in the stock market. Even if Capt. Shields ended up losing all that money, he was still richer than the other four men in the room combined.

"That's not a funny joke, McNeil." The Captain's eyes widened, "We don't have anything in common with them, and those conservatives from the southern states have always seen us as assholes."

"But you and Corporal Randal have a good relationship-"

"That's a superior-subordinate relationship, and besides, the new generation is much better than those old timers."

The Captain collected records of OUN activities in recent times, the OUN leaders frequently gave speeches in public to incite the citizens, they didn't dare to put their hands on the army for the time being, these people knew that the Ukrainian army wasn't completely loyal to them, besides the army was still cooperating with the US army in the eastern region, if they ordered the Ukrainian army to turn against them, the most probable outcome would be that the Ukrainian army would be wiped out by the US army, and then it would just allow the Russian army to march in and take advantage of the Russians for nothing. Fanatical organizations must erect an image of a god, a perfect and infallible saint; a mere abstract creed cannot make man's fanaticism last; it is only when the concept of a god is made tangible that reason in the minds of men can be completely swallowed up.

Captain Shields pressed the pause button and pointed to the middle-aged man in a German uniform in the center of the screen:

"This man's name is Stepan Golivin, the current head of the OUN, who was given the title Hetman by his men. This man has not claimed to be the president after seizing power, but simply continues to hold power under the name of Hetman. He's been speaking a lot lately in the city of Kiev and occasionally visiting the front lines, so I thought we could go with Plan B and take him out along with his handlers on the way."

The so-called Plan B was the second set of options the Embassy had offered Captain Shields, and that was to assassinate the head of the OUN when he appeared in a public place. The previous Plan A had consisted of a raid on the presidential palace or the OUN headquarters building, a downright death-dealing option that had been vetoed by everyone but Captain Shields. The Captain's expression at the time was one of surprise; he had expected the crowd not to vote no on Plan A.

"What exactly are your concerns?"

"The success rate is too low for us to carry out what is simply a willful death mission." McNeil summarized the others' views.

"We all escaped back from the Eastern Front, and we would still be afraid of death?"

"Not being afraid of death and being willing to send them to their deaths are two different concepts, especially when the consequences of us being completely wiped out in a pointless raid and having our identities exposed are incalculable ... We can't afford to put them at any more risk."

The crowd fell silent, if they failed, the embassy or rather the United States side would never come forward to claim them, instead they would do everything in their power to clear the air and find a way to destroy any evidence that might lead the outside world to link the attackers to the United States. The worst outcome would be a disaster for the family, and similar cases existed in the past. They weren't heroes who died on the battlefield, but thugs who did the dirty work for the United States, and thugs don't get flowers and applause. This left McNeil feeling helpless, he needed to be the hero who could stand in the sunlight and ended up in a similar line of work as a mercenary by mistake. It was their own fault, fate had allowed them to escape what would happen to them if they became martyrs on the front lines, then what awaited them was another path to survival filled with filth and curses.

"Let me think about it."

For now, it seemed that the mutual trust McNeil spoke of existed among the crowd. During the course of the investigative activities, each man had reported truthfully to the others the questions he had answered upon his return, and McNeil had found nothing fishy in it. They were still accomplices, and they were in the same boat in order to survive, and even if the end result was still being sent to war as cannon fodder, they could not die a humiliating death in the midst of the OUN's pursuit at this point in time.

After carefully analyzing the deployment of OUN personnel and the level of defense of the Presidential Palace and the OUN headquarters building, Captain Shields had to admit that they had to give up this unrealistic idea. Assassination in a public place, then, became the only option, and the embassy offered them one of the most effective and safest ways to do it: using a small drone to blow the target's head right off. The military attaché who came to sell this method proudly said that they had previously used it in South America to successfully eliminate several politicians who were trying to incite the general public against the United States. It was said that the only reason the United States didn't use these small drones to go after the leaders of the major powers was for fear of developing a full-scale war.

McNeil pulled the OUN uniform they had captured earlier and the two strange devices from his backpack.

"Our objective is to ensure the certain death of Stepan Golivin, so my advice is ... not to pin all our hopes on one course of action." He slowly recounted his thoughts to the crowd, "Since the embassy recommended the drone option to us, then of course we have to include it in our course of action - in addition to that, we have to prepare two plans. Plan B2, we send people disguised as OUN militia to blend into the scene, close range to throw bombs or plant time bombs, although it may cause civilian casualties, but can be more effective in killing the target; Plan B3, considering that the OUN is bound to carry out a close surveillance and search of the scene, it is impossible to arrange snipers in advance, however, we can let the car bombs to break through the blockade directly and blossom in the middle of the crowd. ... To summarize, the above three plans are progressively more harmful to civilians, everyone read through the summary of the plan, and then add to it individually."

Seeing McNeil expound on how many civilians they might blow up in time with an air of unconcern, the other three cringed a bit. As members of the U.S. Army, they had seen many reports of U.S. soldiers killing indiscriminately overseas before, and at the time, they had only berated those soldiers for their loss of humanity. Time had changed, and they had become criminals who had done more harm than those soldiers who had committed great crimes. These people are not Americans, there's no need for guilt, and everyone comforts themselves with this lie.

"The drone program is the safest." Tom had only looked at it a few times before coming to his own conclusion.

Captain Shields thought otherwise, explaining to the others that drone assassinations were not as effective as one might think. One of the factors affecting the success rate was enemy interference, and it wasn't like it was the first time that the awkward scenario of a drone falling in front of an assassination target had occurred. In the event that the surviving assassination target came to the United States with an accusation, the United States would simply throw a few of them out there to serve as scapegoats. If some of them didn't recognize their fate and tried to drag the United States down with the evidence in their hands, the consequences would be beyond his imagination. Never try to challenge a powerful machine, this was a lesson left behind by countless losers throughout the ages.

"If the assassin is sent in close, then the executor may not survive." Sergeant Salas said hesitantly, "You see, too much power would kill the assassin along with him, and too little power wouldn't be able to kill the target, but the assassin would certainly be arrested."

"That problem is my job and Captain Shields'." McNeil perfunctorily dismissed the other man's query, "Last time it was the two of us posing as OUN militia, and this time as well, let's hope we don't get caught halfway ... I'm sure the Captain has his own answer."

Captain Shields was the only Magician among the five, and McNeil didn't yet know how many escape and life-saving techniques the guy had mastered, so long as he didn't encounter an OUN Magician suspected of possessing some kind of mind-control ability like last time, then Captain Shields was bound to have enough chances to mingle amongst the OUN militia to get close to that Hetman. With all sorts of devices that could be detected, having Captain Shields do the assassination would have a much higher success rate than using a bomb. However, McNeil wouldn't say what he was thinking outright, and putting Captain Shields in charge of the B2 program would be tantamount to ceding the initiative to the other side, as well as potentially making the captain think McNeil was shirking his responsibilities. The rank-and-file soldier's special status among the group stemmed from his authority to make decisions, and wise guys were always respected. If McNeil lost his voice in the group, he would become as much of an idler as Tom was despised by Corporal Randal.

The division of labor resulted in Tom remaining in charge of off-site support, McNeil and Capt. Shields in charge of infiltrating among the OUN militia to improvise, and Sgt. Salas and Cpl. Randal staying on the perimeter to prepare for a violent break. Tom was embarrassed to say that since the last time he had acted as a hacker under the Captain's tutelage, he had not been able to catch up with Capt. Shields, despite his best efforts to learn more skills. The Captain replied that there were only a handful of people who hadn't gone to college and could still be hackers after all, and the rest were losers who lacked any talent whatsoever, a comment that made Tom a little upset. Sgt. Salas chimed in and said that some people who had only graduated from middle school were able to become professional hackers employed by the United States, so it was clear that education and ability had little to do with each other.

"Those with ability are elite even without education, that's all." The Captain said disdainfully, "On the contrary, there are some people who are losers no matter what and it's useless to give them a chance."

McNeil hastened to stop the potential argument. He came up with another way to distract the others, and since they were still planning to go on the mission as the same team, they might as well each come up with a code name.

"I pick first?" The Captain looked at the others and wrote Sirius on the handwriting screen.

Tom, who was playing a game, looked at the game title and casually chose Titan.

Corporal Randal, who was also playing the game, scribbled down Revelation, and was a relatively devout Christian, perhaps because he was from a conservative southern state. In Corporal Randal's opinion, the deviant northern states would not honor God, and those people had forgotten how their Puritan forefathers had arrived in North America and built the New World through thick and thin.

"... Why do you all use the same initials as your last name?" McNeil was a little puzzled.

"Doesn't have to take a lot of thought." Sgt. Salas smiled and pushed the tablet in front of McNeil's eyes. Senator seemed to carry some sort of symbolism, perhaps Sergeant Salas's parents wanted their child to be a senator and be respected by others in the future.

McNeil sighed helplessly and wrote down the fifth word: Archangel.

"Hey, you're out of order." Captain Shields pointed at McNeil and laughed, "You're the only one of us who doesn't use words with the same first letter of the last name."

"I'm really sorry, for one thing I can't think of any words that start with M that would be more aesthetically pleasing to me, and for another it just occurred to me that we could use the initials to spell a new word." McNeil lined up the five words in a row, "S.T.A.R.S., we're sort of those shining stars on the last version of the flag of the United States."

Captain Shields looked at McNeil and then at Corporal Randal in thought. Michael's name came from the Bible, and McNeil's use of Archangel as a code name was taken from the original meaning of the name, I'm afraid, and it seemed that he did a better job of disguising his true thoughts than Corporal Randal did. People who kept their honoring of certain laws and traditions to themselves were more dangerous than those who were outwardly incredibly religious, and outsiders had no way of detecting the bottom line directly through their performance. Nothing damages relationships more than hitting a person's bottom line, and when outsiders can't see into someone's inner world, emotional outbursts can seem inexplicable. This kind of conflict was common in everyday life, but it was the biggest hidden danger when it came to specific occasions: people who couldn't be persuaded by interests couldn't listen to any advice, and they might just choose to completely give in to their intuition and become monsters who abandoned their sanity.

"That's a good name." Sgt. Salas exclaimed, "... Ugh, speaking of which, what exactly did we decide to change the flag for back then?"

"I think it was shortly after the new ice age." Captain Shields reminded him, "There was a rather nasty reaction from the southern states at that point, and some people even went so far as to propose a return to the Confederate blood flag."

"That's completely redundant." McNeil sighed, "There are some issues where it's the best outcome for everyone to remain silent and not talk about them, once someone deliberately brings them up then they can't end without seeing violence and chaos. Even if someone is willing to keep their sanity, in the midst of extreme animosity, keeping their sanity is just a fantasy. The Southern States have become a subject of the United States, and from now on we'll have to live our lives at their pleasure - sorry I don't mean to offend your ideas - and better abide by their rules."

Corporal Randal had wanted to get angry when he heard McNeil mention the Southern States, McNeil immediately gave up discussing the topic in depth when he saw the look on his opponent's face. As McNeil had said, the United States was now the United States of the Southern States, and there were plenty of senators proposing to vindicate the Confederacy, and turning the Stars and Stripes into the Eagle Flag, which was quite literally a flag of war and conquest, might have been a test run for them. However, McNeil didn't want to worry about these things at all, he kind of figured out that he had to have the status of being able to intervene in the situation before he could put his plan into practice, and making friends with the powerful and wealthy as much as he could was the most effective way to do so. Right now, his mission is to do what those people want and blow up all the OUN heads who have offended the United States in the square.

TBC

Chapter Notes:

Hetman's actual use in the Russian Civil War was closer to a monarchical title than a republican head of state title.

Calls like Archangel Michael will come up many times in the future as well.