OR2-EP1: Perun Awakens (15)
Ukraine in late February 2046 has not yet come out of the freezing temperatures, the Year Without Summer will later become the norm, and summer will become a distant past in people's memories. The cold weather has not yet cooled down the frenzy within the citizens a little, and they come out to the streets at the instigation of the OUN to fight food shortages and all kinds of existing problems with an almost maniacal fighting spirit. The OUN has made a series of promises that they will change the situation in Ukraine, which has been selling off its assets to curry favor with foreign countries, and give its citizens a new, prosperous country. Currently, the first thing they need to do is stabilize the faltering army and stop Russia's westward march, and then they can have a chance to discuss other building plans.
"They actually know everything, but they just don't tell the truth."
Captain Shields, wearing an OUN militia uniform, patrolled outside the square with McNeil. They couldn't infiltrate the OUN militia and carry out a defined mission for long, or the risk of exposure would increase exponentially. The general public would not suspect their motives; civilians always held a reverence for gun-toting soldiers, and gun-toting civilians native to the United States were expected to be scared out of their wits at the sight of a police officer. The outfit was a natural talisman, and they could safely and boldly move around the periphery without being questioned in any way until after the public speeches had begun. This was just an assassination attempt, there was no need to make a big deal out of it.
"They're dreaming, what are they going to do against the Russians if they get rid of us?" McNeil laughed disdainfully, "What's funny is that they actually really think they have an important position, without NATO's forceful support they're nothing, they'll be defeated by the Russians within a few days. The so-called defense line to contain the westward expansion of the Russians also relies on the collective strength of these Eastern European countries, you can't take on the Russkies alone."
"Maybe they just want to enjoy the feeling of being in power for a while and have no long-term plans." Captain Shields noticed a group of OUN militia appearing in the distance and hurriedly motioned for McNeil to duck behind the corner of the street, "Kings who are able to pass power down through the generations don't care about how much of a hidden danger they're going to leave behind when they die for future generations, these people care even less."
Hetman of Ukraine and OUN, Stepan Golivin learns on all occasions from the megalomaniac who once started a world war in the history of this world, and the fact that he got OUN a militia uniform that mimics the German uniform is a clear example of how he learns from his spiritual example. It takes a leader to be sacred, to be pro-people at the right time and distance himself from the civilians on the rest of the occasions, so as to portray leaders with majesty and not clowns who can only live in the gossip of the media tabloids. If they had been born in the United States, the media would have been able to shake out all the details of any politician, and no one would have been able to become Hetman or the Führer. Ukraine did not have such an environment, the United States wishfully thought that Ukraine would follow the route they had designed, not realizing that Ukraine had gone down the old path. The NSDAP was also elected by the civilians of Germany, McNeil thought without malice.
"Let's go ahead with the first set of options, a drone strike on the convoy." Captain Shields clicked his headset, "Check the status of the drone to make sure it won't have problems launching the attack."
After the last time McNeil and the others raided the hotel and rescued the hostages, the infuriated OUN decided to conduct a massive search and arrest operation within the city of Kiev, in addition to killing the remaining foreign hostages. A number of citizens were labeled Russian spies and thrown in jail, and along with them were arrested a number of foreigners who hadn't had time to flee downtown Kiev and take refuge in their country's embassies. This thwarted Captain Shields' plans to find another relatively safer abandoned building, and the OUN, fearing that someone was hiding in such a building and planning sabotage, always arranged for frequent militia searches in neighborhoods where the enemy might be present. In the end, Captain Shields had to move Tom and the workstation to a residential building quite a distance from the scene, a building whose original occupants had all fled for fear of repercussions in the city's martial arts battles, so that Tom could safely observe the developments around the plaza from inside the civilian house and execute the corresponding assassination plan. Their first strategy, according to Captain Shields' revised plan, was to ambush the OUN convoy on the road they were bound to travel in an effort to blow up Hetman himself outright. The drones were provided by the embassy side, and the embassy staff veiled the fact that it was just a life-saving tool they used for unexpected situations.
"So, all our diplomats think about all day long is how to assassinate foreign politicians, that really shocked my eyes." McNeil didn't forget to taunt the other party a few times as he took the drone.
Saying that the diplomats of the United States would only think about assassination was of course a slur, but the guy who hid this kind of drone used for assassination inside the embassy probably wasn't a good person either. For Tom, this mission was much simpler, he only needed to maneuver the drone to find the OUN convoy and carry out the assassination, as long as they were able to destroy the car that Hetman was in, their mission would be considered successfully accomplished. The OUN would focus most of their energy on controlling the order of the plaza, and they shouldn't have guessed that there would be a drone at the outskirts of the city.
Another group of OUN militia passed before their eyes. Whenever McNeil had to face these OUN militia who might suspect their true identities at any moment, he put on a casual look so that the group of guys who were in a hurry wouldn't get curious about him. After the militia in front of them disappeared at the end of the street, McNeil and Capt. Shields began discussing the need to move positions. They were sure to attract the attention of the head of the OUN militia by wandering around doing nothing for a long time. Even if the men's motivation was simply to teach the unruly militia a serious lesson, this level of probing would be enough to expose the two men.
"A different place then." The Captain replied casually, "Anyway, we can't have these guys suspecting us so soon."
It was only later that McNeil realized that their thoughts were purely redundant. The OUN's main mission was to protect the convoy and the speech site. They didn't have the manpower and energy to pay attention to every detail. Even the guards in charge of standing guard were distracted. If someone took advantage of these oversights and launched another assassination attempt, Stepan Golivin was afraid that he would not be able to escape from the attack. Most of the OUN militia chiefs didn't care what their men were really doing, as long as the young men who had joined the OUN paramilitaries for a living didn't come near the plaza, all other behavior was tolerated. They were also afraid to clash with the bloodthirsty recruits, and some fanatical militiamen didn't mind blowing their officers' heads off and claiming, with great conviction, that the officers weren't loyal enough to Hetman. The OUN encouraged this mutual suspicion and whistleblowing, which led to a sharp deterioration of relations between superiors and subordinates in the militia armies. This was necessary in Stepan Golivin's mind to emulate his spiritual idol on all fronts, and of course the intricate bureaucratic system of checks and balances so that the power could be brought under his sole ownership.
Shields kept urging Tom to get ready as quickly as possible; Tom was a novice and inevitably made mistakes in his haste; McNeil saw this and asked the Captain for a little more patience, but the Captain insisted that they had to seize the best opportunity in order to eliminate the OUN Head Group in one fell swoop. After a final check, Tom drives the drone out of the abandoned residential building and gradually approaches the convoy's route under the cover of the building. Once the drone was captured by the security cameras, their plan was exposed, so Captain Shields attempted to disable all of the security cameras along the route, but he failed to do so and only succeeded in temporarily disabling a few. When Tom sees the convoy slowly approaching in the distance on his screen, he immediately breaks the news to Capt.
McNeil and Shields, however, were faced with another thorny problem. A Ukrainian civilian, also wearing a coat and scarf, approached the duo and seemed intent on asking some questions. This incident caught Shields off guard; his Ukrainian was only good for everyday conversation and he couldn't cope with the slightest mention of complicated matters. McNeil, on the other hand, didn't know any Ukrainian at all and couldn't help at all. The Captain looked at McNeil with pleading eyes, and McNeil had the good sense to take a few steps back and not let the Ukrainian have a chance to speak to himself. He didn't understand Ukrainian, and communicating with Capt. Shields at this point would only be an instant revelation.
Seeing no reaction from the two men, the Ukrainian seemed to get angry, stomping his feet and shouting something in a sharp tone. Seeing the bad situation, the captain quickly pulled McNeil away from the scene, he said to McNeil in a heartbeat:
"What's this asshole mad about? The average Ukrainian civilian sees this outfit like it's an icon painting, and he ends up running out in front of our eyes and making an outburst ..."
"Let's hope he's merely ill-tempered, I'm afraid we're going to have a problem if he finds a nearby militia commander and reports that there are two loafers roaming the area." McNeil also felt a sense of afterthought, suspecting that the civilian had a mental illness.
On the way out of the neighborhood, McNeil asked the captain what the Ukrainian civilian had actually said earlier. The captain replied that the other man was asking for information related to food distribution, but Captain Shields knew nothing about that and naturally could not give any answers. The Ukraine was still in the midst of a famine, and while the OUN militia used to go out on the streets and distribute food and relief rations to the citizens - God knows where they got their food from - now that the OUN was the new masters, they had to use their manpower where it was needed. Now that OUN is the new masters, they want to use their manpower where it is needed more, and so they have neglected the citizens they were trying to please. Many of the citizens were naturally upset about this, and only a few were willing to put their actions into practice; McNeil just had the bad luck to run into one of these hard-liners.
It was only when they had completely escaped the civilians and started looking for a new entrance that the Captain learned the bad news from Tom: the first assassination plan had been carried out, but instead of hitting the sedan Hetman was traveling in, the drone seemed to have blown up the vehicle in front of it. One missed attack could be forgiven, not realizing that Tom had used two drones in a row and failed to blow up Stepan Golivin, which infuriated the Captain to no end. He couldn't be bothered to reprimand Tom, but quickly fastened his scarf over his mouth and nose and blended in with McNeil among the militia. That Hetman, known for his toughness, would surely continue to arrive for his speech unharmed himself, and it was time for the two of them to move to option number two. Get close to Hetman and drop a bomb or use a time bomb, or have Captain Shields use magic to assassinate the other, the options were many.
"Damn, I should have realized this." Captain Shields said in frustration.
"Might as well say that the strategy we're employing now has automatically reduced the success rate of the first assassination, and that it might be more effective for you to take control of the drone yourself."
"Yeah, I was in such a hurry that I forgot the kid was nothing more than an amateur who used to only play games." Captain Shields shook his head, "Though I realize that some politicians in their sixties can't even use a computer ... never mind, there's no changing a mistake that's already been made."
They remained silent and continued to follow the militia procession. The OUN had set up a large lectern in the middle of the square, and a human cordon had been drawn up with OUN militia to prevent citizens from getting too close to Hetman. Some agitated citizens kept pushing forward, they were blocked by the militia at the forefront of the line, and there were even clashes in some sections, McNeil had no way of knowing whether these citizens really had a fanatical obsession with Hetman or whether they hated OUN with a passion. After following this group of militias into the venue they left the group silently and proceeded down the path left between the crowds to the left side of the venue as hundreds of citizens watched. From there, Hetman would enter and make his way to the lectern to begin his new speech, as dozens of OUN militia in full uniform stood meticulously on both sides of the road to greet their master. Listening to the cheers of the citizens around them, the distraught duo couldn't help but move further away from the crowd.
Michael McNeil stood at the edge of the crowd, holding up his hand to estimate the straight-line distance, judging whether they could shoot Hetman, who was soon to come to the lectern, from this position with precision.
"I have a small question ..." McNeil saw that there were no OUN militia or Ukrainian civilians around to notice their conversation before he dared to continue discussing the plan of action with the Captain, "This tool in your hand ...its range isn't going to be as unreliable as a pistol, is it?"
"Magic locates coordinates not directions, what were you thinking?" The Captain looked disdainfully at the confused McNeil, "Hey, I know you don't have that talent, but you should have seen it explained by a professional in a science book, right?"
"I'm not sure about that, I'm a loner." McNeil hastily threw up his hands in surrender, "Good, then I'm relieved. We can simply take that guy out ... except that it's a shame to let his accomplice get away with it."
Strictly speaking, OUN had sustained serious losses. Those who had been able to accompany Hetman were the leading cadres of the OUN, and Tom's failed attack, which had killed five senior OUN executives, had undoubtedly been a serious act of provocation for Hetman. One of Stepan Golivin's own motives for insisting on going ahead with the speech was precisely to use the assassination to make the civilian population realize the pervasiveness of the foreign powers he spoke of. Only by convincing his compatriots that these foreign powers would deprive them of their lives and freedom at any time could he get the OUN, weakened by the loss of support from the United States, to unite the forces of all of Ukraine against the Russians. Ukraine should not be a tool and a puppet of others, this is what Stepan Golivin has always stood for. After hastily having his men carry the bodies of his dead colleagues back to the vicinity of his headquarters, he ordered the convoy to move on, this speech had to be completed. Hetman would not back down, the vile invaders and traitors did as they pleased, they could not destroy the OUN's will to resist.
Captain Shields intended to choose a dry assassination method, he would compress the carbon dioxide in the air into dry ice and then turn it into bullets to shoot Hetman, no one would be able to follow the trail to identify the murderer then. Still, he wasn't skilled enough, and thus needed McNeil to carry another assistive device to position him so he could take aim at a distance - a distance at which a pistol would be impossible to hit the target. Placing the locating device in his coat pocket McNeil bid farewell to the Captain and squeezed into the crowd. He saw Stepan Golivin in his German uniform approach the lectern to cheers and raise his right arm in salute to the audience. The imposing Hetman took the microphone and began with a few words of greeting before launching into his long-winded speech.
"Whatever you're talking about, you're going to see God today." McNeil thought, "I don't want these innocents being driven to their deaths by you ... even though it doesn't seem to make any difference if they die under our command."
According to Captain Shields, there was a space within Magicians known as the Calculation Area, which was certainly something McNeil couldn't understand. He didn't intend to understand it either, he was just a soldier and living in the new world he lacked the necessary basic knowledge, thinking of magic or superpowers simply as a good tool to use was the most economical way of thinking. Anything that didn't work when you tried your best was time to change your mindset or resign yourself to the fact that there was no room for time-wasters in a fast-paced life.
McNeil made his way through several crowds in a row as he approached the cordon of OUN militia. The uniform he wore brought him a certain privilege, but this foxhole would be completely exposed to the real OUN militia. Seeing that he was still a dozen meters away from the wall of people, and believing that he would run into trouble if he kept moving forward, he took a few steps back slightly and communicated with the Captain. Capt. Shields said that the positioning was not accurate enough and that he could not yet guarantee a kill. Seeing this, McNeil had no choice but to approach the human wall and follow its edge. The wall of men functioned as a barrier to civilians, with the sides left open for OUN cadres and militia. McNeil first crept closer to the passageway on the right, then stood aside and pretended to be a militiaman standing guard. Only when the others stopped noticing his movements did he continue to approach the lectern to provide more precise positioning for Captain Shields.
"Sirius, report in."
"Too far away ..." whispered Captain Shields, "Closer."
"... I have a feeling they've spotted the anomaly." McNeil saw several militia members to his right coming in his direction, "The OUN must have detection technology, we just don't know it yet."
Continuing to approach the lectern would attract attention, the OUN had no intention of arranging for the militia or anyone else to approach during the speech, even the senior cadres were just standing by on either side of the lectern, Hetman Stepan Golivin was the only one who could stand on the lectern and receive the crowd's highest praise. McNeil did his best to get as close to the lectern as he could, keeping his distance from a militiaman in front of him, and signaled to the Captain to assassinate him. Hetman fell in response, and the elated McNeil was quickly disappointed that Stepan Golivin had only suffered a non-life-threatening wound to his arm. Looking at Hetman, who had withdrawn from the lectern under the protection of the crowd, he said reproachfully to Captain Shields:
"How did you miss the shot!?"
"You didn't give accurate enough positioning, and the miss was normal." Captain Shields said painlessly, "Come on, we need to leave as soon as possible."
However, I'm afraid it would take them a little longer to flee the scene. After Stepan Golivin was wounded, the OUN militia and citizens present were thrown into a frenzy, only moments ago Hetman was telling them about the ferocious tactics of foreign forces, and right after that the great Hetman suffered an assassination in full view of the crowd, this kind of open-fire atrocity aroused everyone's fear and anger. The crowd roared loudly and furiously to uncover the mole present, and the militia nearest the lectern were instantly brought under control. Their only mission was to defend Hetman's safety, and since they couldn't even accomplish such a simple task, they must have been bribed by a foreign power to malfeasance in their duties.
"Looks like we'll have to use special means." McNeil looked at the approaching OUN militia and sighed helplessly, "Senator, where's your car bomb?"
About a minute later, a motorized sedan unstoppably broke through the barricade and came into the plaza, and after consecutively knocking down a number of citizens, a large explosion occurred, and some of the citizens who were affected by the explosion were directly blown up into the air, and their bodies landed on the ground falling to pieces. The nearby OUN militia also suffered heavy losses, either killed or wounded, and the few who were not injured in the explosion were busy escorting Hetman away from the scene. This was their last chance, and McNeil believed they had one more perfect moment, as long as someone was willing to put their life on the line, Hetman would surely die. However, no one was really willing to put their lives on the line to kill a politician with whom they hadn't previously had much interaction, and when McNeil made several consecutive calls to no avail, he realized that the time to retreat had come. If he didn't retreat, he would be captured and tortured by the OUN, and his four teammates were afraid that they wouldn't be very willing to get him out of there. After all, the United States didn't like to be associated with criminals whose identities were exposed.
McNeil, who had withdrawn from the meeting under the cover of Captain Shields and managed to climb into his car, looked distractedly in the direction of the explosion. Sgt. Salas obviously hadn't considered the possibility of an accident; if the car bomb had detonated any closer, it would have been McNeil himself who would have been killed instantly.
"... Do we need to get a locator device so we can determine where the others are so we don't accidentally kill them?" McNeil made a suggestion.
"There's no need for that, that would cause one of them to fall in the net would cause all the others to be exposed."
McNeil couldn't argue with Captain Shields, and he gamely lay down in the cargo box and fell asleep not long after.
TBC
Chapter Notes:
1927 – The United States Army Air Corps aircraft Bird of Paradise landed at Wheeler Field on the Hawaiian island of Oahu to complete the first transpacific flight.
1995 – Atlantis became the first U.S. Space Shuttle to dock with the Russian space station Mir as part of the Shuttle–Mir program.
While it may sound strange to adopt the title of monarch in a republic, similar cases are not uncommon in European history. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Dutch United Provinces are typical.
