OR2-EP1: Perun Awakens (19)
Stepan Golivin had envisioned many endings, he never thought he would be able to seize power and dominate his homeland for a long time without a hitch, and all the sacrifices would be worth it as long as he had enough time to put his ideals into practice. However, the reality of the situation tends to trample his ideals to the ground, and OUN's rule lasts less than a month before a Ukrainian Army general brazenly breaks into the presidential palace with U.S. soldiers and forces him to submit to the country he calls his ally but is actually his suzerain. When death and despair are really close, all courage and will disappear without a trace, and Stepan Golivin was no exception. He was not a glutton for punishment, Hetman, who had once infiltrated Russian territory to spy on intelligence and narrowly escaped capture by Russian agents, had always considered himself to be very heroic, the only thing that gave him a headache was the OUN's fractured organization. If he lost his life at this point, there was no doubt that the OUN would not unite against the Russians or the Americans, but would simply continue to jockey for power, and by the time the eventual victors had trampled the corpses of their peers under their feet and proudly attempted to hold the scepter, an iron fist from the East would have smashed their illusions.
The snow is still falling, and a new beginning ... or an end has come to the silvered Ukrainian land. Stepan Golivin let out a breath and walked towards the military transports in front of him, guarded by those watchers behind him, he was going to the front line to inspect the battle and confirm the truth of what the representatives of the army had said. He had never believed that the Russians would be able to rely on conventional weapons to wipe out and crush the Ukrainian army and their allies by the thousands, unless the Russians decided to use nuclear weapons, which would mean that the Russkies would be greeted with hostility and sanctions from the entire world.
"I can't believe we actually did it." Tom couldn't hold back his inner joy.
"Did what?"
"I mean, there were only five of us and we managed to capture a big shot with a status equal to that of a president and forced him to sign new bills and documents at our request ... That kind of thing would be hard to achieve even in a movie."
"If General Pavlyuk hadn't been on our side, the end that would have awaited us would most likely have been hanging from a street lamp after being captured by the OUN." McNeil said without looking back, "And even though we relied on Lt. Gen. Pavlyuk to infiltrate the Presidential Palace and the General himself brought a number of guards with him, we still suffered heavy losses in the heat of the battle, and were pushed to the brink of extinction on several occasions. I took too much of a risk ... now that I think about it, assuming we were the only ones fighting alone, the odds of winning were zero."
This is true, and this bottom line has nothing to do with them. The people who have been constantly pulling the strings of Ukrainian personalities of all stripes for decades are the CIA and a number of other NGOs that are effectively under the command of the United States, and their efforts have succeeded in producing a large number of foreign friends who can serve the interests of the United States in a pinch, such as Lt. Gen. Boris Pavlyuk, who stood on the right side of Hetman. McNeil merely happened to capitalize on this relationship, and Pavlyuk probably wouldn't have chosen to work with them as nobodies if not for the sake of the United States. Of course, the results were favorable, they won, and managed to get Hetman to concede substantially, and the United States was about to resume its dominance in Ukraine.
It was said that they were strutting out of Kyiv, but in reality the party was tantamount to fleeing, and after forcing Hetman to sign a new cooperation agreement, Lt. Gen. Boris Pavlyuk made a snap decision to let Hetman get away from the pursuit under the guise of rushing to the front to inspect the situation, and he was going to keep Hetman under the control of the military, which was the only way to make OUN, who had no superiority in terms of force or power, give up on chasing after them. Pavlyuk had ample experience in bargaining, and he thought he had the OUN completely figured out, as long as he made the OUN think that there were other options than fish out of water, the army wouldn't have to face a two-sided attack.
"You don't know what you're doing, Pavlyuk." Stepan Golivin's mouth remained strong, "The entire world is facing a famine, even Ukraine, where food is relatively plentiful, is having a hard time trying to feed so many civilians, and now you continue to give food to the Americans, and thousands of your countrymen are being sent to the grave by your own hand."
"Hetman, you have no reason to criticize me, I see that you OUN haven't exactly kept your end of the bargain either." Pavlyuk sneered, "Who claimed to provide enough food for the citizens before taking power, but took the resources into their own hands when they succeeded in taking power? Instead of letting this food be embezzled and wasted by your OUN, why don't I give it to the Americans in exchange for necessary military support?" Speaking of which, Lieutenant General Pavlyuk, who was already far away from the core of OUN's control, became bold as well, "Yes, maybe I'm selling out our homeland to foreigners, but you're definitely not as loyal to our compatriots as you verbally claim to be."
"Gentlemen, I have a proposition for you, I wonder if it will ease the conflict between you for the time being." This was McNeil's statement.
The group boarded military transports under the protection of Ukrainian Army soldiers, the VTOL transports quickly lifted off and left the airfield, heading towards the eastern front. The Ukrainian Army's Hetman Stepan Golivin was surrounded by about a dozen Ukrainian Army soldiers, with a seated acting Ground Force Commander, Lt. Gen. Pavlyuk, and McNeil, and Capt. Shields standing awkwardly behind McNeil, looking like a bodyguard. He couldn't figure out how the situation had turned McNeil against him; he was the captain of the temporary squad and McNeil's original superior, and now all the Ukrainian soldiers agreed that he was a thug running errands for McNeil. At the thought of this, Captain Shields couldn't help but feel frustrated. He had been born very cold to the outside world and treated people with indifference, he didn't think it was a flaw before, and only after McNeil had rightfully grabbed the credit that rightfully belonged to him did, he realize it was time for him to change that mentality.
Hetman just couldn't stop sighing. After he was abducted by the Ukrainian Army, instead of considering getting him out, some of the senior OUN cadres who escaped the Presidential Palace scrambled to order the OUN militia to forcefully attack in an attempt to blow up the Presidential Palace and create a fait accompli of Hetman's murder so that they or their proxies could seize Hetman's throne. Such a move completely chilled Hetman and caused him to finally give up resistance and dutifully sign copies of documents carried by Pavlyuk. The content of these documents cannot be made public, even if Tom cannot see the mystery of their actions will be greatly enraged by the original support of the OUN civilians, there is nothing more irritating than backtracking and betrayal. the OUN completely with the support of the public to seize power, they cannot lose their own supporters, that would be self-defeating. Expecting those militias to defend OUN? That's not a very realistic idea.
"Your proposal is the poisoned apple, you know it will kill you, but you still have to swallow it, don't you?"
"Hetman, you can talk all you want, it doesn't change the fact that your OUN is incapable of controlling the situation." McNeil glanced at Lieutenant General Pavlyuk, "The war comes down to civilians, OUN can't create food out of thin air, but it can find a way to return some of it to the citizens. To put it briefly, OUN can set up a joint committee with the military to specifically crack down on those unscrupulous merchants who take advantage of the famine to sell food. We, the United States of America, are honorable and will only collect food from legitimate official Ukrainian sources, and the other guys who want to take advantage of this opportunity to get rich off the lives of the citizens ... you can then use their heads to pacify the civilians."
"A joint organization of ...OUN and the military?" Pavlyuk cupped his chin, lost in thought, "That's a viable option, there's no organization that has more authority than such a combined force. While keeping the markets functioning properly is a guarantee of economic prosperity, however, this is an extraordinary time, and the markets are empty shells if you can't preserve the lives of the citizens."
"Speak confidently, General. What good is a market when people are dead ...," McNeil muttered in a low voice.
That amused Hetman, who, while he still thought the few American GI's in front of him were repulsive, at least they looked like human beings, not cold-blooded, heartless machines, "Funny, I have the same opinion as you, American. However, if you Americans are willing to leave food for us in the Ukraine, then these men don't have to die at all, everyone will survive."
"The logic is simple, Hon. Hetman. The United States continues to conduct military operations overseas under pressure from the electorate, and if there is a famine at home as well, support for Eastern Europe becomes an empty word, and then we have a heartbeat to spare." McNeil brought out the platitudes he had used to beat his official drum at the GDI, "We are going to use this food to relieve the United States of the worry of aiding you, and in our case, votes matter. With the population shift to the southern states since the start of the New Ice Age, and Dixie now dominating the United States, it's a presidential imperative to do everything in our power to please these croppers."
Hetman nodded in agreement with McNeil. A long time ago he understood the truth that the ostensibly honorable leader secretly had to make countless compromises and concessions in order to maintain his rule, and that no one in the world could manage to use the power in his hands arbitrarily, and that even those Arab princes had to engage in complicated struggles with the nobility. He believed that this kind of hold was synonymous with inefficiency, and that if he wanted his country to be able to rise, he had to abandon these cumbersome and useless tenets. However, when he himself took charge of OUN, he realized that the reality was not so simple. Where there are people, there are schemes, and no organization is exempt from this; even the OUN suffers from similar internal conflicts. Stepan Golivin thought that establishing Hetman's absolute power would solve everything, and the ensuing suspicion grew. He is not a saint, and cannot do the job of seeing through all the details and conspiracies; he must rely on the information provided by his men to make judgments, and the information itself may be false. The more power he had in his hands, the greater the cost of misjudgment, and even more terrifying was the fact that his associates were watching his position every minute of every day.
Michael McNeil rose from his seat and went to the window to survey the battlefield below. He noticed that the ground below the clouds was reddish, as if it were lava, and cried out in surprise. The crowd rushed to the window to gather around and were perplexed at the strange sight below. Compared to the white color of the rest of the area, this red area below made them feel inexplicably panicked.
"God, what is this?" Lieutenant General Pavlyuk was also shocked; he had never seen a similar sight before.
"Didn't you guys want to know how the Russians beat us to the punch? This is the answer." Captain Shields pointed to the fiery red earth below, "Until you see the scene, no one will believe me even if I report the actual situation."
Lt. Gen. Pavlyuk and his command did not move to the front lines, and since the U.S. forces were dominating, their job was nothing more than cleaning up the battlefield for their allies, and there was no need to pour too much effort into it. As a result, the Ukrainian Army waited for the news that the American forces were routed at the front, which puzzled everyone, and their suspicions were deepened by the tight-lippedness of the American commanders. In a general standoff, the U.S.S.R. always liked to exaggerate the threat of the other side, and by the time they were silent about the enemy's strength, it only meant that the damage they had inflicted on them had exceeded the expected limits of tolerance.
McNeil returned to his seat, already having an answer within himself. There was no doubt that this should be a new type of magic that covered a large scale and was incredibly destructive, and he would have to revise his inherent impression. Judging from the traces left at the scene alone, the destructive power of this kind of magic was not comparable to those super weapons of GDI, but considering that the magic was released by a certain person and human beings were always more flexible than machines, the Russians probably used Magicians who had mastered this kind of mass destruction magic as humanoid strategic weapons. By the way, since this was a strategic weapon, the corresponding magic and Magician must be labeled as strategic level, so as to match the public perception.
He remembered the two strange devices he had carried earlier, which seemed to be devices capable of stopping Magicians from using magic, and the bodyguards beside Hetman had been effortlessly eliminated by McNeil and the others as a result. The world had many more secrets waiting to be unearthed, and he didn't always have enough time or luck. The last time he stayed for less than half a year in total he was killed in action during the Rhodesian Rebellion, and now the New World was about to be plunged into a full-scale war, and as an insignificant common soldier, death was following him like a shadow, with a scythe ready to slash into his neck at any moment.
Lieutenant General Pavlyuk ordered a landing at one of the airfields ahead of him, and the base's garrison commander led several of his fellow officers to greet the sudden arrival of the Acting Ground Force Commander and Hetman, and nervously reported to the General about the recent battle.
"We can almost confirm that the Russians are using a new type of weapon ... but it certainly won't be a nuclear weapon, and we don't have any more reason to charge them." Ukrainian Army officers were afraid to approach the attacked areas, they just pointed to the red marks from a distance, "According to the Allies, they were attacked almost exactly the same way on the eastern front, with equally heavy losses. Conservative estimates put the number of soldiers and civilian victims in the hundreds of thousands ..."
Soldiers were overflowing with excitement when they realized that the acting Ground Force Commander and Hetman had arrived at the same time to inspect the area. These big names who normally only appeared in news reports now came to them, and one must take this opportunity to make the big names remember them. Stepan Golivin awkwardly introduced by Lieutenant General Pavlyuk one by one and shook hands with a few of the main leaders of the base, one of the officers wearing the OUN logo armband fervently shouted slogans to Hetman to swear allegiance, in the usual then Hetman would be happy to accept the other party's gesture of goodwill, but he is currently subjected to the others, and Lieutenant General Pavlyuk has always been opposed to the infiltration of the army by the OUN. Although the weather was still cold, Hetman was already sweating a bit.
The STARS team members made their way to the outside of the base, from where they were able to see out more easily. Captain Shields said that the Eastern Front battlefield was such a hell at the time that almost none of the American troops who were directly attacked by the new Russian weapons survived, and the luckier guys like him chose to flee rather than continue on, not knowing for sure if the Russians would launch their next attack right away.
"It's a kind of magic, I'm sure of it." Captain Shields concluded.
"What's the principle?" McNeil thought of Egon Schuller, who was still in England, he hadn't been in contact with the old pedant for a long time, and wondered if Prof. Schuller, who had originally been involved in physics and weapons research, would use the same line of thinking to make some kind of breakthrough in magic.
"... I don't know, ask the Russians." Captain Shields stopped discussing the issue, he picked up a piece of snow from the ground, crumpled it into a snowball and threw it with force, "After all these years, every time we've been ahead of the Russians, I didn't expect the Russians to surpass us this time. Taking magic as a strategic weapon is still in the theoretical stage, they've already put it into actual combat, and it's hundreds of thousands of lives at a time ..."
"Our intelligence department has always been very smart, why have we become blind all of a sudden on this issue?" McNeil smiled helplessly and bitterly.
"They're only willing to focus on the news they want to focus on, like what university professor in a certain country is worth turning, or what retired politician is fleeing to our country for refuge ... The decline in operational capability is alarming, and blunders become the norm." Captain Shields continued to walk through the snow as if recalling his comrades who had perished under the strategic level magic of the Russians, "You know what outsiders think of us, we're the President's close guard and specialized scalpels."
There was a popular saying that the Marines were the cheap bipedal utility chattel that ranked last of all the branches of the United States Armed Forces, a joke that was later embraced even by the Marines themselves. As the 21st century progressed, every time the United States undertook a new expansion overseas, the Marines were put in the vanguard, and the outside world generally viewed the Marines as the President's imperial mercenaries as well. Bloodthirsty money-seeking cattle, on the other hand, is what their enemies call them.
"So, you Americans can develop trepidation."
With his hands in the pockets of his coat, Stepan Golivin came up behind the group, accompanied by several Ukrainian Army soldiers. He was much calmer after his personal visit to the front-line military base. You can't defeat the enemy with just a passion, war is a business as well as an art.
"You guys treat the United States as a god one moment and a devil the next, when will you treat us as a bunch of ordinary people as well?" McNeil knew that Hetman was already under Pavlyuk's control, thus he wasn't worried about his reckless remarks angering Hetman and leading to serious consequences, " Hetman, the Russians are an enemy that even we, the United States of America, have to deal with seriously, and you're so arrogant as to think that the Ukraine alone can actually fend off the Russians on its own without our support. "
"Yankee, our ancestors faced the Russians and the Germans at the same time twice before, and they did not give in, fighting to the last rather than defending Ukraine." Hetman said proudly, "You guys don't have similar memories, do you? It's also true that the world says that the United States is a country favored by God, you never knew what it means to die as a nation, and you never understood how precious to us are those emotions that are worthless in your mouths."
"So, the result was that they were wiped out by both the Germans and the Russians twice in a row." McNeil couldn't help but laugh at the other man, "And you, dressed in a suit that symbolizes some German madman who is mouthing the extermination of all the Slavs of Eastern Europe, blabbering on in front of me about how to defeat the Russians by virtue of your daydreams, I see that you're very sick and that the asylums and labor camps of the Russkies are better suited for you."
Stepan Golivin was not angry; Hetman's power could not be brought to bear on these Americans. The United States remained by far the world's number one power, its citizens were naturally superior, and the majesty of Hetman meant nothing to them. From a pragmatic point of view, Hetman's move was indeed self-defeating, and since history has shown that confronting two powerful enemies at the same time must end in death, he should not be foolish enough to make the same mistake. However, Stepan Golivin never fought for pure profit, he wanted to prove the dignity of Ukrainians, that Ukraine is not a vassal of Russia or the United States of America. Reality is always cold, and his resistance was meaningless to the powers that be and added to the joke. OUN failed, Hetman became a puppet held hostage by the pro-United States forces, and the slogans they propagated became unattainable dreams. Who is responsible for this?
"You guys are going to be heroes after this deal for sure." Hetman looked forlornly at Tom and Randal, who were jostling in the snow, with Sgt. Salas still advising the two to separate.
"Heroes die young, Hon. Hetman." McNeil felt his pockets and realized that he had run out of gum, and embarrassedly approached Lt. Pavlyuk, who was looking at the scenery from the side, to take a piece, "I'd prefer if they wouldn't notice me at all, I'm just a minor character."
However, McNeil's intentions fell through. Ten minutes later, they were notified by Wyatt Curtis, and it turned out that Senator Curtis was going to invite the heroes, who had saved more than eighty American hostages and also succeeded in forcing the Ukrainian Hetman into submission, back to their home country to be honored, and in the process, find a way to exonerate several of them from any possible desertion charges. Looking at the expressionless Captain Shields, McNeil knew that they would have to choose to face the scrutiny from high society head on.
TBC.
Chapter Notes:
Due to the presence of McNeil and others, the character dialog is all in English.
Leonid Kondrachenko: Well, that's actually me.
