Zhukov was intrigued with the idea of invading
the Turk, the Ottoman Empire, the former scourge of the south and the peoples
who had terrified many generations of Russian children. He was going to avenge
the Byzantine empire and once again bring Constantinople into the sphere of
civilization once again.
Individually the Turk was a formidable fighter
but collectively he was a disaster. He expected to eliminate the Amerikosi
airfields that were being used in Turkey to be over-run in as little as 45 days
once the assault started. Constantinople’s walls would be no impediment to a modern
army as they had been for thousands of years first to keep out the Mongol, then
the Turk and finally the west.
The art of war had progressed too far for the
old walls to withstand a 122mm shell or a 46 ton tank. The Soviet soldier was
the undisputed master of city warfare so he expected little trouble in first
by-passing and then eliminating any resistance there. With the Turk no longer
in control of the Bosphorus or collectively the Turkish straits and the Black
Sea fleet could start to harass the British and Yankee boats that have so far
plagued his plans. That Sergo character had promised to unleash his missiles if
a worthy target presented itself and he had more conventional weapons ready to
fight the B-29, Shooting Star and RAF Meteor. It was some kind of new jet that
would bring superiority to the VVS over the skies of the battlefield.
He just wanted the pesky boats gone. He had
seen the devastation they had created near Le Havre and now had to take detours
to bring his forces to bear on the Turk. He had to stay a good 30 miles from
the shore of the various seas in the area for fear of intervention by the naval
forces of the imperialist pigs.
The irony of Sergo not using the missiles on
the ships was that the guidance system was initially designed to target ships.
His fear of an unexploded warhead falling into the hands of NATO was somewhat
warranted but not enough to allow the Western navies the unfettered freedom
they possessed currently. That would have to be addressed especially when his
forces got closer to the Levant and the Suez. Sergo’s missiles would have to be
used for what they were designed for.
As he stared at the line of tank transports and
train loads of forces crawling along the mountain roads from his command car in
his armored train he suddenly turned and his aide quickly came to his side
knowing that something was about to occur that meant his life was about to
change. He knew his Marshal very well and the twitching of the jaw always meant
something significant was about to happen.
Zhukov spoke in the low rumble that was his
trademark for beginning an important statement. It forced you to get closer
even knowing that the volume and pitch that frequently came would physically
force you to take a step back. But that initial beginning made you lean in
close knowing what was to come and what was to follow. It was an effective
technique that had never failed Zhukov nor failed to frustrate and intimidate
his subordinates.
The aide knew by now that the first few
sentences were more of a stalling tactic while the Marshal collected his
thoughts for verbal communication. Kind of like clearing your throat or a
platitude filled welcoming statement about how pleased he was to be in your
company. Zhukov did not use platitudes so he unconsciously used the technique
he had developed over the many years of commanding men, commanding them to give
their very lives for an idea and in sometimes great numbers.
Finally the essence of the order came to the
fore and the aide did not need to lean in to hear it.
“Bring Konstantine to me. He is the one who has
been working on masking the true nature of the Stalin’s Fire missile’s guidance
system.”
“Of course comrade.”
The aide thought to himself, that was not what
I expected. What is that old fox up to now? He was never bored in this
position. The marshal’s other aide had made it through the war against the Nazis
only to be killed by a stray bullet from an unknown source while standing next
to Zhukov while he was touring the newly captured city of Berlin. He was in the
right or wrong place at the right or wrong time depending on your point of view
and had been ordered to step in and be the marshal’s aide. Luckily he was a
natural and Zhukov had no complaints that he knew of.
He quickly walked the length of the train and
entered what had easily become the most disorganized mess anyone had ever seen
that was the command car of the undisputed master of maskirovka. A man no one
ever heard of or knew existed.
The master of deception had his back to the
door and did not turn around when the compartment was bathed in sunlight and
cold air.
“Close the door and what do you want?” He
muttered without even turning around. “Marshal Zhukov will see you now comrade.
I will lead you to him.”
Konstantin slowly turned and without hesitation
or argument and literally dropped what he was working on, thus causing a
metallic crashing noise which filled the compartment and immediately started to
move towards the front of the train. The aide did not look to see what was
dropped but was once again struck by the empty eye sockets and the emaciated
face of this master of deception. The man was obviously totally blind yet was
able to function at an incredibly high level of proficiency as long as he was
in the train or confined area. One tour around any area feeling with his feet
and hands and it was ingrained in his memory. Unless something was moved by
someone else, he could move with alarming speed that belied his blindness.
Found abandoned on the steps of a hospital in
Moscow he was born without eyes and his anophthalmia was very acute. He barely
even had eye sockets. Zhukov’s aid had the duty of researching the past of
anyone who came in contact with the Marshal. In his research he had found that
Konstantin was amazing from birth in his ability to use his other senses to
overcome what would be a crippling deformity to others. Possibly his lack of
sight made it easier for him to fool others who had relied so heavily on sight.
Whatever the cause he was indeed a master of maskirovka and responsible for
many of the decisions Zhukov had made in this realm of smoke and mirrors.
As usual Konstantin led the way barely feeling
his path. Everyone knew when he was coming and made way by clearing a course
through their space for his transverse. You never wanted to be the cause of
accidentally inflicting harm on this man.
They reached Marshal Zhukov in less time than
it took the aide to originally traverse the length of the train. Konstantin did
not stop and all knew that he was not to be stopped. They marched right up to
the marshal and then waited to be addressed. The marshal was busy with another
matter but immediately stopped the conversation and greeted Konstantin warmly.
This always surprised the aide and made him a little jealous. But then again he
had never saved Zhukov’s life or the lives of hundreds of thousands of soviet
soldiers either. As Zhukov hugged Konstantin
the aide could tell that he was averse to this
particular kind of greeting and he thought, maybe that is why Zhukov does this
to him.
As usual Zhukov started out speaking in his
rumbling bass voice to draw Konstantin in but Konstantin did not fall for the
bait as usual. They had been through many a challenge together and knew each
other’s ways only too well. Finally the Marshal came to the point after
articulating it in his mind.
“Konstantin old friend, what has been done to
mask the true nature of the Stalin’s Fire missile guidance system?”
“Comrade Zhukov, we have done any number of
things per Sergo’s orders and a few of our suggestions have been used as well.
We have “provided” the NATO intelligence service with a number of opportunities
to avail themselves of dummy units. So far they have only retrieved 2 out of
twelve presented to them. The rest have gone unnoticed where they have remained
so as to not increase suspicion.
Of the two actually reaching the NATO
scientific staff both would have appeared to be guided by the German Fritz X
system or the FuG 230 system. We are sure the NATO scientists have received and
tested these units. We know they are still baffled and are unsure as to why
their jamming techniques have not worked so far when they obviously have worked
in the past. The only possible flaw in this plan is that it does defy physics
so they will eventually discern that it must be a ruse. It has bought us
valuable time to strengthen other weapons and strategies.
Zhukov moves to the center of the rail car and
crosses his arms.
“The
time is coming where we will need Stalin’s Fire to rain down on NATOs boats. It
is coming soon. It will mean the difference between winning the war and defeat.
NATO is free to roam the oceans and strike at us where they will. We now have
the means to stop this. We now have the weapon we need to sweep the oceans
clean of capitalist war machines and fill the void with our own. Mark my words
Konstantin the time is coming and coming quickly. We will need Sergo’s
acquiescence on this matter in order to convince Comrade Stalin and the STAVKA.
Stalin’s Fire must be used and soon and that is where your special talents come
in Konstantin. You must come up with the ultimate maskirovka just in case the a
warhead falls into NATO’s lap like the enigma machine or the so called Battle
of the Beams. We have to make them believe that when the real solution does
present itself to them that they reject it out of hand.”
“It is pretty unbelievable in reality so that
maybe not as hard as you think. At this point we do not want to even get them
thinking down the same path as the real solution. Possibly something like the
enigma machine or some rudimentary computation device to throw them once again
off the obvious path that they have ignored could be used. We will give them so
many clues that they will not know which ones are pertinent.
Sergo is so concerned that they will discover
the truth yet he will not tell anyone how to defeat the system he is using. He
claims it is very simple but no one else seems to know what he
is thinking and how to effectively counter it.
We do have to plan on there being someone in what remains of the capitalist
world who can think like Sergo. It would be foolish for us to think otherwise.
So far it has been a common fault of the
Amerikosi who seem to think that they have invented everything and no one else
can match their accomplishments. It is to our advantage to keep them thinking
this way.”
“Da, you are correct Konstantin. We must keep
using the power of maskirovka for a few more months until we are totally caught
up to the Amerikosi and Limeys. Their sense of superiority is a great advantage
to us because it blinds them to the real possibilities of a communist system.
It is to our advantage to keep them thinking we are the blunt, dumb instrument
of Stalin who only know the hammer and sickle and couldn’t possibly equal them
in the sciences. The longer they believe that trope, the longer the time we
have to defeat them.
“When we finally are “allowed” to use the
system for its original purpose, we will not have to worry about the NATO boats
anymore. There is no reason that the system cannot be placed on the German V2
rocket as well. At a distance of 320 km it will far out range those guns that
have kept us from the coasts. They will no longer be able to supply islands
like Britain or bring their tanks from across the seas. What good will their
factories be if they cannot land machines or provide the fuel to run them. If
we stop their navies we will stop them from invading the motherland and our new
jets will meet them in the skies. We just needed the time to breath after our
destruction of the Nazi pigs. We are now ready to once again defend ourselves.
First we have to push the Amerikosi farther
away from our oil fields, further away from our homes, further away from our
families. Maybe then they will leave us alone. We need to conquer the Turk and
then drive them out of the Mediterranean. We need to close both ends of that
sea. We need to destroy the Suez Canal and take Gibraltar from the British but
first we need to take the airfields from the Turks and expand the perimeter.
Then our planes must keep us safe while we rebuild once again.“
