Three Kings

Fedorov gave Popski a sympathetic look. This was going to be the fate of any man alive now who ever came into contact with men of this unit, and realized the truth. They would all stand and stare amazed, some dumbstruck with awe, like Cortez, silent upon a peak in Darien, as Keats would put it. Others would stare in disbelief, until the hard steel reality of these men from a distant time was driven home with the shock and fire of war. The Germans and Italians would get the worst of it, for here was a mighty champion that would soon come to the field of battle and weigh heavily in the equation of this war.

And yet, thought Fedorov, they were mortal men, not demigods, and their power and influence on events here would not be without limits. This was the realization that he had faced on the ship as they watched their missile count diminish, one by one. Once Kirov fired the last of its Moskit-IIs, and the inventory of SAMs was gone, it was nothing more than a veiled threat, toothless, though the appearance of the ship on an enemy’s horizon might be seen as a shadow of imminent doom.

The same thing would happen here with these men. They would begin with power that seemed overwhelming to any foe they encountered. A German light Panzer II could do nothing whatsoever to bother one of these modern new tanks.

And yet, the tanks would store little more than 50 rounds of their deadly 120mm ammunition. This brigade would likely have considerable replacement stores, but Fedorov knew they were finite. Once the ammunition was gone the tank would just be an impregnable moving pill box. It was 1941, and this was going to be a very long war. In the end, Fedorov knew the power this brigade could wield could be decisive in any given engagement, but it would be a rock in the stream of this war, stalwart, invincible, yet unable to stem the full flood of the madness WWII eventually became. Entire cities were destroyed in single bombing raids here, a conflagration never seen in modern warfare, where casualty rates dropped precipitously.

The US lost 4487 soldiers in the ten year war they fought in Iraq. On the first day of the Normandy invasion, they would lose 2500, and go on to lose 29,000 before that campaign concluded, with another 11,000 British deaths and 30,000 Germans. And though very significant, that battle was not decisive. The fight would continue in the Market Garden campaign, the Battle of the Bulge, and the battles fought to cross the Rhine before Germany finally was beaten.

The loss of a division or two here would not stop the German war machine. The Germans lost well over half a million men at Stalingrad and still fight on. The Russians lost over a million there. This Brigade could win any engagement it fought while its ammunition lasted, but that was the end of it. The effect its presence here would have on the war itself would depend entirely on how, where, and whenits awesome power was used.

Now he thought of Karpov, ever seeking that decisive moment in history to bring the full might of Kirov’s weapons to the cauldron of war. Karpov may have been misguided, selfish and headstrong, but in one thing he was correct. Kirov was a lever that could move a mountain if placed at precisely the right place, its tremendous power fully applied. Even now Admiral Volsky was thinking to decide the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean Sea in one decisive battle. The same would apply here with this brigade. But would even this be enough? How would the Germans react? Might they send even more troops and material to challenge this new foe, or initiate vast new programs to gain these new “wonder weapons” for their own use?

But there stood Popski, unaware of any of this, yet soon to be shaken by the hard reality of what was about to happen. How could he bring him to that understanding, bridge that 80 year gulf between Kinlan and Peniakoff and see them shake hands as one?

“Popski,” he said, quietly. “Have you ever seen uniforms like those worn by these men?”

“Can’t say as I have. Those helmets are unlike any used by the Tommy’s, and the same goes for those rifles they’re carrying, but they look like they’ll do the job well enough.”

“And have you ever seen armored vehicles like these? Look at those tanks!”

“Those are real beasts,” said Popski. “Have to be entirely new. They’re magnificent!”

“They are,” said Fedorov. “And have you ever seen a contraption like the one that we flew in to get here, our helicopter? For that matter, have you ever seen a ship like mine, or rockets that could do what we demonstrated earlier during that air attack on the Suez Canal?”

“I was there to see that!” said Popski. “Rumors make the rounds fast in Cairo, and we heard a fancy Russian ship was coming through, so I went over to the canal when you came in and saw the whole thing. Marvelous! You fellows have a few of those for our ships?”

“I wish it were so, but our ammunition is limited. That’s why we use it carefully, and sparingly, and only when it counts.”