Three Kings

The Germans had hit upon the primal fear of fire, and the agonizing death it would bring, to unhinge Britain’s stalwart defenders under the Rock of Gibraltar. So he would use that same element to achieve his purpose here.

He strode down the long metal grating of Big Red’s interior walkway, all the way from the tail of the ship, where the last of the loading operations were now being concluded. Along the way he removed his black leather gloves from his uniform side pocket, slowly pulling them on one at a time, and making a fist to set the fit just as he preferred. The sound of his hard soled boots resounded in the enclosed space, echoing up through the metal duralumin framework of the massive airship. Karpov was ready. He would leave the ship to board Abakan for the planned attack. It would be much too dangerous to remain aboard ‘Big Red.’

That was the nickname of one of the largest airships in his small fleet, the Krasnoyarsk, or “OldKrasny,” which meant ‘red’ in the Russian language. Most simply called the ship ‘Big Red,’ and the tarps that covered its duralumin skeleton had been tinted a dull red to fill the bill nicely.

The project Karpov had been busy with was the development of a hammer big enough to smash the nail he had in his shoe, Ivan Volkov. He knew he would never get his hands on another nuclear warhead, so he tried something else, a rudimentary air fuel bomb the like of which had been pioneered by a German engineer named MarioZippermayr during the Second World War. In fact, the man was probably out there somewhere working on a similar project now, he thought, but I have beaten him to the punch.

He had come to theKaa-Chem coal mine to get the dust-coal dust, which could be highly explosive if applied properly in the weapon his engineers had designed. He had rigged out a bomb container the size and appearance of a sub-cloud car. In fact, he began with the empty shell of one such car to create his prototype. Then he used the data available in his jacket computer to find how to suspend the coal dust in a liquid, and combine it with oxygen in his new bomb. It would be a two stage delivery process, one to first burst open the receptacle and cause wide area dispersion of the material inside, and a second charge to then ignite the holocaust. The explosive shock of the weapon was severe, far beyond that off any normal detonation.

The trick was how to deliver it on target, an enemy ground force threatening his lines, without having his airships shot to pieces by heavy caliber flack guns. The answer was to drop or parachute the weapon over the battlefield from high altitude, and he drilled his zeppelin bombardiers hard on delivery even while the engineers were feverishly putting the weapons together. They tested for wind, altitude, potential drift off target. In time he had a deliverable bomb, and one of considerable power that had been tested to create an intense shock wave over an area of 600 meters in diameter.

Karpov had his hammer.

Big Red was soon rigged out with three of the new bombs, and Karpov assembled a small flotilla of zeppelins to make his first strike against the advancing forces of the Orenburg Federation. Volkov’s 9th Infantry, 22nd Air Mobile, and 8th Armored Cavalry Brigade had formed the right pincer of his attack against Omsk. Two other divisions invested the town, encircling Karpov’s 18th Siberian Division there, but these other three pressed on towards Novosibirsk, hoping to quickly storm the defenses.

There Karpov had positioned his crack 32nd Siberian Guards, blocking the way east behind their Ob River defense line. Volkov’s men would have a tough fight ahead, with an opposed river crossing being the least of it. It was the perfect opportunity to test out his new weapon. If the enemy was able to cross here, then they could maneuver to stage a crossing north of the city, and cut the main road and rail connections.

Big Red was up and approaching the river crossing zone, where Volkov’s forces were massing near a smaller tributary about 5 miles west of the main river. One advantage Karpov had was that he would not be opposed by enemy zeppelins here. He had amassed all the air power he could get his hands on and sent the fighters to the airfields in and around Novosibirsk. Volkov’s single zeppelin accompanying the attack, the Pavlodar, was finally forced to withdraw to avoid the ceaseless duels with Karpov’s fighters.

Fighter squadrons were now in dutiful escort, and Abakan was there should any other airship return to challenge the action. Karpov had rehearsed the maneuver five times, each time doing no more than high level reconnaissance, and this had the effect of dulling the enemy’s concerns, thinking the real attack was nothing more than another high level observation run. Now, in the pre-dawn hour, Big Red drifted ominously above the battle zone, accompanied by Karpov aboard the Abakan.