Temnikovsk, Mordvin ASSR, the Soviet Union.
June 19th, 1941.
In the end of the runway, the Iljushin transport plane shuddered to a halt. It was soon surrounded by a number of soldiers, who had been already waiting for hours in the warm June sun. Helped by a couple of the heavily armed, blue-capped NCOs, two men clambered off the plane and stretched their feet. One was wearing the uniform of a General, the other of an Admiral. Without a further delay, the General strode purposefully towards a waiting convoy of military vehicles, with the Admiral and a squad of soldiers also adopting a brisk pace to keep up.
The trucks rolled through fields and seemingly abandoned villages, kicking up a cloud of dust on the dirt road. After a while, they came to a brightly painted, ornamental wooden gate, proclaiming in bold letters "By Diligent Work For Socialism, You Will Earn Your Place in a Socialist Society! Your Work Will Be Rewarded By the Soviet State!", guarded by more grim, blue-capped soldiers. This was the entrance to Subsection 5, Camp Number 241, a work camp for criminals and political prisoners alike. The two high-ranking Soviets looked from the car window, as ill-clothed and -fed prisoners trudged between the long rows of unpainted wooden barracks and log cabins. The Admiral shuddered, involuntarily: just a year ago, he had lived on one of these camps himself.
The General, however, looked unperturbed: he worked for the organisation running these camps. In his heart of hearts, however, Evgeny Lapishin, the General commanding NKGB Department 4 (Technical and Operational) was not so sure of his position in this Soviet Union as he led his comrade to believe. Under Stalin, leadership positions were lost more easily as they were gained, and his was not an enviable position. His mission today was pivotal in many ways: if he was successful, the highest offices of the State were surely open to him. If he failed... No reason to go there, though, he said to himself. I'll deal with that if I have to.
The convoy did not stop at Subsection 5, but rolled on, past a few other such camplets until it reached a newly built wall, heavily festooned with barbed wire. The entrance was guarded by machine guns and artillery emplacements. AA gun crews scanned to skies for sneaky, aerial imperialists. It could be easily seen that the level of security on this camp was seriously heavier than at those mere depositories of the unwanted they had passed on the way. This camp was also newer, and contained several sturdy concrete buildings. Electric lines converged on the camp from all four directions.
After the guard saw the General, the trucks were waved through. On the yard in front of the largest building they were welcomed by even more soldiers, led by a Colonel with a bushy moustache. There were civilians here too, nervous men in white lab coats and grey overalls. As the General and the Admiral walked to the waiting men one of the whitecoats approached the Admiral.
"Well, Comrade Admiral? What are the news?" asked Igor Tamm, the physicist provisionally in charge of the theoretical side of the project during the absense of his superior. Tamm wringed his hands in anticipation.
Aksel Berg, the man in charge of all research in the field of electric technology in the Soviet Union, looked him square in the eye. "I come straight from Stalin" he said, raising his voice to make sure all the people present could hear him. "We have been ordered to activate the Device this evening. I was told the failure to do this will result in heavy repercussions for all of us." No-one else spoke, and Tamm nodded imperceptibly. It was General Lapishin, who broke the silence. "To work, then. Comrade Tamm, you lead the way!"
The group entered the large building, with men in overalls and lab coats dispersing to various locations inside. An electric hum filled the air, as the group advanced along a corridor between huge, looming machinery, bustling workers and thick, multicoloured cables running along every surface. Admiral Berg left himself drift to the very end of the group. A work of several months was now coming to fruition - if the Device worked how it was supposed to. He was not sure if he should feel relieved or terrified.
The idea for the Electric Field Device had come to him in a dream, after all. A weapon so terrible it could win the war all by itself... The dream was still vivid in his mind: he was sitting before a screen, much like a movie screen, but smaller and full of colour. From high above, he could see a battlefield: two armies, armoured vehicles and men advancing towards each other, to all the world like toys or miniatures. Suddenly, an electric crackling sound filled his ears and a blue current coursed through one of the armies. The vehicles and the men just... disappeared.
After this powerful vision, he was told in amazingly simple terms, how to create this fiendish device. When he woke up, he was, well, electrified. Since that night, he could think of nothing else. His work on the radar would not advance. With the help of some of the scientists recently freed from the camps to help in the defence effort, like Tamm and P.I. Lukirski, he begun to flesh out the idea. To his amazement, all the calculations lined up perfectly and showed it was feasible. His collegues agreed: somehow, his unconscious mind had stumbled upon a scientific discovery greatest the young Soviet Union had yet to see.
Soon, they had managed to bring the idea to Stalin and secured the great leader's support for the project. The Central Facility was built here at Temnikovsk, and, perhaps a testament to Stalin's megalomania, the Electric Field Towers were built all along the border of the Soviet state: thousands of prisoners had died in realizing Stalin's dream of a defensive shield able to deter all enemies outside the Workers' State. All major electric plants in the nation were harnessed to the effort. Now, the moment of truth was at hand.
After every worker and technician had manned their post, Berg, Lapishin, Tamm and Lukirski gathered at the main control room. Phones were ringing and orders were sent on to the several power stations feeding the Central Facility. One after another, the technicians in charge of incoming power lines reported that they were ready for the activation sequence. All over the Soviet Union, lights went out one after other and electric engines at the factories slowly stopped, accompanied by the curses of the workers not yet at their daily quota.
Berg gripped a hand rail, staring in front of himself. Lapishin looked at him expectantly. "Aksel Ivanovich, what are we waiting for? It seems all is in order." Indeed, thought Berg. Why have I not yet given the order? Maybe because this all might be a huge pipe dream, conjured by the brains of a man gone out of his mind in the prison camps? Maybe this is a mistake, and we will all suffer because of it? Yet, it all seemed so simple, clear and logical... "You are right", he said. "Let's begin. Comrade Tamm, engage the start sequence. Circuits 1 through 8."
Levers were pushed and circuits connected. The hum in the air grew tenfold in volume. All along the great control panel in front of Berg, lights lit up to signal that the Electric Field Device was coming alive in front of his very eyes. "Circuits 1 through 8 online!" reported Lukirski. Berg looked at the main electric gauge to his right. Not quite there yet... "Tamm, engage the Auxiliary Circuit!" Tamm looked at him warily. "Comrade Admiral? It might cause an overload! Maybe we should..." "Do it!", snapped Berg. "Engage!"
For a blink of an eye, the whole room dimmed and all light disappeared. Then, it was full of brilliant light and electric sparks ran through the air. The sound in the air was now like thunder. The main gauge had reached red. Berg looked around himself. "The Electric Field Device is now online." "On my mark, engage the Towers. Mark." Tamm threw the big breaker connecting the facility to the All-Union Defensive Wall. He beamed at Berg. "It really looks like this works!, he shouted. "We have -----"
Berlin, the Greater German Reich, 8 hours later.
The Reich Chancellery corridors echoed from the footsteps of a running man. At the door to the Führer's office the SS-guards stopped the man, a young Lieutenant, with a questioning expression. "I have first priority news for the Führer! Directly from the Army. Let me through!" The guards summoned one of the Führer's adjutants, Richard Schulze Kossens, who luckily was due to be admitted to Hitler's office in a minute. The young aide explained his news to Schulze-Kossens, and together the two bewildered men arrived at their leader's presence.
Hitler sat at his desk, poring over some maps of the Soviet Union. The two men saluted and stood at attention as Hitler looked up. "Yes, what is it? I am quite busy, what with a war coming and everything." There was a hint of a smile on his face. Schulze-Kossens grabbed the papers in the aide's hands and shoved them to the table. "Mein Führer, news from Army Group North... Well, from all army groups. Their intelligence, as of a few our ago, tells them that the Red Army is not there. At all." The adjutant looked pained. "What do you mean 'is not there', man. Certainly they are somewhere!", Hitler snapped back, now fully focusing on his two aides.
"Mein Führer, the Red Army is nowhere to be seen. Nor is anything else on the Soviet side of the border. Oh, the landscape has not changed at all. It is just that the Soviet Union, all people, buildings and equipment seems to just... well... disapperared." Schulze-Kossens looked at Hitler, cringing now, painfully aware of the cold sweat gathering on his brow.
This time, it took a while before the German Führer said anything at all.
Milarqui said:
3. Soviet Union must disappear
Done.
Milarqui said:
I'm asking for realistic PODs. Not ASBs or things like that.
Sorry.
