Firecracker

[Caelia]

Beneath the streets of Kyiv, Kyiv

An enormous crash reverberated through the tunnel as the last of the cinder block wall gave way and collapsed onto the floor in a heap. Two men, flashlights on their heads and sledgehammers in hand stood staring into the darkness where the wall had been.

"You can't tell me no one heard all that"

"Relax already, I don't think anyone has been down here in 40 years."

"What is this place anyways?"

"The Sotnyk says it used to be a leadership bunker that was abandoned when they expanded the subway. It was never declassified though and the Militsiya don't even know this place exists."

"Then how did the Sotnyk..."

He was silenced by a sharp glare from the other man.

The two men walked slowly through the decaying bunker, the ground was covered in a fine layer of dust accumulated over the past fourty years. With every step they kicked up more, which floated around them like gentle snow shimmering in the beams of their flashlights. Beyond that the tunnels and were rooms were completely silent and still. As they walked they passed old rooms still filled with equipment; in one there were racks of gas masks and chemical suits, the rubber cracking with age, in the next towering archaic computers. In one room there was nothing but a great pile of ashes and charred wood, with burn marks still visible on the ceiling. The two men did not stop to contemplate it.

Finally they stopped in an apparently nondescript hallway. One of the men, holding a folded paper - architectural blueprints - up to his light declared confidently: "This is it, it hasn't flooded or collapsed. This is the place the Sotnyk wanted us to find"

"What is it?"

"Up there, on the surface-" the man with the plans gestured towards the ceiling "- is the Wieser embassy."

OOC: Sotnyk, FTR, is not a military rank in Kyiv

 

[Caelia]

???, Kyiv

"I have brought this matter before our Yesaul, and he was adamant, the plan has not changed. This is the will of the Ataman."

But the Sotnyk could see the hesitation in the younger man's face. The Starshiy Kozak was a good soldier - so many of their recruits were nothing but hooligans and drunkards spoiling for a fight - but this boy was different. He had discipline, he had respect for rank and he belief in their sacred mission. That was why the Sotnyk had chosen him to lead this offensive. But he also knew this was a huge step for him.

"Listen to me Kozak." the Sotnyk's voice was firm but reassuring "This is a battle for the soul of the Rus. The Franks are a stain on our lands, you know this, but you must also know that there are many among the Rus who would sell the soul of our people for forty pieces of Franconian silver. These people... no these dogs, have no place in the nation we will create. For Rus to shed Rus blood is sin, but we are fighting to uphold the true cross and the glory of all Rus. Do you accept this?"

The young Kozak paused for an instant before he answered, but when he looked the Sotnyk in the eye the hesitation had vanished. "Sir, I will obey your orders without question. I will slit the throat of any who threaten the glory of the Rus or the sanctity of the true cross."

"Very good, Kozak. Tonight pray to the Divine Mother, wherever a son of the Rus is lost she is the one who will guide them. You still have much to do."

 

[Caelia]

Stavka of the Kyivan People's Army, Kyiv, Kyiv

"Quite the show they put on for us, my hat is off to you Sergei, things unfolded exactly as you said they would."

"You are too generous First Marshal. Using the ultra-nationalists was a risk, but a calculated one. They are simple-minded but they are not our allies."

First Marshal Kostya Zhovnir and General-adjutant Sergei Voichenko were standing on top of the heavily fortified Stavka headquarters, watching the smoke rise from what had been the Wieser embassy in the distance. If the destruction they had visited on their own capital perturbed them they showed no sign of it.

"A commander must always be bold. Nothing ventured, nothing gained my dear adjutant."

"As you say sir."

"You have done a great service for our nation adjutant, but be sure there are no loose ends. I will be watching closely."

"I have already made the necessary preparations to sanitize the operating environment, sir."

"Good, I expected nothing less. Nevertheless, I will be monitoring the sanitation procedure personally. You are excused, the folk are awaiting my direction."

"Sir!"

 

[Remuria]

Wendmarker Embassy, Kiev

"Burn... burn... burn it all," the diplomatic security specialist mused to himself as he used a fire iron to shove around paper spaghetti and confetti of shredded diplomatic and government correspondence in the fire, watching as the bits of paper quickly caught fire. After each pile of paper, he shoved the ashes around to break up what remained of the paper and turn it all into dust. The destruction of correspondence was organised in a pedantically Wendmarker fashion through a chain of staff members who took the documents out of the shelves and piled them up, others who took them out of the folders, others still who shredded them and, finally, those who burned them and ensured the ashes were dust. Other diplomatic employees were busy ensuring that Embassy servers were no longer usable through a whole variety of means. "There go shizzletons of porn!" mused another security employee as he busily physically destroyed incalculable amounts of digital embassy data.

The process would go on through the night and in the morning of next day, security personnel would check for one final time the locks of all Embassy entrances, doors and windows. All curtains were drawn, all blinds were closed. As the last Wendmarker personnel left for the airbase where transport planes of the Wendmarker Air Force awaited them, the Embassy became a ghost structure, devoid of life.

 

[Wieserreich]

Wieserreich Legation, Kiev

The explosion underneath the legation grounds had devastated a significant part of the building, but hardly all of it. As most staff was withdrawn, as reported in Wieserreichische Welle, a cadre of Reichspolizei personnel responsible for security had stayed behind along with a select few diplomatic staff who would leave the country later. Their mission was simple: to deny the plundering of critical legation data by the Kievan authorities.

Most data that was determined expendable, backed up or otherwise not needed would be outright destroyed both physically and, if applicable, digitally. It was very easy to completely destroy a hard drive with the most basic of tools, let alone more vulnerable forms of data storage such as compact or digital disks and diskettes. As of paper, whatever was deemed expendable was being thrown into the pyre at a relatively safe, concealed location underneath the embassy. Most of this was the diplomats' work, with the Reichspolizei mostly assisting.

What the Reichspolizei was also doing, however, was making sure to continue documenting the results of the attack and the Kievan response, in rather thorough ways at that.