A NATION IN FLAMES Short Stories WITH A GOTHIC, MILITARY & SF FLAVOUR  by Nick Armbrister

FINLAND STATION SOVIET STYLE

A snow covered landscape stretched on for infinity, mirrored only by the vast empty blue sky arcing overhead, seemingly forever. With the horizon in reality only miles away and the enemy closer still, this was a time to be cautious if one wanted to live, to survive the new and most deadly threat that was here and now. Yet coming out of his mind and looking forward to the lower snow and upper blue, he knew only the beauty of the landscape and of the moment, calming him. 

He felt it was time to move from his hiding place, a collection of fallen trees and debris left over from the last Winter and a time of peaceful lucidity. Stopping to brush snow from his long white leather overcoat and Soviet style tank helmet, he stood up and picked up his Machine Pistol, a short fast firing nine-millimetre affair with a full magazine of fifty rounds. All stolen from a dead Soviet tank man in a previous battle several weeks before, spoils of war. His eyes missed nothing and he surveyed the scene taking in every detail, looking, waiting for movement – nothing but snow, trees and the ground before him. No tanks, no diesel exhaust hanging in the air, no smoke from burning vehicles, no advancing soldiers, for now. 

How long had it been like this, living in the fear that every day could be his last, knowing that his country could be disassembled like a broken engine and rebuilt Soviet style, another Soviet Republic under the boot of Moscow? Occupied by an enemy army who had killed and murdered and destroyed to achieve their aim, the aim of occupation and of war. To take all they wanted by force, if necessary, as politics with a veiled threat had failed, invasion was the only alternative left. They had crossed the border area a scant few miles ahead of him and set up camp, brought up massed reinforcements of tanks, fighting vehicles, personnel carriers, supply trucks and a whole lot more, the tools of a modern army. Several villages and small towns had already fallen in less than a week of fighting, at first surprised and then overran in short order, the inhabitants panicking, fleeing, fighting and then dying. But they managed to get word out, had succeeded and now an army, a Finnish army was fighting the Soviet invasion, as their grandparents had done over sixty years ago. How history repeated itself, the big soldier grimly thought. This time we would win, we had our allies, brought out of hiding and now ready to join us to defend their, our, sacred homeland. No matter how long this takes, how much blood is spilled, we will prevail and fight our common enemy to the end.

In the huge grey stone castle atop the precipitous cliff, battle plans slowly formed in the minds of people who were no longer human – who had preternatural power beyond the scope and understanding of all but a few humans, now their allies by coincidence. For now. The leader, standing seven feet tall, spoke loudly and grimly in a voice that deserved respect, servitude: “We have seen from our forward observers that the area here” – he pointed at the map on the study wall with a laser pointer –  “and here is occupied by lead elements of the 6^th Soviet Tank Army and 8^th Mechanised Infantry Brigade. They are dug in, in defensive positions, to consolidate their ground and have deployed a number of mobile Air Defence weapons to provide layered defence. These systems include the Lada short range point defence missile, the Skoda medium range missile, the Trabant long range missile together with an assortment of shoulder fired FSO and Zil missiles and Yugo anti-aircraft artillery. Our air attacks have failed to destroy the Soviet defences; when we destroy one position, they bring up two more to replace it.” With this disclosure, the leader smiled painfully. “We knocked out eighty-three tanks, two-dozen APCs, numerous missile and gun positions and crews and Soviet infantry besides. Yet this action cost us a third of our air force and twenty pilots killed or missing. This can’t continue – we will lose our prestigious air force and be naked to more Soviet aggression; our beloved country of Finland will be theirs for the taking…”