[3rd POV]
General Torotovsky visibly slumped as he read the news. The 35th Guards Air Assault Brigade and the 34th Guards Artillery Division had both been wiped out. 9,000 soldiers down the drain.
So, he had called General Kirilov to coordinate air support for the coming battle but found he couldn't contact him either. Investigating further, he learned that the entire air army in Potsdam had been destroyed. Another 3,000 planes gone.
General Torotovsky held his head in his hands and sighed once more. Most commanders wouldn't be deterred. It didn't matter if they lost 9,000 soldiers and 3,000 planes. Torotovsky oversaw the 20th Guards Red Banner Army, which consisted of 3 tank divisions and a motorized division. In total, he had about 40,000 men and 900 tanks.
If only he had left his 32nd Guards Tank Division near Potsdam where it was originally stationed, then maybe they wouldn't have lost all those soldiers. Instead, he had consolidated his forces north-east of Berlin. This included the 25th Tank Division, which was stationed in Vogelsang. It had taken all night to get in position.
But the General was an extremely cautious man. He wanted to win, yes, but wished to do so without taking 50% casualties. Berlin was a large city, and it wasn't ideal to assault with a tank army. While he hadn't heard of the rebels using any antitank weaponry, he wanted to be sure. He also wanted to give his soldiers some time to rest after driving all night.
"Comrade General!" an aide burst into the room, "There's something you must see!"
He turned on the television and changed the channel to a Polish channel which was illegally covering an event in Berlin. In the Soviet Union, this would have never been allowed. However, in Poland, the communist government was very rebellious and looked the other way regarding stuff like this.
On the television was a crowd that stretched farther than the eye could see. Hundreds of thousands of Germans stood in the streets chanting "Wir sind die Jäger!" as a blonde teen stepped towards the podium.
Eventually, the crowd fell silent, waiting for him to speak.
"Germans, Berliners, lend me your ears!" he spoke in English.
General Torotovsky almost fell off his chair. He couldn't believe it. The speaker had just spoken English in an undeniable Texan accent. Not German.
"I am Field Marshal Apollo of the German Army! Yes, German! Not East German, or West German. I stand before the world today with one message. Berlin has united. Germany must do the same!"
The crowd all cheered. Despite being in English, many Germans understood basic English, so were able to understand most of the speech.
"General Torotovsky!"
This time, the General really did fall out of his chair. He was shocked that the Field Marshal had said his name.
"You have 40,000 men prepared to storm Berlin, do you not? We have already wiped out over 10,000 of your countrymen. Stand down and you will not face the same fate! But if you do, know that we have 600,000 German soldiers armed to the teeth!"
Behind Apollo, a redhaired girl walked up to him holding an RPG-7. It was a widely used portable anti-tank weapon in the Soviet Union. It was a shoulder-fired, disposable, recoilless launcher that fired rocket-propelled grenades.
"We will destroy all 900 of your tanks in a blaze of fire and fury!"
Once again, the crowd cheered.
At that moment, the television cut off. Torotovsky guessed someone finally took care of it.
"General!" Another aide rushed into the room. "The politburo is ordering us to attack immediately!"
General Torotovsky thought. He now knew the enemy had antitank weaponry. He also knew he was facing an enemy in the hundreds of thousands. His forces would be spread thin in such a large city. The enemy also knew the exact numbers and positions of his army, which meant there was at least one spy among the higher officers. Finally, there was the fact that the young man was clearly an American. Torotovsky shuddered to think of American weaponry. It would be Afghanistan all over again.
"General!" The aide repeated. "What are we going to do?"
Torotovsky sighed. "We'll do the only thing we can do. Tell the politburo we will attack once we receive the sufficient number of soldiers to do so. 900,000 will do!"
Torotovsky wanted to say 1,800,000. It was common to have a 3:1 advantage while attacking, but he didn't want to say a number over a million.
.
[Main POV]
After the speech, I got dressed in a German field marshal uniform (which looked pretty good on me), and proceeded to meet with ambassadors of various countries. The American ambassador wanted me to come home, after all, it wasn't exactly a great look (not to mention, I was technically 6), but I politely refused and asked for some weapons. After a few verbal prods, he agreed.
The West German ambassador asked if we needed anything. I asked for them to deploy soldiers to the border to tie down the Soviet armies stationed there. He told me he'd see what he could do.
Many ambassadors from communist nations refused to meet me, which was fine with me. It's not like they would've given me anything.
As I walked the streets of Berlin with Artemis (who was made a General as part of my staff), we saw men digging antitank trenches, making Molotov cocktails, and fortifying buildings into bunkers.
I couldn't help but be reminded of my past life. Everyone knew they could die at any moment if the Soviets decided to drop a nuke on us, but they continued working. While sad, it was somewhat admirable. Despite knowing it could all be for not, humans continued to struggle for life. I wondered what I'd do in such a scenario.
.
[3rd POV]
There was silence in the halls of the Kremlin. The politburo already knew. Germany was lost. They had a rogue general who wouldn't attack Berlin, and there was simply no way to fulfill his demands without stripping soldiers from some other location. Soldiers were needed in Afghanistan for the war. Many more in various Warsaw Pact nations to maintain stability there.
And of course, near the Iron Curtain. They had recently received word that American and German soldiers had mobilized on mass along the border.
With all the domestic problems, there was simply no way the Russian people would accept a draft.
And then, there was the fact that they'd lost the asset. The last hope for the union. It was checkmate.
Despite this terrible situation. No one wanted to be the first to admit it. No one wanted to go on the record as having pulled out of Germany.
So, it was extremely convenient when a courier came in with a note, "Comrades! We just received word from our armies in Germany. Soviet soldiers are shunned from businesses and in cities like Madgeburg, Leipzig and Dresden, there are gangs hunting our soldiers!
General Sollorov is pulling the 1st Guards Tank Red Banner Army out of Saxony and moving into Czechia! He states that we must consolidate forces if we are to survive."
Ryzhkov took the paper and dismissed the courier before addressing the rest of the room. "It appears we have another rogue general on our hands."
"Yes, but unlike the Torotovksy who is attempting to communicate with us, Sollorov is explicitly moving his soldiers without our orders." Gromyko stated.
"Comrades, comrades," Gorbachev stated, "it's clear that the union is in grave danger. We have encountered many setbacks, and I believe that it is necessary for us to pull back our forces from Germany in order to consolidate our forces. All those in favor?"
All hands rose immediately.
"One such setback is this rogue general. I propose the immediate arrest of General Sollorov. All those in favor?"
Once again, all hands rose.
"Excellent, we will pull our forces out of Germany, and arrest General Sollorov. Dismissed."
.
[Main POV]
The aftermath of the Soviet announcement of their pullout was wild. At first, everyone was silent, thinking this was some big prank. Then somebody hooted and hollered, and all hell broke loose. People partied on the street. Beer was free. Pretzels were plentiful.
Unfortunately, Artemis didn't let me drink beer, even though I theorized that we wouldn't get drunk (women am I right?). But we did get to share a pretzel.
That night, I found Olivia on the top floor of a building, capturing footage with her phone. She had bags under her eyes from being up like 40 hours straight, but all she did was smile and give me a thumbs up before passing out. I had Dankus and Piotr take her back to Houston.
In the following week, I met with the American president. He promised to give me some medal or something, and instead I asked for a favor. Scratch that, I asked a whole bunch of favors. He laughed and said he'll look into it. I wanted to tell him that if I simply 'looked into' uniting Germany it never would've happened, but for once, I kept my mouth shut. I didn't need the federal government jumping on me (metaphorically, but perhaps also literally).
Another notable person I met was the West German chancellor, who I just made the German chancellor. He officially recognized me as a Field Marshal and gave Artemis and I German citizenship. That was pretty cool.
The people of Berlin were also quite friendly. Artemis and I got free food wherever we went, veterans of the Berlin Revolution would salute us, and a bunch of streets were changed to Artemis Boulevard and Apollo Street. I would've gone with 'The Apolline Way,' but unfortunately, nobody asked me. They mostly just showed us, and we'd pretend to be happy.
However, the municipal government of Berlin went absolutely overboard. They gave us a mansion on a hill near the Spree River, and when I objected because I couldn't pay the property taxes. So they passed a bill permanently cancelling property taxes on that property. It was next to a new park they were planning which would have life-size metal statues of the two of us.
It was kind of sad to see Berlin doing better at being my cult than my actual cult.
But it was still a blast. Artemis and I managed to squeeze in seeing all the tourist sites before heading on a plane for Houston.
"So how many planes did you take out?" Artemis asked me while we were on the plane.
"Oh right, I totally forgot about our bet," I said, "About 600."
Artemis smiled, and whispered, "800."
I sighed and looked out the window, "Well, I already took down an entire nation for you, what else do you want?"
She blushed, while putting on an adorable thinking face for a couple of minutes. "I'll tell you later," she said.
"Wait what? When's later?"
"Later means later."
"Circular reasoning?"
"I will tell you some time in the future," she spelled out. She smiled and looked proud at her mini victory.
"So, when are we getting to Houston?"
"Later."
.
.
.
AN: Thank you all for reading. Please give me Power Stones, both now and later.
Also, please write a review of the story. The story currently does not have an official rating due to an insufficient number of reviews. I believe that having a rating will increase the visibility and click rate of this story.
Next chapter is the last of the 1980-1986 arc. Will be announcing the next arc in the following chapter.