Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.
Against the backdrop of the sprawling desert, colossal launch pads and towering rocket structures testified to the cosmic ambitions of the Soviet Union.
A convoy is moving through here.
Due to Andropov's order, Chernov and his mobile task force brought Serina here.
After the meeting last time, Serina was, unfortunately, ordered to stay in the Soviet Union and help the Soviet Union to solve their problem. The rest of the diplomatic representatives returned to Karak.
Who asked her were the only ones who came from a civilian family but also knew Orcs, Undead, and more advanced Magic.
The remaining mercenaries are either staying in Moscow to build the embassy or returning to Karak.
A Proton Rocket has been raised, preparing to launch.
It will carry the satellite and help the USSR to recover its navigation system.
When they are still far from the Cosmodrome, Serina has seen the big rocket.
With curiosity, she asks Chernov about it.
"Chernov, what is that thing?"
"You mean the rocket, it is our space technology."
Then, Chernov starts to explain to him some Soviet space technology information and also the story of Yuri Gagarin.
[I looked around and found no God, only mountains and people.]
"This is what Yuri Gagarin said during his and humanity's first spaceflight mission. And I would also want to proudly tell you that the glory of who first reaches the space belongs to the son of a farmer and a carpenter."
Serina seems to be weird about Chernov's last sentence,
"Son of farmers and carpenter? It is not possible to happen in Karak, it would only be possible for sons of noble to achieve it. The only few things that the farmers and workers could do in their whole lives are to be born, work, and die. Even so am I ..."
"So does that mean that the Soviet Union gave a chance to the workers and farmers to achieve such a glory thing, because normally a country will just rather give it someone else son to achieve it?"
When they were talking, the convoy reached the first checkpoint of the chromosome, it was shrouded in secrecy, and it was an expectation for today to bring Serina here, as the Soviet Union was in a rush to restore the Satellite System.
A soldier comes to Chernov's vehicles and checks for their identity, Chernov passes it to him, and the convoy continues to go after that.
"Well Serina, you are wrong. We do not give a chance to workers and farmers, because we are the workers and farmers, and we are the masters of the country. The General Secretary and the Foreign Minister, you see in Moscow, both of their father is a normal worker who works in a factory."
Serina seems blurred about what Chernov saying.
"But I still do not understand, how all the farmers and workers become the masters of the country ?"
Seeing Serina's face of shock and curiosity, Chernov decided to tell her a story.
"In our original world, there are some of them who hold huge capital and think that the world is going to collapse without their existence, we call them capitalists. They force workers and farmers to work day and night without any rest, but only giving them very little wages. They ignore those workers' health and even ask kids who do not even know how to read to work. Slaving every person that could."
"Things only started to change when Karl Marx came out with the idea of communism, an idea which is to liberate all workers and farmers. Some countries were compromised under the pressure of the people, but some did not."
"Before the Soviet Union was built, this country was called the Russian Empire. The Russian Empire was corrupted, weak, and selfish. Just because the Tsar wanted to have some war with his relative, he decided to send farmers, workers, and other classes of people to war, without even giving them boots or guns."
"Our soldiers were suffering from hunger, disease, and death on the front line, but the Tsar and his family still enjoying all the good stuff. Our country was bullied by the Japanese, British, Germany, and all others, but the Tsar does not seem to know what is happening."
"Do you know how did our people and soldiers react to this?"
Serina nodded and expected faces for Chernov to continue his story.
Chernov smiles at her and says,
"Well, I will tell you next time, we got a job to do now."
After listening to Chernov's story, Serina has also thought of Karak.
[Karak is also having the same situation as he said, can this also happen in Karak?]
However, she stopped thinking that after the idea came up, how would farmers and workers who only have limited mana fight with those nobles and wizards who have almost unlimited mana and also all their incredible magic?
The convoy stopped under the rocket, and the engineers and technicians were now busy doing the last testing and positioning of the rocket on the launch pad. They have been working day and night for the past few weeks, just to make the rocket able to send out the satellite to the universe.
But unfortunately, all fail.
Without any way, Ustinov could only request help from Andropov, hoping that he could send someone from the Karak to see whether any changes could be made.
Sokolov quickly gets out of the vehicle and informs the person in charge about their come.
Inside the vehicles, Chernov and Serina still waiting for Sokolov to finish his communication with the person in charge.
"Chernov, you have not told me what am I going to do later?"
"Oops sorry. I will then tell you now, today you are going to make that rocket to successfully fly to space."
Serina is surprised by what Chernov said,
"What? I have no idea how this rocket works, how am I going to make it fly to space? Not even the Karak have any way to send things to space, I can't help you guys here."
Despite Serina saying that she could not do it, but does not seem like Chernov would care.
"You will have a way to do it when you get closer to the rocket, and we did not ask you to change how the rockets works, we only ask you to put some of your magic on the rocket."
"But ..."
"Enough, get down the car, just do what you can do."
Soon, Chernov and Serina are then brought closer to the rocket.
The person who is in charge of here comes to Chernov.
"Comrade Colonel, nice to see you here, we have been waiting for you all a long time."
"So what is the problem with the rocket and where you will need this girl from Karak to help you?"
"Our rocket has always stopped flying when it reaches the edge of the planet, we have checked for the rocket wreckage but did not find any error. So we are thinking that perhaps this world has a different situation from Earth, and we hope the Karak can provide some magic and spell on the rocket. "
Chernov looked at Serina and said,
"Serina, can you do that?"
"The Karak does have some magic to help the arrow fly further and higher, but I am not sure whether it will work on the rocket or not."
"Is ok, just put the magic on the rocket, and tonight the rocket will tell us whether your magic works."
Serina nodded and started saying some spells and making some gestures on the rocket.
Surprisingly, outside the whole rocket started to be covered with golden energy, and some kind of mystery words started to appear on it.
"Colonel, are you sure this girl and his magic can be trusted?"
The person in charge mumbles beside Chernov.
Chernov looked at him helplessly,
"Do we have a choice? Comrade Ustinov is under great pressure from the General Secretary, and now he is pressuring our KGB and also you guys. Besides, if our army could not get help from the satellite, we would suffer great sacrifice in the front. So, the risk will need to be taken."
The person in charge is silent, they do have not much choice now.
The process lasts for ten minutes, and when the golden energy disappears, the mystery words remain on the rocket.
Serena told Chernov with a pale face that everything was done.
Seems like the magic also causes a lot of wear and tear on her.
"Alright, have a rest now, wait for a few hours later and the result will come out."
They then go to the chromosome command room and have a rest.
Looking at all the technicians and engineers that are busy coming in and out.
During these few hours, Serina keeps asking Chernov to continue his story, but Chernov does not want to say it now, but instead, next time when he feels to say it.
Night,
"3...2...1...Launch!"
The air is charged with anticipation as engineers and mission control specialists monitor the final countdown. The rocket's engines roar to life, expelling a plume of smoke and fire. A brilliant light emanates, illuminating the surroundings.
As the Proton rocket ascends, it leaves a trail of exhaust behind, piercing through the atmosphere. The intense flames gradually give way to the rocket's luminous contrail, creating a mesmerizing display against the backdrop of the dark sky. Chernov and Serina, both witness the powerful spectacle as the rocket propels its payload into space.
"This is so ... shocking ....and beautiful."
She never thought that a human could build something like this, but today she saw.
However, everyone in the command center has not celebrated yet, they have seen similar scenes many times.
"The satellite must be sent to the space, must be sent."
The person in charge thinks in his mind, that they have gone through too much of failure, and can not bear up for more.
Luckily, this time the rocket did not go how before the rocket's first stage started to leave the rocket and dropped back to Astalia, then the second one.
Finally, the third one has broken through and sent the satellite to space.
Cheers finally rang out in the command room.
"URAAAAAAA!!!"
"URAAAAAAA!!!"
"URAAAAAAA!!!"
Chernov is also having a smile on his face, this is also his first time seeing a rocket launch into space at such a close distance, before that, he was seen through TV.
Watching the rocket take off live and watching it on TV at home are two different experiences.
"Looks like your magic works."
Serina did not say anything, but happy in her heart, she contributed to the rocket and saw the rocket go to space.
They continued to stay in chromosomes for another week, helping them to launch another few more rockets.
"Thanks for your help, we appreciate it."
As they are leaving, the person in charge is thanking them.
"Another man from Karak will reach here not long later, Serina has another mission, we will need to go first."
The mobile task group then reaches an airbase that is just nearby, and they will be sent to Leningrad for another investigation.
Sitting on the YAK-40 transport plane, Serina is still nervous despite this being her second time sitting on it.
A few hours later, they reached Leningrad.
They sit on vehicles and start moving to the west of Leningrad.
Looking outside at the ruins and patrol everywhere, the city that has been destroyed is now starting to rebuild, it is difficult for Serina who has not gone to any battlefield to imagine how intense the fight was.
"Did the undead or the orcs destroy this city? Is it possible for the city to rebuild ?"
Chernov seems to think of something when he reaches Leningrad, too many comrades were lost in this city.
"The undead."
"It is possible, this is not the first time that the Leningrad has experienced such damage, it has experienced 40 years before, but we were still able to rebuild it in several years. Together with another city called Stalingrad that has also been destroyed."
Serina's mind has already become numb since she reached the Soviet Union.
This country has achieved too many miracles.
And also, from the Karak perspective, this country is too horrible and strong.
Serina also questioned herself, can all the countries in Astalia able to resist the USSR together?
No matter how she thinks, she can only come out with one answer, NO!
She has not seen the Soviet military power, but how weak will a country be that can hold from the undead and orcs' surprise attack together?
She shook her head and forced herself not to think about these things.
The only thing she needed to do was to record everything she saw and report it to the country. Karak's king and his minister will naturally come up with a way to get along with the Soviet Union, and she will only need to obey their orders.
"Chernov, what are we going to do here?"
"This time is easier for you, we will only need to investigate a village. A village that the Leningrad front has occupied by the undead after the battle in Leningrad, they found that the villagers in the village are not cooperating with them."
"No matter what they ask, no answer can be heard from the villagers. We have tried everything we can to force them to talk, yet nothing we have got. Even if we threaten their families, some of them point at their mouths, trying to tell us something, but we just can not get it. "
"So, our men think it might be due to the effect of the undead magic, so they want us to investigate the reason."
Serina nodded her head, finally something she knew.
The reason why the villagers do not answer is that Death has applied his power of death to all of them so that after they die, they can straight away become a part of the undead army. With the marks, any behavior of telling any words to anyone not belonging to the Nazg will be killed immediately.
The Nazg do not provide any education to them, so do not expect them to tell others by writing.
A similar problem is not only in Nazg but also with the orcs, which also slaved humans, the marks will make the human work and be loyal to the orcs forever unless someone purifies it.
Soon they reached the village, that had been surrounded by a wall and barbed wire above it. Tower that has deployed with machine gunner, mine that set outside, patrol team that leading with wolfdog.
Everything is set off to prevent the villagers from escaping.
Even if it is not necessary, villagers who just get out of the village will also die under the effect of the power of death.
In Serina's eyes, she realizes the red energy stream of the Soviet Union does not extend to here.
When they get out of the vehicle, they see many villagers wearing new shirts that have been provided by the Red Army, kneeling on the ground along with their food which is also provided by the Red Army.
"What happens to them?"
Chernov asks the person who is in charge of here.
"Comrade Colonel, this is one of their daily routines. Every time we give them food, they will kneel on the ground for a few minutes, when we ask them to stand up and answer our question, they will then lower down their heads. Until a few minutes pass, they will only leave."
Chernov then walks close to them, bows down his body, and looks into all these villager's eyes.
Grateful, and also numb are seen.
"Serina, do you know what happens to them?"
Serina answered him and explained what she knew.
"Umm, power of death. How will the Karak or any country duel with this kind of problem?"
"We sometimes send a Purification Mage to purify their marks, but this way is too slow. So the more usual way is to clean their marks through our religions, as long as they prayed to our god, magic from the god will be applied to them, purify their marks, just that they must follow the god's order and can never betray it, or else they will also be killed."
Listen to Serina's explanation, Chernov laughs out.
The god seems to be another kind of mark, just from the human side.
But he stops laughing and thinks about more details, isn't communism similar?
"So what you mean that you guys will purify all these marks by the country's ideology or religion?"
"I am not sure whether the ideology works or not, but I can surely say that the Karak religion works."
"Alright, I will report it to my superior."
Moscow, Lubyanka.
Andropov's office, Andropov is now talking to someone on the telephone.
"Comrade Colonel Chernov, are you talking about restoring the political commissar system?"
The voice of Chernov comes out from the phone,
"Yes Comrade Chairman, according to Serina, the best way is to rely on religion, but we have come to this Isekai now, even though our god of religions exists, they will just stay on Earth, and we can not rely on the Karak religions too.
So my suggestion is to spread our ideology to these people who are on marks, and as we know the whole Land of Plain has at least 50 million of population. To spread our ideology I believe the commissar inspiring speech would be most effective."
In the Soviet military during 1979, the role and influence of political commissars had diminished compared to earlier periods, particularly during World War II and the Russian Civil War, and they were now called political officers.
The trend started in 1942, when the commissar was not professional in the military but owned the direct command roles, causing the Red Army to suffer heavy casualties when facing the German troops.
"Alright, I will report this to the General Secretary."
After covering up the phone, Andropov takes a deep breath, this will make another big change to the army, and he has no clue what all those generals and Brezhnev think when they hear this idea.
Later inside Brezhnev's room,
"Comrade General Secretary, how do you think of this idea?"
Beside him were Ustinov and Orgarkov.
Orgarkov has come back to Moscow to do something since the Karak has sent the map of both the Nazg and the orcs.
Brezhnev, this ex-political commissar did not answer but instead asked the opinion of Ustinov and Orgarkov.
"Comrade Orgarkov and Ustinov, how will both of you think ?"
Orgarkov then answers him.
"Comrade General Secretary, I have no objection to the restoration of commissar, just one thing we will need to beware of, not giving them direct command roles or rights in the army."
"Great, since both of you also support this idea, then Andropov you will be responsible for executing it, good luck to you."
"Affirmative, Comrade General Secretary."