T-72 SIM-1 tanks of the Azeri Army.
14:46 (Caucasus Time)
Thursday, January 11, 1996 ‘C’
Main gate of the American embassy
1 Amerikyan Street, Yerevan
Armenia, South Caucasus area
Staff Sergeant Rick Smith, manning the main gate of the American embassy in Yerevan with three other marines of the embassy’s marine detachment, instinctively tensed up when yet another artillery shell howled overhead. Thankfully, it was not aimed at the area of the embassy, by the shore of Lake Yerevan, and crashed instead some three kilometers away to the South, near a group of Armenian government buildings.
‘’Those damn Azeris are not too discriminate about their artillery fire.’’ he muttered to himself. As if attracted by his remark, five more shells followed, bracketing the government buildings. One of the marine guards manning the gate with Smith, PFC Anthony Masseria, gave him a sober look.
‘’At this rate, there won’t be much left of Yerevan in a couple of days, Sergeant. These Azeris are shooting all over the place, as if they don’t care about what they hit.’’
‘’Of course they don’t care, Tony: they seem to hate everything Armenian.’’
‘’Do we know why the Azeris started this war and invasion, Sergeant?’’
‘’Lieutenant Eastwood told me and Gunnery Sergeant Tisdale yesterday that he still has seen no direct reasons for that invasion, other than pure political opportunism on the part of the Azeri and Caucasus leaders. Whatever that reason is, though, the Armenians are in a really tough bind. They are badly outnumbered and the Azeris have a significant superiority in firepower, especially in terms of airpower. The few combat aircraft that the Armenians possessed were destroyed on the ground in the first hour of this war, taken by surprise by the early air raids effected by the Azeri Air Force. As of the latest news, Azeri armored units are in sight of the city and the Armenians have little left to oppose them.’’
‘’Shouldn’t we evacuate our non-essential staff and dependents then, Sergeant?’’
‘’Oh, you can be certain that the ambassador is already thinking about that, Tony. Unfortunately, the Yerevan airport was closed on the first day of the war, due to Azeri and Caucasian airstrikes, and the only way to evacuate our people now is to go by road to the Turkish border and find safety there.’’
Anthony Masseria could only nod his head at that: right from the start, the Azeri attack had taken everybody by surprise, especially since it had happened on the day of Christmas, which fell on January 7 according to the Christian Orthodox calendar. A renewed series of distant explosions then made the marines snap their heads towards the Southeast.
‘’Hey, that didn’t sound like artillery fire!’’ remarked at once Corporal John Merrick, to which Smith nodded his head.
‘’You’re right, Merrick: this sounded more like guns firing in direct fire mode, possibly tank guns. We could hear the hits within a second or two of the firings. I don’t like this: it could mean that an Azeri armored column is trying to surround the city in a pincer movement.’’
Just as he finished saying that, the noise of distant heavy machine gun fire was heard by the marines, making Smith swear out loud.
‘’SHIT! The Azeris ARE attempting a pincer movement from the Southeast. I better go warn the lieutenant of this. Stay near the gate, men, and don’t open for anybody who will not have an American passport.’’
Smith then ran into the nearby gate guardhouse to grab a telephone.
15:03 (Caucasus Time)
Office of Ambassador Rosen
Ambassador Victor Rosen had just finished a telephone conversation and was putting down his receiver when someone knocked on the door of his office.
‘’Come in!’’
The door was then opened by his military attaché, Colonel Steven Wright, who was closely followed by Lieutenant Jason Eastwood, the head of the embassy’s marine detachment, which provided security for the embassy. Rosen didn’t like the expression on the faces of his visitors.
‘’Is something happening that I should know about, Colonel?’’
‘’Definitely, Mister Ambassador! We have indications that the Azeris are attempting to encircle the city with a pincer movement: we can hear tank gun and heavy machine gun fire to the Southeast, in the Vardashen District. Soon, we may find all our avenues of evacuation towards Turkey cut. With the Azeris shelling and bombarding Yerevan pretty much at random, this puts our staff and dependents at great risk. We must either move out now or get our people to shelters, Mister Ambassador.’’
‘’But, the Azeris would never deliberately target our embassy, Colonel.’’
‘’The Azeris, maybe not. However, the Caucasians are another matter entirely. Don’t forget that their parliament recently voted to change the name of their republic from ‘The Caucasus Independent Republic’ to ‘The Caucasus Islamic Republic’. Their leader, President Kadimov, has spewed some pretty extreme fundamentalist views lately and he certainly doesn’t hold the United States dear to his heart. Furthermore, since he still has in his possession at least ten ex-Soviet nuclear-tipped mobile ICBM{17} launchers, he probably thinks that he is untouchable and is capable of anything, in my opinion. I strongly recommend that we evacuate the embassy as soon as possible and drive to the Turkish border, which is only some twenty miles away.’’
‘’But we must first assemble our families at the embassy and prepare a convoy. That will take time, Colonel.’’
‘’The more reason to start now, Mister Ambassador. The basement levels of the embassy are not solid enough to resist direct hits by aircraft bombs and staying here will only get our people trapped in the middle of a city subject to street fighting with tanks and heavy weapons.’’
Rosen, who was no expert in military strategy and tactics and had never experienced war before, hesitated for a moment before asking a question to Wright.
‘’What about evacuation by air, via one of our helicopters based in Turkey?’’
‘’I already discussed that option by telephone with the commander of our air wing in Incirlik. While he has helicopters that could do the job, he says that flying to Yerevan would be a near-suicide mission: the Azeris have declared the whole Armenian airspace as a free-fire zone, meaning that anything flying through it that is not an Azeri or Caucasian aircraft will be shot down on sight. Yes, they could fly in at night with some chance of getting through, but the risks would be enormous. Our best bet is to form a road convoy at once and leave for the Turkish border. The faster the better, Mister Ambassador.’’
Rosen’s shoulders sagged as the truth of Wright’s words sank in: this crisis had simply happened too quickly and without warning, eliminating any reasonable chance of being able to defuse it diplomatically.
‘’Very well, Colonel. Have all our staff and dependents assemble at the embassy at once with the minimum of baggage. Prepare also to destroy our classified materiel and documents. In the meantime, I will call Washington to alert the State Department about the situation here.’’
‘’Yes, Mister Ambassador!’’ replied Wright before storming out of the office with Lieutenant Eastwood, leaving behind a depressed and worried Victor Rosen.
06:58 (Washington Time) / 15:58 (Caucasus Time)
326 South Grove Street, Aurora Hills
Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A.
Ingrid felt her house to be quite empty as she ate breakfast alone in her kitchen. With Nancy and Lucy studying in New York and Leonardo studying in Boston at the famous M.I.T.{18}, she had her whole house to herself. On the other hand, that made it a lot easier for her to discretely bring in some ‘guest’ from time to time, be it either male or female. It also allowed her to go around her house in the buff at will: she had always enjoyed being nude in private, for the sensation of freedom it gave her, and also slept naked. At the calendar age of seventy but with still the body of a young woman barely out of her teens, her sexual appetite was as strong as ever. However, with the notoriety and publicity surrounding her title of Commander of all American military forces, she had to be cautious in order to avoid giving some juicy story to the hordes of paparazzi who would love to invent a false scandal concerning her. She still remembered the small raucous caused some forty years ago when she had visited a topless beach in Southern France and had been spotted and photographed by a paparazzo. At that time, she was wearing the rank of major general and was the commander of all the U.S. Air Force units based in Europe. However, apart from a few desiccated fossils in the U.S. Congress, nobody had made much of a fuss about that, her having just illustrated herself by stopping cold with her fleet of aircraft the Soviet invasion of Eastern Europe by Stalin. In contrast, the magazines and daily tabloid newspapers which had published the photos showing her suntanning topless on the beach of Saint-Tropez had sold out very quickly, while the PLAYBOY Magazine had contacted her to offer her a nice sum to do a photographic session with her…in the nude of course. She had then politely refused that offer, but had later paid a visit to the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, on the condition that any photo of her there would stay private between herself and Hugh Hefner. Hefner had accepted her conditions and had certainly not regretted that deal afterwards, as he then had a chance to prove to Ingrid that he was truly a first-class lover. That had also given an occasion to Ingrid to cavort with some of the truly fantastic-looking young women frequenting the Playboy Mansion. Now, with her wearing the rank insignias of a five-star general and being a constant center of attention due to her responsibilities and position, such a risky adventure was unfortunately out of the question.
Ingrid was letting out a heavy sigh as she reminded her more worry-free days of past decades when her telephone rang. Wiping quickly her mouth, she then grabbed the receiver of her kitchen’s telephone.
‘’Ingrid Dows speaking!’’
‘’General Dows, this is Brigadier General Long, at the NC4 operations center. We just got word that the situation in Armenia has deteriorated quickly and that our ambassador there has decided to evacuate his staff and dependents by road as quickly as he can.’’
That was enough to convince Ingrid that she needed to leave for the Pentagon right away.
‘’I’m on my way, General Long. I should be at the NC4 in no more than 25 minutes.’’
‘’Understood, General. I will have a briefing package ready for you on arrival.’’
‘’Thank you very much.’’ replied Ingrid before putting back down her telephone receiver. Leaving aside what was left in her plate, she ran upstairs to her bedroom to put on her uniform, as she was presently nearly naked, wearing only a tiny panty. Some six minutes later, she walked out of her house via its rear door, so that she could take her Air Bike out of its small shed and fly out to the Pentagon.
07:16 (Washington Time)
National Combined Combat Command Center (NC4)
The Pentagon
Entering the operations center of the NC4 at a quick pace, Ingrid went at once to the night shift commander, Brigadier General Andrew Long, who was standing in front of the big wall situation board.
‘’So, what is the exact present situation in Yerevan, General Long?’’
Long, an infantryman by profession, answered her while using a laser dot pointer to show her a few points.
‘’Some forty minutes ago, we were notified by our military attaché at our Yerevan embassy that the Azeris had formed a pincer around Yerevan and were entering the city with armored forces from both the Northeast and the Southeast, with Azeri tanks only a mile from our embassy. With the airport closed and the Armenian airspace having been declared a free-fire zone by the Azeris, our ambassador decided to evacuate his staff and dependents by road to Turkey as fast as he could, before the roads to the Turkish border are closed by the Azeri advance. Then, about five minutes ago, we got an ultimate call from our attaché, Colonel Steven Wright, saying that they were about to destroy their crypto communications equipment and that a convoy should leave the embassy with the staff members and their dependents in about four hours. We thus have now lost our links with our Yerevan embassy, General.’’
Ingrid frowned on hearing part of Long’s briefing.
‘’Four hours?! But that would make them leave the embassy after sundown: they would be traveling in the dark through a city shaken by urban combat. That could too easily cause some mistaken identity incident if they meet Azeri forces on their way out. Personally, I would have waited until next morning, to avoid such possible incidents.’’
‘’I would agree with you on that, General, but it appears that our ambassador, Victor Rosen, was losing his nerves quickly and was insisting on leaving as soon as his convoy would be ready. Colonel Wright thus had little choice about the time of departure.’’
Ingrid shook her head, her jaws tight.
‘’I don’t like this, at all! They risk being fired upon, and not only by Azeri soldiers: the Armenian soldiers defending Yerevan are undoubtedly on edge and liable to shoot without warning at anything moving. What is our air wing in Incirlik doing about this situation?’’
‘’To be frank, General: not much! They can’t enter Armenian airspace without risking to start a war between us and the Azeris and the Caucasians, while the Turks warned our air wing commander that they would not allow him to act in Armenia because they want to avoid provoking an Azeri air attack on their territory. The Turks also told us that they would not let us fly in reinforcements in Incirlik.’’
‘’Nice fair weather ally we have here.’’ said Ingrid in a bitter tone. ‘’Turkey has one of the strongest armies in the region, yet they are cowering in front of the Azeris instead of telling them to fuck off?’’
‘’They are mostly afraid of the nuclear-tipped missiles that the Caucasians possess, General.’’ replied Long in a cautious tone. Ingrid was however not convinced by that argument.
‘’Did the Turks forget that we have guaranteed their safety from nuclear attacks years ago by pledging a response by our own nuclear forces to such attacks? No, I am smelling some other reason by the Turks to refuse to let our air wing act in response to this crisis. Unfortunately, this crisis is as much a political one as a military one and we won’t be able to ignore the Turks’ directives without the explicit consent of President Perot. What about the U.S.S. NEPTUNE? Where is it now?’’
‘’It is presently approaching the Strait of Gibraltar and is planning to cross it once night has fallen, in about two hours, General. It just established a new unofficial transatlantic record by staying at a speed of 35 knots all along.’’
‘’Which would have been impossible to do if it would have an escort flotilla with it during that crossing of the Atlantic: destroyers would have run their fuel tanks dry by keeping such a breakneck speed for so long. We definitely bet on the right design with the NEPTUNE. I can’t wait to see more of its sister ships enter service. Could you remind me of what our battle carrier has aboard in terms of troops and aircraft?’’
‘’Certainly, General! Let me just get my notes on that.’’
Ingrid waited patiently while Long sifted through the piles of messages and notes on his desk, using that time to look in detail at what the giant situation board could tell her. Long returned to her side after a couple of minutes, a few sheets of paper in hand.
‘’Here you go, General! The U.S.S. NEPTUNE presently has aboard its initial air wing, formed of two fighter squadrons equipped with F-93Ns, one strike squadron equipped with A-20Ns, a reconnaissance flight with four RF-95Ns, a maritime patrol flight with four MP-21s, an anti-submarine squadron with twelve PELICAN ‘B’s and a Carrier-Onboard-Delivery flight with four PELICAN ‘C’s, for a total of sixty aircraft. To that, we added four days ago two squadrons of PELICAN ‘A’s from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing in Camp Lejeune, which flew to the NEPTUNE with a complete marine infantry battalion equipped with light vehicles. Also, two of our heavy assault hovercrafts joined with the NEPTUNE at that time, bringing aboard a marine artillery battery with six 105mm towed howitzers, a marine communications detachment and a few transport medium trucks.’’
Ingrid nodded in satisfaction at that.
‘’Good! If we have to face some kind of hostage or extraction situation, that marine battalion and our PELICAN ‘A’s should be able to take care of it. What about the NEPTUNE itself? Its missile battery was fully loaded, I believe.’’
‘’That is correct, General. Its 144 launch cells are fully loaded, with half of them containing self-defense anti-air, anti-ship and anti-submarine missiles, and the other half loaded with PSM-LR long range precision bombardment missiles in quadpack configuration. The NEPTUNE could thus unleash a total of 288 PSM-LR missiles, each with a maximum range of 600 miles and a thousand-pound explosive warhead.’’
‘’That should get the Azeris’ attention if we ever have to respond directly to this crisis. However, I suspect that the Azeris are not the true instigators of this sudden, unprovoked invasion of Armenia. My bet is that this asshole of Kadimov, the President of the newly-renamed Caucasus Islamic Republic, started all this. Without the support of the Caucasus forces, the Azeris would never have attempted a straight-out invasion of Armenia: they would have limited themselves into retaking the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. Also, the refusal of the Turks to allow us to react to this smells all wrong. President Urban of Turkey has been turning towards Islamism and away from secularism for years now. We did move all of our nuclear weapons out of Incirlik, did we?’’
‘’Yes, we did, General. Our last nuclear bombs were flown out two years ago, after this incident with our reconnaissance aircraft downed over the Caucasus. It was done discretely and the Turks don’t know that our nuclear weapons are gone from Incirlik.’’
‘’Good! What about our dependents and civilian presence in Incirlik?’’
‘’Er…they are still there, General. There were political objections from the State Department about moving them out, on the pretext that it would offend the Turks.’’
Ingrid let out an exasperated sigh on hearing that.
‘’Politicians! Well, I suppose that I will have to push that subject again with President Perot, along with a few other things. I am going to call the President from ‘The Tank’, if you need me in the next few minutes. The time for dithering is now well past, in my opinion.’’
Andrew Long nodded in agreement to that as she walked away towards the large conference room, commonly called ‘The Tank’, attached to the NC4 operations center. Ingrid Dows was a no-nonsense, quick-acting commander of the kind he truly liked.
21:31 (Caucasus Time) / 12:31 (Washington Time)
Compound of the American embassy in Yerevan
Armenia
‘’Let’s go, Corporal Biddle: we have already wasted enough time.’’
‘’Yes sir!’’ replied Thomas Biddle, who was driving the big SUV heading the convoy of diplomatic cars about to leave the embassy. It had taken way too long in the minds of the marines of the embassy detachment to assemble the staff members of the delegation and their dependents: some of those dependents had fussed about the limited amount of baggage they were allowed to bring with them and also had taken their sweet time in packing up, not fully understanding how urgent the situation was. Now, the night was firmly in and, to make things worse, a general power outage had plunged the whole city in the dark. Only the emergency diesel generator installed in the basement of the embassy had allowed them to have some lights to work with in the last hours. With Colonel Wright sitting in the front passenger seat of his SUV, Biddle then started his engine and started rolling at moderate speed towards the main gate of the embassy compound. Two marines waiting at the gate opened it for the convoy of cars and minivans, then closed and locked the gates back and got into the last vehicle, which had stopped to wait for them. The convoy, carrying a total of 55 American citizens, including nineteen marines and sixteen children, then rolled with all lights on down the U-5 Highway, intent on getting to the intersection with the U-3 Highway, which led to the Turkish border town of Ortaalican. Wright, like every marine sitting in the individual vehicles of the convoy, was holding on to a handheld two-way radio, so that all could monitor his warnings or indications about the road ahead. After rolling less than a mile, the convoy arrived at an Armenian defensive checkpoint set at the junction of Highways U-5 and U-1, where an Armenian Army captain quickly approached Wright’s SUV, a pistol in his hand. That Armenian officer then asked a question in a harsh tone in Armenian to Wright, who had lowered his side window. Thankfully, Wright knew some Armenian and was able to answer the officer while showing his American passport.
‘’I am Colonel Seven Wright, from the American embassy, and we are on our way to evacuate our ambassador, his staff and their dependents. Could you please let us pass?’’
The Armenian officer looked quickly at Wright’s passport, then looked at the occupants of the SUV, which included the assistant consul, his wife and three young children, before nodding his head.
‘’Very well, you may pass. Beware, though: Azeri tanks have been signaled not far from here and they are said to be shooting at anything that moves. I can’t guarantee your safety beyond this point, Colonel.’’
‘’I understand, Captain. Thank you for your cooperation.’’ replied Wright before telling to Biddle to drive. As they passed through the checkpoint, they were able to see that the Armenians had set in position a number of machine guns and RPG-7{19} anti-tank launchers.
‘’Damn! These guys are definitely expecting big troubles soon, sir.’’ said Biddles, making Wright nod his head.
‘’And they will probably get some soon, Corporal, the way things are going. Hell! I wish that we could have left before darkness fell. Don’t roll too fast for the moment: I want to check that all our vehicles make it through that checkpoint.’’
‘’Understood, sir!’’
Once he was certain that all fourteen vehicles of his convoy were safely through, Wright told Biddle to take some speed and continue down the highway. They had gone through the small town of Vagharshapat and were rolling southward on the M-3 Highway when Wright saw another checkpoint ahead. As Corporal Biddle was slowing down before arriving at the checkpoint, the soldiers at that checkpoint suddenly opened fire with rifles and machine guns, but not at the convoy. Wright understood at once what was happening.
‘’THAT CHECKPOINT IS UNDER ATTACK! STOP! STOP AND TURN BACK!’’
Swearing at their bad luck, Biddle braked hard as Wright passed his warning via radio, then started turning around. That was when all hell broke loose. A number of big muzzle flashes and thunderous detonations from close by in the night marked what had to be a salvo from a group of tanks advancing towards the checkpoint, coming from the South. However, not all the shells and subsequent machine gun bullets that followed were directed at the Armenian checkpoint. Two of the cars of the diplomatic convoy exploded, hit by 125mm tank gun shells, while the other cars in the convoy were raked by 12.7mm heavy machine gun fire which pierced easily their thin steel bodies, ripping through human flesh and igniting gasoline tanks. Wright froze for a second at that scene of horror, then shouted out at the occupants of his SUV.
‘’EVERYBODY OUT NOW! HIDE IN THE WOODS!’’
While he and Corporal Biddle got out at once, the assistant consul, David Greenspan, his wife and his three children, aged from seven to twelve, were much slower to react, paralyzed by fear. Wright, helped by Biddle, had to forcibly pull them out of the back seats of the SUV to make them move.
‘’COME ON! RUN WITH ME INTO THE WOODS OR YOU WILL DIE!’’
Either pushed or pulled by Wright and Biddle, the Greenspans finally reacted under the effect of adrenaline, with the ‘flight reflex’ switching in. Thankfully, the highway was bordered along its northern side by a thick forest, allowing the seven Americans to quickly run behind the cover of trees. Wright however urged the Greenspans to continue deeper into the woods, worried that ricocheting bullets could hit them. Stopping for a moment behind a tree in order to look at the convoy and see if other Americans had managed to get out, Wright felt tears roll on his cheeks at the site of the cars of the convoy: all of them were receiving dense machine gun fire, with a new tank shell hitting at interval the immobilized vehicles. He could see no movement around the cars, while many of the vehicles were now on fire. Looking at the ambassador’s car, which had also been transporting the ambassador’s wife and the embassy’s consul, he saw it explode under the impact of a tank shell that turned it into a fireball. A few seconds later, another shell hit his own SUV, destroying the now empty vehicle and turning it into a torch. Shaking off his grief and horror, Wright then ran to where the Greenspans and Biddle were hiding, crouched behind a big tree surrounded by bushes.
‘’I couldn’t see any other survivor from our convoy. We will have to get deeper into the woods, in case the Azeris comb the area afterwards.’’
‘’But we can’t abandon the others like this, Colonel!’’ objected at once David Greenspan, attracting a hard look from Wright.
‘’And what are we supposed to do, armed with only two pistols against a tank unit, Mister Greenspan? Besides, we will not be abandoning our people: as soon as this fight is over and the area proves more secure, I will return towards our convoy to check for survivors. You and your family will however stay hidden when I will go check our convoy. Now, let’s get at least 200 yards deeper into this wood and find a good place to hide.’’
‘’Will those men kill us too if they find us?’’ lamented one of the two daughters of the consul, nine-year-old Tina, making Wright look grimly down at her.
‘’Possibly! That is why we have to find a better hiding place. Follow me! Corporal Biddle will cover our rear.’’
Making his small group move cautiously at a crouch and telling them not to speak or make noises, Wright walk for some 200 meters until he found the large trunk of a dead tree lying among a group of bushes. Judging it to be as good a hiding place as could be, he made the Greenspans lay down on their belly behind the dead tree before giving a few instructions to Biddle.
‘’Stay with the Greenspans and protect them, Corporal. Make sure that they don’t speak or make noises and stay under cover. I will return close to the highway to see when I could look safely for other survivors.’’
‘’You can count on me, sir.’’
Wright did not reply to that, instead running at a crouch back towards the highway, his pistol in his right hand. Once he found a good hiding place with a view to the highway and the destroyed car convoy, he lay down behind a bush and cautiously made a small hole through the leaves and branches, then took out his compact handheld night vision scope. By now the firing against the cars of the convoy had stopped but, in contrast, the Armenian Army checkpoint was now under full-scale assault by at least nine T-72 tanks followed by a number of BMP-1 armored troop carriers. Against such firepower, the Armenian soldiers couldn’t do much to stop them. Despite of that, the Armenians managed to knock out at least one BMP-1 with an RPG round and break the right-side track of a T-72 tank before being overwhelmed and overrun. Wright clenched his jaws hard when he saw Azeri infantrymen finish off the wounded Armenian soldiers they found still alive inside the destroyed checkpoint, showing no pity or regards to the laws of war. Then, more infantrymen reached the highway and the destroyed diplomatic convoy and started looking around the wrecks. Wright suddenly tensed up on hearing some of those soldiers speak among themselves: those were Caucasian soldiers, not Azeri soldiers! One of those soldiers then shouted something while looking at a body next to a car riddled with bullets. To Wright’s shock, he saw that body move, with one arm extending out as if to ask for help from the Caucasian