NationStates Jolt Archive

"FIRE!"

Four bodies collapse against a brick wall in the Tajik State Prison, on the outskirts of Dushanbe. The ten-person execution detail disperses, looking dejected.

Attendants rush out and collect the bodies. Papers spread out over the desk of the prison commissioner identifies them as four prominent opposition activists, officially wanted for terrorism charges.

"Lieutenant! We have more where those came from."

The prison commissioner calls out from his tower office, dominating the prison complex. Within seconds, another four 'terrorists' emerge from the cell block, still in their regular clothes. They probably hadn't been picked up more than a few hours previously, their fate sealed by the knock on the door.

The prison commissioner has a framed portrait of Emomali Rahmonov hanging over his desk, next to a Tajik flag and a Mosin-Nagant M1944 rifle.

"And Lieutenant! Be sure to burn their houses!"

The commissioner, a real sadist, doesn't mind his job too much. After all, it pays very well. The family often even has the cash to vacation in the Carribean. From his vantage point in the tower, he watches a police BRDM-2 head out to complete the task of ending dissent. He also hears the crack of a rifle, split-seconds before a 7.62mm round buries itself in his brain.

About a kilometer distant, the sniper throws his weapon into a drainage ditch and disappears into the city.


Meanwhile, about 100 miles to the east, leader of the Tajik Democracy Alliance, Davlat Usmon, surveys the range of hills in front of him. Right through the great teeth of the Trans-Alay range runs the road to Dushanbe. Straight into the heart of his target. Unfortunately for DAT, the pass is held not just by regular government soldiers, but by PDPT regulars.

The first attack was a disaster. Four BMP-1s and a BTR-70 were lost, hit by PDPT T-62s, and the infantry element was suddenly robbed of its otherwise decisive armor protection. Thanks to the quick thinking of one of his captains, however, a Spandrel team was given just enough time to position themselves for a shot. By the time the PDPT commanders were able to bring in their mortar and mountain howitzer fire (however inaccurate it usually is), all the T-62s were charred wrecks.

Davlat's best artillery crews, supposedly with Hindustani adivsors (in reality a false claim, triggered by the presence of the Denison smock, a characteristic piece of Hindustani army uniform, among DAT troops), continue to pound the mountaintops with their 76mm mountain howitzers and 120mm mortars. 23mm AAA guns shoot across the valley as well, even though they are far out of range.

"Call in the SA-7 teams!"

On the horizon, the telltale shilouette of Mi-24s can be seen...

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The Roycelandian Imperial Intelligence Service was very secretive, very efficient, and very, very good at their jobs.

Like all Intelligence Departments, however, they were governed by Funding from the Uber Secret Imperial Slush Fund. Whilst the IIS' annual budget would fund the entire Strathdonian healthcare system for several years, the internal politics of the IIS meant that some departments got more money than others.

For example, Station A (Africa) got unlimited amounts of cash. As a result, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Royce I knew exactly what Gen. Tendyala was having for dinner that evening, and what music would be playing on the African Commonwealth Music Charts that weekend.

Station E (Europe) was getting more and more funding, especially with Roycelandia and France signing various treaties and alliances as fast as they could be printed.

Station FSR (Former Soviet Republic), however was at the very bottom of the pile. Even Station IPF (Islands in the Pacific with good Fishing) got more money than they did, which wasn't hard.

Station FSR's "Department" consisted of two guys, a TV (which only got three channels, and only two of them in natural looking colour), two computers (one woefully outdated, the other with a mouse that didn't always work properly), a Map (that still referred to "Soviet Afghanistan"), a fridge ("Fabrique en Ouest Afrique Francaise"), and a coffee machine (the only thing that worked). There was also a telephone which would have looked antiquated even in Alexander Graham Bell's time.

As such, news of the events in Tajikstan would be slow reaching the IIS, but, depending on how things went, the Government might get interested.

Not likely, of course, but they had to keep His Majesty informed...

Tajikistan hadn't been of much interest to the Igovians since it ceased to be known (to anyone but perhaps the Roiks) as the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, but the fact that it had ever borne such a title meant that a Beddgelen residue remained. Rising disturbances in the little country were cause for concern as a handful of Igovians remained. If people were fighting and being killed for political reasons it seemed that foreign individuals dispensing revolutionary news and propaganda and encouraging isolated communities to adopt community of goods might be more than usually at risk.

The People's Kosmonautical Co-operative was asked by the Final Senate to bump Tajikistan up a few places on its priority watchlist...

Finally, after about a week of hard fighting at the highway, DAT breaks through the strong government fortifications.

More than 50,000 fighters pour through the hole made in the government lines, and resistance effectively collapses. The last effective fighting force that the government can boast is the PDPT, the bulk of who's fighting strength was destroyed by the heavily armed DAT forces.

The wreckage of Mi-24s, MiG-23s, and An-26s litter the mountainsides along with charred hulks of T-54s and BTR carriers.

After a lightening advance supported by DAT's helicopters and MiG-21s, Davlat Usmon can see Dushanbe looming in the distance. International photographers have probably proliferated quite a few photographs of the charismatic rebel leader, possibly riding atop his command BTR-60, possibly brandishing his Ak-47 at his commanders, directing them from atop a peak or ledge and seemingly unaffected by sniper fire. A sufficcently skillfull journalist could, however, with the aid of a few Quinntonian dollars, find out that Davlat Usmon is almost completely deaf.

News crews from pretty much any network are allowed fairly free access to DAT's operations, so therefore the west probably is able to view most of the battle for Dushanbe in real-time. A wealth of photographs probably make their way into western and Asian newspapers as well.

DAT reconaissance elements begin to do battle with the remaining PDPT forces and a handful of the more disciplined government troops. DAT lead elements, carried in BTR-60 APCs and BRDM-2 scout cars, approach the strategic city of Orjonikidzeobod in the morning of Febuary sixth.

Machine gun fire shatters the morning stillness as the 14.5mm KPVTs on the BRDM-2s and BTR-60s are used to destroy government positions on the outskirts of the town. DAT fighters jump off of their transports and move to destroy the more hardened bunkers with RPGs and recoilless rifles, and mortar teams bring down fire onto fortified buildings and road blocks. While this isn't terribly accurate, it often keeps the government forces' heads down while dismounted fighters overrun their positions.

The DAT's BMP-1s and handful of T-54s heading Davlat's assault column lead the vehicles around the city, a manouver directed by Davlat himself, and put themselves in position to shell Dushanbe itself.

In the presidential palace, Emomali Rahmonov is ushered out the door and into an awaiting limo. The car speeds off the minute that the president dives into the back seat, leaving several guards in the dust.

After several minutes on the roads, explosions and gunshots audible in the distance, the presidential motorcade, consiting of Emomali's limo and two UAZ jeeps covered in PDPT fighters, arrives at the Dushanbe International Airport.

The airport itself houses around 300 PDPT troops, preparing to deploy into the city itself. Emomali does not wait around to see the outcome of the battle, but rather boards his Tu-334 jet within the first few minutes of his arrival.