James Rosone - Battlefield Russia

Within ten minutes of leaving the troop ship, their LCAC neared the beach. One of the Navy personnel announced, “We’re almost there.”

Then the hovercraft left the water and gently glided over the sandy beach as it made its way up to the edge of the road that separated the beach from the city. Once they’d reached the end of the shore, they dropped the front hatch, and the four Strykers and two JLTVs of his platoon sped off. With his platoon off the LCAC, the hovercraft spun up its engines again and darted back to the sea to pick up the next platoon and bring them forward as well.

Slater ordered his men, “Move forward into the city as quickly as possible.”

Standing up so he could see outside through the troop hatches, he got his first glimpse of the city they had just invaded.

“ What a dump ,” was the first thought that came to his mind. As they raced down the narrow road, he saw clusters of dilapidated shacks, stores, and run-down houses that lined the street and dotted the beach area. The next thing he noticed was the stench.

“Holy crap, Lieutenant. What the hell is that smell?” moaned Private Leiter, his heavy gunner.

The smell of feces and other unknown decay bathed their senses in its putrid odor, causing some of the soldiers to retch at first while others used a cloth to cover their noses.

“Get used to it, soldier,” remarked Slater. “It’s raw sewage. You see those steep cement cuts next to the side of each road?” he asked. The soldiers instantly looked down. “Those are the sewage pipes.”

Several soldiers shook their heads and went back to scanning their sectors. Once they got away from the initial beach zone, the scenery around them changed dramatically. They entered a much nicer area, and the horrid odor left immediately. The road was now lined by small and medium high-rise apartments and looked to be in much better condition.

Fifteen minutes went by as they made their way through the area and eventually found what they were looking for. Their objective was to find and secure the Adyar police station and a large maintenance depot directly across the street. The maintenance depot would become the company headquarters by the end of the day, giving them a secured compound from which to operate and secure their vehicles.

When they approached the police station, they saw a handful of police cars parked in front of the small building and a few police officers milling around out front. Lieutenant Slater hopped out of his vehicle with his translator quickly following him. He made his way cautiously toward the police officers. None of them had made a move for their weapons yet, and Slater held his hands open and out to his sides to show that he meant no harm, and that he had not come to fight if it could be avoided.

The police officers squirmed a bit and suddenly became quiet as they saw dozens of armed soldiers with their faces covered in dark face paint. After all, they were fully clad in body armor and carried more weapons and grenades than the men had ever seen before. The soldiers immediately fanned out in the street. Some soldiers made their way around to the back of the police building, while others positioned their vehicles to block the roads and take up defensive positions. As Slater got closer to them, they all settled their gaze on him.

“My name is Lieutenant Ian Slater,” he said slowly and calmly. “I’m with the American Army. We don’t wish to fight you or harm you. Who is in charge?” His translator followed him, speaking rapidly to the men in their language.

One of the police officers spoke to the translator, gesturing angrily toward Slater and his men. The translator then turned to him, saying, “They want to know, if you are not here to harm them or fight them, then why are you here? What do you want?”

Smiling, Slater suddenly felt good about the situation. “ This just might work ,” he thought.

“Tell him I would like to know if we can sit down and talk together. Tell him I’ve brought his men some food and American cigarettes as a peace offering,” Slater announced. He turned and signaled for Private Leiter, his M240G machine gunner, to bring a small patrol pack to him. The police officers eyed Leiter nervously as the stocky giant of a soldier approached with his multihundred-round belts of ammo wrapped around his body armor and his giant machine gun. He also had some pretty hideous-looking face paint markings on that made him appear even more menacing, as did many of the men in Slater’s platoon. It was somewhat of an adolescent ritual, but Slater didn’t care as long as it pumped up the soldiers in his platoon.

Opening Leiter’s patrol pack up, Slater pulled out a carton of Marlboro Reds out and tossed it to the man who appeared to be in charge. Smiles quickly spread across the officers’ faces, and some of the initial tension relaxed.

The police officer jabbered on to the interpreter, who said, “The man says his name is Captain Aarav Anand. He thanks you for the cigarettes. He wants to know if you would like to come to his office and talk privately. He also is asking if you can have your soldiers lower their weapons while we talk. He assures us that no harm will come to us. They are police officers, not soldiers.”

Slater turned to his platoon sergeant. “Tell the guys to stay alert, but we don’t need to keep our guns pointed at them right now. Secure the area and get the depot locked down. I’m going to go inside and see if we can work out some sort of arrangement with the captain here.”

“Copy that, LT, just don’t let your guard down,” Sergeant First Class Starr replied. “We’re on their turf, and these guys might try to take you as a hostage.”

Slater grinned as he answered, “Come on, Starr, when have you ever known me to let my guard down?”

The sergeant chuckled and then began to bark out orders to the other soldiers to get moving. They had a job to do, and it was already 0350 hours. The sun would be up soon, and that meant the city would start to wake up and it would become a real mess around here.

“Private Leiter, you’re coming with me, along with Sergeant O’Neal. I want you guys as backup,” Slater announced. “Oh, and try to be nice. Maybe smoke a few cigarettes with these guys and pass out some of the food we brought with us, will you?” He motioned for the police captain to lead the way, and his interpreter faithfully tagged along.

Once in the small office, the captain signaled for them to sit. Slater took the chair as opposed to the couch. With all this gear on, he wasn’t sure he could get out of the couch quick enough, should he have to.

The captain opened the discussion. “One of my officers called and woke me up an hour ago. He said they saw landing ships heading to the beach, so I got dressed and came to the station immediately. Then, you guys show up. I want to know what’s going on and why you Americans are here.”

“Captain Anand, our president issued an ultimatum to your prime minister two weeks ago. India needed to withdraw from the Eastern Alliance and end the war, or India was going to face severe consequences. We are here to secure the city of Chennai and the port before we move inland to hunt down and destroy the remaining army units and force your prime minister to surrender,” Slater explained.

The police captain shook his head before responding. “You realize we have over a billion people living in India. If we wanted you gone, it wouldn’t take us long to drive you from our country. Putting that aside, what do you want with my police department? This was clearly the first place you came to.”

“As I said earlier, we don’t want to fight the people of India,” Slater answered. “Our disagreement is with your government. What we want is your help. We want your police officers to continue to do their jobs. Arrest criminals, man traffic corners, and go about your daily duties. We’re going to set up our headquarters across the street at the maintenance depot. I would like to coordinate the movement of other units through this part of the city with you.”