Zaitsev's Ghosts: Operation Chronos Week 2 Part 1

Honoring the Dead

Operation Chronos ****, Spring 1947 – taken from Nikolai Kiritchenko’s personal journal.

My name is Nikolai Kiritchenko, I have been given a field promotion to the rank of Serzhant by Kapitan Tanya to replace my fallen predecessor; Serzhant Josef “Kova” Kovasky.

It has been a week since that fated night when the Axis battalion named Kalte Biss wiped out his entire squad; a battle which I barely survived from. It is a shame to lose such a talented officer; he was a man I greatly admired, from what I know of him he had fought alongside the Kapitan in several engagements their first was Stalingrad before the discovery of VK. The war took a toll on his body, in Zverograd he was caught in an explosion and lost an arm and suffered third degree burns on scattered parts on his body; he would have died from shock and bloodloss but the field medics were able to perform first aid but could only do so much to save his life however; the Kapitan was already an active agent for SMERSH and used her connections to place the Serzhant in a steel guard armor as a test subject which saved his life.

The Kapitan and the Serzhant formed “The Ghosts of Zaitsev”; in honor of the legendary sniper, almost completely composed of the first members of the steel guards, men given second life by the sarcophagus they call their armor. The recent battle however has caused massive losses in the steel guard and I fear the loss of Kova has clouded the Kapitan’s judgement. She had recently ordered a “Haunt”; what the ghosts call their missions, to eliminate Kalte Biss. I cannot go against the orders of my superior but I fear that a personal vendetta will cost us this battle.