XK-17

The Red Army advances like an arrow, and no one can stop this arrow.

Within a week, most of them have already advanced for more than 800 km, some even 1000.

Despite there being an order from Orgarkov to send more UAVs to have more precise reconnaissance to avoid any conspiracy from the undead, limited information has been collected as not even much undead has been spotted.

Many soldiers and even officers have lost their alert after realizing their enemy is so weak.

Vanguard starts to throw their main forces far behind them, and the main forces want to follow up with them, again leaving artillery and many logistics units behind.

It is now very common that their supply is done by transport plane from the air force.

The Land of Plain sprawls across vast distances, making travel to settlements, villages, or even undead outposts so time-consuming.

What makes it worse is that the undead burn everything and moves every human from these places, leaving nothing back to the Soviets, causing their logistic burden to higher.

If there are veterans from Germany, they know how it feels during Operation Barbarossa.

As more places have been occupied, the Red Army forces are now more dispersed than before, and what happening now has alerted Orgarkov.

Orgarkov is sitting inside his command post looking at the newly drawn map, which includes the land of plain, thinking of something.

He did not have a good rest for the past week, even though there is not much situation report from the front line, it is still not an easy job to command a few million troops.

Furthermore, no situation from the frontline is the biggest situation.

He just had a call with Moscow, briefing them on the current situation of the front line and also receiving the latest order from the central committee.

"Comrade Marshal, here is the latest news from the front line, please have a look."

Govorov came in front of him and prepared to brief Orgarkov about today's progress.

Orgarkov took the report from him put it aside, and stopped him anxiously,

"Let's be short Govorov, no situation from the frontline again?"

"Overall no, not much different compared to yesterday, our troops are still advancing like in a no man's land after they resupply. The only problem that we received since the operation started now, is still the capital of this province, Plainspire. Our missiles are still not able to reach there and detonate any nukes. According to the pilot who carried tactical nukes yesterday, they reported that their planes started to lose power when there was only 500 km left from the city. My advice for this is to wait for our ground forces to reach and siege since we are not able to destroy it from the sky."

Orgarkov waves his hand after listening to Govorov briefing,

"Forget about Plainspire, we got something new to do."

Govorov immediately thinks of something,

"Comrade Marshal, is there any order from Moscow?"

"Yes, there is, but I will talk about it later. Now, I believe we should have some discussion on our forces."

"Our forces? Comrade Marshall, is there anything that happened to our forces?"

"No, nothing happened, but ..."

Orgarkov then looked at Govorov with a face of worry.

"I believe you have received the report from all the forces stating that the undead burns all villages, settlements, and supplies before they leave. Think about that, isn't it what we have down during the 19th century against Napoleon's army, and 40 years before against the Nazis?"

"Our forces are now advancing too aggressively, if there is, any of the undead ambush us, we will suffer heavy and uncoverable losses, so I decided to slow down our advance speed, and wait until all the forces regrouped with their forces regardless it logistic or vanguard. By that time we will only continue our advancement."

Govorov remain silent for a while after listening to Orgarkov's analysis,

"Comrade Marshal, I doubt is it possible that the undead will come out with such a strategy. Even if it is true, how are we going to explain it to Moscow, does not seem like those people in the central committee will believe in what we say?"

"It is possible Govorov, remember the battle in Leningrad, their report once said that someone is commanding this undead. And for Moscow, I am going to tell you about the order. The foreign office has informed us that our mistrusted allied in this world, Karak, and their trusted allied are going to send some representatives to our army and have a look at how we fight."

What Orgarkov said have to confuse Govorov,

"I know what you want to ask, this time is different with our military advisor in our command post, they will want to go to the front line and see the whole process we defeating our enemy. I know it is not a good idea to let them know about it, but we have an agreement with them, there will also be a representative from our side to the Karak army and record how they fight with the orcs."

Yet, Govorov does not understand how it relates to their upcoming action.

"I am sorry Comrade Marshal, what does this order do with our troop's action, and when will these representatives come?"

"Most probably the next few weeks, we have the right to decide when should they come. If we are not ready, the foreign office and KGB will have a thousand excuses to delay them. And how it relates, I have decided to set Plainspire as the place where we will show them the power of our army, where we will siege the city and blow it into pieces with all we have. So, I will use these as an excuse to let Moscow allow us to regroup our army first."

"Understand, comrade Marshall, I will now send the order to our troops."

-----

Shortly after the order was given, the vanguard completely halted their advance, waiting for the main forces to catch up.

The news that the Red Army stopped their advance was quickly sent to the undead commander.

Marshal Draven and Lord Voren quickly discuss the change in the situation.

"Marshal, why did our enemy stop advancing, did they spot our stronghold?"

"There is the possible, but very unlikely, they would have started attacking us if they had spotted us. I would rather believe that their logistics are not able to follow, my Lord, our time has come, it's time to let our troops underground get back to the surface!"

Draven spoke out of his guess, with fire in his eyes.

Listen to Draven guess, the same thing happens on Voren.

"Great, I have had enough of these days, looking at the enemies occupying our land, and we can not even fight back when we have so many armies. Marshal, when do you think is the time for us to attack?"

"Let begin when the nights come, by then, our troops can become stronger, and eliminate half, or even almost all the enemies that cross our line and stay above our bunker."

"Nice, Marshal, may I wish you success in advance?"

"Sure, hahahaha...."

Both of them are confident about the assault that is going to happen on this night.

Soon, the sky becomes black.

Many of the Red Army forces have now finally regrouped with each other.

Soldiers with their rifles on their backs, building their camp, or grabbing their rifles, enjoying their dinner.

Except for those vehicle drivers and maintenance battalion.

They still need to ensure their vehicles are ready for battle at any time.

"Bylat, I feel like my bones are going to fall apart."

One driver complained beside his truck, they had been driving it the whole day.

"Is ok comrade, we will have a break tomorrow, and then we will continue to suffer."

Another few drivers beside them, smoking together, complaining almost the same thing.

"Man, really hope there is some undead here, so that is not too boring, I only see some during the first day."

"It is likely you do not have the chance, even if there is, it is going to be eliminated by our artillery and aircraft before you meet them. Oh no, at least you still can have a look at their body part."

Another driver said jokingly.

----- 

Meanwhile, in a normally quiet land, a huge sound erupts from underground.

The land is just like experiencing an earthquake, starting to shake frequently.

It started to tear and split into two parts, revealing bottomless.

Then, horrifying screaming starts to come out, millions of undead climbing up from below, just like the day they invaded Leningrad.

Maybe because of coincidence, there is a Soviet recon UAV that is modified from Tu-141 Strizh patrolling above here.

Compared to the recon planes that the Soviets have made before, the biggest advantage is that UAVs can stay in the air for a longer time, which makes them more suitable to patrol.

 The UAV operator was almost to sleep, nothing had happened since the first day that Orgarkov ordered them to stay alert, until now, and what he had seen made him not sleepy at all.

"Undead horde spotted! I repeat undead horde spotted! Red Alert! Red Alert!"

Not only him, at the same time, many UAV operators spot the same thing.

The news has quickly been reported, and troops that are ready to sleep are now returning to their position and ready to fight.

Only god knows how many lives will be saved due to Orgarkov's order on the massive use of UAVs.

Also thanks to the Soviets Scientists, successfully using a bunch of backward technology to achieve real-time image technology in a short time.

The operator then looks back to his screen, without knowing why, his screen has already become black, which means that the UAV has been shot down.

However, it already alerts all the troops, giving them enough time to prepare for battle.

Artillery troops for each troop started their bombardment in just a few minutes.

Missiles that carry tactical nukes have been launched to coordinates that have been spotted.

Aircraft that are patrolling, or still staying inside the USSR territory have now emergency rushing to the battlefield.

After the battle in the Baltic States, the Soviet Army realized how strong the undead were at night.

To counter their advantages, many night vision equipment were equipped and developed, and within a month, the Soviet night vision had visible growth in both quality and quantity.

Some elite forces like the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Division have even equipped T-80s with thermal vision.

This makes every troop have at least enough night vision equipment to prevent a sudden attack from the undead.

Improving the Air Force's capability to fight in the nighttime.

Within a few minutes, the night is illuminated by a large number of missiles and rockets with tail flames.

Explosion happen inside every undead horde, every time it happens, will create a few ten or even hundred meters of no undead areas.

But this can't stop the advance of the undead, a few minutes left, some of the hordes are going to reach the Red Army.

The ambush from the undead has also been quickly reported to Orgarkov.

Inside the command post in Riga, hundreds of officers are walking around in a hurry and taking calls from the front lines.

"Ghasnov, Govorov, where the hell do these undead come from? How is the situation now? Can our troops stop these hordes?"

It was a piece of scary news when he first heard that a few tens of millions of undead had suddenly appeared behind and in front of the Red Army.

Ghasnov first answered his question.

"Comrade Marshal, we are still not able to make a final decision of where they come from, but from a few news from the frontline, we suspect that it may be from the underground. I have ordered our troops to move closer to each other and form a ring defense. Theoretically, we have overwhelmed firepower to those undead, if our troops have enough supply, they can eliminate all the undead."

Orgarkov looking at the sand table, officers are still putting more flags to represent the hordes.

Even if what Ghasnov said was true, he understood that some of the troops that are alone now have a very high possibility that will not exist after this night.

Think of that, he gives out his order.

"Tell the air force to support these few troops that are alone with priority, and the others, tell them to hold until sunrise, and we will have more ways to destroy all these undead. Ordered the air force to send more recon aircraft to spot where they came from, and once spotted, immediately launched tactical nukes."

"Affirmative."

-----

At the position of the 1st tank division,

the commander of it raised its night vision binoculars, looking at the undead from a few kilometers away.

"General, with this speed, the undead will reach 1km from us in a few minutes."

His adjutant reports to him.

"Have our new artillery and chemical troops prepared?"

"The new artillery has prepared, a few more minutes are required for the chemical troops."

"Great, ordered the new artillery to fire when the undead enters the range, and also the chemical troops, do as what the plan said. Inform the Air Force of what we are going to do."

In a small area inside the 1st tank division, it was forbidden for normal soldiers to enter.

A symbol with one large circle and four smaller circles around it was pasted in front of the gate, representing in chemical weapon inside.

Personnel wearing gas masks and chemical protective suits, carefully attached the latest chemical weapon that had just been sent from Moscow, on the rockets of BM-21 MLRS.

On the warhead, the word 'XK-17' has been written.

It takes longer time than usual.

When they are still attaching, the hordes have also reached only 1km away from the division position.

As the flares take off, lighting off the night, many soldiers finally see the hordes.

A bunch of bones with different types of shapes, from a titan to a beast, from a dog to a skeleton, ran quickly towards them.

Especially the titan, every time they move, the land will shake.

In front of the entrenchment, soldiers look surprisingly at the new artillery that is newly equipped.

These new artillery have a T-72 chassis but with a multiple rocket launcher on it.

It then starts to fire, not much different from the sound of MLRS, but this time, soldiers can see that they are using the thermobaric bomb to bomb the hordes.

Shock waves brought by explosions can even be seen by eyes though it is at night.

The undead who rushed to the front were either shattered by the shock wave or were vaporized directly in the center of the explosion.

Even the titan can survive the shock wave, yet they will still get killed when the shell hits directly on them.

This new artillery has the name of object 634, or in the 21st century, it is more widely known as TOS-1.

Different from the original world, this weapon appeared 8 years earlier.

However, TOS-1 can only block these hordes temporarily, they will need time to reload.

So, the 'Shilka' SPAA took over their position, accompanied by a group of BTR-ZD.

Every 2 'Shilka' can lock down a direction by forming crossfire.

The undead fall down just like when wheat gets blown by the wind.

From the battle of Leningrad, the Red Army found out that one of the ways to fight against a horde like this effectively is by using more SPAA.

The Red Army tanks also start to join in the battle.

T-80 reloads their shell and starts shooting on those Titans.

For a moment, the entire battlefield was filled with barrages of cannon from tanks and SPAA.

A few minutes after the battle here begins, a few rockets fly over them, to position further behind the hordes.

It flies for another 20 km and hits the ground.

Surprisingly, different from the ordinary rocket, it did not explode.

But start releasing a gas.

A gas with a color of deep purple.

Undead without intelligence ignore and pass by it, but then, their bones start to be corrosive, and at last, their bodies collapse.

The gas expands quickly in a few minutes, in the middle parts of this millions of hordes are all now covered with this gas.

And, no more undead can move inside this gas, their bones have all been corrosive by the gas.

The undead behind are still rushing into the gas without intelligence, and then go to the same ending as those undead before.

A Mig-25 flew over this area an hour later, even though it was in the night, the spectacular scene below still shocked the pilot.

The field is covered with purple gas, even though he does not know what happened inside the gas, but seeing there is no undead leaving the gas, then he knows that this new type of chemical weapon is working.

"Calling Red Bear, calling Red Bear, this is vodka, this is vodka. The weapon is working effectively, I repeat, the weapon is working effectively."

The news was quickly sent to the headquarters.

"Comrade Marshal, news from the air force."

An officer passes the news to Orgarkov.

"Great, let the Rocket Strategic Army know this also, they can use XK-17 instead of tactical nukes, such a waste of using tactical nukes to bomb this undead assemble point. Just one hour into the battle, the Air Force reported that the assembly point they spotted was already teeming with over a hundred. Also, tell Moscow to increase production of this chemical."

"Affirmative."

-----

XK-17, was a highly corrosive substance, a volatile compound synthesized from a combination of rare elements and experimental chemical processes. It was engineered to target the unique composition of undead bone tissue, triggering a rapid and irreversible degradation upon contact.

Upon exposure, the compound would penetrate the skeletal structure of undead entities, initiating a catastrophic chain reaction that caused the bone to rapidly deteriorate and dissolve, rendering it incapacitated or destroyed within moments.

This was a newly developed chemical weapon by the Soviet Scientists, which made its production still low and not enough to fight the war.

Yet, they still produce a small amount for some troops to test it.

A little part has been sent to those guard divisions, but more are sent to the Rocket Strategic Army to let them equip their short and middle range missile.

A tactical missile brigade from Moscow equipped the most advanced missile that the Soviets currently have, like the OTR-23 Oka short-range missile.

They have been launching missiles that carry nuclear warheads all night.

Now, they start to reload the missile carry with XK-17 chemical substance.

As the officer ordered, the operator pressed the button numbly and was ready to reload for another missile.

The missile launched is no different from the many missiles flying in the sky, but the damage it causes is more effective and cost-effective.

It reached an undead assembly point, flying along the cracked earth, all the way into the underground.

Just like how it happens in the 1st tank division, the missile did not explode but released the gas.

Soon, the whole underground is full of gas, and also the bones from different kinds of undead that are still ready to climb up to the ground.

Within 30 minutes, the few millions of undead that still remain underground have all been eliminated.