The Compromise

"We, the unwilling, led by the unqualified to kill the unfortunate, die for the ungrateful"

Hikmatyar stared at the report in his hand, not really paying attention. All of his focus was on the speech. Just beyond the door, President Ismail gave his yearly presidential speech to the people of the United Sovereign Republic of Pakistan.

Careless of the speech, the intelligence department chief was quite perturbed by the reports in his hands. Soviet T-90 tanks were moving in close on the borders of Afghanistan, beefing up security along the most unstable province of USRP. Hikmatyar sighed, the outlook was bad.

Although a sovereign state on its own under USRP constitution, the state (nay, province) was borderline incompatible with the state. The vast majority of the youth were getting uncomfortable with the current regime now.

There were reports that President Igor Stanislav of the United Soviet States of Russia was behind this new uprising.

Hikmatyar sighed. The report in his hand told of a young boy, just nineteen, caught in Kabul National University. The boy was apprehended for spreading Soviet and Communist propaganda. It was deemed treason.

In the streets, among the masses, the general idea was that the cold war with the Communist states had ended well back in 1993 with the fall of Xi Hao San of China. Yet, the truth was simple, it had only heated up due to Xi Hao San's successor, Tia Han, and it was reaching a point that a full blown conventional war was now on the tables.

Hikmatyar didn't like this. The setup, the movements, the coalitions… everything was ready for another world war. Chinese army had consolidated its powers further and further into the government with Tia Han and Huay Xan. What had once considered the end of communism, the fall of Xi Hao San, had led to an even stronger proponent of war…

"Heh, cut the head off a hydra…" Hikmatyar muttered to himself, thinking about the current Chinese President, Huay Xan. The man was getting uncomfortably close with India.

Of course, on paper, India was a capitalist nation with no direct affiliations. However, Hikmatyar knew that India would side with U.S.S.R and China in case of a world war, leaving Pakistan the only ally for the United States and the Allies in the region.

"Sir…" Hikmatyar was brought out of his thoughts by a junior soldier, "You might wanna take a look at this report."

"Of course." The Afghani Pashtun took the documents from his aide and gave the document a brief look. The more he read, the more his brow furrowed. United Arab Emirates was setting up arms to counter the Soviet advances near its borders.

Of course, those fools weren't ready for war.

Hikmatyar had a very strange thought. Pakistan Army could make a stand in Tehran, in the province of Iran, if the Soviets invaded U.A.E. He quickly rejected that notion. The Soviets would never be that brash…

"… And my fellow countrymen, 2018 will be the year of our prevalence. The scourge of the Soviets will be no more…" A few stray words floated in from the door left ajar. The presidential speech was coming to an end. More lies, more farce. Hikmatyar did not like lying to his own countrymen; such thoughts brought wrinkles to his young, sprightly face.

Yet, here he was, the head of Interservices Intelligences, lying through his teeth day in and day out.

"Hikmatyar, there you are!" Ismail said warmly, pulling the door open and walking in with grace. Even at the ripe old age of sixty seven, the old man was quite an energetic character. Hikmatyar often jokingly asked the latter to lend him some energy.

"Yes sir, Mr. President. Reports… as always!" Hikmatyar said stoically, trying his best not to show any emotions.

"As always…" For a second, the glimmer faded from Ismail's face but it returned, stronger than before, "So, what do you have for me?"

"Sir, there's the case of this… revolutionary kid… from Kabul University. Boys in plain uniform picked him up from uni in an unmarked vehicle."

"Revolutionary kid? What does that mean?" Ismail asked, scrunching up his wrinkly face.

"It means that the kid supports Soviets, sir. He was spreading their propaganda." Hikmatyar said, pulling out a copy of the poster from his file. It was the poster that the kid was distributing. The plain clothes officers had taken it straight to the intelligence department. Hikmatyar handed the poster to Ismail who started looking over it, deeply engrossed in the reddish colors of the Soviet propaganda.

"My god…"

"Of course the Soviets are using their… um… larger territorial area of nation and the fact that they surround us on multiple sides…" Hikmatyar reported pointed at the lines running from the red soviet states of U.S.S.R and China to the blue states of Pakistan.

"And do they… you know… do they have the capability?" Ismail asked him worryingly, leaning in close. For the first time, the signs of old age were obvious on him. He looked more like a grumpy grandpa than the usual, cheery president.

"Capability… sir?" Hikmatyar moved in close to better understand Ismail.

"I mean, do they have the capability to overpower us?" Hikmatyar was taken aback by the blunt question. He thought for a second…

"We've got Abrams tanks, a lot of our own Shamsheer tanks. We got B2 bombers and our own Uqaabs. F16s, two F22s, we got our JF-17 Thunders from that joint venture with France, we got other fighters like KI-18, newly out of production this year, sir. We got about five destroyers and a few dozen frigates. A few submarines. One aircraft carrier… The U.S. equipped us well, sir."

"And our men?"

"They are only humans, sir. Unpredictable but I'd say they are quite ready." Hikmatyar ended his lengthy report.

"Do you think there's a chance for war?" Ismail asked, nervously looking around, as if he'd spot an enemy right then and there. Hikmatyar was not surprised. With how deep the communist sympathizers had entered, they could very well be compromised. He couldn't take any risks…

"That's… uh… that's classified… sir. I can't report on that here. I'll brief you privately." Hikmatyar cautiously replied, hoping Ismail would understand. The president squinted at him for a few seconds then broke into a jovial smile…

"Of course my boy, you will. I'll meet you at ten tonight." Ismail said, broadly smiling.

"Twenty two hundred hours, copy that sir."

==/ \\==

Taking a hard swig of the vodka in hand, Hikmatyar pored over the files. Of course, he could drink himself dead in Islamabad but it was harder to drink in Kabul, what with the Afghani Pashtun people quite… adamant… on Islamic traditions.

The second problem was the drink of choice. A tequila would have fared well. A gin and tonic would have fared well. Yet, no drink came close to vodka but this elixir of life could get his head chopped off at the hands of the masses for treason.

However, some files require a dash of vodka to push down the throat.

Some intelligence officers were able to infiltrate a troops barrack along the border of U.S.S.R and were able to apprehend a crucial document. They were able to get the movement orders.

The current orders scared Hikmatyar. By the end of the winter, three armored battalions were to be placed along the border along with five infantry battalions. All in all, they were looking at about a hundred and fifty tanks and more than five hundred men. In just a few hundred kilometers of the border.

This was the densest placement of soldiers along the border to date. Plus, the armored core comprised mostly of T-90 tanks and S3330 missile systems. The artillery and mechanized value from these three battalions was immense. They could be seeing months of warfare on ends.

Having debriefed president Ismail two days prior, Hikmatyar had flown to Kabul to set out plans to prevent any insurgencies. He was going to meet with General Fasih of the Army of United Sovereign Republic of Pakistan and come up with an effective plan to counter the revolutionaries.

Of course, the president was never made aware of revolutionaries before. He thought that his spotless Pakistan had no dissenters in it. Yet, the truth was quite the opposite. Kabul was crawling with revolutionaries. Iranian cities were also reporting high number of revolutionary supporters. Intelligence reports, by all indications, pointed to revolutionaries holding high offices in both Punjab and Sindh.

Hikmatyar had to think straight and quick about the issues.

The room he was in was quite comfy and nice. Wooden floors and wall paneling. Soft sofas and reclining chairs. Décor either colored green and white or varnished wood. He wondered if his communist counterpart was afforded such luxuries. Of course, the communist states were running on untenable laws and budgets. They were not going to spend lavishly.

Hikmatyar got up and walked over to the window, pulling the drapes open and looking out at the setting sun. Somewhere far in the North, three divisions of T90 tanks and S3330 missile systems would be moving up, creeping closer to the borders.

He sighed. They were running out of time. Brendan Gates, his U.S. counterpart, had already suggested finally going DEFCON Three. This was not good. This was absolutely not good.

They were creeping closer and closer to an all out war. Just as Hikmatyar was thinking about his impending issues, something red caught his eyes in the far corner. A billboard. Three streets over. The billboard was red with the iconic Soviet star emblazoned across it and words "Revolt for the masses, comrades!" and atop it, the Soviet flag flew tall and proud…

"Fuck…" Hikmatyar spat and pulled out his phone. Quickly dialing up a number, he contacted his aide, "Get to the Kabul office right now."

The Soviet flag, deep in the heart of a Pakistani city… he was not going to stand this disgrace.

==/ \\==

Within three weeks, major raids were conducted across Kabul, Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi, seizing a large amount of literature and propaganda material. In addition, multiple raids in Peshawar, Helmand, Multan and Kot Adu were conducted, seizing large amount of ammunition and weaponry in the hands of communist supporters.

It was all over the news.

While, the world reported on major raids across all the cities in the Pakistani states of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtun Khwa, Afghanistan, Eastern Balochistan, Iranian Balochistan and Iran , the intelligence departments and the army focused on the growing number of soviet infantrymen along the USRP-USSR border.

Major General Brendan Gates, from Pentagon's intelligence wing, had already started increasing his demand for instating DEFCON Three. On November 3rd, 2018, India started offensive along the Punjab border, intent on recovering all that it had lost in the war of 1987. What they gave in Indian Punjab, they took in Bangladesh.

During the final week of November, multiple events took place back to back. Fifth Mechanized Infantry, Beshumar division, fought off an offensive along the Punjab border but lost nearly a hundred kilometers of territory in the process.

Another thing was the sudden, unexpected aggression of the Soviet armored core along the borders of Afghanistan state. In the dead of the night, S3330 missile systems rained hell fire on villages along the border, decimating three villages and displacing hundreds of people.

The kill count was in hundreds, feared to rise to thousands as the aggression continued.

The third event occurred on 29 November. The United States Navy fifth fleet joined arms with the Pakistan Navy third fleet near Karachi. While on routine patrol, the ships were engaged from the Indian side but the skirmish quickly subsided with no major damage.

And it was, as Hikmatyar finally told the president. In meeting, Hikmatyar finally turned to president Ismail and said…

"Be that as it may, president, but we are at war now."

The End