“They’re also building out new air-defense positions — likely short- and medium-range systems. Possibly Pantsir-S1 and S-400 being repositioned around key airfields. There’s movement at every known site.”
Elliott shifted the slide again — this time to a broader theater map showing European Russia.
“Same pattern north of Kaliningrad, across the Leningrad Military District. We’ve picked up increased activity at major airfields from Pushkin to Olenya — more sorties, more ground crew, more aircraft moving. On the surface, it’s a readiness drill. But it’s a big one.”
She paused. A final overlay filled the screen — a simplified representation of Russian and Chinese rail lines stretching from the Far East across the continent.
“We’re also watching a significant spike in Chinese rail and road traffic coming out of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, feeding west into central Russia. Large convoys — armor, fuelers, containerized equipment — headed toward staging areas in Moscow and Leningrad Districts. This has been building for about two months.”
She looked out across the room.
“No way to know how long it took to prep that much equipment — but it didn’t happen overnight.”
She nodded once, then stepped back.
Ashford returned to the front, his tone flattened. “None of this changes our immediate orders — but you need to understand the environment we’re stepping into. This isn’t just Baltic theater noise anymore. It’s a full-spectrum, multifront show of force. NATO wants presence. Visibility. We’re part of that line. We’re not here to provoke. But we will be seen.”
Ashford turned to his S3, Lieutenant Colonel Tony “T. Z.” Zitrion, motioning for him to speak on the deployment orders the brigade just received. As he walked forward, the map behind them zoomed in again — Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. Icons bloomed blue and amber as NATO units repositioned eastward. Sweden and Finland glowed green along the upper edge of the display.
“This is where we come into the picture,” T. Z. explained, his tone sharp, his piercing. “Washington, Tokyo, Seoul, and Brussels are spooked with the scale and scope of this exercise. SHAPE, and our Asian allies, are right to be suspicious after what happened in Ukraine in ’22. No one wants to be caught unprepared, so as a precaution, EUCOM, in coordination with our NATO allies, is going to temporarily reinforce the border regions where they plan to conduct their exercises.
“In short, NATO wants to establish an anti-access, area-denial capability over the Baltic Sea that can extend to include Kaliningrad and the northeastern NATO border. The land component of this JTF will consist of the US 173rd and the US forces that’ll comprise the A2/D2 element that’ll deploy to Gotland and Sweden proper — more on those units later. The rest of the JTF will consist of Swedish and Finnish local ground, air, and naval forces. Additional NATO naval assets will come in the form of German and Danish corvettes to augment the local Swedish and Finnish naval forces. Outside of local air assets, NATO will provide an air element from a Dutch F-35 squadron, and US AWACS support from England,” T. Z. explained as he stepped back to let Ashford close the briefing out.
“Look, I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you if this is just a training exercise and show of force by this new Pan-Eurasian Alliance or the prelude to some massive war that’s about to start.” Ashford paused to look his battalion commanders in the eye. “What I can tell you is this. Regardless of what happens, this is a great opportunity for us to do some hard-core training, and that’s how I intend to look at this until it materializes into something more. For now, prepare yourselves and get your commands ready to deploy. The first units are rotating north on the first of April. We’re to be in position and ready by the fifteenth. A lot has to happen between now and the end of March. Let’s show Big Army and everyone else why we’re the best. Dismissed.”
Salt wind cut through SFC Ramon Torres’s OCP combat blouse, the fabric stiff with sea salt and cold as he stood on the dock, watching the morning sun paint the Baltic a gunmetal gray. The USNS
“Sixteen years in, and it still makes me nervous watching them dangle my tank over water,” SFC Ramon Torres said to himself. He didn’t take his eyes off Alpha-22 as it swayed above the dock.
First Lieutenant Adam Novak appeared beside him, his collar pulled high on his combat shell jacket, shoulders hunched against the wind. “Three years in, and I’m just trying not to throw up watching it.”
Torres grunted agreement, eyes locked on Alpha-22 as it swayed thirty feet above the concrete. That was his tank, his crew, his responsibility.
