Recruits are welcome

"Pyotr. Pyotr. Pyotr!"

"Private Pyotr ready for orders!"

A loud motivated shout on an early Thursday morning. Private Pyotr being the only known survivor from the Krakow incident. His morning snooze was interrupted by Georgiy Ilyukov – commander of the Kielce fortress and a captain of the demolished Warsaw army. Ilyukov was standing over Pyotr, giving him the look you'd see on your parents face after coming back home early Saturday morning after a night out.

"Oh let the Tsar's patience fall upon me Pyotr, how hard is it to look out for 3 hours? You were supposed to get used to that during your bootcamp training"

"We never had bootcamp training sir, officer Maximius nominated me as a soldier during the retreat from Krakow"

"God bless him."

With a sigh of frustration, Ilyukov lighted his cigarette and relocated his sight on the clear morning sky of a cold January Thursday morning. The bright sun rays kissed his shaved left cheek, yet they failed to provide any warmth as the wrath of the cold held their ground, and will continue so till the late days of March. Ilyukov was desperate: a recent scout report claimed to see 6 Deutsch steel plates near their fortress and threateningly close to Pińczów – this was not to be allowed by any means. Pińczów was the hope of Kielce fort and all of eastern Poland. It held 8 new Russian steel plates developed specifically to counter the armor-heavy Deutsch armies. The 'Cossack-34' codenamed C-34 was developed on the outskirts of Warsaw with 40 models being ready for action, however after the destruction of the Warsaw army only 8 C-34s were safely escorted with the other 32 being destroyed to avoid Deutsch capture. Unsurprisingly, there were no qualified pilots for these steel plates in Poland and imperial orders forbade anyone from even unlocking the cabin entrance – for now they were just big scraps that were difficult to hide. Ilyukov needed to send reinforcements to assist the garrison of Pińczów. The town of Kielce possessed 4 old 'Bogatyr-55' steel plates which were obsolete for modern combat but were still capable of dealing a blow if used correctly. Ilyukov had 3 pilots ready including himself, yet he needed one more. The deadline was by tomorrow midday, any later would only increase chances of the 6 steel plates compromising the evacuation of the C-34s to Russia. Time was running out for the experienced captain.

"Pyotr!"

"Pyotr ready for orders!"

"Do you know how to pilot a steel plate?"

"I don't have any combat experience sir, fortunately my uncle piloted a 'Bogatyr-55' and taught me the basics"

These words sparked hope for Ilyukov, his jaw dropped and his cigarette consequently dropped to the ground, still half alight. Noticing this, Pyotr quickly began stepping on the cigarette to light it out in order to avoid a fire.

"The ground's too cold and wet to be set alight by a mere cigarette, but I shall admire your awareness. See me in my tent in 15 minutes exactly, I dismiss you of your watch duty. Proceed to get ready!"

"Yes sir!"

Ilyukov headed out in a speedy walk to his tent. Pyotr saluted him till Ilyukov was down the stairs from the walls of the fortress. Following the salute, Pyotr enthusiastically proceeded to jump down the walls with a spectacle landing and ran towards his barrack to get into his parade suit.

It took Pyotr a swift 5 minutes to get washed and get into his parade suit. Yet an eternal 10 minutes proceeded to exhaust Pyotr before finally being allowed into Ilyuokv's tent.

"Pyotr, I assign you as the 4th pilot of the Kielce recon brigade! Your Bogatyr-55 will be operational by our engineering crew by tomorrow sunrise. You are expected to be present at the same time. Further orders will be received with the whole brigade."

"Orders received clearly! Pilot of the Kilece recon brigade Pyotr Solyenko ready for duty!"

"Now, now, no need to deafen your commander. Although I admire your enthusiasm. Excused."

With no further conversations, a very embarrassed Pyotr uniformly stood up straight, saluted his commander and headed back to his barrack.

As the cold bright sun of a winter January day inevitably got replaced with the chilling moon of the freezing January night, lights were ordered off as the curfew hours of the Kielce fort set in; it was war time nonetheless. Amongst the indistinct chatter of the two young Pole guards on lookout and the soothing flames of their torches broke the silence – Pyotr lay in bed awaiting his future in desperate excitement and anxiety. He couldn't sleep, yet it wasn't due to the quite loud guards on lookout or due to their torches – it was due to his head, his thoughts, to be specific. He held his cross tightly as he closed his eyes and with a surprisingly firm and confident order to his brain to let loose all the thoughts into the freezing night. Now, in a split second, was sound asleep. And he rightly did so; tomorrow's recon mission (as he thought) was in no guarantee to be a soft one, it could however, end in a quick scout and report mission, or it could end up in an enemy interception followed by long combat in his obsolete steel plate that will decisively lead to his death. He was only a recruit after all, having no combat experience, Pyotr doubted his ability to bring death upon enemies. Yet all of this was now gone, it disappeared into the freezing night as he ordered, and only dreams of former life in Krakow remained as they presented themselves in his dreams.

As morning settled in, the sun replaced the moon and emitted its sun rays in desperation trying to bring some warmth in January, the hum of morning birds who served as a signal for the guards to end their shift and all the other serving forces to start the day. Pyotr however, was already awake as excitement had him up an hour earlier. He was in uniform ready for action and was finally heading towards the makeshift engineering quarters where he was met by the exhausted engineering staff accompanied by Ilyukov and two unfamiliar faces. As he came into contact distance Pyotr saluted the engineering staff with the latter either not noticing him or lacking any power to raise their hand for a salute. The almost heartwarming meetup was interrupted by Ilyukov.

"Pyotr! Here you are! I thought you chickened out!"

"Greetings commander, private Pyotr temporary pilot of the Kielce recon brigade ready for duty!"

"What have we said about making me go deaf? God bless you Pyotr you seem to have deafened yourself if you can't remember my words, eh?"

"Sorry sir! I-I mean, I'm sorry commander, won't happen again…"

"Now, what a mood breaker… anyways, I'd like to introduce you to our comrades in this mission – Lieutenant of the former border patrol office Filip Kowsitz and staff Sergeant of the former Warsaw engineer divison Bogdan Milicizc. Notice how I said former, no need to call them by their rank, they're fine with it and you should be so as well. From now on all 3 of you shall use 'pilot' when referring to one another's rank. Is that understood?"

With a strict look on his face, Ilyukov looked back on the two men as though waiting for a reply.

"Sir yes sir!"

All 3 men answered back in a choir-like fashion.

"Now, that's what I like to hear on my Friday mornings. All pilots! To your steel plates! All engines to be running in 2 minutes, departure time in 5 minutes! Further details on our mission to be given on route to Pińczów."

Ilyukov's charisma was almost stinging, strict orders given out in a clear, strong voice. Enthusiastically all 3 men proceeded to their Bogatyr 55's… all of them knowing damn well that they're sitting themselves in a rusty, iron coffin... What was to happen to their fates was now all in the hands of Ilyukov – former captain of the Warsaw army and the current commander of the Kielce fort and garrison.