[Academy RP] The Purest Hearts are Filled of Lead

[Tenkinsky]

Nine fighter jets buzzed over the capital, and a column of armored vehicles approached.

Ust-Aldankut was in arms.

In the foggy dew of the morning, two platoons of BKSM-90 Shigiz tanks entered the capital, accompanied by a full battalion of soldiers from the Taraz Division in BPM-97 personnel carriers. They drove through the streets in dead silence, nothing could be heard in the streets but the whirr of Diesel engines and the sound of tracks going across the pavement as they marched on the State Parliament. It was to be a coup, another in the long history. Since 1975, the streets of the capital had oft been filled with marching soldiers and the rumble of tanks. It was just another day, like any other, and the populace resigned to accept it. 

Like every other coup, today the streets would run red with blood.

Colonel Onosov, the head of this particular coup, rode on his APC, the lead in a line headed straight to the Parliament. It was eerily silent, and upon arrival a full platoon of State Guard lay behind makeshift barricades, with their commander, one Major Chichirin standing indignant at the gate. Col. Osonov got out of the APC in field uniform, grasping at his holster as he stared down the Major. Four of his most loyal men dismounted with him and stood behind him to back him up as the tanks got into position and the rest of the men prepared for a siege. The State Guard men grasped their Fulgistani-made weapons and trembled, preparing for the worst. The Colonel put his right hand into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small letter, and then read it aloud:

“Major Chichirin, and the State Guard, under the authority of the Republic, you are under arrest for conspiracy, treason, and crimes against the state. You are surrounded, the people are against you, and you are outnumbered five to one in every respect. Those who put down their weapons and join us will be given amnesty and reinstated in the armed forces.”

Silence.

Two men put down their rifles and put their hands up.

Then four.

Twelve.

The entire State Guard had surrendered, the Major was about to pull his sidearm before two Taraz men grabbed him and put him in handcuffs. 

It was a miracle, the first bloodless coup in Tenkinsky's storied history. Within the hour the Committee of National Salvation was deposed, arrested, and replaced. There was cheering in the streets, flags flown and men crying in joy. The foreign puppets had been deposed and replaced. The new government announced sweeping reforms, agricultural collectivization was to be ended, the state currency would be replaced, private industry re-allowed, and half the desalination plants closed. Free elections to be held next month. The people cheered, it wasn't a return to liberal democracy, but it was a return at least to a sense of it. As if the protests had been heard, and the people allowed a say once again. It seemed, the people had won the day. Of course, that is not to say that everyone was happy. Fulgistani advisors were arrested, embassies of other ICEB members besieged, and the foreign influence purged. The coup was not truly about what the people wanted, it never was. Rather, it was a faction of the military tired of being under the thumb of their erstwhile communist allies. They had simply used the economic failures of the last decade to exploit popular opinion, get their regime to last longer. The elections would be a sham, the military government would simply rule behind the curtain. The security services would be increased, and as the economy grew from its slump, the military grew as it never had before. By 2011, the Security Services had expanded massively, surveillance became a mere fact of life. The military was no longer in the streets, the economy had grown four times its size, but the people were less free than before, without even realizing it. Critics were silenced, dissidents erased. 

Truly,

The purest hearts were filled with lead.