"Charles Stross - A Colder War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

56's, their commanders standing at attention in
their cupolas, saluting the stand. Jets race low and
loud overhead, formations of MiG-17 fighters.

Behind the tanks sprawl a formation of four low-
loaders: huge tractors towing low-sling trailers,
their load beds strapped down under olive-drab
tarpaulins. Whatever is under them is uneven, a
bit like a loaf of bread the size of a small house.
The trucks have an escort of jeep-like vehicles on
each side, armed soldiers sitting at attention in
their backs.

There are big five-pointed stars painted in silver on
each tarpaulin, like outlines of stars. Each star is
surrounded by a stylized silver circle; a unit
insignia, perhaps, but not in the standard format
for Red Army units. There's lettering around the
circles, in a strangely stylised script.

Voice-over
These are live servitors under transient control.
The vehicles towing them bear the insignia of the
second Guards Engineering Brigade, a penal
construction unit based in Bokhara and used for
structural engineering assignments relating to
nuclear installations in the Ukraine and Azerbaijan.
This is the first time that any Dresden Agreement
party openly demonstrated ownership of this
technology: in this instance, the conclusion we are
intended to draw is that the sixty-seventh Guard
Engineering Brigade operates four units. Given
existing figures for the Soviet ORBAT we can then
extrapolate a total task strength of two hundred
and eighty eight servitors, if this unit is
unexceptional.

Video clip
Five huge Tu-95 Bear bombers thunder across the
Moscow skies.

Voice-over
This conclusion is questionable. For example, in
1964 a total of two hundred and forty Bear bomber
passes were made over the reviewing stand in

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A Colder War - a novelette by Charles Stross

front of the Lenin mausoleum. However, at that