That fateful morning was cold and wet. That was all Tiberius could remember on that fateful day. He was roused from a restless sleep early in the morning by heavy knocking at his door. He sat up slowly rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He hastily threw on a robe and opened his bedroom window. He ignored the knocking for a moment and sat looking out of the window. The smog that had covered Central Moscow was as heavy as ever. He had been granted a residence near the Grand Kremlin Palace across from the Moskva river. This was granted to him when he attained the rank of General-Feldmarshal. Supreme Commander of the Russian armed forces. As he looked across to the military installation. He witnessed commotion. Soldiers running this way and that. He was unsure what was going on.<br/><br/>The knocking grew ever insistent. He snapped his gaze to his door and hurriedly headed for the front door of his home. He had not yet officially assumed the post of Supreme Commander. Today was his first day on the job. He had dreamed of this day since his father told him stories of the glorious victories achieved by the army in years past. That was all to wait as he heard two men screaming him name. He opened his door and the two men stiffened “Sir, Voyskovoy Starshina Alexei Nikolayevich reporting for General-Feldmarshal Krieg” Tiberius towered over the small Lieutenant Colonel and his aide. “The Tsar requests your presence at the Kremlin immediately” Tiberius looked at the two men confused “Surely this is nonsense, the Tsar can wait!” he said gruffly and aggressively. “Sir, the border between Finland and Russia has been violated. The Finns and the Swedes have violated the non-aggression pact.” Tiberius looked at the men confused. “This cannot be, I spoke to Hakan just the other day! We were supposed to dine with his majesty this week, tell the Tsar I will be there shortly”<br/><br/>“Sir” The two men stood to attention, saluted and quickly left. They had left Tiberius with the official identification badges, that he was to pin to his uniform. He was now in command; these badges would get him access to anything and everything. The only person that had authority over him was the Tsar. Everyone knew that the Tsar was lazy and a womanizer. It was Tiberius who was now running the show. He was unstoppable.<br/><br/>He walked back to his bedroom in a hurry and put on the uniform he had earned. It glistened in the mirror and he looked regal. As his black boots clicked along the paved street, he arrived at a checkpoint where two mechanized drones stopped him. In a robotic voice they stammered “Intruder, identify yourself in the name of the Tsar!” Tiberius breathed heavily and waved them off. “Krieg…” he grumbled and flashed his badges. With a wave, the drones deactivated and fell to the ground as two guards ran to meet him.<br/><br/>“Sir, we have reports of several squadrons of mechanized infantry and mech’s penetrating the border near St Petersburg, we have mustered the local garrison forces to intercept” Tiberius waved them off and kept walking calmly asking questions about the situation. Upon arriving, he had realized that the several squads were two squads and they were little more than mechanized infantry. “You will stand the garrison down and send in the Praetorian Guard” The young guards gasped. “sir?” they asked inquisitively. Tiberius roared at them like a mighty lion. “You rouse me from my bed at this hour and activate invasion protocol 12 for two squadrons of mechanized infantry?!” he said. “If this invasion was real, they would be at the capital by now and we’d have bigger things to worry about” The Praetorians can and will handle this” He said. The men nodded and trotted off to enforce orders.<br/><br/>Tiberius entered the Grand Kremlin unphased. The bright lights and beautiful ornate oak bannisters flanked a staircase made from African ivory. This ivory was won from one of his fathers’ campaigns in Africa that had saw his family and his star rise. He ascended the stairs and, on the wall, directly beside his office was a portrait of his late father. He stood there solemnly for a moment and saluted. “I will make you proud father” He turned into his office and sat behind the giant oak desk. Indeed, this desk was no ordinary desk. It was the same desk that the previous Supreme Commanders held.<br/><br/>On his desk was a pile of Dossiers and issues he had to deal with. As Supreme Commander, he was no longer just a soldier, but a disciplinarian and a diplomat. Essentially, he was a bureaucrat. Something he hated immensely. He spent the first few hours on the job assuring the Tsar that everything was under control.<br/><br/>After his meeting with his chiefs of staff and high command, he set to work ensuring that any disobedience or toe out of line would not be tolerated. He was going to institute Praetorian regulations over the entire armed forces. He signed documents for a while sending people to prison with the stroke of a pen finally arriving at a Dossier for Valeria Rostislavnovna Orlova. She was the pilot who had directly disobeyed orders from a superior officer putting her life and the lives of her crew in danger.<br/><br/>Tiberius was surprised to see that none of the information in her dossier was redacted. After all, he had the highest security clearance there was. He reached under the oak desk and found a bottle of his favorite bourbon with a bow on it from his high command. “May you rule and command in good faith Tsarevich” Tsarevich was an endearing term used for the head of the military. He basically was the Tsar’s power embodied. He looked out the window to see his men and women prepping a bi-pedal tank. This project was nicknamed “Shagohod” It could deploy nuclear missiles anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. It was gloomy and smoggy outside from all the truck fumes and industrial production. He sat down and took a long swig of bourbon.<br/><br/>Pressing the call button on his desk phone, two men entered the room. “Podporuchik” Tiberius mumbled. “Bring me this woman” He said tossing Valeria’s military redacted record at them. “I want her here soon; she and I need to have a little chat” He said firmly wondering how he was going to make an example of her.