A Russian submarine captain laments his actions on Judgment Day and seeks a road to the future.

 

Notes from the Terminator chronology

 

This story comes from chapters 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19 of the Terminator Salvation novel Cold War. It takes place shortly before, during, and after Judgment Day on July 25, 2003. However, other sources generally indicate that the Salvation timeline accepts the Judgment Day date of July 25, 2004; so these chapters should have 2004 headings rather than the 2003 ones printed. The remaining chapters of the novel take place in 2018 (covered in a separate study, Cold War, coming soon to PopApostle), which is why I have split this novel into two parts in the chronology. I have chosen the title Peace and War as a play on the classic Russian novel being read by Captain Losenko throughout, War and Peace and the fact that our current story focuses on the Russian military after Skynet's initial attacks against humanity.

 

Didja Notice?

 

 Russian Navy Captain Dmitri Losenko is introduced in this novel. He goes on to appear in Salvation.

 

 Captain Losenko's submarine is described as the Delta IV nuclear submarine K-115, the Gorshkov, part of the Northern Fleet. The Delta IV is an actual class of Russian nuclear-armed sub, though the K-115 is fictitious (an earlier November-class sub was numbered the K-115). The "Gorshkov" name comes from the man who was Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union during much of the Cold War, Sergey Georgiyevich Gorshkov (1910-1988). The Northern Fleet is a unit of the Russian Navy that patrols the seas of northwestern Russia.

 

 Page 7 mentions a samovar on Captain Losenko's desk. A samovar is a Russian metal container, often elaborately worked, for heating water, usually to make tea.

 

 On page 7, Losenko is said to be in the process of reading War and Peace. War and Peace is an 1869 novel by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. It is considered one of the best novels ever written.

 

 On page 8, the Gorshkov is sailing under the frozen Barents Sea. The Barents Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean, within Russian and Scandinavian territorial waters.

 

 Also on page 8, Losenko muses on the upcoming end of his current mission and a return to his dacha in St. Petersburg. A dacha is a Russian term for a second home. St. Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia.

 

 Receiving an urgent communication from Fleet Command, Losenko wonders on page 9 what Moscow wants now. Moscow, of course, is the capital of Russia.

 

 Page 9 describes the uniforms of the Russian submariner crew as striped black shirts under dark blue jumpsuits. This is an accurate description of the working uniform of the Russian Navy.

 

 On page 10, the chief of the watch on the Gorshkov announces, "Captain in CCP" when Losenko enters the bridge. I've been unable to determine what CCP stands for.

 

 Also on page 10, Ivanov tells the captain a communiqué arrived by ELF. ELF stands for Extremely Low Frequency. ELF radio waves are often used by world militaries for communicating with submarines, as such frequencies are capable of penetrating water.

 

 On page 10, Losenko learns that the U.S. has unexpectedly fired nuclear missiles at targets in Russia, China, and the Middle East. These are the same targets listed in Dark Futures in Timeline JD-3.

 

 On page 11, Losenko realizes that Ivanov, learning of the U.S. nuclear attack, is thinking of his wife and daughter in Ukraine. Ukraine is an eastern European country that was a member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 1922-1990, with a relatively poor relationship with its former Russian masters since then. Since this story takes place in 2003 (really 04), it seems kind of odd that a Russian naval officer's family would be living in Ukraine.

 

 On page 13, Ivanov is referred to as XO. This stands for Executive Officer.

 

 Page 13 mentions the Bolshoi Ballet. The Bolshoi Ballet is one of the premiere ballet companies in the world, based in Moscow, Russia.

 

 On page 14, Losenko is trying to fathom why the U.S. had launched such an attack that was guaranteed to lead to equal retaliation, when they already had their existing problems with Afghanistan and Iraq. At the time this story takes place, the U.S. was involved in simultaneous wars in both of those Middle Eastern countries. Losenko goes on to reflect that the U.S. president was supposed to be a cowboy, not a maniac; this refers to the U.S. president at that time, George W. Bush, who often vacationed at his ranch in his home state of Texas, contributing to his cowboy image.

 

 In 2003, Molly Kookesh is seen as a Forest Service ranger at Chugach State Park, south of the Alaskan city of Anchorage. Molly plays a large role in the 2018 portions of the novel, to be covered in the upcoming study, Cold War.

 

 On page 35, the Gorshkov is in the Arctic Circle. The Arctic Circle runs along the latitude of 66° 33′ 44″ N. It is the latitude north of which lies the region of the Earth called the Arctic and where the sun remains above the horizon for 24 hours on the June solstice and for 24 hours below the horizon on the December solstice.

 

 On page 36, the Gorshkov picks up surface transmissions indicating that many countries around the world are blaming each other for the attacks and are warring among themselves. The Israelis are blaming the Arabs and vice versa; India is retaliating against Pakistan; Georgia and Chechnya think Russia is to blame; Al Qaeda has issued a fatwa against the U.S. president.

    Israel and the Arab nations have not gotten along well in, well, ever. India and Pakistan have been involved in four wars and numerous skirmishes since the partition of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947, mostly over the disputed ownership of the region of Kashmir. Georgia and Chechnya are republics formerly part of the Soviet Union; Georgia is now an independent country, while Chechnya is a federal subject of Russia. Al Qaeda is a militant Islamist group considered by most democratic nations to be a terrorist organization; a fatwa is an Islamic law term for a considered legal opinion by a mufti, but in modern times the term is often used in the Western world to indicate that a militant Islamic group or leader has asked his followers to seek out and kill a perceived enemy of Islam.

 

 On page 37, Cherkov reports that Russia's Akula attack subs are being engaged by Chinese and American subs. "Akula" is Russian for "shark" and is an actual class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine in use by the Russian Navy since the 1980s.

 

 Also on page 37, Losenko wonders why the U.S. has attacked Russia now, when the threat of Mutual Assured Destruction deterred them all through the Cold War. Mutual Assured Destruction is a theory that the enemy will not attack to annihilate you with weapons of mass destruction if they believe you will be able to annihilate them as well before you're destroyed. The Cold War is the name given to the tension-filled political and military relationship among the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc nations after WWII until the fall of the Soviet Union.

 

 Pages 69-70 describe the Russian city of Murmansk as having had a population of over 300,000 people and was the home of the Northern Fleet. These are both true, though the naval base is actually in the nearby city of Severomorsk within the Murmansk Oblast.

 

 On page 70, the Gorshkov makes its way through the Kola Fjord. This is a fjord in northwestern Russia.

 

 Also on page 70, Losenko reflects on the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki "sixty years ago". This occurred during the closing days of WWII.

 

 On page 71, Trotsky says, "Bolzhe moi." This is Russian for "My God."

 

 On page 72, Losenko thinks of the bombed Murmansk as another Chernobyl. Chernobyl is a city in Ukraine in what is now the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, due to the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986, when the country was under the control of the Soviet Union.

 

 Also on page 72, Losenko states that there are fishing villages near Ponoy. The Ponoy River runs through the Murmansk Oblast and is popular for fishing Atlantic salmon, but I have not found evidence of a town called Ponoy. The Skynet factory encountered by Losenko and his men is said to be on the banks of the Ponoy River. 

 

 On page 96, Ivanov carries a Kalashnikov assault rifle. The Kalashnikov is a popular line of Russian automatic rifles, the most commonly known of which is the AK-47, designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov.

 

 On page 97, Zamyatin's scouting party takes off in a truck down a road heading into the heart of the Kola Peninsula. The Kola Peninsula is the large peninsula in the farthest northwest corner of Russia.

 

 On page 101, as Losenko waits for a further report from Zamyatin's scouting team, he feels like Noah waiting for the dove to return. This is a reference to the Biblical account of the flood and Noah's Ark and how Noah sends out a dove from the ark and it later returns with an olive branch, indicating dry land nearby.

 

 As some of his men begin to desert the sub, Losenko wonders if they, having been without the company of women for months, are each searching for Eve to their Adam, to repopulate the world after the slaughter of Judgment Day. This, of course, is a reference to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, who are said to be the first man and woman.

 

 On page 117, Losenko's men have left their scavenged vehicles behind, as they sneak up on the machine factory, at a junkyard, hidden in plain sight like Poe's famous purloined letter. This refers to the 1844 short story "The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allen Poe.

 

 On page 120, Losenko reflects that the surveillance drone that flies over his team looks similar to the Scan Eagle UAVs used by the U.S. military. This refers to the Boeing Insitu ScanEagle built as a surveillance device for U.S. and allied militaries. UAV stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

 

On page 121, Gorski slams a fresh banana clip into his AK-74. The AK-74 is a Kalashnikov rifle developed in the early 1970s. A banana clip (the more accurate term would be "banana magazine") is the curved type of ammunition magazine often used on assault rifles.

 

 On page 122, Losenko says a silent, Dasvidania, comrade, over Pagodin's rotting remains. Dasvidania is Russian for "Goodbye."

 

 On page 123, Losenko thinks of his team's battle against a squad of robots as like something out of a science-fiction movie. This may be a bit of self-referential humor on the author's part to the Terminator films.

 

 On page 129, Ostrovosky says, "Nyet!" This is Russian for "No!"

 

On page 144, Grushka tosses a Molotov cocktail at an approaching Terminator. A Molotov cocktail is an improvised incendiary device, usually made from a glass bottle. It is caustically named after Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov (1890-1986).

 

Some of the human resistors tend to refer to those who have allied themselves with the machines as "metal lovers" and "circuit-sucking collaborators".

 

Losenko and his remaining men from the battle at the Skynet factory escape in a small fiberglass skiff called Rusalka. This is probably a reference to the name of water nymphs in Slavic mythology.

 

The sonarman aboard the Gorshkov is Yuri Michenko. Another Russian named Yuri (last name unknown) is a Resistance member aboard the Soviet Research Submarine Sea Wind in the Terminator comics published by NOW.

 

In Chapter 15, the Gorshkov encounters the Russian Kashin-class destroyer, Smetlivy. The Smetlivy is a real world destroyer of the Russian Navy, in service since 1969. It is now the last Kashin-class ship in the Russian Navy.

 

On page 202, the Gorshkov communicates with the Smetlivy via a secure UHF transmission. UHF stands for Ultra High Frequency.

 

On page 212, Losenko recalls that the Smetlivy is capable of firing RGB-60 unguided depth charges. These are an actual type of anti-submarine depth charge used by Russian naval ships.

 

Also on page 212, Pavlinko reports receiving a VLF transmission from the Americans. VLF stands for Very Low Frequency.

 

Ivanov has a habit of thinking of the Americans as Yankees. "Yankee" is a term used by citizens of other countries to refer to Americans.

 

Page 214 reveals that the Gorshkov uses an Omnibus-BDRM computerized battle management system. This is true of Delta IV-class submarines.

 

On page 214, Losenko thinks, Dasvidania, Mr. Frantz, as the Gorshkov prepares to sink the Smetlivy and her captain, Konstantin Frantz. Dasvidania is Russian for "Goodbye."

 

On the surface of the Bering Sea on page 216, the Gorshkov finds the remains of an Apache helicopter after the battle against the Smetlivy. The Boeing AH-64 Apache is an attack helicopter in use by the U.S. military and its allies since 1983 and still in production. The Bering Sea is the body of water of the Pacific Ocean between the Alaskan Peninsula and Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia.

 

On page 219, Ortega, just having been rescued from the ice cold waters of the Bering Sea by the Gorshkov, says, "P-pryvet." This is Russian for "Hello".

 

Sensing that Ivanov does not like Americans, Ortega begins calling him Boris as she explains some ways in which the U.S. is superior to Russia. "Boris" is a name occasionally used as a generic for a male Russian by foreigners ("Ivan" is a more prevalent generic name, but since Ivanov already as "Ivan" as part of his last name, she may have gone to "Boris" for that reason).

 

Page 221 reveals that General Ashdown's first name is Hugh.

 

The meeting of world leaders of the newly formed Resistance takes place at the Charles Darwin Research Station near Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. This is a real world biological research station operated by the Charles Darwin Foundation.

 

Captain Losenko attends the meeting, leaving Ivanov in command of the Gorshkov, out at sea, not to return until he's received a Morse Code password from him. Morse code is a method of communicating via a series of on-off signals such as flashes, tones, or clicks, invented by Samuel Morse (1791-1872).

 

On page 230, Losenko says, "Pryvet, Corporal Ortega." Pryvet is Russian for "Hello".

 

While at the Resistance meeting at the Charles Darwin Research Station on page 231, Losenko ironically thinks of the war between humans and machines as "Survival of the fittest". This phrase is commonly associated with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection (though the phrase itself was coined later, in 1864, by philosopher Herbert Spencer in comparing his economic theories to Darwin's theory of natural selection).

 

Page 232 describes the small auditorium used for the meeting of the world Resistance leaders as looking like a miniature United Nations General Assembly. The United Nations General Assembly is an organ of the United Nations in which all member nations have equal representation.

 

The placards of the world leaders indicate representatives of the following countries (plus others left unnamed): America, Canada, Great Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, Japan, Australia, Libya, South Africa, Cuba, Nigeria, Greece, Turkey, and Russia.

 

On page 233, Utyosov tells Losenko his family is hiding out in a bomb shelter outside of Vladivostok. Vladivostok is a city in Russia.

 

Film footage presented to the Resistance assembly on pages 234-236 are largely of scenes that occurred during the events at Edwards Air Force Base in Rise of the Machines.

 

Page 236 reveals that General Ashdown is known as Old Ironsides by his troops.

 

On pages 237-238, an unconvinced Indian commander at the meeting is described as a Sikh and he objects that the footage they were just shown could have been hoaxed with special effects from Bollywood. A Sikh is a member of the Sikh religion, originating in the Punjab region of South Asia (eastern Pakistan and northern India). Bollywood is a nickname for the Indian film industry, based in Mumbai, India.

 

When some of the representatives still have doubts about the existence of Skynet, others (from U.S.-allied nations) confirm that the Skynet project was known as something being developed by the U.S. and that NATO was kept informed of the project. NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance of most of the western world's democratic nations.

 

General Ashdown's base of operations is the Los Angeles-class SSN, the USS Wilmington. In 2003, the commander of the Wilmington is shown to be Captain Smallwood; at the time of Cold War (2018), it is Captain Lucy Okata. SSN is a NATO designation for "Ship Submersible Nuclear". The Los Angeles-class is an actual class of nuclear-powered submarine in the U.S. Navy, however the USS Wilmington is fictitious.

 

On page 244, Ashdown tells Losenko about the Wilmington, asking him, "How do you think I got to this volcanic pit stop?" The island of Santa Cruz is, in fact, a dormant volcano.

 

On page 245, Losenko feels his mouth go was dry as the Gobi Desert when he is about to tell Ashdown that it was the Gorshkov that fired its nuclear missiles at Alaska, resulting in the death of Ashdown's son among the other millions, in Russian retaliation for the U.S. strikes (fired by Skynet) on Judgment Day. The Gobi Desert is a desert region of northwestern China and southern Mongolia.

 

After the saboteur's explosion rattles the Charles Darwin Research Station on page 260, Ashdown asks incredulously, "What the Sam Hill was that?" "Sam Hill" is an euphemism for "the devil" or "Hell".

 

On page 261, Ortega hands a Glock to Losenko to defend himself. Glock is an Austrian firearms manufacturer.

 

On page 262, the Resistance uses a pair of Avenger air defense guns mounted atop Humvees, firing Stinger missiles. The AN/TWQ-1 Avenger air defense system is a real world vehicle-mounted weapon, typically firing FIM-92 Stinger missiles.

 

On page 263, Losenko guesses that the drone firing upon the research center is a U.S. Predator or Reaper UAV. These are both real world U.S. military drones with a similar configuration. Later pages in the novel seem to decide upon the ones being used here as Predators.

 

On page 270, the Wilmington is said to be anchored in Academy Bay. This is the actual bay on the shores of which sit the town of Puerto Ayora and the Charles Darwin Research Station.

 

On page 272, Ivanov wonders how Captain Losenko can even think of conferring with the American Resistance leader, comparing the American General Ashdown to Hitler. Hitler, of course, was the Chancellor of Germany 1934-1945, during WWII.

 

On page 275, Pavlinko guesses the helicopter approaching the Gorshkov may have originated on Pinzon Island. This is another real world island in the Galapagos Islands.

 

On page 277, Smallwood orders Harpoon missiles armed against the attacking Apache helicopters. However, Harpoon missiles are actually intended as anti-ship defense, not anti-aircraft.

 

On page 278, Losenko, aboard the Wilmington, realizes the Gorshkov must have fired Viyuga missiles to destroy the attacking Apache helicopter. However, the Russian Viyuga missile is actually an anti-submarine defense, not anti-aircraft.

 

Also on page 278, a chopper drops ASW torpedoes into the water, targeting Gorshkov. ASW stands for Anti-Submarine Warfare.

 

On page 282 Ashdown exclaims, "Damned if I ever thought I'd owe my life to a Russian SSBN!" SSBN stands for Ship Submersible Ballistic missile Nuclear-powered.

 

On page 283, Losenko wishes the Gorshkov, Dasvidania, and godspeed. Dasvidania is Russian for "Goodbye."

 

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