Chapter 1402 Pas (1/2)

The Markelov brothers both had square, rectangular faces with the deep eye sockets, large noses and bulbous features typical for Slavic peoples, except that the elder Markelov had a bushy beard.

After graduating from high school, the two brothers joined the army. They were former residents of western Ukraine. Since childhood, they followed their father to hunt wolves and foxes in the trails of the Carpathian mountains.

The training was hard and tiring, but the two men were like fish in the water.

Most of the training was carried out in the home army camp. For the two brothers, who had been climbing mountains with their parents since childhood, there was no physical obstacle and all they easily passed every mission.

Their physical strength, good learning ability, and excellent marksmanship were later noticed by the Ukrainian special forces. Both of them were selected to join.

The two brothers were supposed to have a bright future in the army. Unfortunately, it was not a good time for that. The country's politics were in turmoil. The military fell by the wayside and was not treated as an important department.

Besides, the Ukrainian army was so corrupt that its soldiers were promoted only by back door methods, or following a higher level of education, which the army chose to use to bolster its credentials.

Unfortunately for the Markelovs, they did not have any show-off skills or powerful connections. They had no education and no money, so it was hard for them to be promoted in the army.

The two brothers were very simple in the beginning. They trained hard and did their best on all tasks to obtain merit, but gradually found that it was pointless.

Hard training, good physical shape, learning more military skills, and hard implementation of tasks did not give them more than a few words of praise from their superior. There was no hope for a promotion.

What they saw were the sons of officials, the rich, and the army's second-generation peers who did not train daily, but got promoted quickly without carrying out any tasks or even having basic military skills.

This was a blow to their faith. They were confident that they were a hundred times better than their peers, but ultimately other, less worthy soldiers got the promotion they could only dream of.

The thing that had the most impact on them was that as their superiors became more and more inept, human lives were lost in the process.

Once when they went to carry out a transnational mission, because of the tactical mistakes their commanders made, some of their comrades died in vain in foreign countries.

This matter was very serious and merited an in-depth investigation. However, as they expected, the upper ranks covered up for each other with the help of their family's connections and successfully avoided punishment, while the soldiers who risked their lives got into trouble and were used as their scapegoats.

The two brothers were very strong, and it was inevitable that they would have some pride and try to get revenge.

The two brothers could not bear with such treatment, so they broke into the battalion headquarters together and severely beat up their incompetent superior.

It was a big deal. They were supposed to be court-martialed.

However, their superior was guilty, so he dared not make it public. Just then, their troops received a new task again.

This overseas mission was very dangerous, so their superior sent the brothers in the hope that they would get killed.