The main focus of the entire operation hinges on the underground base. About 5 months ago, when Stehnkov was still in charge of his division, his men found an old mine site. Being a bit curious, he checked it out and found it to be a large mine, still in decent condition. It had the potential for a great base of operations. He instructed his combat engineers to begin reopening the mine, but this time with the purpose of housing men, vehicles, equipment, and supplies. After Stehnkov "resigned" from his command, he kept the engineers working for him, using the gold, and his leadership prowess, as incentive. When he set up base in the castle, he knew that is was relatively close to the mine, only about 5 kilometers away from the mine's portal. He instructed the engineers to begin digging a tunnel to connect the mine and castle together. They succeeded in this feat almost 3 weeks ago. From that time on, the engineers have been constantly working on the only other project set out for them: prepare an airstrip that starts underground and opens out over the Baltic sea. Currently, the engineers have created a sizable airstrip, capable of take-off only. They are just finishing up on creating the opening in the cliff face that is along the coast, about 1 kilometer from the castle.
Stehnkov has kept his best kept secret hidden from most prying eyes. He has "procured" two SU-24 Fencer ground attack jets. These two aircraft are in operating condition and have been carefully kept underground. In addition, he also has 1 BMP-3, 1 T-72, 1 Ural 375, and 1 UAZ in the underground base. All of these vehicles are in operating order, and the tank and APC both have about a dozen rounds for their main guns. It would take them about 20 minutes to arrive at either the castle, nuclear station, or town if big trouble were ever to show up.
There are several levels to the mine, and the first level contains the chamber where the airstrip is being fashioned. The other levels are accessible via underground roads big enough to drive a truck on. The only permanent lighting is on the first level in the airstrip chamber, the supply room, the bunk rooms, and the kitchen area. The second level has permanent lighting fixtures at the fuel storage chamber, the powder magazine, and the warhead storage chamber. The tunnel leading to the castle is on the 3rd level and only lighted at the manned gate at the tunnel's entrance to the mine.
The first level is the level where the mine's portal is, and is also where all of the vehicles are stored. There are 80 men living in the underground bunk rooms on this level. 20 of them are combat engineers who have been working on the mine for almost 5 months now. They know this mine better than anyone else, and if the mine is ever invaded, the engineers will be the greater threat to the attacking forces.
There is a chamber where the land vehicles are stored, which is some 500 meters from the chamber that contains the airstrip. The airstrip room is very large, almost 50 meters wide and is almost a kilometer long. In this room is an antechamber that contains a pump that has a pipe leading down to the 2nd level, where the fuel is stored for the jets. Up a slight incline, and into another chamber is where the jets are stored. The road leading to this room is easily large enough to facilitate the jets, as is the room where the jets are stored. There are lights in all of these rooms, but none in the connecting tunnels.
Level 2 is down from the first level, and has a large room with 4 large storage tanks capable of containing 30,000 liters of fuel. Just down from this room is a ventilation shaft that leads 250 feet to the surface. It is about 2 meters in diameter. This level also contains a storage room for warheads of various sizes. These warheads are chemical weapons warheads, mostly for artillery. Currently there are some 100 rounds of Nerve Gas, and almost 200 rounds of Blood Agents. A ventilation shaft is at the far end of this room and fans have been installed in this room to blow any dangerous fumes away. They are normally switched on at night, and create ghostly howling on the surface if you get near the mine. This noise frightens off any curious villagers or hunters. Those that continue to investigate get eliminated by the mine's attendants, lending more credibility to ghost stories. There are normally anywhere from 8 to 20 people in this area, working on preparing the chemicals for delivery by air dropped methods. This entails transferring the chemicals to other containers, and these men are all equipped with chemical suits and air supply, although the air is not always turned on. This gives these men a very "spaceman" type appearance, and may startle anyone not expecting such a sight.
On the 3rd level, the access tunnel to the castle is located, as are a couple more supply rooms, but these rooms hold mostly clothing, food, weapons (not ammunition) and spare parts for vehicles. The tunnel leading to the castle is sealed at the end in the mine by a chain link fence with a gate in it. At any one time, there are 3 men on guard here. There are also a half dozen men on guard around the storage rooms, which are about 300 to 600 meters away from the entrance, down a side tunnel. Any gunfire will alert the men at the storage room, and they will come running. They are more familiar with the mine, and know the direct route to the 2nd leve, as well as any side passages that offer alternate routes to intercept a fast moving attacking force.
Down a far side tunnel, there is a downward sloping grade that ends in a collapsed tunnel that is exposed to the sea. During low tide, the water is slightly lower than the opening, and a daring swimmer may actually access the mine by this way. At hight tide, the water rises into the tunnel, and fills up the lower portion of this drift. Anyone caught in this area during that time will have a tough time getting out as there is an undertow.
There is only one sure way of moving from the 3rd level up to the 2nd level. This way is marked by florescent orange "X"s on the back (that is a term for the ceiling in a mine) and only the Soviets in the mine know to shine their flashlights up in order to see this. An observant player might notice this, though. The "X"s are marked once every 200 meters along the road system. Once up to level 2, the road branches to several mine headings. An alternate path must be taken, and there are 3 possible ways up to level 1. Two of the ways are marked with downward arrows (which was for the combat engineers who first needed them to figure their way around in order to dig the connecting tunnel to the castle). The third way is unmarked. On the first level, the only way to find the opening leading outside (the portal) is to follow the direction the wind is coming from. The air circulation in the mine is produced by a large fan that sucks the air out of the mine. This fan is located in a secondary portal, well away from the main portal, in a clearing in the woods. There is a very small chance that someone may stumble across this fan, but it is very hard to find. The fan is incredibly loud as you near it. In fact, anyone closer than 30 meters to it cannot communicate by voice to anyone else. The fan is very durable and it would take a sizable round (about 40mm or more) to damage it. There is only a man sized entrance at this area, so vehicles would not be able to come or go through this portal. If the fan is stopped, everyone in the mine will know immediately, and there will be a team of about 25 men dispatched to check out the problem. The people underground could continue to operate for almost 3 hours after the fan is shut off.
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