Timofey Vasilyevich Alenin took a difficult path from a Cossack herdsman to a lieutenant colonel of the General Staff and the head of the Analytical Center at the Russian Emperor. Several assassination attempts on the emperor and members of his family were prevented by his new service; conspirators who were trying to carry out another Guards coup were routed and destroyed. In the naval department of the Russian Empire, a unit of combat divers appeared—fighters who had already distinguished themselves in the confrontation between Russia and England by sinking two British armored squadron battleships.
A war with Japan—and possibly with England as well—is inevitable, and the Emperor has set Alenin-Zeysky a very difficult task to carry out…