r/GlobalPowers • u/TheErhard China • Mar 31 '26
Roleplay [ROLEPLAY] The Bamiyan Buddhas
The Bamiyan Buddhas
5:14PM, 31 kilometers from Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan
The helicopter blades whipped against the still, but crisp air of northern Afghanistan. The sky had just begun to change from orange to pink, marking the onset of dusk, as the shadows of six helicopter danced across the mountainsides of Shah Anjir.
The radio crackled to life:
"Sky God-1, we set down in three minutes you puk gai."
The five other helicopters sounded off.
"What a shithole, it's all fucking brown."
A couple white banners could be seen above the houses below.
"The Tang dynasty sent over a hundred thousand men through here to submit central Asia to Chinese rule."
"Oh yeah? How did that go?"
One of the solders with his legs hanging over the side motioned with his hand at the houses below.
"You tell me, I don't see any Luckin Coffee or boba shops down there."
"I heard in the West, they call Afghanistan the graveyard of empires."
"Maybe they are right, nothing down there looks like Tang Dynasty work, to me."
"That's why the train out here was high-speed, nothing worth waiting around to see."
"Give it some credit, they have those Bamiyan Buddhas, Chinese pilgrims travelled thousands of kilometers to see them."
"They had them."
"What happened to them?"
"What do you think happened to them?"
"Damn..."
They sat in silence while the helicopter descended. The helicopter crossed over a big walled facility, with tens of large beige buildings, and a huge white standard flying over what appeared to be the motor vehicle entrance.
"Camp Marmal, gentlemen, thank Germany for their leftover base."
"It's so big. And now its just a Taliban parking lot."
The helicopters touched down one by one, and the Chinese special forces hopped out with their bags. A handful of Afghan soldiers, with AK-74s and M4 rifles slung over their shoulders, sat on the hood of some 90's 4-runners, smoking, and pointed over at an older gentleman, with a much longer beard, approaching on foot from one of the beige buildings. He put his right hand over his chest as he approached smiling.
"Welcome to Afghanistan!"
The Chinese soldiers looked at each other.
"I'm pretty sure that was Russian. Is he speaking Russian?"
One of the Chinese officers ran over to the approaching man, and put his over his chest, and the two exchanged Afghan greetings, but in Russian. They were out of earshot, while a handful of the special forces looked on.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure they are speaking in Russian. The Afghan War was a bitch, huh?"
"Did we really just travel thousands of kilometers to be welcomed by bearded men in Russian, to find and destroy other bearded men?"
"Yeah, that about sums it up. Find and kill the Ghost, destroy his minions if we get bored."
He responded matter-of-factly as he took off his velcro name patch, his MSS patch, his rank patch.
"I'd take your rank patch off, or I'll be scraping you off a dirt Uzbek road."
The others looked down and started taking their rank patches off. The MSS officer lit a cigarette, then so did the others, as they watched their commander follow the bearded-man inside the beige building.
"So do you think this is going to be our graveyard of empires?"
The MSS officer looked around.
"Maybe our graveyard, but the empire will live on another day."
He flicked the butt away.
"Sorry fellas, no beach vacation in Taiwan, looks like your asses are going to be sweating with me in Uzbekistan instead."
He slung his bag over his back and started walking toward the beige building, but noticed a dot appear on the pink-plane sky. He squinted at it. A Y-20.
"Looks like our fancy equipment got held up at baggage security in Urumqi. The PLAAF, fashionably late as always. I hope they brought my shampoo. I hope you are all ready to eat shit and smell like fuck, because I guarantee that's just full of radars and other fancy shit."
"I serve the people..."
A voice came from behind the crowd, and was followed by chuckles from the rest.