History and Background

Twilight: 2000 - Under a Blood Red Sky | Home

Part 1: Lighting the Match

As the 21st century began, the seeds were already being sown for Armageddon. The Russian Confederation, already suffering deep internal turmoil, was usurped from within. As inflation spiraled out of control, and organized crime made deeper inroads, the populace became more and more dissatisfied. It was becoming a common sentiment, that despite all it's faults, at least under the Soviet model there was enough to eat, and it was safe to walk the streets at night. No one stopped to realize that these same conditions brought Adolf Hitler to power in the 1930's. A young charismatic leader, Yuri Gondorenko, promised to bring prosperity and pride back to Mother Russia if he were elected as the new president. He won by a landslide. On May 1st, 2001, the Confederation tricolor flag was lowered for the last time, and the familiar hammer and sickle was raised high once more. Gondorenko immediately began rebuilding the troika that had ruled the Soviet Union for so long, the Communist Party, the Red Army, and the KGB.

Most of the world watched in growing alarm, as the Cold War, thought to be a relic of the past, emerged bigger than ever. The former client states of the Soviet Empire, who had gotten used to the taste of freedom, rebelled. The Ukraine was chosen to provide a lesson to the other former Warsaw Pact nations. In 2002, the world watched in horror as tanks rolled into Kiev, brutally crushing the rebellion. Protests were filed in the United Nations, but no one was willing to stop the Red Army with military might. There were scattered protests and guerilla actions, but within 3 years, most of the Soviet Union's former clients were back in the fold.

The People's Republic of China in particular was concerned with the northern neighbor's new government. The Chinese military in the last few years had fallen from it's former strength, as more and more citizens became vocal in their protests against the government. In desperation, the Chinese military conceived of a plan, known as "Dragon's Breath", a new and extremely virulent version of the flu, mutated in the laboratory to be even more lethal than ever. It was to be used only as a last resort, but there began a massive inoculation campaign with a vaccine designed to protest the recipient. The Chinese became confident that if they were attacked, their enemy would be wiped out.

Part 2 : Spontaneous Combustion

As things began to heat up on the Eurasian continent, tensions in the Middle East began flaring as well. The Palestinian and Israeli citizens of Israel saw a sudden increase in riots, bombings, and terrorism. Each side blamed the other. What neither realized was that events were being orchestrated by the new Soviet Union, who had decided to finally realize their dream of world conquest, once and for all. They were also secretly funding the Arab nations of Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, helping them to build up their military forces.

It was Israel that fired the first shots of the Middle East war. As more and more of their citizens were wounded and killed, a public outcry went out to stop the violence, by any means necessary. As a major riot erupted in Jerusalem on March 15, 2005, the Israeli Defense Force soldiers opened fire, killing over a hundred Palestinian civilians in less than an hour.

That was all the incentive the Arab nations needed. Their invasion took place a week later, goaded on by their Soviet mentors, who had plans of their own.

America could not sit idly by as their ally was attacked. A quick reaction force was sent, comprised of units of the Air Force, Marines, and the 18th Airborne Corps of the Army. There were protests at home, but the troops were sent overseas once more.

Part 3: Fanning the Flames

Two weeks after the war in the Middle East began, the Soviet's plans were unveiled to everyone, as their tanks crossed the Polish frontier. The war that raged in Israel was only to pull America's Rapid Deployment forces away from Europe, leaving the door open for the Russian advance. NATO had become a shadow of it's former self, as budget cuts and anti-American sentiment had slashed the forces stationed there to the bone. Poland fell in days, and the Russians pressed on, attacking the heartland of Germany.

China ordered a full alert, and started massing it's troops on the Russian border, believing that after Europe fell, they would be next. Vials of the superflu virus were among the weapons sent north. It was this one act that sealed the fate of humanity.

One of the trucks that carried the virus was involved in an accident, and several vials were broken. Containment procedures were put into place immediately, but within days, Chinese soldiers and civilians in the area were jamming the hospitals, and dying by the hundreds. In their rush to come up with an effective deterrent, the Chinese had used several new and untested techniques to create the virus, and no one had known that the flu bug had mutated, making the vaccine they had inoculated their population with utterly useless. By the time anyone realized what had happened, thousands, and then hundreds of thousands were dead. It spread in a rapidly growing circle, and crossed into Russia.

Part 4: Wildfire

As Russia's attention was focused to the west, the first reports reaching Moscow of an unknown disease striking their soldiers along the Chinese border were buried under the lists of casualties from the European front. Within days, the deaths became far too many to ignore. Medical personnel were virtually wiped out en mass as they came in contact with the virus. It wasn't until specialists from the Biological Warfare section of the Red Army arrived on the scene that they realized what they faced. The Soviet Union realized that they had to stop the spread of the infection, and that developing a vaccine could take years. In desperation, dozens of nuclear warheads were detonated along the Sino-Soviet border, creating a blackened no-mans land of death that came to be known as "The Wall of Lenin".

In Europe, the beleaguered nations saw the explosions in China from their reconnaissance satellites, and feared the worst. England, France, and Germany immediately launched a full salvo of tactical and strategic thermonuclear missiles.

Part 4: Rockets Red Glare

Russia watched in horror as the inbound missiles streaked in. There was only one option left. The order was sent to all the Soviet Rocket Forces and Navy missile carriers, full strategic launch on all targets worldwide. ICBM's raced towards Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States of America. As the inbound missiles were detected by the radars of SAC NORAD, the President ordered a full scale retaliation.

It was the Fourth of July, 2005, 3 months after the war started in Isreal. Air raid sirens shrieked around the world, to no avail. Within minutes, Moscow, New York, Paris, London, Los Angeles, and hundreds of other cities were leveled under mushroom clouds of radioactive death. Millions were killed instantly, and millions more faced a slower, lingering demise from radiation sickness, starvation, and disease. Within months, the world population went from over 6 billion to a few million scattered survivors around the globe.

Part 5: Glowing Embers

The final blow came from an unexpected source, the Arctic regions of the North and South poles. Billions of tons of dust had been thrown up into the upper atmosphere by the hundreds of impacts. The long prophesied Nuclear Winter had begun. Glaciers began move towards the equator, much faster than anyone had imagined possible. It was as if the Earth had the last laugh. Survivors in the north began streaming southward, running smack into other survivors who wanted nothing to do with the newcomers. Clashes broke out again, as those still living fought over the dwindling resources, and to secure lands that weren't being buried in ice. With Europe in radioactive ruin, and Asia decimated by the Chinese flu, the Soviets had only one place to go; America.

In the spring of 2007, the Soviet government gathered all its resources and crossed the Bering Strait, invading the Alaskan shores. They were met with stiff resistance, but bulldozed their way through Alaska, then Canada, and finally to the state of Washington. The combined forces of the Red Army took huge losses, but they knew it was an all or nothing gamble. They smashed through the American units and charged south, scattering the US military in it's path. What started as a "Retrogade Action" turned into the biggest rout the US Army had seen since the Chosin Resivoir during the Korean War.

Until an unlikely hero emerged. MG John Bradley, commander of the Oregon National Guard, gathered all his forces and entered the fray. He managed to gather many of the fleeing US soldiers, and set a trap for the Soviet Army in SW Washington. The Battle of Centralia, 6 months after the Alaskan invasion, stopped the Russian advance in it's tracks. MG Bradley pulled the soldiers back to the Columbia River, ambushing the Soviets at every turn, making them pay dearly for every inch of ground they took. He sent the bulk of his engineers ahead, to wire the bridges crossing the Columbia for demolition. He was the last man across the bridge at Cascade Locks, known locally as the Bridge of the Gods, and watched in grim satisfaction as it was blown up in the faces of the Russian commanders.

That was 3 years ago. Although they have tried several times, the Soviets have not succesfully crossed the Columbia River into Oregon. Both sides have dug in, and the region resembles the trenches of WWI, with the river as no man's land. And the war rages on, even to this day.....