New York, 2016, 1800hrs;
The setting sun cast a dream-like state over the city; glistening spires of city blocks caught the amber rays and sent it coalesced into a stunning beam of light that reflected into the mahogany sky.
It would have been a magnificent sight if not for the dilapidated ruins of skyscrapers that detracted ones attention. Ironically, the skyscrapers were lying on the ground, their lustre long gone and replaced by a sad emptiness.
The city streets were littered with cars and a majority of them had their doors wide open; obvious signs of hasty departure. Traffic lights, or those that were still standing, were faulty, with those in the same junction blinking antagonistically. Nothing wrong with that of course, but the fact that the rate of change was every few seconds surely could not have gone unnoticed. This is, if there was anyone around to notice it, largely due to the blaring fact that the entire city was deserted.
A gentle breeze blew along the stretches of road, stirring up various odds and ends; pages of a newspaper spiralled up into the air, riding the air currents. Apart from its rustling, there was only deafening silence to be heard.
30 km away, at the heart of the city, lay a massive crater. This semi sphere was 2km wide and at the epicentre of the void, it ran 4km deep.
The setting sun cast a dream-like state over the city.
There were no birds;
There was no life.
Military ammo dump site, Nevada, 2 years ago:
The sound of booted feet echoed loudly down the underground gang walks.
The subterranean facility was kept under strict surveillance by the US National Guard.
There was only one way in and one had to have 5 levels of clearance in order to enter the inner sanctum of the facility, also the primary area of operations.
"Sir, a message has just arrived from Washington. Our operators down at the comm. Lab are unable to decode it. Apparently it's FYEO." Puffed a lean soldier of mid-30's and by the stripes on his uniform, it identified him as a lance corporal.
"Alright, dismissed soldier. Okay everybody listen up. I want everyone to clear the OPS room ASAP."
Without even pausing to wait, the Commander of the base produced a key card and slotted it into the primary console in front of him. A prompt instantly lit up the OPS room video screen.
Voice recognition eh? He mused.
Statistics ran across the screen before congregating in a mesh of files, only to be covered by a message pop-up.
'Commander', it read, 'there is a top level priority situation that is to be in immediate effect upon reading this message. 2 days ago, our intelligence unit at Washington had chanced upon an encrypted message from within homeland servers, outgoing to the USSR. Upon further probing, investigations have revealed a breach in security. There have already been several instances of system crashes in which have been related to USSR server attacks. The biggest discovery has been that of 5 USSR intelligence officers amongst our top-brass. It is thereby imperative that you immediately begin a thorough background check on all officers of level 6 clearance and above.
This message is to all Commanders. We wish you the best of luck and if it holds, hopefully nothing too harmful will come of this situation. God bless us.'
No sooner had the Commander finished reading the message than 3 officers burst into the OPS room.
"I thought I told everybody to,"
"Sir, forgive us, but there's a situation going on outside the steam rooms, there have been reports of gunfire and fighting. We were sent to report to you."
The Commander was already rushing to the doorway when something clicked in his mind, with a start, he turned around to speak.
The twisted smiles of the officers with their gun barrels raised at him were the last things he saw.
In that day, 9 other ammo dumps that housed nuclear warheads became armed. Of these, 8 were launched; the other 2 bases perpetrators had been foiled in their attempts.
USSR intelligence had infiltrated US defences and had launched nuclear warheads at the major American cities.
The nuclear fallout that had resulted killed two thirds of the population, the rest were forced to take shelter in self-sustainable underground domes. The cataclysm was coined; First Impact.
A year later, after radiation levels had dropped till they could be countered by radiation suits, the USSR launched assaults on US soil.
At present, surviving US forces pitch battle on homeland, other major world powers are unable to help due to problems of their own, instigated by USSR agents.
New York had become the frontier city facing the USSR onslaught after the fall of New Jersey 3 weeks prior. Already, the US soldiers assigned to the 10 domes in the city were hard pressed defending it.
New York, 2016, 1800hrs;
A small squad is dispatched from Beta Dome to recover a downed convoy en route from Gamma Dome.
Lance corporal Jinks, better known as Jinx, stood outside on the ramp that led to the surface as the door to the airlock room clamped shut behind with a resounding finality.
He, together with 7 other squad mates, wore gas masks and similar clothes and equipment that had been developed to protect against the dangerous levels of radiation that permeated the environment like a coiling miasma.
At a signal, they set off towards the last received location of the convoy. The convoy was of high priority, yet his squad was the only one assigned, as the rest were busy in engagements with USSR forces. The convoy contained the latest batch of the genetically-altering vaccines that rendered soldiers immune to the environmental radiation. This meant less bulky armour and better manoeuvrability in the field. The squad scaled the fallen debris and headed wearily towards their target. The only signs of life were fields of radioactive moss covering blocks of buildings and entire stretches of road. The soldiers advanced in a semi-hunched position, their standard issue automatic rifles (m4a1s) held out in front of them.
Soon they passed by the zone of First Impact, looking like miniscule toy soldiers compared to the size of the crater. The site of the destruction forced Jinx to tear his eyes away, as unwelcomed feelings of resentment welled up within.
It was when they emerged from the shadow of a small building onto a cross-junction when they were assailed by several USSR soldiers. 2 squad members died instantly.
The squad broke formation and ducked for cover.
Jinx was pressed up against a piece of concrete that once was the foundation walls for a building, the butt of his gun held against his thighs. Pieces of shrapnel whizzed over his head as the opposition unloaded clips after clips of ammunition. The rate of fire meant that the ricochet of bullets was highly likely, making retaliation at best, a blind fire in the enemies general direction. Using a mirror attached to his rifle, Jinx pinpointed the location of the enemy to a second storey car park overlooking the cross-junction.
He glanced over at his squad mates, who were equally pressed up against other debris on the same side of the road as he was and then at the dead soldiers lying in the middle of the junction.
There it was, a lull in the shooting. He jerked his fingers in rapid succession. Almost as one, the remaining squad split off into 2 groups, flanking the multi-storey car park, whilst another 2 soldiers remained to fire volleys at the enemy, drawing their attention away from the rest.
Slinking from shadow to shadow, the squad, huddled forward, rushed up the ramp of the car park. They were met by a conflagration as a well-timed grenade blew up under their noses. One died instantly whilst another had had his armour torn through.
Jinx ticked him off the squad list, as exposure to the radiation resulted in death minutes later.
Seemingly out of nowhere, 4 USSR soldiers flanked their backs and started firing. Ducking behind support pillars, Jinx and the surviving squad members returned fire, their night-vision googles exuding a greenish glow as they peered into the gloom.
It was useless, with the remaining USSR soldiers coming down the ramp to backup their comrades, pitching a battle was suicide.
Jinx fumbled at his side-compartments, pulling out a flash-bang. He hurled it into the midst of the enemy and with other squad members doing the same thing, aimed for the car park exit, shut his eyes and made a mad dash for it.
The downed soldier put up his final resistance, opening up at the mass of soldiers at the base of the ramp, before being gunned down from behind, as their backup finally arrived.
Outside, the Jinx's squad half-crouched, half-sprinted towards the safety of the debris which they had took cover upon earlier. The other 2 teammates were still firing shots into the shadows of the car park, providing covering fire for the squads retreat. Afraid to look back, the squad made their way through side streets and alleys, in the general direction of the convoy. If they got there, they could restock and recoup at the mobile first aid vehicle detailed to the convoy. A wild panic gnawed at the pits of their stomach as the squad had come so close to being wiped out.
One of the squad members, carrying a radio kit, had received a short burst of message before the channels became consumed by static. However, it was enough to confirm the survival of the convoy and their exact location. The darkening horizon was creeping up on the squad and they needed to reach the convoy ASAP. Cresting a small hill, they finally came to overlook the convoy bunkered down in the middle of a cross-junction. 3 light tanks and the mobile first aid vehicle had been set up on all flanks to deflect enemy fire. In the middle of the cluster was a group of US soldiers, taking up covered positions and trading fire on all sides.
Jinx sighed. It was going to be a long night.
The squad made its slow decent down the hill, rifles held in front of them, as they fought their way towards the convoy.
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