Note From the Author:

It has been a very long time since I wrote anything, so please be gentle. I read this story randomly and felt embarrassed by the mistakes in it. I didn't even realize it was my own profile until I looked at the author name. That should tell you how long I've been away. That and the fact that this was one of the very first to be published in this section.

Under the Fallout

History Repeats

001

War is the most enduring of practices among mankind.

Ever since the ancient humans discovered how to use bone and rock to kill, humans had been fighting. For their gods, for their food, for their status and for their differences. The motivators were plenty but the root of the problem was always the same. They were different from you and everyone you knew, so they were dangerous. In the end, the fear of the unknown has controlled humans since they had first learned to walk on their feet.

It should be no surprise that thousands of years later, humanity was still divided by fear. Different cultures meant different values and different ways of thinking. Similar people allied themselves with similar minds and the world became polarized. Each side thought their people superior and the other as evil manifested. They were so entrenched in the idea that the other side was the enemy that, if asked, the differences were like black and white.

It was a competition between the Soviets and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The two factions had been locked in a stalemate for decades following the largest conflict man had ever participated in. Where one had more people, the other had superior technology. Where one had more influence, the other had more territory. Neither of the two factions possessed a large enough advantage to overtake their opponent. In the middle, laid a developing region and the key to the fuel both sides used to power their economies.

Unfortunately, none of the nations had been ready for when the oil ran dry. As less and less oil was churned up from the ground, the middle east became more and more reluctant to sell it. Prices increased, economies crashed and tensions rose until the inevitable happened. The powers that were began to fight over the resources, sovereign independence be damned. They were afraid, afraid of what would happen if they couldn't protect themselves - afraid of the unknown.

While the resource wars ravaged the West, there was one society that remained functioning. Years of hoarding had allowed the United States to survive the initial crash relatively unscathed. The strain of the following years were eased by the oil wells of their most northern regions. New technology was on the rise that could further lift the burden on the American people. It was the age of atomic energy and it would have pulled everyone back from the brink if it had been able see mass use.

Unlike the American powers, the Soviets did not have neighbors they could invade to alleviate their oil strain. The oil fields of the middle east had been obliterated during the resource wars. Now the only source of fossil fuels in the world rested solely in the possession of their greatest enemy. The reserves their governments had stockpiled were almost gone, which meant that they would soon be vulnerable to an invasion. Realizing what must be done to ensure their people had a place in the future, they invaded the U.S.

The war had taken place in the northern most region of the United States, Alaska. Though the defenses had been strengthened, they were completely unprepared for the overwhelming amount of troops the Soviets used. Over the following months, more Soviets would land in Alaska and secure their hold while U.S. forces desperately attempted to liberate the region. As the fighting dragged on, the U.S. annexed its northern neighbor to allow their forces to reach Alaska with greater ease. This would merely result in the two sides digging into the region, both contesting the other and skirmishing with no true gains.

In a desperate attempt to end the war, the U.S. high command formulated a plan. They would land an amphibious invasion force at the home of the Soviets in order to cut off support from the Alaskan front. The enemy would outnumber them one hundred to one but it was possible with the help of atomic energy. Troops were given the very first models of nuclear powered armor, which made them nigh immune to small arms on the battlefield. Meanwhile, special forces were given the most advanced man portable energy weapons developed, laser rifles and even a limited amount of plasma based weapons were issued. Reinforced with their atomic powered tanks, which enjoyed greater fire power while retaining similar mobility, the counter-offensive was launched.

The landings had suffered massive casualties trying to secure a beach head. Many soldiers never made it to shore, their transports having been sunk during the approach. Those that did reach land were confronted by law enforcement and local militias as the air force battled for control of the skies overhead. With the aid of their power armor, the new energy weapons and upgraded main battle tanks, the U.S. forces secured a foot hold. The newly fielded power armor allowed them the luxury of storming entrenched enemy positions while being unaffected by the hail of small arms fire. The advancements were too much for the defenders to counter, so they retreated. With the coast secured, the U.S. forces began to press the retreating enemy further inland.

As soon as the first reports were received, massive amounts of troops were mobilized. Many were deployed across the ocean to further pressure mainland China while others continued to reinforce the Alaskan front. The U.S. advance would reach all the way to the heart of its enemy, Beijing. The battle for the capital was the first major loss of the Chinese Campaign. The Soviets had pulled out all of the stops to ensure their capital remained out of U.S. hands. With their overwhelming numbers, they trapped the forces and sprung their ambush.

The battle for Beijing was the most intense battle of the war. Though surrounded, the U.S. forces managed to hold their position for three days. In the end, it was their ammunition and power cores that ran out before the enemy's will. The loss of the 1st army was crushing for morale. Their sacrifice was not in vein though, for they had inflicted an outrageous amount of casualties to the enemy. Most of their elite forces had been wiped out during the fighting, leaving their only pool of experienced forces overseas. With U.S. forces still occupy a significant chunk of their homeland, the Soviet forces in Alaskan were recalled.

After the crushing defeats and a massive amount of their troops being redeployed, those remaining in Alaska knew it was only a matter of time before the Americans launched a counter attack. They hadn't even waited until the transports had left the shore before attacking. By the time the transports had linked up with the main fleet, the U.S. had already retaken the coastline. Though they had seen immense success in their campaigns, the U.S. was growing weary of the war. The unexpected conflict had consumed much of the precious oil they had stockpiled and many of the oil refineries had been damaged during the back and forth skirmishes. The U.S. government, under pressure from the people, extended an offer for a cease fire. It would be the start of peace talks between the two, to prevent further escalation.

As expected, they accepted the offer...

Throughout most of the nineteenth century, people had feared of the power of the atom. It was understandable as their first taste had been the atomic bomb. The first bomb to ever be capable of leveling a city single handed. It's sibling bomb was detonated less than a week later, bringing even greater destruction in its wake. The practice of raising a city was nothing new to humanity, it had been used for centuries. To do so in a single blow, without warning, brought forth a particular sense of dread in most. To be gone in a flash of light without even realizing how imminent one's own passing was.

The power of the atom had won the second world war for America and now, it did the same with the Soviets.

The ceasefire lasted for less than a day before the bells of Armageddon rang. No one knew what had convinced them to do this but, at this point, there was no point in caring. Nuclear rockets took to the sky, on a set path for every major city within the United States. There were too many to shoot down and with less than thirty minutes until impact, the alarm bells across the country let out their wails. When the wailed, many froze in place as terror gripped their very soul. For the sound of those alarms heralded death and the end of everything as they knew it.

In major cities across the country, people hurried about. The few that had been selected for the underground Vault-Tech programs flocked to safety. The resourceful few that couldn't hunkered down in their own bunkers. The unfortunate ones who couldn't do either went home, to their families. The only indicator of what would happen was the faint glow of afterburners on the horizon.

When the nuclear bombs exploded, no one had time to register it. A concussive blast of air traversed the landscape faster than sound, flattening people and houses with no discrimination. Anything that hadn't been blown apart was soon bathed in the heat of a star. Those who weren't in immediate danger of the blast found themselves blinded by the intensity of the light. In the span of hours, ever major city in the U.S. had been reduced to a radioactive crater burning with the ferocity of the sun. Hundreds of cities that had endured hundreds of years of aging, development, restoration and generations were gone in an instant.

America was burning but its enemies would not get a reprieve either...

In the final moments before impact, the leaders of the U.S. faced their grim reality. This was the end of everything they held dear. Their nation, their home and their families would be wiped from existence with no trace they had ever existed in the first place. They were powerless to prevent it but they weren't powerless to deliver vengeance. If the Chinese were so desperate for fuel, then America would let them have. Several thousand nuclear rockets worth of oil since they needed it so badly.

Mutually assured destruction...

It truly was mad, wasn't it?

Those that fled underground would be confined there for hundreds of years. Until the radiation receded and the air was breathable, they would be trapped. Those who had been spared from nuclear annihilation viewed the underground bunkers as arks, bastions for humanity to cling do during the great cleansing above. Their descendants would view the vaults more closer to prisons that they could never leave. The irony of their predicament was lost on all of them, for they now shared a fate like that of humanities first enemy.

As it would turn out, the rumors of ancient humanity had more truth to them then it seemed, as one child found out prior to the fall of the bombs. The monsters had been imprisoned for thousands of years. Unaware that the world above them had torn its self asunder, they yearned for a chance to be free and to experience the surface first hand. They had been trapped by ancient humans because of how different they were. Yet thousands of years later, humans and monsters find themselves in the same situation with similar hopes and dreams...

Isn't funny how history repeats its self?