Resistance: Europe Falls

by EmperorOfTheSunFirstAndTheLast

Nine years after SRPA extracted Alexei and Doctor Fyodor Malikov from the crumbling Russian Empire, Alexei Mikhailov finds himself a Lieutenant in the fledgling military of SRPA. But as the Chimera breach the Iron Curtain at last, can Alexei help the United European Defence hold the line? Or will he bare witness to the fall of the entirety of the European Continent?

1. Chapter 1

Resistance: Europe Falls

Chapter 1: Harbin

14:37 Hours, Outside Harbin, Republic of China

"We are here to observe Mikhailov, nothing more" Major Richard Blake said to the stoic Russian man. It had been nine years since he was evacuated alongside Doctor Fyodor Malikov, for all he knew he was the last Human Russian fighting the Chimera on the frontlines, but that mattered little, he was with his new squad, in the organisation known as the Special Research and Projects Administration, an American group, highly classified as top secret, they were in China now, watching, waiting, to see how the Chinese military dealt with the Chimera, but not to help. 'big mistake' Alexei thought to himself, 'we should be fighting alongside each other to slaughter the sub-human Alien hybrid creatures and restore Russia to its former glory' he finished the thought. "Understood" Alexei replied. His trigger finger was getting itchy, he saw in the distance, from the safety of his foxhole, the city of Harbin. SRPA were here because they had learnt that the Chinese were being hit hard by the enemy war machine, and they needed to be studied now that they were more organised than they were in Russia, for the past nine years no one had re-entered the former Russian Imperial territories, it was too dangerous, the weather was so harsh you'd lose your way, and if you survived the weather, you wouldn't survive their Anti-Aircraft weapons, who could track you in even the poorest visibility, so here they were, watching tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians trying desperately to fight the enemy that was as Alien to them now as they were once to Alexei twenty years ago. Hours passed by and the five men of Zulu 6 were glued to the carnage ahead of them, it was a strange site, everything North of the Songhua river was flattened, nothing but rubble, the metal carcasses of the Chinese tanks and aircraft, the dead of both sides, and the South, still stood, the buildings on the river banks were being hit hard but everything behind still stood, intact, as if the war wasn't happening, yet it was just one or two streets away from them. Amongst the chaos of battle, trucks loaded with civilians fled the city as trucks loaded with soldiers poured in, the Chinese had the numbers to counter the Chimera, but it wouldn't count for much when the Chimeran dropships arrived to the battle, after dropping hundreds more troops per pod, they'd soon start firing indiscriminately towards civilian and soldier alike, and those who don't die, will likely soon face the huge spire missiles, laden with Crawlers, the strange scarab beetle like creatures that render a person unconscious, whatever happens next, Alexei hoped he would never have to find out, but it soon meant they would end up as one of the Aliens.

"Major Blake, Sir, over on the North-Western flank!" Private George Manchester said, his voice trembling, "what the fuck is that thing?" another soldier replied, from the sound of things, it was Corporal Alex Garcia, both men were clearly fresh recruits, then pulled from their respected military organisation, be it US Marine, Army, Navy, Rangers, it didn't matter, and then trained by SRPA further to become a Special Forces operative, but it didn't mean anything when they saw the behemoth of a creature lumber forward, four huge mechanical legs and a strange bio-mechanical body, it must have stood at around a hundred feet tall, maybe more, Alexei couldn't tell from that distance, but it scared him, though thankfully through his airtight helmet no one could see it on his face, and he kept his mouth shut to make sure they didn't hear it either. "Hell if I know, someone get a picture of it, record it's actions, we'll take it back to Malikov in London, he might be able to shed some light from our observations. Unless, Alexei, you know something?" the Major replied, turning to the Russian with a curious tone to his voice, "No, never seen something like that before in my life Major, but it looks like there are Spires in those pods, and I know that isn't a good thing, we should warn them" he responded to Blake's question, he sounded frustrated at the lack of action and aid they were providing, the five of them couldn't stop the Alien threat, but they could warn the Chinese, have them flee or hide or something. "No can do, strict orders, we observe, and we report back, but we most certainly do not get inv-" he cut himself short as blood curdling screams were heard from the ruined city, Alexei was right, those were Spire missiles, and the Goliath sized machine/creature had just fired a pair of them right into the middle of the Human lines, suddenly the huge spires were a thick black landmark before returning to the shining silver of its metallic material as the Crawlers rapidly expanded around the surrounding area, it was hard to see but in the few clear spots, the affected areas were full of fleeing and horrified civilians, suddenly stopping and desperately hoping to force the creatures away from any openings as best they could, before falling comatose as dozens of the little alien bugs swarmed their mouths, ears or even noses, within seconds the huge black cloud had disappeared, and a several street distance of unconscious bodies lay silent amongst the cackles of the machine guns and whining of falling Artillery shells.

"That is not fucking right, how are we supposed to fight against that?" the final member of Zulu 6, Private First Class John McAlister asked, shock and confusion set the tone of his question, "with a lot of tanks and a couple of very big bombs" Alexei responded with a grim laugh, one which Blake joined in with. As night began to fall over Harbin, the huge lumbering machine had finally begun to withdraw, its spire missiles exhausted and with hundreds, if not thousands of people infected within the city's streets, its job was done, for now. By this point the Chinese had brought forward more Artillery, and were focusing it on the lumbering weapons platform. It gradually began to slow, and then collapsed, pierced by dozens of huge shells, it lay destroyed in the field, the artillery then began to focus on the North banks of the city, pounding Chimera wherever they took cover, but yet still more poured forth, and eventually the southern banks of the city were under the Aliens control, the sky flashed with each explosion, each gunshot the sound of rain as the shells of the tanks and artillery created the lightning and thunderous chorus to join with it. "Strangely beautiful" Alexei said to himself, he didn't intend to, but no one said anything as he watched the carnage continue to unfold, by now the trucks leaving the city only carried wounded soldiers, the reinforcements had quarantined the areas with the infected, leaving their bodies where they lay, fearful of what would happen if they moved them, Alexei knew roughly what would happen, and that is that they would become one of the enemy, but he did not know how, and was intrigued to see if the quarantine had any effect. "Zulu 6, this is Oscar 2-1 how copy?" a voice called over the radio, "2-1 this is Zulu 6, we copy" Blake responded, a yawn following, as if that brief movement is what exhausted him despite their sleepless day in the foxhole. "We're leaving for the Lincoln, we'll be back tomorrow at 06:00, until then, you're going to need to head to secondary extraction, our right engine is having troubles, probably the cold weather" the man stated, "understood Oscar 2-1, safe travels, we'll see you in the morning" the Major replied casually. It was going to be an uneventful night, and even if it wasn't, they weren't that far from the coast, though that would mean trekking through a part of heavily occupied Russia, and so none of the men, except Alexei, out of sheer curiosity, wanted to risk travelling through enemy territory, which the SRPA units described as, "grey zones". "Well, settle in boys, it's going to be a long night" Corporal Garcia said sarcastically as he wandered over to a corner of the foxhole and set himself down, presumably he was going to try sleep, Alexei merely adjusted himself and continued to sit, gazing into the battlefield.

'01:48 hours, damn, it's been a long night indeed' Alexei thought to himself, the bright lights of the explosions and Alien energy weapons reflecting off his visor. A droning sound began to echo through the breeze, gradually drowning out even the largest of explosions, and as Alexei looked up, he saw huge formations of Chinese Aeroplanes above, their bellies wide open, large bomb bays Alexei thought, as they arrived over the enemy lines, they dropped their payloads, thousands of large bombs cratered the already ruined Northern bank of Harbin, and even throughout the regions that were heavily contested, friendly fire meant nothing in the face of the Angry Night. "Shut up out there" McAlister shouted sarcastically as he threw his head back into his improvised dirt pillow, clearly having been awoken by the bombers, he was barely audible, within minutes the bombers had done their work and flown back to whichever airfields they came from. The hours passed by and eventually Alexei had managed to drift off to sleep, but when he awoke, he saw a heart-breaking site, the Chinese had been pushed back to the outskirts of the city, the scattered pockets of Resistance attempting an organised retreat. Checking his watch, 08:21, the situation had declined drastically in just seven hours, yet over the course of two days of observation the SRPA recon teams had seen the Chinese relentlessly pour troops and supplies into the besieged city, and now, there was barely anyone left, the quarantined zones had strange floating creatures, almost like flying Jellyfish, picking up the comatose victims of the crawlers and carrying them away to the North or the East, back to Russia, 'what are they doing? Is that how they convert them? What even are those things?' Alexei thought to himself, he laughed grimly when he realised Malikov would have a field day with all the footage and notes made by his team and the others here previously of the of the Chimera and their forces. Within half an hour the last of the Chinese forces in the city were either dead, or fleeing on the backs of their trucks, for good reason, as the Chimera chased them to the edge of the city, firing at the fleeing Chinese forces, the droning of Chinese Aircraft could be heard once more over the city, and this time, their payload was much more terrifying, as the first bomb hit, flames leapt into the sky, and soon spread rapidly within dozens of meters of the blast, within a matter of seconds the whole city was ablaze, and as the bombers turned around, they dropped a second payload of incendiary bombs, if his helmet wasn't securely on his head, he would have looked like a child who had discovered Santa, his mouth was wide open in shock, he felt himself begin to tremble, his stoic demeanour now shattered completely by the Chinese willingness to destroy their own cities to stem the Alien onslaught instead of attempting to reclaim them. 'Perhaps they have the right idea' Alexei thought to himself, as he was interrupted in his thoughts by a voice in his ear over the radio, "Oscar 2-1, Zulu 6, request pick up at Primary extraction point, Harbin is gone, I repeat, Harbin is gone" Major Blake called, the voice in the background was shocked, "Understood, the Chimera have taken Harbin?" the man asked, shock and fear in his voice, most likely under the assumption he would be facing the aliens extremely powerful AA guns, though he was, both pleasantly and unpleasantly mistaken.

"Negative, the Chimera didn't take Harbin, the Chinese have incinerated it themselves" Blake replied calmly, there was no response, the Pilot had heard all he needed to hear and was most likely on his way now to extract them, Alexei was relieved to be heading back to the Carrier, the sooner he was back in London, the better.

12:42 Hours, USS Lincoln Aircraft Carrier, South China Sea

Fleet Admiral Nimitz sat in a chair in the briefing room, his demeanour serious and yet relaxed, from what Alexei could tell, he was highly respected amongst the Lincoln's crew and indeed the vast majority of the US Navy. He wasn't too impressed with the commandeering of his ship by SRPA, but as Major Blake stood, clicking through their reconnaissance pictures on the projector screen, it was clear he was opening up to the idea, as if he knew this was an enemy worth studying. Alexei hoped deeply that the Admiral would assist SRPA in convincing the US government and indeed the rest of the world to prepare for and assault the Chimera, before it was too late, and before anymore of China was lost, and Europe itself was burning. The footage of the huge Goliath sized creature caused Alexei to slightly recoil, the thought of that huge creature raining down Spire missiles concerned him tremendously, but knowing that he could have saved a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand Chinese soldiers and civilians by ignoring Major Blake filled him with remorse, if they'd just been alerted to the risks of those missiles, who knows what could have happened, perhaps Harbin could have stood a little bit longer, perhaps the Chinese might have even held and forced back the Alien threat, or, perhaps, it was merely wishful thinking.

"By God, look at the size of that thing. Major Blake, what are in those missiles? Apart from a small crater, there's no damage to the nearby structures" the Admiral asked intently, "Sir, those missiles aren't designed to destroy, they carry pods, filled with hundreds of creatures, we call them 'Crawlers', they move quickly and enter the human body through the eyes, ears, nasal passages, orally, and render the victim comatose, no one knows what happens after except that they are carried away by these things-" the Major clicked through into the next image, one of the floating Jellyfish creatures appeared in front of them, "presumably they have something to do with how the Chimera create the Hybrids, but we don't know, I wish I could tell you more Admiral, but for security and simply because we just don't yet understand, that is all I can say" the Major finished.

"And this Malikov, he could tell you about them?" the Admiral asked, more out of sheer curiosity than malice, though it could be easily mistaken through his tone of voice. "Yes Sir, Mikhailov here has been alongside Malikov since pretty much the beginning of this thing, Malikov has been studying the Chimera since the mid 20's Sir, whether he is right or not, and despite how much he might really piss me off sometimes, I can tell you that he is our best shot at developing countermeasures and understanding our new enemy, it's imperative now we get back to him in London before anything else can happen in China, besides, we picked up Mikhailov and Malikov a few miles East of the Iron Curtain, we know the Chimera are there, or near there, we need to ensure Europe is sufficiently prepared, if China is under attack, it's already too late" the Major said, somehow sounding calm, uncaring of his fellow Human's almost. "Due respect Major" Alexei began before Blake or Admiral Nimitz could continue their talk, "but we all saw what happened in Harbin, the Chinese aren't going to let their people or their cities fall to enemy hands, if we give them enough Aid, perhaps we send an Allied Expedition there, we could stop the Chimera doing to China what they did to my home, One-Hundred and Fifty million people, give or take a few hundred thousand, maybe even less, died or turned, we could-" Alexei was cut off by a sharp alarm, "Well, I'm sorry to have your discussions cut off before they could begin but I would advise you all to head to your battle stations, I'll be in the bridge" Admiral Nimitz said calmly as the sirens continued to blare, a voice came over through the ships announcement systems, all personnel were heading to their combat stations, 'Shit, can the Chimera really mount an assault on our fleet? In just a few decades they have this ability already? Surely, they couldn't have enough dropships to form a formidable assault force on the fleet? Damn it' Alexei thought to himself as he followed Blake and the rest of Zulu squad to the armoury to grab their weapons. The corridors of the ship were empty of Naval personnel, the only people moving around were Marines, heading to their positions, and the five SRPA squads stationed onboard for the recon mission to China. "We get our weapons, and we head to the flight deck, we need to see what is going on up there, and if the Chimera are going to deploy troops, we need to do our best to delay their attempts to breach into the decks of the ship, understood?" Blake said through the squad comms, "Understood sir" Alexei replied, the remainder of the squad acknowledged the Major and as they entered the armouries, grabbed for their Folsom Carbines, a fairly new development it was an effective weapon, though untested against the Chimera, which made Alexei anxious, he'd rather have the ability to kill quickly with half a magazine then risk spending an entire magazine and not even hurting the enemy, but he had to hope that the tests, which showed it would live up to combat expectations, would truly live up to their testing results. The five men of Zulu squad made their way up to the flight deck, a slight rain had begun to fall, but all in all the visibility was good, AA gunners stood eagerly at their posts, so too did the few Marines placed around them, yet, it was silent, the entire thing seemed, off.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me" murmured McAlister, Alexei looked into the distance, roughly where the Private was staring. AA guns began blaring to life and tracer rounds flew through the air towards a Chimeran dropship, it nimbly avoided the vast majority of the rounds, but as it drew closer several 50. Calibre Machine gun rounds and dozens of 20mm and 40mm AA Shells slammed into it, the dropship came tumbling down onto the flight deck of the Lincoln, "move up, slowly, if any of the bastards survived we take them alive, it's a chance to find out more about the Alien bastards" Blake ordered, Alexei raised his rifle, and the four men of his squad moved forward cautiously, eight more Marines joined them, and they surrounded the burning wreckage, a damage control crew was on standby but ordered not to come near until deemed safe. "Mikhailov, Manchester, get in the cockpit, McAlister, with me, remember, we take one alive..." the Major said, his tone of voice then changed, "kill the rest" he said, anger and resentment, but for what? Alexei didn't know, and at that moment, he didn't care. The two men moved over to the remains of the cockpit, without even having to voice their motions the two moved in unison, entering the ship and ensuring they were both covered, Alexei flicked the torch on his carbine on, lighting up the darkened control room, three dead Chimera lay limp, impaled by pieces of the structure, one who's head had been pierced by the control sticks. "Cockpit's clear Major" McAlister said over comms, gunshots could be heard in the next 'room' which, in reality, was just the entrance to the giant box like contraption they deploy, containing hundreds of Chimera, usually, but Alexei hoped most of them were dead, and this was just the Major confirming that. "Ah fuck, let's go Private" Alexei said, the two stacked up on the door, Alexei managed to pry it open with a tremendous effort, McAlister stepped into the drop pod, moving to the left, Alexei followed and moved to the right, within seconds both men were forced to open fire as well as out from under the corpses of the Hybrids, a large group of leapers emerged, their bodies flying into the air as they attempted to maul and bite the four SRPA members to death, but to no avail, their torsos were torn open by the hail of .303 rounds fired from the Folsom, and within seconds the whole fight was over. The Major visibly sighed through his helmet, "Clear...Let's get out of here, the DC guys can get in and put out the fire, as much as I'd love to have SRPA study this, we'll strip it of what looks most important, and force it off the deck, can't leave the Lincoln at risk by having its flight deck blocked. Understood?" Blake asked. The men nodded and crawled back out onto the Lincoln's flight deck, "It's all clear, get in there and put out those fires" the Major shouted to the nearby Navy personnel. "And if you mention anything of what you see in there you'll be arrested for treason, just a warning".

11:00 hours, Central Command, London, England. One week after the Harbin Expedition.

"It's intricate, interesting. I wonder if this is the language of the Chimera's creators, or if this is in fact a language invented by the Hybrids" Malikov mused to himself as Alexei sat, cleaning his Mosin-Revolver, one of the few things he had with him when he was extracted from Russia. "Hmph, well, it might help with something, Jet engine technology maybe?" the Scientist mumbled to himself again. "Doctor Malikov?" a voice called from the doorway, Alexei heard the authority in the woman's voice and couldn't help but stand to attention, dropping his revolver onto the table he was sat by. "Yes Captain, can I help you?" the Scientist asked in response to the call of his name. The middle-aged man turned to face the entrance of the concrete room, and as the man put down the piece of Dropship technology down, Alexei found himself glued to the woman in front of him, in a way she reminded him of Liliya, and finding her attractive in any way made him immediately ache with guilt. "Doctor, we're running out of time, Polish recon shows a large snowstorm gathering along the Russian border, in a couple of weeks, if not days, the visibility will be so poor we can't even begin to imagine what will come out from the Iron Curtain, have you made any progress on the project we discussed?" she asked, glancing towards Alexei, who still stood rigidly at attention as if he were still in boot camp back in the early days of his Army career, the Captain let out a small hum of some sorts, as if she'd just examined his very soul with one glance, "at ease there, you don't even need to acknowledge me, I'm not your CO" she said, turning her attention back to Malikov, who was now scrambling around some of the papers laying on his desk, throwing things out of the way regardless of importance, in his mind it was 'organised' chaos, but regardless of whether it was a good method of research or not it didn't matter, Malikov was a genius, and Alexei had long since stopped questioning his methods. "Here you go Captain, but perhaps you should be in Germany, Einstein is the one making the most progress on our new weapons, I'm just trying to understand the Chimera" the scientist replied with a flat voice, neither really acknowledging the Captain or his own notes, merely anxious to get back to examining the remains of the dropship that had been brought off the Lincoln. "I'll take that into consideration on my next deployment Doctor, thanks for your notes" the Captain replied, turning and leaving before anything else could be said.

"Fyodor..." Alexei began, when the Captain had left, but even with the confidence that she was now too distant to hear what he wished to ask, he found himself choking up. "What's wrong Alexei?" the scientist asked, barely glancing up from his journal, in which he was most likely sketching the dropship in great detail, analysing every piece, no matter how small. "Do you think the Chimera, the Hybrid ones I mean, the ones who were once Human, do you-" he choked again, his curiosity, and the sight of someone who drudged up memories of his old love and friends, forced him to try to ask. "Do you think they remember who they once were? Any of it. Do you think if the Human part could still, on some level, recognise what they had become, they would be happy that we killed them? As if it were some kind of – Mercy". The questions had left his lips, and the pounding of his heart told him he was not sure that he wanted the answers, but the desire to ease guilt that had begun to build up with the decades of fighting had encouraged him to force it out. The Scientist sighed heavily, perhaps debating as to whether he was going to answer honestly, or lie to protect the feelings of the man who had now, as if automatically attempting to steel himself, had returned to cleaning the Mosin as his hands trembled in deep anxiety. "Honestly my friend, I don't know. I've autopsied plenty of Hybrid specimens, but if there's any physical evidence of them remembering their humanity, I don't see it. That and the seemingly hive mentality of the Chimera, if they remember anything at all, it's pushed to the side by their collective psyche's desire to destroy Humanity. But, more disturbingly -".

Malikov had to force himself to stop, and think about the next words carefully, he suddenly remembered why Alexei would be asking such questions, and he wondered if felt guilt, if he wanted to be able to justify what they all did in the fighting in Russia, with no combat to focus him, his mind was clearly wandering, and that led to a need to rationalize. At that moment, he felt lucky, for him, there'd be no need to justify his actions until the war was won, when the Chimera were wiped off the Earth, and with their numbers having increased with the destruction of Russia and invasion of Northern China, that could be a significant amount of time, he would be perpetually focused in his efforts. Alexei, however, would face down time, and with no distractions, no fellow countrymen except himself, he faced his decisions and fights every minute he had no objectives. Deciding it would be best to just be honest, even if it didn't ease his fellow countryman's conscience, he continued. "Disturbingly, the Chimera have been witnessed in SRPA and MI5 recon reports, of carrying around objects that seemingly show their humanity, some have been witnessed even showing protectiveness over such things as Teddy Bears. I don't know if that is because they are freshly converted, and soon they will forget, or if they can fight off the virus despite the process converting them fully. At least, for a short time. But unless we take a Hybrid alive, and it would be extremely difficult without attracting significant hostile attention, I can't be sure" he finished. The silence filled the room and Alexei found himself unable to even breathe, at that moment it felt like everything had frozen, he felt his body tremble yet he physically and mentally couldn't fight the feeling that he was not in control. His mind raced as he thought about Liliya and Romanov and all his old friends in Russia. He suddenly found himself back in the Helicopter above Petropavlovsk, staring down at the General who fought to the end, the Spires that released huge black swathes of crawlers. The thought hit him, that everyone who remained behind, who couldn't make it or chose to cover the retreat, they'd all have been infected.

The thought of those men and women and becoming a Hybrid, or some other twisted form of Alien horrified him, bile rose in his throat and he was almost sick, the burn seemed to focus him as he attempted to ground himself, hoping there was no Human part left when the conversion had finished, because he realised then, at that moment, as he wandered if one of the Aliens he had killed were his old friends, or the General, or one of the soldiers who tried so desperately to hold Petropavlovsk, he realised, that some fates. Some fates are worse than Death.