The Omnic Crisis hit everyone hard and across the globe, but Russia was dealt with the worst. While Australia had its ecological problems post-Crisis, no nuclear weapons were deployed en-mass against the Omnic forces. Russia's capital - Moscow - had become a city tossed around in a war. Some would say that the only time Russia had seen such ferocity was the Battle of Stalingrad in an age of the Second World War. The machines marched through the streets as the city defenders fight for every street, apartment, and room. Some of the civilian populace had volunteered to join their trained brothers-in-arms to protect their homes and their families.
Moscow became a symbol for everyone in its war against the Omnics; however, the city was encircled as they marched westward into Europe. As the machines had begun to put their stranglehold on the city, entire Russian divisions placed a large amount of effort to relieve the city of its situation that they nearly sacrifice themselves to the brink of non-existence. When it was clear that nobody could reach the city, many nations contributed to its survival by air-dropping supplies to the battle-weary defenders.
For a time, this strategy worked. Past the in-depth defenses of barricades and makeshift explosives, people gladly welcomed the sight of human-controlled aircraft droppings goods and sweets for children at Red Square. Just like all good things, they had to end. The Omnics noted the air supplying campaign and adapted thousands of platforms to shoot them down to press crush the last vestiges of resistance within the city. When the casualties were too much to bear, the lifeline of the city was cut off and the only news of the city's survival came through the internet. Even when their physical support was gone, there was hope for them to survive in this grim situation. Whether it be a boy on the internet or a high-ranking officer at his command post, the idea that they would survive was still there.
When the internet was cut off, the last forms of communications came through Soviet-era radios kept in military storage for the ages. For a moment, it showed that human resistance against the Omnics would still continue. Then news of a breakthrough would shatter the hope that the city would survive the crisis. With people getting overrun by the large all-out offensive, the last transmission was a haunting one. Knowing that they were going to die to the last, the remaining military elements of the city had requested for the Dead Hand contingency from their strategic commanders.
News of such an option had led to controversy whether it was right to accept such a request or deny it, but what did happen was that the Russian Military Command had agreed to assist the Moscow Defenders in a blaze of glory. The world became silent when nuclear launches appeared across the entire world and the skies were filled with the icons of the apocalypse. In the span of ten minutes, Moscow committed suicide and taken out a percentage of Omnic forces that were concentrated on this one city. Even organizations such as Overwatch became helpless to know that they were never able to get help to that city.
In the wake of its destruction, a cry for vengeance was all that was needed to stop the Omnic Crisis from becoming far worse than what people know today. Industrial centers were attacked to halt Omnic weapon production, Voskaya Industries had started producing projects that were once rejected by the Russian Military, and the world began to push back the threat once and for all. As the world reached a new era of peace, Omnics were becoming part of the new world as equals or second-class citizens. However, Russia's reasons to hate the Omnics stems from this very place where the hopes of innocents were torn asunder by their war machines.
Time passed away with radiation filling the city streets and access to the city becoming sealed off, perhaps indefinitely. Once a symbol - now a gravestone, Moscow played an important role in the history of the Omnic Crisis. Some try to honor their memory while others busied themselves with the rest of the world. Like any historical ruins, others had forgotten about its existence and moved on to build a brighter future.
Every now and then, somebody claims to have heard a transmission from the rubble.
Author's Note: An idea occurred to me and I think it deserves a one-shot as of right now. Maybe in the future when I finish up a couple of stories in my list I'll be able to build off this idea.