Resistance: The Russian War

by EmperorOfTheSunFirstAndTheLast

Alexei Mikhailov, a Private in the Russian Army, has been fighting the war against the Angry Night for the past 3 years. It is now 1930, and the first true wave of Chimeran forces are about to be unleashed and Alexei and his fellow Comrades will be all that stand between the Chimera and the fall of Europe.

6. The Empire Falls - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Russia, 1941 – The Empire Falls

Alexei stood on the makeshift Barricade, for eleven years he had retreated with the remainder of the Imperial Russian Army, Navy and Airforce. For decades since the fall of Ust-Maya and the so called 'west-wall', the Russians had been retreating near non-stop, they held on to major cities for a few months, a year at most, but in the end Tsaritsyn, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novgorod, city after city collapsed to the Chimera onslaught, the war had gone miserably, millions of dead or converted, some of the soldiers fell to the Cloven conversion, ninety-percent of the Russian army gone, either Cloven, Chimera, or dead. The Tsar fled when St. Petersburg's defences collapsed, his private helicopter was visible for all to see, as the Army stood and thought and fighters engaged Chimeran aircraft, the Tsar fled, for a year now, the people of Russia had fought without a cause, their only goal was survival, except Malikov, who, despite it all, was still here, studying the enemy, helping the remaining forces make sense of their enemy. Karachev stood, it had done for years, when St. Petersburg fell, most Russian units made their way to the city, the line had been drawn here, if it was to fall then all of Russia would fall, but the empire would collapse in a blaze of glory. The enemy was already within the city limits, spire missiles poked up out of the ruins and everything ahead of Alexei was all but destroyed. Sometimes the Russians would drop into the sewers, ambushing enemies in the occupied regions of the city and then escaping back underground, the Chimera refused to follow the Russians into the underground sewer systems, the whole place was a giant trap, which meant the troops had a safe and warm place to live without worry of Alien energy weapons cutting them down. The Remaining veterans of the war led the civilian militias in hit and run attacks outside the city as well as smuggling in equipment and parts for their aircraft, with fuel low most of the time they lacked air support, but the planes and helicopters were still kept serviced to ensure that if the battle got desperate, the troops on the ground had some way of keeping the enemy at bay. There were few tanks left within the city, most had been driven to the front and then had their tracks removed, kept there as a static defence, its shells destroying Chimeran stalkers or its guns cutting down dozens of the Aliens before they can attack. Some tanks remained as a mobile reserve, being driven to wherever they were needed, but the defence now was desperate, beyond Karechev was wide plains, and then the Iron Curtain the first time in the war, Alexei wondered if the Chimera had invaded anywhere else, Europe would see the Chimera coming, their forts across the no man's land would see the wall tear down, but the Mongolians, the Chinese, they wouldn't have any idea until their villages went dark, and by then, the hordes would be upon them. Perhaps they had already seen the enemy and defeated them, maybe they were coming up through Siberia and were going to save the beleaguered Russian army, he forced the thought from his mind, he didn't want the false hope. Or the thought of hundreds of millions more dead or converted. "They are here, the Angry night!" shouted a woman from an improvised watchtower, the Russians nearby either climbed the barricade or took positions from the firing holes below. The assault rifles burst to life and Alexei fired on the Aliens who exposed themselves, dozens of Leapers leapt from the ruins ahead of them and began to crawl their way towards the line as fast as they could, the men and women on the lower defences fired into them whilst Alexei and the forces on top did their best to pin down the hybrids gunning for them. "Steelhead!" the lookout screamed, though her shouts were pointless by then, five of the Russians were cut down as the bolts pierced through the defences, Alexei took aim and fired, his assault rifle cutting down the Alien, he missed using his Nagant rifle, he had it holstered over his shoulder but ammo for it was getting scarce now and the Assault Rifle provided more rounds per minute than a Mosin-Nagant could, which was useful in ensuring the Chimera couldn't leave their cover without taking dozens of rounds to their body.

"Steelhead is down!" Alexei shouted as a couple more militia units clambered over their friend's bodies to continue the fight, some medics, veterans of the Navy, came forward and pulled the bodies away, they didn't bury their dead anymore they burnt them, that way the Chimera couldn't dig them up and eat them, if the bastards were going to fight them and kill them, they weren't going to have the pleasure of doing it on a full stomach at least. 'Not that it matters if they are full or not, they weren't going to let any of us live' Alexei thought to himself. He kept the fire up, gunning down the remaining hybrids, the leapers were all gone, a pile of gore on the road. "Burn the dead, get the wounded underground" Alexei ordered from the top of the barricade, he looked over at the street and the ruins. Malikov asked to keep an eye out for relatively unscathed Chimera, or 'specimens' as he called them. He spotted a Leaper corpse that had luckily not exploded into a pile of mutilated body parts, he had to take the risk, Russia was on its last legs and any information that can help them reclaim their homeland would be worth it. He hopped over the wooden board that acted as cover and fell to the ground, picking himself up off the ground he made his way tentatively towards the alien corpse, he had to be careful, sometimes leapers that hadn't burst into pieces were often just acting dead. He got over to the corpse and then stabbed it with his knife, the creature remained limp. He picked it up and slung it over his shoulder, he jogged back over to the barricade and had to slide his way through a small gap, the only way into or out of the Russian lines that didn't involve jumping. The relief Alexei felt when he made it back through was overwhelming, he would live to fight another day. He made his way through the empty streets, the smoke rising into the sky, the Naval Infantry must have dealt with the dead now. Alexei came to the sewer grate that would lead to Malikov's 'laboratory', which was really just a closed off area that contained the corpses of Hybrids, Steelheads, Leapers and other weird amalgamations of Alien creations amongst some captured technology that he had pulled apart such as the 'Bullseye' rifle that Hybrids use or the 'Auger', the steelheads preferred weapon of choice. There were three ways into the lab, two entrances in the sewer and one from the road, it wasn't a tactically defendable location with three entrances, but as the Chimera were afraid of the sewers it didn't really matter. "Malikov?" Alexei called as he made his way down the final rung of the ladder, "are you there?" he called again, "yes, yes, Alexei my friend, what brings you to my lab?" the scientist replied, he hadn't aged well, his hair was greying and despite only being in his mid-forties he almost looked sixty, the exhaustion of the war had taken its toll on everyone, but as an expert on the Chimera all the pressure of learning the enemies origin and weaknesses fell to him, and it was a tough process, he was, however, still a good aim, and his ability to fire a shotgun was next to none, you'd have thought he turned it into a machine gun with the speed at which he fired it, but most of the time Malikov could be found in his dimly lit laboratory, performing autopsies on the bodies that were brought to him or disassembling weapons to try reverse engineer them, there was even the driver compartment of a Stalker in there, the logistical feat of dragging that down was tremendous but it allowed them to learn much about the Chimera tank, one of the militia, a former chauffer, even attempted to drive a captured stalker, she did well, but Alexei couldn't help but laugh every time he thought about it as the weapons platform just went out of control, she ended up driving it into a river and tipping it upside down, she was unscathed except a few scratches but she had to be cut out of the vehicle. "I have a fresh Leaper for you, it's a bit beaten up, but it should be good enough for you to study" Alexei said as he dropped off the last rung of the ladder and turned to see the Scientist writing in a journal. He had stacks of the things, all full with detailed descriptions of the tactics, the biology of the Aliens, the details of their weaponry. Dozens of journals all stacked up. The scientist looked up towards Alexei and smiled, "thank you, ah let's see" Malikov began, he placed the pen down and stood, pushing the chair away from the table the middle-aged man stretched as if he hadn't stood in a hundred years, he made his way over to a table and just shoved the dead Hybrid that was laying there off, "place it here please my friend" he said as he gestured to the table which, now empty, was visibly blood stained, and it stained the floor a dark crimson. Alexei made his way over and slumped the leaper corpse over his shoulder onto the table. Malikov placed some gloves onto his hands that were stained red, he often had to boil them in water to both wash and sterilise them to stop any strange infections are spread. "What do you want done with the Hybrid?" Alexei asked as the scientist reached out for a scalpel to his side, "Don't worry about that, we incinerate them the bodies and place the heads on spikes... I don't know why, it doesn't intimidate the enemy and let's face it when we witnessed them eating their own dead eleven years ago it was clear to see we couldn't demoralise them with conventional tactics, but if it makes the Militia and the remaining Veterans feel better, then by all mean let them do it" Malikov replied as he began making incisions into what was seemingly the chest of the Leaper, Alexei was both disgusted and intrigued by the autopsy, but as he had nothing better to do he stood there and watched as the old scientist examined the organs and muttered to himself, occasionally making his way to his journal on the desk and making notes on the dead Chimera. Seemingly unbothered by the odd smear of blood on the paper he merely waited for it to dry before he continued writing over it.

"Alexei..." Malikov began, but his voice trailed over, as if he was choking up, "Malikov?" Alexei replied, as the man stayed silent for a few more minutes. "I fear there will be no way to defeat the Chimera before Russia falls". A new silence filled the room now, Alexei was unsure of what to say, so he said nothing, Malikov made his way back to the corpse of the Leaper, and his words continued with his examination. "I do not wish to demoralise you Alexei, but there is little more left that we can do, we have held this city for a year, for we have been pushed back for sixteen, how long before our backs are, quite literally fighting with our backs to the wall. If Europe knows of the Chimera they do not care for helping us defeat them, and if they don't, then they will die soon, because I cannot think of a way to defeat them, and our military leaders are dead or fled with the Tsar, provided the Tsar survived after St. Petersburg. After all, we saw his helicopter, but we didn't see him. Perhaps we killed him, perhaps that Hybrid there" Malikov said as he gestured towards the corpse on the floor, "was our 'great' Tsar Michael himself, and for all we know they are gathering millions more reinforcements by converting those to our south or perhaps it is an elaborate plan and they'll strike when we died, do you remember that tower you attacked a decade ago? There's more than one, and the war effort of the Chimera grows stronger with each one, perhaps they are too connected, perhaps they are merely armouries, I don't know, I don't have time to know, and now, trapped here, I cannot possibly find a way to know. I created the Cloven in an attempt to cure us of the conversion and instead created a new enemy, a third enemy, fighting both us and the Chimera. I tried to have that tower destroyed and had hundreds of thousands killed or wounded" the man stopped what he was doing momentarily, examining one of the organs of the creature, Alexei didn't know what it was, a liver, a kidney, perhaps where its venom was stored, Alexei didn't care, he was just happy it was dead. Malikov continued after he placed the organ down on the table, "There have been reports of strange aircraft flying overhead, human, definitely human, but not Russian. I don't know what they want, or who they are, our lookouts have seen them, if they are European perhaps we will get help, if they are American, I doubt it, and if it is from of the Asian nations, then it makes no sense that fly from West to East and not East to West. We must hope that Europe comes to help us, because if they don't, they will face the threat we faced, and face it unprepared. I fear what comes, we must leave Russia, all of us as many as we can". Alexei just stared, he didn't know what to say, he found himself pacing for what felt like eternity but was probably only ten or fifteen minutes. "If we head west they will see it as an Invasion, if we head south to Mongolia they will think we are annexing them, and to even get South we would have to launch an assault into Chimeran territory, thousands would die, if not, all of us. China is out of the option because then we would all die, of Chimera, Cloven and exposure would pick us all off. Malikov, there is nowhere left for us to go" Alexei replied, he felt himself die a little inside as he realised his worst fear. Liliya had been taken from him ten years ago, there was no cure to the Chimera virus. He lost his friend Turov to an explosion in St. Petersburg, Romanov was somewhere down south leading the Russian Army Remnants in holding Lokot so as to ensure the Chimera don't occupy the town and cut off the road, encircling the Russians in Karechev by storming Bryansk.

"Perhaps, but if we could repair a radio tower here, perhaps we could-" Malikov was cut off as dust and brick dropped from the ceiling of the sewer lab they were in, "well, back to work it seems" Alexei said sarcastically as he made his way to the ladder leading to the outside world. There was an orange glow to his left, a building struck by mortars must have caught fire, as he reached the top of the ladder and climbed up out onto the road, he placed the grate back over, wasn't much, but it was extra protection from the Chimera, and their Crawlers, for Malikov at least. "Get moving, they're coming from the south!" Someone shouted over the sounds of the explosions and gunfire that was cackling all around. 'The south?' Alexei began to think to himself, 'but that means-'. "Lokot has fallen, the survivors are making their way here! Bryansk has been put on the highest state of alert. May God Help us all" A voice called over a radio system, Sirens began to blare, but it was late, everyone was already fighting. This battle would decide the fate of all of Russia, and Alexei had no choice but to accept his fate, he would die here, today, tomorrow, next week, it didn't matter, here he would die, but he was determined to kill as many of the Aliens as he could before they got him. He began running to the south, the explosions grew louder, as did the gunfire, the ruins ahead of him were aflame, the Chimera were pulling out all the stops now, mortar fire bracketed the positions of the remnants, dropships flew overhead, dropping their containers full of dozens, sometimes hundreds of Chimera, one of the Chimera's most recent forms, a dog like creature, but the size of a lion, prowled the streets, sniffing out soldiers who tried to lay ambushes, tearing them apart, the defences held, but barely, they could only stand within their walls, the city suburbs and other fallen sectors were now entirely unreachable, as he finally made it to a barricade, where dead and dying soldiers and militia forces lay as those still able fought the Chimeran onslaught, energy wounds slammed into the barricade, "hedgehog" grenades sent their spikes flying in every direction, the Chimera were awful at aiming where they wanted to throw their grenades, but thankfully for them, they didn't have to be, as large metallic spikes came raining down around him, he barely made it up some steps to the next level of the barricade, he found an unoccupied firing position and unslung his assault rifle, within seconds he had cut down four Hybrids, "incoming!" someone shouted as an enemy mortar round blew into the highest part of the barricade, Alexei glanced behind him as he watched an arm fall to the ground, followed by the one-armed body after it as the woman screamed in agony, a medic ran to her but it was already too late, as it usually was blood loss got to her first, as well as shock. Alexei didn't pay much attention to it now, he turned back and continued firing at the multitude of targets ahead of him, Hybrids stood stoic along the road, firing off their energy weapons and throwing Hedgehogs, they were easy picking for him and the remaining forces at the wall, but they weren't the most important targets, he was keeping an eye out for Steelheads, they seemed to act as the officer class of the enemy, or at least it always seemed that way, plus their augurs could cut through everyone, their weapons cared little for cover, it would shoot through it, Malikov had people test fire captured equipment and he seemed to believe the more cover or the thicker the material it fired through the more powerful the round became, Alexei didn't believe that, but it didn't matter if it was true or not, either way it was deadly threat, and the primary target of any battle.

Alexei scanned the sky as he fired his weapon, there were dozens of dropships all over the place, firing off into Russian regions of the city, one turned and was heading towards the road he was defending, its gun blared to life as huge bolts of energy came flying towards him, he jumped off the barricade, just in time as the whole thing blew apart, a large gap in their defences, the Russians prepared for this every time, a wall is breached a tank was supposed to move forward, cover the retreat as a new section went up, usually because the tank scared off the enemy assault units, but this time, with the Chimera knowing the end of the Russians was in sight, were not going to call of the attack this time, as he lay on the ground, splinters and pieces of concrete hit him all over, he could feel the blood begin to pour from several places but he had no opportunity to call for aid, he stood himself back up as dizziness began to take over, the dropship had stopped firing but only so it could deliver its cargo, the pod dropped, and as the doors on its side flung open the ship began to fly off, firing inaccurate but suppressive fire at their position, Alexei watched the Chimera pour out into the road, three of the huge dog like enemies came barrelling forwards, they tore at the throats of some of the people who still hadn't managed to recover from the shock, which gave Alexei some much needed time to get away and orientate himself again. No tanks came, nor did reinforcements, as he turned into an alley for cover, he reloaded his rifle, his breath was heavy and he was exhausted, it felt like hours since he had spoken to Malikov and in reality it had probably been less than ten or twenty minutes, the Chimera moved fast, and the whole thing seemed like a blur, it made no sense as he tried to allow himself to think clearly. He trembled as the howling of the Chimeran dogs grew louder in his ear, for the first time in a long time he was frightened, he forced himself to pop out of cover and he opened fire on the nearest of the three beasts, it just stood there, taking the punishment, its skin like thick leather, Alexei watched as his rounds did little, he wasn't sure if they were bouncing off, sticking in, or being absorbed but either way they weren't killing it, and if they weren't killing it he was in a very bad situation, round after round of high-calibre ammunition slammed into the beast and within seconds his magazine was empty as click after click suggested, but all he could do was stand their stunned, all his rounds had done was stop the strange creature, and as he looked around he noticed the other two weren't there. 'shit' he began to think to himself. 'Did I stop it? Or did it stop because it knew it could ambush me. Fuck, this is it then'. He dropped the magazine from his gun, and reloaded, cautiously, he backed into the alley, a smart and stupid move rolled into one, he knew the enemies could only come from two positions, but it also meant he had no escape if they attacked three at a time. The first creature approached cautiously, Alexei had already managed to back away down a portion of the path, safe for now, constantly checking behind him in case the other two creatures appeared, the beast in front of him howled, it took everything in his power not to turn and run, but to stand with his weapon pointing towards the creature in the event that it finally made its charge, but it didn't, perhaps it knew that he was attempting to trap it, but regardless, it made no move, Alexei's finger trembled by the trigger but still the charge didn't come, a few seconds later the beast leapt off with near superhuman speed and left the entrance to the alley clear, Alexei sighed with relief until he remembered the Hybrids that would be sure to head his way he kept backing down the path, there was no cover, it was wide open, the only advantage he had was if they decided to follow him he could restrict their movement, gunning down as many as he could, one at a time.

The Hybrids eventually came, and cautiously they advanced, following Alexei who was still forcing himself backwards instead of allowing himself to turn and flee, which is what his instincts were desperately trying to force him to do, as the first of the Hybrids turned into the alley, Alexei squeezed his trigger, a burst of ammo slammed into the enemies head and throat, it dropped dead, the next enemy came charging down, firing off its energy weapon in an attempt to force Alexei to flee, or to kill, but it was inaccurate and luckily for Alexei most of the rounds fell short, slamming into the walls around them or the ground, but not forwards, the Aliens were vicious, but stupid, their rounds were often sprayed rather than aimed, which meant if they were desperate to hit their target they were less likely to even come close to it, firing as close to themselves as possible, in a strange arcing pattern. It didn't matter to Alexei, at this point he squeezed the trigger again, and the Hybrid dropped dead, a dozen rounds entering its torso, two kills, that made six in total, 'is that all I'm going to kill before they get me' he thought to himself, he somehow managed to laugh at that, 'pathetic' he finished thinking, and he fired again as a third Alien entered the alley, he fired at the aliens legs, it stumbled over the corpses of its former comrades, from their he fired into the Aliens head, it flinched, before it fell still. The Alley felt like it went on for miles, as he continued backing down two more Aliens attempted to force their way towards Alexei, they opened fire and several bolts of Energy grazed him, a warm sensation he felt on his face and his knee as the blood began to drip from his newest wounds. The hit to the knee forced him to the ground, and so he attempted to push himself backwards, but to no avail, he sprayed what was left in his magazine towards the two creatures and they both fell to the ground, adding to the pile of the dead in front of him, but now he had no more magazines for his assault rifle, and his Mosin-Nagant was holstered on his back, if he went for it more enemies would appear in time to cut him down, he had no choice but to pull out his revolver from the holster on his thigh, he quickly checked the chamber, fully loaded, thankfully, he pulled back on the hammer and waited, more Aliens made their way towards him and he fired round after round, their thick skin took several of the shots with ease, but he managed to kill another one before he was again out of ammo, he needed to reload but had no time. He grabbed the only grenade he had left, and pulled the pin, he held it for a few seconds, throwing it towards the enemy and killing the remainder of those who attempted to follow him. He felt himself growing woozy, dozens of wounds newly opened, or, reopened, let plenty of blood out, he grabbed some 7.62x38mm rounds from a pouch on his chest and slipped them into the chamber of his pistol, he forced himself up to his feet, leaning against a wall, his head was spinning and the pain in his knee was barely bearable. The bodies in front of him spun, so too did the buildings, he dropped to all fours and vomited, he was exhausted, the sound of the battle that raged around him seemed to grow silent as everything began to slowly shift to black, he felt himself being picked up, but he had no opportunity to resist, he was disoriented and despite his best efforts, he fell into unconsciousness.

The light flickered, the faint glow from the candle almost felt like the Sun had been forced into his eyes and were slowly burning his retinas. Alexei quickly shut his eyes tight and placed his hands to them, he began to open his eyes cautiously, letting himself adapt to the light and his surroundings. He was back underground, Malikov sat near, shotgun in hand, next to him were a couple of militia volunteers and some of the few soldiers left in the city, he forced himself to sit up, he no longer felt sick, or woozy, but his body ached with every move. "Ah, Alexei, you are awake, good!" Malikov said, his voice was grave yet joyful all in one, a strange combination which made Alexei feel more uncomfortable than it should have. "My lab is gone, again, but! I have most of my research in several volumes of journals, amongst other things, we're all that's left of the defenders, you've been unconscious for almost four days, we were getting close to putting a bullet in your head" the old man laughed, were it not for the disorientation and shock he would have laughed too, but instead he let Malikov finish what it was he wanted to say. "we're abandoning the city, the winter is harsher than usual, but it doesn't matter, if we stay here, we will become one of them, a fate I am sure all will agree, is worse than death. We have no choice but to head West, either they shoot us, or the Chimera do, but even so, we have more hope there than here" he stated grimly, the survivors were sitting around, double checking their kit and weapons, Malikov merely continued to sit where he was. Alexei wanted to say something, but he merely gave a brief hum as acknowledgement and then stood himself up, the pain in his knee was thankfully gone, but the aches felt much worse now, he was going to be a hindrance, all he could think was 'why did the old man not just put me out of my misery, I'm a burden now, I'll get people killed', but he didn't say anything, he merely grabbed an assault rifle that leant against a wall, and set about grabbing as many magazines for it as he could, there were no spare packs so all he could do was stuff his pockets and the pouches of his tattered tunic, when he was ready he merely nodded, the rest of the survivors had already finished preparing themselves, and so with that, they all made way to a ladder, their only way out, to the last safe place in Karachev. Alexei was the last one out into the snow-covered street, corpses lay almost everywhere, smoke rose high into the sky and there were derelict spires poking out from the ruins, having delivered their payload of crawlers into the remaining defenders over the past few days, "this way, let's go" a voice said quietly, pointing to a ginnel nearby, "it'll lead us out of the town, and from there, we just head west" the same survivor pointed out. Everyone walked at a fast pace, even Alexei, who was forcing himself to ignore the aches and the limp he had picked up from his still wounded knee. As they entered the alley, which forced them to advance in a line, and restricted movement, everyone again picked up the pace, they burst into a light jog, no one wanted to be caught out in the tight confines where they'd be easy pickings for an Auger wielding steelhead or a pair of Hybrids with their 'bullseye' energy weapons. In the distance a huge explosion was heard and everyone stopped suddenly, as they looked over to the south-east of the town a fire steadily grew and cackles of gunfire and the echoes of exploding grenades filled the air a small skirmish must have broken out. "Shouldn't we go help them?" one of the women of the militia said, "no, we can't they're too far, and by the time we get to them if they aren't dead already, they soon will be, because we'll attract far too much attention, every one of those god forsaken aliens will be making their way to that position to kill anyone in the vicinity, trust me, I have seen it happen enough times to know that we were too late from the moment the first shot was fired" a heavily scarred soldier replied, the remorse and regret in his voice was all the evidence Alexei needed to know the man had seen as much as he himself had, and he pitied him, because he pitied himself, none of them should have witnessed the things they had witnessed, but he pushed the thoughts to one side and for the first time, added his voice to the mix, "he's right, we need to move, listen-" Alexei went silent, the distant explosions had stopped, and so too had the gunfire, "we'd never have made it, but with the heavier presence there, we have a better chance of escaping here, so let's get going". No one complained about that idea, they set off in their light jog once more. After a mile or two of jogging, the small band of survivors, numbering just ten of them, including Alexei, had finally reached the large open plains. Alexei however, suddenly realised the problem. "Shit" he muttered, the group turned to look at him, "what? Malikov asked, "what is it?", concern noticeable in his tone of voice. "there's no cover, and there's a large amount of snow, our tracks are going to be noticed, which means we have to move fast, and that means, light" Alexei replied, frustration again at his wounds being a risk to the group, "you heard him then, weapons, ammo, and minimal rations, whatever you can take without your packs" another member of the militia said, and they began piling into their pockets and pouches whatever they could, Alexei began to walk, he needed the head start, because everyone else would catch up easily to him, and within five minutes, they had, the journey would be long, and involve a risky trip through either Bryansk, which had fallen to the Chimera, or around it. Both would not be without their troubles.