The Fall of Night

Interlude Three: Blitzkrieg

It was happening everywhere.

In Poland, as Warsaw fell and was rapidly garrisoned by a specially-trained and prepared FSB security unit, the Russian forces regrouped and headed west. The airports that had been targeted for assault and capture had never been so busy as Russian airborne forces were rushed in and reinforced, expanding the zone of Russian control in the rear of the Polish lines. The captured bridges and vital points, held by small commando teams, were relieved by the ground forces as they advanced; only a handful of commando teams had been wiped out before they were relieved. The Baltic States, attacked without warning, fell almost at once.

The remainder of EUROFOR, surprised, shattered and bombed relentlessly, were forced back. Isolated units, unaware of anything outside their own zone of responsibility, were forced to either surrender or fight to the last man. Many units were destroyed or captured before they even knew that they were in a fight; other units began the long process of straggling back towards Germany and — hopefully — safety. Many of the retreating units were attacked from the air, others ran into Russians in the west of Poland and fought final desperate battles; only a handful of survivors escaped the chaos. The remainder of the Polish army scattered into the countryside, their leaders realising that they had no choice, but to go underground and wait. Hundreds deserted to return to their families, hundreds more took up their weapons and made a brave and futile last stand, or prepared the cities for war.

It didn’t matter. With the exception of Warsaw and a handful of other cities, the Russians were content to merely surround them and wait for them to surrender. The Russian planners knew that city-fighting would eat up their armies; they were prepared to wait until the population either starved or surrendered. The task could be handed over to the less well-prepared and armed units; the main body of the Russian force was needed further west. As Poland fell under Russian control, Russian forces reached the borders of Germany and pressed west.

In the Baltic Sea, Russian bombers, submarines and missiles had already crippled or destroyed most of the European navies, often before they knew that they were under attack. Massive explosions devastated German ports and bases, Russian aircraft were everywhere; the survivors made a desperate break for Norway, or even Britain… and the Russian Navy followed in its wake. Copenhagen had been torn apart by rioting, unaware that Russian naval infantry were hiding in a handful of massive merchant ships; they now burst out of their ships and seized ports and supplies largely intact. The Russian Navy had been on the move since the start of hostilities; now, a massive force of transports, under heavy escort, docked in the captured ports and unloaded an entire invasion force. The remainder of the city quickly fell and the Russians fanned out; in many places, their presence was welcome to the citizens, who had been caught in the middle of a nightmare. Rioters, looters and insurgents, many of whom were still brandishing placards carrying images of strange cartoons, were crushed without mercy; the survivors were shoved into prison camps and left to rot. The remains of the Danish Armed Forces melted away.

All across Europe, the scene was nightmare and horror; entire cities had been torn apart by rioting and street fighting between different groups. The ordinary citizens hid themselves as best as they could, wondering how their lives had changed so rapidly in the space of a day, and wondered what was happening to their governments. Many of them, dependent upon the welfare state, stayed and waited for someone to Do Something, unaware that there was hardly anyone left to do anything. The hardier stock took what they could and fled into the countryside, hoping to find somewhere where they could hole up until it was all over. The death toll of those unable to survive long without support, of one kind or another, grew ever larger; the survivors called on the army to save them from the nightmare…

The armies were scattered and in disarray. The political leaders were dead, in most cases; a handful had been snatched off the streets by Russian commandos for later use. In Germany, some officers struggled to pull together a defensive line, crippled by their lack of useful information and the endless bombing as Russian fighters and bombers ventured further into Germany. As they became aware that Denmark was falling, some officers ordered a retreat before their flank could be turned; many of their soldiers were unwilling to retreat with the fatherland in danger. Often unaware of each other, barely able to keep their forces together, the remains of the armed forces strove to hurt the enemy before they were destroyed.

It was happening everywhere. A French infantry company that had been on manoeuvres was lucky enough to react to one of the insurgencies in France, but completely unprepared for what they found. An attempt to put the whole matter down as quietly as possible failed as they came under attack from heavy weapons carried by Russian and Algerian commandos. They shot back ruthlessly and tried to fight their way out, only to be trapped and killed when they ran out of ammunition. Algerian forces were landing in Spain and France; the remains of the Police and the armed forces found themselves under attack from two sides at once. They marched to the sound of the guns… and failed to realise the existence of the real threat. They would spend themselves, with their shattered supply lines and what equipment they had been able to save, against the diversion. The real threat was grinding into Germany.

Europe no longer existed. All that was left were thousands of isolated police and soldiers, trying to hold out against the fall of night. Refugees were everywhere, clogging the roads; Switzerland sealed her borders as thousands of refugees, their eyes wide with helplessness and fear, unaware of anything beyond their own little worlds, tried to find safety with the Swiss. The Swiss police and army were rapidly reduced to shooting refugees, just to keep them back; they had no room for more immigrants.

Europe no longer existed. The politicians were dead. The police were gone. The population in some places found themselves struggling for life, in other places unaware that anything was going on; the social contract that had bound Europe together was breaking apart. Ethnic violence grew even worse as the Russians pressed their advantage; Europe no longer existed as a functioning group of nations.

The only exception was Britain.