The Fall of Night

Interlude Four: The End of Europe

The defeat of the French near Nancy spelled the end of Europe.

In the Mediterranean, Russian submarines received coded transmissions and went into action. Hidden under the waves, the Russian submarines wiped out the ships that Algeria had used to transport their soldiers to France, both the remains of their professional army and holy warriors fired with faith. Tens of thousands died, unaware of their ally’s treachery; the Algerian conquest of France faltered and died. The French had been fighting back with increasing desperation and savagery, their professional training making up some of the difference in numbers; now, the French finally had a chance to cut off and destroy the remaining Algerian forces.

Malta had fallen in the first hours of the war; Algerian forces had invaded Corsica and Sardinia, but rapidly discovered that the natives had their own reputation for bloody-mindedness. The Algerians, cut off from their supply line, held on grimly; the resistance moment bided its time and prepared the final blows. Sicily, invaded by a mixture of Algerian and Libyan forces, became a bloody battleground as the Italians fought back desperately, or tried to escape to the mainland. Italy itself was no longer safe; the chaotic war was shattering the very fabric of Italian society. The Pope’s call for peace was swept aside as Italy descended into ethnic conflict; in many places, priests even called for a crusade against the Islamic forces. When Russian units walked through the Czech Republic and Austria and entered Italy, they were almost welcomed as saviours.

The Russian enclaves in Norway were rapidly expanded, even as Sweden and Finland agreed to enter the new Russian Federation on very favourable terms. The Russian President had a sneaking respect for the Finns; they would be permitted considerable autonomy provided they remained out of trouble. The Swedes, less well regarded, were forced to enter on Russian terms. The Norwegians had had two weeks to get organised, but open resistance was futile; the remains of the Norwegian Army and thousands of civilian volunteers melted into the mountains and prepared themselves for an underground war.

For France, the Russians had a different fate in store. Paris fell, three weeks after the war began; the Russians walked into the city after the provisional government tried to escape to the south, to the other war zone. As cities were surrounded and forced to surrender, insurgent leaders came out, expecting to be greeted as allies. They were surprised when specially trained and prepared FSB units snatched them, cuffed them, and in many cases rewarded them with a bullet to the back of the head. Other insurgencies and isolated French units struggled to hold out; the Russians secured the locations they needed and surrounded hotspots of resistance. They could be handled later.

The ports along the coast saw a massive exodus as French shipping fled the ports, heading to Britain, or to America and Canada, trying to escape the Russians. The Russians came in the wake of the fleeing refugees, carefully taking control of the areas that interested them, leaving pockets of resistance to die on the vine. In some places, they faced determined opposition, but in others, they were able to go where they wanted, or were even greeted as liberators. They represented law and order; for those who had hidden from the insurgencies, the Russians were even more welcome than French soldiers. The Russians had a stout attitude to Islamic terrorism, some of them whispered, and besides, the Russians were the winning side. Would it not be better to work with them until the wind changed? Besides, the Russians would show les salarabes who was boss…

A week passed as the Russians advanced into the south. French soldiers who met them found themselves arrested and sent to detention centres; French civil servants, policemen, and local government workers found themselves meeting the same fate. The Russians surrounded the hotbeds of insurgency and waited, patiently, for them to run out of food. The message was loud and clear; the insurgents could come out, naked, or they could starve. Civilians fled, chased by fire from their more radical fellows; the radicals rapidly discovered that the Russians were prepared to fire heavy weapons at snipers and that their supposed allies didn’t like them much. Only a small percentage of France’s Muslim population had known about the insurgency in advance; many of the young, trapped in an endless cycle of poverty, had welcomed the chance to take it out on the native French. They had looted, raped and burned their way through the cities, now, facing death by starvation or heavy guns, they too voted with their feet. The Russians scooped up everyone who came out naked — those who came out dressed were shot down in case they were suicide bombers — and processed them; they were identified, segregated by sex, and then sent into detention camps. The remaining fanatics, those who were not shot in the back by their own people, were rapidly wiped out.

Even as they set up the detention camps, under heavy guard, the Russians were searching through Europe’s prisons. Many of the prisoners had escaped, but over half had remained in their cells; the Russians added the prison guards to their detention camps and carefully inspected each prison’s records. The mild criminals, the white-collar criminals, were sent to camps where they would be added to the workforce. The terrorist suspects met two different fates; those wanted by American authorities were sent to a camp near a port, where they would be transported to America. Those who the Americans didn’t want were quickly disposed of; the same went for the dangerous criminals. Murderers, traitors, child molesters… all met a final terrifying end.

They were merely the first to feel the weight of Russian power.