Prologue

The year is 2038. The world economy is booming and the economy of the United States is finally recovering. The debt has returned to sixteen trillion from its high of ninety seven trillion. The United States has increased its military force but has remained in peace for the past 12 years. Two main political parties in Russia have taken extreme opposing sides, United Russia headed by Zakhar Novikov, and the communist party led by Alexei Popov. The communist party was disappointed with the recent loss of the election decided it was going to take over the country one way or another. The Communist party secretly brought a military force into action to take over Russia by force. It immediately sectioned off part of Russia and eliminated all military force that opposed them within it. They reinforced the front line between the forces immediately and drove the front line further. United Russia responded by trying to defend the front line but the Communist party managed to convince almost all of the military forces within the country to side with it. The united Russia party decided its only hope was to seek help from the United States. The U.S. realized that if the communist party took control Russia would become an extremely hostile country because of the party's ideals. Most of Europe decided to avoid the conflict entirely. Germany sprang into action to aid the communist party assuming that they would return a favor. The U.S. responded by sending in troops to aid United Russia in holding the line. The current divide between Russia leaves most of the population to United Russia but an equal amount of land. The communist Party is still in control of the majority of the military force in Russia. Some of the most elite U.S. forces have been deployed to Russia to aid the cause

I listened to the rain patter gently off of the tin roof of the farmhouse. We had chosen the open field with an old abandoned building in the middle to watch. 6 days out here eating MREs and trading off taking naps and watching the field on the rifle. The best rifle to date was in his hands. Manufactured in the U.S and named the Trento. The rifle could take a beating and still fire dead on.

"Cole" I heard from behind me. I turned to see Anthony waking up.

"Yeah?" I murmured pulling my eye away from the scope of the Rifle

"See anything?" he said.

I turned back to my rifle and said "Nothing yet, I'll let you know if there is." I heard him roll back over to continue his rest. I spent the next 20 minutes watching the sky grow darker as the night fully took hold and scanning the tree line which was sure to have Alexei's Guards within it. As I got ready to pull away and grab my canteen a flash lit up the inside of my scope. I pulled away and saw that the sky was indeed bright and my scope was not malfunctioning. The sky dimmed and I returned to my scope searching for the cause. I caught sight of a streak flowing across the sky.

"Overlord to all ground units in zone 8" My headset crackled to life. "We have a missile launch heading towards the center of zone 8. It appears to be a vacuum bomb. All anti-missile shields are failing to lock onto the target. It will make contact. Prepare for evacuation efforts, Overlord out."

I shoved Anthony and said "get up we have to move!" I grabbed the rifle and turned to grab my pack. He stirred quickly and grabbed his assault rifle and followed close behind. I hurled myself down the stairs 3 at a time and turned to take the stairs to the basement. We had stacked up old stones in the corner in case we needed a shelter. We both slid into the small shelter and sat down. I felt a shaking in the ground as the earth took the explosion from the vacuum bomb. The concrete ceiling above me became cracked. My only thoughts were of what the military would tell my family. Another crack appeared and I watched as a chunk of concrete and a coffee table dropped poured through the hole in the ceiling.