Twilight 2000

Road to War: 09.11.1989: The Berlin Wall falls. 02.08.1990: Iraq invades Kuwait, starting the Gulf War. 03.10.1990: Germany is reunified. 28.02.1991: The Gulf War ends. 12.06.1991: Boris Yeltsin is elected president of Russia. 01.07.1991: The Warsaw Pact is formally dissolved. 19.08.1991: Tanks rumble through the streets of Moscow in the morning. “The Gang of Eight,” with KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov at the helm, sets their coup in motion. President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest in Crimea and vice president Gennady Yanayev – one of The Eight – is declared the new president of the Soviet Union. The Russian president Boris Yeltsin is arrested at his dacha outside Moscow. Tens of thousands demonstrate in the streets against the coup, but without a leadership figure to rally behind, the protests are struck down hard. In other parts of the Soviet Union, The Gang of Eight is less successful. In the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Soviet forces occupy TV towers and other strategic buildings, but this sparks violent protests. After many deaths and strong condemnation by the USA, the Soviet forces retreat. The three Baltic states all declare independence shortly thereafter, and immediately apply for NATO membership. 1992: The collapse of the Soviet Union has been halted by The Eight, who spend the next year purging all opposition to their rule inside the Soviet government. The Kremlin initiates a program of strictly controlled economic liberalization which reinvigorates the Soviet economy, but the freedom of the press and other liberties introduced by Gorbachev are revoked step by step. In the international community, the Soviet Union is seen as severely weakened. In the US, focus shifts to the woeful state of the domestic economy. President George Bush loses the election to the challenger Bill Clinton. 1993: Clinton wants to show solidarity with the countries in the former Warsaw Pact. During a visit to Poland and the Baltic States, he signals that they can count on NATO support and, eventually, membership. The Soviet Union protests but, for now, does little more than saber rattling. Soon after, Gennady Yanayev dies under mysterious circumstances. KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov is named the new president of the USSR. Rumors spread of another wave of bloody purges in the Kremlin. 1994: Due to a spike in global oil prices and comprehensive economic reforms, the Soviet economy swiftly gets back on its feet. Using this financial windfall, Vladimir Kryuchkov launches a wide-ranging program to reform the decaying Red Army, with many lessons learned from its poor performance in Afghanistan. Over the next few years, training received by soldiers and officers is improved and technology upgraded, significantly reducing the gap to NATO in both troop and hardware quality. 1995: Vladimir Kryuchkov holds a speech about the “illegal” exit from the Soviet Union by the Baltic States, and how this was a CIA plot to weaken the Soviet Union. The Clinton administration views the speech as empty rhetoric and does not react. 1996: At dawn on May 9, Soviet tanks thunder into Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in a broad offensive. Vladimir Kryuchkov holds a speech and says that the operation is necessary to protect the Russian minorities in these countries, and to restore the territorial integrity of the Soviet Union. The US is taken by surprise, and its reaction is tepid. The leaders of the Baltic States beg for help, but Clinton hesitates. After just a week of military action, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are all again under Soviet rule, but guerrilla warfare continues. Soviet forces mobilize along the borders of Poland and Finland. The Soviet aggression is condemned by the UN, but being a permanent member of the Security Council, Moscow blocks all concrete UN action. The Soviet attack occurs in the middle of the presidential primaries in the US. Harvey West, a former Lieutenant General of the US Marine Corps, unexpectedly defeats Bob Dole in the Republican primaries and challenges Bill Clinton in the November presidential election. West bases his campaign on blasting Clinton’s weakness against the Soviets and promises a stern hand against Moscow. Harvey West wins the hotly contested race by a narrow margin. 1997: Harvey West is installed as US President, and starts fulfilling his campaign promises right away. The US military presence in Germany is beefed up significantly, including tactical nuclear weapons. The newly commissioned USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier sails into the Baltic Sea, a bold move – called ill-advised by critics – meant to send a strong statement to the Kremlin. Kryuchkov sees the US advance as an existential threat. He concludes that Poland will soon fall into the US sphere of influence, and be allowed into NATO. To safeguard the Soviet territorial buffer, Kryuchkov sets his plan in motion. The KGB stages violent pro-Soviet riots in Poland, and the Polish government responds with military force. Kryuchkov then acts to “protect the people of Poland from their oppressive and militaristic government” and orders an immediate invasion. Soviet air and ground forces cross the Polish border en masse. In the US, President West reacts immediately. Unwilling to send ground forces into Poland, he orders a broad air bombing campaign against the advancing Soviet forces with stealth aircraft and cruise missiles. The Kremlin replies with air strikes against US military bases in the United Kingdom, Germany and Turkey, drawing NATO into the escalating conflict. Meanwhile, the advance into Poland continues and the Soviet forces close in on the Oder river, its border with the reunited Germany. Pressure mounts for President West and his NATO allies, who agree to launch a multinational ground operation in Poland to break the Soviet advance. But West doesn’t stop there – the Soviet threat needs to be stopped all across Europe, he concludes, and draws a line from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean. US troops are also sent to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania, who all happily receive them. The US military activates its reserve components, drawing on Army, Air Force, and Naval Reserves to provide the manpower required. On June 6, US and Soviet ground forces engage in combat for the first time, west of Poznań in western Poland. Shortly after this clash, Soviet forces cross the borders of Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, and fighting erupts all along the new frontline through Eastern Europe. The USS Harry S. Truman and its supporting squadrons spar with the Soviet Baltic Fleet out of Kaliningrad. The US asks Sweden to allow US troops and air defenses on the strategically located island of Gotland in the middle of the Baltic. The US demand sparks a violent debate in Sweden. The government finally decides to reject the demand, referring to the Swedish official policy of neutrality. President West refuses to back down, and sends a naval force led by the USS San Jacinto cruiser to Gotland. The Swedish air force deploys its brand new JAS 39 “Gryphon” jet fighter, but after just a few days of air combat and a brief naval battle, Sweden agrees to a ceasefire. US troops soon land on Gotland, in Stockholm, and in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden to secure their supply lines. Sweden’s quick ceasefire sparks another furious debate in the country, where the political left accuses the government of making a secret deal with the US. In Moscow, the Kremlin draws the same conclusion, and now sees Sweden as a de facto NATO member and thus a hostile country. Kryuchkov decides to strike before the US can consolidate its gains. Old battle plans are dusted off and put into action. Soviet air forces attack a wide array of US and Swedish targets. Tanks rumble into northern Finland and advance quickly toward the Swedish border in the far north. A large airborne force parachutes in north of Stockholm, and Arlanda airport quickly falls to Soviet control. Soviet naval ships enter the Stockholm archipelago, where they face both Swedish and American vessels in combat. After a few weeks of heavy exchanges, the fighting subsides. American and Swedish forces hold the west coast of Sweden and an enclave in Stockholm, while Soviet troops have taken control over large swathes of the rest of the country. The USS Harry S. Truman is badly damaged by Soviet submarines and just barely manages to hobble into port in Stockholm, anchoring off the Old Town. The Baltic Sea is now largely under Soviet control. The Soviet Northern fleet, based at Severomorsk, sails south to harass US supply lines and to prevent the UK from assisting the US in the Baltic. There are running skirmishes off the British coast as the Royal Navy is kept busy holding off the Soviets. 1998: In the Middle East, the Israel Defense Force retreats from southern Lebanon after over a decade of occupation, under heavy fire from the Hezbollah militia. Next door, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad perceives Israel as weakened due to the US preoccupation in Europe, and launches a hasty attack against the occupied Golan Heights. The move backfires when the IDF strikes back hard and pushes into Syrian territory, just a few dozen miles from Damascus. Desperate, al-Assad gives a green light for his military to use its immense stockpiles of chemical weapons against the Israelis. The effects of the Syrian nerve agents are devastating, and the Syrian army pushes back into the Golan and northern Israel, supported by Iranian and Soviet airstrikes and Soviet warships in the Mediterranean. Israel’s Prime Minister asks the US for immediate help. President West, under pressure by the situation in Europe, hesitates. Israel draws the conclusion that the US has abandoned them and that the country must rely on itself. Faced with an existential threat, the government orders tactical nuclear strikes on the attacking Syrian forces. Soon, mushroom clouds rise over the Golan, and the Syrian attack is halted. In Washington, President West activates the Selective Service System and orders a massive draft, with support from Congress. Reaction ranges from patriotic enlistments to willful disobedience. Hundreds of thousands march against the draft in several major cities, in some cases resulting in violent clashes. Yet, the draft continues, and before the end of the year, it will produce half a million soldiers to reinforce Europe. Shortfalls in weapon and vehicle production will mean that most of them will be light infantry, many armed and equipped from old stocks. In central Europe, the tide now begins to turn against the Soviets, who find themselves unable to resist the combined might of the NATO ground forces and air superiority. Piece by piece, the Soviet lines crumble and their forces retreat. Kryuchkov, realizing he has overplayed his hand and overextended his military, plays his final card. Fearing total defeat and claiming justification by the Israeli strikes on the Golan, he green lights the limited use of tactical nuclear strikes against NATO troop concentrations in Europe – first in Poland, later in Sweden and elsewhere. These attacks devastate the NATO forces. After the initial shock, the alliance responds in kind. Both sides at first only attack military and command and control targets. Step by step the nuclear duel escalates, and soon industrial centers and other civilian targets are annihilated – not only in continental Europe, but also in the United Kingdom, and soon ICBMs fall in the US and Russian heartlands. Both sides show just enough restraint to avoid total nuclear annihilation – for now – but the electromagnetic pulses knock out most electronic communication, and civil order in the affected countries starts to break down. In the US, the nuclear exchanges trigger massive civil unrest. Street fights break out in several cities, with armed militias moving in as the rule of law starts to break down. Some particularly hard-hit US coastal states openly denounce the President’s rule. Rogue elements within some federal agencies, including the State Department and the CIA, are rumored to be secretly helping the seceding states. The Kremlin views the US as weakened, and renews its offensive to end the war once and for all. Instead of hitting NATO forces in Poland directly, the Red Army tanks rumble into the Czech Republic and Austria, then into southern Germany. They quickly take Dresden, Leipzig, and Nuremberg, before another wave of tactical nuclear strikes halts their advance. Toward the end of the year, President West’s reinforcements, hundreds of thousands of recruits, are finally deploying. The military uses its full transport capacity to fly and ship the soldiers to Europe. The Soviet leadership orders the navy and air force to attack the transports, and a bloody war at sea and in the air rages on for weeks. When the smoke clears, the US has obliterated the Soviet navy, but suffered huge losses in the process. President West has lost his capacity to ship more troops and equipment to Europe – as well as the ability to bring the forces already there back home. This, combined with the effects of nuclear strikes on most electronic communication, means that the US forces in Europe are stranded there for the foreseeable future. 1999: The winter of ‘98–’99 is the coldest in living memory in Europe. By New Year’s Eve, civilian losses pass 15 percent in most cities on the continent. But the worst is yet to come. As a result of the fighting and the EMP from nuclear strikes, communication networks and transportation routes break down. The food supply chain collapses, and Europe experiences a famine impossible to imagine only a year earlier. Africa and South America, largely spared from the war itself, are hit hard when world trade collapses. International shipping comes to a standstill and fuel prices skyrocket, when any can be found at all. The cold winter in Europe delays the spread of disease, but with Spring comes the full force of virulent epidemics. Typhoid fever, cholera, bubonic plague, and a host of other diseases sweep across the continent, and the world. Before the end of the year, the world population is nearly halved. On the battlefields of Europe, soldiers now fight to survive, not to conquer. The front lines have largely disappeared, replaced by large occupied zones. Tanks begin breaking down and the supply of spare parts gradually dwindles to zero. The sophisticated artillery weapons have used up all of their ammo, and no one is capable of producing any more. Divisions that started with 20,000 men are lucky to put a few thousand in the field. The military supply lines have generally ceased to function on both sides, and the troops are forced to live off the land to survive, often sparking conflicts with the local population. As the front lines crumble, local militias are formed by the remains of the national military forces and civilians. Some of these cooperate with the American forces, others with the Soviets, and some fight all foreign troops with equal fervor. The most organized of these militias are called the Red Brigades, taking orders directly from the Soviet military command. In the US, the escalating conflict both at home and overseas erodes the authority of the federal government. Finally, several states officially declare independence, and even states making no such official declaration simply choose to ignore Washington from this point on. 2000: At the start of the new millennium, civil rule has ceased to exist in most of Europe. Many military units remain, mostly because they have the capacity to defend themselves and to survive in the harsh conditions. Many units recruit civilians into their ranks. In early April, word suddenly starts to trickle down the wire to the American troops in northern Europe about Operation Reset – the first major offensive to be launched by the US military in over a year. The plan is to link up the scattered remains of NATO troops in Poland and Sweden, and make a massive push to seize the devastated capitals Warsaw and Stockholm. It starts out well for the US-led forces, taking the Soviets by surprise and advancing with lightning speed. But it is not to last. After a triumphant week of NATO gains, the Soviet military, despite severely degraded command and supply lines back to Moscow, reacts and strikes back hard. Coordinated assaults of armor and artillery pound the NATO forces, and the offensive grinds to a halt on both sides of the Baltic. The US-led forces fight desperately against the more numerous Soviets, leaving both sides severely battered in a bloody stalemate. In Poland, the US 5th Infantry Division is pushed back and then crushed at Kalisz, the survivors fleeing into the woods.

Locations:

1. Central Poland: Strip back the rusted, burnt-out hulks of old armored vehicles, the craters from tactical nuclear strikes, the ruined cities and towns, and the landscape of Central Poland remains much the same as it would have looked to the first chieftains whose pyres are shown in a diorama at the Poznań Museum. That Poland has returned to such a primitive state is testament to the perseverance of its people. Other former nations are nothing but chaos, ethnic cleansing, and horror. By comparison, Poland still offers hints of the world before, if perhaps only to tug more cruelly at the heart. While Gdańsk was quickly obliterated in a flash of fire brighter than the sun to deny its port to the Soviets, and Warsaw’s air defense facilities were destroyed by 800 kt blasts early in the war, Central Poland was subject largely to tactical nuclear strikes. By this point in the war, neither side has much left in the way of a tactical nuclear arsenal, and the last two years have been brutal battles of attrition grinding down the forces of the opposing sides. What might be the final large engagement of the war took place near Kalisz, from which the characters emerge on their own. Soviet forces broke the 5th Division in early July, effectively ending what was a “bulge” breakthrough attempt by American-led forces much like the famed battle of the Ardennes in the Second World War. It is likely the last offensive of the war on either side. Kalisz itself was the site of intense house-tohouse combat, and the hollowed sockets of blackened windows, along with the acne-scarred facades from small-arms fire, give the town a grim character. Most roads in central Poland took heavy damage to deny them to the enemy. Couple that with vehicles that are now reliant on alcohol for fuel, and the Wisła or Vistula River becomes the most important thoroughfare in the entire country. A small portion of it toward the North of Central Poland lies under control of Soviet forces, while the rest is plagued by pirates or ever-shifting masters such as rogue units and even those following orders from a command structure which is no longer there. There is not a place in Central Poland unaffected directly by the war. Soldiers passed through almost all villages and towns going one way or another and, like Biblical locusts, left them stripped bare when they left. The population as a whole does not want to see any large units, though they approach smaller groups on a case-bycase basis. Far too many Poles remember the atrocities of World War II and, as if it were part of some terrible curse, relive them like a real-time flashback in the later years of their lives. Łódź was the center of an early student uprising at the end of the Soviet era and continued in that spirit against the USSR by fighting fiercely for their city. American airpower relieved a siege against the city in 1998 but, by 1999, the city was again under attack by Soviet forces looking to form a cantonment against the horrible winter of that year. NATO forces again engaged, and the result left little for either side to claim as spoils. The NATO forces did evacuate citizens at critical times, and American forces liberated portions of the city from Soviet infantry. What is left of Łódź is favorable to Americans, but lies behind the broken line of the Soviet counterattack of 2000. Farms were razed to the ground as in Medieval wars, though this time with biological agents that denied use of the soil for generations. This short-sighted approach leaves both militaries and citizen residents in Central Poland without food.
2. Southern Poland: From the ruins of Wrocław to Katowice, the roads were bombed to concrete powder, and older, two lane highways serve as the main routes between the old border with Germany and Southern Poland. A “national independence movement” fuels nationalism in much of Southern Poland where, tired of both sides and their constant war, Polish troops have largely rejected allegiance with either side. Silesia, however, is different. Here, Free Polish Forces marshaled the bulk of their power to regain some of the last arable land in the European Theater. Lower Silesia lies in lowland country, and its average temperatures are considerably higher than most of the country. For whatever reason, this region was not destroyed by either side and is now, presumably, under the control of Free Poland. Many groups, be they organized under a command hierarchy or turned to banditry, eye Silesia as prime territory for conquest.
3. Krakow: Free Polish city, but one where various factions vie for power in the shadows and an uneasy peace could turn into war at any moment. In many ways, the environment is like that of Cold War Berlin, only Kraków’s lights do not reliably turn on, it’s population is less than half the pre-war level.
4. Northern Poland: In the waters off the coast of the Baltic is the wreckage of the once-mighty Western Soviet Fleet. While potent, it could not withstand the numbers of the United States Navy and never broke out of the Baltic during the war. The fractured fingers of its remains stretch from the beach out some fifteen kilometers. Gdańsk was utterly devastated in a nuclear strike, as was Elbląg. The entire coast saw intense fighting as major ports were destroyed, and both sides tried to take smaller ports with conventional force. Fishing near the coast is slim, the sea depopulated by fallout and biological weapons. In the northeast of the region, a series of lakes still serves as a supply of seafood, and are viciously fought over by varying forces. In the winter, the ice forms thick around the coast, effectively cutting off all fishing. The north had arable land, but climatic shifts brought on by nuclear winter deny the people even crops. In short, Northern Poland is populated with starving scarecrows who do whatever they must for their next meal. Only the few remaining military cantonments and marauding groups have any regular food, and even that isn’t sufficient for thriving life.
5. Warsaw: After years of war and several tactical nuclear strikes, the blackened Brutalist blocks of Warsaw look like burnt Legos left scattered by an angry child. Blocks upon blocks are nothing but rubble, and many of the great monuments in the city, raised again after World War II, are once again trod under combat boots. For all the fighting, no side wound up in control of Warsaw. Today, in 2000, the Voivode (or Baron) of Warsaw is said to rule much of the city and the surrounding countryside, fighting the remaining Soviet troops in the area. Intelligence indicates that this mad marauder leader has declared the area a new kingdom. The truth is probably less outlandish, but NATO forces have no reliable intelligence of the current state of the city. The days of satellite and air reconnaissance are over.
6. Western Poland: Much of Western Poland and the German border befouled by black rain and radiation. The fallout in the area varies, but won’t return to pre-war levels for at least a generation. The lines which had once been battled over so fervently are now broken, and units from either side can be found scattered about the countryside and towns.
7. Poznan: As the tanks rolled across the Oder and into Poland, Poznań was one of the first major cities devastated by modern urban combat in Europe. The city is currently experiencing another religious revival, though one of apocalyptic millenarian proportions. Traditional Roman Catholicism still predominates, but eschatological splinter groups are increasingly common, and one can sometimes see flagellants whipping themselves along a new pilgrim trail toward what they hope is solace in the ruins of Poznań.
8. Legnica: Prior to the war, the population hit nearly a hundred thousand, but that has dropped to perhaps twice Medieval levels. The technology and standard of living inside is similar. Indeed, a man from 999 AD, transported to modern Legnica, would hardly be surprised that the end of the world had come. The town itself retains a mixture of medieval dwellings and modern buildings, all of which have seen the boots of a millennia of soldiers march over their mud, cobblestone, and concrete roads. The population is under the control of a German-led mixed brigade of around 1,000 men and ten functioning tanks. The Germans remain under loose treaty with Free Polish forces deeper in Silesia. For now, the NATO presence is tolerated, even welcomed by some. How long that remains the case, none can say.
9. World: When the two superpowers went to war, even those nations far removed from their struggle, or who at least wished to be, were drawn into the whirlwind. Virtually no nation escaped the war. While not all saw battle or bombs, the collapse of civilization shook the entirety of the Earth. From South America to Japan, the scaffolding which supported society fell like a house of cards. We must speak in broad terms here, for the world is large. The war centered itself in Europe, but battles raged across the globe. Those countries who saw no direct conflict still suffered from fallout, from the end of the global trade network, and the altered climate created by nuclear winter. Human civilization is all but gone in most places. We didn’t end all life, but we may as well have.

Enemies: Enemy soldiers, marauders, wild animals and gangs.

Survival in a Poland gripped by the aftermath of World War III.

You come to your senses in the middle of a broken road. The sky is gray and it's drizzling rain. The only thing next to you is a old yellow soviet car with signs of shelling, and you don't remember how you got here. What are you going to do? digging in my pockets You find a 34th Infantry Division badge and a small Charter Arms Undercover revolver.

You come to your senses in the middle of a broken road. The sky is gray and it's drizzling rain. The only thing next to you is a old yellow soviet car with signs of shelling, and you don't remember how you got here. What are you going to do? digging in my pockets You find some 5.45 mm caliber bullets and a box of matches with inscriptions in russian.

Trying to remember where I'm from. You are a Ukrainian from the USSR, you know Russian and Ukrainian, you understand a little English, you don't understand Polish well.

Trying to remember where I'm from. You are a german who arrived with the first NATO tanks in Poland in 1997. You know german and english, you understand a little polish, you don't know russian.