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Chapter6: The Age of Cataclysm (WWIII)

Due to losses on the European Theatre, the French President – Abel Bisset, was furious, and had sent his Emissaries to the USA on March the 13th in order to discuss with the US President on "What the hell was going on?!". He had every reason to be angry, with Germany and the Netherlands gone, France and Belgium were certainly the next targets, their nations would be the next on the frontline fighting for America. This was rather an unappealing reality. The gains of the Russians were truly staggering, in a few weeks, they had managed to do to Germany, what Germany couldn't do to Russia after four years of brutal fighting during WWII. As a result, all of America's Western Allies, particularly governments in exile, were bloody livid as well, there were even talks of an armistice with Russia among Western European citizens, in both occupied and unoccupied territories. America's NATO protection program was clearly not working and the Russians were still pushing through Europe. Russian technology was just too advanced, from their guns to their massive fleet of tanks and armoured divisions, the Russian War Machine looked unstoppable. Plus, many countries around the world owed the Russians Hundreds of billions of Rubles worth of economic and military aid and debt in general. So, although many countries didn't side with the Russians, they also refused to side with the Americans and the West. As a result, the UN, in its entire history, had lost more membership in a single point in time than any other time period. A solution needed to be found. Plus, although the Americans had forces in Western Europe, the Russians used Eastern Europe as a buffer zone between Russia and the West, so not only were the guzzlers industries of the massive empire untouched, but the nations people were safe as well. Thus, for the Americans, the targeting of the Motherland itself was to be the solution that would help deal with the Russian advance. If the Russians felt the war coming home to them, they would surely reconsider an armistice.

By this time, the USAF and the NATO Air forces had been fully mobilized, and the large-scale aerial battle over the CRE instantly began. The Russian Airforce had been divided into two due to their battle on the Asian Theatre, which required massive aerial support for the ground forces fighting in China as well as the terrorism of Indian cities and towns from the air. This massive emphasis on aerial power resulted in Russia possessing the world's largest and most deadliest fleet of fighters, multiroles and bombers. However, although they had gained aerial superiority over China and India, not only did the Chinese and their Indian allies just keep coming because of their industrial production as well as military aid from allies elsewhere, but had re-continued the Blitz ii over Japan as even though the Russian navy got involved and thus inflicted massive casualties on the Indian and Chinese air forces, they continued their attack on Japan using any means, from submarines and surface-to-surface missile launches, the Sino-Indian forces were desperate to keep the Blitz ii campaign from collapsing. Due to fears that these attacks might be diverted at Russia, it had been decided that since the navy was, due to under-deployment, unable to protect Japan, the air force would be called in so as to ensure the safety of the Russian Pacific fleet as well as far-Eastern Siberia. What shocked the Russians was that no matter how many times they pounded Indian and Chinese industries, they continued to produce and deploy more aircrafts to the battlefield using a variety of strategies, from disguising and moving factories to secluded areas, to moving them to other countries for production. Due to commitments elsewhere, the RIAF (Russian Imperial AirForce) was wholly unprepared for a full on air battle with NATO, and this was evident in how the Russians had stopped their advance into Western after overunning the Netherlands and Germany. It was clear that NATOs airpower was getting stronger, and American commanders were well aware of this. Although Russian Artillery on the ground was something they could not fathom beating toe to toe with their own, the possibility of crushing the RIAF in a swift air campaign and then beginning a devastating bombing campaign on Russia, was becoming very possible.

The air battle over Russia had started slow, but by April 2015, it had become clear to the Supreme Imperial High Command that America and its allies were fighting for air superiority over Russian skies, particularly the air space on the European landmass of the country. The CRE was heavily industrialized, but if air superiority was lost, it was common knowledge by this time that the Americans together with their allies would target them, costing the Russians hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars. The CRE was simply not willing to pay that price. Ironically though, when asked to move the manufactories of the European landmass of the CRE to the Urals, the Tsar had refused, allowing only a small amount of industry from the border to Moscow to be moved to the Urals. The Tsar felt that allowing the factories to be moved would destabilize the economy of the richest parts of Russia (i.e. the European landmass of the CRE), plus he felt that taking such a risk was unnecessary as the Urals were already a heavily industrialized region, and although the reasoning behind the whole idea was based on the costs that would be incurred should NATO succeed in bombarding the industries of the European part of the CRE, the Tsar had argued that such a move would lead to weakness as the contingency might make it easier for the RIAF to accept defeat, and to the Tsar, this was unacceptable. Although there were clear alternatives, the Tsar only saw one way out of the problem, and that was to win against the NATO air forces. With President Dimitrovo Putin agreeing to these methods, the Tsar's orders were final.

With the air battle on, the inevitable bombardment of some Russian infrastructure and even RCAF military bases had occurred via the UN aligned European-American air forces. It was clear that NATO was determined, and the sheer scale of their air attacks was proof of that. Thus before the Ruskies knew it, the 'Great Russian Air Battle' or simply - Operation Burning Heaven, as dubbed by the Americans, had begun. For this operation, NATO would put its entire air power on display in order to gain superiority over Russian airspace. It was obvious that Operation Burning Heaven was primarily about gaining total air superiority over Russian airspace so as to give liberty to American and NATO bombers, of which would begin to bombard the nation into an armistice if not outright submission. This was standard doctrine for the West anyway, to them, the RIAF (Russian Imperial AirForce) was simply too inexperienced in air combat to fully understand this doctrine due to a rather peaceful late 20th and early 21st century for the world's powers as the last time Russia was in a serious conflict, their firepower was mostly delivered via artillery and many NATO commanders believed that this was still the case regardless of Russia's new massive aerial fleet. It was a realistic analysis, more than 22 000 Russian air assets were on the Asian Theatre, this meant that about 8 700 RIAF assets were actually in Europe by the time the massive air battle over Russia began. So the possibility of NATO wiping the floor with the Russians in the air, was very possible.

On the onset of the battle, the West had mobilized about 14 500 planes, and took the Russians by surprise. More aircrafts would be built by both sides as the fighting continued. At first, tens of aircrafts began bombing and attacking Russian towns and some cities, but that would quickly turn to hundreds and then at some point, about a thousand or two. Although the Russians were quick to reply, shooting down 32 Bomber Aircrafts before they landed a single bomb onto Moscow at one time, their Air Force was still too concentrated on bombing Indian cities in the devastating air raids in Asia as well as crippling the Chinese Military (which if they failed to defeat, could threaten Siberia, the natural lifeline of the Empire) and securing Russian air superiority around the Japanese channel so as to put an end the Blitz ii that was plaguing the nation of Japan due to the material and logistical involvement of neutral Canada as well as the direct involvement of the American and the now US-aligned Mexican air forces. With the involvement of the latter, the Blitz ii wreaked havoc to the second strongest economy of the UEA (i.e. Japan). Due to direct American involvement, the Blitz ii had expanded drastically, which made it an even harder task to solve. Japan simply lacked the proper air power to fight back, this meant that the Japanese military left everything on the hands of the RIAF and RINF. They were lucky their ally had not abandoned them, although Russia was fighting the Air forces of China, India, America and Mexico for its own benefit. Russia's pacific coast was incredibly wealthy and although many of its industries had been moved inland in order to protect the country's war production against the Blitz ii (which had now spilled over onto the Russian Pacific Coast), the region had been heavily built up, with massive amounts of essential infrastructure for not only the people living there, but for the war effort on the Chinese Front. As a result, in order to protect their eastern flank in the far eastern parts of Russia whilst preserving the stability on the Chinese Front, plans to re-deploy some of the aircrafts fighting on the Chinese Front from Asia to Europe were cancelled instantly. The European part of the CRE would have to build its own aircrafts if it wanted to win the air war with NATO. Although the Russians had the industry, their enemy had struck them using full force from the get-go, and were holding nothing back. As a result, the battle for Russia's airspace was violent and brutal for all who endured it, and had become a new front on its own - the Euro-Russian Aerosphere Front, or simply the Aerosphere Front. Although the Americans and their allies had yet to gain air superiority over Russia, it was clear that the Russians no longer had this superiority either. Russia's airspace was officially up for grabs, and the people on the ground would feel the pain as the pilots in the air fought ferociously to the very end. But pain wouldn't be the only thing the people on the ground felt, as patriotism was also having its effects. Civilians from both sides worked valiantly in order to assist their side, as to who was winning, nobody could really tell, although propaganda from both sides did their work.

For this battle, the massive industries of America and Western Europe were fully mobilized, and primarily focused on producing planes, so much so, that producing aircrafts was becoming as important as producing guns and grenades. The workers of Western Europe were pushing themselves to the limit, and were working tirelessly, just so they could assist their pilots in winning the Great Russian Air Battle. The daily output of Russia's enemy was staggering, and employees were working overtime for little to no pay just to help put together one more aircraft. Others even slept in factories just to keep up the production. It was like slave labour, but they knew they were doing it for themselves and thus had to work three times as hard if they wanted to beat Russian industrial workers, who were the globe's most proficient and well trained. The CRE had the world's most unfied labour force, and as a result, they were easily swayed by propaganda, and in order to maintain their status, worked even harder than usual. It was clear that both sides were mobilized for total war, and would use any resource in their disposal in order to get ahead. Like with the CRE, the governments even began presenting quotas in their policymaking, setting up production targets workers were expected to meet.

Even so, in terms of attacks from the air, Russian industries had it far better than their Western counterpart due to the Eastern European buffer State system established by the previous Tsar. Russian Satellite States were beginning to serve their true purpose, and absorbed huge amounts of damage that would have been directed at Mother-Russia herself. Although it was a hollow advantage as many of the Industries in Eastern Europe either originated from Russian companies, or domestic enterprises that either way, served the interests of the Motherland. As a result, NATO switched to attacking the industries and infrastructure of Eastern Europe instead, as they were the most convenient to attack and suffered the most damage anyway, although the attack on Russia itself would continue. Besides, the CRE needed to use its Satellite States for logistical purposes, so if NATO air forces harassed these satellite nations, they in effect disrupted supply lines and the movement of troops, weakening the Russian Army on the Western Front. This air war was not only causing some major damage inside of Russia (At a great cost for NATO as they lost way more planes than the Russians did, indicating the shift in superior aviation technology), but extensive damage to Eastern Europe as well, which were basically Russia's only allies on the European continent. The US Airforce was still a force to be reckoned with, and along with their NATO partners, were proving it. Even so, this did not stop the Russians from sending bombers of their own to victimize Western European industry and infrastructure. At one point during the Great Russian Air Battle, the CRE had even sent their air forces to North America as a wake-up call to the USA, leading to the deployment of about a quarter of the nation's Carrier Squads (Naval combat squads made up of a formation of different class warships cored by an Aircraft Carrier) to the Atlantic from their naval bases in the ISA (Independent State of Azania), initiating Aerial attacks on American and Canadian cities, whilst shockingly sparing Mexico. Canada was assisting America and it's ally Mexico in their terror campaign over Japan, but they still proclaimed neutrality as they had never sent military aircraft of their own to fight in Japan, making the attack from Russia come as a shock to Canadians, leading to some call for war with Russia, but as per the LIP agreement with the UK and Australia, as well as the discretion of the Canadian leadership, this did not happen, and would only serve to detach Canada from NATO even further as the Canadians looked for ways to prevent such an attack from occurring again. Russian naval aircraft had carried out a similar attack on Australia, basically leading to the same result as with Canada, although unlike the Brits and the Canadians, the Australians more or less respected the terms of the LIP agreement, meaning the attack was totally unjustified. Even so, the attack in North America wasn't as effective as the Russians hoped it to be, and only intensified the air battle over European skies as the battle for Russian air space expanded from the CRE to almost the entire European continent.

It was obviously expected that the US Navy as well as Airforce, in conjunction with NATO, would do its best to stop this attack on the main industrial base of the UN war effort, meaning for the Russians, the attacks on North America paled in comparison to the ones faced back at home. Plus, the San Francisco Agreement with the Chinese President – Xi Jinping and Indian President - Abishek Acharya, which had happened immediately after the naval attack on mainland Canada and the USA, had led to the transference of not only Chinese refugees and industrial workers, but the massive industries of both China and India into the USA for temporary instalment until the war's end so they could be safe from Russian bombers. Although an extensive amount of these manufactories would stay behind so the war effort on the vital Chinese Front would not be destabilized, a lot would be transported via air and sea convoys to America. The Russian Navy had yet to begin a naval operation entailing the capture of the Pacific Ocean, thus meaning the transference of all the Industrial resources its labour force to the USA had gone smoothly. Even so, a majority of Chinese industries had either been taken by the Russians or mostly destroyed, plus Indian factories and ports for production weren't exactly spared from destruction either, and Russian bombers attacked day and night non-stop. At this point, for the people of India, Russian bombings had become a part of life, although a terrifying part as the RIAF did not mind ruthlessly attacking civilian centres and killing thousands of innocent people. But this did not change the fact that US industry (the main industrial base of the UN war effort) was receiving a stupendously major boost from the materials provided by the Chinese and the Indians themselves, as whatever they produced, it would not only be for the Chinese and Indian troops on the Chinese Front, but for American and NATO soldiers as well. The unity between former enemies like China and the USA, absolutely shocked the Russians, who's people lamented that "For the Americans, losing Canada, Australia and the UK combined was more than worth it if meant gaining China and India were a wartime ally". This was truly a world war.

Due to the swift involvement of the USN, USAF and NATO during the naval attack on mainland Canada and the USA, the Naval Carrier Groups that had been deployed to North America had to be quickly withdrawn in what the Russian people considered a defeat because of "Inept naval commanders, who deployed the navy out of anger instead of strategy like true tacticians would" many said, leading to the sinking of 6 cruisers and 13 destroyers, costing Russia close to 5 000 naval sailors. The Americans had even captured a Frigate, together with it's crewmen after the disastrous withdrawal led to the lonesome ship's isolation from the rest of the fleet (which it was supposed to re-join before it's carrier group left, but couldn't due to an unscheduled withdrawal by the main fleet, leading to the frigates sacrifice) and eventual capture by the USN. Billions of dollars had been flushed down the drain, and a furious Czar Viktor i had fired all the naval commanders involved. Meanwhile, to the President of the CRE, the capture of the Frigate constituted a threat to the "Military intelligence of Russian naval technology" as NATO would surely decipher the ship for any valuable information. Fortunately, they were lucky, the captured ship ran using Rareethrum instead of oil, which wasn't something NATO ships regularly used, if at all, due to having poor reserves of the powerful natural resource. Plus, the crewmen were smart enough as to fry much of the ships computer systems so the Frigate's software technology would not fall into enemy hands after they were taken as war prisoners. Still, the Americans would surely decipher the ship captured and not only gather intelligence, but incorporate whatever they could salvage from the Frigate onto their own warships, it was even feared that the captured crewmen might be tortured for any valuable information, as powerful nations like America and Russia didn't mind the employment of deviance to international treaties, including the Geneva Convention (which governed the laws of war), if it would benefit them.

Even though the air raid over American and Canadian infrastructure and industry didn't have any lasting effect, it still badly impacted the morale of some Americans. To the USA, the mainland was untouchable because of their "nigh invincible fleet" according to the nation's military leaders and people. The Russians had shattered this arrogance by paying New York City, among other metropoli, a visit. Meanwhile, the massive battle over the skies of Europe had caused the main ground war on the European continent to stalemate after the Russians had occupied almost all of Belgium. The Tsar was humiliated, the most advanced Airforce in the world was losing. But then the Western Europeans would commit the biggest mistake during one of their Air raids over Russia. They would directly target Russian Civilians in an attack on the city of Kievan Rus, Ukrainian oblast, CRE, after orders from the French High Command were misinterpreted. They had broken the agreement that civilian life would be preserved during this War and 242 CRE citizens had died from the unexpected attack, whilst more were injured. The Tsar was furious, and instantly ordered a similar attack on France. The Geneva rule concerning civilian life was now dead, as the attack on the capital city of the Ukrainian oblast had not only injured about a thousand innocent people, but a little girl had also been killed, and the Tsar's propaganda machine as well as St Petersburg's 'Daily Visage' newspaper exploited this fact to call for the wrath of the Russian people. French citizens would wait in terror, and then on July 5, 2015, the bombs would fall on Paris. About 600 bombers had invaded French airspace in one night in the most devastating air raid in human history up to that point. After the bombs fell, some witness accounts claimed that "It was like a sea of fire coming to engulf me". In a single air raid, more than 200 000 Frenchmen perished. It was clear that civilians would now be direct targets of WWIII as well, but really in war, this evil is unavoidable. The war was degenerating to a no holds barred match. The situation was not good.

Meanwhile, the stalemate in Europe would continue for months as the Western Europeans had finally amassed enough troops to fight off the Russian army attacking France, and although the Western allies suffered the bigger casualties and made little progress in pushing the Russians back, not only did the Westerners finally have the superior numbers on the Western Front (main battleground on the European Theatre), but the war in China was clearly taking its toll on the CRE, of whom lost the momentum they had during the opening stages of the conflict in Europe, and thus made no further progress either. To add to Russia's problems, Italy, the third most important member of the UEA, had been invaded by NATO, with its northern provinces taken by the enemy, it had been cut off from the Russia's Satellite States, and thus the CRE itself. Russia's issue with weak allies was displaying itself early in the war, and if they were not careful, it might lead to their downfall. Meanwhile, on October 2015, the previously ill-prepared RIAF had finally gotten its footing after the NATO air raids had damaged infrastructure and industries, causing the deaths of more than 61 436 Russians and 362 000 in Eastern Europe. The infrastructural damage in both Russia and Eastern Europe, was especially concerning. After the decision to reluctantly withdraw 4 000 Aircrafts from the Asian Theatre after it had been decided that no redeployment of aircraft from Asia to Europe would happen, higher scrutiny on the RIAF back home, as well as high production yields combined with fewer losses on the frontlines in the sky (although with further American involvement, the Blitz ii in Japan would have to continue for some time), the Russians would begin making serious progress on the skies. "No plane has a home in a hanger!" the slogans said as the state of total war was having its affect on ordinary Russians. To add to this, the Japanese Military was finally back in China and helping the Russians on the Asian Theatre.

These weren't good news to the Americans and worser news had come with the deployment of the newly made Russian Super-Satellite – Opekun (Russian for "Guardian"). It's advanced technological protocols were surpassed by no other, and were used exclusively for safeguarding the Russian mainland from aerial raids, although it was a fifth generation satellite, it was so advanced that scientists thought of it as sixth to seventh generation. At this point in time, this mean machine was the biggest satellite in human history, and its armed autonomous Opekun sentinels deployed instantly by the super-satellite at the first sign of enemy aircraft approaching Russia and even Eastern Europe, made it a science fiction project for surveillance and monitoring operations due to its speed and efficiency. Although its range only allowed it to survey the European part of Russia as well as some of the Eastern European Satellite States of the Russian Empire, that was all the Opekun needed to do as the RIAF had total superiority over Siberia, making such heavy surveillance on top of the traditional satellites used by both sides, unnecessary in the Asian parts of Russia. With this machine, Russian commanders could hack into the radio transmissions and electronic files of enemy aircrafts and military bases, this allowed them to know that an air raid was coming the minute NATO deployed their aircrafts. The satellite's autonomous sentinels were especially fast and devastatingly dangerous as they were too quick and too small to shoot down. The Opekun was such a success that Russian military scientists even used it to organize and better control Russia's two Orbital Space Bases – The Maxim X & the GS Nazar, in the defence of the motherland. The strategic firepower the bases brought from space to land made it target number one for NATO and gave birth to some kind of Space-to-Surface warfare. Even so, Russia had little to worry about as not only did they do everything they could to protected the Maxim X and the GS Nazar from NATO attacks, but both OSBs (Orbital Space Bases) had ranges that not only meant that they could float much deeper into space as compared to anything ever built by humanity apart from the Opekun itself, but that they could only be attacked from earth via ultra-advanced long range missiles as NATO could not currently build a spacecrafts fast and strong enough to overcome it's lethal defence systems in sufficient numbers, let alone at all. The two OSBs were also manned, meaning malfunctions could be fixed easily on the spot without the need for regular supplies from the commanders in earth. They were a real problem, and the satellite as well as the Russian air force was even worse. As the cyber warfare between the UCWP and NATO escalated, the $88 Billion Opekun, was clearly worth the money used for its research and development.

At first the USA didn't see the use of the Opekun, to them, NATO had too many aircrafts for just one satellite to keep in control, but they were wrong, the Russians had hundreds of satellites and instantly put those they could to good use in order to assist the Opekun Satellite, who's range of sight was not only increased by it's sentinels, but by other satellites as well, including enemy satellites at some point. Above all else, aircraft technology, production and deployment became the main drivers for the air battle, and Russia began tipping the scale against their enemies as the CRE began to outproduce Western Europe, and develop their aircrafts much quicker. Plus the damage they were causing due to their heightening number of planes played a central role in lowering Western European production, even with American involvement. Although American production was high and unhampered, it could not surpass a Hyper-Industrial state like the CRE, and the deployment of F-16s, F-32s and F-22s was exceptionally difficult due to a majority of Russia's submarine fleet, which possessed the world's second most advanced submersible-to-air missile systems (second only to those of the USA), allowing them to shoot down planes in the sky from underwater. Ultimately, the RIAF fought back very effectively although major infrastructural damage on the European part of the CRE had been caused. Soon the danger of raiding Eastern Europe would be made apparent when almost all attacking aircrafts attempting to bombard the CRE began to be obliterated on a large scale. Almost every fighter, attack and bomber aircraft that entered Russian airspace in an unauthorized manner was instantly shot down by the RIAF with ruthless efficiency. Even aircraft deployed from the Middle East were also getting crushed. Although attacks on large parts of Eastern Europe continued to be more or less successful, by February 2016, they were losing a devastating 10 planes for every Russian aircraft they took down when they entered Russian airspace. What was even worse was that their bombers were also no longer a threat as the only thing that came close to threatening Russian towns and cities was their falling debris after getting shot down by the Russia's efficient air force if not by one of the 25 Opekun Sentinels. The Great Russian Air Battle was all but lost, Operation Burning Heaven was a failure. Russian Airspace was soon secure, although many innocent people, particularly from Eastern Europe, had died. In reality though, the battle for airspace had cost way more innocent lives in the West than the East, as Russia raided Western Europe much more fiercely via their overwhelming airpower and fleet of bombers as the Great Russian Air Battle progressed and the CRE began to outproduce its enemy. More than 3.8 Million civilians from Western Europe had perished from Russian Air raids, whilst in contrast only 622 710 Eastern European civilians (particularly from Russian Satellite States) had died from NATO raids. What made many Westerners angry and military experts sure that they had lost the battle was that not only was Russian airspace secure, but their airspace was the one now under constant attack. Even with pilots from all over the world (e.g. Asia and Africa) fully mobilize for their NATO Airforce, they still lost crushingly, a devastating blow to the UN belligerent's morale. Even so, although the Great Russian Air Battle had been concluded, the Aerosphere Front was certainly far from being closed in Russia's favour, and continued to be the most violent air force battle in human history.

With so many countries against the Motherland, the Tsar would sign the MEA (Mutual Enemy by Association) Declaration from the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, also called the MEAD defence policy. With the Imperium in the Kremlin in Moscow and the CRE President ratifying the document, it was instantly regarded as legal and binding. This document would stipulate that ANY and ALL nations associated with NATO militarily, would face the full might of the RIAF in the form of unbridled air raids, regardless of their neutrality. This had caused many countries to cut their ties with the Americans and Western Europe out of fear for what the mighty RIAF might do. The Americans and NATO had replied similarly, meaning that both sides were now willing to drag neutral countries into the conflict between East and West. The MEAD defence policy had even caused neutral UK to officially exit NATO, with Canada and Australia, the UK's LIP partners, following suit. But during all these gruelling events of war and destruction, some Western European countries would be forced to live under Russian Military Occupation. With so much resistance from occupied populations, the SA (Sila Ataki) had finally been granted their long awaited dream of administrating any and all nations occupied by the Empire. SA leader - Vladimir Kremli would even go so far as to publicly declare to the Russian Media, "My Sila Ataki will bring order and law to the lawless societies of those living under Russian Imperial occupation. Anyone who resists will not be forgiven, and will suffer the consequences of their actions. I am the voice of the motherland. I am the fist of order. I AM JUSTICE!!!". Many around the world, but particularly those living under Russian rule would take his words as a threat. Whether or not his words were a threat, he definitely lived up to them. To America, the SA constituted a threat that had to be dealt with, but for now, those living under CRE-Occupied territory would have to endure until the liberators came for them. Even so, America, of whom lost only 710 civilians from the Great Russian Air Battle, did not take the crushing loss in Eastern Europe as the end, and had a secret weapon that they were working on, but until this weapon could be used in battle, they would have to accept the loss of the battle in Russia so as to ensure that their air forces did not collapse, let alone this early in the war. Although the populations of occupied territories might feel abandoned, this was obviously not the case, as the United States and its allies were prepared to fight even after losing almost four million civilians.

To be continued...

Description

Part 1: www.deviantart.com/chaosowl02/…

Previous: www.deviantart.com/chaosowl02/…
Next: Coming soon....

Chapter6: The Age of Cataclysm (WWIII)

Due to losses on the European Theatre, the French President – Abel Bisset, was furious, and had sent his Emissaries to the USA on March the 13th in order to discuss with the US President on "What the hell was going on?!". He had every reason to be angry, with Germany and the Netherlands gone, France and Belgium were certainly the next targets, their nations would be the next on the frontline fighting for America. This was rather an unappealing reality. The gains of the Russians were truly staggering, in a few weeks, they had managed to do to Germany, what Germany couldn't do to Russia after four years of brutal fighting during WWII. As a result, all of America's Western Allies, particularly governments in exile, were bloody livid as well, there were even talks of an armistice with Russia among Western European citizens, in both occupied and unoccupied territories. America's NATO protection program was clearly not working and the Russians were still pushing through Europe. Russian technology was just too advanced, from their guns to their massive fleet of tanks and armoured divisions, the Russian War Machine looked unstoppable. Plus, many countries around the world owed the Russians Hundreds of billions of Rubles worth of economic and military aid and debt in general. So, although many countries didn't side with the Russians, they also refused to side with the Americans and the West. As a result, the UN, in its entire history, had lost more membership in a single point in time than any other time period. A solution needed to be found. Plus, although the Americans had forces in Western Europe, the Russians used Eastern Europe as a buffer zone between Russia and the West, so not only were the guzzlers industries of the massive empire untouched, but the nations people were safe as well. Thus, for the Americans, the targeting of the Motherland itself was to be the solution that would help deal with the Russian advance. If the Russians felt the war coming home to them, they would surely reconsider an armistice.

By this time, the USAF and the NATO Air forces had been fully mobilized, and the large-scale aerial battle over the CRE instantly began. The Russian Airforce had been divided into two due to their battle on the Asian Theatre, which required massive aerial support for the ground forces fighting in China as well as the terrorism of Indian cities and towns from the air. This massive emphasis on aerial power resulted in Russia possessing the world's largest and most deadliest fleet of fighters, multiroles and bombers. However, although they had gained aerial superiority over China and India, not only did the Chinese and their Indian allies just keep coming because of their industrial production as well as military aid from allies elsewhere, but had re-continued the Blitz ii over Japan as even though the Russian navy got involved and thus inflicted massive casualties on the Indian and Chinese air forces, they continued their attack on Japan using any means, from submarines and surface-to-surface missile launches, the Sino-Indian forces were desperate to keep the Blitz ii campaign from collapsing. Due to fears that these attacks might be diverted at Russia, it had been decided that since the navy was, due to under-deployment, unable to protect Japan, the air force would be called in so as to ensure the safety of the Russian Pacific fleet as well as far-Eastern Siberia. What shocked the Russians was that no matter how many times they pounded Indian and Chinese industries, they continued to produce and deploy more aircrafts to the battlefield using a variety of strategies, from disguising and moving factories to secluded areas, to moving them to other countries for production. Due to commitments elsewhere, the RIAF (Russian Imperial AirForce) was wholly unprepared for a full on air battle with NATO, and this was evident in how the Russians had stopped their advance into Western after overunning the Netherlands and Germany. It was clear that NATOs airpower was getting stronger, and American commanders were well aware of this. Although Russian Artillery on the ground was something they could not fathom beating toe to toe with their own, the possibility of crushing the RIAF in a swift air campaign and then beginning a devastating bombing campaign on Russia, was becoming very possible.

The air battle over Russia had started slow, but by April 2015, it had become clear to the Supreme Imperial High Command that America and its allies were fighting for air superiority over Russian skies, particularly the air space on the European landmass of the country. The CRE was heavily industrialized, but if air superiority was lost, it was common knowledge by this time that the Americans together with their allies would target them, costing the Russians hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars. The CRE was simply not willing to pay that price. Ironically though, when asked to move the manufactories of the European landmass of the CRE to the Urals, the Tsar had refused, allowing only a small amount of industry from the border to Moscow to be moved to the Urals. The Tsar felt that allowing the factories to be moved would destabilize the economy of the richest parts of Russia (i.e. the European landmass of the CRE), plus he felt that taking such a risk was unnecessary as the Urals were already a heavily industrialized region, and although the reasoning behind the whole idea was based on the costs that would be incurred should NATO succeed in bombarding the industries of the European part of the CRE, the Tsar had argued that such a move would lead to weakness as the contingency might make it easier for the RIAF to accept defeat, and to the Tsar, this was unacceptable. Although there were clear alternatives, the Tsar only saw one way out of the problem, and that was to win against the NATO air forces. With President Dimitrovo Putin agreeing to these methods, the Tsar's orders were final.

With the air battle on, the inevitable bombardment of some Russian infrastructure and even RCAF military bases had occurred via the UN aligned European-American air forces. It was clear that NATO was determined, and the sheer scale of their air attacks was proof of that. Thus before the Ruskies knew it, the 'Great Russian Air Battle' or simply - Operation Burning Heaven, as dubbed by the Americans, had begun. For this operation, NATO would put its entire air power on display in order to gain superiority over Russian airspace. It was obvious that Operation Burning Heaven was primarily about gaining total air superiority over Russian airspace so as to give liberty to American and NATO bombers, of which would begin to bombard the nation into an armistice if not outright submission. This was standard doctrine for the West anyway, to them, the RIAF (Russian Imperial AirForce) was simply too inexperienced in air combat to fully understand this doctrine due to a rather peaceful late 20th and early 21st century for the world's powers as the last time Russia was in a serious conflict, their firepower was mostly delivered via artillery and many NATO commanders believed that this was still the case regardless of Russia's new massive aerial fleet. It was a realistic analysis, more than 22 000 Russian air assets were on the Asian Theatre, this meant that about 8 700 RIAF assets were actually in Europe by the time the massive air battle over Russia began. So the possibility of NATO wiping the floor with the Russians in the air, was very possible.

On the onset of the battle, the West had mobilized about 14 500 planes, and took the Russians by surprise. More aircrafts would be built by both sides as the fighting continued. At first, tens of aircrafts began bombing and attacking Russian towns and some cities, but that would quickly turn to hundreds and then at some point, about a thousand or two. Although the Russians were quick to reply, shooting down 32 Bomber Aircrafts before they landed a single bomb onto Moscow at one time, their Air Force was still too concentrated on bombing Indian cities in the devastating air raids in Asia as well as crippling the Chinese Military (which if they failed to defeat, could threaten Siberia, the natural lifeline of the Empire) and securing Russian air superiority around the Japanese channel so as to put an end the Blitz ii that was plaguing the nation of Japan due to the material and logistical involvement of neutral Canada as well as the direct involvement of the American and the now US-aligned Mexican air forces. With the involvement of the latter, the Blitz ii wreaked havoc to the second strongest economy of the UEA (i.e. Japan). Due to direct American involvement, the Blitz ii had expanded drastically, which made it an even harder task to solve. Japan simply lacked the proper air power to fight back, this meant that the Japanese military left everything on the hands of the RIAF and RINF. They were lucky their ally had not abandoned them, although Russia was fighting the Air forces of China, India, America and Mexico for its own benefit. Russia's pacific coast was incredibly wealthy and although many of its industries had been moved inland in order to protect the country's war production against the Blitz ii (which had now spilled over onto the Russian Pacific Coast), the region had been heavily built up, with massive amounts of essential infrastructure for not only the people living there, but for the war effort on the Chinese Front. As a result, in order to protect their eastern flank in the far eastern parts of Russia whilst preserving the stability on the Chinese Front, plans to re-deploy some of the aircrafts fighting on the Chinese Front from Asia to Europe were cancelled instantly. The European part of the CRE would have to build its own aircrafts if it wanted to win the air war with NATO. Although the Russians had the industry, their enemy had struck them using full force from the get-go, and were holding nothing back. As a result, the battle for Russia's airspace was violent and brutal for all who endured it, and had become a new front on its own - the Euro-Russian Aerosphere Front, or simply the Aerosphere Front. Although the Americans and their allies had yet to gain air superiority over Russia, it was clear that the Russians no longer had this superiority either. Russia's airspace was officially up for grabs, and the people on the ground would feel the pain as the pilots in the air fought ferociously to the very end. But pain wouldn't be the only thing the people on the ground felt, as patriotism was also having its effects. Civilians from both sides worked valiantly in order to assist their side, as to who was winning, nobody could really tell, although propaganda from both sides did their work.

For this battle, the massive industries of America and Western Europe were fully mobilized, and primarily focused on producing planes, so much so, that producing aircrafts was becoming as important as producing guns and grenades. The workers of Western Europe were pushing themselves to the limit, and were working tirelessly, just so they could assist their pilots in winning the Great Russian Air Battle. The daily output of Russia's enemy was staggering, and employees were working overtime for little to no pay just to help put together one more aircraft. Others even slept in factories just to keep up the production. It was like slave labour, but they knew they were doing it for themselves and thus had to work three times as hard if they wanted to beat Russian industrial workers, who were the globe's most proficient and well trained. The CRE had the world's most unfied labour force, and as a result, they were easily swayed by propaganda, and in order to maintain their status, worked even harder than usual. It was clear that both sides were mobilized for total war, and would use any resource in their disposal in order to get ahead. Like with the CRE, the governments even began presenting quotas in their policymaking, setting up production targets workers were expected to meet.

Even so, in terms of attacks from the air, Russian industries had it far better than their Western counterpart due to the Eastern European buffer State system established by the previous Tsar. Russian Satellite States were beginning to serve their true purpose, and absorbed huge amounts of damage that would have been directed at Mother-Russia herself. Although it was a hollow advantage as many of the Industries in Eastern Europe either originated from Russian companies, or domestic enterprises that either way, served the interests of the Motherland. As a result, NATO switched to attacking the industries and infrastructure of Eastern Europe instead, as they were the most convenient to attack and suffered the most damage anyway, although the attack on Russia itself would continue. Besides, the CRE needed to use its Satellite States for logistical purposes, so if NATO air forces harassed these satellite nations, they in effect disrupted supply lines and the movement of troops, weakening the Russian Army on the Western Front. This air war was not only causing some major damage inside of Russia (At a great cost for NATO as they lost way more planes than the Russians did, indicating the shift in superior aviation technology), but extensive damage to Eastern Europe as well, which were basically Russia's only allies on the European continent. The US Airforce was still a force to be reckoned with, and along with their NATO partners, were proving it. Even so, this did not stop the Russians from sending bombers of their own to victimize Western European industry and infrastructure. At one point during the Great Russian Air Battle, the CRE had even sent their air forces to North America as a wake-up call to the USA, leading to the deployment of about a quarter of the nation's Carrier Squads (Naval combat squads made up of a formation of different class warships cored by an Aircraft Carrier) to the Atlantic from their naval bases in the ISA (Independent State of Azania), initiating Aerial attacks on American and Canadian cities, whilst shockingly sparing Mexico. Canada was assisting America and it's ally Mexico in their terror campaign over Japan, but they still proclaimed neutrality as they had never sent military aircraft of their own to fight in Japan, making the attack from Russia come as a shock to Canadians, leading to some call for war with Russia, but as per the LIP agreement with the UK and Australia, as well as the discretion of the Canadian leadership, this did not happen, and would only serve to detach Canada from NATO even further as the Canadians looked for ways to prevent such an attack from occurring again. Russian naval aircraft had carried out a similar attack on Australia, basically leading to the same result as with Canada, although unlike the Brits and the Canadians, the Australians more or less respected the terms of the LIP agreement, meaning the attack was totally unjustified. Even so, the attack in North America wasn't as effective as the Russians hoped it to be, and only intensified the air battle over European skies as the battle for Russian air space expanded from the CRE to almost the entire European continent.

It was obviously expected that the US Navy as well as Airforce, in conjunction with NATO, would do its best to stop this attack on the main industrial base of the UN war effort, meaning for the Russians, the attacks on North America paled in comparison to the ones faced back at home. Plus, the San Francisco Agreement with the Chinese President – Xi Jinping and Indian President - Abishek Acharya, which had happened immediately after the naval attack on mainland Canada and the USA, had led to the transference of not only Chinese refugees and industrial workers, but the massive industries of both China and India into the USA for temporary instalment until the war's end so they could be safe from Russian bombers. Although an extensive amount of these manufactories would stay behind so the war effort on the vital Chinese Front would not be destabilized, a lot would be transported via air and sea convoys to America. The Russian Navy had yet to begin a naval operation entailing the capture of the Pacific Ocean, thus meaning the transference of all the Industrial resources its labour force to the USA had gone smoothly. Even so, a majority of Chinese industries had either been taken by the Russians or mostly destroyed, plus Indian factories and ports for production weren't exactly spared from destruction either, and Russian bombers attacked day and night non-stop. At this point, for the people of India, Russian bombings had become a part of life, although a terrifying part as the RIAF did not mind ruthlessly attacking civilian centres and killing thousands of innocent people. But this did not change the fact that US industry (the main industrial base of the UN war effort) was receiving a stupendously major boost from the materials provided by the Chinese and the Indians themselves, as whatever they produced, it would not only be for the Chinese and Indian troops on the Chinese Front, but for American and NATO soldiers as well. The unity between former enemies like China and the USA, absolutely shocked the Russians, who's people lamented that "For the Americans, losing Canada, Australia and the UK combined was more than worth it if meant gaining China and India were a wartime ally". This was truly a world war.

Due to the swift involvement of the USN, USAF and NATO during the naval attack on mainland Canada and the USA, the Naval Carrier Groups that had been deployed to North America had to be quickly withdrawn in what the Russian people considered a defeat because of "Inept naval commanders, who deployed the navy out of anger instead of strategy like true tacticians would" many said, leading to the sinking of 6 cruisers and 13 destroyers, costing Russia close to 5 000 naval sailors. The Americans had even captured a Frigate, together with it's crewmen after the disastrous withdrawal led to the lonesome ship's isolation from the rest of the fleet (which it was supposed to re-join before it's carrier group left, but couldn't due to an unscheduled withdrawal by the main fleet, leading to the frigates sacrifice) and eventual capture by the USN. Billions of dollars had been flushed down the drain, and a furious Czar Viktor i had fired all the naval commanders involved. Meanwhile, to the President of the CRE, the capture of the Frigate constituted a threat to the "Military intelligence of Russian naval technology" as NATO would surely decipher the ship for any valuable information. Fortunately, they were lucky, the captured ship ran using Rareethrum instead of oil, which wasn't something NATO ships regularly used, if at all, due to having poor reserves of the powerful natural resource. Plus, the crewmen were smart enough as to fry much of the ships computer systems so the Frigate's software technology would not fall into enemy hands after they were taken as war prisoners. Still, the Americans would surely decipher the ship captured and not only gather intelligence, but incorporate whatever they could salvage from the Frigate onto their own warships, it was even feared that the captured crewmen might be tortured for any valuable information, as powerful nations like America and Russia didn't mind the employment of deviance to international treaties, including the Geneva Convention (which governed the laws of war), if it would benefit them.

Even though the air raid over American and Canadian infrastructure and industry didn't have any lasting effect, it still badly impacted the morale of some Americans. To the USA, the mainland was untouchable because of their "nigh invincible fleet" according to the nation's military leaders and people. The Russians had shattered this arrogance by paying New York City, among other metropoli, a visit. Meanwhile, the massive battle over the skies of Europe had caused the main ground war on the European continent to stalemate after the Russians had occupied almost all of Belgium. The Tsar was humiliated, the most advanced Airforce in the world was losing. But then the Western Europeans would commit the biggest mistake during one of their Air raids over Russia. They would directly target Russian Civilians in an attack on the city of Kievan Rus, Ukrainian oblast, CRE, after orders from the French High Command were misinterpreted. They had broken the agreement that civilian life would be preserved during this War and 242 CRE citizens had died from the unexpected attack, whilst more were injured. The Tsar was furious, and instantly ordered a similar attack on France. The Geneva rule concerning civilian life was now dead, as the attack on the capital city of the Ukrainian oblast had not only injured about a thousand innocent people, but a little girl had also been killed, and the Tsar's propaganda machine as well as St Petersburg's 'Daily Visage' newspaper exploited this fact to call for the wrath of the Russian people. French citizens would wait in terror, and then on July 5, 2015, the bombs would fall on Paris. About 600 bombers had invaded French airspace in one night in the most devastating air raid in human history up to that point. After the bombs fell, some witness accounts claimed that "It was like a sea of fire coming to engulf me". In a single air raid, more than 200 000 Frenchmen perished. It was clear that civilians would now be direct targets of WWIII as well, but really in war, this evil is unavoidable. The war was degenerating to a no holds barred match. The situation was not good.

Meanwhile, the stalemate in Europe would continue for months as the Western Europeans had finally amassed enough troops to fight off the Russian army attacking France, and although the Western allies suffered the bigger casualties and made little progress in pushing the Russians back, not only did the Westerners finally have the superior numbers on the Western Front (main battleground on the European Theatre), but the war in China was clearly taking its toll on the CRE, of whom lost the momentum they had during the opening stages of the conflict in Europe, and thus made no further progress either. To add to Russia's problems, Italy, the third most important member of the UEA, had been invaded by NATO, with its northern provinces taken by the enemy, it had been cut off from the Russia's Satellite States, and thus the CRE itself. Russia's issue with weak allies was displaying itself early in the war, and if they were not careful, it might lead to their downfall. Meanwhile, on October 2015, the previously ill-prepared RIAF had finally gotten its footing after the NATO air raids had damaged infrastructure and industries, causing the deaths of more than 61 436 Russians and 362 000 in Eastern Europe. The infrastructural damage in both Russia and Eastern Europe, was especially concerning. After the decision to reluctantly withdraw 4 000 Aircrafts from the Asian Theatre after it had been decided that no redeployment of aircraft from Asia to Europe would happen, higher scrutiny on the RIAF back home, as well as high production yields combined with fewer losses on the frontlines in the sky (although with further American involvement, the Blitz ii in Japan would have to continue for some time), the Russians would begin making serious progress on the skies. "No plane has a home in a hanger!" the slogans said as the state of total war was having its affect on ordinary Russians. To add to this, the Japanese Military was finally back in China and helping the Russians on the Asian Theatre.

These weren't good news to the Americans and worser news had come with the deployment of the newly made Russian Super-Satellite – Opekun (Russian for "Guardian"). It's advanced technological protocols were surpassed by no other, and were used exclusively for safeguarding the Russian mainland from aerial raids, although it was a fifth generation satellite, it was so advanced that scientists thought of it as sixth to seventh generation. At this point in time, this mean machine was the biggest satellite in human history, and its armed autonomous Opekun sentinels deployed instantly by the super-satellite at the first sign of enemy aircraft approaching Russia and even Eastern Europe, made it a science fiction project for surveillance and monitoring operations due to its speed and efficiency. Although its range only allowed it to survey the European part of Russia as well as some of the Eastern European Satellite States of the Russian Empire, that was all the Opekun needed to do as the RIAF had total superiority over Siberia, making such heavy surveillance on top of the traditional satellites used by both sides, unnecessary in the Asian parts of Russia. With this machine, Russian commanders could hack into the radio transmissions and electronic files of enemy aircrafts and military bases, this allowed them to know that an air raid was coming the minute NATO deployed their aircrafts. The satellite's autonomous sentinels were especially fast and devastatingly dangerous as they were too quick and too small to shoot down. The Opekun was such a success that Russian military scientists even used it to organize and better control Russia's two Orbital Space Bases – The Maxim X & the GS Nazar, in the defence of the motherland. The strategic firepower the bases brought from space to land made it target number one for NATO and gave birth to some kind of Space-to-Surface warfare. Even so, Russia had little to worry about as not only did they do everything they could to protected the Maxim X and the GS Nazar from NATO attacks, but both OSBs (Orbital Space Bases) had ranges that not only meant that they could float much deeper into space as compared to anything ever built by humanity apart from the Opekun itself, but that they could only be attacked from earth via ultra-advanced long range missiles as NATO could not currently build a spacecrafts fast and strong enough to overcome it's lethal defence systems in sufficient numbers, let alone at all. The two OSBs were also manned, meaning malfunctions could be fixed easily on the spot without the need for regular supplies from the commanders in earth. They were a real problem, and the satellite as well as the Russian air force was even worse. As the cyber warfare between the UCWP and NATO escalated, the $88 Billion Opekun, was clearly worth the money used for its research and development.

At first the USA didn't see the use of the Opekun, to them, NATO had too many aircrafts for just one satellite to keep in control, but they were wrong, the Russians had hundreds of satellites and instantly put those they could to good use in order to assist the Opekun Satellite, who's range of sight was not only increased by it's sentinels, but by other satellites as well, including enemy satellites at some point. Above all else, aircraft technology, production and deployment became the main drivers for the air battle, and Russia began tipping the scale against their enemies as the CRE began to outproduce Western Europe, and develop their aircrafts much quicker. Plus the damage they were causing due to their heightening number of planes played a central role in lowering Western European production, even with American involvement. Although American production was high and unhampered, it could not surpass a Hyper-Industrial state like the CRE, and the deployment of F-16s, F-32s and F-22s was exceptionally difficult due to a majority of Russia's submarine fleet, which possessed the world's second most advanced submersible-to-air missile systems (second only to those of the USA), allowing them to shoot down planes in the sky from underwater. Ultimately, the RIAF fought back very effectively although major infrastructural damage on the European part of the CRE had been caused. Soon the danger of raiding Eastern Europe would be made apparent when almost all attacking aircrafts attempting to bombard the CRE began to be obliterated on a large scale. Almost every fighter, attack and bomber aircraft that entered Russian airspace in an unauthorized manner was instantly shot down by the RIAF with ruthless efficiency. Even aircraft deployed from the Middle East were also getting crushed. Although attacks on large parts of Eastern Europe continued to be more or less successful, by February 2016, they were losing a devastating 10 planes for every Russian aircraft they took down when they entered Russian airspace. What was even worse was that their bombers were also no longer a threat as the only thing that came close to threatening Russian towns and cities was their falling debris after getting shot down by the Russia's efficient air force if not by one of the 25 Opekun Sentinels. The Great Russian Air Battle was all but lost, Operation Burning Heaven was a failure. Russian Airspace was soon secure, although many innocent people, particularly from Eastern Europe, had died. In reality though, the battle for airspace had cost way more innocent lives in the West than the East, as Russia raided Western Europe much more fiercely via their overwhelming airpower and fleet of bombers as the Great Russian Air Battle progressed and the CRE began to outproduce its enemy. More than 3.8 Million civilians from Western Europe had perished from Russian Air raids, whilst in contrast only 622 710 Eastern European civilians (particularly from Russian Satellite States) had died from NATO raids. What made many Westerners angry and military experts sure that they had lost the battle was that not only was Russian airspace secure, but their airspace was the one now under constant attack. Even with pilots from all over the world (e.g. Asia and Africa) fully mobilize for their NATO Airforce, they still lost crushingly, a devastating blow to the UN belligerent's morale. Even so, although the Great Russian Air Battle had been concluded, the Aerosphere Front was certainly far from being closed in Russia's favour, and continued to be the most violent air force battle in human history.

With so many countries against the Motherland, the Tsar would sign the MEA (Mutual Enemy by Association) Declaration from the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, also called the MEAD defence policy. With the Imperium in the Kremlin in Moscow and the CRE President ratifying the document, it was instantly regarded as legal and binding. This document would stipulate that ANY and ALL nations associated with NATO militarily, would face the full might of the RIAF in the form of unbridled air raids, regardless of their neutrality. This had caused many countries to cut their ties with the Americans and Western Europe out of fear for what the mighty RIAF might do. The Americans and NATO had replied similarly, meaning that both sides were now willing to drag neutral countries into the conflict between East and West. The MEAD defence policy had even caused neutral UK to officially exit NATO, with Canada and Australia, the UK's LIP partners, following suit. But during all these gruelling events of war and destruction, some Western European countries would be forced to live under Russian Military Occupation. With so much resistance from occupied populations, the SA (Sila Ataki) had finally been granted their long awaited dream of administrating any and all nations occupied by the Empire. SA leader - Vladimir Kremli would even go so far as to publicly declare to the Russian Media, "My Sila Ataki will bring order and law to the lawless societies of those living under Russian Imperial occupation. Anyone who resists will not be forgiven, and will suffer the consequences of their actions. I am the voice of the motherland. I am the fist of order. I AM JUSTICE!!!". Many around the world, but particularly those living under Russian rule would take his words as a threat. Whether or not his words were a threat, he definitely lived up to them. To America, the SA constituted a threat that had to be dealt with, but for now, those living under CRE-Occupied territory would have to endure until the liberators came for them. Even so, America, of whom lost only 710 civilians from the Great Russian Air Battle, did not take the crushing loss in Eastern Europe as the end, and had a secret weapon that they were working on, but until this weapon could be used in battle, they would have to accept the loss of the battle in Russia so as to ensure that their air forces did not collapse, let alone this early in the war. Although the populations of occupied territories might feel abandoned, this was obviously not the case, as the United States and its allies were prepared to fight even after losing almost four million civilians.

To be continued...