Hello all, I guess this idea is a bit too cliche, but I've been working on it for a while and I'd like to get it critiqued by some more experienced writers. The best way for me to describe the storyline is to disassemble it into point-form, and hopefully this is the right way to do it. The story is set about 8 years from now. Over the course of a year, Russia has demonstrated their military superiority and has gained control of an alarming percentage of the world's countries. Each continent for them has been a "testing ground" for new and deadly ways to kill. Asia has been victimized by electronic terrorism, Europe has been gassed by Russian infantry, and North America has fallen prey to incendiary bombings. The main focus of the story is North America, but more specifically, San Francisco. The city was planned to be the docking point for a Navy fleet bringing in Asian refugees; thus, Russia concentrated their efforts there, releasing infantry to lie in wait for the fleet. Most of the population was wiped out; the survivors who had a chance to flee made a break for Canada, but many were killed on the highways leading north, which were being controlled by ruthless gangs. The survivors who lost their chance to escape spread out and stayed underground in the subway systems, returning to the surface once they were sure the Russians had gone. The Russians had assumed everyone had concentrated themselves to the west end of the city, and so, they built a massive fence that ran straight through the city from the north to the south end. Whoever was on each end did not bother trying to cross the fence; they felt it wasn't needed, since they had all the food and supplies they would require on their side. The people on the east side of the fence were known simply as East-siders, but the people on the west side became somewhat different. Much of the religious aspect of the population had stayed together underground during the bombing, and when they emerged to the surface, they felt they had been saved by God. Their beliefs were amplified because of a lone church that stood untouched amongst the rubble; they had taken it as another holy sign. They began to call themselves "Bretheren", and in all truth they had become somewhat of a cult. There was one other populace residing in the city, and it was the refugees. When they had arrived, the Russian infantry was waiting for them; they were the same soldiers who had taken part in the "European Gas". As the refugees started to swim towards shore, the Navy opened fire on the Russians. There were losses at both ends, but the Russians began to directly bombard the refugees with radiation poisoning from their chemical sprayers. At least half of the refugees died of the poisoning, and when the Russians were sure they had done their job, they headed south to be extracted. The Navy was all but wiped out at the site, and the surviving refugees crawled onto shore, with nowhere to turn and nowhere to go. After two days, the effects of the poisoning started to take it's toll on the refugees, and many of them lost appendages and began to show signs of speech impediment. The survivors began to head north, following the shoreline for direction, and when they reached the outskirts of the city, they set up camp and began to rebuild their lives. As the Brethern and East-siders began to exhaust their food supply, they began to fight. It was mostly squabbles at the fenceline, and was nothing to be alarmed about, but soon enough ammunition was found and the arguments became bloody. Soon after, both sides began to cut their own paths through the fence, and melees broke out on both sides. As food became even more scarce, the melees began to grow in frequency and size. The main focus of the story is two male characters who reside primarily with the Bretheren; a street-wise young man named Cole and a Chinese man named Zhu, one of the few surviving refugees that was able to avoid the radiation. The two have been able to survive with each other by relying on their own strengths and faults. The two men have run raids for the Bretheren for three months, alternating between full-on assaults with their allies or simple tasks that relied on avoidance and stealth. The raids were conducted mainly for supplies such as clothes and general goods, but more recently they have been conducted for food. As the possibility of a civil war looms, Cole and Zhu decide to stockpile for the expected attack, and they enter the East-sider territory for what may be the last time before the impending war. Wow... my fingers are extremely cramped :) but that's the basics. If anyone would like to volunteer suggestions or comments it would be greatly appreciated.

Quote: Original post by CrimsonSun
...Russia? What are you smoking? They'd need at least a decade and a half to match the US' current military status. Plus, the US would constantly be growing.

Can it be assumed that Russia had been "stockpiling" their forces, so to speak? Speaking from reality's standpoint, Russia is indeed underpowered compared to the US, but from a fictional standpoint, couldn't they have been planning this sort of event under the radar for at least five or more years? US intelligence is amazingly good, but if the Russians were smart they could have waved the nukes right under America's nose. Besides, if I was unarmed and my adversary claimed to have a gun, would I try to attack him on the basis that he may be lying? Russia would claim to have the ability to launch a full-on nuclear attack; would America still go after them head-on without proof? There could have been a row of silos ready to go, and I wouldn't assume the US would attack on the 50/50 chance that Russia might have been telling the truth about their nuclear superiority. You have made an extremely valid point, but the story is more of a "what-if" than anything else.

Quote: Original post by nonode
You really should change the names of the nations to some fictional ones. Would you play a game with America as the bad guy?

Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2. My two favorite games.