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Few, if any, remember how the Third World War began, but everyone knows how it ended.
Twenty thousand nuclear warheads were detonated across the planet, turning the Earth into
a toxic wasteland.
Animal and plant life mutated beyond recognition, barely capable of survival across the irradiated
surface of the world.
Humanity is nearly extinct, a few thousand live on, not knowing if they are the only
survivors on the planet.
They have eked out a meager existence in the Moscow Metro, the biggest air-raid shelter
ever built, and perhaps humanity’s last refuge.
It is a world without tomorrow, with no room for dreams, plans or hope.
Feelings have given way to instinct, and the relentless conflicts that have defined all
of human history have not faltered with the end of the world.
In the ruins of the Moscow Metro, various factions compete to survive.
The largest is a nation that has found inspiration in one of the great ideologies of the old
world, The Red Line.
Based on the tenets of Stalinist communism, the Red Line is a totalitarian socialist republic.
Despite lacking any of the traditional infrastructure or governmental organization found in any
pre-war nation, the Red Line has adopted the nomenclature and structure of the former Soviet
Union.
Its government is headed by the General Secretary of the Central Committee which, despite the
various honorifics of the position, rules as nothing more than a petty tyrant.
The divide between how the Red Line presents itself and how it functions in reality extends
through every level of the state.
On paper, the resources of the Red Line are shared equally, with each citizen entitled
to food, water, and shelter.
In practice, life in the Red Line is as brutal as anywhere else in the Metro, with constant
shortages of food and other necessities.
Citizens are overworked, underpaid, and generally terrorized by their government, which enforces
its authority through what has come to resemble a brutal police state.
Well-armed soldiers are a regular sight in the territory controlled by the Red Line,
and individuals will routinely sell out their neighbors for the promises of extra food.
The judicial system is likewise harsh and swift.
Those who do so much as disrespect a soldier, or are simply in the wrong place at the wrong
time, are arrested and sent to Lubyanka station, beneath the former headquarters of the KGB.
Lubyanka functions as the Red Line’s political prison, leading to the expression “the ticket
to Lubyanka is one way”.
Despite the grim existence found in the Red Line, the faction has by far the largest population
within the Metro and control over many of its stations, rivaled only by the Commonwealth
of Stations of the Ring Line.
It administers sixteen stations directly with de facto control over two others.
Perhaps the most important of these is the former Kuznetsky Most station, now known as
Armory which produces many of the weapons found within the Moscow Metro.
The Red Line’s population and local industry means its military forces are likely the largest
within the Metro.
With its size comes lower standards and many of its soldiers and equipment function at
much lower effectiveness when compared to the other factions of the Metro.
New conscripts are often sent immediately into battle, lacking training and sometimes
even adequate weaponry.
The Red Army is the only force capable of mounting costly human wave attacks however
and their superior numbers are often the key to victory.
Red Army officers are particularly disciplined, required to enforce their authority across
an army of conscripts who might have joined because of a true belief in the communist
ideal, family tradition, or simply for the money.
Elite, more specialized units exist within the Red Army, made up of a core of trained
professionals.
These are equipped with advanced night vision goggles, assault rifles, and even various
optics and chemical suits.
Some of the best sniper units in the Metro are found within the Red Army, while various
units of spies and infiltrators have worked their way into many of the Red Line’s rival
factions.
The foundation of the Red Line began in the collapse and overthrow of the Central Metro
Command, a hastily organized government intended to create some semblance of order for the
traumatized survivors who had sought shelter underground.
Communist ideology experienced a sudden revival in these early days of the Metro, with many
drawn to the former glory of the Soviet Union.
Everywhere across the Metro, communist agitators recruited others to their cause, eventually
overthrowing the administrators of various stations and establishing revolutionary councils.
The masterminds of the revolution declared the establishment of the so called “First
Interstational”, with the goal of uniting every station in the Metro and establishing
true communism.
For a time, this seemed inevitable.
After conquering almost all of the Sokol Branch, the Red Line was poised to achieve a complete
victory over the remaining stations.
They were opposed by a growing coalition who objected to the authority of the Red Line,
either ideologically or on more practical grounds.
These stations united under the leadership of the Commonwealth of the Stations of the
Ring Line and as war neared, they prepared to defend themselves.
What should have been a short, decisive conflict grew into a bloody stalemate, wasting precious
lives and resources that could have been used to improve the quality of life within the
Metro.
With growing frustration and mutinies on both sides, an armistice was reached and a guarantee
of free transit made to all parties.
With this treaty, a relationship of mutual economic dependency has slowly begun to develop.
Peace has still not arrived in the Metro however.
Today the Red Line remains in a semi-permanent conflict with the Fourth Reich, a Neo Nazi
faction which has thus far fought the far larger Red Line to a standstill.
Most within the Red Line believe that their victory in this conflict is certain and that
the glories of the Great Patriotic War are destined to be repeated, but until that day
comes, should it ever come, the Moscow Metro is nothing but a tomb for human civilization,
surrounded on all sides by the world it has destroyed.
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