Soviets trapped in the United States after Doomsday

With the outbreak of war between the United States and the Soviet Union, many of the nuclear weapons sent against the United States were not launched on missiles but intercontinental bomber aircraft. While many would fly out to reach their targets, some were either attacked or rendered unable to deliver the ordnance due to electromagnetic pulses. Communications aboard the aircraft remained intact in many cases, and a handful of locations were selected for landings in case of emergency. Most prominent of the list was Harvey County, Kansas, where a large county airport was capable of landing some of the aircraft and the large interstate highways nearby capable of landing the rest. Fifteen M-4 'Molot' type aircraft landed here on the day of the attack along with over 50 Tu-95 'Bear' bombers and several others landed in the vicinity. Several hundred Soviet airmen landing in rapid succession caused panic in the area, but with communications down and most of the military bases in the area destroyed or trying to organize themselves, these airmen were captured almost immediately by local authorities. Aa few were shot on sight before the rest surrendered, a handful knew enough broken English to communicate and make it clear the war was over for them too. But as more and more aircraft landed, the Russians were coming to almost outnumber the smaller towns, and in the interest of prudence a deal soon emerged. Most of the airmen had technical backgrounds and several were farmers, between the two they were able to maintain farm machinery and grow food alongside the Kansas locals once they learned the language. This deal laid the groundwork for the community that eventually became the cornerstone of and capitol for the Republic of Kansas, founded in 1997.

Other forlorn aircraft were not as lucky, and most individual aircraft either crashed with most or all hands killed if they were not executed immediately for 'war crimes' by hostile locals. The other two exceptions are the town of Seymour in North Carolina, where two dozen aircraft landed at Seymour Air Force Base and the surviving commander simply took them prisoner, and Parker, Arizona, where the several dozen Soviet aircraft and their crews formed an unusual community with the Native American tribes who had survived in the area. Hydroelectric power from the surviving Lake Havasu Dam along with the technical skills and weaponry of the surviving Soviets helped make the desert bloom, uniting the Colorado River in a truly multicultural community based out of Parker with its extreme xenophobia after a devastating raid in 1991 by a gang using military-grade weaponry looted from several nearby military facilities. The use of a nuclear weapon to wipe out the enormous force got the attention of even the Mexican government which issued a no-go order to its people in the area - thus the country remains officially undiscovered even as it thrives. Ironically the prevention of a strong Fascist state in the former American southwest was likely prevented by a Russian RDS-37 type gravity bomb with a yield in this case of just over 3 megatons.

By 2015 there were thought to be over 50 'Molot' aircraft and 300 'Bear' aircraft were thought to have landed intact in the United States with an additional 40 'Molot' aircraft and over 300 'Bear' aircraft either having crash-landed or been shot down. Overall an estimated 3500 Soviet Air Force personnel landed in the continental US, they and their descendants forming unique populations in different parts of the US (Seymour Air Force Base became a rallying point for survivors in North Carolina before being overrun by gangs itself, the Russian population scattered or killed at the time). Russian technology and ingenuity are also apparent in both the Republic of Kansas and the Colorado River, with feeling about Kansas mixed and the Colorado River concerning. As the situation behind the Battle of Iron Mountain becomes more clear from the few survivors of the Free American Legion record their stories, contact with the Colorado River Republic will become more common.