Russian Armed Forces

The **Russian Armed Forces** are the military forces of the Russian Federation featured in the **Into the Dark** *series* under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense.

Throughout the series it is apparent that the Russian military is firmly under the control of the Russian oligarchs with very few of the troops remaining loyal to the authoritarian government.

## Throughout the **Into the Dark** *series*

###  Early outbreak

During the early outbreak, the **Army National Guard** and **S**.**W**.**A**.**T**. teams are dispatched in an attempt to contain the outbreak. As Sarah watches a news report, a soldier in the background orders his men to leave the area due to a gas leak nearby. An explosion interrupts the broadcast before the newscaster can be warned. When Joel, Tommy and Sarah attempt to escape the infection, they witness that the military set up roadblocks along the highways, causing a large traffic jam.

The military also resorted to shooting civilians suspected of infection, including children; in one instance, a soldier reluctantly attempts to execute Joel and Sarah after being ordered to do so by his chain of command with only Joel surviving due to Tommy's intervention. As social order collapsed, the remaining U.S. military forces were deployed into major cities and created massive quarantine zones to contain the masses and isolate the infection.

The **United States Air Force** carpet-bombed the surrounding areas of some of the quarantine zones, significantly the downtown area of Boston, with the objective of killing as many of the infected as possible, while also creating buffer zones. The military and FEMA are later depicted as working together, possibly as the result of the former seizing control of the latter, or vice versa.

### Late outbreak

In 2033, 20 years later, they currently hold Quarantine Zones in the remains of major cities such as Boston. However, they have abandoned others, such as Hartford,[3] and were defeated by Fireflies and civilian rioters in others, like Pittsburgh; both instances were due to running out of supplies to protect the citizens in the QZs. The military aims to contain all uninfected individuals in these Quarantine Zones, and keep anyone from leaving without permission, using barriers to cordon off certain areas in the city. There are regular checkpoints throughout these zones where civilians are required to present papers, and there are also random infection checks, with the military killing infected people immediately via lethal injection or outright shooting them.[5]

Some citizens from Hartford were trying to sneak into the Boston QZ during the Summer of 2033. Sergeant Asher encountered them and killed the ones that were Infected. He wrote to his superior Major Banks regarding the incident, asking for more patrols, but didn't expect the officer to reply as he felt he was incompetent and the military were running low on supplies at the time.

A soldier manned the intercom daily, giving out reports on the status of the city and reminding residents of their daily shifts, work duties and curfews. Riley and Ellie mocked her voice while walking through Liberty Gardens.

While walking through the Boston QZ, Joel, along with Tess, can overhear residents at the rations center remarking over the continued half rations situation and saying, "I bet those fucking uniforms over there don't get half rations." Many civilians believed the military kept supplies for themselves, rather than share equally with the inhabitants they protect.[7] Living within the walls, however, was considered to be a safer life than those living outside of the Quarantine Zone.

A civilian watching in line warns another citizen complaining about receiving half rations about talking too loudly, due to fear of soldiers hearing them. Despite him ignoring his friend's warning and continuing to talk rather loudly, the soldiers ignore him. This suggests that some soldiers don't bother arresting people for sedition, despite it being a crime according to FEDRA, a sign of growing frustration for all living in the Quarantine Zone.

When Joel and Tess are smuggling Ellie outside of Boston, they are surprised by two soldiers patrolling the outskirts who subdue Joel and order Tess and Ellie to put their hands on the heads and kneel down. When scanned for infection, Ellie stabs the soldier in the leg, causing the soldier to knock her down. Joel tackles him, wrestles his gun away, and kills him; Tess shoots the other dead before making their escape. Humvees and infantry pour into the area to search for them, but eventually retreat when they lose track of the group. Such implies any "stragglers" found outside the Boston wall are sent back to the QZ and charged, as Joel and Tess were going to be escorted back before Ellie was scanned.[9]

While crossing through a building, the trio encounter dead soldiers and several who had turned into Runners, who had left the zone to search even the severely damaged downtown for supplies despite the high risk. This implies the military are becoming increasingly desperate to find supplies to keep the QZ from falling apart.[10] They learn the soldiers (officer Waters, Private Shah, Private Coolidge and Private Atwater) had encountered Infected but died while awaiting reinforcements.

By morning, the military caught up to the trio at the Capitol Building, having earlier killed the Fireflies that they were supposed to rendezvous with. Tess killed two soldiers before dying, while Joel and Ellie evaded the others via fighting past various squads of soldiers before making it to the subway line, narrowly avoiding being shot at by a Humvee.

They are shown to conduct vehicle patrols that go outside the walls to search for anything worth taking. One such patrol was overrun by Infected and crashed into Lincoln high school. Bill wanted to steal the battery from a truck, as the military are the only ones who make new batteries any more.[13] This indicates that they have at least some industrial capacity; given how it seems standard policy for smugglers to be captured if possible, it is possible the military uses prisoners as labor to allow troops to focus on their duties.

### Events of American Dreams

The military has little tolerance for Fireflies and their sympathizers. They cause "disappearances" and summarily execute civilians suspected of being Fireflies. According to Ellie, they even train teenagers at their military preparatory schools how to kill Fireflies.[14] The military, in their mission to eliminate the Fireflies, engaged them in key points throughout Boston. At one point, they successfully pinned them down in the streets, nearly succeeding in defeating all of Marlene's squad. However, Riley Abel, situated on a roof above the fire fight, intervened by tossing smoke grenades at them, disrupting their line of fire, enabling the Fireflies to escape. The soldiers attempted to shoot Riley, but she escaped.

### Events of Left Behind

The military has an "infection protocol" in place; with no cure discovered, all personnel that become infected are to be executed immediately. This includes civilians. In notes collected in the Left Behind DLC, Chief Warrant Officer Larry Caulfield was executed by Captain Regan after the former was bitten when their helicopter crashed at the Colorado Mountain Plaza. The pilot, Sean Brendon, was also bitten but died upon impact.[16] Regan later showed regret, writing that she "shot him like a dog" while he begged and tried to tell her that he still had time left.[17] However, when Private Ellis got bit, Regan immediately amputated his right arm, thinking it would prevent the fungus from infecting him. With no recorded precedent of a human ever surviving a bite via amputation, the two wondered whether Regan's actions were right or not. Regan initially thought of abandoning Ellis but later decided to stay with him.[18] Ellis later killed her out of fear that he would be killed when she reached for her gun, and died of his injuries in an air duct after escaping from some Infected.[19] Ellie can find recordings of their predicament left all around the shopping mall.