Moscow Neutrality Zone

* The Engineers
* Moqaddas

Moscow suffered severely from the nuclear bombardment during the Fall. A mere 2% of the city’s 11.5 million inhabitants survived the devastation, taking shelter in the underground metro system.

With the above city reduced to an uninhabitable hellscape populated by alien drones, the metro refugees were forced to live in cramped, dark conditions for what seemed like an indefinite period of time. Order among the subterranean populace was maintained through Federal representatives that had managed to escape with them, but constantly threatened to break down to the fear that they might be the last humans left alive on Earth after a combination of alien invasion and nuclear annihilation. Starvation and violence were commonplace, and continued survival was uncertain.

Thankfully, before the situation could worsen further, radio contact was made in September revealing that the Federal government had survived the war and was beginning its reconquest against the invaders. At first, there was great celebration, as the Moskvich were relieved to find they were not the last outpost of human civilization left. However, this changed when further communications revealed that there was a great state of upheaval going on above ground, and it was uncertain when the radioactive wastelands could be braved to free those trapped underground, and what flag would be flying above those that made the effort.

By November, the ACC had reached the city, most likely for reasons unrelated to the Russian Civil War. Discovering that the metro was indeed inhabited by some 200,000 starving survivors, the ACC proceeded to establish a 60km exclusion zone around the city, forbidding intervention from any other party while they worked to rescue the civilians and extract useful technology and data from the surviving government complexes. Some of those rescued soon left to join whatever cause suited them the most in the war, while many others chose to remain in ACC care, having nowhere else to go. The latter group is now known as the Nonpartisans - the human debris left over from the devastation of the war; people too tired, hungry and scared to pick a side in the internal conflicts that erupted in the wake of the Fall.

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Four years later, the burned out city ruins give rise to huge, simple structures housing hundreds of thousands of displaced peoples; a strict upgrade to the tent cities of the early days and far preferable to the cratered, irradiated wastelands elsewhere in western Russia. The city and the surrounding regions have once again been made habitable thanks to ACC rad-scrubbing, but many lethal pockets of radiation still exist, claiming the unwary and those who wander too far from the designated paths. None are refused from entry, but watchful ACC patrols keep a tight lock on violence within the neutral zone, resulting in a dizzyingly complex war of strategic subterfuge as spies from every single warring party co-mingle among the refugees to trade secrets, messages, and favours.

The Federal government is extremely unhappy with the former capital being turned into a refugee colony, as not only does it represent the center of the Federal government, but also contains the heaviest concentration of pre-fall industry. Regardless ACC has forbidden any Federal manpower to be permitted to handle the city’s affairs, sternly accepting only donations of food and water, as with any other interested party. While this keeps political interests out of Moscow, it also slows the situation’s improvement, while also calling into question ACC’s casus for effectively enforcing the exile of a nation’s rightful government.