Episode 1. Scorched Earth

However, as the fog cleared over the following hours, the silhouette of a spacecraft began to take shape, slowly emerging from the haze. In an operation marked by extreme caution, the U.S. military, working with the CIA and a select group of leading scientists, sealed off the crash zone. Despite meticulous investigations, no sign of life was found inside the wreckage.

For the rest of the world, the incident was downplayed and presented as a simple meteorite fall. The media, muzzled by strict state censorship, were hardly allowed to reveal the true nature of the event. A carefully orchestrated cover-up strategy aimed to keep the presence of the spacecraft and its mysterious contents secret.

At the same time, thousands of miles from the crash site, about a hundred humanoid shapes suddenly appeared, seeming to materialize ex nihilo. These strange beings were observed by a squad of the Soviet Red Army. The significance of their sudden appearance was immediately apparent: the Soviets quickly understood that these entities could alter the fate of the planet.

Thus began a chess game on a global scale, as the great powers quietly fought for control and the potential advantages of this unexpected encounter with the unknown. Humanity stood on the threshold of a major historical transformation, but the consequences of this event were impossible to predict.

In the years that followed, rumors surrounding the incident multiplied, feeding conspiracy theories and fantastical accounts. Although governments continued to deny any extraterrestrial involvement, certain declassified documents began to surface, suggesting that a mysterious vessel had been transferred to a secret base for in-depth study. The possible presence of advanced technologies stirred the interest of both hegemonic blocs, exacerbating the existing rivalry between East and West. The strategic implications of such advances could potentially determine the outcome of the Cold War.

Sixty years later, in February 2014, the world was shaken by a war of cataclysmic intensity, spreading from the shores of the Black Sea to Crimea and the Donbas. Russia, in an act of unprecedented brutality, invaded Ukraine, triggering a conflict on a scale unseen since the Second World War. The consequences were devastating, the human losses countless, trapping thousands of innocent civilians in the middle of endless hostilities.

The intensive bombardments of cities such as Mariupol, the atrocities committed in Bucha, and the recurring missile attacks aimed at civilian populations across different Ukrainian regions all testified to the boundless cruelty of Russian forces. The scorched-earth doctrine was implemented without restraint, with the capture of Bakhmut and the calculated destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, reducing the region to chaos.

International tension intensified relentlessly, and nine years later, the situation reached a desperate climax when the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was deliberately blown up by Russian forces. The consequences of this tragedy extended far beyond Ukraine's borders, creating an international crisis of unmatched scale. NATO member countries, directly exposed to radioactive fallout and facing the threat of imminent nuclear conflict, were forced to react.

The destruction of the nuclear power plant had consequences far beyond the political and military sphere. Radiation quickly spread across Eastern Europe, contaminating land and making entire areas uninhabitable for decades. Waves of refugees tried to flee the affected regions, causing a massive humanitarian crisis that placed severe strain on international institutions. Reception systems, already saturated, were completely overwhelmed. New tensions emerged as neighboring countries argued over how to share the burden of this new disaster.

In 2024, the Third World War broke out. The flames of destruction spread at lightning speed, setting the entire world ablaze. Russia, driven by a delirious thirst for revenge, launched a salvo of nuclear missiles at numerous nations. However, the other nuclear-armed powers retaliated with equal force, plunging the planet into a confrontation of unimaginable brutality.

Nuclear confrontation was no longer a hypothesis. It had become a certainty. The deterrence mechanisms that had until then prevented the worst collapsed under the pressure of massive attacks and merciless retaliation. The capitals of the world were targeted: Kyiv, London, Washington, Brussels, Paris, and Moscow were reduced to rubble within hours. Populations that had once believed in the possibility of international security were trapped in makeshift shelters, praying for a miracle that never came.

In this unleashed apocalypse, human civilization as we knew it was irreversibly destroyed. The metropolises were reduced to ashes, populations decimated, and Earth sank into a nuclear winter, plunging humanity into an abyss of unprecedented desolation.

Thus humanity, once master of its own destiny, now found itself fighting merely to survive, the relics of its past glory scattered across a devastated world. What had begun in 1954 with the fall of a fiery sphere of unknown origin had triggered a chain of events that, decades later, led to the collapse of modern civilization. And in that total darkness, one question remained: would humanity ever be able to rise from its ashes?