[2] Set in the late 1990s against the backdrop of a stalemated Russo-Chinese war for control of Eastern Siberia, North Korea invades the Demilitarized Zone weeks before the planned reunification of Korea In an effort to end the war quickly, the commander of the Russian Siberian Military District, General Yuri Razov, calls the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Andrew Thomas, to warn the United States of Russia's decision to use tactical nuclear weapons against China.

In Moscow, a radical anti-Western Russian general, Zorin, kills the civilian government and STAVKA with a bomb, seizing control of the Kremlin in a swift coup d'etat and taking command of the nuclear communicators.

In Washington, DC, US National Security Advisor Greg Lambert has dinner with Russian military attaché Pavel Filipov, a close friend of his and his family's.

As the White House is evacuated, US President Walter Livingston instructs the Secretary of State to warn the Chinese of the impending strike, lest the US becomes complicit in Russia's heinous actions.

In Los Angeles, US Army Reserve Major David Chandler is ordered to report to March Air Force Base to take command of his unit, leaving behind his wife Melissa, who is nine months pregnant.

The president takes the advice of the Joint Chiefs and orders its own ICBMs to retaliate in kind against Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces before they are destroyed in the incoming attack.

Immediate casualties in the continental United States are estimated to be between 4.5 and 7 million dead, with hundreds of thousands more severely injured or exposed to high doses of radiation.

While President Livingston retires to his private cabin aboard Nightwatch to collect his thoughts, JCS Chairman Thomas wonders to the rest of the staff how the Chinese were able to retaliate so quickly since their missile forces are not as advanced as those of Russia or the US and require a long preparation time.

The stress takes its toll on the President, who must approve every emergency decision that reaches his desk, including farming in the midst of radioactive fallout, calling the draft lottery, housing, and disaster management.

From Mount Weather, Vice President Paul Constanzo makes a televised address calling for a massive military response against Russia in retaliation for its attack on the US.

Congress orders an investigation into the causes of the war and calls a number of witnesses, including National Security Advisor Greg Lambert, to the Greenbrier facilities to testify before the select committee.

After the governments of Germany and France refuse to support the US as part of NATO, his cabinet begins negotiating a new "Treaty on Euro-American Military Security" (TEAMS) involving the US, the UK, Italy, Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Iceland, Greece, and Turkey, with Finland as a secret partner.

Despite the restraint toward Russia, Livingston orders the detonation of a high-altitude nuclear warhead over Pyongyang as a warning shot to force North Korea out of its ongoing invasion.

As promised, Livingston's final act in office is to declare free-fire rules against all Russian military targets, with the notable exception of the submarines in the Kara Sea bastion.

In his final moments as president, Livingston begs Lambert to stay in the cabinet to moderate Constanzo's aggression toward Russia, urging him to avoid a second nuclear exchange at all costs.

At the same time, General Razov orders an amphibious assault on Iceland to keep a number of elite US and Canadian units from joining the main invasion force.

Constanzo abrogates Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and admonishes former NATO members France, Germany, and Norway to respect American supply lines and military facilities.

With Washington, DC, contaminated by nuclear fallout, the US government organizes a provisional capital in Philadelphia, formally transferring most functions and personnel from the bunkers and Nightwatch.

National Security Advisor Gregory Lambert becomes famous among a wary civilian population for his congressional testimony against Livingston and the loss of his family in the nuclear attack.

The Joint Chiefs, along with the Directors of the CIA and NSA, believe that the so-called "Kara Sea Submarine Bastion Threat" is a bluff, arguing that a dead-hand order is inconsistent with both Russia's top-down military doctrine and game theory scenarios.

Lambert also proposes a previously rejected plan to open a third front in northwestern Russia, with amphibious landings in Karelia that could reach Moscow before the end of the year.

General Razov calls the US television networks to address the United States directly, warning its citizens that if allied forces break through Moscow's ring motorway, Russia's ballistic missile submarines will be ordered to attack all major US population centers.

If, after the deadline, he goes incommunicado or is deemed to be under duress, US forces will receive orders to attack both Moscow and the Kara Sea submarine bastion, followed by the destruction of all major metropolitan areas in Russia with nuclear demolition munitions.

As American and Russian forces agree to a cease-fire and pull back from the fighting, Lambert, Filipov, and Razov climb out of the Kremlin bunker and onto a badly damaged Red Square.

Three months after the formal cessation of hostilities, the security situation in Russia worsens for the American occupation forces as anarchist protests erupt in major cities, sparked by winter food shortages.

In Los Angeles, Chandler says goodbye to his wife and child as his two-week leave of absence comes to an end and returns to Europe to take command of his armored task force.