No Traitors Tomorrow

Background
With the arrival of the unnamed Soviet Commander to the front, the war against both the Allies and the Empire had been going well. Thanks to the Commander's audacious tactics, the Imperial threat had thus far been stalled, while the Allied defense of Europe was swiftly collapsing. These victories did little to endear him to the veteran General Krukov, who was becoming increasingly jealous of his subordinate's successes and resentful at what he saw as Premier Cherdenko's favoritism towards the new Commander. Meanwhile, the Premier had barely just survived an attempt on his life, and promised to root out the traitor responsible.

All this came to a head when the Soviet's best logistical officer, Comrade Dasha, reported that the faltering Allied war machine had essentially abandoned all of Continental Europe, and had pulled their remaining forces towards Von Esling Airbase in Iceland. From this fortified position, the Allies hoped to break the back of the Soviet offensive and maintain a clear supply channel to the United States, as well as a staging area for Allied bomber attacks deep into Soviet territory. In the worst case scenario, the Allies hoped to use the base as a rally point, wherein they could quickly evacuate their forces to Allied holdings in North America. Seeing nearly all of Europe within his grasp, Cherdenko ordered the young Soviet Commander, his good friend Commander Oleg and the increasingly marginalized Krukov to eliminate this last bastion of Allied resistance. If the Allies fell here, then the hammer and sickle would fly from every flagpole in Europe, and the United States would find themselves facing a hostile and Soviet-controlled Europe across the Atlantic.

But even as the Commander got his marching orders, he received a strange, secret communication from the well-respected Doctor Zelinsky. Much of what the good Doctor had to say was madness: time travel, betrayal, altering the past and changing the future...But one message stood out above all others: Beware of Cherdenko...

Force Composition
All three of the forces arrayed in this battle (Loyalist Soviet, Allied and Krukov) were largely dependent on naval and air forces to fight, given that the engagement took place on a series of small islands surrounding Iceland, as well as Iceland itself. This was especially true in the Allied case, where only a few companies worth of infantry and armour had been detailed to protect the vital airfields. For the most part, the numerous Allied aircraft that had fled to Von Eisling Airbase acted as their primary means of attack. These were supported by small detachments of the Allied Navy, though the ships present were some of the most powerful in their arsenal. The Allied forces had been hammered repeatedly by the Soviet onslaught, and those that had rallied in Iceland were worn-out and exhausted after weeks of constant fighting.

Both Soviet detachments, meanwhile, used a similar composition of units as the Allies; their forces were heavy in air and sea units, but largely deficient in terms of ground forces. Krukov was the possible exception to this, as his strikeforce possessed a fairly considerable armoured component. Both Soviet detachments were numerically strong, with thousands of men and vehicles within each.

Assaulting the Airbase
The Soviet detachment under the unnamed Commander and Oleg set up their base quickly, hoping to gain the initiative against the already-wary Allies. Even as they launched their first attacks, and as Allied and Soviet aircraft began a series of persistent dogfights over the cold waters of the North Sea, Krukov arrived with his own forces, setting up on an island further to the south, and "re-distributing" much in the way of resources allotted to the Commander. Ignoring this rather impolitic move, the Soviets began striking the westernmost Allied defenses, clearing the seas of many Allied vessels before their Dreadnoughts began bombarding the Allied defenses, opening up a gap for the Soviet aircraft and ground forces to begin attacking the airbase.

The Traitor Revealed
"The Traitor is General Krukov! Destroy him before he destroys us all! Why you are attacking me? You really want to fight me?...I'm going to enjoy killing you. Wait whats going on? They're fighting each other?!"
 * Krukov, Cherdenko and a Peacekeeper

The Soviet invaders had just begun to trash the western Airfields when the Commander received a disturbing message from the Premier: Krukov was the mastermind behind the assassination attempt on Cherdenko, and was hoping to seize control of the Union for his own selfish interests. Infuriated by this treachery and inflamed by the hostility already between them, the Commander immediately began diverting his forces away from attacking the Allies, sending them against Krukov's own forces.

Just as they had experienced so many times in the past, betrayal and internal dissension tore the Soviet forces apart. Initially stunned by this sudden change of events, and pleading his innocence, Krukov soon gave into the temptation and retaliated against the Soviet loyalists with equal fervor. Such was the ferocity of the battle that the Allies were given a brief respite to regroup and counterattack, much to Giles' delight. The delay also gave him the opportunity to unveil his Proton Collider superweapon, hoping to blast the attacking Soviets into oblivion.

"Hahaha! You thugs can't even tell who's on your own team!"
 * Giles laugh at the Commander for killing Krukov and then revealed the Superweapon

Realizing the danger of fighting two superweapon-armed foes at once, the Soviet loyalists undertook a desperate, if effective tactic. Ignoring the heavy fortifications and massive number of troops defending Krukov's base, the Commander aimed straight for the heart, annihilating the enemy Command Bunker and killing the traitorous General. With this, Krukov's forces quickly switched sides, desperate to avoid the fate that the Soviet secret police would dole out if they refused. With their combined strength, the Soviets quickly overran Von Esling Airbase, even taking down the Proton Collider before it had a chance to fire. Buckling under the weight of the onslaught, the Allied defenses soon crumbled, and what operational planes remained fled for the United States, even as their aerodromes were shelled to ruins by the victorious attackers.

Aftermath and Consequences
The destruction of Von Esling Airbase sounded the death knell for the Allied Nations in Europe, and whatever forces managed to survive the retreat quickly fled to the United States, now the last genuine bastion of Allied resistance against the Soviet Union. With this victory, all of Europe now groaned under the Soviet jackboot, and would not face liberation for the rest of the war. Krukov's death meant that one of the greatest threats to Cherdenko's own power was eliminated, and the unnamed Soviet Commander received the rank of General in thanks. Afterwards, the Soviet Union would shift its attention to eliminating the enemy that had nearly broken them: the Empire of the Rising Sun.