The Red Empire

Lubyanka.

Andropov inspected the small metal in his hand.

"You are saying, this small rock, is harder than a titanium?"

"Yes, Comrade Andropov, to be more accurate, it is harder than any substance we once discovered."

Orgarkov in front of him explained.

"This was brought back by the Scientific expedition team from the Far East, this is their trophy after crossing the borderline."

"The research team of our Space weapon and fighters are both interested in it, once we got this substance, many material problems that have been struggling us can be solved."

Andropov looked at him and asked,

"So what is the problem of exploiting all these materials?"

"Well, let me first give you a brief introduction about the land we discovered. It is a big island, we just named it Nova-Australia. Maybe because of some geographic activity when we were transported here, the north part of it has become a swamp."

"It seems like they did not have any connection with the outside before we came here. People are so primitive in culture and technology, even magic does not exist on them, but imagine the materials they used for an arrow are harder than the one we used on the fighter."

"But, what makes things interesting is, that people with such primitive technology have built many wonders, that are filled with high levels of magic and built with all the advanced material. Of course, we did not find anything more advanced than us in some of these wonders."

"However, according to what we learn from the Plainspire, these wonders seem to be some kind of teleportation array. We worried if we had entered the place with the mass amount, if one day there is something activate the array and send enemies here, we may suffer heavy loss."

Andropov listened and had a thought.

"This is more than my right can control, perhaps we can have a meeting with the High command. Personally, I will say we should still go in there since the majority of the requirements are from the aircraft manufacturer and space weapon design team, I believe there is not much will be needed. Maybe we can just exploit some and send our armies to take position in some key areas."

Orgarkov nodded.

The next day, a meeting has been held about the topic. Surprisingly, most of them agreed to occupy the whole island.

"There is no point in worrying about the potential enemies that may come out from the array. Undead, orcs, the Karak, and even those squid under the water have all proven one thing, there is nothing in this world that can defeat our great Red Army."

Thus, troops in the Far East started moving into Nova-Australia.

It does not go as well as how was planned, most of the troops in the Far East are still using outdated equipment, some that have better are with T-62 and T-54/55 tanks that were built in the early to mid-stage, and some are still using WW2 equipment like IS-2 and IS-3 heavy tanks which were extremely difficult for them to pass through.

Luckily, there were many engineering troops sent to the operation as well. With their help, most of the heavy tanks still proceed to leave the swamp. Yet, it still makes many of them not reach their position on time.

In Central Asia, since most of their border has turned into sea, they have built many ports. In the operation, they will land on the west and south part of the island. Because of this, they do not face similar problems to the Far East army, everything goes as planned.

Soon, they have reached the first wonder.

"What the hell is that?" Some soldiers couldn't help but exclaim.

A group of pyramids. Those who first discovered it named it The Crimson Pyramids.

A cluster of massive pyramids made from a smooth, blood-red crystalline material. The perfectly symmetrical structures emit a faint, eerie glow under moonlight. Each pyramid is inscribed with runes that pulse with arcane energy, visible only when approached. The air around them is charged with magic so potent it causes nearby compasses to spin uncontrollably. 

There are many more on the island with different patterns. The other that is massive and has made the Soviet exploration team pay high attention is The Luminous Ravines.

Deep ravines crisscrossed the island, glowing from veins of pure, magical ore embedded in their walls. The ore emits a light strong enough to illuminate the ravine, creating a surreal landscape. Collecting this material is risky as the energy causes equipment to malfunction and can overload even magical wards. 

Troops are deployed on the side of the cliff, make sure that everything below can be continuously monitored.

When most of them arrived at their destination, they were mobilized to help build various infrastructure. Usually, after the Soviet army arrived, it always needed to build railways. The vast territory gave them a strong depth, but it also made it take them more time to assemble troops, causing them to rely heavily on railways.

To boost the efficiency, the Soviets also start to apply high-speed rail technology to it. It is not hard to build, many locals on the island are willing to help them with supply.

In the process of construction, of course, something is trying to stop them. Various types of creatures that are more than humans on the island, like the charging bird, will charge to the nearest human they see with a massive amount.

But all these attempts failed, under absolute power and technology, whatever they try to do is all useless.

The news of the Soviet troops marching south is also known to one of the Karak allies, the Thalor, who excel in summoning and portal magic.

Garrick was listening to the report from his man in the dark.

"My lord, more than a million of the Soviets have temporarily detected, they are moving from both North and South. Should we do something about them?"

"What are they doing?"

"Building railways, roads, mining and the other similar things they doing in the Karak right now, most probably they are going to develop it like the rest of their country."

"Mining?"

Since Thalor relied more on summoning and portal magic, they certainly conducted some research on various ores. However, they struggled to envision how the ores on the island could be utilized by the Soviets.

Garrick was in the dark though for a while and came out his order.