City Twenty Five

In 1910, Japan began to occupy the Korean peninsula, this was known as the Japanese-Korea period. Korea was under Japanese rule for 35 years and was forced to give up their territory near the closing of World War 2 when the Soviets declared war on Japan and invaded the Korean homeland. The US quickly attempted to intercept, requesting that Soviet forces were to not step foot beyond the 38th parallel north - the current border separating the North and the South. The US demanded that the South peninsula be occupied by their forces, including the capital of Seoul.

Eventually, armed conflict broke out between the opposing sides, infamously known as "The Korean War". The North was successfully pushing through the South, urgently requiring heavy firepower from US forces. Three months later, the United Nations, controlled by the US, swiftly intervened with the invading North, pushing them back with reasonable success. Eventually, Chinese forces began to assist the North, balancing out the conflict, as the fighting continued for quite some time. After a few years, on July 27 1953, an armistice was put in place to shift the borders back to their original positions and established the Korean Demilitarised Zone, calming the conflict, not entirely, but to a safe level.

The war that shaped the world like no other before it. As Combine forces marched their way through the Koreas, it was quite different, however. Supreme leader Kim Jong-il of North Korea was immediately alerted of the alien invaders as soon as they marched through the peninsula, an emergency order to hold back the Combine forces was executed, which resulted in failure just 20 minutes afterwards. The North had surrendered with no hesitation once their forces had been penetrated through and declared that all firepower against the invasion was to be halted immediately. The previous ear-piercing sounds of warfare were reduced to silence.

Finally, with the North held at the tip of the blade wielded by the Combine, Kim Jong-il decided to offer the land of the North to the Combine, quite hesitantly, knowing he could not win. A speech was delivered across the capital, Pyongyang, declaring that the war had come to an end, and asked all citizens to "welcome the new rulers with open arms". Combine forces spread out to the South, and once they had successfully taken over the entire Korean peninsula, a conversion of Pyongyang had begun. Kim Jong-il was found deceased due to suicide, and a new ruler was established in his place.

Ultimately, North Korea had sort of remained as it once was, except even worse.

With the introduction of this new ruler, Pyongyang has degraded even more. Various industrial complexes have been established around the city, containing multiple factories and other labour camps, with smog so thick filling the sky that the sun frequently gets blocked out, leading to extremely low temperatures being a constant. The city is coated in a thick layer of snow due to this, with most taking shelter inside residential complexes due to the unsurvivable conditions outside, and citizens rarely leave their homes unless required.

Even now, conflict is present within the peninsula. A resistance base has been established at the border splitting the North and South, refugee camps for those who escape the confines of either City 25 or City 34. Firefights are commonplace around the border and with the governors of each city unable to locate the whereabouts of the resistance camps set up around the area, it's becoming quite tough to hold back resistance. The administrative boards for both cities have addressed and discussed the issue but cannot find a way to combat it at the current time.

Multiple Overwatch outposts are stationed around the border, with some being infiltrated. Due to the cold environment, antlion nests lay between the two cities, causing a disturbance for both Combine and Resistance parties. The border continues as an active warzone, with the conflict not having an end in sight. There have been multiple cases of Resistance members crawling through 25's sewage system into the city and using multiple hidden pathways to help citizens escape, acting as a sort of underground refugee railroad system.