Martin Mati's War of the Worlds

In 2022, no one would have expected that beings higher than us would be observing our species: the Infraworld. They came through the Earth via temporal rifts that tore the fabric of the space-time continuum called "Tears", the main of them being the Black Sun located in the Russia–Ukraine border. What resulted was a 4-year long conflict that culled Earth's population from 7.9 billion to 100 million. Initially, humanity stood no chance against this alien race, however, in an unlikely turn of events, the humans ended up victorious in this war, but at a cost never before seen.

What is the Infraworld?
Nobody would have believed that in the early years of the 2020s, that Humanity was being watched by an intelligence greater than man.

The Infraworld (or called the Nebora Dimension) is a place that appears to exist parallel to or partially in tandem with our own. It is not explicitly described as another dimension/galaxy, but this seems to be a reasonable description. It is believed to be the location where souls and other entities reside, though it is not clear if all souls stay in the Infraworld or move on.

When approaching a rift to the Infraworld (especially Black Sun), the visitor is accosted by the wailing voices and images of lost souls. It is known that vicious entities reside in the Infraworld, and if a condenser is used to create a rift without a containment field, they will escape and slaughter living beings.

The exact nature of the Infraworld is not clear. Yet all we know is that in the depths of the Infraworld, there are evil entities and it is still unclear what else might be lingering down there since the alien force was defeated in 2026.

Infraworld Fauna
The Infraworld is heavily dense with life and is controlled by a hierarchy. The lowest is the Knights, which are mainly Sectoids, Floaters, Infraworld Dragonflies, Chryssalids, Mosquitoes, Bulls, Infraworld Werewolves, the Infraworld Vampire & Infraworld Infiltrators. The middle is called the Controllers, mainly Infraworld Hounds, Mutons, both Heavy & Normal Jolts, Whisperers & Outsiders. The top is the Drones - common are the Cyberdiscs, Drones & Tripods. The Drones have made it seen that not only the Infraworld contains a heavy amount of fauna, but a robot army too. The only ones unraked are Infraworld Zombies.

However, on top of the Drones are the Elders, with only one species in - the Ethereal. Also called the Infraworld Elder.

Sectoid
Sectoids are weak and die quickly against heavy conventional weaponry, but were still dangerous early in the war. They are usually found in groups of two or three, alongside other enemies like Infiltrators, Dragonflies, or Vampires. They are intelligent enough to use cover and flanking tactics, unlike some aliens. As the war progressed, they were phased out in favor of more dangerous foes.

According to classified autopsy reports made by the UN in cooperation with the CDC, only obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests, their unusual structure suggests that Sectoids are genetically manipulated and their identical genetic info implies that they are cloned.

They also possess the ability to Mind Merge, increasing their health and combat effectiveness. However, one of the large downsides to this ability is if the Sectoid that initiates the Mind Merge dies, the other linked alien soldier dies as well.

Floaters
Floaters are monstrous cyborgs powered by pairs of twin back-mounted jets, which give them the ability to hover (gaining a height bonus). This also grants the Floaters the Launch ability, which allows them to fly into the sky and land behind your soldiers' lines.

Floater autopsies made by the UN hint that they may be the invaders' incomplete cybernetic and genetic experiments. They have received extensive mechanical implants, including ones that replace internal organs. Due to its modifications, there is no distinguishing line between mechanical and biological to describe the Floater. According to the UN, the Floaters were cybernetically modified using something called Infraworld Minerals after "their organic forms failed to evolve" and the modifications reduced their intelligence, thus turning them into mindless killing machines.

Infraworld Dragonflies
Infraworld Dragonflies are much bigger (the size of a dog, to be more exact) and creepier looking than the Earth ones.

Arrival & European Front
Meanwhile, on Earth, the world was still trying to recover from the end of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The United States of America was the sole world superpower since the Cold War ended and was rivaled by China. By this point, America had withdrawn from Afghanistan & Russia was planning to invade Ukraine. It appeared the onset of another World War was coming, but that would all change.

On the early hours of February 24th, 2022, several temporal rifts, or "Tears" as they were being called opened up across the world, from the Appalachian Mountains in New England to the Russia–Ukraine border. It contained what was believed, and confirmed, to be the advance of an invading extradimensional army. Without provocation, its occupants assaulted attacked civilian and military targets across the location of the "Tears" According to a Russian solider who was there, Pyotor Ivanovic, he had this to say while being interrogated by the FSB in a safe house in Novgorod:

''"It was an ordinary night. Me and Pvt. Ilyich were eating rations when those things appeared. It was thought to be an ordinary falling star at first. The next day there was a huge blue irradiating from the village of Manukhivka and Ilyich alongside the others went to examine it. Just at that moment, several Ukrainian soldiers approached. They were shocked. It was a wormhole in the middle of the sky, glowing blue, and with a faint hum. Suddenly, it was flickering. Like a light about to die. He rushed to see what it was, but he was almost pulled into its gravitational pull. A crowd of people gathered to see the wormhole flicker. And then all of a sudden - the flicker stopped, and a loud wail was heard, as strange creatures started coming out of it. The crowd and the others ran, alongside the soldiers, who by the way were providing covering fire. Ilyich and a few dumb young men, possibly Ukrainian soldiers crept closer. The soldiers were firing at those and Ilyich was taking photographs with an camera he brought before deployment. An insect the size of a dog appeared and spat acid on them. They were all turned into some sort of sludge. The creatures continued to unleash havoc. I made a run for it in the woods, where I witnessed a company of howitzers lined in the style of a cordon. That was when I saw something worse than just creatures. A group of monstrous tripods appeared. The howitzers continued to fire at them, but they were not chance towards the howitzers. Walking engines of glittering metal were turned into ash in just a matter of 3 seconds. The company lost a few howitzers. I ran towards a train station and got a ticket to Rostov-On-Don. While I was leaving I saw the howitzers being destroyed by an airplane. And that was when I realized, I had escaped by luck.''

European Front
The conflict spread across Europe over the days. In light of the recent alien attack on the Russia-Ukraine border, the Council of Europe enacted an emergency group called the European Alien Invasion Response (EAIR). While in Europe, the continent fell apart. Chaos started to spread across the Old Continent as the aliens advanced.

3 hundred troops from the EAIR were sent to defend the Poland-Ukraine border along with the Armed Forces of Poland, later having 1 hundred troops pushed into Ukrainian, Russian & Belorussian territory. Sumy, Cherniv, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Mariupol, Rostov-On-Don, Krasnodar, Voronezh, Kursk and Gomel were very quickly captured by Alien invaders on February 29th, 2022, however, this resulted in many casualties.