Kirill Sokolov

"'This is war. People will die.' -Kirill Sokolov, as quoted by General Eric Connelly after the Christmas Day Inferno."Kirill Sokolov is an infamous Resistance Member and well-known 'boogeyman' in the Atlas Coalition. He is currently one of the most feared men in the entire country.

Early Years
Not much is known of Kirill Sokolov's youth, asides from the fact that he is Russian-born and migrated to the Atlas Coalition after the African War. Some urban legends say he fought in the war as a mercenary, whilst others say his undying hatred for the Coalition led him to trek across the wastes of Africa, from the Sahara to the Central Exclusion Zone, just so he could be on the last boat out from Cape Town when the Coalition left the Continent.

Resistance Operations
Whilst his arrival means and date are unknown, there are records of his first act of 'resistance'. NYPD arrested him for public drunkeness in 2023, and he was served with a 30 day prison sentence and a $2500 fine. To this day, the NYPD is the only law enforcement agency to ever arrest him.

The Buzzkills
Kirill appreared on Atlas radar 3 years later in 2026, when he detonated a military supply train as part of a terror group known as the Buzzkills. This attack was answered by Coalition forces when they stormed the Buzzkills' central HQ and neutralized all Buzzkills personnel. It is not known how Kirill escaped this assault.

Kirill would resurface in 2027, once again targeting the military. He went after Colonel Jeremy Mayne, the tactical mind behind the dissolution of the Buzzkills. The Colonel was at the time stationed at Alverwick Falls Detention Center. Kirill's attack was vicious and horrifying, causing massive damage to the facility, allowing many convicted criminals to escape, and at the end of the fighting the Colonel was left hanging from a catwalk over the main yard. Reports state that he was hanging from his own innards, as he had been disembowelled in the attack.

After this revenge attack, Kirill became a feared figure overnight. His face was plastered everywhere in major cities, and rewards were offered for his capture. Yet the Russian seemed to vanish from the face of the Earth, and eventually the manhunt eased off.

The Disciples of the Hague
Kirill Sokolov resurfaced in 2030 as the leader of a group of revolutionaries known as the Disciples of the Hague, a justice-obsessed crew of vigilantes that would execute powerful corrupt officials and reveal their crimes to destroy their legacy. This group murdered their way through several notable politicians before the rest wised up and lured the group into a trap. Over half the group were killed, and the rest chose to part ways.

Kirill himself was tracked down during the dismantling of the group, and led police through a 5 hour pursuit through central Las Vegas, culminating in his sabotage of the Las Vegas power grid when he blew up a substation. He escaped in the ensuing chaos, leaving a trail of fallen officers in his wake.

The Manhunt for Kirill Sokolov
By now, the general populace was calling to the Atlas Government for answers, and they obliged. They ordered the decorated General Eric Connelly to deal with Kirill Sokolov using the might of the Atlas Military. Over one entire year of pursuit, they nearly caught him a total of five times. Twice out of those five, Connelly himself managed to confront Kirill in person.

Their first confrontation happened on April 15th 2031, where Connelly tracked Kirill down to a remote valley in the Rockies. Connelly ordered the area to be bombarded by aircraft, not willing to risk his men against Sokolov in ground combat. Unfortunately, Kirill had an ally in the strike force, a sympathiser named Corporal Jennifer Shaw. Shaw warned him of the oncoming danger, and Sokolov prepared a counterattack. When Connelly's dropship arrived, he was met with a hail of grenade fire. When Connelly emerged from the smoke, Kirill lunged at him with a knife. Despite Kirill's exceptional combat skills and extensive melee abilities, he just wasn't a match for a now superhuman Eric Connelly. The fight lasted a good few minutes, with Connelly at last disarming the Russian and sending him flying backwards with a stunning uppercut. The fight seemed over until Corporal Shaw shot the General in the back five times with her handgun. The General was injured, but managed to disarm and disable the Corporal by breaking her arm. When he turned back to arrest Sokolov, the Russian was gone.

The Christmas Day Inferno
Connelly again came face to face with Kirill Sokolov on December 25th 2031, when the Russian first arrived in Washington DC. He was logged by facial detection software, and Connelly mobilised the entire police force to locate and apprehend the Russian. After several hours of searching, Connelly decided to wait for the time being and began to lower the level of the operation. As he turned over command to the night watch and prepared to go home for Christmas Dinner, Kirill burst through the window of the Police Station and they began their fight. Connelly noticed that Kirill had adjusted his fighting style, and was barely able to match the shot from the Electrolaser Pistol that Sokolov had been concealing. Now on the back foot, Kirill Sokolov managed to wound Connelly, becoming the first person since the African War to draw blood from the General. Their fight spilled onto the roof of another building, and as they both turned to watch a large explosion ripple from a nearby hospital. Throwing their fight asides for the time being, they both ran to aid the evacuation of the hospital. Despite their best efforts, the bottom floors were already ablaze and firefighters were trapped above the ground as they tried to evacuate the civilians. Connelly organised the use of military dropships to pick up the injured and sick from the rooftops, and it is believed that Kirill slipped away during the rescue.

Whatever the case, 357 people died in the fires and it is now believed that Sokolov had rigged charges as a distraction should he fail to kill the General as he did. There is a memorial built on the section where the hospital fell.

The Attack on the Connelly Home
In the evening on February 5th 2032, Connelly went out to a meeting in the Pentagon. While he was out, Kirill entered his home at approximately 7:24 PM. At 7:45 PM there were gunshots heard on the roof of a building 3 blocks down from Connelly's apartment. It isn't known exactly what happened, but when police arrived on scene they found Lieutenant Michael Crow bleeding out, while Anna Connelly was dead on the scene. Whilst they were able to save Crow, he had not been able to save Connelly's eldest daughter Zoey Connelly from Kirill Sokolov. The lack of a solid body implied the usage of plasma against children. It is believed to be a miracle that Connelly had taken his youngest, the 9 year old Eliza, with him to the Pentagon. Sokolov escaped once more, vanishing into the night.

The Real Hunt
In the wake of this attack, Connelly started to hunt for Kirill in the most brutal manner possible, purging resistance colonies where dissidents would hide in remote locations. Hundreds of thousands were killed or arrested, and Atlas Penal Facilities had to be expanded to accomodate the influx. The military in major cities became the police force, with officers clad in high-tech body armour patrolling through the slums at regular intervals.

Despite this, Connelly did not find Kirill Sokolov, leaving him devastated. His superiors, on the other hand, were highly pleased with his new stratagem and Connelly was given high praise. As for Sokolov? The manhunt wore off as it always did, and his reappearance would be on his own terms.

The Jefferson Attacks
An already large case was blown out of the water in 2038 when Kirill Sokolov was spotted by Officer Martin Finlay in Taylor City, Mississippi. Sokolov rescued the arrested terrorist Charlie McCafferty and horrifically wounded Police Chief Gerald Carlson by pushing him off the roof of a six-story building.

The Red Circle
Throughout Kirill Sokolov's Resistance 'career,' it was theorized that he had kept a core group of allies throughout most of his groups. This was confirmed by Atlas Investigator Allan Dusk, who infiltrated the outer circle of Kirill's secret group- The Red Circle. Allan reported his findings to his bosses in the FBI, and got out as many details as he could before he was discovered. Dusk managed to escape the initial attacks upon his life, and has currently gone into hiding in the Southern States of the Coalition. A recent piece of information linked him to an anonymous tip in Chile that led to the arrest of a drug cartel.

The Red Circle is Kirill's only remaining 'Active' cell, as all others have been destroyed or disbanded. Kirill currently holds the title of 'Red Major,' and there is confirmed evidence that the Red Captain is his second-in-command over a much larger group of up to ten or more loyalists to Sokolov including the Red Lieutenant Trent Radcliffe.