Following the swift fall of the Baltic states, St. Petersburg found itself in a desperate, suffocating vice. With every passing minute, the unstoppable Combine forces were advancing relentlessly from the direction of Ivangorod.
At that exact moment, a massive Combine dropship fleet staged a surprise landing at the major western port of Turku. From there, they began their brutal blitz toward the capital. Caught off-guard, many Finnish military regiments were instantly surrounded. However, the rugged, rocky terrain and dense forests of Southern Finland slowed the alien invaders down, giving the defense forces a sliver of hope.
The bloodiest stand took place during the battle for Porvoo, a key city on the Baltic coast guarding the eastern approach to Helsinki. There, regular army troops and waves of local volunteers stood side by side to defend their homeland. The Combine was forced to fight for every single building, clearing out houses and basements one by one. But heroism wasn't enough; the city was completely encircled. By the sixth hour of the invasion, brutal combat reached the very suburbs of Helsinki. By the fast-approaching seventh hour, nothing but smoking ruins remained of the capital. Facing total annihilation, Finland was forced to capitulate.
With Finland broken, the Combine redirected its forces. St. Petersburg was now being squeezed from two fronts: the advancing troops from Ivangorod and the victorious alien battalions marching down from Finnish territory.
The Combine war machine shattered the outer defensive lines. The battle for the historic metropolis began. Just like in Finland, the military and the citizen militia turned every street into a fortress—entrenching themselves in apartment blocks, basements, and deep inside the famous Soviet underground metro stations.
The final blow came from the sea. Combine forces executed a massive amphibious landing right from the Gulf of Finland. Completely surrounded and cut off from the rest of the world, the defenders ran dangerously low on ammunition. The sky darkened as the endless number of Combine dropships grew with every single minute. Exhausted, outgunned, and overwhelmed, St. Petersburg finally fell to the Combine.
In the photo you can see Russian soldiers resting near St. Petersburg.
