The Breach (Crisis)

In 2003, Russian officials were concerned for their own national security as various terrostic actions taken within their own borders had within the previous year alone had amounted to almost three-hundred civilian bodies with just as many casualties. The Russian Government in secret began work on a new type of bomb that was both highly destructive but virtually unknown and untraceable. They called it the R-Bomb (R for Rift) and had began creating it in a hidden testing facility in Antartica. As the year progressed, more bodies piled up and by December, with almost three-hundred dead yet again Russia pressured the scientists into an early test of the weapon.

Late December 2003, the facility and the team of developers of the weapon were destroyed when it detonated in an uncontrolled explosion in the Arctic. Russia distanced itself from the event, suspending all research in related areas and disavowing the entire team as rogue. Initial surveys of the blast-site produced no traces of radiation or chemical elements, and as such allegations that Russia was developing a new super weapon were cast aside in favor of testing conventional weapons in a safer environment. 

The Breach, unlike the one it connected to in Amara, was invisible. While still relocatable through subtle shifts of light it was virtually undetectable without prolonged searches. This allowed the Amaranth to slip through unnoticed.