A prosperous mining colony, New Kazan was the shining intergalactic beacon of the New USSR, providing the Soviet nation with practically unlimited amounts of uranium. So great was the mother country's energy necessities that the Kazanites had to dig further and further into Nibiru until tragedy struck. A viral disease residing deep near the planet's core was released due to the colony's incessant drilling, and quickly yet subtly spread from the miners to the entire colony population. The USSR attempted to provide New Kazan with the medical care needed to deal with the unknown disease, which worked for awhile, until The Stranding. Without the mother nation's help, the colony succumbed to the swelling tide of the ravenous infected.
With no workers to take care of them, the nuclear reactors of the colony's power plants soon went into meltdown. The tremendous release of radiation morphed the slow, shambling undead into even more grotesque and dangerous beings. Radiation interacted with the virus and the infected to restore brain activity in areas other than the brain stem. With their regained ability to rationalize and think, the infected were finally able to define the feeling that constantly plagued them night and day...hunger. Smarter, faster, and stronger, the Hunger now works to reestablish their society in order to satisfy their insatiable appetite for flesh.