Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/The Great Voshkod-Aquilan War

"When you kill one... It is a tragedy. When you kill ten million, it is statistic..."

-Emet-Selch Garlean

The Great Voshkod-Aquilan War, also known as the First Gaiaterran War (GW1), was a major armed conflict that began in 1953 V.C., triggered when the Socialist Union of Voshkod begun a campaign of aggression to realise Garlean's dream: a domination of Aquila, Andora, Hawke, Ulthuan and Aselia under one banner.

In Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict, It serves as a background story in the world of Gaiaterra and the war itself would later become featured in the DLC Tacitus story as part of the Great Voshkod-Aquilan War Expansion DLC.

Background
"If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a "peace conference," you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and aeroplanes."

-Emet-Selch Garlean

War was inevitable, so the historians say. Emet-Selch Garlean had taken control of the Voshkod Union after the death of (insert), and before long was already twisting his already-bleeding nation into a weapon in his hand. Garlean had decades to plan his assault, based on nothing more than a wish to rule the world, a hugely influential advisor driving him away from his earlier plans for Socialism in One Nation. As justified are the many nations of Gaiaterra to complain about how their nations suffered, none did more than Eorzea.

To begin with, Garlean realised he would need many, many people; to man his factories, and more importantly, to fight at the front. To that end, Garlean began initiating his “True Spirit Measures”, supposedly in response to the bourgeoisie decadence of the 1920s V.C.. In truth, however, these measures did the opposite, as its whole intention was to dramatically heighten the birth rate. Contraceptives were completely banned, presumably for moral reasons, while a tax on having fewer than five children was imposed to encourage more people to have children and have more children, further bolstered by increasing rewards for having more children. Infertile spouses were systematically divorced from their partners, and often sent to Gulags. Most insidiously, Young Pioneer camps, while still segregated by gender, were constructed much closer together than would ever be allowed outside of Garlean’s Eorzea. Lacklustre chaperoning meant that the teenagers would often sneak off to have sex, and often become pregnant, which was exactly what Garlean wanted. Over the years the populace of the Voshkod swelled to an all time high, despite already the third most populous on earth.

Unknown forces were setting up a conflict that would once again engulf all of Gaiaterra after Foch's prediction that the (insert) treaty was an armistice for twenty years came to nothing due to a coalition of Social Democrats, Restructurists, and Monarchists steering Ironforge into a line more compliant with the (Insert) treaty and with much less stomach for war than what could have been. So they turned their eyes towards the Voshkod, helping Garlean build an increasingly larger industrial machine until it surpassed even the Aquila Federation. Garlean had set most of the nation’s industries to war machines and weapons, producing more rifles than there were soldiers in the Red Army, and more tanks than he would ever use if he lived a century. Propaganda began whipping the populace into a hateful riot against the capitalist nations; they were told they were massing up to steal the great wealth of the Voshkod.

The Gaiaterra nations saw the writing on the wall. Post-war restrictions on arms were dissolved unanimously (save for with the Voshkod), most notably with Ironforge. Ironforge began a rapid and massive rearmament campaign, finally free to build tanks and battleships. Gallia bankrupted itself (and was given low-interest loans by the Fereldan and Orlais) in the process of militarising itself, conscripting much of the populace and even evacuating those unfit for service to the relative safety of the east. However, none of the nations were sure how hard the Voshkod would attack, and if their nation was really going to be involved. Some even dared to hope that Garlean wouldn’t be so bold as to attack such strong neighbours. Even if Garlean had noticed the build up of military forces against him, he made no change in his plans. Perhaps he knew his army could smash any force in the world, and he may have been correct.

Across Aionysus are numerous Voshkod warships heading to Aquila, the main enemy, the battle lines had been drawn. Now everyone waited for the first shot.

Incursion to Aquila
"Voshkod forces have launched a beachhead at Summerset Beach! This is an Act of War, repeat, this is an Act of War!"

-Transmission to all Aquilan military units

On October 31, 1953 V.C., that first shot was fired.

In the coast of Summerset Beach, a fleet consisting of battleships and landing transports, the Red Army attacked without warning, Garlean’s ability to hide such an attack still being studied today. The divisions of the 2nd Aquilan Forces, already mobilised, counterattacked, but each one was turned back simply by the sheer size of the Voshkod invasion.

It became clear that despite their early formations, the plan was shifting towards one massive but narrow thrust along the north of Aquilan coast. Mostly, this was composed of Ursa Tanks, along with older models and other vehicles, whose brutally simple yet versatile design allowed it to face practically any role that was needed as the spearhead (and spear) of the Voshkod attack. From the line at strategic points, Ursa tanks would detach and sweep south across the countryside or attack a specific target. The target of this large line was unclear as of yet, but seemed to be between the 52nd and 53rd Parallel. Meanwhile, infantry trying to keep up would mop up any resistance that had been penetrated by the tanks. Any strong points were strafed by Voshkod YaKs, with the Voshkods having a very strong aerial presence despite the capability of the Aquilan Air Force, due to early strikes on Aquila airfields.

Soon, the forces at Summerset completely abandoned its preferred mobile defensive formations to the defence of fortified lines. The aging Shermans and Pershings, both considered leading armoured vehicles, simply could not stand against the Voshkod Ursa. The Persing couldn’t stand against the numbers of the Ursa and the Sherman would be caught in the open and destroyed by T-34 to T-55 before they could engage Voshkod infantry. Instead, both tanks were relegated to sallying forth from fortified points or kept in reserve for when the 2nd Aquilan Forces pushed the Voshkod out of their nation.

Despite the dogged determination of the 2nd Aquilan Forces, the Voshkod were rapidly overrunning the region, even as it became clear they weren’t even the primary target in this invasion. Major cities were besieged and attacked, with the countryside already emptied of people due to the Voshkod soldiers if they weren’t. The cities could not hold out for as long as the campaign might last, despite the superb preparation of defences for them years in the making. Worse, the Aquila 6th Navy was completely obliterated by Voshkod Naval Forces in the first few days, allowing the Voshkod free reign of the eastern region of Aquila. This led to the city of McClaude being taken by the Voshkod Navy, which the Voshkod used to resupply their forces at the front. New Vinland City, in a dangerous position already, was hit by most of the Red Army and was quickly reduced. As punishment for further resistance, the city itself was completely demolished and its populace dragged away to prison camps in the Voshkod. In these dark days, however, help was on the way for the besieged Eastern forces.

Fires Of Industry
"What Emet had did was unforgivable. And we, as a new nation, will vow to never commit such an atrocity."

-Excerpt of Lunafreya's first speech as the new Premier

It has been said that in war, the most precious resource of all is not ore, fuel, or ammunition, but bodies. And the Voshkod needed a lot of bodies.

To keep up their overwhelming advantage in manpower, Garlean Voshkod instigated conscription to a level that would not be matched until the later stages of the Embry Civil War. Collective farms, city blocks, and villages of factory workers were swept up and shipped to the front lines; men and women, young and old, the Voshkod Army took anyone they could get their hands on.

While this gave the Voshkod a huge army, this left the factories unattended and the fields empty, and even the world's single most powerful nation couldn't make use of that if it had no people actually doing economic work, the strain was beginning to be felt in the Union’s production. Emet needed more tanks, more planes, and more rifles (also more food, more clothes, and more medicine, not that Garlean himself ever paid much mind to that), but didn’t want to use Voshkod people who could be fighting to build them.

So he used Hawke people instead by opening the Hawke Front.

The Voshkod Army began to mass-conscript the citizens of occupied nations and sent them inland to work on collective farms and in war factories. Men, women, and children, both POWs and civilians by the thousands became little better than slave labour for the Voshkod war machine. Conditions for the workers were horrid: The elderly, infirm, or disabled where expected to do the same work as everyone else. Children were often put into dangerous jobs that took advantage of their small size, in a manner reminiscent to the Industrial Revolution. Food, medical attention, rest, and shelter were of subpar quality and the Voshkod proved harsh task masters.

The atrocities were finally brought to an end with Cherdenko’s coup. Most of the officials in the forced-labour program were part of Garlean inner circle, and were therefore purged. Not wanting to deal with them, thousands of displaced Europeans were allowed to return back across the border to their home countries.

Regardless, it cemented Garlean as a monster in the minds of the people of the Guardians, the Destroyers, and even most of modern Voshkod. More Hawkes were killed in the forced labour program than soldiers on the battlefield. Even after the Cold War demonstrated that the Voshkod, while still locked under Cherdenko's authoritarianism, still had standards, to this day thousands of Europeans are still deeply embittered to the Voshkod. Combined with the recent Aquila capitulations to Eorzea, many descendants of work camp survivors have joined the Freedom Guard in hopes of forcing the Guardians to restart the war no matter what the cost.

Steel Comrade
"I have phantom pains like you wouldn't believe!"

-Captain Volkov

The defending Hawke weren’t the only ones with heroes, however. A Spetsnaz commando known only as Volkov, and a progenitor to Aranea Highwind in modern times was already well known when the NKVD experimented on him after he was nearly killed in a mission gone south to be part of a very dangerous, inhuman experiment. For years, the Voshkod had been doing ghastly experiments on dogs, in particular cutting off their heads and attempting to keep them alive with machines. The Voshkod had success in this, but it wasn’t until the head of a dog named Chitzkoi, which became the catch-all name for their cybernetic super dogs, not only survived, but learned the ability to work motors with his remaining notochord, that the project had military value. Chitzkoi was mounted on a mechanical body that could jump and run farther than any biological dog could ever. Better still, since it no longer needed to eat or breathe, its entire mouth could be replaced by a hydraulic clamp that could bend steel plates.

For Volkov, an entire slow moving but powerful body was built for him. Below the neck. Like the dogs before him, Volkov was surgically decapitated and kept alive with machines inside the body acting as the lungs and the heart. As he needed to talk, his mouth was retained, though the artificial throat he had meant he had a very coarse, almost mechanical voice. Meanwhile, the lenses of both his eyes were removed and replaced by special screens that connected to the miniature camera over his eye sockets, which could zoom and see in infrared (which gave them their characteristic red glow). Unsurprisingly, the whole process also completely numbed him to pain. After a sufficient rest period, he was given a special issue AO-63 prototype, as well as a recoilless rifle mounted on his left arm. Occasionally fatal training exercises showed the promise that the Voshkod had created the ultimate soldier, who could destroy entire platoons by himself. Before being shipped out, he gave one request as he doffed his trademark trench coat and officer’s cap; that he be allowed to bring Chitzkoi with him.

Volkov and Chitzkoi would blaze a path of hell through the already weakened opposing nations in the coming months. Their first mission was to assault the heavily fortified Neuesgeistland Armour Works facility in Ironforge, which was providing much of the vehicle armour for the Hawke front. The pair were parachuted in and proceeded to tear the facility apart from the inside. Little seemed to be able to stop them; they were fast enough to avoid vehicle fire, and infantry weapons just bounced off them. They were deployed again and again to the front, savaging the front line each time. However, his service was cut short when during one fight, a sniper took aim at the Chitzkoi. The bullet by sheer chance managed to hit the dog’s head in the one place it was vulnerable; the tubing bringing air from its body.

Chitzkoi fell over, spasming as it in vain tried to breath in with its non-existent mouth. Volkov reacted in horror and ignored everything else as he solemnly put his only friend out of its misery before it asphyxiated. After a brief mourning, he roared with a coarse voice, and over the course of a few minutes killed every living thing within sight; Voshkod, Alliance, Aquila, animals, even the trees. With it's apparent disabling by the first iteration of Tanya Adams, Volkov's remains are laid in somewhere after the war.

The Ulthuan Front
"There is a time and a place for use of weapons. "

-The Book of Five Rings

The Alliance were stretched to the breaking point simply in Hawke and Aquila's desperate defense of Western and Central regions, and didn’t have the resources to fight the Voshkods over every backwater campaign. In particular, the Aionysus was dangerously vulnerable, as Cantha was the only nation of notable strength in the general area. The Voshkod moves to support Harkon and Elsword's communist revolutions scarcely received so much as an obscene gesture, nevertheless any sort of actual combatants to help the besieged Serpent Clan, and simply arming them wasn’t doing enough. However, there was a power that had been rising since the Industrial Revolution and harboured no fondness for the Voshkods; Ulthuan.

Though Ulthuan hadn’t been much contacted in decades following its recovering from the War Of The Beard, the Allied Nations sent envoys to Emperor Tatsu in an attempt to get the Katsuragi and Asur to form an alliance. As risk to the home islands was low, many Katsuragi did not think the prospect of dead Protectorate soldiers for another’s cause was justified, especially since their military was gutted and barely surviving from their war against the Coalition. Beyond that, many military officials worried about its effects on the secret rearmament program that had just started. The Aquila being an Allied nation was another worry; while not exactly enemies, the two nations were obvious rivals for the Pacific Ocean. Negotiations stalled until the Aquilans offered the barely developed territory of Bikina and parts of Buckland along with a massive bribe of cash, effectively ceding control of the Aionysus to Protectorate and paying for Ulthuan development and recovery with Aquilan dollars, and providing a badly needed naval base to boot. Emperor Tatsu was pleased, and immediately began inspecting the new 48th prefecture of Ulthuan. Amid this inspection Emperor Tatsu, with several leis dangling from his neck, announced to the world in a live broadcast that the Protectorate had declared war on the Voshkod Union, and joined the Allied Nations.

Emet-Selch Garlean was enraged, and immediately fortified Limsa Lominsa, conscripting most of the city’s populace and effectively turning the city into one massive military base. Huge fortifications and rows of 1st Generation Tesla Coils defended the city from the inevitable attack from the Protectorate. This most impressive fortification would remain unused throughout the entire war. Instead, the Protectorate struck where the Voshkods were most vulnerable, a strategy that would serve them well in the future. At the time, the Protectorate Army was little different from any other nations. The Protectorate Soldier carried conventional semi-automatic rifles and wore military fatigues, though each man still carried a katana or Yari. Most notable were crude mecha that were seeing their first military action; the light Striker (now known as the Smialy due to the Elementals), the flying Tengu, and the heavy Daidarabotchi (now known as the Serp due to the Elementals). Barely resembling later mecha, these vehicles were nevertheless a shock to the Voshkods. The Protectorate also had armour, but these were the ones from the War of the Beard before compared to the Ursa, as it had been designed and built without reliable experience in armoured warfare.

The Protectorate's first action was to quietly invade Mor Dhona and destroy the Trans-Eorzea Railroad in several places. It was so completely clandestine that the first Voshkods to notice it were a derailed eastbound train. This further convinced Garlean that Vladivostok was about to be attacked (as it was cut off from reinforcements and supplies) and promised to burn the city to the ground if it fell to the Protectorate invaders. The Protectorate, however, had already accomplished their objective in the Voshkod, and instead landed in Inchon and rapidly moved across country to counter-attack the Voshkod forces who decided to launch an open assault on Lurensia, seeking to destroy them in mass battle. Engaging in open warfare beyond occasionally beating the Luresians over the head to wring out more and more concessions out of the KMT was a shock to the Protectorate, though, and the hateful resistance many Lurensians showed after years of cruel mismanagement by the Lurensia and their own punitive means of dealing with Elsword Party rebels was further surprising (the answer to such was of course; more harshness). The interwar Tanks was thoroughly outmatched even by indigenous tank designs, and was quickly withdrawn from the front and military service, and then the collective memory of the Protecotrate people. The mecha fared much better, often slicing behind the lines and attacking the Ursa from behind.

Near the end of the war, the Voshkods responded by consolidating most of their forces around the city of Pungsan, goading the Protectorate to fight. The Protectorate accepted the challenge and surrounded the city. Emperor Tatsu personally flew to watch the battle from Kaema Plateau, taking along the young adviser, and future emperor, Kamina and guarded by Shinobi. Under the sight of their emperor, the Protectorate forces could not lose and pounded the Voshkod army with swift and devastating assaults. The Voshkod army was destroyed to a man. With the majority of Voshkod forces dead or captured, the Voshkod withdrew to consolidate (only possible because Garlean was sleeping while the order was given) while Luresian forces under Elsword poured across the Yalu River and dealt the Protectorate a stunning reversal bolstered by a counter-offensive by the Voshkods and a surge of Elsword forces that pushed the battle lines to the 38th parallel when the peace agreement was finally signed.

The Battle of Limsa Lominsa
"Give 'em hell, boys and girls!"

-General Bernard H. Patton's famous speech

Cherdenko’s Coup
"Brothers! We have thrown back the despotic Alliance from the Motherland! Comrade Garlean looks at each of you fondly! You have fought well. Well, long, and hard. And now each of you can expect to be rewarded by Comrade Cherdenko for your honourable service. For Mother Voshkod! "

-Commissar giving a speech by radio to the soldiers at Sharlayan

While the main six had withdrawn, the Voshkod was not without strife. Though the Voshkod was technically victorious, the whole war and the loss of prestige from gaining scarcely more than the it had left Garlean in a very vulnerable position. He stayed more and more in the central Tower, refusing to leave for his beloved Kuntsevo Dacha lest someone try to assassinate him, despite a road being paved to it straight through (insert Eorzea capital) and fortified with thick walls, Tesla Coils, and constant military patrols. He started ordering purges that made no sense, often decimating entire units of veterans returning from the front for no reason. Even die-hard communists were disgusted by this behaviour, and plots against him trebled. As it turned out, his brooding agoraphobia would be his undoing.

Garlean was in an uncharacteristically good mood. He was meeting with several military men, including one no one seemed to recognise, though had been seen around Garlean for a while. Garlean had just accepted a cup of tea from Nadia, and was extolling how good it was when he began coughing uncontrollably. Recognizing that he was poisoned by his own assistant, he spat out his last insult before choking on his own saliva. He was further shot in the head several times by Nadia, making sure he was truly dead. Emet-Selch Garlean, a hated and feared tyrant over an entire continent, was killed by the treachery he was so fond of. Nadia began to blabber to the shocked military men about “black hands”, "Asmodians" and “brothers”, which was assumed to be a reference to the supposed death of her family by Garlean’s hands. She began to take out a grotesque mask, before the stranger took her gun that she had casually discarded and shot her in the back.

The stranger identified himself as comrade Anatoly Cherdenko, and he was technically next in line for the Premiership. When asked, he produced stacks of documents saying that he was, including a picture of himself sitting with the successor. When it was pointed out that the decades-old picture had Cherdenko just as he looked that day, Cherdenko then pointed out that his Black Guard (unrelated to Garlean’s) that was taking control of the capital would be glad to discuss such inconsistencies. Heavily armored men with PPSh-500s pointed at them dissuaded any further complaints, and the accumulated leadership of the Red Army sided with Cherdenko. In short order, the Red Army destroyed any unit still loyal to Garlean, and fortified the (insert Poland equivalent) border to prevent the Alliance from trying to take advantage of the chaos. By the end of the week, Premier Cherdenko had full control of the Voshkod.

Cherdenko wasted no time in consolidating his rule. Immediately, he ordered a purge of the nomenklatura, using Garlean's death as an excuse to find the "traitors" responsible for his assassination and bring them to "justice". This way, he was able to remove from power those who were still loyal to Garlean. However, a few people whose deaths were specifically ordered didn’t follow the trend. Most notably, Alexander Romanov of the Politburo was one of the first shot, despite a reputation as being inoffensive and having no real ambition (though being of the Tsarist Dynasty was a strong mark against him). Of the Red Army, Colonel Vladimir Vorobyov and Captain Bronislav Morozov met the same fate, and young officer Zofia Solovyov, still in the training program for military intelligence who was "promoted" to a post in the middle of Hrothgar home, would have met the same fate but Cherdenko had canceled the order at the last minute because of a unknown force, most likely the Heralds meddling, which rumored to be the reason behind this conflict. Most odd was a man whose assassination was so complete that no one even knows his name who was said to be managing Garlean's psychic warfare program (a program that would be the seeding point for the unauthorized, at least by both Cherdenko and Lunafreya, PsiCorps), though recent leaks have revealed that he had failed to assassinate the leader who had managed to escape into parts unknown and thought to have died, but recent actions by the Collective against the Voshkod, not to mention Yuri's intense, unexplained, hatred for the Voshkod, is eerily similar to the man's vow of vengeance before he escaped...

Regardless, soon everyone was afraid to double cross Cherdenko, but power in itself did not seem to be his goal. Instead, he made clear his intention; create a series of proxy conflicts all over Gaiaterra, sparking the Cold War.

Aftermath
The war ended on Christmas Day, 1959 V.C. Forty million people died and the borders were virtually the same as when the war started. As briefly as they joined, the Protectorate left the Allied Nations soon afterwards, along with their concessions in Buckland and Bikina. After the war, it was generally thought that the Alliance would dissolve, but the rather militant and slightly paranoid government of Ironforge and the violently anti-communist administration of President McCarthy helped to keep the Allies together through the peacetime. Though all Allied leaders were accused, at the time, of paranoia, the successor to Garlean after his mysterious death, Cherdenko, validated their fears, as the new Premier seemed all too eager to once again plunge the world into war. However, around the same time the death of President McCarthy lead to a rise in isolationism in the Aquila Federation, and their partial withdrawal from the Allied Nations, which eventually became a complete severing of ties and full isolation following a successful Heralds bombing on their shores. Whatever happened next, the Alliance would face it with their most powerful member on the sidelines, who eventually just became an ally as their technology diverged and the Aquilans not bein comfortable in full alliances.

Crackpot Theories
Much to the historian's ire. There are people who often question how Emet, who was actually a regular, if ambitious, man prior to becoming the premier and gaining advisors, decent into madness when all evidence points to it makes no sense, especially as recent leaks had shown that most of Emets advisers had strange tattoos of an eight-pointed star. With historical records noting that Aselia had a Hawke War soldier, (insert hitler-Esque character), who had the charisma, and hatred, to become a tyrant but suddenly disappeared just a few years before the GVAW.

And have theorized, based on the fact the Alliance had the Chronosphere prior to the war, that the Alliance, or at least its inventor, had a hand in making Emet, and the Voshkod, into what they are, with the prevailing theory being that the inventor of a previous timeline (as theory abound that the Alliance wouldn't have existed if the Voshkod didn't attack), had used the Chronosphere to go back to that date and assassinated (insert). And while the inventor had good intentions, as the analysis of (insert) had shown that they would have become a murderous, if short-lived, tyrant, it had caused a butterfly effect that led to Emet going insane, and if their theory is right it had involved an advisor who suddenly disappeared a few days before his assassination, not to mention that classified files had indicated that Emet was advised by a bald, bearded, man who looks eerily familiar...

As for theories for that alternate timeline. They have mainly said that a war would still happen, just with Aselia and maybe two more nations but the Voshkod would have been an "ally", but eventually, the Cold War between the Voshkod and Aquila will still happen, as while weaker the Voshkod never lost their ambition. But have all, tragically, confirmed that in that alternate timeline the casualties would have likely been lesser, and the Alliance would have either never been formed or be not as tight-knit (at least on the surface) it is today.