My thoughts on the GWOT Options

[Svea Rike]

Since we all seem to have a different idea onjust how the Global War on Terror played out, here's my take. I hope we can combine our ideas to create a finalized chain of events that take place in Rise of the Reds canon that could hopefully be added to the wiki. But as said this is my take on the war; yours might differ. I will include pointers in brackets [n] further down where I've noted some things you might find inconsistent. Hmm-hmm...

THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR
AN INSIGHT INTO THE CONFLICT

Background
The War on Terror
In 2001, Al Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center in New York City, U.S.A. President George W. Bush declared the “War on Terror” and invaded Taliban-controlled Afghanistan the same year to root out the terrorists and bring Al Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, into custody. Ten years later, Operation Neptune Spear: SEAL Team Six raided bin Laden’s home in Pakistan and successfully neutralized him. To the west, this was a message that the world’s greatest terrorist had finally been put to rest and we could finally achieve peace. To other terrorists, this was a message to step up their game.

Particularly, the Brotherhood of the White Falcon, led by a Saudi cleric Abdul bin Yusuuf, sparked waves of nationalism and radical fundamentalism across the Middle East in what was known as the Arab Spring. Revolutions, civil wars and countless terror attacks signaled the world that they were not ready to give up, and with the United States’ withdrawal from the region everything went from bad to worse. [1] A Kazakh warlord by the alias Deathstrike believed the destabilized Mid-East was the result of America’s and the west’s ineffectual foreign policies, imperialistic tendencies and global capitalist agenda to create a new world order. And with the unification of the countries Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to form Aldastan, Deathstrike said enough was enough and created the Global Liberation Army, the movement that would liberate the Earth from oppression.

The Chinese reforms
In 2018, tensions in East Asia were worsening between major powers and regional proxies. A border skirmish on the Korean peninsula popularized by American media as the “Second Korean War” caused the Asian real estate bubble to falter and eventually crack. In China this became close to a deep economic recession, and with everlasting splintering in the Pacific between them and the United States it seemed the Party government was for the first time clueless on how to proceed. It was at this time when hardliners within the People’s Liberation Army took a bold move and invaded the neighboring Republic of China, or Taiwan. Before the U.S. Navy could intervene, the country was captured by the swift General Shin Fai of the PLA Marine Corps, and Taiwan was turned into a special administrative region to last for fifty years

Simultaneously the government in Beijing was silently deposed by one Zhao Wei, who wanted to usher in a new and final revolution in China. The Modern Way program reformed the Chinese economy from a semi-socialist/semi-capitalist state to a pure capitalist one, and they abandoned their former partners in Central Asia to focus on nations closer to home such as Mongolia and Vietnam. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and especially Aldastan were hit hard by this, and Deathstrike utilized this chaos to seize control of the region through force and propaganda. Noticeably, the Russian Federation was unstirred by these chain of events and to this day people speculate whether they assisted Deathstrike in some fashion. [2]

Deception and defectors
For years the Uyghur people in far western China had been oppressed by the Party government, and a local PLA general by the name Ismail Khan had secretly defected to the Global Liberation Army. With the help of noted infiltration expert “Prince” Kassad, Khan smuggled a 5-kiloton nuclear warhead into the capital. Deathstrike was ready to take the world by storm and ‘liberate’ the human race, and he wanted to start the ‘War of Liberation’ with a bang. [3] During the 70th anniversary parade of the PRC in 2019, the truck carrying the stolen warhead managed to sneak by controls in Beijing and made it right into the parade next to the Forbidden City. The blast destroyed the majority of the parade force, the Forbidden City and the entire government, including Zhao Wei. The Global War on Terror had begun.

Course of the war
War in China
PLA generals met in an emergency session as Beijing guardsmen rooted out the terrorists from the capital. They formulated a plan on short notice, which in general said “Drive them out of China, then drive them out of the world”. In the United Nations the entire council was in a buzz as people argued how, why and who caused this mess. That’s when Deathstrike’s face appeared on television screens across the world, broadcasting his message of peace, revolution and liberation, that urged the oppressed people of the world to take up arms and fight back because now was the time they’d win. Across China, sleeper cells that had been planted months prior wreaked havoc, and in Hong Kong the local garrison was forced to destroy famous landmarks to halt the GLA’s advance. [4]

General Leiong Leang, a rookie general [5], took command of the PLA while Zhao Wei’s close partner Hu Xiaolin took command of the government. Leang got the confused divisions together and slowly but surely drove the GLA out of China. The army was forced to destroy the Three Gorges Dam to stop the terrorists, but the Ministry of State Security blamed the GLA for the event. In the Tanggula Mountains, an infiltration team managed to stop toxic chemicals from being dumped into the Yangtze River and polluting mainland China. For two years the GLA remained in China, but it was the ingenious tactics of Leang that finally drove them out. [6] It was time to take care of the rest.

Going global
U.S. President Howard Paulson contacted Chairman Hu Xiaolin and promised his support in the war. The Russian Federation promised to “fight the incursion as best as possible”, yet seemingly refused to provide combat support in the war right next door.

Meanwhile, the European Union struggled to contain the war outside its borders but terrorists managed to sneak in anyway, and pro-GLA anarchists caused much damage to the governments. The central institutions started drawing a draft to transform Europe into a de jure super-federation in order to better contain the situation and become more active on the global scale. This move was very unpopular by the European people, as protesters rallied daily and riots broke out in major urban centers, the Paris Riots standing out by far.

Invasion of Aldastan
Aldastan fell to the GLA warfighters in early 2019, and two years later the People’s Republic was ready to intervene. General Leang ordered her three most prominent commanders, General Shin Fai, General Ta Hun Kwai and General Tsing Shi Tao to lead the charge into the country. The U.S. Air Force leant their support in the war during the Battle of Balykchy in the form of strategic bombers, and later inserted paratroopers to take out prime GLA targets. Early on, Fai and Kwai diverted north into Kazakhstan to pursue the rogue general Ismail Khan, while Tao headed south to the capital.

The Battle of Dushanbe was the bloodiest battle in Aldastan. In early 2022, General Tao had converged on the capital city of Dushanbe, and Chinese intelligence believed the GLA had acquired a weapon of mass destruction and built it there. The initial attack was costly, as Ismail Khan had got word of the Chinese plans through double agents in the MSS. [7] Tao’s attack force was ambushed but managed to make it through, and he was cleared to use tactical nuclear weapons in the battle as the GLA had broken their ‘no-first-use’ policy. Because of this, the battle was won and a major GLA base was eradicated. General Leang moved her headquarters from the Himalayas to Dushanbe following the battle, and a victory parade was held there, signifying the first major victory in the war.

Russia and the GLA
The Russian Federation had a tough few years during the 2010s. Crisis in Eastern Europe, terrorists in the Caucasus and large-scale criminal activity to name a few, and the west had long suspected Russia to be involved on the international black market arms trade. Their continuing promise of support in the Global War on Terror yet refusal to take action further solidified this belief, but the United States wanted proof. In 2024, a Russian freighter by the name Danica did not appear on any scheduled convoys yet was still headed to Iran, according to satellite imagery. The CIA requested the U.S. Special Forces look into this, and Colonel Francis Thorn was chosen to lead the operation.

Indeed, what Colonel Thorn and his Delta Force commandos found out was a large shipment of anti-aircraft weapons delivered to a man identified as the ‘Death Merchant’; Anwar Sulaymaan, a notorious arms dealer working for the GLA and right-hand man of Deathstrike himself. Thorn’s AC-130 gunship leveled the harbor in northern Iran but failed to kill Sulaymaan, after which the CIA presented proof of a Russia-GLA link. The Russian public was outraged, but the government insisted they were not working with them and tried to prove this by mountain an ineffective assault on the GLA-held Baikonur cosmodrome and failing to destroy a chemical weapons facility near Mount Elbrus before the U.S. and China. This lead to the government opposition leader, Nikolai Suvorov, calling for the Kremlin to answer for their actions and taking command of the country four years later.

The Middle Eastern wars
Operation Black Gold
In 2022, after being driven out of Aldastan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the GLA made their way south to Iran. The country had long been destabilized by the actions of Abdul bin Yusuuf and his Brotherhood of the White Falcon, and Yusuuf’s propaganda had effectively split the country between the radicals who wanted to join the GLA, and the loyalists who wanted to fight them. Deathstrike utilized this chaos and took control of the government, prompting the United Nations to call for nearby allies to intervene. Pakistan was unable to retaliate as separatists broke away the Baluchistan region, and India was too caught up in their own internal problems. The United States agreed to intervene and declared war on Iran.

The United States officially invaded two years later in 2024. This was triggered by the Russia-GLA affair detailed above, and the CIA blamed the Iranian government for allowing this. Thousands of Marines stormed the beaches in the south with their leader, General Alexis Alexander in the front, while Air Force paratroopers landed in central Iran. Near Amisbad, one of the biggest battles in the war took place over the oil fields. Dubbed Operation Black Gold by the U.S., the plan was to secure the vital oil resources before the GLA could destroy them. The local population had been brainwashed by Yusuuf, and violently fought the U.S. paratroopers using Molotov cocktails, car bombs and any weapon the GLA procured for them. [8] Believed to have been carried out by Yusuuf's fanatical second-in command, Rodall Juhziz, the CIA went in to capture evidence, but the agents were stranded and forced to be rescued. It was during this operation when a platoon of soldiers attacked a group of civilians, believing they were fighting for the enemy, while in truth they were trying to escape. News of this incident spread quickly as it was filmed with cell phone camera, and it sparked protests across the United States to withdraw before more incidents. President Paulson didn’t cave in, and ordered more troops be sent to the region to pacify the GLA quicker. [9] Yusuuf and Deathstrike used this to further their agenda and gained more followers.

Operation Final Justice
The majority of the new followers came from Iraq, a nation that had been violently destabilized in the years after the U.S. withdrawal, and the ineffectual pro-American regime was easily toppled by Anwar Sulaymaan. It was not long before the bulk of the U.S. Army arrived and invaded Iraq in Operation Final Justice, naming it so in hopes of this being the last time the United States would have to invade the country. Fighting in the countryside between Basra and Baghdad was low-scale with minimal casualties for either side, but Baghdad had been turned into a heavily fortified citadel by Sulaymaan, and with the help of Juhziz he had constructed a WMD in the outskirts. [10]

General Malcolm Granger of the U.S. Air Force supported with strategic bombers [11], while the ground force was led by General Gregory Townes. The battle was brutal, with immense casualties for the United States at first, but once the newly introduce F-22C Raptor strike aircraft leveled the playing field, the battle quickly switched to U.S. favor. Sulaymaan and Juhziz managed to escape the city as the WMD fired at civilians in the city center, before it was destroyed. With the capital secure, the majority of southern Iraq freed, the central Middle East was practically stabilized. However, the GLA weren’t done yet.

Disaster in Afghanistan
Colonel Francis Thorn, after he uncovered the Russia-GLA link, was ordered into Afghanistan were the GLA had constructed a chemical weapons facility near Masdar. The operation went bad, as the GLA destroyed the facility, poisoning hundreds of American rangers and polluting the entire region around Masdar. The CIA requested intelligence about who acquired the GLA such weapons of mass destruction, as they had previously witnessed in Dushanbe and Baghdad. Intelligence files from Somalian and Kazakh training bases [12] told of a Dr. Thrax, the internet pseudonym for a Jordanian immunologist that had disappeared in a terrorist-controlled ghetto in Cairo in 2012. A manhunt commenced.

Across Afghanistan however, the GLA had placed thousands of IEDs, hidden in barrels filled with all kinds of explosives, later nicknamed ‘barrels of death’ by U.S. forces. These demo traps caused immense losses for U.S. Special Forces, and an entire company of Army Rangers were forced to retreat into Pakistan through the Hindu-Kush Mountains after experiencing heavy losses. Thankfully General Granger was able to provide air support, and he got the idea to push the experimental F/B-40 Aurora bomber into service. [13]

The Aurora suffered extreme casualties to GLA self-propelled anti-air guns, as they were forced to fly too slow and too low after dropping their payload due to wasting too much fuel on the in-flight. Because of this disaster, General Granger was several years later discharged from service and replaced by the more competent General Eugene Griffon. The GLA used this disaster as propaganda to further gain more followers, and the effects were certainly showing in Europe. [14]

The Arabian Peninsula
In 2025, Saudi Arabia, a longtime U.S. partner in the region, declared war on Iran after a fighter-bomber attacked one of their cruisers in the Persian Gulf. Saudi soldiers moved in and locked down Iraq while the U.S. Army moved further into Iran, Saudi special forces assisted the Americans in a rescue operation in Yemen, and the navy assisted the United States further south in Somalia where they were attacking a major GLA training facility. In the midst of it, Iranian commandos managed to sneak in and destroy major desalination facilities across the Arabian Peninsula, ruining tap water across the region and plunging Saudi Arabia into anarchy. It was at this point when things started going sour, as pro-GLA hardliners in Iran managed to obtain launch codes for their small yet powerful nuclear arsenal. Several tactical nukes were launched to Saudi cities, and Saudi Arabia was forced to retaliate with strikes of their own.

With nuclear weapons being detonated full-yield across the Middle East, the United Nations was in chaos. Heated arguments and borderline violence were occurring daily in the council chambers, and it seemed the once-powerful institution had lost its influence as no state in the Middle East, China, the U.S. or Russia decided to respond to their decisions and acted on their own accord. After a failed attempt at a diplomatic peace solution that resulted in the destruction of a major dam and nearby city, the Paulson administration decided to disband the UN temporarily while the war was still raging.

Soon the civil war in Iran tipped over in favor of the loyalists fighting against the GLA, as U.S.-backed raids on missile silos put an end to the nuclear war. However, what would become known as the Great Middle Eastern War had just begun, and the United States had more important matters to attend further northeast. Eventually the GLA lost interest in the region as well, and abandoned Iran entirely to retreat into Turkey, where they managed to destroy Incirlik Air Base in a daring raid committed by Prince Kassad.

War in Kazakhstan
In 2024, the United States arrived in large numbers in the Middle East and Central Asia. In Kazakhstan, they supported the Chinese in the manhunt for Ismail Khan, and tracked his location all across the occupied nation. A Marine Expeditionary Force, supported by destroyers leant from Russia to further solidify their anti-GLA stance, landed on the shores of western Kazakhstan and assaulted a GLA training base that was recruiting civilians. A week later, General Jeremiah Bradley who lead the assault was part of the attempted peace talks that went bad and resulted in the destruction of a nearby dam, and the Paulson administration disbanded the UN temporarily. [15]

Baikonur
Deathstrike now rallied the GLA. After having destroyed a dam, stealing large amounts of supplies from abandoned UN convoys and inciting civil unrest in major cities, he managed to capture the Baikonur cosmodrome. Ismail Khan, the Chinese defector, had stolen an ICBM from China years earlier and smuggled it out one piece at a time. Deathstrike ordered it be tipped with anthrax, supplied by Dr. Thrax from the old Vorozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea, and launched it towards Tel Aviv, Israel. At first everyone believed Iran had launched it until U.S. satellites proved it came from Baikonur. Because of this attack Israel caved in and isolated itself from the outside, turning into a paranoid police state for decades to come. [16]

Russia, in order to prove they were not allied with the GLA, mounted a disastrous attack on the cosmodrome. It failed, and Deathstrike had the whole calamity filmed and posted online, causing further unrest in Moscow. At the same time, CIA and MSS agents infiltrated and destroyed a GLA research lab at the foot of Mount Elbrus, Russia. This was the last straw, and opposition leader Nikolai Suvorov claimed the oligarchic government as outright supporting terrorists. The research facility held documents concerning Dr. Thrax, revealing his base of operations in Oman being an old space center. [17]

The United States mounted an attack on the cosmodrome, which ended in the entire facility getting destroyed by a GBU/43-B ‘Mother of all Bombs’ dropped from a B-2 Spirit, after which they liberated Vorozhdeniya from Dr. Thrax’s control. At the same time, the Chinese had located the whereabouts of Ismail Khan; his base was located high in the plateaus of eastern Kazakhstan, near the city of Ridder. A joint U.S.-Chinese force destroyed his base, partly in thanks to the actions of one Lieutenant-Colonel John Burton, who destroyed a nearby GLA base. Khan was confirmed K.I.A.

The GLA headquarters
Several weeks later, General Jeremiah Bradley teamed up with PLA General Ta Hun Kwai, commanding the famous Steel Dragons [18], to attack the GLA’s central command in Akmola, the capital of Kazakhstan. CIA believed Deathstrike was there right now, so no time was spared. The two generals assaulted the city from the southwest and southeast respectively, and Russia provided air support from the north. The city was more defended than Baghdad was, with a huge fortified wall built around the entire city center crawling with Stinger-armed terrorists. F-117 Nighthawks were able to destroy three ballistic missile launchers before they could enter the city, reducing the GLA’s artillery capabilities. However, yet another one of the “scud storms” had been built in the city center, and Deathstrike threatened to kill millions of civilians if the Americans or Chinese attacked.

However, Deathstrike hadn’t planned on the United States’ ace in the hole; their Particle Cannon network. With a precise beam of energy demonstrated at a private weapons conference a decade earlier, the WMD was reduced to rubble and the toxic chemicals burned to a crisp by the intense beam of energy. Then, Bradley and Kwai launched a simultaneous assault on the base’s perimeter, wiping out wall defenders with thermobaric weapons and reducing their outer defenses with air strikes. Deathstrike had a backup plan though, and escaped the city in a black, armored limousine he had stolen from the Kazakhstani president. [19] It slipped out unnoticed in the heat of battle, but was located by Colonel Francis Thorn who ordered no weapons be spared in the hunt for him. In the summer of 2026 the GLA’s biggest stronghold was destroyed, but Deathstrike was still at large.

Colonel Thorn reported he hunted Deathstrike with everything he had; special forces, attack helicopters, even cruise missiles were used against him but he still managed to flee in a stolen C-130 cargo plane. Despite what he considers his greatest failure, Thorn was still promoted by the Pentagon to a five-star General for his actions in the war.

The European conflict
The war had brought much economic despair to Europe, as nations such as Greece, France and Spain descended into poverty, anarchy and even full-scale civil war. The European Union dwindled as breakaway regions formed on the map and the entire British Isles had left the Union after the populist Hope and Glory Party won the elections in the UK. The institutions in Brussels were now desperate, and created the European Domestic Security Directorate in an attempt to quell the massive riots raging across the continent. Lead by former German chancellor Juergen Burkhard, the EDSD effectively became an international police force that imprisoned anyone suspected of “working against the European idea”. But that’s not all, as the Treaty of Vienna signed in 2023 effectively reduced all sovereign nations in the Union to mere rubber stamps meant to remain as figureheads of the various states, before they were all slowly disassembled into political regions in the new super-federation of Europe.

The GLA took full advantage of the chaos and sent many sleeper cells into Europe, meant to agitate the population to cause further destruction and recruit more followers. In Greece, they even managed to capture a ground-based Particle Cannon uplink that destroyed the American USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier stationed in the Aegean Sea after Incirlik was destroyed. [20] Deathstrike’s plan started unfolding, as his grand scheme was to cause such a mark on the west that they would never be the same again, and it seemed they were doing that themselves to begin with.

Second half of the war
In 2026 much of Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the Caucasus was under control, and the GLA went dark. With Khan dead, morale in the PLA improved greatly – something the GLA weren’t too fond of. They attempted to destroy a nuclear power plant in southern China, constructed after the Three Gorges Dam was destroyed, but thanks to the efforts of rookie commander Hu Tan Mau it was successfully defended, boosting China’s morale even further. [21] In Oman, the United States didn’t wait around and mounted an attack on Dr. Thrax’s compound immediately. A local guerilla group previously allied with the GLA had turned on them after Thrax’s secrets were leaked on the internet, and assisted the Americans in the assault. Thrax had prepared ballistic missiles to launch at targets in the west. It is still unknown where he procured them from, but fingers point to Iran. Before they were all neutralized, he managed to fire one at an American naval base in Narvik, Norway, before Thrax went down. Because of the Particle Cannons, Thrax had to launch the missile in such a way it would avoid the particle beam, and the only surefire target was Narvik. [22]

The attack on Narvik caused much distress in the west, primarily in Europe, as this proved the GLA really were serious in their speeches years ago. Further distress occurred after Mexican GLA sympathizers managed to sneak into the Livermore Laboratory in California and steal large supplies of bio-chemical agents, orchestrated by a very skilled and intelligent mercenary by the name Jarmen Kell. [23] Protests against U.S. involvement in the war sparked all across the country, but as before, President Paulson remained resolute.

The GLA’s plans
In the GLA, the loss of Khan and Dr. Thrax had sparked infighting. Deathstrike barely escaped Kazakhstan alive after Colonel Francis Thorn hunted him, and during his months in healing the organization fractured. Prince Kassad was the most notorious, as he wanted to pursue his own agendas. In Shymkent, Kazakhstan, Kassad mounted an assault on a Chinese base in the region where they had constructed a dam. He destroyed the vital installation and flooded their entire base, but his eyes were on the prize: Nuclear weapons. He ordered them to his base near Lenger further south, where he would use them against loyal GLA commanders to usurp the throne. [24]

Deathstrike got word of this however, and ordered Sulaymaan to hunt him down and force him into submission. The nukes in Lenger were captured and used on the defectors themselves to show Kassad Deathstrike wasn’t playing around, and soon Kassad’s main headquarters in Cairo were captured by Yusuuf and Sulaymaan. (Un)fortunately Kassad was spared by Deathstrike since he couldn’t afford to lose more leaders after Khan and Thrax, but he promised he wouldn’t be so merciful next time. [25]

Meanwhile, Abdul bin Yusuuf had sparked violence in North Africa, and through a series of bloody revolutions the Greater Middle East was effectively theirs. There was still minor fighting going on between GLA loyalists and the remaining armed forces, but they were quickly dealt with. Deathstrike used North Africa as a staging ground for his grand scheme, which soon launched in 2028.

America pulls back
The United States was doing well the first few years of the war, but then everything went downhill. Humongous casualties in Afghanistan and Iran, the destruction of oil infrastructure, the loss of the USS Ronald Reagan and the fact that the GLA managed to penetrate their own borders caused large amounts of public uproar against the Paulson administration. President Paulson assured the American people everything was under control, but every week more and more people became unemployed as the struggling economy failed to keep up with the costly war. Couple that with the nuclear war in the Middle East, China pushing for further U.S. assistance and Europe requesting help at the same time, it proved too much. In one of his infamous speeches, President Paulson declared ‘zero hour’ in 2027, and all overseas forces were ordered home.

The retreat was a disaster. No sense of organization, hundreds of divisions M.I.A. and numerous casualties caused by friendly fire. It took a total of three years to get every serviceman and woman back home. And that happened right as the GLA showed up in Germany.

The European insurrection
Deathstrike launched his grand plan in May, 2028. Hundreds of unmarked container ships left North African ports and headed to Hamburg, where they unloaded thousands of GLA fighters, crude combat vehicles and old Soviet military hardware into the already destabilized Germany. Using propaganda, they managed to get the majority of the population on their side as they smashed every single thing in view. The Bundeswehr was unable to contain it as General Wolfgang von Kuerten refused to mobilize against the separatists in Bavaria.

The American evacuation was still underway when the GLA arrived, and they lost several thousand soldiers fighting the insurrectionists. A large detachment captured the USEUCOM headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, along with hundreds of pieces of military hardware.

The insurrection went on for months, and without a proper way of dealing with the threat, the EU called for foreign assistance. China had pacified the last remnants of the GLA in Central Asia, and agreed to assist in Europe. After several weeks of free tyranny in Germany, the first Chinese bombers arrived. They bombed the GLA forces to oblivion, reducing the famous autobahn into a highway of death. The PLA divisions were spearheaded by the veterans of Central Asia: General Tao, Kwai and Fai. General Shin Fai was chosen to lead the attack to Hamburg.

The Chinese arrived in Bavaria at first, moving northward and clearing out terrorists one-by-one. In Cobourg, the GLA had erected several propaganda towers that were taken down on orders from Bao Jin, who had plans to install propaganda towers of their own. One of the most controversial actions of the fight was when General Tao ordered the abandoned USEUCOM headquarters be nuked, and that was after Brussels talked China out of nuking the entire country. But even still, the popular opinion of China grew as more cities were liberated from GLA oppression.

During this insurrection, a French-Algerian terrorist named Tahar Ibrahiim fought against the oppressive government in France. He and his partners raided a chemical storage compound near Strasbourg, and dumped hundreds of barrels of toxic waste into the Rhine-Ruhr River. This polluted the entire French-German border region, driving a wedge between the two nations and marking Ibrahiim as a world-class terrorist. The GLA took note of this, and swiped him up in their ranks to fill the empty spot left behind of the dead Dr. Thrax.

After several months of fighting, the GLA retreated back to Hamburg, where General Shin Fai had pursued them. In a last act of fanaticism, Rodall Juhziz, on orders by Yusuuf, stayed behind in Hamburg with his Scorpion cell and destroyed the city with a nuclear warhead stolen from Saudi Arabia. [26] General Shin Fai and a large amount of the PLA Marine Corps were killed in the explosion. Germany had been ruined, and in the following years the biggest socio-political change in history since the fall of the Soviet Union would occur. Deathstrike had carried out his grand plan, and he was satisfied, for the west would never be the same again.

Millions of people died in the insurrection, and the entire German infrastructure was ruined. During this crisis, many European men who would later become famous in the future alliance made their mark: Frank Jaeger led a guerilla team called the ‘Wolfsrudel’ composed of young students after his parents were killed, General Wolfgang von Kuerten was pardoned and even promoted by the later alliance for refusing direct orders to attack his own countrymen and Captain Willem van der Meer of the Dutch Royal Guard assisted in rebuilding infrastructure and containing the chemicals in the Rhine.

Aftermath
United States
In the U.S., the war-weary and desperate population forced President Paulson to resign, but the following presidents weren’t that much better. The great economic crisis following the war hit the American home front hard as millions of people went unemployed, even more homeless and hundreds of companies went bankrupt, including the consumer electronics company Northwest Tech who had just introduced the iSaac butler robot. In the next five years, the United States burned through three ineffectual administrations before one man, Kevin O’Connor, stepped up to turn things around.

With the help of Canada and Mexico, President O’Connor created the North American Union which helped the U.S. economy get back on its feet. Together a shared economic area spawned that included free student exchange programs, drastically cheaper healthcare, new labor laws and a drastic shift in the Armed Forces military doctrine. Instead of hitting hard with ground assaults, the U.S. Armed Forces were re-tooled into a direct response force that could conduct lightning strikes anywhere on the globe. The Army was reduced to a mere national guard, and the Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy were now responsible for direct engagements across sea.

President O’Connor resigned before the end of his first term due to declining health, but he is today regarded as a president in the same category as Lincoln, Kennedy and Roosevelt. His successor was his Vice President, Donovan Giordano, who continued the policies of his predecessor, but also rebuilt the United Nations to now act as a political committee in the Americas instead of worldwide. [27]

Russia
The reveal that the Russian government was working with the Global Liberation Army caused large amounts of uproar among the population. Large-scale protests were held in Moscow daily, and Nikolai Suvorov, the leader of the opposition, openly called them “post-Soviet oligarchs with a hunger for power and taste of corruption”. For several months the fighting between the government and opposition was done with politics, but Suvorov had enough. In 2028, as the insurrection was raging in Europe, Suvorov mounted an attack on the Kremlin with help from his old friends in the VDV. He threw out the old government, killed the corrupt president and declared a new dawn for the Russian Federation.

He wasn’t a tyrant however, and held a democratic election for the new president sometime later. But the people were certain that Suvorov would usher in a new era of Russian greatness, and a staggering 90% of the votes went to him. His competitor wasn’t upset at all and wished best of luck to President Suvorov and his future endeavors.

Because of the ruined economy and infrastructure, Europe bought large amounts of natural gas and oil from Russia, who now held the world’s largest supply after Saudi Arabia’s was destroyed in nuclear war. This sparked an economic boom in the country that turned it into a proper first world nation. Suvorov was herald as a hero of Mother Russia. For years, Russia maintained the world’s second largest economy right after China, and the two superpowers would even have signed a contract if it weren’t for ethnic tensions in the Far East.

The troubled nations of Central Asia, having gone through the worst the GLA had to offer, were abandoned by China after the war. Russia, wanting to atone for their previous affair with the terrorists, expanded the Collective Security Treaty Organization to include Central Asia, and provided security for the Central Asian republics.

Europe
Europe was obviously hit right in the gut with the insurrection, but even before that they had it tough. The controversial Treaty of Vienna transformed the decadent European Union into a de jure federation, something the population was not happy about. In France, a civil war erupted. In Greece, neo-fascism was on the rise. In the UK, the entire country left the Union out of sheer disgust and formed a new trade partnership with members of the Commonwealth. In Germany, the government parties merged to form the Europakoalition, a political entity described as “Nazi Germany without Nazis” by some left-wing journals.

The European Domestic Security Directorate however took the cake. A multinational police force on par with Big Brother took control of all law enforcement across Europe, and Director Juergen Burkhard pushed law-abiding citizens to report friends, neighbors and coworkers to authorities for slightest suspicion of “working against the European idea”. The EDSD arrested hundreds, maybe thousands, and Burkhard lobbied for the Bundeswehr to intervene in the French civil war if it hadn’t been for the insurrection.

After the eventful year of 2028, things looked up. In Paris, rebels ousted the government and proclaimed the sixth republic. The royal family took control of the Netherlands while the government stepped down. The Europakoalition in Berlin was arrested and replaced by a military junta. Burkhard was arrested and executed for forcing police to open fire on peaceful protesters in Brussels, and his EDSD was disbanded.

Thanks to the People’s Republic of China and Russian Federation, the European economy got back on its feet. China created the Eurasian Unity League to help Europe rebuild and loaned billions of dollars [28] to them, on the basis that they would repay them in the near future. Not everyone was happy about this, as France in particular refused help and rebuilt on their own.

Six years later, the new nations of Europe were ready to sign the Treaty of Prague, creating the European Continental Alliance. The new alliance consisted of eighteen member states, most of them from Western Europe, leaving the eastern countries to join Russia’s hegemony. The German military junta held a democratic election, the United Kingdom joined the new alliance, and a creation of a combined military task force would ensure Europe’s protection against all threats in the foreseeable future.

In fact, they took the first step and struck vengeance on the GLA in 2037 with Operation Nemesis, the invasion and liberation of North Africa, starting the African Resource Rush.

China
China, with the exception of Beijing, Hong Kong and the Three Gorges Dam, remained relatively unscathed by the Global Liberation Army. After Hu Xiaolin died of a heart attack in 2030, Cheung Liu took his place, and kickstarted a serious space program. The East Star station was put in orbit and rivaled the American Pennsylvania space station, and they even constructed a lunar base called the Lunar Emperor.

The Chinese economy remained unfettered following the war, even after donating billions to Europe. The new policies implemented by Zhao Wei proved worthwhile, as new jobs popped up daily for the ever growing population. However, the ECA kicked China out after they had done theirs and disbanded the Unity League. As a replacement China created the Greater Asian People’s Alliance, or GAPA, consisting of South-East Asian nations. This new sphere would stabilize the region and help root out any GLA sympathizers left.

While General Fai died and General Leang was dishonorably discharged after an unspecified public scandal, Ta Hun Kwai and Tsing Shi Tao were commondated for their efforts in the war. Eventually, they retired and live to this day, while younger generals of the new era took their place.

Middle East and Southern Asia
The Global War on Terror had ended, but not the fight in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and Iran continued to fight for almost one-and-a-half decades, changing borders by the week and killing millions of civilians. The entire region turned into what could best be described as a wasteland, and it was only after several new nations were born and a Turkish intervention that fighting finally stopped in the so-called Great Middle Eastern War. Following the war, the nations of the Middle East now held an unfathomable hatred against the GLA, but did not pursue them, instead creating the Middle Eastern Council to help keep the peace in the region.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and India kept their decades-long feud running, as Pakistan believed India to be plotting something and India suspected Pakistan of being controlled by the GLA. However, after separatists broke away the Baluchistan region in southern Pakistan, things changed. India decided to help their neighbor nation and drove the terrorists out. The two nations reconciled and agreed fighting was no longer an option in this darker world, and created the Bangalore Pact. This economic union would help the two countries overcome their differences and transform into first world nations over the years, while building a steady relationship with Russia. They distanced themselves from the MEC, but the only conflict between the two was a friendly rivalry.

The Global Liberation Army
After the insurrection Deathstrike considered his grand plan finished, and quietly retired to his safe house. The organization splintered, with Prince Kassad leading the fight against Anwar Sulaymaan, the new head of the GLA’s main cells. Abdul bin Yusuuf had long been skeptical of Deathstrike and his final plan with Europe, as he would have preferred to unite the nations of the Middle East under a new caliph instead. But in the end, the Brotherhood of the White Falcon remained loyal to the GLA who had helped them gain power almost fifteen years earlier. Tahar Ibrahiim vowed support to Sulaymaan, and created his own personal army.

Deathstrike was unceremoniously assassinated by an unknown party in 2032. Fingers pointed to the CIA, the Europeans, the Chinese and even the Israeli Mossad, who had been known to be more ruthless after Israel became a police state. Regardless of who did it, the GLA fell apart and civil war ensued. Eventually, Sulaymaan defeated Kassad and had him personally executed for betraying the organization a second time. Under Sulaymaan, the GLA retreated into Central Africa, where they established a new “nation without politics”, free from laws and boundaries. While they lost their North African branch in 2037 to the ECA, and their Somali drug trade was cut off by the Chinese the following year, the GLA remained strong and even had a strong position on the international oil and raw materials market through front companies. Nonetheless, 'The Zone’ in Central Africa was surrounded on all sides by Europeans, Chinese, Americans and Russians, and it seemed the GLA are under the ground. For now.

*****
That's my take on it, basically. Feel free to comment any questions that aren't answered by these pointers:

1. Why not tie in Yusuuf to the Arab Spring? He is the GLA's go-to propaganda guy and I think he might have had something to do with it.
2. A small milita taking control of the entire region unhindered seemed a little strange to me, so I had the nations enter an economic downturn before Deathstrike seized power.
3. Where else would they get the nuke? Ismail Khan is an interesting character and I wonder if we're going to get some info on him.
4. It seemed unreasonable the GLA would be able to spread that far that quickly, so I simply thought they had installed sleeper cells months prior. The broadcasts are also how they gained such a global movement.
5. That's how I imagined her, what with her nefarious tactics. I think being a rookie could also have something to do with her public scandal.
6. But she was still a capable strategist.
7. Seems only logical to me that Khan would think two steps ahead and plant double agents.
8. Again; propaganda master.
9. I think something like this could spark the wave of protests in America, and be honest: You killed civilians during that mission too.
10. Why wouldn't he? Sulaymaan doesn't give two damns about collateral damage.
11. The Army doesn't have F-22s, bur Granger does.
12. This was the training mission, by the way. It seemed strange to hear victory music over your own soldiers' cries of pain, so why not have the GLA destroy it themselves?
13. Hindu-Kush was identified in the original game as being in Kazakhstan, which they aren't, so I moved the mission into Afghanistan.
14. Can't remember the exact details of DerKrieger's story for the Aurora but this is what I based it on.
15. Reason for the UN being less prevelant in the Rise of the Reds world.
16. I tie-in multiple missions here: First, I operate under the basis that Baikonur was partly dismantled by now and no rockets were present, so Khan smuggled them out of China earlier in hopes of getting to use them and Thrax supplied the anthrax from Rebirth Island, GLA mission 05 in Generals.
17. Why else would Oman have launch platforms for ballistic missiles? A joint space program in the Mid-East, I say.
18. That's an awesome name, shut up.
19. Why else would he drive a limo, the symbol of capitalistic corruption?
20. Good reason for it to be there; protect European airspace.
21. Mau might have been a commander defending the power plant before the war, and its defense is what promoted him.
22. Another mission tie-in/decomposition: If the GLA launched a ballistic-freaking-missile from Baikonur, wouldn't the US -instantly- drop a bomb on it? That's the basis I operate on and it seems okay in my book to have it like this. The Particle Cannon network could also explain why Thrax chose Narvik instead of, say, London, or Ramstein.
23. The GLA mounting an operation like that on their own seems dubious to me, so why not have some Mexican drug lords do it instead? Closer, more convenient, everybody's happy!
24. Another mission tie-in. I think that Operation Black Rain (the first GLA mission) could be Kassad stealing nukes and bringing them to Lenger, practically right next door to Shymkent. The defectors in that mission could also be Kassad, because why not?.
25. I don't think there'd be any other reason for Deathstrike -not- to shoot Kassad in the face then and there.
26. Dirty nukes gotta come from somewhere.
27. Again; why the UN aren't involved globally.
28. Don't know what currency China uses.

That is basically it and as mentione in the top, let's try and work all our ideas together to create the best (worst?) fictional war in the history of video games.

[MARS]

I will give this a detailed read later on and point out a few things that might require changing in order to fit in as canon, but a quick glimpse of it seems pretty promising. Just make sure you get all the years in the right idea, the official timeline on the wiki would surely help at that. Two things I already noticed: You merged the Bavarian secession into the insurrection of 2028 although it occured in 2025. That, and I would not say that the majority of the population supported the GLA. Rather, the GLA put a spark to what was already a massive socio-political powder keg and added as much to the chaos and violence as they personally could.

[Svea Rike]

I will give this a detailed read later on and point out a few things that might require changing in order to fit in as canon, but a quick glimpse of it seems pretty promising. Just make sure you get all the years in the right idea, the official timeline on the wiki would surely help at that. Two things I already noticed: You merged the Bavarian secession into the insurrection of 2028 although it occured in 2025. That, and I would not say that the majority of the population supported the GLA. Rather, the GLA put a spark to what was already a massive socio-political powder keg and added as much to the chaos and violence as they personally could.

Right. I mentioned the secession in the European conflict part implying that's when they broke away, and Wolfgang von Kuerten refused to mobilize during the secession and insurrection. Yes indeed but the GLA convinced more people to fight whether for them or on their own.

[__CrUsHeR]

I enjoyed it; you managed to catch several hooks of history and unify on something great about the GWOT.

I imagine the hard work that you had to do it, and is very close to something canon, then congratulations for their dedication, in fact very well written.

[Evan]

<unfunny GIF>

This post has been edited by Evan: 5 Dec 2014, 0:51

[Cobretti]

Heh, I need to finish my writings on what happened during the Global War on Terror, but for the most part this is good. One thing though...it seems somewhat unlikely that Russia would overstep China and the US economically due to the larger population sizes of those two countries, though Russia could be considered the second largest if China and the US are tied for the world's largest economy by the time period of ROTR.

[Omnius64]

Heh, I need to finish my writings on what happened during the Global War on Terror, but for the most part this is good. One thing though...it seems somewhat unlikely that Russia would overstep China and the US economically due to the larger population sizes of those two countries, though Russia could be considered the second largest if China and the US are tied for the world's largest economy by the time period of ROTR.

China have a more stronger & bigger economy than Russia. But Russia had better tech, thought, and Russian army, althought smaller, was strong & advanced.
Also, this is BEFORE the European-Russia war. Lets see how much Russia suffers after the war, I personally hope that not a lot.

[Svea Rike]

I enjoyed it; you managed to catch several hooks of history and unify on something great about the GWOT.

I imagine the hard work that you had to do it, and is very close to something canon, then congratulations for their dedication, in fact very well written.

Thanks, Crusher. Actually this didn't take me long; I just connected some missions and thoughts I've had to make sense in my book.

Heh, I need to finish my writings on what happened during the Global War on Terror, but for the most part this is good. One thing though...it seems somewhat unlikely that Russia would overstep China and the US economically due to the larger population sizes of those two countries, though Russia could be considered the second largest if China and the US are tied for the world's largest economy by the time period of ROTR.

China have a more stronger & bigger economy than Russia. But Russia had better tech, thought, and Russian army, althought smaller, was strong & advanced.
Also, this is BEFORE the European-Russia war. Lets see how much Russia suffers after the war, I personally hope that not a lot.

I based this on the idea that China became the world's largest economy in Rise of the Reds after the U.S. collapsed and everyone switched to their currency for secondary economy after the dollar disappeared. Russia became the second largest after Europe purchased tons of resources from them, as stated in ROTR lore. After Kevin O'Connor rebalanced the American economy, Russia might be third again.

This post has been edited by Svea Rike: 5 Dec 2014, 10:07

[Cobretti]

Unless Russia was explicitly stated to be the second largest economy in the world I'd question it. For example, Russia's GDP is about 3.5 trillion dollars, and China and the US are around 17.5 trillion dollars. Russia would have to have an unusually strong and sustained economic growth to be in the same area.

[HoneyBee]

Holy Moly, another huge thread! I'm really curious-- but without time now, I'll have to find some quick.

[Svea Rike]

Unless Russia was explicitly stated to be the second largest economy in the world I'd question it. For example, Russia's GDP is about 3.5 trillion dollars, and China and the US are around 17.5 trillion dollars. Russia would have to have an unusually strong and sustained economic growth to be in the same area.

Hmm, you do make some interesting points, but the United States did suffer severe economic collapse and Russia got a lot of money from Europe and China when they purchased resources. But we'll have to see what MARS thinks.

Holy Moly, another huge thread! I'm really curious-- but without time now, I'll have to find some quick.

Heh, it's not that big

[Svea Rike]

Soo... you guys find anything that could be improved?

[Darky]

I'm among the select few who can honestly say they read it all, good read, job well done.

[Svea Rike]

Here's a timeline for those that felt the text above was cluttered:

2001
• 9/11 terrorist attacks.
• Afghanistan War begins.
2011
• Operation Neptune Spear: Osama bin Laden is killed and Afghanistan War ends.
• Abdul bin Yusuuf launches the Arab Spring.
2013
• The US withdraws from the Middle East.
2017
• Tensions rise in East Asia as the real estate bubble is starting to falter.
• Aldastan is formed. The GLA is founded in response.
• The Global Liberation Army conquers Kazakhstan.
2018
• Second Korean War begins.
• Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan falls to the GLA.
• Abdul bin Yusuuf rampages in Dubai, and is later recruited by the GLA.
• Taiwan Conflict begins and ends within days.
• Hardliner coup in Beijing.
• Second Korean War ends with the fall of Kim Jong-un.
• Aldastan falls to the GLA.
2019
• The GLA sneaks thousands of sleeper cells into China.
• Ismail Khan smuggles a nuclear weapon into Beijing.
• Tiananmen Square disaster: Chinese government is destroyed in GLA nuclear attack. Global War on Terror begins.
• Battle of Beijing: Red Guard auxiliary forces defeat a GLA contingent outside Beijing.
• Mohmar Deathstrike appears on television screens across the world.
• Battle of Hong Kong: General Shin Fai defeats GLA forces who had captured the HK Convention Center. The Tsing Ma Bridge is destroyed in the process.
• US President Howard Paulson promises his support in the war.
• The Three Gorges Dam is destroyed in a terrorist attack. Construction of a new nuclear power plant begins, supervised by Hu Tan Mau.
2020
• Tanggula Mountains black operation: Black Lotus operatives prevent the GLA from pumping thousands of toxic chemicals into the Yangtze River system.
• The European Union starts its downfall. Riots and terror attacks prompts the Brussels-based central institutions to begin plans to uniting the entire continent into a de jure super-federation.
• The last GLA cells in China are rooted out.
2021
• Invasion of Aldastan: The People’s Liberation Army, spearheaded by Tsing Shi Tao, Ta Hun Kwai and Shin Fai, invade the GLA-controlled republic of Aldastan.
• Battle of Balykchy: US strategic bombers assist PLA forces in Balykchy. The majority of the city is destroyed by American bombs and demolition charges set by the GLA.
• Raid on Bishkek: Black Lotus agents destroy a train bridge in Bishkek, preventing GLA reinforcements to enter the country.
2022
• Battle of Dushanbe: Tsing Shi Tao is authorized to use nuclear weapons to destroy a GLA weapon of mass destruction in Dushanbe.
• Aldastan is liberated from GLA control. The PLA moves their forward command center to Dushanbe and hold a victory parade.
• PLA forces easily root out GLA presence in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
• The GLA retreats south to Iran. Abdul bin Yusuuf sparks a civil war in the country between pro-GLA hardliners and government loyalists.
• Separatists break the region of Baluchistan away from Pakistan. Pakistan seeks help from long-time rival India.
2023
• The European Union signs the Treaty of Vienna, transforming the EU into a federation. Riots, civil war and chaos spread through Europe.
• Ismail Khan is hunted by Shin Fai and Ta Hun Kwai into Kazakhstan.
• GLA forces raid UN supply convoys in Kazakhstan.
• Mohmar Deathstrike manages to capture the old Baikonur cosmodrome. Dr. Thrax steals hundreds of chemical weapons from Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea.
2024
• Realpolitik: Colonel Francis Thorn observes a weapons shipment from Russia to the GLA. Russia’s downfall begins.
• Raid on Masdar: US Special Forces, led by Colonel Francis Thorn, attack a GLA chemical weapons plant near Masdar, Afghanistan. The GLA destroy the facility, killing hundreds of American soldiers.
• Operation Stormbringer: US Marines, spearheaded by General Bradley, land on the shores of western Kazakhstan where they destroy a major training base.
• Operation Black Gold: US Paratroopers land on the Amisbad Oil Fields in Central Iran, while USMC forces land on the southern coast.
• Blue Eagle, a UN diplomat, is attacked and killed in Kabara City. The GLA destroy a hydroelectric dam to cover their escape.
• Thorn’s Rangers retreat from the GLA through the Hindu Kush Mountains to Pakistan, and are protected by General Malcom Granger in the Air Force.
• General Granger pushes the experimental Aurora bomber into service, and suffers catastrophic losses to GLA anti-air.
2025
• Anwar Sulaymaan, the Death Merchant, topples the pro-American regime in Iraq. Saudi Arabia urges the United States to intervene.
• Operation Final Justice: The United States invades GLA-controlled Iraq.
• Battle of Baghdad: US forces destroy a GLA weapon of mass destruction outside Baghdad, the same weapon encountered in Dushanbe.
• Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia rise as Saudi Arabia officially enters the war.
• Rescue in Yemen: US Special Forces, assisted by Saudi Arabian troops, rescue downed pilots in Al Hanad.
• GLA forces retreat from Iran. Prince Kassad goes into Turkey where he destroys the American Incirlik Air Base.
• Battle of Mogadishu: The GLA Somalia cell’s main base in Mogadishu is raided and destroyed by American and Saudi Arabian warships. Vital intelligence files are recovered.
• Mohmar Deathstrike launches an anthrax-tipped warhead from Baikonur to Tel Aviv, Israel. Russian forces unsuccessfully mounts an assault on the cosmodrome, before the US Air Force destroys it with a Mother of all Bombs.
• Deathstrike retreats to Astana, Kazakhstan, where he instills chaos in the populace, destroying hundreds of civil property and even a Chinese FOB and American air field.
• Black Lotus operatives, aided by Lieutenant-Colonel John Burton, destroy one of Dr. Thrax’ research labs at the foot of Mount Elbrus, Russia.
• Ismail Khan is tracked to his base on eastern Kazakhstan, where joint US and Chinese forces destroy him.
2026
• Saudi Arabia declares war on Iran. Nuclear weapons and sabotage result in a widespread humanitarian disaster.
• US Special Forces destroy the chemical weapons facility on Vozrozhdeniya Island.
• Dr. Thrax’s main base in Oman is attacked by American and Saudi forces. He manages to launch an anthrax-tipped warhead to Narvik before being killed.
• Generals Ta Hun Kwai and Jeremiah Bradley attack Mohmar’s stronghold in Astana. He escapes in a stolen limousine and avoids capture, before fleeing Kazakhstan in a stolen C-130.
• Prince Kassad betrays the GLA and attacks their loyalists and steals nuclear weapons from China. He takes them to Lenger but they are used against his own forces by GLA loyalists.
• Kassad is hunted down in Egypt by Sulaymaan, but Mohmar refuses to kill him.
2027
• GLA forces raid an American particle cannon installation on Crete and uses it against the USS Ronald Raegan stationed there. The United States start feeling the pressure.
• Mohmar begins planting sleeper cells in Germany.
• The last remaining GLA stronghold in Kazakhstan is destroyed by Chinese forces.
• Jarmen Kell and hired Mexican mercenaries raid the Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. The US populace protest heavily.
• Abdul bin Yusuuf manages to conquer North Africa through a series of bloody revolutions. Mohmar moves his base of operations there.
• The United States officially withdraws from the war after suffering catastrophic losses.
2028
• The GLA mount an ineffective attack on a Chinese nuclear power plant, defended by Hu Tan Mau.
• The European Insurrection: GLA forces land in Hamburg, Germany, and begin their massive attack.
• GLA forces captures the USEUCOM headquarters in Stuttgart, and capture advanced American equipment.
• The EU urges China to assist them.
• Chinese bombers turn the Autobahn into a highway of death.
• Tsing Shi Tao orders a nuclear weapon detonated on the USEUCOM, obliterating the GLA force there.
• Chinese forces destroy GLA propaganda in Cobourg.
• Tahar Ibrahiim poisons the Rhine-Ruhr river system, and gets swept up the GLA.
• Battle of Hamburg: Chinese forces, led by Shin Fai, mount an attack on GLA-controlled Hamburg. Mohmar and Sulaymaan escape while Juhziz stays behind to destroy the city with a dirty nuke.
• The Global War on Terror ends.