KATO-Petrograd War

== Overview ==
The KATO-Petrograd War was a major conflict between the two major blocs of the sandbox region, the Petrograd Union (with the Orzel Federation's help) and the Kestrel-Astria Treaty Organization.
== Prelude ==
Izakia and their allies posted a 10 minute long YouTube video in celebration of the 3rd anniversary of ISA's collapse, displaying a range of old technology to the modern weaponry currently in their possession. Following this parade, a coup was attempted on the Izakian leader Ilya, who announced a pacifist stance towards future conflicts that were not a threat to Izakia, to which Kowloon objected to. Kowloon and Ilya came to an agreement within half an hour and the internal conflict ended. It has since been revealed by Izakian High Command that this entire coup was a staged event to justify the publication of a manifesto.
Izakia's manifesto described their new policies on foreign relations, stating that Izakia would remilitarize and saying "Pacifism would lead the group to an early death," where they also stated their plans to use war as a means of restoring their former glory.
Following the publishing of the manifesto, Sergei, the leader of Kalestania, along with the rest of the Kestrel-Astria Treaty Organization, half-jokingly signed a war declaration on Izakia on the same day of the manifesto's publication. This led to a chain reaction of multiple other groups within Izakia's alliance, Petrograd, along with the Orzel Federation, coming to the defense of Izakia and declaring war on KATO as well.
== Battles ==
=== First Battle of Rostov ===
On the evening of May 4th, Izakia spawned the city of Rostov in the middle of the map on Colorful Crew. An NRK contingent of 2 combatants entered the server and immediately began engaging Izakian, Ludasian, and NKSR units which were spread across the map. Izakian air power harassed NRK armored units while NKSR tanks fought head on, and Ludasian tanks provided fire support and attacked NRK tanks with ATGMS from long range. Moderate losses occurred on both sides, with the only recorded kills (as of this edit) are 1 NRK tank lost to a Ludasian Landza Heavy Assault Gun and another loss to an ATGM from a Colacz ATGM Carrier. Izakia was able to score multiple kills with an unarmored Cessna-172 armed with HMGs and 1 kill with an artillery rocket truck. Ludasia suffered multiple losses in close quarters engagements.
=== Second Battle of Rostov ===
On the afternoon of May 13th, Izakian and Yakugirian forces engaged NRK tanks on Colorful Crew. The battle resulted in a Petrograd victoryhttps://youtu.be/tFXLYygKxxI and NRK retreating from the server, marking the end of the battle. A heated argument in the FDV discord ensued, and a few days later KATO made a complete walkout of the discord server, leaving Marchkarcz to act as the sole representative of the alliance until Mid May when KATO rejoined the FDV discord.
=== Battle of Redrock ===
(Note: This battle needs further documentation.)
After a period of inactivity following the 2nd Battle of Rostov, NRK and Yakugirian forces clashed on Colorful Crew. Ludasian, NKSR, Izakian, Ghost Company and Spektarian forces soon joined later on during the battle, although GC's position in the war is unknown. NRK was reinforced by Mort and another unknown player (if anyone can id them I'd appreciate it). As the battle grew in intensity, both sides began suffering considerable losses. Because the server was growing intolerably laggy, Izakian, Ludasian and Spektarian forces began using handhelds to fight, with Ludasia knocking out one of Mort's tanks with a KKS10-Ankobar Anti Tank Rifle. Ludasia withdrew from combat as the day drew closer to midnight. So far, Izakia has declared victory for this battlehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QilnKfo5-y8&ab_channel=IzakianOfficial.
=== Battle of Modrik ===
On June 5th, 2022, KATO forces attempted an invasion on Colorful Crew and were retaliated against by Yakugirian armor. Fought on gm_redrock, YSR was able to knock out multiple KATO tanks in the defense of the server despite being outnumbered due to the presence of IW, NRK, and BC (essentially KATO, despite denying their membership and the fact that KATO members also affiliate themselves with BC). After the battle ended, it was a decisive victory for Yakugiriahttps://youtu.be/60TS2_Saaz4.
=== YSR-KATO Phase ===
This phase of the war is heavily characterized by battles primarily being fought against KATO and Yakugirian forces on Colorful Crew. Both sides suffered significant tank losses and concerns of legality between each others' tanks were aroused. YSR has published multiple videos documenting their battles against KATO forceshttps://youtu.be/2Y2Q_AXKwnwhttps://youtu.be/BjaaCFp9N4Ahttps://youtu.be/cAlY5qbq-Gkhttps://youtu.be/NKNydSk5Gq4. Battles would usually be followed up by arguing in the FDV discord, which has caused backlash towards the nature of contemporary ACF wars. Izakian leader Ilya has openly condemned arguing on Discord due to frequent post-battle arguing, encouraging factions to resolve their disputes by fighting each other in game instead. Discussion over the dissemination of personal information intensified in the month of June. Ilya stated in a discussion with KATO that they [IZK] have no further intent to use personal information as ammunition against opponentshttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/772884875849498635/985769561787883551/unknown.png and intent to reprimand members who continue to do so. The issue became further exacerbated after KATO spread rumors against YSR leader Crisis in the FDV Discord on June 11th, causing backlash and accusations of hypocrisy due to KATO's generally opposing attitude to the spreading of dirt in the past. This recurring issue has led to increased polarization in the meta.
== Downfalls ==
On May 28th, 2022, during a skirmish between Orzel and KATO forces on Colorful Crew, concerns that the server was compromised from an external source (thought to have been backdoored by Pravoslav at the time) were raised by several Orzel members. Reckless said that his hard drive was bloated by a 50GB folder of unknown origin, Novic said his data folder was filled with files, and Crisis said that he had "command prompt windows open up very quickly and spam a bunch of text, then close". No KATO members were affected by the incident. 
Although both sides were very heated about this event, fighting eventually continued on Colorful, albeit most of KATO began pulling back their operations as a result of the incident. 
In late June of 2022, Pravoslav, the leader of the Urtanesian Federation, leaked Bellrad's (who was a friend of several KATO members, although never officially in the alliance) private peer-to-peer chat logs to Orzel and Petrograd higher-ups, who later on leaked them publicly in the FDV discord. Pravoslav gained full access to Bellrad's data folder and admitted to using backdoored addons in order to do so. Pravoslav was removed in the FDV discord after the leak, but still remained in their alliances. 
== End of the War ==
After Bellrad's data folder was compromised and no significant action was taken against Pravoslav, KATO silently ceased all official Garry's Mod operations. 
On July 3rd, 2022, Izakia officially declared victory over KATO after weeks of the latter's disappearance and radio silence. KATO was planning to declare victory due to foul play on their enemies parts, but considered it worthless. In the little fighting that did occur before KATO's departure, both sides had significant gains and losses. With major factions such as Izakia retiring from Garry's mod, and many individuals retiring due to academic or military careers, this war can confidently be claimed to be the last major war of the factions meta. Since the war's end, most conflicts between factions have been no more than petty arguing through discord with little actual fighting. Any actual combat that has ensued has been through Non-ACF means. This is primarily due to the childish attitudes exhibited by newer factions and their fear of suffering defeat. Because of this, the meta is not expected to survive the year 2023.
File:M84A T84 face off.png|NRK (Left) and YSR (Right) tanks engaging each other head on.
File:Setzka.png|The ABT-60 "Setzka" Assault Battle Tank. Built by Ludasia to fight KATO, it never saw combat due to KATO suddenly disappearing in Mid June.
File:M84B Sarcev.png|Yakugirian M84s lined up for a propaganda reel.
File:Izkvnrk2022.png|Izakian T-80 engaging an NRK MBT
File:Atgmdrale.png|An NRK tank moments after an Izakian GLATGM hit and knocked it out.
File:Ankobarmoment.png|Ludasian leader Phil moments before knocking out a KATO tank from behind with an anti-tank rifle handheld (Ilya's POV)