Plan Green

Plan Green, also known as the Gilgameshan Border War was an offensive conducted by the Gilgamesh Free State in in response to The Bleedings. For the past ten years, pro-GFS and pro- paramilitaries, as well as local criminal gangs, had clashed with one another for control of the lawless regions of . 
As the violence was spilling over into the Free State, with border patrols, Free State Auxiliaries, and even regular Gilgamesh Free Army units coming under attack by pro-UNSC paramilitaries or criminal gangs, the GFS realized that a show of force was needed to curb the violence. Under the command of Marshal Edward Garan, the Gilgamesh Free Armed Forces High Command developed a plan to launch an offensive into the lawless regions, particularly aiming at the city of Avarin. 
Codenamed Plan Green, the plan was to be the first mass offensive action by the Gilgamesh Free Armed Forces. On September 24th, , units of the Gilgamesh Free Army and Air Force launched their attacks through the lawless regions. While the initial offensive saw great success, maintaining control over Avarin proved too costly for the few resources it provided the Free State, and so it was abandoned and Plan Green was halted on December 8th. 
While the Free State gained little territory, most of it farmland and wilderness, during Plan Green, the operation was an overall success for the moment. While Avarin had not been held by the Free State, the show of force and unexpected effectiveness of the newly-formed GFA and GFAF had cowed the pro-UNSC militants and criminal gangs into slowing or halting their attacks on pro-GFS groups for fear of another intervention that would completely wipe them out. However, it had the unexpected side effect of causing a consolidation of criminal power. As the offensive had weakened many of the stronger syndicates, it allowed a once-unknown crimelord to consolidate his power, absorbing most of the other syndicates in the lawless regions. The operation had also proven the Free Army for the first time in combat, and the lessons developed from the combat seen during Plan Green were taken and used as the Free State's military was built up and prepared for a UNSC invasion over the next years.
Plan Green was not the last Free State intervention in the lawless regions. When any uptick of violence occurred against pro-GFS groups or the GFS itself originating in the regions, airstrikes or commando raids by the Gilgameshan Special Air Service or Gilgamesh Light Infantry would be launched to cow certain groups. These raids continued even until the UNSC-GFS War, although in the 2550s Baal Defense Solutions took on many of these responsibilities as the Free State turned inward to prepare for a UNSC invasion.
==Overview==
===Prelude and Planning===
Plan Green had its origins in The Bleedings, a period of sectarian violence in the lawless regions of Gilgamesh between pro-GFS and pro-UEG paramilitaries, each vying for control over the remaining settled lands. While these conflicts had been going on since with the establishment of the Gilgamesh Independence Party, they had been, for the most part, contained and limited to verbal battles and the occasional street battle between the opposing forces. However, after the official establishment of the Gilgamesh Free State in , rebel paramilitaries in the regions began to make moves to attempt to bring in Gilgamesh Free State control over the area, mostly through attempting to launch uprisings that would bring down the pro-UEG forces, and more importantly, the criminal syndicates, who were the main powers. 
The syndicates, themselves already in opposition to being subject to the authority of the Free State, and well aware of the fact that the Gilgamesh Free State Auxiliaries were cutting into their operations and being provided safe harbor by the GFS, established alliances with the pro-UEG militants against their common enemy. As a result of this, the sectarian violence became increasingly common and large-scale, and by , the syndicates and pro-UEG partisans were launching attacks on Free State border stations and military patrols outside the border. 
As the syndicates and partisans were becoming a real threat, the GFS directed the Auxiliaries to begin funneling arms to the Gilgamesh Liberation Army, the main rebel paramilitary unit in the lawless areas. Gilgameshan Special Air Service operators also launched cross-border raids in an attempt to deter any further attacks. However, as the years went on, the attacks on the GFS only became more frequent. This conflict came to a head in June , when units of the Gilgamesh Liberation Army bombed several nightclubs and known meeting places of UNSC paramilitaries. 
As a result of multiple factors, some of which were personal desires for vengeance by certain syndicate kingpins who had lost family in the attacks, the following months became the most violent years of the Bleedings. In the lawless regions, it became all-out warfare, and on the outlying provinces of the Free State, gunfights between GFS forces and syndicate or paramilitary fighters became a constant occurrence. 
It was during this that the Free State enlisted the aid of advisors from the to help restructure the military to better provide protection for the nation and to take occupy the immediate regions outside the Free State in order to have a buffer zone. Over the next two years, with the help of the Auxiliaries and the URF, the new military was armed, organized, and equipped. With the new military more combat-effective than ever previously, it was easily able to beat back assaults with near-impunity, causing the attacks on the GFS to halt nearly completely.
At the same time, the Gilgamesh Free Armed Forces General Staff began hashing out plans to take outlying provinces, particularly the city of Avarin, which was one of the largest hubs of criminal activity and the sectarian violence on Gilgamesh. By mid-, the plan had been finalized, and orders were relayed to the 1st Cavalry Division and 3rd Infantry Division, as well as the Free State's Auxiliaries, and the Gilgamesh Free Air Force's Attack Brigade and Pursuit Brigade, to prepare for the operation.
The final plan called for several stages. The first called for a surprise aerial assault on known enemy hideouts and headquarters by the GFAF as the 3rd Infantry Division crossed the Free State's border into the lawless territory. Meanwhile, the 1st Cavalry Division was to split, with its constituent regiments hooking left and right, protecting the flanks of the 3rd Infantry Division's advance path, and providing intelligence on any opposition ahead. It was hoped that, at this point, a general uprising would occur in favor of the GFS, and they would be able to augment the GFA's forces and clear most of the criminal resistance. Once Avarin had been taken, elements of the 3rd Infantry Division would remain to keep order alongside the area's newly-incorporated Auxiliaries until a stable local administration could be established.
===Offensive===
At 0450 Hours on September 24th, 2538, orders were relayed to the forces involved in Plan Green to execute their orders. Aircraft from the Gilgamesh Free Air Force took off only minutes after, and made their way to their predetermined targets, mostly within the city of Avarin. An estimated forty five minutes later, the first bombs began falling on the city. Without any anti-aircraft systems able to reach the GFAF planes, the Free State airstrikes were able to destroy their targets with complete impunity. 
However, with a lack of guided weapons, many of the pilots were forced to rely on unguided munitions. While their aircraft had the ability to give the pilot the proper heading, speed, and attitude for their bombs to hit the intended targets, other factors, mainly human error and wind conditions, meant some of the bombs missed their targets, and instead destroyed nonmilitary targets. Even those bombs that hit their targets often caused some degree of collateral damage simply due to the overbuilt nature of Avarin. Despite the fact that the GFAF was low on munitions, special orders from Marshal Edward Garan ordered the airstrikes to continue until commanders deemed it prudent to halt them due to a lack of targets or bombs.
At the same time, the two divisions allocated to Plan Green surged across the border. Meeting initial resistance from some small pro- holdouts, the Army quickly dispatched them before making their push towards Avarin. As they moved through each of the settlements, the soldiers found to their pleasant surprise that the majority of the people welcomed them and the order that the Free State brought along with the offensive. As opposition was little to none, the two regiments of the 1st Cavalry Division surged ahead towards Avarin, leaving the mostly nonmechanized units of the 3rd Infantry Division behind.
The first GFS units, advance scouts from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, reached the outskirts of Avarin on September 28th.
===Withdrawal===
===Aftermath===
Category:Safe Havens