Corley Cenotaph

The Corley Cenotaph, more commonly known as the Gilgamesh Free State Memorial was a war memorial erected by the citizens of the settlement of Corley on the colony of in 2562 to honor the citizens of the Gilgamesh Free State who died during the UNSC-GFS War. The monument was funded mainly by private donations from anonymous benefactors, and was planned to be completed in time for the fifth anniversary of the UNSC-GFS War. However, the venture was greatly opposed by UNSC loyalists and the planetary government, who attempted repeatedly through both legal and illegal means to have the monument deemed unlawful and construction halted. As a result, the Cenotaph was only completed and revealed on March 3rd, 2562, the seventh anniversary of the beginning of the UNSC-GFS War.
However, over the next several years, constant vandalism of the monument caused the residents of Corley to post teams of guards at all times around the Cenotaph. These tensions came to a head in 2564, when two guards were shot dead and the monument was nearly completely destroyed by armed pro-UNSC activists. This act, coupled with the perceived, as well as real, lack of action by the colonial authorities to find the perpetrators, led Corley and several other settlements to revolt, claiming themselves the successors of the Gilgamesh Free State.
The memorial itself was of a relatively simple design. Composed of a single granite pillar made to resemble a tomb, an epitaph was inscribed on each of the monument's four sides for the Gilgamesh Free Army, Air Force, Auxiliaries, and Navy. Three flags also surrounded the monument, with the standards of the Air Force and Army flanking the monument, and the flag of the Free State behind it. Atop the monument sat a sculpture of a falcon attempting to take flight, clutching a wreath in its beak and pierced with several arrows.
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