Livonia

Livonia, officially the Livonian People's Federal Republic, was a large middle power in Eastern Europe bordering Russia to the East, Ukraine to the South, and Poland to the West. It existed between its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and its partition by European powers in 2033. Poland would occupy much of modern-day Livonia in the 2050's, before the territory was fully absorbed into Federal Europe by the late 2060's. Covering an area of nearly 400,000 km and with a population of 15.4 million, Livonia was the sixth-largest country in Europe by area while being the 13th-largest by population. Livonia was considered a middle power but meddled in the affairs of countries throughout Africa and the Middle-East, much akin to Russia, North Korea and China of that time.
All of Livonia's major political parties were distinctly authoritarian, it was ruled by the Centrist LLYP from 1997-2018, when power was seized from the LLYP to the nationalist far-left under Minsk Chief of Police Nikita Kravychko, an ultra-nationalist with Stalinist nostalgia flavoring his views. He was also an expansionist, and believed Livonians and Scandinavians were one and the same, along with Russia, and wanted to establish a "transcontinental federation" with Russia and Scandinavia under the Livonian PFR, just as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were. The Nordic Finns, naturally, were appalled. Relations with Scandinavia and Europe in general suffered after this, pushing Livonia into the arm's of the Kremlin by the 2020's.
==History==
===Livonian–Russian Wars (1989–1992)===
In 1986, one year after Gorbachev's rise to power, the dissolution of the Soviet Union began with the rise of the Helsinki-86 in the Livonian SSR, the first openly anti-Communist organization in the U.S.S.R., and riots in the Kazakh SSR. In 1987, secessionist fervor spread throughout the Soviet Union, in the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR's Crimea, Armenian SSR and throughout the Livonian SSR. In 1988, the Byelorussian, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Popular Fronts were founded, which in 1989 combined to form the Livonian Popular Front, although the Byelorussian Popular Front was noticeably more conciliatory and friendly to Moscow than the Baltics. A few months later, right-wing terrorist attacks gripped the Union Republic in fear, as violence precipitated in Byelorussia, prompting immediate action from the Russian SFSR in the region. 
In October of 1989, the Soviet Armed Forces backed by Russia entered Byelorussia, attempting to annex the territory into the Russian SFSR. The conflict would precipitate the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, after fierce fighting in and around Gomel involved a majority of the Soviet Army and most of the Kremlin's attention. The Baltic–Byelorussian front was steadfast against the advancing Russians, and their advance was largely halted in the east of the country. Soviet Livonia would become the People's Federal Republics of Livonia in January of 1991 and become the first independent country to emerge from the Soviet Union. The fighting would continue for another year after the fall of the USSR, with the PFRL repulsing the Russian attack and rebuilding over the next several decades with assistance from NATO.
During this time, Livonia would maintain a stance of neutrality akin to Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland, maintaining trade with both the EU and Russia despite a continuing strain in relations with Russia that would endure into the 2010's. Maintaining and overseeing a large economy and roughly 382,615 km in area, Livonia was larger than Norway, and around the size of Zimbabwe, with a GDP larger than Romania's. Livonia would maintain a standing manpower of nearly 1,000,000 into the 2010's, amid its strained relations with Russia during this time. Livonia would enter into mutual defense treaties with Sweden, Finland, Poland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Greece, as well as maintain defense relations with South Korea, China and Israel.
In 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, relations with the EU and the West in general soured. In late 2018, the Ливонская народная рабочая партия (LNRP) Ultra-nationalist far-left party wins in a coalition with the Centrist Латвийско-литовская европоцентристская партия (LLYP)'s. The LNRP began immediately silencing dissent and enacting hyper-authoritarian lockdowns and censorship which escalated into a full-blown state-of-emergency in late 2021. In early 2022, the Livonian People's Federal Republic allowed Russian troops to invade Ukraine from its soil, nearly resulting in the complete decapitation of Ukraine. Swift action from NATO and crushing sanctions from the EU descended upon Livonia and Russia.
===Second Winter War (2021–2027)===
From 2014 to 2020, the Eurasian Union actively aided and abetted separatist terror groups in the form of the People's Republic of Budjak, the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics in Eastern Ukraine following the February 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea. But it would not stop there. After a staged election in Belarus, the two countries would begin antagonizing military maneuvers against Poland and Lithuania - as well as against Syria and Western Ukraine - in late 2020 and early 2021, by engaging what they called the Regional Group of Forces (RFG), active since at least 2009.
Throughout the latter-half of the 2010's, Russia ratchets up tensions with NATO over sanctions and other actions taken by the bloc against Russia over its militarism in Ukraine, Georgia and elsewhere. Finland, Sweden and Estonia bear the brunt of this, and the wider Baltic-Nordic region as a whole, with pro-Russian Finns maintaining a presence in government at least until 2024. By 2016, the U.S. was pushing hard for increased Nordic Defense cohesion, with the Baltic states integrating their military with those of the Nordics and NBG15 successfully orienting themselves to high veneration as a spearhead formation to a potential future EU-wide army. As tensions between Livonia and Scandinavia reach fever pitch over unresolved 2000's controversies relating to language, national identity - sometimes crossing over into accusations of Neo-Nazism in the Nordic states and neo-Stalinism in Livonia - and kidnapping, and the E.U.-NATO-aligned National Coalition Party on the verge of winning the 2022 Finnish congressional election, Russia had all the boogeymen it needed for its next act.
On 18 December 2021, the Eurasian Union invades the Åland islands from Estonian Livonia - much to the chagrin of the Estonian Separatist Party - after masked militants begin attacks in the largest cities later revealed to be ChVK Wagner. Two weeks later, on New Years' 2022, militants attack Vadsø, and Russia and Livonia respond with an invasion and occupation of Finnmark two days later. The NBG and Polish Army react with mobilization on the northern Finnish–Russian border and Polish–Livonian border, with the U.S. mobilizing in Poland after the involvement of Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin is revealed in 2023, but largely constrained by its own domestic issues. The Nordic-Polish build-up is cut off from Finland and Estonia by a Russian–Livonian response in kind in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and the Belarusian Livonia's external and internal borders with Lithuania and Poland. Skirmishes and border clashes abound from 2022 to 2026, but Russia maintains a constant presence in Finnmark and Northern Norway, at one point occupying the islands of Ringvassøya, Kvaløya, Senja and Hinnøya at various points in 2022, 2023 and 2024. In this way, Eurasia is simultaneously able to project its Northern Fleet into the Atlantic year-round, and at the same time keep NATO Europe engaged on multiple fronts simultaneously. Expanding from the frozen conflicts in Georgia, Crimea, the Donbass, Transnistria and Budzhak, to occupying islands in the Baltic and Sub-Arctic regions and arming Romanian, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Yugoslav separatists (a total of four additional fronts).
By April 2025, Eurasia had utterly rolled the Finnish economy, military and society; and in August a Livonian–Russian invasion of Finland finishes them off within a week. Although the Finns would hold out for another 11 months due to a steady supply of air drops and artillery shelling from Poland, Czechia and Slovakia, eventually the Finnish state too would be dismantled with the help of a Livonian invasion from the South. The two countries would then divide Finland between the two, with Livonia annexing the Southern regions and Russia, Lapland. By this point, European NATO and their allies are deeply engaged against pro-Albanian and Macedonian insurgents in the Western Balkans supported by Russia and Livonia, and had already suspected Eurasia of involvement even before devastating attacks on Naval Station Norfolk in mid-November 2026 and officially declared war on Eurasia.
===Livonian–Ukrainian War===
In April 2025, after the Fall of Finland, calculating that neighboring Ukraine would soon be under attack and thus unable to aid its neighbors, Livonia attacked Lviv, and began paramilitary insurgencies throughout the capital city of Kyiv. Livonia had been developing a Mechanized Autonomous Weapon since Russia's attacks on Finland 4 years ago, and although it was up and ready barring a few aesthetic shortcomings by the time Kaliningrad began to mobilize, the decision was to "hold back" and concentrate the Ukrainian forces in the capital city.
Lviv would fall a week later, and the Livonians directed their armor and artillery across the border aided by Russian air support and shelling from Kaliningrad. With the promise by their dictator of a "return to the years of gold and red", the Livonians not only possessed superior troop numbers, but far superior morale and will, the Ukrainians as a whole weary from fighting the Russians for years on end. The decision to hold back their ace in the hole dooms the Ukrainians, as by the time the Belarusian-spearheaded CSTO invasion was knocking at Kyiv's door, they had deployed approximately three MAWS, with more allegedly from Russia inbound within minutes. Before the Ukrainians can engage the enemy MAWS with their own - even if it could've taken on half of them - the Ukrainian government surrenders, and the Livonians take control of their lone MAW unit. 
The massacres and bloodshed rivalled that of the 1939 German–Soviet invasion of Poland, with 500,000 killed or captured... but nearly all the former. Even after the surrender in mid-July, 2026, Russia made sure to punish the Ukrainians for their resolve. Once the Nordic Battlegroup and Poland got wind of this, however, they spearheaded a shock and awe campaign which saw the fastest liberation of an occupation in the history of warfare. The presence of Anti-Russian Baltic insurgents covertly backed by Anti-Globalist Left-wing movements and American militia groups helped turn the tide, from the inception of Nordic and Polish air strikes and hit-and-run attacks in November of 2026 to the precipitation of regular skirmishes on the Polish-Livonian border immediately thereafter, 48 hours later the Livonians and Russians were pushed out of Ukraine, and the foothold they gained allowed them to liberate Finland a week later.
===War in Poland===
Even as early as 2016 and 2020, Livonia accused Poland of interfering in domestic affairs. The election of right-wing nationalist Andrzej Duda in the 2015 and 2020 Polish presidential elections was largely carried by conservative strongholds near the Belarusian minority areas and on the southeastern border with Slovakia, relations nominally stabilized between the two Slavic nations, until the Russian conflict with Finland and subsequent victory of a pro-EU faction in Poland's 2025 contest.
Following the 2021 arrests of several opposition journalists of Polish descent – one of which is denied medicine, tensions between Livonia and Poland soar. The latter condemns the ethno-nationalism of the regime of the former supported by Baltic separatists, and masses troops on the Belarusian–Polish border in April and Livonia is declared the “North Korea of Europe” in May. The very same month Belarusian dictator Lukashenko threatens to begin WW3 over accusations of anti-Polish ethno-nationalism within Belarusian borders.
Things escalated markedly in the 2026–2027 insurgencies in Białystok and Warsaw which is in and of itself an escalation of surveillance and kidnapping of Poles in the Grodno Region of Northwest Belarus and recruiting Belarusian Poles to spy on the incumbent government. The Podlaskie Voivodeship along with other neighboring conservative constituencies in East Poland - roughly 1.2 million - would vote to for autonomy and to join Belarus, with only the former accomplishing this task. Although aside from Greece having the most robust tank, armor and artillery fleet in continental Europe, Poland's own military was primarily concentrated around Warsaw, roughly a fourth of the Polish Army makes it to the Voivodeship's territory, albeit only in time to stop the Belarusian and secessionist onslaught. A frozen war begins to take form akin to that in Ukraine's Donbas, and would last until the collapse of Russia in the 2030's.
===Eurasia===
 As Russia did very little on its own in Europe, always relying on Livonia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey or Hungary for support, the framework of the Eurasian Union holding up as a cohesive polity and military force (particularly with regard to the regional group of forces (RGF) with respect to the Union State, this core founded the bedrock of Eurasian military operations in Europe, Asia and the Middle-East.
Although Putin was more famous for his premiership over Russia, the most authoritarian leader with the most centralized power over his subordinates was Belarusian President Aleksandar Lukashenko. Lukashenko built a cult of personality within Belarus and Russia, and became directly involved in all military operations the Eurasian shadow-state took part in. Also present for many of these meetings was Viktor Orban, who many accused of being the mastermind behind Eurasia until Russia went rogue in 2027-2028, up until then the Hungarians and Russians acted in lockstep with one another, nearly to the degree as the Belarusians and Serbians.
The Union State represented the "core" of Eurasia, with a population of 154,000,000, the Union State was followed by Turkey at 80 million, Uzbekistan at 36 million, then Kazakhstan, with nearly 20 million, Azerbaijan with just over 10 million, Tajikistan at 9.1 million, Kyrgyzstan with 7 million, Serbia with just under 7 million, Turkmenistan with 4 million, Armenia with 3 million, and Moldova just ahead of 2.6 million. The core military substructure proved to be that of the Livonian-Russian Union State, with the political dimension carried out by the Commonwealth of Independent States, as military and political activity extended back as early as the Ukrainian war in 2022.
The Armenian Civil War coincided with the Transnistrian coup in Moldova and the coups in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Serbia, in all of which are installed a pro-Chinese regime angled against the West at the behest of Moscow. Just over 48 hours later, the CIS, Organization of Turkic States Union State and Eurasian Economic Union sign documents in Minsk legally establishing the Eurasian Union. With 9 member states and 3 observers in Serbia, Turkey and Turkmenistan, the Eurasian Union was nearly as large as ASEAN, with 236,446,000, it was small - behind the European Union, but geographically the largest land area in the world, with roughly 12 countries in its orbit.
===2026===
November – The Japanese government declares the Axis of Resistance an illegal organization, and that China's expansionism and allying with Russian and Korean expansion into Europe and Asia respectively was a violation of international law. The Independence Front (citing their policy of non-alignment and prevention of nuclear arms race), along with the states loyal to the “Pact” – abstain, although this does nothing to prevent the continuing Russian–Livonian imperialism, and thus, the CSTO-spearheaded Axis and their allies. The US embassy is closed in China, further gaping the already massive rift between NATO-aligned and IF-aligned countries. With the suspension of U.S.–Chinese relations, Shanghai quietly gives SCO and ASEAN member-states a silent nod of approval for their support of the Pact (although only Myanmar and Laos would formally join), and soon after retract their statements critical of Chile, North America and Russia. As China retreats into isolation, dealing with internal uprising and continuing conflict with the H.K.-Taiwanese Republics, the Pact expands from its founding members to include all of the former-Shanghai Pact nations (except SK), all of Southeast Asia, including New Zealand and all the countries of the MERCOSUR as observers. The MERCOSUR, however, had fallen into a deep state of recession as Brazil, the largest country in the region, erupted in civil war that would last until the 2030's.
With an international and intercontinental military alliance of nearly 30 countries, the PLA and CPS had effectively leveled the playing field with no more than a quick 30 minute meeting and no more than a few sentences. Unfortunately for the CPS, this calculated move would turn out to be an unforced error benefiting the neighboring Modi and Kim regimes and their loyal, incredibly extremist, government and sleeper cells.
Livonian-Russian Eurasia and Chile were 2 of only 3 naval powers to field Cruisers, while Russia and Arabia had among the largest and most powerful air forces respectively supported by a fleet of over 300 commissioned vessels spearheaded by 2 aircraft carriers and a supercarrier. In addition, Russia possessed thousands of ICBM, mounted on a fleet of dozens of submarine warships and hundreds of other warhead-delivery platforms, and untold supplies of other chemical, mechanical and biological weapons.
With the US sanctioned, Africa in turmoil, and NATO forces bogged down in the conflict overseas, when NORAD goes dark barely any military forces active there realize. With the North American continent blind, isolated and wide-open, and 4 of the 10 active US supercarriers (one had gone missing in the Mediterranean a half-hour after the nuking), along with nearly 100 (nearly a third) of the U.S. surface fleet docked at Naval Base Norfolk, and roughly a quarter of America’s Air Power stationed there as well – what happens next would remain burned into the collective unconscious of Western Civilization for centuries...
November 14th – The Nuclear Bombing of Colorado Springs was at first attributed to terrorism, but later found out to be Grey Wolves extremists with assistance from the Livonian KGB. Over 200,000 people are killed instantaneously and another 100,000 by the Wars’ end, the nation is paralyzed. Before anything can be done to alleviate the absence of NORAD and air reconnaissance, with roughly half of America’s military in North Africa fighting against the Serbs and Syrian Arabs backed by Livonia, Oman and Russia alongside an international effort to curtail the damage of the bombing’s fallout, literally beyond the radar, 4 carriers, the 1,100-foot-long, 100,000-ton "Project 23000 E" "Shtorm" supercarrier from Russia, the former-Juan Carlos and a strike group of dozens of other Livonian-Russian, Korean and Chilean warships of various class show up along the horizon beyond Naval Station Norfolk, supported by an air fleet of many warplanes belonging to Arabia, Chile, North Korea and Russia. All now flew the flag of the North Korean, Russian and Arabian States. The sleeping giant is, poetically-speaking, slain in his slumber. The flagship, the dreadnought battleship formerly known as the Peruvian battlecruiser "Almirante Grau," and now known by the Chileans as the infamous Cóndor de Hierro ("Iron Condor"), launches a missile bombardment – with accompanying strikes from the carrier strike group – effectively neutralizing the base’s and docked carriers’ shoreline and air defense systems in one fell swoop. Following this – a joint-squadron assault of Russian, Livonian, North Korean and Arabian air forces, fighters, bombers, and attack helicopters bombard, and destroy, the four docked supercarriers, and over the course of a half-hour (even amid a hastily thrown-together counterattack from Norfolk forces stationed there and abroad), with staggeringly-high levels of ballistics support from the surface battalion (nearly 300 ships “spilling” out of the canal, able to be seen from orbit) the entire base is wiped out – along with every man, officer and military asset – down to the last scrap of equipment – erased from existence.
Knowing full-well the staggering level of martial power the United States possessed, the entire continent of North America is paralyzed in terror. The Union State, North Korea and their allies in Chile and Arabia had effectively yanked the titan that was once the U.S. military down to their level by its Achilles’ tendon, while simultaneously allowing the Atlantic State the opportunity to assert its sovereignty and control of the region, starting with Naval Base Norfolk. Every strategic move made by the Union State, North Korea and China had been executed perfectly and without error – and now the U.S. was fighting an almost even battle with Russia alone, and China had officially eclipsed U.S. military prowess. To make matters even worse – a naval strike battalion of hundreds of Kim-loyalists composed of the North Korean navy was on its way across the pacific, the Russian puppet-state of Korea was positioning the 655-vessel-strong fleet it now had power over into a threatening geographically-strategic formation at premeditated locations across the world, and U.S.-backed Korean Republicans were powerless to do anything about it.
Less than 24 hours later, NATO invokes Article 5 of the Collective Defense Treaty and multilaterally declares war on Arabia, Chile, North Korea, and the Union State of Russia and Livonia for attacking NATO, and thus attacking their territorial integrity, as well as the theft of nuclear weapons from the US – originally attributed to the nation in question.
"Eleven-Fourteen" or "11/14" is seen as the second-major military defeat of the U.S. in WWIII, much like its counterpart catastrophe, Nine-Eleven "9/11", wherein thousands - both military and otherwise - perish at the hands of hostile actors due to U.S. government ineptitude.
North Korea and the Russo–Livonian Union State emerge as the Germany, Italy and Japan of the ongoing Third Global Confrontation. With NATO on one side and Eurasia on the other, our embattled planet Earth’s various warring nations, territories and governments had solidified into two, roughly three, adversarial factions vying for control of said associated territories.
This was the Apex of World War III.
===2027===
June – The Scottish Prime Minister and the House of Commons call on RECON for an emergency summit between IF and NATO powers in regards to a massive buildup of troops and armor on the border between Scotland and England. NATO declines the invitation, but the IF attends with rigor, still at odds over Pharaoh’s justifiably unfulfilled demand that the US cede Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas back to the Crown. Just a week ago Queen Elizabeth II had died, and Great Britain, transformed by the British Civil War, Rebel England and Third Global Conflict, splits the Monarchy down the middle between those loyal to England and those supporting a reunification of Britain. The latter are forced into exile, but Scotland and Ireland pledge to defend them from their political opponents.
The highlights at the meeting are Pharaoh’s steady – but gradually declining – cooperation with Libya and Arabia invading the islands of Malta, Minorca and Majorca. Apparently, Pharaoh had cooperated with the Livonian regime, Islamist and JaF assets to sow conflict in the Middle-East and Central Asia to distract from the invasion of the islands, due to the presence of anti-Pharaoh rebels on the island. Through cooperation with RECON, the British government-in-exile begins plans for a coup to overthrow Chancellor Pharaoh and his supporters in London. Meanwhile, RECON-Unit 1-11 and NATO forces arrive in Majorca to beat back Livonian and Russian-backed forces attacking the island. Unit 1-11, with heavy assistance from France and Spain, defeat the Livonians and free the Spaniards from enemy hands.
August – The EU and U.S. declare military action, steamrolling Malta and Western Bosnia and invading Arabian-occupied North Lebanon, Greek Cyprus and Crete, before Arabia's launching of an ICBM barrage at French and Italian bases across the Adriatic and Sicily from forward operating bases off the coast of Bosnia and Dalmatia, in addition to the detonations of two nuclear warheads in Kashmir and Kaliningrad by China and NATO out of retaliation against a NATO–U.S. invasion of Tunisia and an unsuccessful Turkish-led Invasion of Greece. Nearly a million are killed almost instantaneously. NATO and IF are on-site within the hour, with Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Poland and Spain committing a majority of their amenable military forces supported by the 67 NATO-Allied UN (as well as the other 20 Nations openly opposing COSECTOR) into UNTAES and UNMIK zones in Serbia, where a Hungarian–Serbian Joint-Force led by Transylvanian Dictator Dragomir Radu is waging guerrilla warfare. Hungarian partisans, supported by Serbia and Szekely ultranationalist paramilitary and armed battalions and armies led by Radu and the Russians, attempts to establish a foothold, but Coalition forces are able to beat back the invaders by September.
[[File:LivonianSpetsnaz.png|thumb|300px|right|Livonian Спецоперации – "Spetsoperatsii" – working in conjunction with the Wagner Group and Russian VDV were crucial to the CSTO Summer 2027 offensive in the Mediterranean, Balkans and Central Europe]] 
Late August – Russo–Korean infiltrators seize upon the finance-weary Balkans to bolster and erect an effective bulwark powerful enough to threaten most of Eastern Europe. An international summit convenes between the EU, Scotland, NATO and beleaguered Ukrainian opposition in Bratislava, Slovakia, at the behest of the Slovak President in Grassalkovich Palace - the last stronghold of Czechs, and Slovaks of the Slovak Republic of Central Europe - Slovenská Stredoeurópska Republika (SSR). It is when the leaders of NATO are convened that a bombing eliminates most of NATO’s command structure… immediately followed by an occupation and invasion of Slovakia and the Czech Republic by Russian Ground Forces. The invasion of Europe by a Russian force and the Russo-Serb offensive earlier that month provides a distraction, putting the entire region into shock. 
Russia, North Korea and Serbia's carrier task force enter and occupy the Balkans, utilizing 2 million soldiers, 8,000 AFV, 5,000 tanks, 500 MLRs, and 600 SPGs, as well as half of their air force – roughly 5,000 craft to push the Allies back. The Serbs and Russians, led by Radu, Beijing and infamous Livonian Secret Police Chief Nikita Kravychko, shut down the Romanian communes by pouring over a third of their entire military strength into the regions, quickly locking down the city and setting up a forward operating base to allow their air craft to join in on the bombardment and invasion of the communes. Before anything can be done, the Serbs and Russians quickly shut down Austria, sending half of the invasion force north, and the other half south – back into the Russian-occupied Austrian South. Their MLRs and SPG – as well as all air powers – remain in Austria, but are suspiciously ordered northeast shortly thereafter. With over a third of their missile strength aimed for mainland Europe, the Russo–Livonian force drives home their implied message with one final saber-swing. The top-secret U.S. orbital strike (Directed Energy Munitions Orbiter – “DEMO”) program (stationed in orbit over Western Europe to safeguard the United States’ NATO allies from potential Eurasian attack in the 21st Century) went offline in early August and by August 11th it was made abundantly clear that this was a Russian-caused problem. Controlled by Jordan in 2027 and, later, - via Livonian infiltrators - Moscow and Belgrade by this time – the Serbian government faced a sizable NATO-spearheaded invasion from European forces roughly a week later and used the weapon at the request of Serbia on the resistance in Zilina and Brno, destroyed and rendered vast areas of the region uninhabitable, killing an estimate 286,664, a still-devastatingly-high body-count that could have been as high as 1,000,000 had RECON not done their part to get as many civilians and resistance fighters to safety.
Unfortunately, their actions prove for naught. A few minutes later, before the weapon can be shot down, King Abdullah II orders a DEMO strike on Malta, Majorca and the Northern Isles out of retaliation for the EU's threats. The islands are destroyed, and rendered uninhabitable – 651,023 people are killed instantaneously. Greece immediately after invades Serbia and North Macedonia from Albania and Bulgaria leading to the Siege of Novi Sad that lasts through varying, tapering degrees of escalation throughout WWIII, and the destruction wrought by this time provides enough of a distraction to allow Cankaya Mansion and Al-Maquar, which had been (unknowingly) cooperating with the Kremlin, White Palace, Livonian KGB, Zagulba Residence and Zhongnanhai since the end of the Cold War to pioneer the penultimate orbital WMD, to unleash a monster upon their enemies the likes of which nobody to ever walk the Earth has ever before witnessed.
September 2027 – Hidden amid the thousands of satellites and pieces of debris orbiting Earth, a weapon system far beyond the level of technological advancement of any combination of dominant economies or militaries the forces of Earth could ever hope to bolster sat just beyond the prying eyes of the Human Race. North Korea and the Eurasian Union gain official jurisdiction over the COSECTOR’s secret joint-army of MAWS – Mechanized Autonomous Weapon Systems – pledging to use them against their enemies. Whereas about half of NATO’s forces were tied down in the Middle-East, Europe was left without much defense at home, and most European nations had virtually no standing military left, economically dependent on the United States after the Cold War. In major European capitals and cities – Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Bonn, Geneva, Oslo, Istanbul, Strasbourg, Manchester, Yorkshire and Zagreb – as well as Mexico City, Panama City, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Washington, D.C. on the American continent (although all inbound for the U.S. and Canada are shot down by US ICBM barrages) 29 MAW units deploy from orbit all across the planet into standby mode, bearing the flags and insignia of the Eurasian countries of Russia, Livonia and Armenia (all found to be under the control of the Livonian KGB), North Korea, as well as an additional 9 smaller MAWS from Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Hungary and Chile (also under the control of the KGB, North Americans and Uzbeks). Upon activation, just 1 MAW is able to lay waste to an entire city district. The death toll tops 600,000 within just 48 hours of global MAW activation. It isn’t a moment later; however, that RECON and NATO are assembled for an emergency summit at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. It is here that it is discovered that not only do Livonia, Russia and North Korea possess an estimate 30-strong MAW force – but as do the French, British, US, Japan, India and South Korea (Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Belgium also possess smaller, cheaper MAWS), with a combined force of 32 – the U.S., France and Japan possessing a combined 16 of the units prepped and ready to go as was the Koreans' (whose had been kept secret since the early 1970’s) Archer One. With units inbound for Europe, and some deployed into America, the Joint-Chiefs assess that although the two sides’ MAW forces are evenly matched, they denote that unlike the NATO and IF MAWS which involve some form of human interaction into the Autonomous equation, the hulking North Korean and Eurasian MAWS are 100% literal, AI-powered killing machines.
===U.S. media coverage===
Beginning with the initial 9 September 2027 MAW deployment into Western and Northern Europe until the cessation of hostilities in Europe in early 2029, the major U.S. news networks of Fox News, MSNBC and CNN covered the violence ceaselessly, in stark contrast to the decades-long US-led drone warfare in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Iraq, Libya, Livonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Somalia, Syria and Yemen between 2001 and 2026, which were poorly covered by American media, particularly regarding Iraq. The international community highly criticized the U.S. for this behavior, leading to historians in the late-22nd century to contest the official narrative of a "turncoat Union State leading an Anti-UN resistance movement," emphasizing the collapse of the U.S. and China as a "delayed reaction" to systemic corruption, decades of unilateral aggression and the largely-neutral role played by the U.S. and British Commonwealth implicating the UN as a whole as the instigator of WWIII.
===Livonian–Russian Invasion of Germany===
September – The MAW force in America destroy the enemy Russian force while suffering no casualties. The situation in Europe is not so tame. Two Union State MAW battalions are formed into around 9 units of Russian origin, and two teams of North Korean–Livonian MAWS (4) and 7 Livonian MAWs each to hit the forces in Italy, Switzerland, Scotland, Germany and Eastern Europe respectively. There were two Uzbek MAWS, three Tajik and four Livonian. Three teams of Kyrgyz–Livonian, Tajik–Livonian and Hungarian–Livonian forces were to hit Altbayern, Franconia and Swabia in Bavaria, while the rest rendezvoused with Russia and Livonia to attack East Germany. An eighth, composed of American and French forces, numbering at about an even number to that of the Korean-Livonian MAW battalions, meets the enemy MAWS just as they reach Berlin. In a conflict that results in the deaths of another 54,000 people, it is a Pyrrhic victory for the Allied MAWS. By the end of the month all of the MAW forces have been pushed into Germany – the nexus of the Pact occupation of Europe. In response, the English hit UN and Co-Sector ground forces in the region.
October – RECON Units deploy into Switzerland, Croatia, Hamburg and Berlin in search of rogue Livonian Prime Minister Nikita Kravychko, and the leader of the Grey Wolves ultranationalists directing the attack from the ground – Lt. Colonel Jamaković – and his right-hand, Dragomir Radu, who are believed to be in one of the three countries. Although they are not, NATO Command sees them as potentially linked to the rogue Kerry regime. NATO officially responds to RECON presence in Germany and Austria by deploying their deadliest Special Forces – the Danish Hunter Corps. In addition, the Norwegian MJK deploy alongside the Danes in a joint-military-operation to hunt down and take out RECON. Colombia also deploys MAWs – with some tasked specifically with the neutralization of the RECON soldiers. The Colombians also propagate the misinformation of RECON being an Israeli sleeper-cell throughout Europe – at the wishes of NATO Secretary-General Bush – and RECON soon finds themselves hunted throughout the continent by both of the warring factions, as forces from Serbia, Scandinavia, Turkey and Poland converge on and relentlessly pursue the international task force. Fortunately, the RECONS manage to evade their predators and successfully track down and capture Jamaković (although Radu escapes back into Hungary). The Scandinavians, realizing the RECONS’ true objective, come to the conclusion that the Colombians were attempting to protect Jamaković, and that Colombia's ambitions involved allowing England and its allies in Asia and America to conquer and weaken Europe enough for the three countries to come in and assume supremacy of the continent. Unfortunately, this information endangers the Scandinavian soldiers, and they are assassinated and eliminated in various mysterious ways throughout the rest of 2027.
The Allies liberate the rest of Croatia from the Serbs and Padania, which separates from the Occupied Government to form its own independent nation once more. Montenegro also establishes territorial independence after the Padanian attack on Bosnia and Slovenia, but the latter soon falls under a puppet regime controlled by North Italy while pro-Korea Syria expanded into Israel, and the rest of Bosnia and Serb nationalist forces is essentially annexed by the Russian-backed Macedonian–Serb Front (Македонско-српски ослободилачки фронт, or МСЛФ) (although a fierce Bosniak–Croat–Serb Resistance movement supported by Poland, Italy, and the rest of NATO, establishes a permanent foothold throughout the Balkans). By the end of the major hostilities in Europe – specifically Berlin – the Allies had suffered 1,567 casualties to MAWS, while China, Arabia, Russia and Co. had suffered 2,693 (1600 in Berlin, 306 in Innsbruck, 722 in Croatia), with the remaining 2 MAWS pushed back into Bavaria and Vojvodina. Frustratingly, the two MAW forces remained almost evenly matched, with the tactically-superior AI MAWS only 1 behind the Allied MAWS.
====Korean–Livonian invasion of Austria====
After being pushed out of Bavaria by the State and armed insurgents, three Livonian and two North Korean MAWs find their way into Tyrol in Western Austria. There, they begin terrorizing farmers and residents. On high alert, the military intercepts the war machines just as they reach Innsbruck. Nevertheless, over 515 are killed before the Air Force and Army can fully intercept the machines. Two more are spotted making their way east a few hours later. With enough air superiority, the Austrian Air Force is able to destroy the North Korean and Livonian MAWS before they could reach any more towns.
===Korean–Livonian Siege of San Francisco===
May – Throughout May Japanese Shogun-Two MAW formations, led by one of the only three LONGBOW fighters in existence, lend crushing assistance to the ailing American resistance against the vector hordes. In response to the alarming developments in Manhattan, the second-largest MAW squadron on Earth is sent to Western America to take some of the pressure off of them by giving them an outstanding head start through “laser-carpet-bombings”, weapons systems the Koreans designed specifically to target and destroy nanotechnology (i.e., hapless victims of the Black Thirteen nano-virus), with one bombing run resulting in the destruction of thousands to tens of thousands of infected in one fell swoop. This gives the resistance enough of a window to conduct National Guard and United Militia clean-up exercises orchestrated to deliver the maximum effective response to the question of how to get rid of the infestation as quickly and wholly as possible. In the same month, a military coup led by General Valyn Zharkov seizes control of Moscow and executes Russian President Medvedev. The government under Zharkov is much more overtly ultranationalist and fascistic than Medvedev’s Russia. A Second Russian Civil War ensues until the early 2030's between forces loyal to Zharkov and those loyal to Medvedev and the late Vladimir Putin.
June – With the bombing runs concluded by May 21st, the devectification of the western mainland begins immediately afterwards. The ANG and North America divide the Western US up into 3 zones denoted by their proximity to whichever of the three central nuclei of the Antivector Resistance Movement (ARM) they happened to be – Chicago, Memphis or San Francisco. Although they had a lot of area to cover, this was their sole challenge in mopping up what little 1% of the initial vectors remained behind after the devastating anticryptid bombing measures undertaken by the Shogun-Twos, and the sole reason it takes ARM from May 22nd up until June 29th to reduce the vector threat level from yellow to green. The main reason ARM has to cease prioritizing of the antivector countermeasures is the Chinese–Balkan invasion of San Francisco on June 30th.
July – On the morning of June 30th NORAD orders a no-fly zone over California after alerting residents to the presence of a 1,035-vessel fleet, spearheaded by nearly the entire 933-vessel-strong North Korean-spearheaded combined Korean–Livonian Fleet and Air Force, supported by the entire Unified Korean Air Force and Livonian Air Force and Air Defense sitting just beyond eyeshot of the American West Coast. A citywide evacuation of San Francisco is underway by 7 AM, with RECON diplomatic assets inserted beforehand to coordinate and supervise – but it is too little too late. Oakland and Berkeley are quickly overrun, particularly due to their weakened state in the wake of the Outbreak. Fisherman’s Wharf is the first area of the city to fall under Eurasian bombardment. It isn’t until roughly an hour later, after the destruction of the westernmost suburban region of the City, the US forces discover this is a diversion. About 47 minutes into the attack Serbian CAJ, Bosnian Serb SJP, Chilean 13th Commando, North Korean KPASOF and Livonian SSO deploy into and occupy Point Vista. With all of the available US military assets focused on western SF, Balkan Units and Commando forces quickly shut down any possible land-based assistance to US infantry via occupation of Point Vista and the Golden Gate Bridge. AA emplacements are quickly erected in Western SF and the Marina District, sealing out any available air-based reinforcements with Multiple-Launch Propulsion Systems, Artillery and advanced laser-based AA systems. The CAJ occupation of mainland San Francisco proceeds with perennial bombing runs up and down Market Street, and an infantry-based shut down of Union Square, the Tenderloin District, Haight-Ashbury, The Castro and Financial Districts in that order. When US forces dugout on Lower Market, Upper Mission and parts of the Financial District prove to be a greater resistance force than the SAT anticipate, artillery batteries erected on Alcatraz, in Oakland and Berkeley preeminent to the main assault ruthlessly bombard the aforementioned municipal regions. It is at around this point in time that NATO and RECON – in response to the pinned-down US forces in mainland San Francisco – deploy behind enemy lines in Point Vista to retake the North Korean–Livonian shutdown of the Golden Gate and neutralize hostile artillery. This endeavor, due to its extremely covert nature, catches the enemy by surprise and is a sweeping success for IF forces. Throughout the rest of the night, until the sun rises on the new day – July 1st – US forces remain on the defense. Due to the intense fighting in West Africa and the Middle-East, IF and NATO forces are hard-pressed to strategically allocate armed forces as tenderly and carefully as possible, and by 7 AM on July 1st, although US forces have suffered immense casualties, armored and airborne reinforcements arrive to deliver a crippling blow to Chilean ground and naval assets. RECON assists in the evacuation and defense of Homeless Youths shelters from Serb–Korean belligerents and RECON air support assists in the process. District-by-district, RECON, NATO and IF forces shut out the Chinese and Chilean–Texan forces. The supreme commander of the rogue Italians present during the Siege of San Francisco, Luciano De Luca, the twin brother of Francesco De Luca – and his right-hand man, the Hungarian-Romanian General Dragomir Radu, make an attempt to escape from the war-zone, but Luca is eventually tracked down and taken in for interrogation by RECON-Unit 1-11. The Siege lasts for another two weeks but is reduced mainly to a war of attrition. During the interrogation of Luciano De Luca, Unit 111 discovers that the attack on California was just a small part of a much larger plan involving all of the Pact and Interpol and even the enigmatic ‘Shadow Hub’, the terrorist organization responsible for these ‘Shadow Police’ bioterrorist attacks. The first step of the master plan to bring the mighty United States to its knees was a covert Russian-Korean invasion of Alaska with help from Interpol and this mysterious ‘Shadow’ organization.
July 1st – RECON meets with NATO forces in Anchorage an hour after discovering this revelation from De Luca. Sure enough, Russian-speaking men in uniform are spotted on the town’s outskirts. Covert and stealth operations are launched against these Axis ‘observation cells.’ The anti-insurgency operations are a massive success for RECON and NATO forces. After the debriefing at the RECON base a few miles outside of town, NATO and the civilian staff at the base is discovered to have been infiltrated by pro-Interpol Russia and NSA moles. A bitter struggle erupts, after Russian and Peacekeeper forces reveal themselves within the very interior of the RECON HQ, to secure the base. It is here that the most devastating confrontation between RECON and viral hostiles unfolds. Eventually, the only solution becomes evident – evacuate and nuke the site from orbit. Capturing a smuggled Russian nuclear warhead, RECON and NATO forces evacuate – but not before losing 3 quarters of their initial forces. The base is destroyed, along with the zombic threat. As they are arriving back in the mainland United States, RECON receives word from Shield Team that the bioterrorists have arrived in Chicago with power armor reminiscent of the IF-based "Monstrous” armor systems, only much more advanced. With their own men in the center of the battle zone, RECON changes course and they then head for Chicago.
==Geography==
Livonia has an area of nearly 400,000 square kilometers, is mostly flat and possesses a temperate climate with both maritime and continental influences. It is defined as humid continental (Dfb) under the Köppen climate classification (but is close to oceanic in a narrow coastal zone).
Many rivers and streams lie in Livonia, with over 13,000 natural lakes
The highest point is Dzyarzhynskaya Hara (Dzyarzhynsk Hill) at 345 metres (1,132 ft), the average elevation of Livonia is roughly 500 feet above sea level. 
Natural resources include peat deposits, small quantities of oil and natural gas, granite, dolomite (limestone), marl, chalk, sand, gravel, and clay. About 70% of the radiation from neighboring Ukraine's 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster entered Livonian territory, and about a fifth of Belarusian land (principally farmland and forests in the southeastern regions) was affected by radiation fallout. The United Nations and other agencies have aimed to reduce the level of radiation in affected areas, especially through the use of caesium binders and rapeseed cultivation, which are meant to decrease soil levels of caesium-137.
Livonia borders Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and the Gulf of Finland to the north.
==Government and politics==
===Elections===
===Foreign relations===
===Military===
Livonia possessed a total standing manpower of 900,000, with an active duty manpower of 150,000 soldiers. The Livonian People's Army possessed 1,000 tanks and 30,000 armored fighting vehicles, with 568 Self-Propelled Guns, 386 artillery and 300 multiple-launch rocket systems to back up one of the largest armies on the continent. While the Livonian People's Army possessed one of the largest ground forces in Europe, its navy and air force were rather small with a mere 35 patrol craft and 211 aircraft, consisting of 21 attack helicopters.
In February of 2023, Livonian senior officials boasted as many as 2.5 million in paramilitary to complement the nearly-1 million in active duty and reserves, potentially boasting the 6th-largest army on the planet, ahead of both Brazil and the United States.
In early 2023, Russia would donate 10 tactical nuclear warheads along with 10 aircraft capable of deploying them. The situation destabilizes the security situation in Eastern Europe. Ukraine now faced two nuclear-capable powers with offensive capacity and increasing aggression and militarism. Europe would increase its sanctions on Livonia following this, directly targeting the Livonian military-industrial complex.
===Human rights and corruption===
===Administrative divisions===
==Demographics==
==Culture==
Category:Countries