Eastern European War (Frozen War)

The Eastern European War - also called the War in Eastern Europe - was a series of conflicts which would spill over into one another's respective territories, beginning with the Ukraine War in 2014 and escalating into the core time period of WWIII with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine culminating in the 2023 nuclear bombing of Crimea. Livonia would get involved a year later, after NATO, the G20, G7, European Union, United States all but declare war on Russia after its invasions of Estonia, Norway and tactical nuking of Crimea, with Hungary declaring Russia's actions a "defensive war," breaking with Russia's maintaining of it being a "special military operation" while openly siding with them against the West. Hungary would not be as drawn into Russia and China's sphere of influence as countries in South Asia and the Middle East are, still remaining a member of the EU and NATO, but embarking upon its own crusade to return to its Hapsburg-era borders, beginning with Romania, Serbia, Ukraine and Slovakia. The latter two would resist the longest, with Ukraine returning Carpathian Hungarians to Ukrainian jurisdiction, and Slovakia beating back Hungary virtually on its own all by the Summer of 2026. The Balkan Emergency would follow a year later, with Russian and pro-Russian elements fomenting unrest and anti-Western sentiment across most of the Balkan Peninsula.
Russia's antagonism toward the EU and the West can be traced back to the early 2010's, but Hungary did not begin to truly radicalize until the 2020's, with the Fidesz-KDNP government - a known subsidiary of the latter's predecessor being the Christian National Socialist Front - taking an increasingly hostile stance to the EU sanctions on Russia and Livonia over its invasion of Ukraine and against Ukraine in general. Prime Minister Orban's rhetoric would take an especially pro-Putin turn in 2022, denying military aid while condemning the Russian invasion. An especially sore point of tensions would continue to be the Hungarian minority in Ukraine and Szeklerland in Romania, with a push from the Orban government in 2018 and 2022 to get votes from the Hungarian diaspora, enflaming tensions between Hungary and the two countries.
==Azerbaijan-Bukhara==
 As Azerbaijan did very little on its own in Europe, always relying on Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan for support, the framework of Azerbaijan-Bukhara holding up as a cohesive polity and military force (particularly with regard to the Azeri-Uzbek and Kazakh-Uzbek political and security relations) with respect to the close cooperation between the trio of countries (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan), this core founded the bedrock of Turkic military operations in Europe, Asia and the Middle-East.
Although the 2027 attacks launched on Germany and other European countries alongside China were what got most of the attention by both contemporary and future scholars, in the years leading up to that Azerbaijan-Bukhara launched land invasions in five countries; Armenia, Afghanistan, Georgia, Iran and Tajikistan. The Kyrgyz and Kazakh militaries launched an invasion at the request of the Taliban to crush the Islamic State in Afghanistan at around the same time the Azeris and Uzbeks were attacking Armenia. A year later, Turcoman forces launched an incursion into eastern Georgia, and then a year after that Azerbaijan-Bukhara supported an ethnic uprising in northwestern Iran. Exhausted after 18 months of fighting against the Azeri uprising, Azerbaijan-Bukhara would formally launch an invasion and occupation of Azerbaijani Iran. The fighting would last another 5 years, until the formal collapse of Azerbaijan-Bukhara back into its individual founding member-states. Nearly 2 million would die as a result of these wars, 90% of the deaths concentrated in northwestern Iran.
The most militarized of Azerbaijan-Bukhara were Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. With a population of nearly 90 million and a standing manpower of nearly 1 million, Azerbaijan-Bukhara was a powerhouse in the region, although individually most of its member-states were rather small. They were; Uzbekistan at 36 million, then Kazakhstan, with nearly 20 million, Azerbaijan with just over 10 million, Tajikistan at 9.7 million, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan with 7 million each. The core military substructure proved to be that of the Azeri-Kazakh Special Relationship, with the political dimension carried out in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. While military was headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan, as military and political activity extended back as early as the Ukrainian war in 2023.
The Georgian Civil War between Turcoman-backed Azerbaijani secessionists coincided with the Transnistrian coup in Moldova and the coups in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Serbia, in all of which are installed a pro-Chinese regime angled against the West at the behest of Beijing. Just over 48 hours later, the SCO, Organization of Turkic States, and the CIS sign documents in Beijing legally establishing the "Double-Axis" between China and Azerbaijan-Bukhara. Russia is noticeably absent from this, currently at odds with Azerbaijan over its actions in Georgia. With 7 member states and 2 observers in Serbia and Turkey, the Double Axis between the six Turkic states and China was the largest political and military organization in the world, with over 1.5 billion people between them.
==Ukraine War (2014–2031)==
The War in Ukraine was a war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, fought between March 2014 and April 2031. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists in the war in Donbas against Ukrainian government forces; fighting for the first eight years of the conflict also included naval incidents, cyberwarfare, and heightened political tensions. In February 2022, the conflict saw a major escalation as Russia launched a partial invasion of Ukraine.
In early 2014, pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from office as a result of the pro-European Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity. Shortly after Yanukovych's overthrow and exile to Russia, pro-Russian unrest erupted in Ukraine's eastern and southern regions. Simultaneously, unmarked Russian troops moved into Ukraine's Crimea and took control of strategic positions and infrastructure, including government buildings. Russia soon annexed Crimea after a highly disputed Crimean status referendum. In April 2014, pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region proclaimed the establishment of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic with considerable but clandestine support from Russia. Ukrainian attempts in late 2014 to retake separatist-held areas were unsuccessful, leading to a protracted war in Donbas. Although Russia continued to deny involvement, Russian troops directly participated in the undeclared war. In February 2015, the Minsk II agreements were signed by both Russia and Ukraine in an attempt to end the conflict, but the agreements were never fully implemented in the years that followed. The war in Donbas settled into a violent but static conflict between Ukraine and Russian proxies, with frequent brief ceasefires but no lasting peace and few changes in territorial control.
Beginning in 2021, Russia built up a large military presence near its border with Ukraine, including from within neighbouring Belarus. Russian president Vladimir Putin criticized the enlargement of NATO and demanded that Ukraine be barred from ever joining the military alliance. He also expressed irredentist views and questioned Ukraine's right to exist. On 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognized the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic as independent states. Three days later, Putin announced a "special military operation" in Ukraine during a televised broadcast, marking the start of a partial invasion of Ukraine alongside Chinese UN Peacekeepers in Donbass, Budzhak and Kherson. The invasion was internationally condemned, leading to many countries to impose sanctions against Russia and ramping up existing sanctions.
While Ukraine held off a Russian invasion force from Belarus, and Kyiv remained standing, the southern and eastern portions of the country fell under de-facto Russian control. Ukraine chose to pull back from the front line and defend the Western portion of the country, while Russia was allowed to move in up to the Dnieper alongside UN peacekeepers. Any attempts to formally condemn the invasion at the UN were blocked by Russia, although the General Assembly would do so. The UN Security Council and Peacekeeping forces, alongside Interpol and the World Bank were decidedly neutral in the border skirmishes during the war between Russia and Ukraine. Although Ukraine had rhetorical support and token assistance from the European Union and United Kingdom, most of the international community remained neutral aside from vocal condemnations of Russian actions at the Dnieper and during the war.
==Hungarian–Slovak War (2024–2026)==
:See: Hungarian irredentism, Slovakia, Transylvania, 2014 Crimean status referendum, 2023 Transylvanian status referendum
In late 2023, Hungary began its crusade to return to its WWII-era borders with a referendum in Romania. The cities of Baia Mare, Satu Mare, Targu Mares, Cluj and Oradea held referendums to secede from Romania, following years of secessionist unrest, which would escalate with the 2022 referenda. Following this were referenda in Novi Sad and Kassa, Slovakia, in early 2023. Slovakia is the first nation to strike back, with attacks on Hungarian military targets in South Slovakia, while Serbia bows its head and Romania collapses into internal conflict. The War in Transylvania (2023–2025) becomes a black hole of arms dealing and terrorism, as Hungary continues to exert its control over the Romanian region. 
Due to opening warfare on all fronts, including an air strike in Switzerland in 2026, the Hungarians are unable to fulfill their plan of annexing the entire country of Slovakia. The Slovaks, with assistance from the Czechs, the Poles and the Ukrainians, are able to repulse the Hungarian offensive. Hungarian forces hold out for another 10 months before being pushed back beyond the Hungarian–Slovak border in mid-2026, sustaining moderate losses to the Slovaks' paltry 500 casualties. The loss for Hungary begins a positive feedback loop, with the Hungarians pushed back out of Romania by 2027, Vojvodina shortly after Slovakia, and losing entirely their territory in Carpathian Ukraine by 2028. The Hungarians continue to provide material support to various Russian and Chinese operations throughout the world, but their apex of martial prowess in the mid-2020's is forever swept aside by the Slovak material and moral victory over Hungary.
==Conflicts on the Balkan Peninsula==
===January 2025=== 
 January 2025 – Serbian armor and tanks supporting the ethno-nationalist Wagner Group are spotted by satellite in Vukovar-Syrmia, Osijek-Baranja, Brod-Posavina, Bjelovar-Bilogora and Sisak Moslavina counties, surrounding Zagreb, northern Macedonia, northern Montenegro and the far western Bulgarian provinces, the easternmost Slovak regions of Preڑov and Koڑice and throughout the Subcarpathian region by Russian and Livonian forces, fighting alongside the Серые Bолки, (Seryye Volki) and involving extensive militant violence against Romanian, Croat and Ukrainian diaspora. U.S. Intelligence and scout units active in Serbia and the surrounding Balkans confirm that the Серые Bолки and the Serbs had been utilizing Russian and U.S.-manufactured weapons and equipment, and air drops are confirmed from the former which are revealed to be stoking unrest and instability in Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary and the Romanian-Hungarian border regions of Transylvania, attempting to incite Hungary into conflict with Romania. Later intel uncovers efforts by Livonia, Serb and pan-Turkish ultranationalists to recruit Serbs and Romanian-Hungarians to their cause, and scapegoat Romania against Hungary, to test the strength and power of the Latin and European people. This is revealed by RECON to be a reaction, mostly on the part of antigovernment Ukrainian and Serb nationalists, and backlash in response to the Ukrainian and Serbian governments' incompetence and the EU's and NATO's neutrality with regard to Russian aggression against the Western Balkans and Ukraine in the Sea of Azov - in which Ukraine and the U.S. were rebuked by Germany, the EU and NATO. RECON points out that this was the fault of the U.S. for inflaming tensions between Eurasia and the West, and further goes into the root causes of the Ukrainian Civil War – that the EU went about ousting Yanukovych in the incorrect way, which in turn caused the current polarization between NATO and Russia, threatening humanity with a Third Global Confrontation.ect way, which in turn caused the current polarization between NATO and Russia, threatening humanity with a Third Global Confrontation.
===2022–2027 Croat–Serb War===
In the wake of a NATO distracted by Russian and Livonian manoeuvering in the Baltics, Serbia begins targeted attacks and airstrikes on Bosnian Croat forces in Republika Srpska, while building up anti-air and ground forces along its western border with Croatia. Serbia maintains air superiority over much of the Balkans, although Romania's was larger but less militant. The Romanian Air Force is unable to project itself into the Western Balkans, however, and Serbia effectively blocks off any and all assistance to Bosnia from NATO or the EU, the latter of which was in the midst of a crippling war with Russia and China in Central and Eastern Europe. With Romania confined to the Eastern Balkans, the Turks restrained by Russia in Asia Minor, neither able to adequately defend Bosnia, the Serbs begin bombing and shock-and-awe attacks on the rest of Bosnia. A drawn-out low-level insurgency begins across the region, with the heaviest fighting in Republika Srpska, Sarajevo and along the Croatian-Serbian borders and Northeastern Croatia concurrently with the rest of the interconnected conflicts across the world.
===2026 Albanian insurgencies===
Serbia is the first nation confirmed to the public to be stoking unrest in the Balkans and Caucasus followed by North Macedonia after EU-made equipment was spotted supporting the Wagner Group Insurgency and CB‎ attacks a year earlier were designed by the Nationalist Action Party instead to incite international uproar against the EU and Croatia. Serbian Army and Russian–Serb pro-Azeri forces supported by Azeri-Bukharan air forces are able to mount a protracted insurgency on the border which later spills over into full-blown ethno-ultranationalist war in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, the current VMRO-DPMNE–BDI right-wing ethno-nationalist government in North Macedonia utilizing its Yugo-nostalgic connections, headquartered in Republika Srpska, throughout the Serb diaspora to effectively collapse the region into all-out anarchy in a false-flag operation to justify further empowerment of its grip over Western Balkan society and military. By this time, hundreds of Serbian and Bosnian Serb tanks and infantry fighting vehicles aided by Macedonian and Russian hit-and-run air strikes are pounding southern Croatia into submission as the formerly united state turned against itself, with Albania and Kosovo following soon after
==Azerbaijani–Russian Imperialism (2019–2027)==
:See 2018 Brazilian intervention in Venezuela, Turkish intervention in the Syrian Civil War, 2023 Russian nuclear bombing of Crimea, 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, 2023–2026 Israeli civil war, Ukrainian Crisis, Russo–Georgian War, Kerch Strait incident, Francesco De Luca, Colombian Civil War, Verdean–Venezuelan Invasion of Colombia, Eurasian Union State, Val Verde Crisis, & Bosniak–Croat Uprising
Russian and Turkish competing interests throughout the region accelerate in the 2020's, further endangering surrounding, smaller countries in their vicinity. Although increasingly isolated and regional, the surge of inter-ethnic and extremist violence in the former-USSR became a cause for concern among its neighbors and the international community writ-large. Nationalism took hold in Georgia's government due to the ongoing pan-Turkic and Russian separatist insurgencies in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan respectively, the conflicts there and in Nagorno-Karabakh metastasize and all across the ex-Soviet Republics a wave of pro-Russian and Livonian Nazbols and Ultra-nationalists seize power through any means necessary. As a result of Armenia's economic, security and political dependency on post-Soviet Russia and a crackdown in response to Georgian Nationalism, the two countries are primarily considered to have returned to being "captive nations" by the mid-2020's. China would foment a civil war in Azerbaijan in the 2020's, leading to the further destabilization and Chinese influence of that region.
Due to strained ties with Russia, Central Asian integration characterized the 2020's. By 2025, Azerbaijan-Bukhara spearheaded by Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan began to exert influence over the Turkic world, with Tajikistan becoming the final country to join in 2026, after a pro-Chinese coup establishes an a puppet regime in the country. Azerbaijan and Central Asia would become integrated politically, ideologically, economically and militarily with the political centre of the Union being located in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Together, Azerbaijan-Bukhara boasted a truly imposing ground force, with an active duty manpower of 425,000, the 11th-largest in the world, the 9th-largest tank fleet at 3,000, 13th-largest armored vehicle fleet at 70,000, 9th-most Self-Propelled Guns, 10th-most towed artillery, and the 9th most rocket projectors just behind Iran. And the power and size and scope of their military-industrial complex would only grow over the next several years. Growing Azerbaijani influence in the South Caucasus, Pakistan and Afghanistan would complicate relations between Azerbaijan-Bukhara and the EU and Russia, who also competed with one another for influence over said countries.
Even before the 2023 uprising, US-Israel relations had been on the downturn since Obama and his ties to Iran, which would continue under his vice president's administration drawing condemnation from the opposition. Israel's far-right government, sworn in on 4 January 2023, would plunge the country into crisis several months later. This would result in a statement from the President of the United States himself rebuking the US-Israeli special relationship, and would be joined a week later by the EU and United Nations in his condemnation of the judicial reform. Soon after, the US and Israel wind up on opposite sides in Lebanon, and tensions are further frayed over Israel's support for Hungary's anti-LGBTQ law and Palestinian-Americans at Israeli border crossings.
===Balkan Offensive===
On April the 18th, the détente standoff between the NATO-European defense alliance and Axis Forces comes to an end a little over two years later as a Hungarian and Azeri-Bukharan–Chinese force invades the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northwestern Romania, Western Ukraine, Kyiv and Cluj in Northwestern Romania from the six oblasts in Eastern Ukraine they occupied at the time, and Chinese–Hungarian air and mechanized units attack Slovakia, Czechia, Poland and NATO air craft attack the Serb-occupied East Bosnia-Herzegovina. This date is marked by many historians as the final major armed campaign of WWIII with the rest following a continuation of this same battle. The presence of over 17 active pro-Russian insurgencies across the continent decidedly evens the playing field - with Bosnia, Croatia, England, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Norway, Sweden, Slovakia and even France all weary fighting against Russian-backed uprisings in various regions, with Bosnia and Croatia potentially the weakest links of them all. The Bosnian government quickly surrenders, and the Balkan nation is temporarily occupied by Russian-backed Serbian partisans. With the joint-attack by Turkmenia and China (supported materially by Chile, logistically by other Latin American nations and China) upon EU and NATO forces, followed by an intervention into Mainland Europe and Austria from the opposite direction of Livonia (which attack from the northeast) and an emboldened Chile's PNCR-backed attack on Central America a few days later – the aforementioned regions would not cease hostilities until the end of the War. French and Italian units head them off in southern North Macedonia and the Alps. Bombardment continues throughout the rest of the month and into May. In June; French, North American and Italian forces commit a sizable attack in Bosnia thereafter. With a multilateral and continental counterattack, Azeri–Chinese forces are knocked back riotously by NATO but are reinforced by Korean and Chinese air support.
Due to being associated with the Vatican deep state, Texan involvement in the United States prompts the EU to break off any and all relations with the United States of America, and sanction Dallas. The Italian government and Prime Minister sound the alarm after evidence emerges that the Luca Presidency was connected to Italian organized crime and North American drug cartels. The Italian government and over half of the military declare the Luca brothers "political terrorists," and call upon the Nordic Battlegroup alongside France for protection from the Lucists. The governments of France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Ireland, Sweden and Finland sign the 'Europa Articles of Confederation' later that week, which effectively inaugurate the "nation of Europe," as a de-facto nation-state of constituent countries, mainly as a symbolic but prominent rebuke to the Luca Presidency that they no longer considered the legitimate government of Italy, but primarily out of the realization that they could no longer rely solely on NATO and the United States for protection. NATO – at the highest levels of government – launch a last ditch attempt to distract away from their ties to the Kim Dynasty, the Lucas (via Bush, Clinton and Trump), Kerry and Russia, by accusing the French of providing the bulk of the missile systems to the Chinese–Azeri offensive, when in fact it was Seoul. Infuriated, IF-led initiatives result in a “balkanizing” process of the US. The insurgencies in New York, Pennsylvania and Louisiana largely quelled by the voices of calm and reason that emerge as the nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties both in 2027 - Buttigieg and President Paul respectively, which manage to bring all territories aside from Texas back into the fold temporarily - including most of Southern California - much to the chagrin of the Atlantic and Central Americans. But the cohesion of the Union is weakened, 14 fully- or partially-recognized autonomous entities in place of one, with the previous 50 states collapsed down to 39 states (Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware would unite to form the 'Atlantic State,' with Arizona, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Illinois, and Utah attaining full independence while Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Long Island and Hawaii attain partially-independent autonomy) and at least 17 of which were home to ongoing active insurgencies and 1 of which (Dixon) was largely considered a rogue territory no longer under the purview of the U.S. federal government. Under his administration, Buttigieg promises to bring an absolute end to the insurgencies in the Midwest and Southwest, and bring the rest of California back into the United States as well as any other impoverished nation that may wish to share the wealth and prosperity afforded to the Union as it was intended. By appealing to progressives as well as libertarians, peaceful interventionism, the Anti-War Left and constitutionalism former-Sec. Buttigieg is able to emerge in the primary as the nominee, and run neck-in-neck with Paul throughout the fall and into the spring of 2028.
With angry men and women in uniform marching on D.C. from Arlington VA in support of the U.S., the UN and opposition to Russia's Security Council seat, US support for Israel, the emerging Texan-spearheaded 'Atlantic State'; A.S. and Texan riot control respond in the way they would to an unruly protest demonstration or ‘riot’ – what they do not expect is a full-fledged military assault into the A.S. – the skirmish lasts 15 minutes and ends only as Texan Governor-General Bush threatens to nuke the Capitol building and Eastern Manhattan – specifically, UN headquarters. Beijing and Norfolk also threaten to detonate nuclear weapons over Mexico City out of opposition to North America whom they accuse of being behind the foundation of the "new confederation" of the A.S. and the rise of the Texan rogue state under Bush – and with nearly a fifth of the population of the US at risk, President-elect Haaland backs down at the behest of the acting president, but not without voicing her concerns about a development that – coincidentally or otherwise – occurred on the same day that the D.C.-Manhattan Crisis did so, the China-Turkmenia offensive.
===2025 Mexican Civil War===
In February of 2025, the administration of Manuel Lopez Obrador, an opponent of the North American movement, was overthrown by Mexican far-right nationalists in league with the major drug cartels and China. This new government orchestrated coups in conjunction with a Texas far-right syndicate in control of the state government. When Texas attained independence later that year, coups accelerated across Central America, a junta in El Salvador, an autocrat in Nicaragua. These governments were the core backbone of the North American project, seen as an alternate and rising alternative to the United States for Latin American countries.
===Russo–Azerbaijani Insurgency in Albania and Lebanon===
 
 
Shortly before the April 18th offense, North Korea, Israel, Livonia and Russia order troop presence in Gaza after falsified reports come out (originating in Israel) of Interpol claiming Albanian, Lebanese and Hezbollah forces were behind terror attacks in Banja Luka and Mostar (it was actually the Wagner Group, a Pan–Slavic ultranationalist terror group). Concurrently with the Balkan Emergency, Israeli and UN and Turkish-backed forces stand off along demarcated buffer zones in Shuja'iyyat al-Akrad, Madinat al-Baath and Jubata al-Khashab - with skirmishes at first and then erupting into full-blown conflict from early May until mid-July. 
 
The Israeli State collapses into civil war between Israelis assisting Palestine, Israeli Arabs allied with the Arab League, and Israeli State Loyalists shortly after Azerbaijan, Livonia and North Korea orchestrate a a far-right coup that topples the government and Tel Aviv. Cairo and Bethlehem maintain a sanctuary presence in the areas of conflict, assisted via air drops and air strikes by the United States, Arab League and Britain. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco respond with anti-air and missile strikes against a Russian-backed flotilla in the Mediterranean, which is complemented by a Serb shock-and-awe campaign spearheaded by the 641 supported by Chinese and Turkic air forces and HQ-9 missile strikes. The Russians maintain an expansionist presence of varying degrees in the Levant and Middle-East throughout the war using Turkey as a foil, following the CSTO–Chinese offensive. With Russia, Livonia, Azerbaijan-Bukhara and North Korea's attack on Syria and Lebanon, and Serbs dug in like a tick in northeastern Albania, NATO is stretched thin and kept engaged on multiple fronts simultaneously by Neo-Fascist Russia, Azerbaijan-Bukhara and their Chinese allies. 
 
 
 
The Balkan Emergency was formally recognized worldwide by November Third after NATO fell back, delivering parting strikes on IF and Pact forces alike. The dispute is assessed diplomatically between RECON and Brussels at a meeting between the two sides. NATO Supreme Commander Timothy M. Ray accuses IF forces of ‘getting in the way’ and convoluting NATO’s campaign. Eventually ties warm after the IF and NATO (as well as the United States and AS) agrees to set aside differences and focus on their mutual foe: rogue theocratic extremists and the Pact – particularly Russia, its allies in Azerbaijan and China, and El Verde – which the Triple Axis refused to support outright but shared goals of defeating the West. But the event in question that President-elect Buttigieg addresses does not have to do with the Balkan Emergency, it has to do with what else RECON found on their classified mission, which is soon echoed by Luca's announcement of the return of the notoriously-fascist and grotesque Iron Guard. The Argentine-backed Italian ultranationalists now occupying Northern Italy announce an exchange in government structure – into the hands of the Luca Dynasty – and a change of name, the Legion of the Archangel, and – even more terrifying - the establishment of the LA Iron Legion secret police force, which shortly thereafter transforms into an assassin army of covert death squads. The infamy of the unusual morbidity of the originally-Romanian Iron Guard – even for a fascist movement – was well-known throughout World War II. Even the Mussolini faction of Italian Fascists distanced themselves from this “death cult”. Nevertheless, nearly a century later, the repugnant organization had returned, proudly displaying its devoutly murderous ideology which, in conjunction with its radical theocratic Christian martyrdom and its sinister and militaristic application thereof, was compared to a “Taliban on Steroids”. 
 
The legacy of Argentine-backed Francesco and Luciano De Luca and the “Iron Legionnaire State” is one of unparalleled authoritarianism not seen since Putin, in fact – far more so. The Totalitarian suppression of dissent and freedom of speech – not to mention the presence of Iron Legionnaires, coupled with Luca militant expansionism – serves to put the Lucas in the same category as Adolf Hitler by the end of the decade. Although China and Turkmenia stand by their mutual Pacific compatriot, even Beijing and Tashkent begin to distance themselves from the increasingly neo-fascist, hyper-nationalist foreign policy and ideology of Chile’s totalitarian and xenophobic president Salazar, whom they even claim several times throughout the next decade that such desires would endanger not only all of Latin America, but all of America and the world as a whole.
==The Apex of WW3==
With the Russians and Livonians terrorizing Europe, South America in flames, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on the verge of attacking India and Iran, the worst was yet to come. Proxy wars wrought havoc across Africa and Asia as the Russian and Chinese bears leveraged their satellite states across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America - descending the following continents into protracted and asymmetric yet interconnected conflicts. There were no neat "fronts" as in the other World Wars, rather a collection of concurrent wars across the globe, confined to their various regions, Southeastern and Eastern Europe were under attack by Russia, Azerbaijan-Bukhara, and to a lesser extent, China. Although the Chinese tried to stay out of most of the fighting, limiting their involvement to just outside their sphere of influence, attacking Taiwan, Ryukyu and South Korea. The front lines of the war became the Korean DMZ - against China, the Iranian-Azeri border - against Azerbaijan, and the Kuril Islands - against Russia. But as time would tell, these were mere pawns in the greater strategy.
==Spillover into Western Europe==
===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 SSO 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.
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.
===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.
Category:Frozen War