Bortland Conflict

Current situation in Bortland (February 3, 1983)

The **Bortland war** was a conflict involving the DLF and two DLF vassals,Bortland and West Bortland. The conflict arose on October 28, 1982 when West Bortland violently seceded from Bortland due to alleged religious persecution.

West Bortland, led by Devin Jeronimus, was created in October 1982 and had been known to peacefully protest Cosbyists' religious persecution before, but the organization turned violent when police began to use tear gas and guns.

The conflict was unofficially ended when West Bortland capitulated due to the radiation rendering all of their territory useless and Devin being killed. This technically resulted in a Bortland victory since they still had land and a couple of small towns uphill, and due to General Borton's prison sentence and later death, the country remained leaderless.

## Background

When Bortland was founded in December 1981, the settlers were made up of mostly Atheists (roughly 68.2%), with only 12.3% of settlers supporting Bill Cosbyism, a Wanglandian based religion. Due to this, in early 1982 there was much religious persecution in Bortland, with Bill Cosbyists being beaten and harassed, denied access to amenities such as education in private schools and appearing in television, as well as being consistently targeted by the police.

In October, Devin Jeronimus, an activist for Bill Cosbyist rights, began an organization for a new nation for Bill Cosbyist away from, as he described, "harsh persecution based on religion" and "a cruel attack on basic human rights". This was met with very swift action from the Bortland government, who began cracking down on the organization, even publicly killing them. On October 18, a no emigration policy was put into place, as well as martial law.

## Secession from Bortland (October-November 1982)

On the night of October 27, Cosbyist separatists had attacked the border guards stationed outside of Capadapolis, the capital of Bortland in numbers of over seven hundred, against the border guards' numbers of almost two thousand. The battle lasted all through the night and into the morning and, despite being outnumbered, the separatists managed to climb the border and escape the country, setting fire to the border wall itself, which killed almost three hundred border guards and soldiers.

From there, a small camp had been set up from the survivors, naming themselves West Bortland. Following the brutal skirmish, the government of Bortland doubled the amount of guards on duty, even adding helicopters circling the perimeter. West Bortland was classified by the government as a "terrorist break-off group". On November 8, the no emigration policy was lifted for most eastern parts of Bortland, which some speculate is because of the overwhelming atheist population, prompting more anger from West Bortland.

On November 9, West Bortland led an attack on Capadapolis, where bomber jets (believed to have been bought by Newfield) were sent in, destroying most of the city, forcing Bortland soldiers underground. The airstrike not only killed many Bortland soldiers, but killed more West Bortland soldiers, prompting a retreat by West Bortland back over the border.

### **Taking of the outer colonies and Borton's mutiny**

On November 10, it was found out that many refugees had abandoned West Bortland in search of a better life in Stadacona, which would be a one thousand kilometre journey. Soldiers from West Bortland were sent after the refugees in an attempt to bring them back. D34DM3M3, leader of Stadacona and General of the DLF military met with both Borton and Devin (separately) to discuss what to do, with D34DM3M3 adapting a shoot to kill policy on any West Bortland soldiers, though it is unclear where he stood on the refugees.

Less than a week after the attack on Capadapolis, Borton charged the West Bortland border with artillery and mortar fire in an attempt to catch Devin once and for all. Though they failed at capturing Devin, they did take control of most of the outer colonies closes to Bortland, killing most of the population, which brought about controversy in Bortland and other countries as some of the outer colonies which had been practically massacred contained heavy civilian presence. Borton met with Dexter Meritorious Witnick IV via computer, where Witnick told Borton to stand down from his campaign against West Bortland. Borton refused, meaning that Stadaconan and DLF forces would have to intervene in the battle before Borton's men reached main colony, where it is believed they were going to set fire to the colony in search of Devin.

### **Battle of the Main Colony and Borton's capture**

On November 15, Borton's men reached main colony where they met Stadaconan soldiers, who had encircled the entire colony. The plan was to arrest Devin and Borton, though Devin had already slipped through the defenses. A fierce battle took place which tolled heavily on the Stadaconan presence there, as the Bortland soldiers had mortared the main congregation of soldiers. They charged the colony, where most civilians still remained, unable to move anywhere else as Bortland gained more ground. DLF soldiers had been given the mission of helping defend the colony and cause the least amount of casualties on both sides, as the primary objective was to arrest Borton, not to kill Bortland soldiers.

After the failed charge, Borton was captured and held in one of the makeshift tents where he attempted to commit suicide by gunshot, though failed. He was taken to San Franshitsco prison where he is awaiting trial.

## Fall of Bortland (December 1982 - February 1983)

Following the fall of Main Colony, West Bortland split into two other colonies, the north one known as Main Colony and the south in the oceanfront mountain range known as Billtop Hills. Both colonies were much smaller, housing roughly 60-70 people each.

On November 29, Devin and a group of mercenaries from West Bortland attacked the border of Stadacona, killing roughly twelve border guards. D34DM3M3 and Witnick attempted to track down Devin and his group, though they had already escaped deep into No Man's Land, the section in between Stadacona and DLF/Bortland.

Around two weeks later, Devin and his group had merged with the other group of wondering stormed the border of Bortland, with heavy casualties on both sides. In the city centre, Devin falsely announced that the government had fallen and that Bortland was better off in anarchy, causing widespread riots.

Over 40000 DLF and Stadaconan troops were sent in to take back the lost territory, capturing roughly half of No Man's Land, though it experienced heavy resistance from West Bortland and other raider groups that had formed. On December 9, during a DLF raid on a West Bortland compound, Hiptard B. Willibanga, a West Bortland lieutenant, took a plane and flew away, just escaping the DLF. He then flew the plane past the Stadaconan border and flew it into the city centre of Astrio, Stadacona's capital, killing around 324 people and injuring around a thousand more. It had been confirmed that Willibanga had died in the incident.

It was then that more Stadaconan troops were sent into battle to try and remove West Bortland presence from the area. Though, West Bortland had taken Capadapolis, the former capital of Bortland, and within had roughly 10000 people, mostly hostiles towards the DLF. This colony became known as the Devil's Mouth, mainly because the map showed that the face of a demon, and the colony made up the mouth of it.

Despite the overwhelming DLF presence, the West Bortland colony had still managed to fend off the DLF. Instead, DLF decided to attack via the south, where another West Bortland colony. With the two countries' rapid expansion towards each other, it was only a matter of time before there would be a battle.

### **The Battle of the South and nuclear strike**

The two territories did end up colliding, with roughly 11000 West Bortland soldiers clashing with around 20000 DLF soldiers. The first battle was short and ended in a major DLF victory, though they couldn't get past the border due to West Bortland's defense. When a group of roughly 300, led by Hotspot, attempted a surprise attack to breach the defense, all were killed, including Hotspot.

It was then that D34D considered nuclear retaliation. At first, Witnick refused, but was eventually convinced. During the second round of fighting, in which over 10000 DLF troops died, Witnick was helicoptered out of the Bortland hospital in which he'd been stuck in for over a week back to San Franshitsco, where he authorized the nuclear strike. At 02:49, D34D, as well as other DLF soldiers, were evacuated and the missile was dropped.

Initial reports said that the bomb had partially blown up, killing only 1200 people, but as more reports came in, it had been found out that the bomb had blown up in parts, the second part blowing up an hour after the other. It had been confirmed that the second part had annihilated Capadapolis as well as the other 200 kilometres of territory, killing roughly 198,000 people, civilians included.

## Impact

### **Deaths**

The actual death toll from the war so far has been almost impossible to estimate. The DLF Human Rights Organization has estimated that at least 215,000 people have been killed so far, most of them by way of nuclear strike, though other estimates put that number much higher.The fallout is expected to spread by wind across a large portion of the Bortland region, killing an extra 150,780 from radiation poisoning.409,000 people are expected to die from Thyroid cancer in a 5 year period. This roughly means that the death tolls from the 29/7 incident, military deaths from the battles, and all the expected deaths from the nuclear strike equate to about 878,000 deaths, but this figure may be higher has a lot of undocumented raider deaths and attacks were not counted. This is about 76% of the entire population of the Bortland region.

The death of Hotspot brought shockwaves to the DLF community, primarily the DLF government. He is scheduled to receive the Medal of Honor in February posthumously.

### **Alleged human experimentation**

In December, Hotspot and D34DM3M3 claimed that a truck had been found near DLF occupied territory filled with kids with their mouths sown shut. Some of the kids claim that they had been experimented on, men injecting them with needles and other medical items. D34DM3M3 believes it was the Bortland government, though a full investigation has yet to be launched.

### **Refugee crisis**

Around 26,000 people had fled Bortland and West Bortland following the initial violence. In November, DLF promised to accept 25,000 refugees, though, by then, the numbers of refugees had grown, as refugee Urmom S. Gaye stated, "That simply is not enough. For a country that has come in and destroyed [our] country, they should be a little more accepting." DLF then promised to accept 2,000 more.

However, DLF was not most people's first option, as quite a few were turned away at the Stadaconan border, especially due to the risk that there could've been West Bortland insurgents. Following the 29/7 incident, Stadacona's borders remained closed.

## Reactions

Support for each side of the conflict is very mixed, with some supporting West Bortland for escaping religious persecution, with others saying that West Bortland is a terrorist organization that needs to be eradicated. Though, the conflict has brought up the question of Cosbyist rights, especially in DLF vassals.

Countries such as Lanodola pledged military support, but Witnick made a statement in November saying that this was purely a DLF affair and that no international intervention was needed.