Istapali

[Svetlana]

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The Istapalese civil war has been going on for a grewling 8 years, tens of millions have been displaced, hundred of thousands killed across the country, and the social fabric holding together Istapali has been forever altered. Yet a conflict who many thought was going to be a resounding and crushing victory for the National Reconciliation Junta in Namaji is now predicted to become a grand victory for the Revolutionaries of the Government of National Concord and the National Liberation Front.

Ever since the fall of Dosape and reintegration of Ekidonia into the GNC, the government has turned from a war of offensives into a war of trenches as both sides entrenched themselves further and further each day and resorted to border skirmishes, raids, and propaganda campaigns from the NRJ to try and persuade the population that the GNC is the faction that's clearly losing the war.

However the once powerful and mighty forces of the Istapalese Federal Army have been both outnumbered and out equiped by the forces of the Army of National Liberation which could be seen during the siege of the city of Mpopa host to the country's last functioning oil and gas refineries. The ANL switched from their traditional asymmetric warfare tactics which consisted of orchestrating sabotages and guerilla tactics to a more frontal and direct offensive in the form of artillery bombardements, constant psychological torture of NRJ soldiers by blasting propaganda chants all day long, and the use of the sand dunes to dug tunnels and plant detonation charges underneath critical military infrastructure. The siege only last 8 months and the city was actually liberated by its own citizens who had already launched an insurgency of their own against the NRJ.

Seeing the resounding success of frontal warfare, the leadership of the GNC then announced the start of Operation Four Horsemen, named after the four horsemen of Apocalypse described by ancient pagan beliefs in Istapali, those being the Horseman of Pestilence symbolizing the GNC closure of the dams supplying the southern regions with water and effectively puts the entire south under siege since Istapali's water have been dominated by the GNC for a while with the help of Xsampa, the Horseman of Hysteria representing the ANL's new tactic of constant psychological warfare consisting of blasting music and speeches while carrying out suprise bombing campaigns, the Horseman of Decay representing the GNC's orchestration of political assassinations, terror attacks, and ghetto revolts across major cities in the south to rock the institutions maintaining the NRJ alive, and finally the Horseman of War representing the forces of the ANL crossing the trenches and attacking the NRJ from all directions while carrying out amphibian invasions in the south.

Realistically speaking, even tho the Revolutionaries have sworn up and down that the government in Namaji will fall within a year, it is more than likely that the whole operations actually lasts two instead of one mainly due to the ANL is still a bunch of militias and poorly trained soldiers used to ambush and not attack in broad daylight. Anywho, this operations will certainly bring about the end of the war, but wether or not the partisans of the NRJ actually drop their guns once the GNC rises victorious is yet to be determined.

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written by @TheShare (backdated)