History & Briefings - Saga Generals
At the start of the 21st century, the world did not descend into a war between traditional blocs.
It faced a threat of a new kind.
An organisation without borders, without an official capital and without any known chain of command is beginning to extend its influence across Central Asia: the Global Liberation Army, better known as the GLA.
Part insurgent movement, part terrorist organisation and part clandestine army, the GLA thrives in fragile regions, exploits the discontent of local populations and funds its expansion through looting, smuggling and the recovery of military equipment.
Opposing it are two superpowers with radically different doctrines.
The United States, technologically superior but increasingly reluctant to intervene abroad.
And China, in the midst of economic and political transformation, which suddenly finds war coming directly onto its territory.
What begins as a regional crisis will quickly escalate into a global conflict.
And at the end of this war, the balance of power will never be the same again.
The war begins
For several months now, international observers have been following the advance of the Global Liberation Army with concern.
The GLA has established several strongholds in the former Central Asian republics and is exploiting local tensions to recruit new fighters.
It supports various rebel movements, presents itself as a liberation force in the face of the major powers, and is gradually establishing a foothold in regions where government authority is at its weakest.
Its structure remains deliberately opaque.
No one really knows the identity of its leader.
Its sources of funding are equally mysterious.
And unlike traditional armies, the GLA does not need to control a contiguous territory to exist.
Its cells can vanish from one region and reappear elsewhere a few weeks later.
This strategy makes the organisation particularly difficult to combat.
The GLA enters China
The situation changes when the GLA establishes a foothold in western China.
In this region, far from the central government, it manages to rally part of the population behind the idea of an independent state.
For Beijing, the threat comes at the worst possible time.
China is then undergoing a major period of economic and political reform known as the New Course.
Civil liberties are expanding, exports are rising and the government is seeking to improve its relations with the rest of the world.
An internal war could jeopardise all this progress.
Then the GLA struck directly at a Chinese military installation in Yecheng.
Thousands of rounds of ammunition were stolen.
A nuclear Power Plant was destroyed.
Radioactive contamination spread over more than a hundred kilometres.
For Beijing, negotiation is now out of the question.
The Chinese army is mobilising.
The Dragon Awakens
To demonstrate that the situation is under control, China organises a massive military parade in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.
The message is clear: the Chinese state remains powerful and the GLA poses only a marginal threat.
But the organisation strikes at the very heart of the symbol.
A nuclear device explodes during the parade.
The square is devastated.
Thousands of soldiers and civilians are killed.
China has just suffered one of the deadliest attacks in its recent history.
The response is immediate.
Chinese forces hunt down GLA fighters across Beijing and even destroy part of their own nuclear stockpile to prevent the enemy from seizing it.
Open warfare has just begun.
A war on Chinese soil
The Chinese army quickly discovers that the GLA has numerous cells spread throughout the country.
In Hong Kong, a large Chinese force is sent to attack an enemy position.
The GLA then blows up the Tsing Ma Bridge at the precise moment the military convoy is crossing it.
A large proportion of the troops is wiped out.
The survivors nevertheless manage to regroup and storm the conference centre occupied by the insurgents.
Later, another GLA cell is spotted near the colossal Three Gorges Barrage.
Faced with the risk of the facility falling into enemy hands, the Chinese take an extreme decision: to destroy the Barrage themselves in order to slow down the opposing forces.
The GLA is also developing its chemical capabilities.
In the Tanggula Mountains, Chinese intelligence discovers a factory producing toxins capable of contaminating the Yangtze River.
MiG Fighters destroy the complex before the substances can be released.
China manages to regain the initiative.
But its army is now spread across a vast territory.
And the GLA is set to exploit this weakness.
The GLA’s counter-offensive
By concentrating its forces against the enemy’s main strongholds, Beijing leaves numerous secondary targets unprotected.
The GLA therefore changes its strategy.
Rather than engaging the Chinese army directly, it attacks civilian and economic infrastructure.
In the Shymkent region, it destroys a hydroelectric Barrage.
The resulting flood devastates the territories downstream.
The GLA then attacks UN and United States humanitarian convoys near Almaty.
The vehicles are looted.
Many civilians and aid workers are killed.
These attacks serve both to fund the GLA’s operations and to fuel fear amongst the population.
In Astana, the organisation also instigates riots in order to turn popular anger into a weapon against the authorities.
The war is no longer merely military.
It becomes economic, psychological and political.
The Expansion of the GLA
The GLA then extends its operations far beyond China.
In particular, it strikes the US airbase at Incirlik in Turkey, demonstrating that it can now directly attack United States interests.
In the Aral Sea region, it secures several facilities used for the production and storage of toxins.
But the organisation must also contend with its own internal divisions.
A dissident cell decides to join the Chinese forces.
The GLA leadership responds brutally.
The rebel faction is wiped out after hijacking a convoy carrying nuclear warheads.
With this threat eliminated, the GLA can launch its most ambitious operation.
Baikonur
The GLA seizes the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
This facility is much more than just a military base.
It provides access to rockets capable of reaching targets thousands of kilometres away.
At the time of the attack, a Soyuz rocket is almost ready for launch.
GLA fighters take control of the complex.
They install a toxic payload into the launch vehicle.
Then they proceed with the launch.
The rocket strikes a city whose identity remains unknown.
Civilian casualties are immense.
For the international community, the situation has just crossed a new threshold.
The GLA no longer poses a threat solely to Central Asia.
It can now strike Europe.
The United States enters the war
Until now, Washington had deliberately limited its involvement in the conflict.
The United States had become extremely cautious following several controversial interventions in the Middle East.
Its armed forces remained largely focused on defending the homeland.
But the capture of Baikonur and the use of chemical weapons have completely changed the situation.
The United States has officially entered the war.
Its first major operation is in Baghdad, where US intelligence has located several stockpiles of biological weapons belonging to the GLA.
US forces encircle the city.
Resistance is fierce.
In particular, the GLA uses SCUD missiles, causing heavy casualties amongst the civilian population.
But the defences are eventually breached.
The United States campaign has only just begun.
The hunt for GLA leaders
The United States is now seeking to strike at the organisation’s command structure.
Their forces pursue several GLA leaders as far as Yemen.
The campaign then shifts to the Hindu Kush, where the Americans are ambushed in a particularly violent Sleeper Ambush.
The operation nearly ends in disaster.
American troops are forced to make a narrow retreat.
But Washington is not giving up.
On the shores of the Caspian Sea, a major GLA training centre is destroyed.
At the same time, the UN is still trying to find a diplomatic solution.
A negotiator nicknamed Blue Eagle is sent to meet with representatives of the organisation.
The attempt ends in a massacre.
The negotiator and his escort are executed.
From that moment on, the United States considers any negotiation with the GLA to be impossible.
The Mountain Stronghold
The GLA nevertheless continues to attract new allies.
A dissident Chinese general joins the organisation and establishes a vast Defense Facility in the mountains of Central Asia.
The position is protected by an extensive Tunnel Network.
A conventional attack would be extremely costly.
The United States therefore deploys its most advanced technologies.
The Particle Cannon strikes the installations.
Thermobaric bombs are also used to destroy the underground defences.
The stronghold is razed to the ground.
The GLA begins to lose ground.
The Fall of Akmola
The United States and China finally decide to coordinate their operations.
Their target is Akmola, which has become the GLA’s main operational capital.
American and Chinese forces encircle the city.
After fierce fighting, the defences are destroyed.
The capital falls.
For a moment, the international community believes the war is over.
But the GLA is no conventional army.
It does not need a capital to survive.
Its cells scatter.
Its commanders vanish.
And, crucially, Baikonur remains in its hands.
A new biological threat
As the GLA fragments, the intelligence services discover the existence of a new weapon.
An extremely virulent strain of anthrax is circulating on the black markets of the Middle East.
Its codename: Anthrax Gamma. This new strain is said to be several times more lethal than the biological agents previously used by the GLA.
One name crops up regularly in intercepted communications:Dr Thrax. Trained as an immunologist, Thrax has become one of the organisation’s main suppliers of biological weapons.
His influence is growing rapidly.
And no one knows exactly where he is.
The destruction of Baikonur
The GLA is once again using Baikonur to threaten Europe.
Following an attack on a US naval base in the north of the continent, the United States decides to put an end to the cosmodrome once and for all.
A special forces unit is smuggled aboard a train to the facility.
The operation is intended to pave the way for a massive strike.
Once the defences have been neutralised, a B-2 stealth bomber drops a gigantic MOAB bomb.
The Baikonur complex is destroyed.
The immediate ballistic threat disappears.
But tracking down Doctor Thrax is now the top priority.
The Mount Elbrus Laboratory
US intelligence has pinpointed a secret laboratory on Mount Elbrus, in Russia.
The facility is believed to house part of the GLA’s biological programme.
Two agents are sent to the site.
Colonel Burton, one of the finest American Commandos.
And a Chinese agent known as Black Lotus.
Together, they infiltrate the complex.
American prisoners are freed.
The facilities are then destroyed by triggering a massive avalanche.
The data recovered confirms what the intelligence services had suspected.
The GLA’s toxic programme is indeed led by Dr Thrax.
The Hunt for Thrax
The United States is now seeking to cut off the scientist’s financial resources.
The transfers have been traced back to several oil fields located in Amisbad, Iran.
The facilities are attacked and neutralised.
Thrax finds himself gradually isolated.
But he has one last card to play.
Missiles loaded with Anthrax Gamma.
The scientist threatens to launch them directly at major American cities.
A massive operation is then organised to locate and destroy all the silos before they can be activated.
Even some members of the GLA are beginning to regard Thrax as a threat.
A dissident General agrees to cooperate with the Americans, convinced that the scientist’s obsession with biological weapons would ultimately destroy the organisation itself.
The missiles are neutralised at the last moment.
Thrax is presumed dead.
Once again, the GLA appears to have been decapitated.
Once again, this is merely an illusion.
The Great Escape
Unbeknown to the Americans, the GLA leadership had already distanced itself from Thrax.
His methods had become too extreme, even for some of the organisation’s leaders.
Whilst American forces were focusing their efforts on the scientist, the GLA’s true leader was preparing his escape.
General Mohmar managed to evade the American manhunt aboard a stolen aeroplane.
However, the disappearance of several leaders, including Thrax, created a massive power vacuum.
New factions emerged.
Among them was that of Prince Kassad, entrenched near the pyramids of Cairo.
Kassad possesses particularly advanced stealth technology.
Rather than negotiate with him, the GLA decides to attack him.
The objective is simple:
to eliminate a rival and recover his technology.
Gradually, the organisation reunites.
And it is now preparing to take the war directly to Europe.
The Conquest of Europe
The GLA launches a military campaign on a scale never seen before.
Its first major target is the US fleet in the Mediterranean.
Off the coast of Crete, it uses a weapon captured from the United States: a Particle Cannon.
The Aircraft Carrier USS Reagan is sunk.
The symbolic significance is immense.
American military power can now be destroyed using its own technology.
The GLA then strikes a toxic facility on the west coast of the United States.
The famous sniper Jarmen Kell takes part in the operation himself.
The organisation then shifts its main focus to Europe.
Stuttgart
In Germany, the GLA seizes a Chinese base near Stuttgart.
It immediately uses the captured equipment against the US command based in the region.
The attack is devastating.
US forces, already worn down by several years of war, are no longer able to maintain a significant presence on the continent.
Washington then takes a historic decision.
The United States begins its complete withdrawal from Europe.
The abandoned bases fall one after the other into the hands of the GLA.
In several of the conquered cities, the organisation even erects monuments celebrating its victory.
The global balance of power seems on the verge of shifting.
But China refuses to accept this situation.
China regains the initiative
For Beijing, the GLA’s use of Chinese military equipment constitutes an intolerable humiliation.
With the American withdrawal, China also realises that it is now the only power capable of liberating Europe.
A massive military campaign begins.
The first target is Stuttgart.
The base occupied by the GLA is destroyed by a nuclear strike.
The organisation then attempts a counter-attack by targeting a Chinese Power Plant.
The offensive fails.
The Chinese army can now advance westwards.
The liberation of Europe
Chinese forces enter several occupied European cities.
In Coburg, the monuments built by the GLA are destroyed.
The population witnesses the return of a regular army for the first time in months.
GLA fighters gradually retreat.
But the Chinese give them no respite.
In Halberstadt, several enemy units are caught in a pincer movement.
The defences collapse.
The survivors retreat even further north.
Soon, only one last major stronghold remains.
The Battle of Hamburg
Near Hamburg, the GLA has set up camp in a former abandoned American base.
It has also recovered a Particle Cannon.
The battle promises to be a tough one.
Nevertheless, the Chinese forces launch their assault.
After fierce fighting, the last defences are destroyed.
The stronghold falls.
The GLA ceases to exist as an organised military power.
Its surviving senior leaders are arrested or scattered.
For the first time in years, Europe is liberated.
But those who liberated it were not the Americans.
It was the Chinese.
A New Day
The victory completely transforms the world order.
Millions of people cheer the Chinese Soldiers during parades stretching from Paris to Hong Kong.
The surviving senior leaders of the GLA are to be tried by the World Court.
But the most significant consequence concerns the United States.
After years of war, Washington adopts an increasingly isolationist policy.
American forces scarcely project their power beyond their own borders any longer.
NATO is gradually losing its significance.
A vast geopolitical vacuum is emerging.
And China is ready to fill it.
The Eurasian Unity League
Grateful to China for its decisive role in the liberation of the continent, several European leaders are drawing closer to Beijing.
A new economic and military alliance is thus born:
the Eurasian Unity League.
This organisation symbolises a historic shift.
For decades, the global balance of power rested largely on American strength.
Now, Europe is looking eastwards.
China is becoming the world’s leading military, political and economic power.
The United States is turning in on itself.
The GLA has been defeated.
And a new international order is dawning.
A war that changed the world
The war against the GLA began as a regional crisis in the remote territories of Central Asia.
It gradually escalated into a global conflict.
China suffered nuclear and chemical attacks on its own territory.
The United States abandoned its isolationist stance to lead a new international military campaign.
The GLA evolved from an underground network into an organisation capable of conquering part of Europe.
Then China emerged as the power that ultimately brought the war to an end.
But victory did not merely destroy the GLA.
It also destroyed the former geopolitical balance.
At the end of the conflict, the United States is no longer the guarantor of world order.
Europe is seeking a new protector.
And Beijing now occupies the place left vacant by Washington.
For the first time, China has become the world’s leading superpower.
The war is over.
But the world that has emerged from it bears no resemblance to the one that existed before it.