CoL Times | Issue #3

Issue 2
OOC: August 1-8 2020
IC: December 2017 - July 2018
Next Issue Release: August 16, 2020
Above dates are in Manila time (GMT +8)

Violet Max Barry bless the CoL

QUEEN ESFIR ALMOST KILLED IN TERRORIST ATTACK
NEVER IN 52 YEARS HAS IRAN BEEN ATTACKED

A MAN, with a suspiciously big smile, posing for a picture with the Queen, turned out to be his (attempted) assassin. Just before Noon, the man that had been posing for a picture with the Queen suddenly lunged out with a gun in hand, managed to fire two gunshots into the Queen's stomach and lung area. Her Majesty Queen Esfir had landed earlier in Ahvaz at 9:15 AM, the Tehran Metro full of passengers, particularly Line 1. Just 1 hour before the attack at 10:15 AM, she arrived at the market square.

Meanwhile, after the Queen was shot, the metro train that was travelling along Line 1 was shaken by a loud explosion. And to make matters worse, a storage area in a jet exploded, and the jet subsequently crashed. The Queen collapsed to the ground, with the crowd going vigilante and attacking the perpetrator, the Queen trying to get back into the limousine. All movement on Line 1 was shut off, as services rushed to Line 1 to deliver aid. At this time, the Jet managed to inform Shirazi Air Control about it going down. 11:20 am saw the Queen being rushed towards the nearest hospital preparing to recieve her.

Iran has placed Tehran under a "state of shock" and the city was completely on lockdown, nobody goes in and nobody goes out. News of the situation reached both the Shah and Prime Minister by 11:28 AM, and at 11:31 a conference was held seeing the shutdown of Iranian borders. Airplanes turned around, trains to large cities stopped, the Golestan Palace now oozing with snipers, tanks, machine guns and military equipment. Ahvaz Hospital now serves the Queen as a special patient, and the country awaits news.

Four days later, life has returned to semi-normal, but still in shock. However, the borders have reipened, alongside airspace and travel. The attack has killed 540, and injured 320. An unborn baby fell too, doctors announcing the Queen's baby had died, from the earlier gunshots to the lung and stomach area.

Iran's secret service, has also began full investigation. Media, however, on a full tirade against the government as to how they never saw the attack coming. Thousands of people continue to crowd the Ahvaz Hospital and the Golestan Palace, hoping to see the Queen return back to normal health. In rhe meantime, the perpetrators came to be known as the Sunni Arab Front, the group claiming responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, the money to get the materials for the attack came from three transactions made to Alzerabi, with nearly 1.2-1.6 million Persian pekis entering his account. The transactions came from, Khalmaria. The attacks are being called the "Iranian 9/11", and the Prime Minister has pledged consequences for those who "did not prepare Iran for the attacks."

"Iranians, it is with the greatest pain in my heart that I speak to you today. We have been attacked by the most savage, brutal and coward people to ever walk this Earth. We have been attacked for spreading peace, prosperity and harmony but we will get them. We will make sure that all involved in those attacks will pay the highest consequences for their savage brutality and outright traitor like behaviour. We have never seen in our history such bland attacks against our people, against our nation and ideals. But we will not falter to those that try to destroy us. As people we have endured much more and we will show that we have no mercy when it comes to savage brutality.I am in deep connection and contact with all those families that have lost their loved ones in this. You're not alone. I am with you. We are with you. What happened, should of never been allowed to even be planned. What happened is a sign that we cannot trust those unworthy of our trust. But by God, will we repay with double the power. I, like you all, I'm suffering right now. Two great losses have occurred. I've lost to death, to murder, the people of my country. And I have lost my son, my unborn son. My wife...*voice cracking up, tears in eyes*...my wife is fighting for her life. Like all marriages...we have had our ups and downs...but like any husband I love her, and I pray every day that she survives and carries on for us all. Please, pray for my wife and pray for those of us fighting in hospital beds. We will avenge all that have gone. They're gone but not forgotten, and it is with their names in our hearts that will destroy those that have attempted to bring us down. Thank you."
Sandan Diba
Shah of Iran

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PARAGUAY INVADED BY LA PLATA
LA PLATA PUTS END TO COMMUNIST INSURRECTION

La Plata has finally exacted it’s punishment, for the deaths of many, at the hands of Paraguayan terrorists. Not only was the Platinan embassy in Ascuncion bombed, the CTRB news building was bombed, prompting the Philippines to send $3 billion USD as support. Since 2017, microattacks on Platinan forces have been common, especially with a July 2017 attack on a Guardia Nacional convoy, beginnging the insurgency's active phase.

Thankfully, during an assault against the communists, a leader was captured and after interrogation, revealed coordinates to a local group hideout. VCTPs were sent in by the Federal Army, and Paraguayan communists were caught offguard. Platinan tanks made them surrender without a fight. However, the discovery of documents and weapons from free Paraguay, affirming Mandrake's suspicions.

After this, Operation Seguridad was commenced.

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5-YEAR PLAN LAUNCHED IN ZAIRE BY PRESIDENT PASCAL
GERMANY TO SEND 250K VACCINES: PHILIPPINES SENDS NURSES!

After the 2017 July Coup in Zaire, the Patriotic Party gained popularity across Zaire (formerly Congo), as it promised stability and to improve the lives of every single Zairean.

A 5-Year plan for the transformation of Zaire was launched on January, covering "social progress", economic development and military buildup. "Social progress" consists of the construction of medical infastructure especially in rural areas, along with the deployment of 50,000 "barefoot" doctors, establishment of education infastructure and taking 10k students abroad to recieve STEM education.

Medical improvements involve distrubuting vaccines to 1.2 million Zaireans every year, alongside the Philippines choosing to send 10,000 nurses to Zaire, all of which have been trained by the Philippine government in common Zairean languages.

The economy is also a part of the 5-year plan, including initiatives against money laundering to ensure 89% or more of mining revenue stays in Zaire's "state coffers", alongside the purchase of technology to give Zaire more bang for their buck, or to mine larger ammounts of their natural resources. Transport of such is covered by nationwide roads and highways now under construction, alongside a few extra improvements to colonial-era railways.

And of course, military just had to be included. Zaire plans to build 100 new military bases, and use foreign investment and mining profit to buy large ammounts of military weapons and equipment, implement a 1-year compulsury service, and apparently, "build an underground tunnel network".

Going back to medical improvements, the Bundestag in Germany approved a support plan for Zaire, and now Germany has the duty to send 250,000 vaccines yearly, to vaccinate Zaireans. A European Health Center of Zaire is also being created, and will report to Pascal the progress and the country's necessities. An ambassador has been appointed too.

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PRESIDENT PARK NOW RULES BY DECREE
As Concerned as World Is, Democracy's Screwed in Korea

After several weeks of protests in Seoul and many of Korea's cities, the Korean government has given the president EXTREMELY CONTROVERSIAL powers, in all essence making her a dictator. If she wants to get something done, she no longer needs the National Assembly.

To make matters worse, this came with the suspension of the Mayorality of Seoul, as scuffles broke out in the voting process as the Democratic Party tried to block the chamber itself. The law was passed, and Park put it to use. She quickly declared martial law, and called in the military to deal with the protests. The self-proclaimed Korean Government in exile has urged the intetnational community to intervene.

This comes as Seoul, and the nation have been under the rule of a non-democractic leader. Korea as a country is not recognized by the Philippines, who rather recognizes the old government to be the legit one.


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NEW FREMM FRIGATES LAUNCHED IN FRANCE!
BULGARIA ORDERS TWO FREMM FRIGATES

New Aquitaine-class Anti-Air frigates have been launched by the French Republic, in sets of four "tranches". The Pacific Fleet recieved two new ships, and the South Atlantic and Mediterranean fleet got one new ship each.


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ooc territory below
Retcon of the Issue Period!
The Filipino-Bulgarian Summit - Didn’t end well. Benigno Aquino III pulled off an epic nub moment by mentioning a military base being built in Bulgaria. Bad mistake, Russia threatened the Philippines with Invasion. No punishment though, because Bulgaria retconned it. Plus, the base was going to be a single bullet in a plastic bag buried somewhere in some old and forgotten apartment. Bruh moment.


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OOC special

IMPORTANT: The Filipino-Singhasari Union, in all fairness will most likely never be a thing in the CoL universe. This is a fan fiction written by me, for the CoL and AH.commers as well. Please read this 2,000+ word bliss, you will love it. Additionally, sorry for there not being a lot of articles, I’m making up for it by offering you something to read :)


The Filipino-Singhasari Union

Read

As the Asian War raged across East Asia and Southeast Asia, out of desperation, the governments of the Philippines and Nusantara collectively realized that the only way to save themselves, was to unify. Out of the ashes of the Asian War, the Filipino-Singhasari Union came to fruition. 2020 saw the start of the Asian War, caused by a dispute over the territory of Sabah, a dispute that would change the lives of the nearly 2.2 billion people within the eastern and southeastern parts of Asia.

The constituent states of the FSU, formerly the Philippines and Nusantara, agreed to a formal alliance in 2014. Over the years, both nations became increasingly locked in prosperous diplomatic relations, trade deals and joint economic ventures. Over the years, both nations immediately grew to influence Southeast Asia, South Asia, and even China.

Nusantara was significantly powerful thanks in part to it’s geopolitical location, owning both sides of the Strait of Malacca, and consequently, having a say in how 25% of the world’s trade occured. Fuel costs would be incurred significantly by those on Nusantara’s bad side, for they were forced to spend more fuel going around Australia, if they ever traded with Southeast Asia. The entirety of Borneo is divided between two nations, with Nusantara controlling a vast majority of South Borneo, and the Japanese in charge of Northern Borneo.

Alongside Nusantara, there was the Phillippines. The Philippines and Nusantara were both the tigers of Southeast Asia, exerting sizeable influence in the economic and external affairs of Mainland Southeast Asia. Disputes across the South China Sea were common, pre-Asian War.

But after a mere six years after the signing of the Filipino-Nusantaran alliance, an event occured that would significantly change both nations. In 2020, the Philippines once again rekindled the Sabah dispute, actively making efforts to take control of Sabah. After the Japanese attacked Zamboanga, the Philippines retaliated with severe force. Japan, it’s mainland shores unprepared for a sudden attack, was reduced to nothing but a battleground. Japan’s communist government, which came to be in 2019, was unprepared for the attack. On the Philippine side was Nusantara and the United States. At this time, Nusantara chose to enact a lockdown of the Strait of Malacca, cutting off China's trading routes. China's failing Belt and Road Initiative was rushed, even as Nusantaran influence manifested itself across Central Asia.

After the inevitable failure of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2022, the Chinese joined the war on the Japanese side, desperate to regain access to as many of their trade routes as was possiblez. The Chinese rapidly swept across Borneo, Luzon and Malaya Watek, and captured Jakarta, Singapore and Cebu in a single devastating hit. Both nations, starved and beaten till they could no longer fight, realized the only way to save themselves, was to unite. Out of the emergency that was the Asian War, born in it’s ashes were the brand new Filipino-Singhasari Union.

Initially resembling a geopolitical supranational organization, as the months went on, the FSU became a geopolitical power on the world stage. It became more and more organized the more time passed through. The governments of Mainland Southeast Asia, fearing for the safety of their people, joined the Filipino-Singhasari Union, to seek protection. The annexation of these nations, provided the FSU with a land border with China, as FAN (Filipino, American and Nusantaran) forces descended upon Japan. FAN forces themselves repelled Chinese forces almost immediately, liberating Borneo, Northern Luzon, Western Malaysia and much more.

FAN forces launched landings whose scale and size dwarfed the D-Day Normandy landings of World War II, across China's major cities. Tianjin was the first to collapse and crumble at the hands of FAN control. Many Chinese cities suffered a fate similar to Tianjin, collapsing and sliding into FAN occupation. Japanese cities the likes of Nagoya, Kobe, Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai, Kagoshima, Hiroshima and Fukuoka suffered fates similar to Chinese cities. By 2023, Japan capitulated under the might of FAN forces, and more focus was put towards finishing China off. The Chinese, desperate to stop the FAN advance, implemented a scorched earth policy, successfully razing Wuhan to the ground before FAN forces went within a hundred kilometers of Wuhan city proper.

Even scorched earth would not save China. China, desperate to win the war, gathered all it’s resources and spent it on several suicide missions, all of which clearly never made sense to Chinese military commanders. China’s military commanders, desperate for a victory, attempted to launch nuclear missiles, but as a result of their scorched earth tactics, power could not be supplied, and thus the nukes failed to launch, rather imploding within their silos, dispersing fallout across Siberia, Saudi Arabia, and Europe, alongside killing many Chinese officials, decapacitating the leadership even further. Xinjiang and Tibet, keen to take advantage of the situation, immediately declared independence from China.

As the nuclear failures of Inner Mongolia manifested via radioactive fallout never seen since the explosion of Reactor 4 in Chernobyl, thousands of kilometers away from the nuclear fallout of Inner Mongolia and the battlegrounds of Japan and Southern China, the United Nations began to panic and inmediately took action, condemning China while at the same time, beginning the process to prosecute China for violating the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. China, starved by fallout falling on it's farms, was ultimately, on February 11, 2024, forced to capitulate and surrender to the FSU entirely. The cleanup efforts across Inner Mongolia were much more treacherous than the war itself.

And yet the victory of the FSU could almost be considered to be a Pyrrhic victory, for bodies and remnants of divisions scattered the streets of the FSU's, Japan's and China's major cities. The war caused nearly $15 trillion in economic damages, and triggered the 2024 Recession, as countries around the world lost a major trading power. As more and more products continued to pile up as surplus, companies globally were forced to lay off employees to reduce production.

Nearly 2.1 billion people had been affected directly by the Asian War, but it’s impact extended to many but few. And if a few were immune to the effects of the Asian War, they would be mysterious uncontacted tribes across the world. An estimated 175 million people died in direct combat, with nearly 650 million indirect deaths caused by a combination of disrupted food supply chains, China's scorched earth tactics and many more.

But those who had came out alive from the ashes of the Asian War were determined to live, and to advance the legacy of the Filipino-Singhasari Union. Recovery efforts were intense, a one-child policy introduced, strict curfews introduced. The ammount of deaths, mental illness cases and suicides will most likely never be revealed to the general public, but throughout the late 2020s, it is estimated that over 9-11 million people committed suicide.

As in the FSU, even the barest necessities were exchanged for grueling physical labour, even as the nations of the world sent as much aid as possible. 2029 however, saw a major improvement in recovery efforts. Crop yields increased, toxic waste from destroyed military equipment in the South China Sea filtered, and the harshest measures, either loosened or repealed. Every resource the FSU had was put towards rebuilding. With the passing of 2032, rebuilding efforts were picking up speed, and the quality of life across the FSU returned slowly, but surely back to pre-war levels. Additionally, CO2 levels decreased by nearly 8%, due to the destruction of many Chinese factories, but was offset negatively by the radioactive fallout and the ashes of decrepit electronic factories, burning, just waiting to be discovered by the FSU.

By 2032, nearly $3.7 trillion US dollars had been spent on recovery efforts, and it paid off. Manila and the FSU's major cities were no longer littered with bodies, but rather, well and alive people walking the streets. 2032 seeing the reorganization of the Union into a representative democracy, the gross domestic product of the FSU reached $8 trillion dollars, and it was well on it's way towards economic recovery. New metropolises sprang up across Borneo, Java and Sabah.

The Filipino-Singhasari Union's form of government had always been diverse. Initially a polity resembling a geopolitical supranational organization, it was reorganized into an emergency military government, until becoming a representative democracy superstate in the year 2032. Elections in the FSU occur every 8 years. The highest-ranking officer of the FSU is the President, headquartered in Manila, the Union's capital.

Meanwhile, the military of the FSU is the largest on Earth, dwarfing nearly all militaries, while fielding nearly 7.5 million soldiers. It’s navy is also the most advanced, with nearly 40% of it’s formidable forces safeguarding the vast shores of the FSU. With territories reaching as far north as Inner Mongolia, as far south as Nusantara, and even stretching into the Indian subcontinent.

The FSU is the most populous nation on Earth too, with a 2040 census counting nearly 3.11 billion people. The nation is fairly rich, with a GDP of nearly $87 trillion, and a GDP per capita of $27,974, as of 2040. Transactions across the entirety of the Union are conducted in it's currency, the FSU dollar. One FSU dollar is equal to around 88 US dollar cents. The society and culture of the Union is diverse, with Japanese and Chinese in the northern parts of the country, Filipinos, Nusantarans, Laotians, Cambodians, Burmese and Vietnamese in the southern parts. Due to the diversity of languages across the Union, English, Filipino and Chinese are common lingua francas. English is the official language of the Union, and all government documents are written in English.

Recently, linguistic development programs have been enacted across China and Mainland Southeast Asia, providing free English language learning. Alongside language learning, the influence of the Union is unprecendented to the point that it is a second superpower, akin to the United States of America. The Union maintains strong relations with European countries and the United States, but is challenged by Africa, a rising continent with nearly 4 billion people.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are now declining powers, as the world no longer needs their oil, for FSU-developed algae fuels are now in common use. Saudi Arabia and Iran have tried to save themselves, by moving into other industries such as banking, tourism and more.

But the most important long-term aspect of the FSU is it’s space program. After the destruction of the ISS in 2034 by Japanese radical astronauts during the Asian War, the world collaborated to rebuild a bigger and greater ISS. Planes are not in wide use today, as the majority of the population travels via reusable rockets, operated by SpaceX and many other companies. Planes and very rarely rockets, are still used for time-sensitive cargo, but for the majority of the global population, goods are still transported via ship. Space debris is not as severe as pre-Asian War levels from 2010-2018, but Kessler Syndrome is a minor problem, with an estimated 2.7 million pieces of individual debris in low-earth orbit alone.

Satellites nowadays are cheap, and some 2.6 billion people around the world can afford to launch their own satellites. Thanks to reusable rockets, the price of launching items into low-earth orbit is now $31 per kilogram. Mars missions are now reaching the point of possibility, with the FSU planning to send 16 astronauts to Mars, to establish a new colony.

A future, oozing with prosperity and new opportunities for the Union, and the world, awaits. Never in human history has such a world been possible, yet the hardwork of the FSU, paid off. For all humans become diamonds under pressure, as they are carbon.

The carbon that was Asia came under the pressure of the Asian War. But make no mistake, the Asian War was needless, and it could have been prevented. The Filipino-Singhasari Union advances steadily into the future, remembering and honoring the casualties of the war.


Philippines = A+++++++++++++++++++++++(+infinity)
Nusantara = A+
China = F