Invasion of Verdansk

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Invasion of Verdansk
Previous:	Hunt for Roman Barkov
Concurrent:	Urzikstan Insurgency
Next:	War Against Al-Qatala
Invasion of Verdansk
Conflict:	War Against Al-Qatala
Date:	March 3rd, 2020
Place:	Verdansk,Kastovia
Outcome:	Al-Qatala victory Failed Russia attempt to protect Kastovia Borders and repel the invasion Al-Qatala occupation of Verdansk Formation of Armistice Joint task force between Coalition and Allegiance formed to fight Al-Qatala in Verdansk Impact: Near total destruction of Kastovian Army Extensive civilian casualties as a result from mass shootings and atrocities Several local infrastructure services disrupted across the city Partial Collapse of Verdansk International Airport Capture of Arklov Peak Military Base to develop weapons Establishment of crypto farms in Tavorsk to weaponize AQ's financial network Captured Railway to transport weapons across the city Establishment of illegal weapon deals in Verdansk Airport
Combatants
Kastovia Russian Federation
Al-Qatala
Commanders
Russian military commander
Khaled Al-Asad
Strength
Russian Army Kastovian Army
Al-Qatala forces
Casualties
Very high
Unknown

The Invasion of Verdansk was a military operation featured in the Special Ops mode of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It was conducted by Al-Qatala under the command of Khaled Al-Asad, shortly after the death of Russian General Roman Barkov and was a prelude to the War Against Al-Qatala conflict.

Background

In the aftermath of Barkov's death, Imran Zakhaev, a Russian arms dealer, approached Khaled Al-Asad, Al-Qatala's new leader, by offering a deal to provide funds that could rebuild their army with weapons and vehicles after suffering heavy losses at the hands of the West and the Russian government, as a result of the The Wolf's death and several other operations conducted against the terrorist group by Coalition and Allegiance forces.

In exchange for the deal, Khaled Al-Asad appointed Zakhaev as his new advisor to Al-Qatala. Then, he formed a plan to put pressure upon both the West and Russia by luring them together in a huge issue and then indirectly re-ignting old tensions between them. For this reason, he managed to set up an Invasion of the Kastovian city of Verdansk, who was historically rebuilt by those nations after the Cold War.

With funding from their new benefactor, Al-Qatala was able to mobilise a strong army with tanks and helicopters, and began their rapid invasion into the city of Verdansk by the Caucasus Mountains.

Events

Since Verdansk was one of the largest cities of Kastovia, this also proved to be another positive factor to strengthen Al-Qatala's occupation of the city, since the city could be used to be a giant base of operations for the group to stock, develop, transport and trade weapons by using several landmarks in the city. On top of that, invading a remote-located country in a mountain region would take a foreign military intervention longer to occur once the local communications were cut.

Despite having good infrastructure characteristics with a military base and great telecommunications services, Kastovian authorities were not able to track any incoming enemy personnel around the country's borders, since Al-Qatala's troops were supplied by technologies provided by Zakhaev in order to infiltrate the country without being detected on radars.

Details about this invasion were discovered from pieces of intelligence collected on the field by Arm-4 teams during the execution of later Operations led by Armistice in order to cripple Al-Qatala's network in Verdansk.

Arklov Peak Military Base Raid

On Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020, at 03:00 hours (GMT+3), Al-Qatala troops launched multiple airstrikes on the Arklov Peak Military Facility, setting multiple hangars and airfield sections on fire, weakening military response capability throughout the city. Kastovian troops responded with anti-aircraft fire. There were also reports that buildings on nearby zones across Sector 1 (Verdansk North), such as Blocs 14, 15, 23, Lozoff Pass, Riverside and Jarvdinsk Spomenik were either burning or damaged as a result of secondary airstrikes.

Siege of Verdansk Stadium

At 08:11 hours, Al-Qatala launched an attack from Overpass Parking Plaza B, near the East gate and Plaza C of the Acropolis National Arena. During an emergency evacuation, an nearby Kastovian military checkpoint was attacked by Al-Qatala troops. This caused a panic amongst a crowd consisting of sports fans that were arriving for a game scheduled for later on in the day. Several people ran towards both North and South gates to escape the issuing gunfight. Al-Qatala troops then attacked the Military Triage Center at the North Gate of the Arena, killing hundreds of civilians in the process. Within one hour, Al-Qatala advanced through the West Gate and finally took control of the entire Verdansk Stadium area.

Battle of Downtown Tavorsk District

At 11:00 hours, Al-Qatala forces bombed and seized the Acropolis National Bank at the financial district after invading Downtown Tavorsk District by entering Bloc and Monument Roundabout through the captured West and South gates of the Stadium earlier. Flames also broke out at the bank's rooftop and nearby SKN Broadcast building. The Kastovian army took massive casualties after a fierce battle against tanks and helicopters. Eventually, the unit in Tavorsk was overrun and vanquished. Following the assault at the financial district, more Al-Qatala troops advanced to the Design district and breached the XK Architects Building where several shootings ensued while several people were trapped inside the floors, leading to more civilian casualties in the process. Several minutes later, the terrorists captured the building, securing Downtown Tavorsk.

Verdansk West Sector Offensives

Siege of Verdansk Hospital

Right after establishing several crypto farms and a financial operation center in Downtown Tavorsk, Al-Qatala armies pushed towards West Verdansk (Sector 2) by crossing the West Bridge and entered the Verdansk Hospital. During the attack, AQ's troops attacked field hospital barracks located West of the main building, that were treating several wounded personnel from the Kastovian Army. More shootings occurred at the Northwestern tower of the Hospital, where fire also broke out at the 7th floor. Several medical personnel were taken hostage and forced at gunpoint to abandon other patients in order to assist wounded Al-Qatala troops.

Western Verdansk Raids

Al-Qatala then advanced further Northwest by passing through the Great Bridge, conducting raids in Atlas Superstore and Airport Maintenance Areas as a setup to attack the Verdansk International Airport. However, around 11:20 hours, they were met with some small resistance from local militia composed by residents from Torsk Bloc, who ended up being decimated by infantry troops and tanks in less than an hour. Without any further reinforcements from the Kastovian Army, Al-Qatala easily captured the Verdansk Graveyard, Zhokov Boneyard, the nearby junkyard, Storage Town, and Airport Maintenance.

City of Verdansk Port Siege

At 13:40, after eariler attacks, multiple roads across East Verdansk (Sector 5) connected to both North and Central Sections were blocked by the Kastovian army in an effort to protect the civilian evacuation site at the City of Verdansk Port. As a result of the blockade, several people were moving through Krovnik Farmland grounds on foot to reach the port. A gunfight against Al-Qatala ensued at the docks as several boats and trucks were arriving to rescue civilians from the Port. Al-Qatala was able to gain control of the Port and the nearby Zordaya Prison Complex.

Battle of Verdansk Airport

Verdansk International Airport air bombings

At 14:00, the convoy responsible for capturing major areas throughout West Verdansk sector launched a full-scale assault on Verdansk International Airport. Some high-traffic areas, such as Highway Junction and Runway Underpass (South) were struck by airstrikes on the Parking Structure, leaving several dead after the following explosions while people were stuck in cars and buses. A military camp near the west woods was also damaged as a result of the bombings. Shortly after, another wave of airstrikes targeted the Control Tower Complex, causing several structural and fire damage to some floors in the control tower, the complete destruction of the Tower Control Room and blocking several sections of the Administration Building after it was set on fire. A third wave of airstrikes strucked the Main Terminal, causing support pillars of the superstructure to crumble alongside the roof, creating lots of gaps and debris scattered around the 3rd floor. A final airstrike was launched above the Terminal gates area, managing to destroy a military camp and tents, and even damaging some logistic aspects of the airport, such as the Baggage Loading, Maintenance Stairs and Garage Bays. A NVSFT Airlines passenger plane was also striked at the gates, which was separate in two sections with a giant hole in the middle of the plane and the right wing buried in the ground.

Main Terminal Raid

After the airstrike barrage, Troops began advancing to the Main Terminal by attacking the Parking Structure, then Armored units rolled through  entrances of both 1st and 3rd floors. The interior was stormed by AQ's troops by two simultaneous raids, one by the first floor, leaving several stores and airport spaces damaged by explosions or in a state of desrepair, such as the Lounge Entrance, Check-In, Café Express, Customs and Immigration area, while the second raid was performed at the third floor, after infantry breached both departures and arrivals entrances by the elevated road under the damaged roof. Shortly after, a series of shootings occcured at the Mezzanine Level, Burger Town store, Gate and Tourists Information Roof. After taking both floors, Units from both raids rendezvoued on the 2nd floor and were met with some small resistance from Kastovian Army units and airport security, having a military SUV and an APC were destroyed in the process. Following the gunfight, more raids were conducted at a Duty Free Clothing Store, Check-In area, the Main Checkpoint and East-West Concourses. Al-Qatala finally took control of the entire Main Terminal after capturing the West Lounge.

Airport Runway Siege

In the meantime, two Al-Qatala's armored units pushed through the outskirts of the Terminal in order to crush the remaining Kastovian army troops. The first group advanced from the captured South Runway Underpass earlier in the battle and attacked the Kastovian military camp at the Terminal gates, while a second group of tanks were able to conquer the Three Hangars area and destroy the tent protecting the East side of the gates. While most part of infantry managed to capture the Terminal, the remaining Kastovian Forces outside in the gates were crushed after getting flanked by both tank units at the Runway. After an extensive tough battle and a massive bloodbath, Al-Qatala finally managed to win the battle and control the Verdansk International Airport.

Northern Verdansk Offensive

Al-Qatala launched another offensive across the North Sector of the city to capture the remaining areas in order to obtain all energy resources to develop and transport weapons in the city. The first phase was conducted by the army group responsible for capturing the Verdansk International Airport, who first managed to capture Blocs 16 and 17 after another series of shootings and soft resistance from local police. Then, Troops were able to seize control of the entire Gora Dam complex by moving through the Gora Tunnel to the Sluice Gates and by advancing north of Bloc 17 to reach the West and East entrance. There, Al-Qatala was able to take control of the entire city power supply distribution to supply future arsenal warehouses near the Arklov Peak Military Facility.

The second phase was conducted in areas on the outskirts of the military base, with the first group capturing Bloc 23 and Jarvdinsk Spomenik. At 15:00, the second group advancing from Bloc 16 raided a village at Riverside and captured houses, where several citizens were held as hostages and executed afterwards. There, Al-Qatala was once again met with small resistance from a police station nearby, which ended up being overrun. They also managed to capture Crash Site and Lozoff Pass before regrouping with the first group at Military Base.

The third phase of the offensive was conducted by both groups and the goal was to capture Karst River Quarry to control its railway. They were able to occupy more civilian areas like Blocs 14, 15 and a WHP Camp, encircling the area around and succesfully occupying the quarry afterwards.

Final Offensives

Later on, The Al-Qatala groups from Arklov Peak Military Base launched several raids at Eastern Verdansk sector and took control of the remaining agricultural landmarks, such as Gorengard Lumber Yard, Krovnik Farmland and Karst Bridge. Eventually, troops managed to capture the Zordaya Prison Complex and use it as a concentration camp site for prisioners of war, where more atrocities and tortures were conducuted.

After regrouping at the Verdansk Hospital, Al-Qatala initiated the final offensive to control the enitre city and also secure the last sectors of railway in order to connect the Quarry to the airport to allow weapons obtained at deals to be transported into the warehouse in Northern Verdansk.

Preliminary raids were condcuted in both Barakett Promenade West and East neighborhoods, where another bloodbath had occured, with more shootings and atrocities against civilians, since the only line of defence left was some police stations and or local militias composed by civilians. The Verdansk Train Station was captured just shortly after the Barakett Promenade Raids. The remaining civilians trapped at Novi Grazna Hills were later executed or taken to the Zordaya Prison Complex camp. At the end of the day, after seizing control of the Kart Racing Track, Grazna Hills and Zozsni Spomenik, Al-Qatala finally managed to control and occupy Verdansk entirely.

Aftermath

Al-Qatala occupation of Verdansk

After the successful occupation of the city, Al-Qatala was able to use Verdansk as a base of operations and use local infrasestructure in order to enhance their supply network, thus strengtening the terrorist group.

The captured Arklov Peak Military Base and several facilities across the city wer assigned to Almalik, an AQ's landlord, in order to develop weapons, such as Ballistic Missiles, and store them around the city in several safehouses. Scramblers were also planted around the Verdansk Stadium area to encrypt comms and hide the locations of the Warehouses.

The Acropolis National Bank was assigned to the Banker, a British financier tasked to weaponize generated profits by money-laundering AQ's financial network through a system of crypto server farms spreaded around Downtown Tavorsk District.

The Karst River Quarry and the city's railroads were assigned to El-Traficante, a south american smuggler, with the goal to transport contrabanded and weapons produced in Almalik's warehouses across Verdansk by train, with the captured Riverside villages being used as Safehouses to hide profits and documents linked to his account.

The Verdansk International Airport was assigned to Zakhaev, so that he could use the place as a landing spot for weapons deal and also transport weapons to other locations. Other areas throughout West Verdansk sector, such as Storage Town and Atlas Superstore, were used as a way stock the cargo obtained in the weapons deal. Furthermore, the captured WHP Camp was also used as a way to disguise the weapons as medical shipments.

The Zordaya Prison Complex was still being used as a concentration camp for prisioners of war of the invasion and were assigned to Zakhaev's mercenaries. There, as soon as they enter, prisioners were forced to fight a cage match against another prisioner in the showers room at the Gulag. In order to win, one must kill the other prisioner to survive. After winning, they were sent to dirty cells, which most died as a result of diseases or starvation.

Finally, the BCH4 Broadcast station near the Verdansk Stadium turned into the main operations center for Khaled Al-Asad, after some Al-Qatala troops breached the building, making several staff as a hostage and forced to work for Al-Asad's purposes.

Formation of Armistice

Russia, caught off guard by the invasion, desperately attempted to stem the tide of it, only to fail miserably and lose near-complete control of the city and its borders around the Caucasus.

Western powers, having previously cooperated with Russia to rebuild Verdansk, also took special interest into the new development of Al-Qatala, since they were reports that an russian arms dealer previously left unchecked by Captain Price supplied the invasion, and at the pleading of elements within the Russian government, agreed to cooperate with them - forming the Armistice. Control of Operations were handed over to a joint command of Laswell and Sergeant Kamarov, with Laswell having experience in the fight against Al Qatala in Urzikstan and was joined by Captain Price, who led field operations in the country, leading the multinational coalition of Special Operators from both sides of the aisle.

However, despite this newfound cooperation, there was still some underlying tension within the Armistice due to a lack of trust between the operators.

Armistice Operations

Laswell and Kamarov launched several operations conducted by Arm-4 teams with the aim of stopping and crippling the organization access to weapons, funds, intelligence and hardware by eliminating high value targets within the Al-Qatala's network in Verdansk as Armistice became the only line of defense preventing the terrorist organization from pushing through to Urzikstan.

Notable Casualties

These are individuals identified at the intel briefing done after some items were collected on the battlefield during Armistice Operations conducted post-Invasion. These type of items includes SMS text messages and photos taken in some abandoned phones, possibly belonging to a dead victim, since the missed calls or undelivered messages traces back to the Invasion day. Another example of intel found was Missing advertisement paper displayed in some places around Verdansk, as people's effort to know the whereabouts from missing loved ones.

The list below included people either presumably killed or missing in consequence of the attacks:

• Stefan (SMS Olena)
• Roman (SMS Olena)
• Sava (SMS Olena)
• Mustafa (SMS Baba)
• Evgeny (SMS Mom)
• Unknown Lyubov's Girlfriend (SMS Lyubov)
• Vadym Karpenko
• Antonina Morozova
• Yana Kostyuk
• Anton