OseaGeographyThe Osean Federation occupies the western half of the North Osean continent. [1] Spanning from the equator to the arctic, it is composed of many climate zones including tropical, temperate, and subarctic regions. Situated between the Atlantic, Pacific, and Ceres Oceans, Osea has been a major naval power for centuries. [2]
HistoryFederated in Bana City before or during the 16th Century, [3,4] the Osean Federation grew to become a superpower by the 20th Century. Though constantly vying with Belka for territory, [5] Osea’s defining conflict of the 1900s was the Cold War, a global standoff that pitted a democratic capitalist bloc led by Osea against various communist and fascist states aligned with Yuktobania. With the Yuktobania-aligned bloc capable of fielding larger conventional forces, Osea invested heavily in strategic weapons, culminating in the SDI program that called for anti-ballistic missile systems in orbit. [6] This drove Yuktobania to adopt a more offensive posture with regards to its nuclear weapons, [7] and caused both nations to increase defense spending in the 80s and 90s.
As Belka economically collapsed throughout the late 80s and early 90s, Osea took advantage of its neighbor's decline. Osea backed independence movements for ethnostates on Belka's periphery, and later purchased the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes were sold at a low price under the condition that Belka would receive profits from economic activity in the region. However, Osea falsified surveys of the region to overstate its mineral wealth, and Belka earned far less money than it had anticipated. This contributed to the rise of a fascist regime predicated on restoring Belka’s territorial integrity. [8] On March 25th, 1995, Belka invaded Osea, Sapin, and Ustio. Osea was caught off guard and rapidly lost territory in the first week of the war, with the Belkan advance pushing beyond the Great Lakes. Their aggression outraged the international community, and even Yuktobania offered aid to Osea and the Allied Forces. The advance had stalled by early April, however, and by the 20th an allied counter-offensive was launched, restoring Osean control of the Great Lakes. On May 17th, citing the threat of the rogue Belkan regime possessing nuclear arms, Osea lead the Allied Forces in an invasion of Belka. South Belkan cities, seeking to avoid destruction, declared themselves demilitarized and surrendered to the Allied Forces, but North Belkan military unit refused to lay down their arms and instead retreated to defensives positions on the Waldreichs. The Oseans began to penetrate the defensive line on June 6th, when the Belkans dropped seven nuclear weapons on strategic passes in the Waldreich Mountains. This disrupted allied efforts, but Belka finally surrendered after two more weeks of fighting on June 20th, ceding South Belka to the Osean Federation as a condition of the armistice. Osea began to administer South Belka as a new territory, North Osea. While many saw the invasion as a justified response to Belkan aggression, some Osean veterans saw the war as globalist exploitation by the great powers, and in their disillusionment joined various international terrorist organizations. The most infamous Osean group was a terror cell made up of ex-fighter pilots that attempted to assassinate the Osean President in 1996. In the years following the Belkan War, Osea’s economy was geared towards recovering from its wartime losses, including reconstruction in North Osea and Belka. [9] This precluded it from assisting in Ulysses preparation efforts, especially as it became evident that only Usea and Anea would be heavily affected. Yuktobania’s assistance in the Belkan War also prompted gradual detente between the rival powers. Under President Victor Harling, Osea massively cut its defense budget and pursued transnational projects with Yuktobania, most notably the removal of Ulysses fragments from the geosynchronous belt using the Arkbird, drastic strategic arms reductions, and nuclear nonproliferation agreements. [10] Harling’s budget cuts inspired deep resentment from the country’s military leaders, but when seemingly unprovoked acts of Yuktobanian aggression began in September 2010, Osea largely held its own. Following the loss of two aircraft carriers days after Yuktobania declared war on September 27th, Harling authorized the installation of an offensive laser on the Arkbird, enabling it to strike Yuktobanian targets with impunity. The Arkbird helped defeat a Yuktobanian expeditionary force approaching Osea’s west coast and brought about a strategic balance throughout the month of October. However, President Harling disappeared from public life on October 22nd, and the Arkbird was sabotaged with a bomb onboard a supply shipment shortly afterwards. Harling’s disappearance empowered a cabal of military leaders and the Vice President to covertly take control of the war effort, prompting a full scale invasion of Yuktobania beginning on October 30th. Osean forces landed on the Bastok Peninsula and rapidly progressed towards the Yuktobanian capital, Cinigrad. Yuktobania responded to Osea’s invasion and alleged war crimes with terrorist attacks on the east coast, but were unable to stop Osea’s advance until the invaders were encircled and bogged down in urban combat in the capital. President Harling reappeared in Oured on December 30th alongside Yuktobania’s Prime Minister, shedding light on the palace coups that had deposed both of them and Belkan complicity in causing and intensifying the war. Urging Osean forces to join an attack on the Belkan command center in North Osea, many units wound up fighting each other in the confusion that ensued. Ultimately the Belkans were defeated, and their plan to drop a large Cold War-era orbital railgun on Oured foiled. In the years since the Circum-Pacific War, Osea has continued to pursue reconciliation with Yuktobania. [11] Osea's economy continued to grow in the wake of the war, especially in the fields of information technology, financial services, arms, and space development. The nation continued to take a leading role in multinational endeavors, especially in Usea, where it was the leading force behind the International Space Elevator (ISEV) and International Union Peacekeeping Force (IUN-PKF). Controversial decisions in the ISEV project, such as placing the elevator offshore of the Erusean-claimed city of Selatapura, and general doubts about Osea's intentions made the elevator a high-profile target for terrorism, including a large Free Erusea uprising in 2014. This only hardened Osea's resolve to safeguard the elevator, prompting larger IUN-PKF deployments. As tensions worsened between Osea and Erusea, Belkan advisers empowered a radical anti-Osean clique within the military and government. On May 15th of 2019, Erusea launched a surprise attack on the Osean mainland with drones surreptitiously hidden in cargo boxes, crippling the OMDF's carrier fleet. This coincided with conventional and drone attacks on IUN-PKF forces in Usea and an operation to take the ISEV, granting Erusea control over its two automated Arsenal Bird drone motherships. With its navy suffering heavy losses and all ports shut down to exhaustively inspect all cargo containers for a possible second wave of drones, Osea's IUN forces were effectively cut off from the mainland. Though Erusea struck Osea's forces hard, their air dominance over the continent was tenuously held by an early-warning radar network directing swarms of drones. Having probed the radar net over the summer, Osean forces began deep strikes against key Erusean targets in August, disabling one of the Arsenal Birds and enabling rapid gains by IUN forces on the ground. By September 19th Osean forces had successfully seized Farbanti, but ASAT missile strikes disabled military satellites on both sides, further isolating Osea's IUN forces. The resulting disarray plunged Erusea into civil war while the IUN regrouped. Over the following month, Osea attempted to align itself with the conservative faction in Erusea's civil war, but was stymied by false flag sabotage by the opposing radicals. Facing the threat of fully automated drones being manufactured by the radicals, conservative Eruseans and ethnic separatists joined forces with the Osean IUN remnants to retake the ISEV on October 31st. Hostilities officially ended at the Expo City Conference on December 1st, followed by a nonaggression pact signed in January of 2020. PoliticsOsea is a democratic republic with an elected President as head of state. It champions capitalism, democracy, and republicanism on the world stage, and throughout the Cold War aligned itself with ideologically similar nations to promote its values overseas. [12]
Historically, Osea has experienced longstanding friction with its aggressive neighbor Belka, fighting at least three shooting wars over the course of the 20th Century and vying for resource-rich lands on their shared border. Despite Belka's complete collapse as a near-peer as a result of the Belkan War, Osea continued to spy on Belka until at least the late 90s. However, it was unable to prevent Belkan machinations causing the Circum-Pacific War. Osea's greatest geostrategic rival in the 20th Century was Yuktobania, the nuclear standoff and competition over global influnce between the two coming to be known as the Cold War. This conflict was driven both by realpolik economic concerns and the sincere ideological incompatibility of Yuktobania’s single-party rule with Osea's liberal democracy. [13] Relations with Usean nations are somewhat strained, as some welcome Osean prescense on the continent while others prefer a united Usea that can resist encroaching Osean-lead globalization. Osea's inaction during the Ulysses crisis further strained relations, although it finally committed to relief efforts in the late 2000s. [14] Following the Continental War, Osea increased its relief and peacekeeping commitments to Usea under the auspices of the IUN-PKF, drawing ire from Erusea and leading to the Lighthouse War. MilitaryOsea is a global superpower with expeditionary reach, capable of using its aircraft carriers and amphibious forces to project power across the world. Though generally reliant on diplomacy and economics for achieving its foreign policy goals in the post-Cold War era, its soft power is backed by the big stick of the Osean Defense Forces.
The Osean Ground Defense Force (OGDF) is regarded as a world class military, on par with Yuktobania despite being less numerous. [15] During the Circum-Pacific War it conducted a large scale invasion of Yuktobania and reached the capital, Cinigrad, in approximately one month. However, while it excelled in conventional combat, the OGDF found itself unable to cope with urban combat and was encircled until the end of the war one month later. The Osea Air Defense Force (OADF) maintains Osea’s air sovereignty and projects tactical and strategic airpower over foreign countries. Osea first experienced air combat in the early 1900s, when Belka spearheaded the militarization of early airplanes. [15] Since this early shock, the OADF has matured into a competent force that excelled in the Belkan and Circum-Pacific Wars. The Osean Maritime Defense Force (OMDF) has its roots in the 16th Century, when it was founded by Admiral Stafford. [17] Today it operates several aircraft carriers and hundreds of other vessels [18] across the Pacific, Ceres, Atlantic, and Cascade oceans. Aircraft carriers are the pinnacle of Osean military might and were a strategic target for Yuktobania in the Circum-Pacific War; Osea’s west coast fleets suffered severe losses to aircraft and naval assets in this conflict. The OMDF is organized into fleets that generally bear entire oceans as their areas of responsibility, and though often used to transport the Osean Army, it retains an organic naval infantry component, called Marines. [19] The branch’s GHQ is located at Saint Hewlett, and other major military ports include Oured, Bana, and Aurick. [20] The Osean Coastal Defense Force (OCDF) [21] is responsible for maintaining Osean sovereignty over its borders, and as of 2010 operates an automated SAM network that engages unauthorized aircraft after they cross into Osean airspace. Its unmanned nature and the presence of safe channels with no air defense coverage permitted several Yuktobanian incursions during the Circum-Pacific War. LocationsOured: Osea's capital and largest city, boasting a population of 7.65 million as of 2009. [22] Home to the President's executive residence, Bright Hill.
Bana: The first capital of the Osean Federation, [23] located on the southern coast of the Oured Peninsula. Today it hosts many universities and cultural landmarks. Saint Hewlett: A west coast port city with many industrial and military facilities. The OMDF's general headquarters is located here, and it serves as the homeport of the OMDF's 3rd Fleet as well. [24] November City: Nicknamed the "Mile High City" due to its elevation, the city grew following the discovery of silver and gold in the area. Today it is a center of regional commerce. [25] Sand Island: A small archipelago located off of the west coast. Due to its strategic position, it hosted an important airbase during the Cold War. However, Sand Island found its military relevance reduced after detente between the superpowers, and the Ministry of the Interior used portions of the islands as a wildlife preserve. [27] The airbase was closed after the end of the Circum-Pacific War. [28] Bannion Sea: A large inland sea that feeds into the Ceres Ocean through the Eaglin Strait. A key strategic waterway for the OMDF due to its potential as a defensive naval bastion. Great Lakes: Eastern territories prominently featuring five large lakes that feed into Oured Bay. The area was ceded by Belka in 1991, with the understanding that Belka would profit from mineral exploitation of the region carried out by a joint development company. North Osea: Former Belkan territory annexed at the end of the Belkan War. This region surrendered to the Allied Forces, declaring itself demilitarized and independent from the Belkan government, but would be annexed by Osea during as a condition of the peace treaty with Belka. Citations[1] Front Line 4/2004 The Federal Warbirds
[2] Front Line 9/2004 Commander, Third Fleet [3] From Above Spring 2009 [4] Front Line 9/2004 Commander, Third Fleet [5] Belkan Air Power [6] Gaze 8/2008 Arkbird Declaration [7] FOLLOW 9/1991 [8] The Truth Behind the War 15 Years Ago [9] Ace Combat 5 Mission 20 [10] Gaze 8/2008 Arkbird Declaration [11] OBN Journal 7/2014 Aces, Demons, and Ghosts [12] Front Line 4/2004 The Federal Warbirds [13] Front Line 4/2004 The Federal Warbirds [14] Gaze 8/2008 Arkbird Declaration [15] Front Line 4/2004 The Federal Warbirds [16] Belkan Air Power [17] Front Line 9/2004 Commander, Third Fleet [18] Front Line 9/2004 Commander, Third Fleet [19] Front Line 9/2004 Commander, Third Fleet [20] Ace Combat 7 Trailer [21] Ace Combat 5 Mission 1 [22] From Above, October 2009 [23] From Above, Spring 2009 [24] From Above, October 2009 [25] From Above, Spring 2009 [26] From Above, Spring 2009 [27] Ace Combat 5 Epilogue |