History of Military Command of the New Pacific Order (Cyber Nations)

Main article: Military Command of the New Pacific Order (Cyber Nations)

The Beginning

In the early days of the Order, command of Pacifica's army was not nearly as organized and tiered as it is now. Originally, all military affairs were handled by the War Council, which consisted of four Pacificans voted in by the Body Republic for monthly terms. The War Council oversaw the Order's military machine, posting targets and dealing with diplomatic affairs with other alliances. After the confusion of the First Polar War and the Citrus War, a more organized and efficient system for warfare was needed. Koona, Lord Valentine and Rysonia put forward a proposal for a better organised military, proposing to form nations into battalions each lead by a Lieutenant.

The early battalion system was comprised of four battalions (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta), each lead by a Lieutenant who was appointed monthly by the members of the War Council. The battalions were organized by nation strength rankings within the Order, with Alpha comprising the weakest nations and Delta the strongest. Each Battalion Lieutenant was able to appoint his or her own staff to help maintain efficiency. No official ruling was ever put forward on the number of Non-Commissioned Officers a Lieutenant could appoint, but each battalion ended up with 2 NCOs. Battalion Lieutenants had the power to authorize targets to be hit and oversaw all the nations that fell in their battalion's range. This new system proved very successful and efficient during the Citrus War, but there was still much room for improvement.

The Great Wars

As the Great Patriotic War fell upon the Order, the military needed to be structured to handle such an ordeal. Emperor Moldavi created the position of Field Marshal to assist with communications between the War Council and the Battalions. The Field Marshal was also given the power to assign targets to battalions. In addition to the creation of the Field Marshal position, the battalions saw an overhaul as well. The need for more battalions and updated strength ranges for each battalion was quite clear, so Epsilon, Zeta, Theta, and Omega battalions were added to the existing four. As the Great Patriotic War continued, the Field Marshal's power grew beyond that of the War Council and ultimately the holder of this position oversaw War Council and battalion affairs.

During the Interbellum period between Great Patriotic War and Great War II, not many other changes were made to Pacifica's military, as it was a time of peace and mostly diplomatic rather than military tensions. The Order sought to form new alliances and from those efforts the World Unity Treaty (aka the Initiative) was signed, as tensions continued to rise across the Cyberverse. The League and the Initiative faced off in a cold war, waiting only for a spark to set it alight. The spark came in the form of Fark, who joined Cyber Nations and were immediately seen as a thread by GOONS (due to a historic rivalry between their home forums), who declared war on them. Matters escalated when LUE involved themselves, the result was the beginning of Great War II.

The war itself was fought between the League and the Initiative for five days, the superiority of the Initiative was evident in its destruction of League opponents efficiently and quickly. LUE however fought on until early February when it too was forced to surrender once more. The war was fought with mainly conventional weapons, few nuclear warheads were used and those nations that did use them were removed from their alliances for doing so.

After the League surrendered in GWII, however, a new idea was introduced to battalion warfare: squad-based attacks. Battalions would be divided into squads, each made up of 3 members and a Squad Leader (appointed by his/her Battalion Lt), designed to work as a group against specific targets. The squad leader was not given the authority to approve targets, but was able to request targets for his/her squad. The strategy was very successful, and with further refinements, it set the standard in Cyber Nations for some time to come.

One final, major change took place between GWII and III: the disbanding of the War Council. As Emperor TrotskysRevenge put it:

"It has become apparent that the War Councils should not be elected, but be a changing meritocracy with room for promotion of loyal and competent soldiers. There are many good officers who are stuck in Lt because they cannot win the popularity contest of an election, and that is unacceptable. The War Council will be folded into the Imperial system under the Commandante. This will ensure that our fine officers are not stuck in dead end positions and that the active, loyal, capable soldiers are promoted and those who have become inactive can be used in less time-consuming pursuits."

With this in mind, Military Command was created. At the time of its formation, it had two tiers; the upper tier consisted of Imperial Officers, plus the following ranks: Brigadier, Colonel, Lt. Colonel, and Captain. The lower tier consisted of the Battalion Lieutenants and their appointed subordinates, now 2nd Lieutenants assigned by higher officers. The upper tier of MilCom would eventually become known as High Command while the lower tier became known as Junior Command. Ivan Moldavi was appointed to the position of Commandante. Another major change that was made at this time was the inclusion of a new branch of Military Command, Military Intelligence. Military Intelligence was formed in early 2007 and had been deemed a necessary branch after the massive coordination effort between the Order and her allies during Great War II. The military needed a section responsible for coordinating with other alliances as well as keeping an eye on those that posed a threat.

Great War III was fought not long after the conclusion of Great War II, when Pacifica declared war on GATO for spying on the alliance. The fighting lasted for nearly a month, and at the conclusion of the war its political effects were enormous. Several alliances that had a hard line anti-NPO approached disbanded, including LUE. Over 300 nations had resigned from the likes of GATO, LUE and the others that made up the wartime coalition "Aegis", while around 50 surrendered from Initiative alliances. The World Unity Treaty became the dominate power in Cyber Nations and Pacifica's Military Command had played a key part in achieving this.

Modernizing Military Command

Mid-July in 2007 saw the Military Command of the Order rocked by a mass departure of its leaders, among them Anthony and Seerow, who attempted to get every single member of Military Command to resign and leave the Order's military leaderless aside from the Imperial Officers and Emperor in a time of war. While this attempt failed, as a number of Military Command members remained at their posts, the Imperial staff took the opportunity once again to restructure Military Command and repair the damage done.

The first change made was the separation of Military Intelligence from Military Command, which was formed into its own department and responsible for gathering and processing vast amounts of data for the Order to use. The chain of command for Military Command was simplified, Junior Military Command was abolished as battalion Lieutenants were reappointed with new powers over their commands. The position of Non-Commissioned Officer was once again reformed and deemed the entry level rank for Military Command with all members henceforth serving as an NCO as their first step. The position of General was created, its role to oversee the running of the battalions. The battalions themselves were restructured with new nation strength ranges, and the new battalion Eta was formed. It was around this time that an individual who would come to have a great effect on Military Command was appointed General in August - Umbrae Noctem. His tenure as General was short due to his success, and in October 2007 he was made an Imperial Officer of Military Affairs, a position he would hold until near the end of 2009, his career spanning dozens of wars, from the Great Wars through to Armageddon.

Umbrae Noctem was replaced as General by Jasmine, who in in January 2008 presented new changes to the Order that set up the modern Military Command and a structure that would be used for the years to come. The battalions were reduced in number to seven with new strength ranges. The position of Colonel was added, whose role would be to oversee certain battalions and were integrated into High Command.

High Command itself consisted of the Grand Marshal (the Imperial Officer of Military Affairs), the General, the two Colonels, the Intelligence Director, and the Praetorian Guard Prefect. The duty of High Command was to watch over all the military affairs departments of the Order.

Extra Duties

Military Command has been about more than just the running of the battalions and overseeing the fighting. At the beginning of 2008, a new warring feature was added to Cyber Nations - spy operations. Military Command felt the need to pioneer a new way of utilizing the operations as they could do something previously not possible, destroy enemy nuclear weapons. A new project was overseen by Umbrae Noctem and Teeters, who together created the Explosive Ordinance Disposal team. Its task was to find suitable members in the Order who would target the nuclear weapons of other nations, if the nations that they were fighting with could not effectively deal with themselves. At the beginning, only large nations in the Zeta and Omega battalions were accepted due to the high cost of the spy operations, but it was later opened up to smaller nations in Delta and Epsilon to. Teeters was responsible for running EOD in the first new months, however after his departure MariMassa took over its leadership and reshaped the department to increase efficiently. Membership of EOD was expanded and its operations and methods were revised and updated.

Explosive Ordinance Disposal worked well throughout 2008 in smaller, more concentrated wars, but the system came under severe strain in the Armageddon War in 2009 when the Order faced an overwhelming number of nuclear targets. With the implementation of the Manhattan Project, the Cyberverse saw a proliferation in the number of nuclear weapons - and increased usage as a result. With EOD members battling their own wars, demand for their services outpaced their ability to deliver. The catalyst for change came after Explosive Ordinance Disposal found itself in a similar situation during the Doomhouse War, when the Order was attacked by large numbers of nations with nuclear weapons. After many proposals through the next few months, EOD was overhauled, new procedures implemented combined with the recruitment of new members saw EOD function well during the Tropic Thunder War. However the alliance had moved on in the years since the time EOD had been created, the alliance membership had continued to build up their warchests and spies to the point where the need for EOD had diminished, and so Explosive Ordinance Disposal came to an end in May 2013 when the department was shut down.

In October 2007, Emperor TrotskysRevenge announced to the Cyberverse that a new policy was being implemented - the Revenge Doctrine. Based off the Moldavi Doctrine which granted the New Pacific Order the exclusive use of the red team, the Revenge Doctrine went further by protecting the entire colour sphere from raiders. Unaligned nations who were in good standing and had been attacked unprovoked, could apply to the Red Protection Court to have their case heard and receive assistance.

It did not take long for the first test of the Revenge Doctrine to occur. In December 2007, the small, disorganised alliance calling themselves 1stMI were attacked by members of the Devildogs. After applying for assistance, Military Command determined to help them and approached the Devildogs seeking to find a diplomatic solution. The attempts were rebuffed and met with trolling, and so Pacifica declared war on the Devildogs in retaliation. While the fighting lasted for four months, the outcome was clear - the Revenge Doctrine prevailed. Overtime a number of alliances and raiders would seek to test the Order's resolve over the red team, and each time it was met strongly.

The Armageddon War would forever change the way the Revenge Doctrine was implemented. As part of the surrender terms, Pacifica was forced to renounce both the Moldavi Doctrine and Revenge Doctrine forever, though parts of the Revenge Doctrine would be incorporated in the new red sphere treaty, Red Dawn. In theory each of the alliances would have a hand in protecting red, in practice NPO continued to carry out this task. In years after the Armageddon War saw less and less nations apply for help with the Order citing the Revenge Doctrine, until after a lengthy period of zero requests for help, the Revenge Doctrine was ended.

Command and Control

Since the beginning of Cyber Nations, the question of coordination during war time has always been at the forefront of many military leaders. It was always the same situation - large numbers of targets needed to be destroyed as quickly as possible, without allowing them to escape into peace mode. For a long time, this sort of task was done manually by the members of Military Command. But one member of the Order was able to change that.

In November 2007, New Reverie was appointed Intelligence Director and so ushered in a new era for the alliance. New Reverie who was previously an enemy of the Order, who had attempted to take a senate seat in defiance of the Order with the backing of LoSS, now committed himself to researching and developed a new targeting system that had never been seen previously in all of Cyber Nations - Skynet.

Skynet was first deployed in the war against the Green Protection Agency and proved devastatingly effective, beginning a new era of target coordination. The system was simple, members would access Skynet which would give them targets to hit, ensuring large numbers of enemy nations could be declared on without the need to worry about assignments doubling up. The system was however, manually intensive to use and so it was only used for the opening blitz. New Reverie resigned the position of Intelligence Director in March 2008, and while Skynet itself would not last much longer it pointed the way forward.

The appointment of Bilrow to the position of Intelligence Director in June 2008 lead to the creation of a new system so advanced, so powerful and so deadly, that it would remain in service for the next six years. After discussions with Koona and an analysis of the short comings of Skynet, in the space of a week the two had created from the ground up a new system known as Unimatrix Zero. Not only did it overcome the limitations of Skynet and was more user friendly, it was able to implement new tools for the different departments to use. The system was continually added to over the years, getting to a point where almost every department made some kind of use of it - Military for nation targeting, Economics for the movement of money and technology, the Academy for the grading of exams and more.

While Unimatrix Zero was arguably the most advanced tool in Cyber Nations, it did eventually begin to show its age even with the continuous upgrades made to prolong its life. It was then that the former Imperial Officer of Military Affairs, Jesse End, commenced building a new system to take advantage of the existing features in Unimatrix Zero, but add to its strengths. Working over several months, the new system came online in 2014 and was christened Orion, once again allowing the Order to make the best use of technology.

Armageddon

The New Pacific Order enjoyed undisputed power following the crushing of its enemies in 2007. The alliance's military reigned supreme and its diplomatic efforts reaped results with numerous treaties that solidified its position as the number one alliance in the game. However the enemies of the Order continued to work in the background, and while the alliance prevailed in 2008 in multiple wars, a whole new battlefield opened up in 2009.

The alliance of Ordo Verde was accused of accepting screen shots of the NPO forums. During the negotiations that followed, the Order's enemies took advantage of the situation to press the NPO for concessions. Talks broke down, the Order declared war and was then massively countered by the waiting coalition who stylized themselves as "Karma". The alliances the Order fought were varied, but made up of Ordo Verde, Viridian Entente, the Global Order of Darkness, Vanguard, the Greenland Republic, Athens, FOK, Ragnarok, Sparta, R&R, the Majestic Order of Orange Nations, the International, =LOST=, Deck of International Card Experts and the Global United Nations.

The war was huge, the Order found itself in a situation not known since the Great Patriotic War almost three years before it. Military Command, lead by General Mari Massa and later Lord Valleo, with the support of Imperial Officers Umbrae Noctem and Loucifer responded to the new threat with precision and directed the fighting, focusing the efforts on several of the key alliances in the coalition over the next three months. Despite the loss of infrastructure, technology and nation strength, the Order held its ground until the peace terms were finally signed in July, the terms effectively demilitarizing the Order.

In the post-war world, Military Command was forced to take a back seat to Economics, which oversaw the rebuilding of the alliance and the reparations payments to the victors of the conflict. Military Command took the opportunity to analyze the war, how it was effected and begin planning new ideas and methods to increase the fighting power of the alliance in its next challenge. Changes in personnel were made, Jesse End was promoted to General in August 2009, but held the position until November of the same year when he was promoted to Imperial Officer of Military Affairs. His replacement, Navblue, went on to become one of the longest serving Generals in Pacifican history when he was appointed - he retired in 2011.

A New World

The role of Military Command gradually expanded in the post-Armageddon world. Uranium supplies were regularly requisitioned in wartime by the military, and this was handled smoothly in the time before resource changes. Following the end of surrender terms in the first half of 2010, Military Command spent the time that was available rearming the Order and preparing it for future wars that they knew were almost certainly coming.

The first war the Order fought after Armageddon was against DoomHouse and their allies, after they launched a pre-emptive assault on the alliance in early 2011. The lessons learned from Armageddon were applied effectively, Pacifica's nuclear arsenal had been expanded greatly between the end of terms and the declaration, and while the upper tiers were dominated by the likes of Umbrella and the Mushroom Kingdom, the mid-tier range was hotly contested as the DoomHouse alliances found the fighting was not all to their liking. GOONS was saved from catastrophe only through the sheer amount of aid that was sent to them - aid that was happily liberated by Pacifican fighters. While the end of the Doomhouse War was another defeat, it was a less onerous one with the terms that were imposed not restricting the Order in any way.

Later in the year, Pacifica again found itself at war in circumstances mirroring the declaration made by DoomHouse. A week prior to being attacked, IRON and TOP had declared war on the New Polar order, and Fark who was expected to defend them sought a new strategy to avoid walking into what they perceived was a trap. Operating with the cooperation of FAN, they decided to pre-emptively attack Pacifica again, but they were not like DoomHouse and the geo-political balance had changed with Pacifica enjoying the support of new allies. The war proved devastating for Fark and FAN, even with them bringing in extra alliances themselves they were still out matched and were slowly ground down over the next few weeks of fighting. The other notable event during the war was Pacifica declaring its first offensive war since the end of Armageddon, against Sparta in support of our allies. The Grudge War ended in victory for the alliance, reversing the period of defeats.

Towards the end of 2011, Gandroff was appointed to the rank of Imperial Officer of Miltary Affairs. Gandroff had served in all three military departments, his previous rank was High Command Prefect of the Praetorian Guard. Holding his position until May 4, 2013 he became the longest serving Military Affairs Imperial Officer in Pacifican history, at 936 days.

Under Emperor Brehon, the predecessor of the current squad system was implemented, expanding Military Command's duties further as squads became standardized as six-nation trade circles focused around a specific strength range. Squad Leaders and seconds-in-command were created and immediately became answerable to MilCom, serving as mentors for their squadmates and a link with battalion-level command. At this time, all nations in the Order were ordered to join squads.

In September 2012, Iceknave was promoted to the rank of General and has held this position since, becoming the longest serving General in Pacifican history and under his watch, Pacifica's Military Command has continued to reach new heights.

Current Times

The next war Pacifica fought was the Dave War in June 2012, when Pacifica declared war on GOD who had attacked an ally. In support of GOD, the Viridian Entente declared war on Pacifica and fought back. VE fought for a month before peace was agreed to, while the war against GOD lasted until August.

Military Command's era of overhaul continued when, after the Dave War, the alliance-wide infrastructure ceiling was implemented. All nations were required to wait at 8,500 infrastructure until permitted to go above, in order to strengthen the Order's war machine through the acquisition of important military wonders. In 2013, the Explosive Ordinance Disposal sub-department was shut down, having outlived its usefulness in an era of widespread warchests and stronger spying capabilities. Shortly thereafter, the squad system was reformed to allow less active nations to join normal trade circles without becoming part of a squad. Nearly concurrently, a separate infrastructure ceiling was imposed at 4499 infrastructure.

In January 2013, the Equilibrium War began which signaled a new era in Cyber Nations. A coalition called "Equilibrium", which was built around Ai, IRON, NATO, NPO and TIO, attacked Umbrella citing violations against Ai, fought against the forces of Doom House and their allies. The war ended after three months of fighting, and dissatisfaction with the conclusion would play an important part in shaping the rest of the year.

In May 2013 new changes took place. Recognizing the shrinking world that surrounded the Order, the battalions were restructured for the first time in six years. Seven battalions previously were reduced to four with new strength ranges, and the extremely large warchest requirements of the current era were imposed. The ranks of Military Command were adjusted, the position of Colonel was removed and in its place a second General was appointed. This arrangement continued for four months until two Generals became one following the resignation of Prodigy. In January 2014 the position of Colonel was re-established but with only one Colonel rather than two.

The most recent test of Military Command came during the War of the Orders, when Pacifica's ally the New Sith Order was attacked by a coalition formed around TOP and the New Polar Order. Pacifica was obliged to come to the aid of her ally, and during the war Pacifica fought against MI6, the New Polar Order, Sparta, Legion, Valhalla, GOONS, Invicta, CIN and CCC. CCC was a late entry in the war, attacking Pacifica in Janurary, almost three months after the last declaration against the Order.

Again suffering great loss of infrastructure, technology and nation strength, the Order took damages of 10,818,383.60 NS whilst inflicting 11,603,618.57 NS on its opponents, despite being outnumbered so much. 3704 wars were declared by the Order in the fighting. The war ended in February 2014, with surrender terms being signed, including terms that were meant to restrict the Order's ability to rebuild. However Military Command continues to persevere, forging greater ties with the Department of Economic Affairs to help the alliance rebuild and recover its losses, and prepare for the next war which will inevitably come.