Story

As of November 2022, the story of Armored Warfare is split into two worlds and narratives: one that is started by a battalion-sized unit of a massive corporation rebelling against their former commander and trying to go rogue, setting off a chain of events down the future, and another as a precursor to the former and possibly seeing a different fate.

• Seahawks
• Perihelion

Background

Europe did not fully recover from the financial crisis, and chose to keep its borders open for millions of refugees coming from the war-torn Middle East. This backfired as terrorists detonated two dirty bombs outside Paris and Berlin, which sparked a continental-wide revolution, causing traditional political parties to collapse and populist leaders to take control, but this did not address the ongoing economic and infrastructure decline.

On the other hand, the United States avoided the same fate that the European Union suffered, but faced conflict in its southern states with pro-separatist militia and terrorists backed by drug cartels that were in control of several South American countries.

In desperation, the European leaders turned to the largest corporations for help, which were left largely unscathed from multiple crises and secretly exploiting the chaos to further their agendas. Eventually, these corporations were allowed to have their own land, legal system, as well as armed forces, becoming factions that could surpass traditional nations of the past era, achieving the relative stability that citizens long sought at the price of freedom. This also gave rise to mercenaries and private military corporations that were hired to fight terrorists or even rival factions.

By the late 2030s, the world was split between the new corporations and the old nations, and between the regulated forces and the unregulated freedom fighters. It was only a matter of time before the world would plunge into the chaos of war once again.

Timeline

2029

• Bordeaux Treaty was signed, allowing major corporations to form their own armed forces and granting themselves complete exemption from local legal and tax systems.

2031

• The Great Internet Collapse occurred.

2032

• The United States Congress passed a military budget cut bill that closed all American overseas military bases worldwide, forcing their soldiers to either go home or be honorably discharged, and the equipment either purchased by European corporations or be left to rust on the spot.

2034

• June 7: Rolling Thunder
• June 31: Zero Hour
• August 12: Harbinger
• September 15: Hydra
• October 18: Onyx
• November 7: Stormy Winter

2035

• January 16: Scorpio
• May 30: Wildfire
• June 14: Ghost Hunter
• August 3: Banshee
• August 27: Tsunami
• September 22: Desert Viper
• December 4: Phalanx

2036

• April 19: Sapphire
• June 2: Meltdown
• July 1: Umbrella
• July 23: Watchdog
• August 23: Anvil
• September 5: Desert Saber

2037

• March 10: Spearhead
• May 11: Snake Bite
• June 17: Cerberus
• July 11: Basilisk
• August 20: Life Jacket

2038

• The Balkans region suffered an economic collapse. As a result, major corporations, including Clayburn Industries, acquired large portions of land there for their own interest. The buildup of local resistance eventually led to the Intervention - a Clayburn campaign to pacify the region.
• February 14: Albatross
• April 19: Erebos
• April 29: Desert Path
• May 18: Quarterback
• June 20: Ricochet
• August 11: Desert Fox
• December 8: Frostbite

2039

• Spring: Clayburn Seahawks, Lodestar Deathwalkers, and Hajduk Militia clashed over the Balkans region.
• May 2: Kodiak
• May 25
  • Erika Schepke was assassinated in Frankfurt.
  • Clayburn Seahawks were ordered by the local commander Peter Clayburn to commit genocide near Zagreb, and went rogue on the same day.
• June 11: Desert Strike
• June 16: Adrian Blackwood of the Clayburn Seahawks enlisted Fyodor Sokolov's help in Dimitrovgrad.
• June 28: Starry Night
• July 15: Clayburn's allies ambushed the Seahawks in Cairo, but were repelled instead.
• August 1: Red Opossum
• August 23: Blackwood led a portion of Seahawks and successfully took Al-Arish base by force.
• September 5: Perseus
• September 18: Crimson Reavers, led by Peter Clayburn, joined forces with local mercenaries, angered by Kathryn Grey's ruthless approach to acquire resources from the region, to attack the Seahawks that were temporarily based in Al-Arish base, but were lured into an open battle instead. Peter Clayburn's tank was knocked out, prompting the Reavers to retreat, and the local mercenaries were defeated by the Seahawks. Peter Clayburn was captured and later executed by Blackwood.
• October: The Seahawks departed from Al-Arish base for the United States of America in a ship that was captured and repaired at the base.
• November 20: The Seahawks arrived at Jacksonville in the United States of America. The local commander of the separatists garrison allowed the Seahawks to trade for supplies with locals and conduct recruitment drive for one week before leaving.
• December: The Seahawks boarded a train for a bunker allegedly to hold wealth for the rogue troops to settle comfortably in the United States of America. However, the Crimson Reavers were expecting the Seahawks and took position at the bunker. Blackwood, Grey, and Seagrove managed to enter the bunker, but ultimately it was a setup by Blackwood, who was in fact Andrew Clayburn in disguise. Grey and Seagrove survived Blackwood's gunshots and escaped, and Blackwood himself was also wounded in the head. The whole rebellion, planned by Andrew Clayburn himself from the beginning, allowed the Clayburn Industries to gain territory and influence in Sinai peninsula and in the United States of America.

2040

• January 3: Dire Wolf
• June 6: Tiger Claw
• July 8: Raiding Party
• September 10: Leviathan
• Late Autumn: Andrew Clayburn retold the story of Seahawk Rebellion to Ulysses Strom in his villa.

2041

• September 14: The head of Clayburn Industries securities service, Magnus Holter, was sent to Batumi in Georgia to investigate an incident where valuable cargo was allegedly damaged by Clayburn forces, only to be attacked by unknown mercenaries. The Black Eagle mercenaries that Holter hired were overwhelmed by the same enemies and captured, and the cargoes were destroyed. Holter and his escorts fought their way out of the city and reported to Sebastian Grimm, then the new CEO of Clayburn Industries.
• November 5: Clayburn Industries’ intelligence network determined that the culprit behind the Batumi attack were the Evocati PMC, and Grimm ordered Holter to spearhead an attack on the Georgian city of Tkvarcheli, where the Evocati were known to operate from, despite the fact that such operation would be in breach of the Orleans Treaty that forbade open conflict between factions. As Holter's forces pushed towards the city, other Clayburn forces withdrew and the ISD sent forces, led by Fedor Volkov, surrounded the city, declaring Holter a criminal for breaching the treaty. Douglas O'Reilly, the leader of the Evocati, sided with the ISD and attacked Holter's forces, but his AC-130 was ultimately shot down. As he bailed out of the aircraft, O'Reilly revealed to both Holter and Volkov that Grimm was the man behind the order to sell Holter out. Realizing it was a set-up, Volkov, an old acquaintance of Holter, decided to pull out his forces briefly for Holter's troops to escape.
• November 6: Holter and his remaining forces reached Clayburn's regional headquarters in Gori to confront Grimm. Grimm explained to Holter that Holter had become too powerful and popular for his own good, and decided to ruin his reputation before leaving him for dead. Holter's forces managed to reach the top of the base, only to watch Grimm fly away in a fighter jet. Holter managed to escape encirclement from Clayburn's forces with the help of an unknown ally's EMP bomb.

2042

• September 6: Holter reformed his forces and attacked a Clayburn Industries facility in the Mojave Desert, prompting ISD to hire a mercenary unit under the callsign "Alpha One" to investigate. Alpha One encountered some of Holter's forces, but the latter managed to escape with enough looted chemical payload for use in a future attack.
• September 15: Alpha pursued Holter's forces to Panama Canal, only to realize that they passed through the waterway, now blocked, without resistance. Alpha One found not only some of Holter's forces left behind to block them, but also an ambush by Clayburn Industries security, but nevertheless Alpha One fought their way through allowing the ISD-provided Zubr hovercraft to pass through and continue the pursuit.
• September 17: Holter's forces occupied Port Antonio and were preparing to launch a chemical attack. Unbeknownst to Alpha One, the target was to be Clayburn's regional headquarters in Jamaica. The Zubr's captain contacted the ISD and requested for an airstrike against Holter's warships before getting killed himself, and Alpha One would clear and secure the enemy anti-aircraft positions. The airstrike did occur, but they were from Clayburn's own forces, who also sent in ground forces to wipe out both Magnus Holter and Alpha One in an attempt to leave no witnesses alive. Alpha One accepted Holter's proposal and joined forces, ultimately escaping by fighting their way out and commandeering two of Clayburn's Zubr hovercraft.

2043

• February 26: Holter reformed his forces again. Alpha One, now known as Steel Breakers under Holter's forces, raided a Clayburn processing plant in El-Arish, Egypt, which was defended by the Evocati PMC.
• March 5: Using intelligence obtained from the El-Arish raid, Steel Breakers conducted an attack on the outskirts of Basra, Iraq and assisted in the capture of Douglas O'Reilly.
• March 20: O'Reilly was turned over to ISD for interrogation in Latakia, Syria, but the base came under attack by Clayburn Industries. Alpha One fought their way out for Fedor Volkov to extract O'Reilly out of the city in exchange for Sebastian Grimm's secret base location.
• March 27: Holter and Volkov joined forces and attacked Grimm's secret base in Olavsvern, Norway. Grimm tried to escape via his own private destroyer, but he was ultimately captured by the ISD after the joint forces disabled his vessel.
• April 13
  • With Grimm's capture and the downfall of Clayburn Industries, Volkov headed a summit in Moscow with other major corporations to discuss the aftermath. The city came under major attack by vehicles in PLM colors, and the summit venue was destroyed by a missile, killing Volkov. Holter was captured by forces under the command of Victor Blaze, the leader of an organization called Enigma. Alpha One, who also participated in the summit's defense, was wiped out despite surrendering to the Enigma.
  • Hana Burić and her Salzburg garrison in Austria evacuated out of the last ISD outpost as the ISD was being annihilated by Enigma all across Europe.
• June 6: The Lions of Nequiel, with the assistance of Enigma, launched a major attack on Resistance bases in Monument Valley. Ryan Miller, a former sheriff turned vigilante Resistance fighter, helped relieved the bases, but not before the Lions captured many of the Resistance fighters and leaving.
• June 27: Miller led a operation in the American city of Denver to rescue Resistance prisoners previously captured in Monument Valley.
• July 3: Upon learning the existence of an Enigma base near Green River, Miller led an assault while Austin Harper and the commandos hacked the network to learn more about their new enemy.
• July 6: Harper discovered that the Enigma had a military satellite with a weapon, previously used to destroy the summit in Moscow, now aiming at the Resistance's base in Monument Valley. Miller mustered his forces and attacked a former United States Air Force base in Area 51, which has been transformed into a massive Enigma base. Despite overwhelming odds, Miller managed to capture a command tower deep within the base for Harper to shut down the satellite remotely at the cost of his own life. At Miller's final instructions, Harper took the data obtained from the Enigma bases and informed Burić of the European Resistance branch for future operations against Enigma.
• August 23: Hana Burić, now leader of the Resistance and knowing Enigma's identity thanks to Harper's information, launched an ambush on trucks carrying Enigma's cloaking technology near Pleternica for use in a future rescue operation in Moscow.
• September 2: Using Enigma's cloaking technology on their own vehicles, Burić and her forces mounted an assault in Moscow to rescue Magnus Holter. Despite heavy losses, they managed to escape by commandeering a warship at the airport.

2044

• July 16
  • On Holter's suggestion, Burić launched an assault near Takahashi in Japan to capture James Todd Litteral, the leader on the National Patriot Activist Army who knew the location of Enigma's central command.
  • Harper's interrogation on Litteral revealed that Victor Blaze was somewhere on Shikotan. Holter led a small force to search for the base on the island, but decided to sever radio connection with Burić and Harper when he found the entrance.
  • Having lost contact with Holter, Burić returned to the Resistance's base of operation in Tsushima, but she discovered that the base had been captured by Enigma. She later re-established contact with Harper, who was stranded on the island after Enigma attacked with Litteral escaping in the midst of chaos. In a desperate effort, Burić captured another Enigma's warship and ferried her forces to Shikotan.
• July 17: Burić arrived in Shikotan and discovered an Enigma's base in the middle of a volcano. They found Holter alive upon entrance and fought together against Enigma's forces and their leader's flagship. Holter boarded the ship, shot Blaze personally, and activated the ship's self-destruction mechanism, but also taking gunshot wounds himself. At Holter's pleading, Burić and Harper escaped the base in the previously commandeered warship while leaving Holter behind. The Enigma flagship's destruction and volcano's eruption would eventually triggered a global volcanic winter, which would cause what was little left with corporate infrastructure to collapse all around the world.
• July: Ivo Rinaldi, the former leader of PLM, banded together with an ex-major of the Russian military Igor Kopylov and captured an Enigma vault right after the cataclysm. Together they formed a colony for survival.

2047

• March: Rinaldi and Kopylov flew over to Gori to acquire munitions. They encountered David Gelovani's militia who settled there and fought their way out of the occupied city.
• April: Rinaldi and Kopylov flew over to Panama Canal to acquire fuel from an abandoned tanker. They encountered Hana Burić, who now settled there after the cataclysm. In exchange for the fuel stockpile she hid elsewhere, Rinaldi helped liberated the city from local raiders before leaving the area. Despite Rinaldi's offer to move to their colony, Burić decided to stay behind in Panama Canal, and bade farewell with him.
• May: Rinaldi and Kopylov flew over to Mostar to negotiate a steady food supply chain with local merchants. While Rinaldi was away from the warship, Kopylov was captured by the Zellers brothers. Rinaldi returned to the warship to see the warship being salvaged by Zellers' militia, and heavy fighting ensued between the two forces. Ultimately Kopylov managed to escape capture, and with Rinaldi's help they repaired the ship back to working conditions and flew off with the food supply, but not before angering Martin Zeller, who lost two of his brothers in the fighting.
• June: Amparo Neiva, a headhunter and Rinaldi's ex-girlfriend, shot down Rinaldi and Kopylov's warship over Batumi. Rinaldi's forces repelled her forces' ambush and captured the SAM launchers, but not before Neiva escaped.

2049

• June: In revenge for their raid on Gori two years ago, David Gelovani mounted a massive attack on Rinaldi and Kopylov's settlement in Košice. On the same day, a volcano erupted near the settlement, forcing Rinaldi to fight his way out while Kopylov evacuated the settlers. Shortly after evacuation, however, the world suddenly collapses, and Gail Espinoza is the only known survivor to have transferred to another world.

Background

The year is 2028 and the world order is slowly unraveling. The United States of America, once an undisputed leader of the free world, is wracked by internal strife after more than a century of prosperity. The Russian Federation, having fully recovered from the Soviet Union era that ended in 1997, is a rising power once again. Further to the east, the mysterious land of China is closed to all but selected few, its ambitions as strong as Russia’s. Europe’s fortune is closely tied to that of America with their issues similar – the influence of nation states clashing with that of power-hungry corporations.

A young mercenary named Samuel Thorpe is presented with an offer to train a security branch of a Chicago-based company by the name of Perihelion, its purpose as enigmatic as its founder, an investor by the name of David Murdoch.

Timeline

2028

• June: Samuel Thorpe was headhunted by David Murdoch, a wealthy investor with much power in Chicago, to lead a security force for Perihelion. He began training with the Perihelion troops led by Gail Espinoza in Arizona.
• July: A U.S. Army base situated near Perihelion's camp in Arizona was attacked by unknown enemies. Startled by distant gunfire, Thorpe led several armored vehicles to access the situation.

External links

• Lore: The World of Armored Warfare - Armored Warfare Official Website
• Storyline Campaign (2017) - Armored Warfare Official Website
• Diaries - Armored Warfare Official Website
• Special Operations: Story So Far - Armored Warfare Official Website