Gilgamesh Free State

The Gilgamesh Free State was an secessionist government on the colony of. Initially established in as the Gilgamesh Free Army, it was composed mainly of  personnel who had been separated from the CMA after the organization's involvement with the Insurrection went public. Quickly incorporating other small rebel groups, by, the organization had control over many of the frontier settlements on the colony, and was rechristened as the Gilgamesh Free State in. With the diverting the attention of the  elsewhere, Gilgamesh became almost completely lawless, and the GFS began expanding, coercing the various criminal syndicates into working to keep order within the Free State's new territory.

In, the GFS joined the , whose member organizations aided the Free State by supplying equipment and factory machinery to outfit the Free State Armed Forces, as well as advanced training on various rebel-controlled planets for specialized personnel. This was augmented by cooperation with some the larger criminal syndicates by the GFS, the former helping smuggle equipment to the latter, with the latter in return legitimizing them as local government authorities and permitting them to continue their operations, so long as they stayed within guidelines set by the Free State.

When the UNSC began retaking rebel-held worlds, starting with defeating the Victorian Independent State in, and the Glabetovan People's Republic in , the GFS mobilized its military reserves and militia units to counter an expected invasion. Taking pointers from survivors who had escaped the defeats of the VIS and GPR, the GFS prepared accordingly, and in March, the UNSC attacked. The short, but bloody, war that ensued saw the implementation of tactics that took the UNSC completely by surprise, and concluded with the end of hostilities, and Gilgamesh permitted to remain independent.

Planning and Preparation for Invasion
"To arms!"

- The text of a poster urging enlistment in late

In, with news of the quick defeat of the Victorian Independent State reaching the Gilgamesh Free State, the Free State's government and military high command drew up plans to counter the inevitable. While the plans were marked simply as Secret to deceive any agents that were in the high command, they were treated as being of Most Secret status, with the copies only being permitted to be written down by hand, for fear of the possibility of a UNSC artificial intelligence breaching the digital system or a logging program surreptitiously installed on a computer obtaining copies of the plans.

The plan called for several stages. First, the great majority of the Gilgamesh Free Army was to be kept hidden in secluded areas shielded from surveillance, and fake units were to be created to divert attention. Second, the elements of Gilgamesh Free Army kept on the line were to allow the UNSC to make initial gains, only making stands if necessary or if ordered to keep enemy commanders from suspecting a trap. At the same time, the local so-called Auxiliaries, in reality criminal syndicates who had their activities sanctioned by the government in return for loyalty, as well as militia units, would launch attacks behind UNSC lines, particularly with an eye towards preventing the movement of troops, and especially attacking enemy airfields, in order to continue keeping attention off of the final stage of the plan.

The plan's final stage was to only come after the UNSC considered the remaining operations to be carried out of a low-intensity nature. On orders relayed through a rebel propaganda radio station, the remaining units of the GFA and its auxiliaries would launch a massive offensive and uprising, respectively, sweeping across the captured territory before an organized response could be mounted, with the hope of causing the UNSC, through public opinion and strategic concerns, to give up and leave Gilgamesh to its own devices.

In order to make the plan viable, the GFS military high command began radical restructuring of the military. Most large tracked vehicles with were stripped of their armament, which was transferred to more mobile vehicles. Some larger guns, such as the 90 millimeter cannons on were turned into anti-tank guns, pulled by vehicles such as. The GFA's infantry also became increasingly motorized, with vehicles obtained by any means, with the main two being voluntary, though sometimes forced, acquisition from farmers, and through black market via the Auxiliaries. Along with this, perhaps just as importantly, large stocks of food, either sourced from farmers and freeze-dried, or from the black market, in order to accommodate the rebel troops during their time hidden away.

The Gilgamesh Free Air Force also began its own restructuring, selling many of its more advanced fighter aircraft on the black market in return for armed STOL aircraft. Those vehicles that had been stripped of their armament and aircraft that were deemed unable to be hidden were moved to various positions to help form a shadow army. Communications were also modified to provide optimum security, with the use of wireless communications that could be intercepted being banned in favor of antiquated methods such as dispatch riders and light signals to ensure maximum security. All of this was done in the utmost secrecy, with only individuals who had been extensively screened allowed to know what the true purpose of the restructuring was. The cover story was that prior events on had proven that conventional forces were unable to stand against the UNSC, and as a result the Gilgamesh Free State's armed forces were being restructured to instead wage a guerrilla war. In the meantime, specially screened GFS junior officers and senior noncommissioned officers began being informed of the plan and their roles within it.

In December of, with the invasion of Glabetov, the Gilgamesh Free State began mobilizing its troops in preparation for what they believed was the inevitable invasion, as Glabetov was effectively on Gilgamesh's galactic doorstep, being only several hundred light years away. Orders were immediately dispatched to all GFS Armed Forces reservists to report to the nearest station for mobilization on several specified dates and times. Transported by night and transported by truck to their camps, camouflaged within Gilgamesh's wilderness, the troops were finally informed of the ultimate plan. Meanwhile, sealed orders were also issued to the various Auxiliaries and remaining GFS Armed Forces units that were to be opened upon UNSC arrival in the system.

Invasion
In March of, the awaited invasion came. At 0300 hours, local time, the first forces arrived in-system, and at 0500, they began to land on the planet's surface. As expected, the UNSC aerial forces immediately swarmed the shadow armies, destroying what were effectively useless vehicles to the GFS. The remaining GFA troops, as per their orders, occupied the enemy forces by making a stand in the city of New Belgrade, putting up a fierce fight for two weeks, before finally surrendering on March 16th. With images of hundreds of rebel troops marching into captivity, the UNSC declared Gilgamesh taken. However, only three weeks afterward, with the majority of the fleet having been moved towards quelling other rebellions or into position to take back other rebel-controlled worlds, and the coded message sent out by Gilgamesh Free Radio, the GFS Auxiliaries immediately launched their uprisings, as per their orders. Coincidentally, this came at the same time as the 2555 Glabetovan Uprising and an operation to take back the rebel-held colony of, which further divided UNSC attention. Those forces on Gilgamesh were taken completely by surprise, having thought the GFS military totally destroyed in the first two weeks.

At the same time, the remaining units of the Gilgamesh Free State Armed Forces came from their hidden camps, and began taking back almost all of the territory that had been lost in the span of just a week, their rapid advance made possible through their increased motorization. With enemy airpower the first targets for the Auxiliaries, the rebels' advance was stymied only by UNSC troops who had managed to weather the initial shock of the rebellion and massive offensive. However, such units were few and far between, and quickly images of dejected UNSC troops in rebel captivity spread across the. With public opinion quickly turning against the war on Gilgamesh, UNSC forces occupied with keeping the peace across retaken colonies or taking back rebel-held ones, and a general fear that the GFS was far more powerful that initially anticipated, both sides agreed to a ceasefire, and on May 20th, representatives of both sides secretly concluded the Treaty of New Belgrade, with both sides agreeing to return to the status quo, ending hostilities.