Vegan War

The Vegan War (started November 6, 2033) is an event of the Metro universe, the biggest conflict in post-nuclear St. Petersburg between the Vegan Empire and the Anti-Vegan Coalition.

Participants
The main opposing sides in the Vegan War were the two major metro states, predominantly located on the same line: the Vegan Empire and the Maritime Alliance, which later led the coalition against the Greens.

The Anti-Vegan Coalition that fought against the imperial invaders comprised the overwhelming number of states and stations in the St. Petersburg Metro with a few exceptions.


 * The Maritime Alliance, the main enemy of the Empire, entered the war on 6 November, the day the war officially began.
 * Trade City is a military and economic ally of the Maritime Alliance, which maintained armed neutrality until October 2033. It was on its territory that the Great Armistice was signed.
 * The Ockerville Alliance is an isolated but well-knit community on the right bank of the Neva. Formed an alliance with the Littoralists thanks to the Molot stalkers. Joined the war on August 30. After three months of fighting, most of the population evacuated to Vsevolozhsk.
 * Mushroomers are Ockerville's trading partners, directly dependent on the supply of mushroom dope. Due to the blocking of the tracks to the big metro, they revolt against their former allies. On November 21, the surviving druggies retreat to the Alliance.
 * Sailors of Babylon are the crew of the drilling platform and the surviving colonists of the Minor and Power, destroyed by a nuclear warhead. Entered the war on the side of the Littoralists on November 6.
 * Military Doctors is a paramilitary state of sailors and medics who provided their station to the Primors to establish a military base. On November 26, they withstood an Imperial assault, after which the population was evacuated and the station flooded.
 * Technolozhka is a technocratic organization of craftsmen and scientists who did not directly participate in the war.
 * Aserki - Muslim enclave that sided with the coalition in the early days of the war.
 * Elektrosila - the working-class community that took the hit of the vegan landing force on November 14.
 * Angels are the castrati from Pionerskaya who sent a squad on November 23.
 * The Star Commune is a closed community of utopians, busy with their own internal affairs. The Reds Digger Squads assisted in the war.
 * Kirov Brigade - a gang from under the Kirov factory, who agreed to assist and "fit" the Great Underground with people.
 * Graveyard is a neutral graveyard society taken over by the Empire on November 19.
 * The Circusmen are an apolitical roving circus. On November 14, the performers took and won the battle at Elektrosila.

Coalition Satellites

 * Vladimirskaya - an independent station taken over by Vegan on the day the war began.
 * Sportivnaya - an independent station that drafted civilians after an alliance with the Maritime Alliance.
 * Vyborgskaya - independent station captured on November 26.
 * Pushkinskaya - independent station seized on November 19.
 * Chernyshevskaya - independent station seized on November 10.
 * Slaves - Vegan slaves led by Lotosh, who revolted at Obukhovo Station.

Vegan Union

 * The Vegan Empire is a powerful faction capable of single-handedly confronting the entire underground thanks to its many trump cards, including the ability to control mutants. Officially started fighting on November 6.
 * The Flyers are a Narva gang that was forced to join the Empire after November 25.

Prerequisites
The Vegan Empire, the first in number and power "state" of the St. Petersburg Metro by 2021, having managed to subdue half of the Vasileostrovskaya line by takeover, began a long and meticulous build-up to subdue the rest of the Metro and thus increase their living space/slave numbers (which made the Vegans look like World War II-era Germany). In June 2033, some time after the expeditionary force of the Maritime Alliance to Kotlin Island, a department of the Empire, specializing in the study of occult and mystical sites in St. Petersburg, organizes a Crusade to the Brusnitsyn mansion, where persistent rumors still hold of a mirror capable of elevating basic human qualities to the absolute. By delivering the artifact to the Underground, a Vegan could secure himself a major advantage in a future battle with the Primors. Under the command of the underground's most egregious mercenary, nicknamed "Hyena", a squad of imperials managed to reach the mansion, but at the very entrance they came under fire from the gunner Ephesus, who had taken a convenient position. Of the entire group, only Hyena and the last imperial soldier managed to make it to the floor where the Mirror was located, soon killed by the insolent mercenary for forbidding the use of grenades in an enclosed space.

Unfortunately for the Vegans, the operation, so carefully planned by them, turns out to be a complete failure: drugged by his vigilance, Hyena, who originally had no intention of following the orders of his superiors, is killed by poison sprayed into him by a giant scolopendra that infiltrated the mansion.

Ockerville Alliance
There had long been peace between the right bank stations and the Empire, allowing Green officers to appear regularly in Alliance border territories. At the same time, Vegan units considered the stations from Novocherkasskaya to Ulitsa Dybenko to be Imperial possessions, albeit temporarily occupied by the enemy. In the spring of 2033, Intelligence, represented by Satur, an influential Imperial official who also holds the position of Foreign Minister, recruits Lieutenant Sergei Larionov - a confidant of Colonel Bodrov - to his side through blackmail, making him a spy in the Ockerville Alliance and receiving regular reports on the defence capability of the stations.

On July 4, the day when Elena Ryseva, the daughter of the Alliance's stalker commander, passes her combat exam, the Empire launches Operation Foxhunt; whose aim was to eliminate the girl, along with her two mentors, Ivan Gromov and Eduard Vovk, with the use of trained mutants and making it appear like an accident. However, an unprepared stalker turns out to be quite agile, and the group repulses the mutant attack, escaping with only minor injuries and a broken arm in Lena's hand. Fearing detection, an Imperial agent advises the Vegan troops, concentrated in the area of Ladoga Station, to leave the right bank until a better position could be maintained.

On August 26, the Imperial chasers decided on repeating their unsuccessful July experiment, setting a large pack of warthogs on a group from the large underground, led by Boris Molotov. Eventually, the men, who lost one caravanner in the battle, ran out of ammunition. The course of this operation could have been foregone, but at the last moment Svyatoslav Rysev's group came to the caravan's rescue, thanks to whose joint efforts the mutants are pushed back and go underground.

On August 30th, a squad of Svyatoslav on the surface discovers a group of vegan saboteurs preparing to poison the population of the Ladoga Station by releasing gas through a ventilation shaft, the location of which was given by the spy Larionov in one of his many reports. Stalkers open fire on the enemy, de-cloaking themselves. During the battle, both sides suffer heavy casualties; stalkers Rysev, Samsonov, Tsarev, and Shah are killed. Only Ivan Gromov of the Occurs survives, becoming an invalid after his injuries. On the same day, martial law and general mobilization are declared in the Ockerville Alliance by Commandant Stasov. Colonel Bodrov, commander of the Ockerville army, equips a detachment of several dozen experienced soldiers specially trained to support the Maritime Alliance. Twenty-eight of the thirty men make it to their final destination on their way to Ploshchad Lenina Station. Over the next five days, a second group of twelve soldiers is formed, sent to assist at the same time as Boris Molotov's detachment and the Littoralists.

On October 31, the Alliance military undermines the only running tunnel in the Novocherkasskaya - Alexander Nevsky Square-2 line, completely depriving the right bank stations of communication with the outside world.

First Strikes
A few days before the official announcement of hostilities, the independent Vladimirskaya Station was put on alert. Its inhabitants fortified and equipped a post two hundred metres of their station in the line to Ligovsky Avenue. The next day, on November 4, their Vladimirskaya checkpoint was manned by reinforcements from the Primorsky Alliance, which had set up a military base at the previously abandoned Dostoyevskaya Station.

On the sixth of November, the Vegan Empire begins its invasion of the Great Underground. In the first minutes, the Vegans, using the mutant Lady, destroy the outpost at Dostoyevskaya without casualties on their part. The evacuation of the population to Commerce City begins in the thirty-second minute of the attack. Despite the numerical advantage and the well-trained reinforcements from Chkalovskaya, a majority of the station's disoriented defenders were unable to offer proper resistance and were taken prisoner, then packed into body bags and transported to the nearest creature's lair - an abandoned vent mine near Ligovsky Prospekt. The Chkalov sailor Shcheglov, who had fallen under the Emperor's control, obeyed the Lord's order and had his captive comrades-in-arms executed.

At the same time, Vegan's troops advance on the Mayakovskaya - Vosstaniya Square junction. Taking advantage of the general confusion, the former leader of the Uprising, Ahmet, kills the military commandant of the Littoral and escapes from the station with his loyal men through a secret network of tunnels, but is immediately ambushed by local resistance, led by his former concubine Ilyusa.

The next morning the SSV at Pushkinskaya Station is under Imperial control, the Gostiny Dvor-Nevsky Prospect junction is besieged, and the entrances to Sennaya and Gostiny Dvor stations are blocked.

Elektrosila
On November 14, the Empire decides to strike at the rear of the coalition forces, placing a large landing force near Elektrosila Station. In a matter of minutes, the vegans manage to enter the lobby and gain a foothold in their positions. The community, which was not expecting an attack, has practically no professional military personnel, and the Elektrosila management is forced to mobilize anyone who can hold a weapon. The travelling circus performers are also caught in the crossfire. With heavy losses, Elektrosila manages to defend itself.

Underground Cemetery
Having taken control of the Pushkinskaya-Zvenigorodskaya junction via a service branch, the Vegans begins its takeover of the southern section of the Purple Line, occupying the long abandoned stations one by one. On  November 19, an armed clash occurs at Bukharestskaya Station. Its inhabitants, the Mortuks, have always stayed away from military conflicts, taking no sides. The outcome of the battle remains in the hands of the Empire, which has gained a vast amount of human material.

The Ockerville Alliance
The Right Bank front was of great strategic importance to the Vegan Empire - not only did the Ockerville Alliance provide substantial support to the Great Underground by sending a large force of reinforcements to the coalition's aid. This small but close-knit community could tip the scales in favour of the Emperor's enemies. On  November 22, Vegan's storming units receive orders to attack the borders of Ockerville via the sagging runway to Novocherkasskaya.

Mushroomers
The day before the offensive on Novocherkasskaya, the Imperial landing force, having crossed the Neva, seizes the Ulitsa Dybenko station, resuming the supply of drugs for the needs of its own army. At the same time an unsuccessful attempt is made to storm the lobby of Prospekt Bolshevikov.

Military Medics
The northern stations of the red line were blocked by the Empire in the early days of the war. Of great importance to the coalition was Lenin Square, a stronghold station that housed the largest amount of medicines and medical equipment in the underground in addition to the Maritime Alliance's military base. Having made a lightning raid on the surface, the Vegan groups take control of Vyborgskaya and open the way to Lenin Square on November 26.

Armistice
On the night of November 28th, after twenty-two days of fierce fighting, a treaty officially called the "Great Truce" is signed on the neutral ground between Sadovaya and Zvenigorodskaya stations, the border of the two warring sides. Under its terms, all hostilities are halted for a fortnight between the Vegan Empire and the Anti-Vegan Coalition, as troops are withdrawn from the front lines. The wounded are allowed to be picked up, but no exchange of prisoners is envisaged. The period of the Great Armistice was to come to an end on December 14.

Many were puzzled by the motives of the Empire taking the first step towards and offering to conclude an armistice. The most common version is the rebellion at Obukhovo Station, making it difficult for Vegan's army to further advance.

General Offensive
According to the plan of the Grand Underground heads, on December 14, the day the Armistice expired, the combined coalition forces, reinforced by units of the Maritime Alliance, Ockerville reinforcements, bandits, and sailors, would begin a decisive march on the Vegan positions, whose considerable troops were to be drawn back by men from the Uberführer unit sent to help the rebel slavers of Obukhovo on December 11.

The swift tunnel march was intended to break through the Imperial defences, recover the lost stations, and establish the status quo on the green line.

First phase (6 - November 28)
At the end of the first act of the war the tactical advantage remains with the Vegan Empire. The Imperial soldiers capture stations such as: International, Volkovskaya, Obvodny Kanal, Bukharestskaya, Zvenigorodskaya, Ligovsky Prospekt, Pushkinskaya, Vladimirskaya, Novocherkasskaya, Ulitsa Dybenko, Vyborgskaya and the Mayakovskaya - Ploshchad Vosstaniya junction. Ploshchad Lenina, Chernyshevskaya, Nevsky Prospekt - Gostiny Dvor. Dostoyevskaya Station is constantly changing hands. Despite competent moves, relatively low casualties and the support of mutated critters, Imperial forces failed to break through to the centre. On the surface, military digger units fight with varying success. On November 12, an experienced team of Zvezdnaya stalkers went missing in the vicinity of St. Isaac's Cathedral.