Belka

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Belka

Principality of Belka National Flag



World map showing Belka's 2010 borders


Full Name

Belkan Federation
(? - 1995)
Principality of Belka
(1995 - 2010(?))

Location

North East of Osea on the Osea Continent

Capital

Dinsmark

Area

Fictional

Type

Industrious, Aggressive

Government

Democratic Federation
(? -1991)
Fascist Federation
(1991 - 1995)
Principality
(1995 - 2010 (?))

Belka is a fictional country that was created in the PlayStation 2 video game Ace Combat 5 by Namco and featured in its prequel Ace Combat Zero.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details about Ace Combat 5 and Ace Combat Zero follow.

Contents

[edit] Location

The Principality of Belka is located north east of Osea, on the Osean main continent. Before the Belkan war in 1995, Belka could be estimated as being roughly 505,000 km² (around the size of Spain); during the height of the war, Belka encompassed an area estimated of around 780,500 km² (around the size of Turkey); after the war and loss of its Southern and South Eastern territories it retreated to an area estimated around 390,500 km² (around the size of Zimbabwe).

Belka is a medium-sized nation, surrounded to the south and east by Ustio, Ratio, Recta, Fato, Gebet and Osea; Belka has also declared war on all of these countries, plus the Kingdom of Sapin. Belka's northern coastline runs along the Arctic Ocean.

[edit] Climate

Little is known about Belka's climate. However, judging by its position below the arctic, it could be surmised that north Belka appears to have very cold winters and cool summers. A mountain range running across the center of the country may provide some protection for the south.

Belka's most noticeable weather conditions consist of heavy snowfall. As a result of the nuclear strike carried out near the end of the Belkan War, most of Belka's central mountain range is too dangerous to inhabit due to radioactive fallout. This seems to have had an effect on the weather patterns of the rest of North Belka, turning it into most of it into an Arctic wasteland, throwing North Belka into anarchy. Effects of the blasts also spread as far south as the former Belkan city of Sudentor which only escaped the blast due to the mountains as evidenced by the ground zero crater north of the city.

However, North Belka was not always as desolate as it is today. A vacation town on the North Belkan coast a few dozen miles west of Dinsmark used to attract travellers from all over the world before the Belkan war with a warm, serene environment.

[edit] Notable places

Belkan Air Priority Area B7R
Belkan Air Priority Area B7R
Stier Castle
Stier Castle
Excalibur in Tauberg
Excalibur in Tauberg
  • Anfang - A stretch of coastline several dozen miles west of the North Belkan capital of Dinsmark, this used to be a vacationing hotspot before the Belkan war. The vibrant ecosystem and beautiful coastline attracted both young and old, but all that changed during the Belkan war. It is the site of the last battle of the war, which occurred right as the peace treaty was being signed.[1]
  • Area B7R - the main battle zone at the border between Belka and Ustio, named "The Round Table" by the aces who fly in the area. The topography makes the location look like a giant circle with a 400 km radius, hence its name. It is supposedly the attack corridor used by Belka to invade not just Ustio, but also its surrounding nations, making it an extremely important strategic location, charged to many Belkan aces to defend. Apparently, it also holds a large natural resource reserves that Belka desperately needs to fund its war effort. Aces who distinguish themselves in this area are known as "Knights of the Round Table".
  • Avalon Dam/Mund Valley - A dam in the Belkan heartland built amid controversy because of its ambiguous purpose; after it was completed, however, the Belkans came to embrace the dam, calling it the pride of Belka as an engineering feat. Following the Belkan war, Belkan engineers who defected to the radical terrorist group "A World with No Bounderies" completed the V2 MIRV missile and planned to launch it from Avalon, but the Galm team destroyed the missiles before they could fulfill their deadly purpose.
  • Dinsmark - The capital of the Belka Federation and the state of North Belka, home to the University of Dinsmark.
  • Glatisant - An ancient Belkan fortress built on the top of Mt. Ivrea. The Belkan army converted it into a modern base, the centerpiece of the Hydrian line, a defence line that stretched from the Sapin border to the Osean border, as well as a suspected nuclear production facility. It was destroyed by the Allied forces, but not before a mysterious attack took out several Ustian squadrons.
  • Hoffnung - A major industrial center for Belka known as the "Sleepless Town" for its non-stop industrial productions. The city was razed to the ground by the retreating Belkan forces as part of their newly instated scorched earth policy, attempting to keep Belkan technology out of the Allies' hands.[2]
  • Lumen - A border city in South Belka, Lumen was the site of the peace resolution talks after the Belkan War. It was attacked by the XB-0 Hresvelgr several months later.
  • Mt. Schirm - A mine in North Belka from the Belkan Federation's more prosperous era. Probably abandoned during the 80's when the vein went dry, possibly affecting the already chaotic Belkan economy. An operation occurred over the area during the Circum-Pacific War, when a significant force was used to defend the mine as nuclear weapons were being stored. The V1 Tactical nuclear weapons were to be sold for the Yuktobanians and Oseans fighting each other. This ended when the Razgriz Air Command Squadron destroyed the entrance, sealing it for perpituity, presumably.
  • Schayne Plains - Belka's second line of defence, the Schayne Plains are an open expanse of fields, bisected by a branching river. In the middle of the war, the Allieds neutralized the defence capabilities of the defence line, but suffered massive casualties when the Belkans used the chemical laser Excalibur to attack the allied aircraft.
  • Stier Castle - An ancient castle in the Stier region, overlooks one of the seven nuclear blast craters left from the Belkan War. The battle against the Hresvelgr also occurred here. President Harling of Osea was kept in captivity here during the Circum-Pacific War of 2010.
  • Sudentor - The capital of South Belka, later ceded to Osea and becoming part of North Osea. It is one of the sites of the final battles of the Belkan War[3], as well as the final ground battle in The Circum-Pacific War, between the once-again allied Osean-Yuktobanian forces and the North Osean Grunder Industries working for Belka and a few divisions from Osea and Yuktobania, sent by the warmongers still in power in those countries to defend the Tunnel entrance, so they could gain the V1 nuke the Belkans promised them.[4]
  • Tauberg - a forested area in the heart of Belka. It originally was a Belkan National Preserve, and had over 60 species of mammals and over 200 species of birds. During Belka's military expansion period, however, the land was bought by the Belkan Army as the site that would become the territory of their super laser, Excalibur. Rather than destroying the wildlife's habitat, though, the secretive nature of the Excalibur program actually prevented outside influences from affecting the wildlife. The wildlife had adapted to living alongside the technology of Belka.The weapon Excalibur was finally destroyed by the Galm team(Galm 1)

[edit] History

[edit] Early History (pre 1989)

Belka appeared to be a prosperous, medium-sized nation, which, judging from the prologue of Ace Combat 5, has invaded the independent nations to its south on more than one occasion. The Belkans were supposedly always pushed back to their original soil, but Belka itself had never been taken.

[edit] Federal Law Review and the Fascist Revolution (1989-1995)

During a period of peace, Belka initiated a Federal Law Review, which unexpectedly crashed the Belkan economy. During the panic, the Belkan Home Worker's party, a fascist party, seized power and took control of the nation. The transfer of power transformed Belka from a democratic federation to a fascist federation, combining the judicial, executive, and legistrative branches under one controlling banner.

For six years, Belka invested heavily in its military, creating weapons that were unrivaled. It is suspected during this time of preparation of warfare, Belka researched and created at least ten nuclear warheads, likely becoming the fourth out of four countries to be nuclear-capable (the other three being Osea, Erusia and Yuktobania). As well as upgrading its conventional armed forces as well as nuclear capability, Belka invested in creating large unconventional superweapons such as the XB-0 Hresvelgr, a massive aircraft presumably capable of holding paratroops, infantry, aircraft, bombs (including nuclear warheads); and the Excalibur, a long range laser tower for striking pinpoint targets. These new super weapons, in addition to regular nuclear and a well equipped ground, sea and air force would have made Belka the greatest military superpower in the world. Expecting an attack, other countries (namely Osea) developed weapons in order to counter and someday fight the less than subtle preparations of Belka, Osea's government in retaliation developed the Strategic Orbital Linear Gun (SOLG), which would attack anywhere on the planet from Space with Multi Interception re-entry vehicles (MIRVs). It can be presumed that at this point, Yuktobania began its development of massive submarine military weapons as a means of defense and extending its power to other continents without utilizing the nuclear option.

[edit] The Belkan War (1995)

Nuclear blast crater in North Belka.
Nuclear blast crater in North Belka.

When war was declared in 1995, Belka managed to capture and occupy vast areas of its neighbors' land. The hardest hit was the small country of Ustio, which was completely occupied. Other countries, such as Osea and Sapin, lost almost all of their territory within Belkan reach. As the war progressed, Belka slowly lost its new territories, and opposing forces encroached on the Belkan homeland. The huge resources of Osea and Yuktobania were of paramount importance to the counteroffensive. Also critical was the 6th Air Division of Ustio, mercanary pilots working for the Ustio government. They defeated some of the most skilled pilots that Belka offered. This collection of ace Belkan pilots was known as the "Knights of the Round Table."

Soon, Belka had been pushed back to just south of its central mountain range, in the region of Stier, home to several Belkan cities. In an effort to stop the Allies, Belka used seven of its nuclear bombs to create an impassable nuclear barrier, destroying their own cities and killing over 12,000 Belkans in the process. This act officially ended the Belkan War in the North; in Sudentor, the remnants of the besieged South Belkan army, taking adavantage of the confusion following the blasts and subsequent lack of communications (due to the EMP discharge from the nuclear bombs), attempted to break the Allies' line of three divisions. It was a last, desperate charge. As it could be said for the war itself, the Belkans' luck quickly spoiled. On June 20, two weeks after the nuclear blasts, the guns fell silent.

A few Belkan units refused to surrender, however. Many operations still continued against the remnant forces, until it turned out that they were not fighting for Belka. They had joined with units from all over the world to form "A World With No Boundaries", a terrorist group that intended to unify the world into a single nation. However, Ustian mercenary pilots were able to neutralize the group.

A final group of Belkans went deep underground to form a group that would go unnoticed for 15 years. They were called the Grey Men.

[edit] Circum-Pacific War (2010)

In the years after the war, Belka was crippled both physically and economically. Its expensive armed forces were wiped out and once powerful super weapons now destroyed. Belka also couldn't generate the money needed to recreate any of these, as its occupied land was once again territory of its rightful countries. Even much of Belka's own southern lands (now the province of North Osea) had been occupied. Belka now only had control over a cold, mountainous region without enough resources to directly participate in another war. Its population had also taken a significant blow due to the destruction of seven cities, and the loss of even more to the south. For much of the time, Belka appeared to have no working government (similar to Somalia between 1991-2000), but instead was managed by corporations that operated both in Belka, and the new state of North Osea. One of these companies was the weapons manufacturer North Osea Gründer Industries, the head of which was a secret member of the Belkan Grey Men, who had seized control of the country twenty years ago.

Through Belka's corporate power, the Grey Men and other loyalists began to send weapons to Osea and Yuktobania, they also saw to it that these two superpowers were secretly sent Belkan fighter squadrons to strengthen each nations' air forces (Osea's Grabacr and Yuktobania's Ofnir aggressor squadrons). Belka also produced the V2 nuclear weapon, a MIRV missile fired from the SOLG which could have destroyed at least seven target areas in one shot. Finally, Belka (with agents inside both superpowers' governments) provoked militaristic generals in Yuktobania to stage a silent coup, and declare war on Osea. Soon after the Belkan fighter squadron in Osea (Grabacr, known to the Oseans as the 8492nd TFS) abducted President Vincent Harling on the way to a peace conference in North Point, control was usurped by Vice President Applerouth and military officers who resigned several years ago to protest Harling's defense budget cuts. All Belka had to do was to use its two secret aggressor squadrons to periodically provoke the other nation and be sure no one nation got the upper hand.

As both countries' strength faded, Grey Men loyalists took control of the Arkbird, a joint Osean-Yuktobanian orbital spacecraft, and armed it with two lasers, UCAVs, and several air to air missile turrets. Their plan was to escalate the war into a final stage by triggering a nuclear strike on the Yuktobanian city of Ochabursk. However, their plan was foiled by a squadron of fighters called the "Razgriz" (Formerly the Osean Wardog Squadron, 108th TFS, 5th Fighter Wing). These fighters destroyed the Arkbird along with the nuclear weapon onboard, and eventually exposed Belka's plot, helping reinstate President Harling of Osea, with help from Osean and Yuktobanian defectors. This squadron of fighters, along with loyalists of Osean President Harling and Yuktobanian Prime Minister Nikanor, attacked the Belkan command post in Sudentor, which was secretly orchestrating the war and preparing the SOLG for a nuclear attack on both nations. They were also constructing a large tunnel to reunite Belka with the land it lost in the Belkan War. With the command center destroyed, the Grey Men ordered one final desperate attack: to drop the SOLG itself on Oured, the Osean capital. The Razgriz killed Ofnir and Grabacr, who were covering the satellite drop, and destroyed the SOLG in mid-air.

For a more detailed account of the war, see Ace Combat 5.

[edit] Military

[edit] Belkan Air Force

The huge Hresvelgr aircraft/superweapon.
The huge Hresvelgr aircraft/superweapon.

During the Belkan War of 1995 the Belkan Air Force was made up of many elite squadrons, these include:

Other aircraft used during the Belkan War include:

Belka also created the XB-0 Hresvelgr superweapon, although it was only used after the war by the A World With No Boundaries terrorist organization.

In 2010, the only known Belkan Air Force units are Grabacr and Ofnir squadrons (at first flying F-15S/MTD and Sukhoi Su-35, respectivly, but later flying 8 S-32 (Gold Eagle) fighters.) During other missions, several other aircraft can be seen supporting Belkan forces:

[edit] Belkan Army

The Belkan Army used the same weapons as Yuktobania in both the Belkan and Cirum-Pacific Wars, with the exception of the Osean M113.

[edit] Army Aviation

[edit] Belkan Navy

Kongo Class DDG
Kongo Class DDG

In 1995, Belka's navy was a very strong force in the Atlantic region. Ironically, they share many of the same classes of vessels with their enemy Yuktobania.

By 2010, probably because it possesses a much smaller coastline, or due to sanctions by the Allied forces, Belka's navy seems considerably reduced. The only ships encountered are gun boats and a Sea Shadow.

[edit] Trivia

  • Belka is in many ways an allusion to Nazi Germany as it follows the same pattern as being taken over by a fascist government following national crisis (in Germany's case, hyperinflation after World War I; in Belka's case, collapse of economy due to a lack of natural resources caused by regions such as Ustio ceceding to other countries. )
  • The division of North & South Belka after the Belkan War is also similar to division of West & East Germany after World War II. One of the most contributing factors about this coincidence is that in the ending credits of Ace Combat 5, a broken wall is visible with freedom slogans in graffiti on it. This is probably an allegory to the Berlin Wall
  • The Belkan War can also be seen as a parallel to the Gulf War. Kuwait and Ustio were both nations with resources wanted by the aggressor nation. The operation at the Futuro Canal resembles the US Fleet moving through the Suez Canal during the opening stages of the Gulf War. Both wars also use many of the same aircraft.
  • There were many words in Belka and Belkan that can be found either in German, archaic German or Russian.
  • There are many references to the legend of King Arthur, most noticeable being the elite fighter squadrons called 'Knights of the Round Table', the Belkan super weapon 'Excalibur', the final mission of Ace Combat Zero takes place at Avalon Dam and ace pilots Joshua Lucan Bristow and Anthony Bedivere Palmer.
  • Belka means Squirrel in Russian, and was also the name of a dog sent into space by the USSR.
  • Belka's nuclear weapons (the V1 Tactical nuke and V2 MIRV Nuclear missile) share their name with the German V weapons, which stand for Vengeance weapons, which by coincidence is also what the Belkan V weapons are for. In fact, if the Nazis had enough time, they would've mounted a nuclear warhead to their V2 ballistic missiles, but the war ended years before the technology would be available to them at the rate they were losing ground at.
  • "Sudentor" is German for "southern door" or "southern gate." (though correctly "Südliches Tor")
  • "Gründer" is German for "Founder."
  • "Hoffnung" is German for "Hope", the destruction of it possibly means the end of hope.
  • "Schirm" is German for "Umbrella"
  • "Mund" is German for "Mouth."
  • "Anfang" is German for "Beginning." The fact that the last official battle of the war is fought there could mean "the beginning of the end."
  • The saturation bombing of Hoffnung in mission 11 of Ace Combat Zero may be an allegory to the firebombing of Dresden in World War II.
  • Mund Valley, the valley where Avalon Dam was built, could be a reference to Peenemunde, a real life V2 facility.

[edit] External links


Ace Combat series
Video games
Air Combat | 2 | 3 | 04 | 5 | Zero | X | Advance | 6
Objects and locations
Countries / Organisations: A World With No Boundaries | Aurelia | Belka | Erusea | Gründer Industries | ISAF | Leasath | Osea | Sapin | Usea | Ustio | Yuktobania
Notable Aircraft: ADF-01 Falken | ADFX-01 Morgan| X-02 Wyvern | XFA-27 | Aircraft of Ace Combat 3
Superweapons: Arkbird | Excalibur | Hrimfaxi & Scinfaxi | Megalith | SOLG | Stonehenge | XB-0 Hresvelgr | Gleipnir | Meson Cannon | Fenrir
Other
Aircraft of Ace Combat | Characters of Ace Combat
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