Girls' Frontline Setting Exploration: Relic History

In Girls’ Frontline “Relic” is a term often used to refer to both individual technologies and entire structural facilities left behind by an unknown civilization which inhabited Earth before the advent of mankind.  Whether this civilization is alien, or simply an advanced ancestor of humanity (or both) has not been revealed, yet.

These ruins and artifacts have been discovered all over the world, and the full capabilities of the technologies are still largely beyond the comprehension of the current humanity.

1900s

• In 1905, Tsarist Russia was the first nation to discover a Relic site near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate. Lomonosov State University of Moscow served as the research headquarters and answered directly to the Kremlin. On June 30th 1908, due to a mishandling in the facility, a detonation occurred when control of the reactor within was lost. This was known as the Tunguska Event and is the first recorded disaster involving Relic technology.
  
  This carries the same name of a real moment in history, the Tunguska Event, featured in the same location and on the same date. The difference between these two occurrences is that in Girls’ Frontline this event was caused by the misuse of Relic technology. The real explosion is believed to have been caused by the airburst of a small asteroid or comet, but is otherwise an unexplained phenomenon.

1920s - 1930s

• The Soviet Union's reign stabilized in the 1920s following the Russian Revolution and World War I, allowing the Kremlin to gradually resume their exploration of Relics. However, their progress was once again halted as international tensions worsened and The Great Purge began.

• Todt, an occult-obsessed organization of the Third Reich excavated a Relic in the Nordhausen region in Leipzig during the 1920s to ‘30s. It was known as the First Relic (Urkunde-01) and would later become the foundation for all Soviet Relic weapons.
  
  In real history, Organization Todt was a civil and military engineering organization. Infamous for using forced labour of POWs and other captives. The Girls’ Frontline version may be a combination of both the real Todt, and the Thule Society, which was occult-obsessed, but has yet to be mentioned in any Girls’ Frontline materials.

1940s

• In 1945 during the last year of World War II, the US busied themselves collecting research and personnel related to nuclear research while the Soviets secured any research on Relics from the Third Reich, including the complete Relic site, Urkunde-01 housed underneath the Nordhausen-Harz mountains.
  
  The Germans discovered that Urkunde-01 was a sort of production facility and contained many dangerous, and unknown substances. Drilling into crystalline capsules triggered a detonation which reduced several research facilities nearby to ashes. Following this incident, Dr. Josef Mendele discovered the contents of these containers could induce a deadly disease, ELID. Mendele’s surrender brought with it a critical contribution to the Soviets with his testimony which allowed them to understand the dangers of Collapse Fluid.
   
• As World War II came to a close, the First Relic was secured and transported along with its pertinent data to the Soviet Union by the singularly-tasked "Russian Alsos". It was this units mission to find and secure any relic-related spoils of war. The data gained from by the Soviets heightened the progress of nuclear weapons development within the Soviet Union. At the same time, the information regarding V-type missiles progressed the aerospace engineering of Russia.
   
• The remains of a flying machine were discovered within the OKB-456 Relic in 1947. This sample allowed Almaz-Antey, a Russian state-owned arms company, to advance Soviet Anti-Air missile technology.
   
• In the late 1940s the Soviets saw a breakthrough at the Tabasar-B Relic site that would later be developed into the “Pike” weapon system. This breakthrough involved materials recovered from the First Relic using the electronic interfaces within Tasabar-B to repair themselves and decompose their surroundings. It was unknown how this mechanism worked or what characteristic of these materials allowed them erase anything around them. Even though the Soviets did not yet have a working knowledge of this relic phenomenon, they knew it could produce for them an ultimate weapon. The facility at the site was known as the “Starfish” facility which produced these prototypes and later successors.

1950s

• The Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955, allowing the Americans to have their spies infiltrate Eastern Europe during the confusion and learn of the existence of Tabasar-B. In the same year Relic D-1 was discovered within American borders, resulting in Washington setting up its own Relic research agency - ARPA, Advanced Research Projects Agency.
   
• The west eventually discovered the "Starfish" facility at Tabasar through high-altitude surveillance and the American President then “blackmailed” Capitol Hill for additional funding for ARPA with news of the Soviet’s progress.
   
• Funding to the Tabasar-B relic facility increased in 1955 amidst the discovery of the relic by American spies. The latest model of ternary-logic computer “Сетунь” (Setun) was deployed at the facility at the same time.

1960s

• The OGAS system is first developed in 1960, a nationwide network based off Relic technology.
   
• On January 28th, 1961 the facility at Tabasar-B successfully produced what could be called the prototype for the “Pike” Relic weapon system. The Moscow State University named these objects “Идиот” (Moron). The machines were placed within a shielded room full of Collapse Fluid, absorbing all of the Collapse Fluid and decomposing any metal objects into pure, mono-elemental powder at the same time.
   
• The Soviet Union unveiled “Moron” during the 1961 October Revolution Parade, and the next day President Kennedy announced that the Apollo program would be abandoned and funding would be diverted into exploring the “Relic civilization”.
   
• The prototype control system for the “Moron” Relic weapon, “Емеля- 1” (Emelya-1) completed successful testing on June 22nd, 1962.
   
• Soviet ballistic missile deployment and the stationing of the newly tested “Moron” units in Cuba following a meeting with Castro led to the Cuban Moron Crisis. The American government’s lack of information regarding Relic technology forced them to withdraw their nuclear warheads from Europe in exchange for the Soviets removing “Moron” from Cuba.
  
  This is a direct parallel to the real historical event, the Cuban Missile Crisis.
  
  At this point, the American government decreased their expenditure on conventional forces and went “all in” on Relic technology. The level of investment could’ve been considered irrational, but American Relic weapon development grew by leaps and bounds over a short period of time as a result.
   
• The German Democratic Republic tasked various departments to research the origins and capabilities of Relic technology after the unveiling of the Relic weapon "Moron" in Cuba by the Soviets in October 1962.
  
  Markus Wolff, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Security, was lead of the project tasked with researching the excavated remains of the First Relic (Urkunde-01) after their Soviet allies had already pulled out anything of value from within.
  
  The site was a massive hollow in the Nordhausen mountains and its entrance was sealed by two heavy steel doors. The inside was roughly seven stories tall, and the walls of the cave looked to be made of some kind of metal. Irregular indentations at 120-degree angles were found on the walls. These grooves were triple matched sets.
   
• Skunk Works, a US aircraft manufacturer, reverse engineered a piece of wreckage found in a Relic in 1964 and developed a new type of thruster, the J58.
   
• On December 19th, 1965, the First Relic (Urkunde-01) produced feedback in response to electrical signals emitted by the Germans to the grooves on the walls. They discovered that the Relic used a kind of ternary electromagnetic signal for external communications.
   
• In 1965 the successor of the J58 thruster, the J64, was outfitted on the SR-71A which allowed the US to perform high-altitude reconnaissance. It was later put to use on high altitude bombers through the Altitude High-Speed Strategic Bomber Project.
   
• In November of 1967, Collapse Fluid was discovered in the D9-Beta-Zuma Relics by the Americans. The ARPA immediately entered a testing period to verify the dangerous characteristics of Collapse Fluid.
  
  Following trials which lasted for 9 months, the Americans were the first to directly use Collapse Fluid in warfare after the President signed the order to bomb North Vietnam with the substance.
  
  The Thunderbolts Squadron from the USS Enterprise completed their first bombing with Relic gas on the 5th of July. The gas exhibited targeted corrosion of organic matter, and produced heat over 1000 degrees during the process. The bombing sites were saturated with ionizing radiation so powerful that even the surveillance plane flying at 2000 meters was exposed to it.
   
• The US conducted analysis of a ship propulsion wreckage found in Relic D-51, resulting in the development of a new propulsion system for Destroyers and Submarines in 1969. This new system reduced propulsion system noise, and it gave Destroyers a wider sonar detection radius. American nuclear subs were now capable of stalking beneath the waves like silent ghosts thanks to this new breakthrough.
   
• The GAVIRUL unknown lifeform sample is discovered at the Beilan Island Relic site. The sample is put into storage for the next 30 years.

1970s

• An electronic surveillance center was constructed to monitor, analyze, and decrypt the signals from the First Relic (Urkunde-01).
  
  It was designed by the First Relic Investigation Working Group of the Leipzig University of Karl Marx. The name of this group was changed to 90Wunsch in 1971 by Markus Wolff. The original codename was Listening Post 90 - Wrack. The change was made to avoid using the conventional naming system of listening posts, but also contained Wolff's own personal wishes.
  
  Little to no progress was made on the analysis and decoding of the signals from the Urkunde-01 Relic, but the Germans were able to develop new electronic components and radio devices after the discovery of many radio and electromagnetic field phenomena during their research.
   
• 90Wunsch intercepted and learned the location of the "Berlin ground station" that NATO had been building on the outskirts of Berlin and the group was given a mission to use Urkunde-01 to conduct electronic eavesdropping.
  
  They discovered through their eavesdropping that the "Berlin Ground Station" was built on top of a mountain called "Der Zauberberg" on the outskirts of West Berlin. It was where the US and NATO had established the most powerful electronic surveillance system in Europe and now the Germans had an inside line, becoming the entry point for infiltrating the NATO intelligence system.
   
• 90Wunsch was able to send fake information to Der Zauberberg and stop them from overhearing real information from NATO Command. In the 10 years that followed, 90Wunsch controlled every move Der Zauberberg made and ensured Washington had no idea about Germany's political situation until the reunification in 1985.
   
• The Moscow State University stabilized "Moron" at the Tabasar-B Starfish facility. At the same time, the Soviets also finalized the revised model of the control bus “Емеля-M” (Emelya-M). They combined this with individual "Moron" units and were lead to the development of the Relic weapon “Шука” (Shuka/Pike).
   
• The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) became the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1972.
   
• The Soviet “Pike” Relic weapon system was unveiled during the 1972 October Revolution Parade. The Kremlin displayed 32 of the units. After such a display of fighting force, President Nixon had no choice but to abandon his aspirations regarding the Vietnam government.
   
• The Vietnam Peace Treaty was signed in 1973 and the US Military withdrew from the country. It was decided that future national defense objectives would to be to gain the advantage in the Relic weapon arms race.
   
• The Aurora, a high-speed, high-altitude strategic bomber was successfully test flown in 1973 and mass production of it began in 1974.
  
  While the Aurora may have existed in Girls’ Frontline, our real history shows this aircraft remains a myth with no substantial evidence that it was ever built or flown. It is rumored to be a mid-1980s American reconnaissance aircraft.
   
• The Americans and Soviets both focused efforts on developing information and command networks after 1975. The Soviets had their OGAS system to be improved and refined, while the Americans began investing in ARPANET, a distributed network system designed by ARPA.
  
  The ARPANET had no core server, did not require central control, and all communications data and message packets were routed through network nodes. Transmissions in this network could still proceed through even if various terminals and nodes on the network were taken out, as long as there were remaining nodes and terminals still in operation.
  
  ARPANET was later handed over to the US Department of Defense Communications Administration where DARPA worked to build an autonomous control system for the Auroras, based on ARPANET.
   
• Viktor Glushkov headed the development of the All-State Automated System (OGAS) once the Kremlin invested in it again. The construction of this network accelerated following the Vietnam War.
  
  In 1975 the National State University of the Soviet Union sought to design a command and control system for the “Pike” Relic weapon system based on the OGAS network.
   
• The US successfully test-sailed a new model of nuclear submarine equipped with magnetohydrodynamic propulsion systems in 1978, and they deployed three such submarines two years later.

1980s

• The “Pike” Relic weapon system was deployed at Khyber Pass in Afghanistan on January 5th, 1981 in order to assess its effectiveness against a rebel training camp. The test was conducted by the 794th Guards Engineering Corps. The “Pike” units were subjected to heavy machine gun fire, anti-tank rockets, 105mm cannons, and 60mm to 80mm artillery, however, no damage was sustained. The units broke through the enemy’s defensive line and advanced on the American military consultants’ camp. The heart of Landi Kotal was overtaken and combatants began to flee. The operation took only one hour.
  
  Post-operation reconnaissance revealed that the “Pike” units break down all matter in their path, as evidenced by a photo of a house sliced in half where one had passed through. Scorch marks were found which indicated the “Pike” units produced heat over 1000 degrees while in operation. This is evidenced by shiny, glazed objects found in their path - ore in the ground which had been subjected to extreme heat.
  
  The conclusion formed was that the “Pike” units were extremely dangerous weapons that utilized Collapse Fluid to produce a force field which disintegrated matter. This conversion of Collapse Fluid also contaminated the surrounding area, infecting any surviving organic life with ELID.
   
• After the American’s use of Relic gas bombings in Vietnam and the Soviet’s use of “Pike” in Afghanistan which introduced ELID to Central Asia and the Middle East, the two sides set aside their suspicions of each other and entered several rounds of discussion.
  
  Those discussions reached mutual agreement on the issue of the continued use of Relic weapons would lead to further spread of ELID and that the policy of “mutually assured destruction” would indeed lead to “mutual destruction”. The US and USSR quickly reached a consensus and revealed their stockpiles of Relic weapons and current state of their Relic research to each other.
  
  To prevent the situation from spiraling out of control, both sides ratified the Relic Arms Limitation Treaty in 1981, and declared an end to all Relic research and military deployment of Relic weapons. Already-deployed weapons were to be dismantled.
   
• Following the ratification of the Relic Arms Limitation Treaty, 90Wunsch was disbanded, and its data was then destroyed or handed over to one Germany's Soviet allies within the Kremlin.
  
  Most of the technical personnel were recruited by the United Nations for their understanding of Relics. Eventually an agency was formed in 1992 to deal with international Relic issues. That agency was the United Nations Relic Agency (URNA).
   
• In order to reduce the risk of a second arms race after both superpowers destroyed all their Relic weapons, the Geneva Gazette signed by Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov on July 1st, 1983 marked an end to a 36-year long Russo-US conflict. The large-scale spread of ELID across the globe was a crisis which only unity could hope to overcome.
  
  The OGAS system was a temporary victim of this treaty, converted to non-military use and made accessible to the public before being sealed. The system was backed up and stored by the Soviet Union and after its collapse, it would be used again in the future.

1990s

• The Relic Technology Convention was passed on October 31st, 1991 by the UN as global fear of Relic technology continued to grow. All related research and technology was to be sealed. However, in 1993, global interest in Relic technology resumed once more.
   
• On August 19th, 1991, the Soviet Union had a regime change. The Russian Federation was established in December of that year. Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan went Independent in succession as a result. These five countries had been important military hubs and once housed “Pike” systems. On top of that they contained stockpiles of at least 5,000 cubic meters of Collapse Fluid.
  
  The UNRA grew concerned over this because they feared these relic weapons might fall into the wrong hands. Although the UNRA was sure that because of the notoriety surrounding “Pike” no corrupt element, terrorists, or black market dealers would risk dealing in merchandise whose origin was immediately identifiable. The UNRA instead focused on the management and control of the stockpiles of Collapse Fluid left behind after the shift in power within Russia.
  
  The UNRA then sought the new Russian Federation government’s cooperation - as it was a responsibility they must bear - in policing the Relic weapons of the five independent Central Asian countries.

2020s

• A massive Relic facility under the Antarctic ice caps was discovered in 2023. Professors Jonas and Li Deming would begin a project to research the gigantic hollow, involving the construction of a livable city within it to aid in research efforts. This project is known as Project Beacon

2030s

• In 2030 a chain reaction took place within the Beilan Island Relic site which caused a global catastrophe and indirectly led to World War III.
   
• OGAS was used to test and adjust the Russian “Pike” Relic weapon system at the Relic site OKB-413 in the 2030s. Following an incident with rebel forces, the facility briefly entered an ignition phase before physical connections were cut, the Relic was powdered down, and the node of OGAS was extracted and relocated.
   
• A new Relic arms race began in 2035 leading to reactivation of Relic technology that ultimately led to another catastrophic event. A belt of Collapse Radiation carried by the wind decimated the Scandinavian Peninsula and effectively split Europe in two as the contamination continued to spread through the Baltic Sea region, Central Europe and North of Germany’s Thuringia Mountains, leading to a mass displacement of the German populace. This is known as the Northern Lights Incident.

The GAVIRUL Project of the 1960s began when the corpse of an unknown lifeform was discovered within the Beilan Island Relic site in Shanghai. This life form was speculated to be an intelligent member of its race and the sole sample was dubbed “GAVIRUL”.

Thinking this sample was unimportant, it was put into storage and forgotten about for over 30 years. Research into this sample was restarted in 1992 when the United Nations Relic Agency was founded. The project was misguided and lacked leadership from the beginning, with the two factions within the UNRA wanting to take different paths concerning Relic research. Eventually the proposal to focus on producing human-hybrid embryos from the GAVIRUL sample gained acceptance and the project was successfully launched as a means of becoming a bridge to better understand Relics and the civilization from which they came.

Embryos had a 98.9% mortality rate due to the unstable nature of the genes. Only two subjects survived in the end. The two survivors were different in appearance due to the difference in egg cells used. The two were designated as Observational Subject G-37, of European descent, and Observational Subject G-114, of Eastern descent. G-37’s hair was white because of a genetic deficiency while G-114’s hair was black. The research institute later renamed the project the “Black Lily and White Rose Project”, from which the sisters were named “Lily” and “Rose”, who were no different than ordinary humans in their infancy.

The subjects' metabolic processes were much faster than normal humans. At the age of 7, the sisters appeared to be the age of 14. Lily and Rose exhibited no particularly special developments by the 15th year of the project beyond enhanced strength and cognition. After 20 years the project was deemed a failure as neither of the sisters could produce any reaction within the Beilan Island Relic. The remaining embryos and research were then put into cold storage.

Scattered reports suggest the sisters may have participated in Anti-ELID operations because of the unique nature of their bodies, but there is no way to know if their actions directly or indirectly resulted in the Beilan Island Incident, or if they were even present at the time. After World War III broke out, the loss of data surrounding the two sisters leaves the full details of their fates unknown.

“We hereby declare the end of an era, an era known as the Cold War, an era where two sides took part in total military, economic, and political conflict against each other. In the face of this global danger that rises beyond race and nations, both sides have chosen to set aside their prejudices and ideologies. We will, and we have to unite to ensure the continuation of the human race. It is with that spirit that both sides now sign this gazette.”

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov
Ronald Wilson Reagan

Sources:

The Art of Girls’ Frontline, Confidential Files 2
The Art of Girls' Frontline, Confidential Files 1