This War of Mine: A Survivors Tale
Prologue of a novelization of sorts for This War of Mine, while not specifically based on any actual playthrough, it draws elements from as many variations as possible, anyway, as this is the prologue, it just sets the scene for what has happened, hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own This War or Mine or it's characters.
Prologue
The country of Graznavia, in Eastern Europe, was locked in a brutal civil war. A war that had caused much destabilization for the country, to the extent that in some places, currency no longer had any value with the banks being closed at the onset of the war and all trade was now conducted via barter. There were two opposing forces, the first group was the government soldiers, supported by the current administration and the other a rebel force that stood against the government, calling themselves the Vyseni Liberation Uprising.
Any international aid or peace keeping mission was being held back due to the building savagery of the war as both sides fought harder and harder, causing more issues, especially for the innocent civilians who had been caught in the middle, many of them being considered legitimate targets, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Especially due to the possible nationalistic nature of the conflict, with various territorial disputes and feelings of oppression with the ethnic minority Vyseni feeling they were being victimized by the Grazni, the inhabitants of Graznavia. There had been many cases of massacres of innocent civilians, simply due to both groups speaking different languages causing misunderstandings.
The most recent place affected by this war was the city of Pogoren, the capital of Graznavia.
At first, the people of Pogoren did not think the situation would escalate to the level it did, and continued doing their day-to-day tasks, working and attending school and so on. Even while there were protests and news of fighting in other parts of the country, including a group of protesters storming the capital and attempted to burn down City Hall.
Civil disorders spread rapidly after that and a neighbouring city called Gravia ended up being attacked by the Graznavian government army, calling it a rebel base and bombed the settlement before launching an indiscriminate attack on what rebels their were and even innocent civilians. Leading to what survivors there were, fleeing desperately to the nearest city, Pogoren.
Heavy battles followed this around the outskirts until Pogoren was finally dragged violently into the war. Government and Rebel forces clashed and during the initial fighting, groups of rebels began to act questionably, as several civilians were murdered by them, just for 'looking at them funny, as a precaution.' All apparently due to the fighting in the streets making it difficult to identify the enemy. Other crimes known to have been committed by the rebels included attacks on more well-off families simple to take their belongings for trade, some of said families even being murdered simply for their belongings.
Unfortunately for the civilians, the soldiers were hardly any better, resulting in more war crimes, along with several non-decisive battles until finally, the borders between the two forces were drawn.
The Graznavian army encircled the city and now laid siege to it, shelling the city and sometimes engaging in direct conflict with the trapped rebel forces. While there had been refugee convoys and buses enabling civilians to escape, not everybody made it out. So there were several innocent civilians trapped in the city, trying to avoid the shelling and attacks by the army.
But once again, the rebels were hardly any better, several of them would round up groups of people and interrogate them to identify government sympathizers, yet even those that weren't were executed, for other reasons, wrong ones, anyway. Now with supplies and food scarce, those trapped in the city were forced into desperate situations and doing whatever they had to do to survive, resulting in looters and bandits roaming the streets, certain locations had been fully occupied by rebel or government forces.
Yet even within this chaos there was still hope amongst some of the people. Attempting to escape the carnage, a trio of people had suddenly found themselves entering each other's lives as they all found themselves taking shelter in the same building. It did not take them long to decide on their plan, they would stick together and try to survive this war, they could only hope that they would make it through alive.
End of introduction, hope you enjoyed it, next up we meet our first three survivors, anyway, read and review please.