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Description
Image: БМП-ДМ of the Papal Zouaves. The name, hastily painted on the side, translates as "the full armor [of God]", from Ephesians 6:11-6:13 in the Stedsk Bible.

This vehicle was donated to the Army of God by the UZR in 2050. The markings, notable for using stenciled Christian numerals opposed to Turanic, denote the vehicle as the executive officer's vehicle of the 1st Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd "Trinity" Brigade of the Army of God, the ground arm of the State of the Church's volunteer army, the Zouaves. The standard Allied air identification marking, a white cross, is visible across the top of the hull. The Papacy's war flag flies from a whip antenna.

The BMP-DM is the uparmored, modernized form of the original BMP from 1973. The BMP-D has armor sufficient to protect itself against 13.2mm heavy machine gun fire from the sides at 500 arshin, 20x105mmB API across the front, and 13.2mm all around, an improvement over the original 13.2mm frontal and 7.5x54mm side protection of the original BMP. The -M incorporates the Ryazan KBP B-Ya501 "Berezhok" 2-man combat module. This module replaces the original 2A42 15-line cannon and Ryazan KBP "Zimbuur/Goboi" ATGW with a simplified, unified air-ground 2A72 cannon and the laser-guided Ryazan KBP/Pecheneg OJSC 9M133 "Frilka-M" 20-vershok ATGW or 9M121 "Dudka" 16-vershok ATGW. A more powerful engine, the UTD-2V8 producing 450 HP, powers the BMP-DM to provide comparable mobility to the original BMP. Smoke dischargers, in the form of two 4-shot 81mm "Tucha" carrying 3D21 multi-spectral obscuring grenades, are also present.

During the latter stages of the Alarian War (2049-2053) and subsequent Frisian Civil War (2053-2056), the State of the Church contributed nearly a dozen brigades, composed of both the three main ground brigades of the Papacy and three times as many foreign Christian volunteers who answered the call of the chief prelate, Urban IX. Funding for crusaders' initial arrival and boarding was provided by Papal grants, and after the illegal seizure and occupation of the Vatican by the Frisian Army, the still-ample coffers of United Provinces of Vinland, while ammunition and weapons were provided for, most ironically, by the Union of Zovlol Republics and the Principality of Gallia respectively. Complimenting this was the more modern, well-equipped Papal Gendarmes, the Knights Hospitallers, the Alemannic Knights, and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, all totaled equivocating a territorial defense regiment, two mechanized/armored brigades, and a self-propelled infantry (powered armor) brigade. These Catholic ground units were equipped with modern Frisian-built ZF51 Cheetah main battle tanks, ZF41 Badger IFVs, ZF61 Bumblebee howitzers, and ZF31 Doberman AFVs, as well as a limited quantity of ZF10 Jellyfish battlesuits, and Alemannic-built Multicar MUNGO, RMMV HX and TG trucks, and Fuchs armored cars.

With the rescue of the Pope from the notorious prison-fortress Castle Berum in a nighttime commando raid by Q Squadron of the Royal Navy's Coastal Rangers (the so-called "bionic-cybernetic commandos") in low-observable "Gullwing" gliders during Operation THUNDERBOLT, along with several other high-ranking members of the Vatican Vicariate, the Papacy's Gendarmes and the Alemannic Knights successfully evicted the Frisian Milysje from the Vatican during a surprise uprising. Supported by the local population, and neighboring Alemannic Confederation, the Vatican's armed forces swiftly disarmed the occupiers. Following the assault landings in Northern and Southern Frisia respectively, during Operations SLEDGEHAMMER and ANVIL, which saw the arrival of over a million Allied troops to the shores of Frisia, the Papacy had committed itself to a major ground-gaining offensive in Northeastern Frisia. The professional army of the Papacy was subsequently called to service under the banner of the Northern Frisian Group of Forces, the 14th Field Army.

Over 200,000 crusaders would eventually arrive, swelling the ranks of the Papal military, as well as various Saintly and lay military orders. The largest of these was the Lay Order of the Poor-Fellow Brothers of Christ, or the Knights Templar, its name a deliberate homage to the long-defunct medieval Alarian military order. Although considered to be of disreputable origin due to the bulla cruciata contra Frisios providing for indulgences, and thus in the Temporal realm (at least) the pardoning of non-capital criminal records such as larceny or petty battery, many crusaders were ultimately equipped, trained, and housed in hastily constructed dwellings in the rural outskirts of the State of the Church. The crusaders had many non-commissioned officers of former military servicemen, as well as Palatine Guard officers, with the latter providing the professional leadership of the Army of God. These officers wore gold and white armbands emblazoned with the key and cross of the Papacy. Unlike the Papal Army, which comprised explicitly troops raised and residents of the Holy See and comparable to many field forces of the Alarian continent in training and equipment, the Army of God was a purely volunteer force of foreign-born Catholics with little serious military organization and materiel.

Regardless of this, the Knights Templar ultimately provided the equivalent of two mechanized divisions and supporting troops to the ASF, falling under the command of the battle-hardened Gallian 1st Field Army, which previously saw action during the initial nuclear exchanges in Wadjta and the Sajaric Plains. Together, they would form the "Catholic Corps" of the 1st Field Army, which along with with the 18th Airborne Corps, Oumeiguo's 3rd Marine Division, the East Styrian 41st Combined Arms Army, the Alemannic Confederation's Confederate Armed Forces Southern Group Army (approx. 1 mechanized infantry division, 3 light infantry brigade, 1 airmobile brigade, 1 armored division), and the 1st and 2nd Marine Commando Divisions of the Royal Navy, which under the command of GEN Joachim Llewellyn De Vers (ASF HQ) and LTG Gilles Serreau de Patrik (18th Airborne Corps), formed the hammer that broke the back of the Integralists' corporate war machine.

After SLEDGEHAMMER's dismal advance beyond the Hanza Line, a megapolis running across the northern coast of continental Alaria, the ASF took the lead in the offensive. The 14th Army and its numerous field corps fought a grinding, plodding offensive, drawing in massive quantities of Frisian mechanized reserves in its relentless drive to the capital city, smashing through successive defensive lines and urban megasprawls to expand its beachhead. Meanwhile, the 1st Army managed to move at a higher rate of advance, helped by large enveloping maneuvers in the less developed areas of the South Alarian Plains, blowing through the croplands and open plains of Southern Frisia with relative ease. Despite expending nearly two million rounds of artillery ammunition each month, advance rates for the 14th Army were measured in hundreds of meters per day, while the 1st Army managed to achieve almost a mile a day, although in either case movement was typically in large surges forward, followed by slogging battles or long periods of logistical resupply and force regeneration, a feature typical of major military campaigns since ancient times.

After a year and a half, much of southern and Central Frisia had been seized by the ASF, and its Allied corps, while the industrial-urban heartland of Frisia was shattered, and the Athestan dynasty obliterated. The 14th Field Army had scarcely advanced more than 150 miles from its initial landing zones, and only after expending almost a dozen megatons of nuclear firepower, and nearly 50 million conventional artillery shells in combat. After suffering nearly a million men dead or wounded, the 14th Army had successfully engaged, tied down, and ultimately devoured the surviving formations of the Lanmacht, including the incredibly powerful cybertank-battlesuit combat units, using an army composed of little more than under-equipped and hastily trained conscripts.

The "Big Six" of the Allied Control Council, including the Holy See, continue to administer portions of Allied-occupied Frisia to this day.

Description
Image: БМП-ДМ of the Papal Zouaves. The name, hastily painted on the side, translates as "the full armor [of God]", from Ephesians 6:11-6:13 in the Stedsk Bible.

This vehicle was donated to the Army of God by the UZR in 2050. The markings, notable for using stenciled Christian numerals opposed to Turanic, denote the vehicle as the executive officer's vehicle of the 1st Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd "Trinity" Brigade of the Army of God, the ground arm of the State of the Church's volunteer army, the Zouaves. The standard Allied air identification marking, a white cross, is visible across the top of the hull. The Papacy's war flag flies from a whip antenna.

The BMP-DM is the uparmored, modernized form of the original BMP from 1973. The BMP-D has armor sufficient to protect itself against 13.2mm heavy machine gun fire from the sides at 500 arshin, 20x105mmB API across the front, and 13.2mm all around, an improvement over the original 13.2mm frontal and 7.5x54mm side protection of the original BMP. The -M incorporates the Ryazan KBP B-Ya501 "Berezhok" 2-man combat module. This module replaces the original 2A42 15-line cannon and Ryazan KBP "Zimbuur/Goboi" ATGW with a simplified, unified air-ground 2A72 cannon and the laser-guided Ryazan KBP/Pecheneg OJSC 9M133 "Frilka-M" 20-vershok ATGW or 9M121 "Dudka" 16-vershok ATGW. A more powerful engine, the UTD-2V8 producing 450 HP, powers the BMP-DM to provide comparable mobility to the original BMP. Smoke dischargers, in the form of two 4-shot 81mm "Tucha" carrying 3D21 multi-spectral obscuring grenades, are also present.

During the latter stages of the Alarian War (2049-2053) and subsequent Frisian Civil War (2053-2056), the State of the Church contributed nearly a dozen brigades, composed of both the three main ground brigades of the Papacy and three times as many foreign Christian volunteers who answered the call of the chief prelate, Urban IX. Funding for crusaders' initial arrival and boarding was provided by Papal grants, and after the illegal seizure and occupation of the Vatican by the Frisian Army, the still-ample coffers of United Provinces of Vinland, while ammunition and weapons were provided for, most ironically, by the Union of Zovlol Republics and the Principality of Gallia respectively. Complimenting this was the more modern, well-equipped Papal Gendarmes, the Knights Hospitallers, the Alemannic Knights, and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, all totaled equivocating a territorial defense regiment, two mechanized/armored brigades, and a self-propelled infantry (powered armor) brigade. These Catholic ground units were equipped with modern Frisian-built ZF51 Cheetah main battle tanks, ZF41 Badger IFVs, ZF61 Bumblebee howitzers, and ZF31 Doberman AFVs, as well as a limited quantity of ZF10 Jellyfish battlesuits, and Alemannic-built Multicar MUNGO, RMMV HX and TG trucks, and Fuchs armored cars.

With the rescue of the Pope from the notorious prison-fortress Castle Berum in a nighttime commando raid by Q Squadron of the Royal Navy's Coastal Rangers (the so-called "bionic-cybernetic commandos") in low-observable "Gullwing" gliders during Operation THUNDERBOLT, along with several other high-ranking members of the Vatican Vicariate, the Papacy's Gendarmes and the Alemannic Knights successfully evicted the Frisian Milysje from the Vatican during a surprise uprising. Supported by the local population, and neighboring Alemannic Confederation, the Vatican's armed forces swiftly disarmed the occupiers. Following the assault landings in Northern and Southern Frisia respectively, during Operations SLEDGEHAMMER and ANVIL, which saw the arrival of over a million Allied troops to the shores of Frisia, the Papacy had committed itself to a major ground-gaining offensive in Northeastern Frisia. The professional army of the Papacy was subsequently called to service under the banner of the Northern Frisian Group of Forces, the 14th Field Army.

Over 200,000 crusaders would eventually arrive, swelling the ranks of the Papal military, as well as various Saintly and lay military orders. The largest of these was the Lay Order of the Poor-Fellow Brothers of Christ, or the Knights Templar, its name a deliberate homage to the long-defunct medieval Alarian military order. Although considered to be of disreputable origin due to the bulla cruciata contra Frisios providing for indulgences, and thus in the Temporal realm (at least) the pardoning of non-capital criminal records such as larceny or petty battery, many crusaders were ultimately equipped, trained, and housed in hastily constructed dwellings in the rural outskirts of the State of the Church. The crusaders had many non-commissioned officers of former military servicemen, as well as Palatine Guard officers, with the latter providing the professional leadership of the Army of God. These officers wore gold and white armbands emblazoned with the key and cross of the Papacy. Unlike the Papal Army, which comprised explicitly troops raised and residents of the Holy See and comparable to many field forces of the Alarian continent in training and equipment, the Army of God was a purely volunteer force of foreign-born Catholics with little serious military organization and materiel.

Regardless of this, the Knights Templar ultimately provided the equivalent of two mechanized divisions and supporting troops to the ASF, falling under the command of the battle-hardened Gallian 1st Field Army, which previously saw action during the initial nuclear exchanges in Wadjta and the Sajaric Plains. Together, they would form the "Catholic Corps" of the 1st Field Army, which along with with the 18th Airborne Corps, Oumeiguo's 3rd Marine Division, the East Styrian 41st Combined Arms Army, the Alemannic Confederation's Confederate Armed Forces Southern Group Army (approx. 1 mechanized infantry division, 3 light infantry brigade, 1 airmobile brigade, 1 armored division), and the 1st and 2nd Marine Commando Divisions of the Royal Navy, which under the command of GEN Joachim Llewellyn De Vers (ASF HQ) and LTG Gilles Serreau de Patrik (18th Airborne Corps), formed the hammer that broke the back of the Integralists' corporate war machine.

After SLEDGEHAMMER's dismal advance beyond the Hanza Line, a megapolis running across the northern coast of continental Alaria, the ASF took the lead in the offensive. The 14th Army and its numerous field corps fought a grinding, plodding offensive, drawing in massive quantities of Frisian mechanized reserves in its relentless drive to the capital city, smashing through successive defensive lines and urban megasprawls to expand its beachhead. Meanwhile, the 1st Army managed to move at a higher rate of advance, helped by large enveloping maneuvers in the less developed areas of the South Alarian Plains, blowing through the croplands and open plains of Southern Frisia with relative ease. Despite expending nearly two million rounds of artillery ammunition each month, advance rates for the 14th Army were measured in hundreds of meters per day, while the 1st Army managed to achieve almost a mile a day, although in either case movement was typically in large surges forward, followed by slogging battles or long periods of logistical resupply and force regeneration, a feature typical of major military campaigns since ancient times.

After a year and a half, much of southern and Central Frisia had been seized by the ASF, and its Allied corps, while the industrial-urban heartland of Frisia was shattered, and the Athestan dynasty obliterated. The 14th Field Army had scarcely advanced more than 150 miles from its initial landing zones, and only after expending almost a dozen megatons of nuclear firepower, and nearly 50 million conventional artillery shells in combat. After suffering nearly a million men dead or wounded, the 14th Army had successfully engaged, tied down, and ultimately devoured the surviving formations of the Lanmacht, including the incredibly powerful cybertank-battlesuit combat units, using an army composed of little more than under-equipped and hastily trained conscripts.

The "Big Six" of the Allied Control Council, including the Holy See, continue to administer portions of Allied-occupied Frisia to this day.