Antarctic Warzone 6A (maps challenge)

By far the most interesting and bloody area of the Antarctic during the The Arctic/Antarctic War, and where Aramis spent most of his time. The volcanoes, indicated by red stars, now that they're not blocked by as much ice, launch lava loaded with rare Earth metals around, making their collection far easier and thus the area a far more valuable spot to fight over. The fact that it had so much coast, being perfect for the movement of warships, also helped.

Global warming sure can make a place more interesting.

Bonus history:

• 6A was targeted by the terrorists that kidnapped Aramis's daughter in a bloody 3-month war that allowed the United Commonwealth (UCW) to assert its first foothold in the Antarctic.
  Antarctica was attacked by Goners in 2nd Invasion of The entirety of the Human-Goner, with 6A being the bloodiest and most interesting area of the war yet again. This let the UCW take full control over Antarctica.
  Antarctica was colonized, but 6A in particular was avoided due to its especially Australi- I mean, dangerous, wildlife. Other places had krakens, but 6A had the most. It came to be classed as a "Free Wilderness" area by the CHG during the The Population Program and some of its consequences to encourage the colonization of new worlds.

Geography

Quite a mountainous collection of islands, complete with underwater mountains between them. I'd reckon it's pretty cold but Dave came back and said it was fine, although he still won't tell me where those fingers went, so I guess it must be alright. Has lots of volcanoes and a prehistoric underground tunnel network due to a mixture of these volcanoes and tunnel-digging creatures that still live underground there.

Just to be clear: the temperature is Russian-style. Still utterly freezing but much warmer than it was before.

There are huge lakes and rivers due to melted ice which are already beginning to form river systems.

Fauna & Flora

(When Aramis is sent in:)

Penguins, seabirds, seals, whales, sharks, various fish and a single, individual polar bear. Nobody knows what the polar bear is doing there, but they don't interfere in case it's supposed to be part of some master plan they don't wanna ruin.

Thanks to fishing controls and warmer waters, everything in the Antarctic has grown in number off of the backs of increased breeding of fish in the warmer water.

Oh and don't forget the presence of numerous ones of the giant octopus, which have become far more aggressive than before due to the changes in their environment and their population growth, and their far, far bigger and previously undiscovered cousins, nicknamed krakens, which can get up to 100 meters long, with such instances being marked by 6-pointed purple stars on the maps. Did I mention that these creatures are very intelligent and not at all welcoming to ships entering their territory?

There are entire underground ecosystems which include luminescent fungi and the eyeless or super-visioned with no in between descendants of the continent's pre-Ice Age inhabitants. No, they're not merciful. They're hungry. And some of the super-vision ones are emerging at night to feast on penguins and scavenge the corpses of soldiers, although they're not so foolish as to turn down chances to kill and eat any soldiers who stray from their units or, easier targets yet, have been left to die due to serious injuries. The flooding of many of their underground ecosystems is a common motivator for this.

There have been 19 separate instances of things bigger than or with the potential to grow bigger than school buses which were frozen being unfrozen and either having been alive in hibernation the whole time or coming back to life, sometimes due to shocks from electric sea-eels trying to scavenge them. 7 of these were previously undiscovered creatures, because we don't really know that much about Antarctica's natural history once it split off from everything else because, y'know, ice. 4 of them, including one of 3 megalodons, decided to stick around in 6A because giant octopi and ships full of humans are yummy.

There's also a fungal forest as a result of a lab/mining station being blown up in the fighting, but don't worry it's harmless because it can't survive temperatures upwards of -4'C or in water, meaning it can only eat you once you've been dead for a day or 2 already and only if you weren't tossed to sea and eaten by a giant octopus instead. The fungi is perfectly edible and is used as a simultaneous graveyard and food source by multiple factions... wait... oh no it's cannibalism with extra steps.

Guys we can't let the Antarctic melt in our own timeline all of this is theoretically possible please I don't want to get eaten by a megalodon.

Natural Resources

Uranium, plutonium, platinum (ew get it out of my face I want cancer metals not money metals), francium. The flora and fauna are worth a lot themselves, although the fact that their presence is the result of global warming accelerated by human activity brings whether or not they're natural resources into question, or if they really count as resources if they're actually a hindrance/massive threat to human health and safety.

Penguins are pretty nice tho. And a major food source for the forces present.

Alternative Name(s)

The Icy Grave, Anne's Grave, Ant's Grave

Type

Region

Location under

Earth

Owner/Ruler

General Aramis

Owning Organization

United Commonwealth

Contested By

• Indian Republics
• Nordic Union
• Russian Federation + puppets
• The Oriental Empire (aka: Japan and its unofficial vassals)
• United States