Among the countless Federation service members that saw action in the Midterm Insurgency, one of the most photogenic was the crew and infantry escort of one MBT-31 Foxtrotter: the “Glossy Gyaru.”
The Glossy Gyaru was a tank from Company F of the 2nd Armored Battalion, 6th Armored Brigade. When she deployed for the Midterm Insurgency, she was detached to support the infantry of Company G, 3rd Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored. Together with those infantrymen, this tank seen action throughout the Midterm Insurgency.
The Midterm Insurgency was an internal conflict within the Federation between 1974 to 1979. The etymology of the name is two-fold: Firstly, the conflict coincided with the Midterm Elections of 1974, and was largely resolved by the Midterm Elections of 1978, hence the conflict’s association with the Midterms. Secondly, though some people consider this to be the Federation’s “second civil war," the Federation government had not declared a state of war during the conflict. Instead, government statements describe the period as an insurgency, thus how the conflict recieved its historical nomenclature.
Although the term “insurgency” sounds singular, the conflict was characterized by massive internal strife across the Federation. There was a motley of belligerents, ranging from pro-democracy protesters to anti-furry mobs, to anarcho-syndicalist freedom fighters, to rebellious local governments, to a motley of other rival groups. Each of these groups have vastly different objectives and circumstances, but all were in defiance to the Federation government.
To summarize briefly: the Midterm Insurgency was the ultimate result of a rapidly escalating social, economic, and political tension across various places; Ranging from rising racial tensions between humans and furries, to increasing socialist belligerency, to growing regionalism in the Federation’s constituent governments, to general unrest against economic hardship and political corruption. The political landscape leading up to the 1974 Midterm Election was defined by widespread unsatisfaction to the Federation government, with political groups tugging at all sides.
The result of the 1974 midterms only inflamed the situation. The election introduced a wave of new officials that backed anti-segregationist and socio-economic reforms. The anti-segregationist reforms alienated the hardline conservatives and ultra-nationalists, while the socio-economic reforms was dismissed by socialist groups as too little, too late.
Immediately following the elections, political provocateurs began to riot across the Federation in denial of the elections. Racial-extremist groups violently targetted minority groups such as furry people, human peoples of color, socialist groups, and others. This, in turn, prompted other groups — especially Socialist-aligned groups — to arm themselves en-masse, deeming the Federation government as inadequate. With various political groups becoming openly rebellious, the Federation military was called upon to stamp out these sources of dissent, through all means enabled by the newly elected delegation. This violent period that immediately followed the midterm elections marked the start of the Midterm Insurgency.
By the start of the Midterm Insurgency, the “Glossy Gyaru” should have been stricken from the Federation Army inventory. She was an unmodified MBT-31 Foxtrotter, built during the design’s original production run in the late-1960’s. By the mid-1970’s, the Glossy Gyaru and tanks of similar age should have been considered obsolete. However, the start of the Midterm Insurgency meant that the Federation Army couldn’t wait for desperately needed weapons and materiel. Thus, the Glossy Gyaru’s retirement was postponed, and the tank was immediately pushed into deployment with the 6th Armored.
As part of the 6th Armored, the Glossy Gyaru seen action throughout the Federation heartlands, suppressing forces hostile to Federation law. Most of these missions were policing actions: Tanks patrolling cities as a “show-of-force" to deter violence. A few others, however, were combat missions. In combat, military tanks supported soldiers and policemen by providing cover with their heavy armor, or in some rare instances, providing fire support with their cannons. The Glossy Gyaru was photographed in many of those engagements, providing direct fires against entrenched rebels in rural lands.
Though tanks can be considered as overkill in a counter-insurgency campaign, they represent the how hellbent the Federation government was willing to assert its authority and morals, in spite of dissenting opinions.
Ever since the conflict ended in 1979, these pictures of the Glossy Gyaru have been enshrined in Federation history. The tank itself became known as a plucky mascot of the Midterm Insurgency — a bold crew and the soldiers that accompanied them fighting for a virtuous cause. The photos themselves, however, gave off a bleaker connotation: Images of a main battle tank — a mechanical chariot meant to crush soldiers of foreign armies — rolling through Federation streets, as if enacting invasion against its own citizenry.
These photos now serve to remind that the democracy the Federation currently enjoys was never a certainty. Its democratic system had to be won, enforced, and maintained through battles waged on citizens’ front yards and backdoors. It came to represent the inherent contradiction of a government, renowned for its values of liberalism and multiculturalism, employing brutish and undemocratic measures suppress dissenters equally civil and violent, all in an effort to maintain an allegedly democratic institution.
This is no less demonstrated than by a proud tank of a diverse crew, called to bear the burden of a troubled nation, traversing that nation to deliver direct ordinance against all those that dissent; The tank that was affectionately emblazoned the Glossy Gyaru.
Created on September 30th, 2025.
Published on October 1st, 2025.
Last modified on November 17th, 2025.
More Glossy Gyaru artwork: