The Terran-Compact War, also known as the Long War among the belligerent nations of the Galactic North, was a series of conflicts which together constitutes one of the longest and bloodiest wars in both the Galactic North’s history as well as the Milky Way as a whole, lasting nearly 232 years, from February 2263 to August 2495. While the war itself began as a conflict between the Algan-Rixian axis and the Terran-Skiron coalition during the Great Skiron War, the conflict eventually spiraled out into a long political, ideological and military conflict between the stratocratic Greater Terran Union (GTU) and the democratic Beneficial Compact.
Up until its final years, the War was characterized as a long cold war with periods of open and direct conflict in between (2nd-6th Terran Compact Wars), with the Compact generally on the defensive. However, the unchallenged rise of the GTU’s military and economic prowess soon brought the war to its end during the successful GTU invasion during the Final Terran-Compact War. The Compact was eventually dismantled by the signing of the unequal Treaty of Westminster, turning its member-states into a patchwork of GTU client-states. The GTU in turn became the sole unchallenged power of the Galactic North, turning it into one of the galaxy’s foremost superpowers.
Background[]
The Greater Terran Union eventually emerged as humanity’s sole government in the wake of the devastating Tyrum invasion of Earth, spearheading much of its post-war reconstruction. However, the rapid technological progress from the leftovers of the past invasion, as well as the need for resources to further development of the Union eventually led to the expansionist policies that define much of the GTU’s history. This led to an aggressive colonization program that saw its territories expanded tenfold in mere decades, and the once-minuscule Space Warfare Branch was reformed into the interstellar Fleet Command to further facilitate the defense and peacekeeping of its ever-expanding territory. It was during this period that the newly-established FLEETCOM began curbing the threat of nationalist, anarchist and revolutionary elements in a series of small scale wars later known as Pirate Wars [1].
First contact with the Algan Republic and subsequent governments - the Faraxian Union, Rixian Galactic Directorate, United Clans of Skiron and Raltek Confederation, were established during the era of expansion as early as 2209. However, the Algan state eventually found itself in conflict with both the Terrans and Skiro due to colonization rights as both nations surrounded the Republic, thus reducing the potential avenue for its expansion. The Rixian and Faraxian states also developed an increasingly tense relationship with GTU on account of their attempt to claim frontier regions already populated with human colonists.
Tensions flared as the Algan Republic, in an effort to exert pressure against the fractured United Clans of Skiron, eventually formed an alliance with the Rixian Galactic Directorate, with their combined fleets constituting most powerful military force in the galactic "north" at that time. As the Faraxians aligned themselves with Algan-Rixian axis (in part of the democratic revolution funded by the Republic), the Skiro had no choice but to form a defensive pact with the GTU to maintain the balance of power from tipping to the Algan Republic. These series of alliances were designed to keep each nation in check and, ironically, to prevent a war with one another.
However, the tenuous peace gradually came at an end as information leaked out from the closed borders of the GTU, the triple alliance of Algan, Rixian and Faraxian states eventually learned of the increasing pirate incursions within the Terran border. While the information was outdated, this coincided with recent Algan intelligence reports estimating that the Terran fleet would be unable to match the ships of the alliance. Emboldened, the Tripartite eventually took the initiative by launching the first direct conflict of the Long War.
Strategies and Military Comparison[]
Greater Terran Union's wartime strategy[]
(TBC)
Compact's wartime strategy and military culture[]
(TBC)
Early Stages[]
Great Skiron War[]
Main article: Great Skiron War
The Rixian Galactic Directorate and the Vol Hive, emboldened by the GTU's apparent weakness, declared war against the United Clans of Skiron on February 16, 2263 and continued their secret build up of their military for their inevitable preemptive war against the GTU-Skiron coalition. Both the Algan and Faraxian governments abstained from declaring war.
The war initially went favorably for the Vol-Rixian forces, with many of the Skiron-held system bordering the Vol Hive effectively falling under their occupation. The Rixians soon took the initiative to capture Thermopylae Station to establish a foothold into Terran space. However, the Rixian fleet was spotted and tracked by the Union's Skywatch and the Terrans moved to defend it. The Terran Home Fleet, led by the Admiral Alexei Dejanus, a veteran of the Pirate Wars, was sent. Dejanus’s fleet won an overwhelming victory over the Rixian Star Fleet, forcing them to retreat from the system. Having gained the initiative, the Union pressed on and launched a general offensive. New systems and worlds fell under the Union's banner but the war was beginning to take a toll on the nation's economy.
The GTU quickly established a defensive line known as the Macmillan-Ramaphosa Corridor along the Rixian-Faraxian-Algan borders, with the war escalating as the Faraxian Union joined the war with the Algan Republic following soon after. Nevertheless, the war quickly devolved into a stalemate. With the Vol Hive pulling out of the war and the specter of economic collapse looming over the belligerent nations, all involved sides eventually agreed upon a peace settlement, bringing the war to its end.
However, rather than bringing a peaceful era to the Galactic North, the peace treaty instead led to a beginning of a bitter rivalry between the GTU and the Tripartite. The Algan Republic would reorganize their long-standing alliance into the confederation known as the Beneficial Compact as means to counter the GTU’s rapid expansion and economic rise.
Post-Skiron War actions[]
While the GTU seized several systems during the war, its economy was reeling. Many ships were scrapped and soldiers were demobilized as the GTU tried to consolidate its gains and re-asses its diplomatic strategy. The Terran-Skiron defensive pact was dissolved as Terrans saw little point in allying itself with a failing state. Instead, the Marshals directed the nation inward, focusing on internal concerns. For the Terran people, the most pressing issue was that of the occupied Faraxian and Rixian worlds and what was to be done to their local populations. The service of the Wessari during the war saw a growing support for the GTU's non-human residents, arguing for their right to be citizens.
The newly formed Beneficial Compact was both weaker and stronger. It's members had lost territory, but had also gained it. The war also strengthened Algan-Rixian-Faraxian ties, with citizens of each state moving freely between their borders and their economies and armies becoming intertwined. But the Compact had little room for expansion, and rightly feared the growing strength of the GTU who had access to vast resources all to itself with little competition. For years to come, they would strive to keep the GTU in check.
The Skiron Defensive War really had no clear winner, but undoubtedly shaped the future of the Galactic North for years to come.
Crisis and Escalation[]
Golden Age of the Compact[]
By the end of the Great Skiron War and the subsequent formation of the Compact, the Algan Republic, Faraxian Union and the Rixian Galactic Directorate together underwent an era that could be arguably considered as their first - and only - golden age. As the Compact member-states underwent rapid economic recovery and its Terran adversary turn increasingly inward, the members of the Compact quickly integrated themselves into the burgeoning quasi-federation with numerous free-trade treaties, joint technological exchanges and military strengthening programs under their unity against their common enemy.
With the exception of the Algan Republic, the Compact eventually found itself devoid of options for further colonization, with much of their border surrounded by the Greater Terran Union, the Zhel’Zen, and the now-hostile Vol Hive. This situation proved highly consequential toward their future economic planning, as the lack of colonization effort allowed the Compact to devote more resources for industrialization, research, urbanization and further development of its existing, already developed colonies. This in turn led to a rapid modernization, prosperity and increase of quality of life that made the Compact one of the most advanced economies of the galaxy, being the third largest economy - just behind the Florian Matriarchy and the Ruu Confederated Planets - although it did not last for long as many other star-nations began to expand their territories and thus their respective economies, especially the GTU.
This golden age was especially advantageous for the Algan Republic; while its fellow allies were forced to rely on foreign trade and export to support their ever growing economy, industry and population, the Algan Republic continued to expand their territory due to the presence of an empty region at its border ripe for their colonization effort, which consequently led to the famed Race to the Frontier with the GTU as they rapidly expand their colonization effort across the Outer Rim region. With its territories twice as large as the other Compact members combined and the rich resources that came along with it, the Algan Republic eventually rose as the effective leader of the Compact, and subsequently made it one of the Great Powers of the era.
However, despite the Algan Republic’s best effort, the majority of the contested Outer Rim region eventually fell under the GTU’s sovereignty and the Republic effectively lost in their Race to the Frontier. Their rapid development and prosperity however were enough to at least provide the Compact an equal standing against their much larger adversary, the Greater Terran Union. By the beginning of the Second Terran-Compact War, both the Compact and the GTU were pretty much equal with one another; while the GTU had more territory and a larger population, greater resources, and a stronger military, the Compact in turn boasted a higher industrialization level, better development and a more advanced economy than its rival.
Peronisti Incursion[]
Main article: Terran-Peronisti War
The colonization of the Outer Rim territories had brought the GTU into contact with the Peronisti Union. They were located on the far side of the Union, in the Galactic West, effectively leaving the Union surrounded by potential enemies. Terran High Command, fearing encirclement, began developing contingency plans outlining potential strategies in case of war.
However, following the Skiron Campaigns, the GTU found itself focusing on addressing the economic depression that had gripped the nation as well as the growing unrest on the worlds it had occupied. The period saw the promotion of food growth and energy production, and, at the same time, the quelling of Faraxian revolts on the planet of Rillis. All the while, the Union continued to grow and develop its frontier colonies.
Terran planners did not really believe the Peronisti Union to be a threat. Even as the Peronisti's political leadership grew continually less Pacifist, they were considered too distant to ever catch the GTU of guard. They were confident that if war was to come, the Home Fleet itself could move from Earth to the Terran-Peronisti frontier before enemy fleets even reach the first Terran controlled system.
On October 10, 2297, the Peronisti Union and the Suth-Vel Confederacy declared war. In a sense, the GTU was proven right in it's assumptions. While many border systems were captured by the enemy, the GTU’s fleet was able to meet the enemy fleets before they could threaten the core worlds. Despite most of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet being out of position, guarding the GTU's border with the Compact, they were able to move to the far side of the of the Greater Terran Union to meet the enemy.
The Peronisti Forces severely outnumbered and outgunned the 1st Expeditionary, forcing them to retreat the Quam system to prepare a defense. In the following Battle of the Binary, the 1st Expeditionary won a decisive victory, halting the Peronisti advance. The Terran battlegroup, reinforced by the Home Fleet, would then move to reclaim GTU territory. At the decisive Battle of Hlilje, the Peronisti were finally driven from Terran space.
The war ended on December 18, 2304, just in time for Christmas.
War Plan Case Blue[]
Main article: Second Terran-Compact War, Three Fortress Campaign
As the conflict against the Peronisti raged on across the Outer Rim and more of Fleet Command’s assets were directed to the aforementioned region, many of the dissident elements within the GTU became more emboldened against the Terran regime, especially in the volatile Ospranian-Faraxian Occupation Zone in which its systems were heavily populated by Ospranian and Faraxian colonists prior to the Great Skiron War. The first successful revolt within the region occurred on the world of Yeedru in the Halifax system, where the pro-Rixian rebels overthrew the local Land Force garrison and rejoined the Directorate soon after its independence. While the Compact neither supported nor were aware of such news they nonetheless capitalized on the event vigorously in a vain attempt to destabilize the GTU, and soon embarked on numerous espionage attempts to spark further revolt with no success.
The GTU, already enraged by such action, promptly embarked on a military expansion program in anticipation of a war against their traditional rival. For a long time, both the National Council and the Terran High Command had been designing a grand strategy plan known as Case Blue; With many planners anticipating that the Compact would try a central thrust via a breakthrough against the Verdun and Thermopylae fortress systems (and thus giving it a clear path toward Earth), the Armed Forces capitalized on it by opting for a massive flanking maneuver against the lightly populated Terran-Rixian borders and the Algan Republic’s Outer Rim holdings, leaving behind a sufficient garrison in Verdun and Thermopylae to wear the Compact’s main forces out via attrition.
On August 16th, the Terran state, in an attempt to rile the Compact into a war, proceeded to present a ten-point ultimatum to the Rixian Galactic Directorate, in which they were given a mere 48 hours to respond as armies and fleets were assembled along the Algan-Rixian borders in the largest military mobilization in GTU’s history that dwarfed even their previous war against the Peronisti. The Terran government already expected the hostile reaction against the ultimatum amongst the Compact populace. As the Compact leadership were unable to counter the popular demand of war against the GTU, the Compact eventually declared war against their bitter rival, thus giving the GTU a much needed casus belli to enact War Plan Case Blue, culminating in the Second Terran-Compact War.
Within a year since the war began, the Compact suffered a string of defeats while the GTU suffered only light casualties in return; the Battle of Tau Cygni and the invasion of Yeedru ended with a decisive victory for the Terran Armed Forces, while the Compact’s ambitious Three Fortress Campaign [2] against the Verdun, Fedeema and Thermopylae systems were aborted after multiple humiliating defeats against the heavily defended Fedeema system that saw much of the Faraxian’s strength spent. The war dragged on for more than seven years as large swathes of the Algan Republic’s colonies across the Outer Rim were lost, constituting a third of its territory while its military was utterly decimated by the end of the war.
As of 12th February 2321, the member-states of the Compact capitulated, culminating in the Armistice of Verdun. While the historians across the galaxy no longer regards this as the end of the Compact, it was certainly the beginning of its long, slow decline; the Algan Republic in particular was stripped of its Great Power status with the loss of its prosperous, resource rich Outer Rim colonies that contributed much of its economic prosperity, as the unity among the Compact's member-states began to show cracks.
A Broken Compact[]
Main article: Third Terran-Compact War, Second Siege of Fedeema, First Siege of Nimerium
The aftermath of the disastrous Second Terran-Compact War hit the collective Compact members in both swift and gradual manners. With the Compact’s military failing to capitalize on its technological and industrial prowess, much of the notion of strength of the collective security provided by the unity under the Compact was irrevocably shattered, and the chaotic and disorganized handling of their war effort on the operational level had in turn began to cast doubt among the Compact’s member-states of their perceived ‘unity’. During the Three Fortress Campaign in particular, it had been the Faraxian’s premature strike against Fedeema (rather than toward Thermopylae as planned) whose claims were contested by both the Faraxians and Rixians, and the Algan Republic abruptly redirecting its forces to their Outer Rim colonies were blamed to the main reason for their defeat, much to the detriment of the Rixians, who suffered most of the manpower losses.
With their economic and industrial strength remaining intact, the Compact was still able to replace their losses suffered during the war with relative ease, with its fleet and army strength restored to its pre-war level seven years after the Second War. Even then, the catastrophic losses of much of its experienced sailors and troops had damaged much of its institutional knowledge and military tradition, one that they wouldn’t recover until the end of the Long War. Furthermore, the loss of the resource-rich Outer Rim regions meant that the Compact was becoming more dependent on export from foreign star-nations to supplement their need of resources which slowly outstripped their local production, especially minerals. These particular deficiencies that exist within their collective military and economies, however subtle they are, would undoubtedly dictate the outcome of the future wars to come.
As the Compact, and the Algan Republic in particular, were desperate in restoring their lost prestige, their focus was turned toward the United Clans of Skiron as the star-nation was gripped in a civil war. The Compact unilaterally declared war against the Skiro, resulting in a short, decisive victory that temporarily restored the faith of its respective people. Furthermore, the Algan Republic had been in possession of an abandoned hyper-advanced Tyrum warship found in the Selnoc system during the height of the Second War. Hope began to abound for the Compact’s military in a potential technological leap that could turn the tide of the war as the Algan state began to pour their resources into reverse-engineering this newfound relic.
But alas, the quick recovery of the Compact had alarmed the GTU, who intend to completely weaken their bitter rival to further secure its sovereignty, especially after the fall of Skiron, who for a long time had earned a special diplomatic and trade relationship with the GTU. Plans were set into motion as the National Council capitalized on the fall of the Skiron states to justify its propaganda and casus belli for the next war against the Compact. The lightning-speed mobilization of Fleet and Land Force Command had caught the Compact completely off-guard - even more so for the Algan - culminating into the outbreak of the Third Terran-Compact War on November 12th 2341.
The war was extremely disastrous for the Compact. With much of their incomplete pre-planned defense line and their reconstructed fleets swept away in the opening strike, the Compact wass reduced to fighting a guerrilla campaign. This was not enough to prevent the conquest of the Algan and Faraxian homeworlds in the Lav and Fax systems respectively and many of its highly-developed core systems, and even their much needed trump card in the form of the greatly feared Zhell’Zen mercenary armadas had suffered defeat during the Second Siege of Fedeema, forcing them to retreat from the war. Even worse was the fact that the much coveted technological leap from their research of the Tyrum vessel was lost when Fleet Command successfully destroyed the secret research site during their march onto Nimerium.
However, the success of the GTU did not last for long. The guerrilla warfare conducted by the Compact had at last prevented the blitzkrieg tactics employed by Fleet Command from gaining its success, and the much-needed victory during the First Siege of Nimerium at the Selnoc system had at last put the war into a state of stalemate, as well as the much needed morale boost that came with it. The GTU, having gained so much in the war and unable to break the stalemate, wisely agreed to the Compact’s call for a ceasefire, culminating to the signing of the Armistice of Nimerium on the 12th of June 2357, ending the war on favorable terms for the GTU and - as many other historians had pointed out - bringing a decisive end of the Compact’s golden age and status as a great power entirely.
Final Conflicts[]
The Reversed Fortunes[]
Main articles: Fourth Terran-Compact War, Fifth Terran-Compact War, Warsaw Crisis
The dawn of 25th century was marked by the shifting fortunes of the belligerents of the Long War. After years of successive victories, careful mass terraforming efforts and vigorous development programs across the entirety of Terran space, a golden era dawned upon the Greater Terran Union as the nation enjoyed a dramatic expansion of its wealth and prosperity. It was during this time period where the Union began to change its outlook as it slowly brought itself out of its self-imposed isolationism, especially with the discovery and (re)activation of the Gateway Network that made contact with the previously unreachable star-nations possible. Trade and immigration restrictions were relaxed significantly, as multiple diplomatic endeavours were made toward the major federations such as the Bright League, the Stellar Axis and especially the Star Concord, with the latter even granting trade preferential status as well a large amount of military aid in the form of volunteer armies and military missions upon learning of their centuries-long war against the Tyrum.
The situation for the Compact however was growing bleak. The end of their golden age was marked by an economic depression due to the widespread destruction of their economic heartland, with the Faraxians in particular not recovering up to the end of the Long War. Much of the Algan Republic had been partitioned by the GTU by the signing of the Nimerium Armistice, with its occupied homeworld/capital of Alga in the Lav system along with several others organized into a confederacy of planetary states known as the Republican Polenian States, forcing the Republic to shift its capital to Nimerium and effectively handing over leadership of the broken confederacy to the still-stable Rixian Galactic Directorate.
But while the GTU was wildly successful in its endeavour within its borders and beyond, the situation along its neighbours remained tenuous. Rather than creating a strong buffer zone between the GTU and the Compact, the decentralization of the Republican Polenian States led to extremely corrupt, fractured and revolt-prone warlord states. Many of its citizens ended up effectively enslaved by the ruling collaborationist, while the incompetent warlords' militias were favored more than the Republican’s professional military which were seen as untrustworthy, disloyal and visibly fumed by the corruption of the cabals that carved up the country. On the other side of its border, the strange diplomatic actions and military movements of the Peronisti lead to the revelation of the Great Khan, having recently unified the squabbling Tel’Akkur tribes, and the unnaturally rapid expansion of the Khanate brought fear among Terran citizens as it was clear that the Great Khan intend to invade the GTU as well the isolationist Sophox Garden of Worlds.
It came to a head in the Fourth Terran-Compact War [3], where the Republican armed forces formed the Algan Revolutionary Guard and easily launched a coup d'etat on behalf of the Republican’s citizenry, and immediately rejoined the shattered Algan Republic. The GTU initially accepted the loss of their troublesome client-states as they were more focused on the immediate threat of the Tel’Akkur Khanate, but were forced to act upon learning of the planned surprise invasion by the Compact in their hasty bid to reclaim their lost territories. This fortune did not favor the Compact though, as the resurgent Tel’Akkur empire was cut short by the death of its Great Khan and with it, the abrupt end of its once unstoppable expansionism. This allowed the GTU’s Armed Forces to fully commit its strength to the front and thus putting the war to an end.
The signing of the Treaty of Honshu [4] on the 28th of July 2399 ends the war with both sides virtually gaining nothing, but the strategic victory of the war clearly favored the GTU. Despite the considerable monetary drain necessary in order to retain their once-lost vassal, the Terran state was nonetheless able to form the Union of Nimerium, this time with the carefully planned intervention and monitoring of potential corruption and governmental breakdown of its previous Republican incarnation that led to its downfall. On the other hand, the war had effectively broken the Compact; the Faraxians suffered perpetual economic depression while the Algan Republic was politically and territorially shattered, while the still-stable Rixian nation now remained to bear the burden of war.
The following decade continued without any remarkable changes. The GTU had effectively recovered economically by then, thus ensuring its growing prosperity remained unhindered as its rival, the Compact, faded into obscurity, with its economic collapse and instability beginning to take its toll. Even with the outbreak of the Fifth Terran-Compact War, the strategic situation remained unchanged. Being the only war formally declared by the Compact themselves, the war was characterized by the clumsy handling of its ‘liberation’ campaign of the Union of Nimerium by the Algan and Faraxian governments with no tangible gain, but with one exception - the prosperous Warsaw border system did fall into the Compact’s hands due to a rare tactical mistake by FLEETCOM, leading into a post-war border crisis where its predominantly Polish inhabitants resisted attempts of forced expulsion by the occupying Faraxians. Nevertheless, their failure only rendered their military strength even more impotent as their technological and numerical gap with their Terran opponent grew ever wider.
Byrum Crusade[]
Main article: Sixth Terran-Compact War, The Byrum Crusade
The GTU had been planning their grand crusade against the Tyrum for a very long time. For this reason, the previously isolationist Terran state even went as far as to (successfully) apply to become an Associate Member of the Star Concord, much to the shock of virtually the entire galaxy as their association effectively altered the balance of power between the three major federations that dominated the Milky Way with their sheer military prowess. As soon as the GTU gained the association status of the Concord, both the Concord and the GTU immediately unveiled their long-standing secret military partnership with each other. This act allowed the GTU to earn the much needed favor and gratitude of the citizens of the aforementioned federation, thus fostering an unlikely friendship between both powers that would stand the test of time.
However, both the Terran and Concord’s leadership themselves were aware of the geopolitical situation caused by their former’s association with the latter, forcing the GTU to limit their aid toward the Concord with military missions, volunteer forces as well a substantial amount of aid in arms in order to appease the restless Stellar Axis and Bright League while simultaneously bolstering their defenses against the genocidal Tyrum and Prikki-ti-ki. But for the Compact, this news was seen as a disaster for their nation. Already, the Compact immediately cut off any diplomatic relations with their fellow democratic federation in what they saw as ‘the greatest betrayal in the history of galactic democracy’, and the panicked citizenry went even as far as demanding another war against GTU to address the grim situation.
This string of events led to a political-military crisis where its collective political establishment were divided into two camps; The Doves, comprised of realist-minded military establishments who were against the war, and the Warhawks, the democratically elected officials who relied on the increasingly militant population for political votes. The Doves-dominated military end up marginalized and prosecuted by the Warhawks establishments and many admirals and generals were outright dismissed or executed for their ‘dissident actions’, and the Warhawks even went as far to establish the so-called Citizen’s Guard, a militia of forces independent from - and soon surpassing - the Compact’s standing military to further strengthen their position that soon proved as the worst political undertaking ever committed by the Compact.
The news of the crisis suffered by their neighbour was initially welcomed by the GTU as they themselves had been mobilizing practically their entire Armed Forces for their crusade against the Tyrum, but soon their plans were frustrated by the Compact’s surprise attack along the Terran-Compact border without any warning whatsoever. This culminated in the Sixth Terran-Compact War, concurrent with the ongoing Tyrum’s incursion into the Concord’s territories that saw direct military intervention by GTU. Half of the GTU’s mobilized fleets were instead redirected toward the border territories, leading to a score of victories against the short-lived Citizen’s Guard that soon proved itself woefully incompetent as an effective military force.
But as the war raged on, shocking news appeared from the other side of the galaxy; the GTU unveiled the Sword of Terra, the first planet-cracking megaweapon classified as a Colossus to the entire galaxy. It was then used to destroy the Tyrum’s homeworld of Byrum, effectively ending the war as all the Tyrum Queens that served as the nexus of its hivemind intelligence perished alongside the planet itself, effectively condemning the Tyrum to extinction. As the galaxy reeled on such wholesale destruction, any semblance of morale the Compact needed to continue the war evaporated instantly. The event itself became a clear indication for its citizenry that the GTU effectively became the greatest military superpower in the galaxy, ending any hope to defeat its bitter enemy any further.
The resulting Armistice of Acadia was - to put it mildly - disastrous for the Compact. The occupied Warsaw system was quickly returned to the GTU, with some of its vital resource systems reluctantly ceded to their opponent. The Doves-aligned military cabal tried to salvage the situation by dismantling the Citizen’s Guard, improving its original standing military, as well as implementing ad-hoc political and economic reform, but the damage had already been done; the military institution was permanently crippled by the Warhawks’ actions, hampering any effort done to repair its shattered collective defenses as the Compact braced itself for another war on the horizon, one that could very well end the federation itself.
Prelude to Final War[]
After the Crusade, the GTU had been itching to secure its unexpected position of galactic superpower in the wake of Byrum Cataclysm. Meanwhile, the Terran’s show of force during its war against the Tyrum unnerved even its budding ally, the Star Concord, that one of its members, the Ruu Confederated Planets, even as far to personally led a series of diplomatic conventions during this state of galaxy-wide panic. Attempts of prominent star-nations such as the Florian Matriarchy and Commonwealth of Xana to muster a galactic intervention in the Terran war against the weakened Compact broke down in part due to apathy by the Sophox Garden of Worlds, political unwillingness of the Concord as well the disagreement between the Stellar Axis and Bright League member-states on who should lead the military intervention. This worried the Ministry of Intelligence upon learning of the situation as they relayed the information to the National Council, thus strengthening their resolve to end what could be a winnable century-long conflict for the first time in its history.
Plans were set into motion as the Council once again mobilized its forces not long after the Crusade ended, which in turn alarmed the governments of the Compact as they were still struggling to recover from its previous wars. They repeatedly sent diplomatic missions to the GTU for the first time in decades in order to negotiate a peace settlement for the war, only to be rebuffed each time. Attempts to secure aid from foregin nations also bore multiple undesirable results; no nations apart from the Florians and Peronisti were willing to offer even loans to the already debt-ridden federation, while foreign military aid beyond smuggled volunteers were downright impossible with its only border without the hostile GTU right next to it blocked by the Vol Hive that was equally hostile to everyone. The only sliver of hope they could cling onto wass the false guarantee from other powers in case of another GTU’s invasion, which at least temporarily put the GTU at bay as it needed a sound casus belli for its final invasion.
Fortunately after multiple failed attempts to goad the Compact into the war, the Union’s greatest wish did come true. In 2484, it was discovered that the Algan Workers Revolutionary Forces, one of the largest anti-GTU separatist entities, had been planning for a massive insurrection across the Union of Nimerium and the Terran territories along its border with Compact. While this threat was regarded as a nuisance that could be easily suppressed by local authority, the National Council instead opted for a false-flag operation while pretending as if it wasn't aware of the insurrection. Their long-planned insurrection on the 19th of June 2488 went seemingly unhindered as the AWRF proclaimed “the formation of a New Algan Republic” with the stated goal to liberate the Polenian race and rejoin the Compact, only to have the aforementioned rebellion be swiftly quashed in a mere 20 hours by the well-prepared Terran military. Despite the Compact’s attempt to denounce the short uprising, the GTU nonetheless ignored the statement, effectively declaring war on the Compact on the 29th of July 2488.
Operation Qiyamah[]
Main article: Final Terran-Compact War, Siege of Farax, Twin Battles of Favellion, Great Raltek Campaign
Upon proclaiming its declaration of war, the National Council enacted its Operation Qiyamah (Arabic for Judgement Day), and for this purpose had assembled an initial invasion fleet of 120 thousands warships out of its 200 thousand-strong navy. The operation began with the simultaneous assault across all the major hyperspace lanes leading into the Compact’s territories and seizing numerous border systems within the few opening months of war. The Algan Republic, now reduced to a one-system nation, was the first to fall - its ruling councilmen of the Joinum system quickly making an escape to the Rixian Galactic Directorate as the Union of Nimerium swiftly took over its administration.
In the Compact, former general-turned-leader of the Compact Ersh na-Seter had expected such plan and quickly mustered a foreign mission to muster any possible foreign intervention against Terran incursion, and had ordered his counterpart Admiral Wash na-Kiler to lead the Compact’s remaining manned warships deep into the fortified Rixian territories to preserve its manpower and prepare for a grinding guerrilla campaign, subsequently appointing him as the Compact’s Fleet Chief Commander in the process. Contingency plans were soon drawn up, but it was insufficient and the Compact lacked the necessary manned warship due to severe losses it sustained previously - as it stood, the Compact could muster nearly 100 thousand warships on paper, but most of them were merely unmanned crafts of repurposed civilian starships, hastily armed as a mere cannon fodder. Only about 25 thousands of them were true warships, but they were predominantly comprised of semi-outdated corvettes and destroyers, with its largest and most powerful warships merely a third the size of the Union-class dreadnoughts fielded by the GTU.
The GTU, for its part, was aware that the Compact would opt for guerrilla warfare and thus opted for a slower march deep into the confederation, thus ensuring a secure line of supply, logistic and communication against any potential attack from its wartime enemy. Fleet Command did suffer some initial setbacks during the campaign; chief among them was the unfortunate death of its sole dragonspawn at the hands of a largely unmanned raiding fleet under Admiral Pashna Feljen during a skirmish in the Sahara system. In 2489, Ryan’s Raiders, under Fleet Admiral Joao Filipe Oliviera and its attached Land Force Command field armies under General Boris Fedorov, overran the Faraxian capital system of Fax and began its siege of their fortified homeworld Farax in May, while the combined fleets of the 2nd Expeditionary Fleet and Grey Armada under Fleet Admiral Kim Hae-Young began their march deep into Rixian space as well as that of its nigh-unconquerable vassal-system, the Raltek Confederation. Attempts to slow down her march, witch led to one of the major battles of the war, the Twin Battles of Favellion, were made in January 2489 and March 2490 by the increasingly depleted Compact fleet scrambled together to oppose Hae-Young’s battlegroup, ending with a predictable GTU victory. However, part of the response fleet was able to escape and avoid complete annihilation because of the well-prepared contingency escape plan on the Compact’s behalf.
Alas, despite the Compact’s best efforts to stall the invasion, its days were numbered; any hope for foreign aid was beset by the galaxy’s unwillingness to aid the Compact - or in the case of the Stellar Axis and Bright League, were too preoccupied in their ongoing border conflicts with each other. At this point, half of the Compact was under Terran control, which included the entirety of the Faraxian Union, Algan Republic and many of the Rixian’s border systems. Their only hope lied on the Raltek’s home system of Breek and its myriad of fortress-like homeworld, colonies and stations, in which Land Force and Fleet Command were forced to merge nearly the entirety of their assembled invasion forces to conquer it. The Compact in turn brought its entire surviving fleet and the majority of its combined army to the system for a final stand. This lead to a series of space and planetary battles known as the Great Raltek Campaign, in which the Compact fought for every inch of the system against the much larger Terran invasion force to no avail. While its planets still resisted the continuous Land Force Command invasions, its fleet were utterly decimated after a grueling one-and-a-half years of space combat, leaving much of Rixian space completely undefended as Fleet Command broke through into its space totally unimpeded.
With the complete end of the Great Raltek Campaign and much of its space occupied by the GTU, its despair-driven leadership and weary citizenry surrender unconditionally on the 26th of August 2495, ending the war.
Aftermath[]
By the end of the Long War, the casualties the war had brought had reached billions of deaths on both sides, with the Compact bearing much of the civilian casualties in contrast of the much more fortunate GTU who only suffer mostly military casualties. Furthermore, it greatly changed the political and astrographical landscape of the galaxy with the GTU solidifying itself as galactic superpower, at the cost of the collapse of the already waning Compact as a sovereign confederacy; the Algan Republic was effectively annexed by the multi-species Union of Nimerium, while the reorganized Faraxian Confederation had its border resource systems annexed. The Rixian Galactic Directorate were more fortunate with its status only reduced as a highly autonomous client-state of the GTU; any attempts to further tighten control of the Rixian state were thankfully averted by virtue of its partially-intact economic prowess.
The end of the war did not bring much desired peace for the GTU; the inevitable ascension of the GTU as a superpower was accelerated by its victory in the Long War and thus alerted the pre-existing federations of the Star Concord, Bright League and especially the Stellar Axis, making it further isolated and bereft of any potential friendly states it could rely on. The GTU’s budding relation with the Florian Matriarchy in particular slowly deteriorates as the leading Stellar Axis power began to see GTU’s rise as heretical. The waning Vol Hive quickly grew restless, leading to a border dispute with the GTU out of fear. Meanwhile the Sophox Garden of Worlds took a radical shift in its pacifistic isolationism by turning the Tel’Akkur’s disparate khanates (which included the former Peronisti Union) into its tributaries upon its recent victory against the aforementioned species simply to strengthen their position against the GTU.
Attempts were made to appease the galactic community via the Centuries of Peace policies, as the GTU pledged to the Milky Way Galaxy to avoid any further conquest and warfare beyond the war for self-defense. It also embarked on various economic and mega-infrastructural project as a way of peace offering and to strengthen their economic prosperity at the same time, with the Barnard’s Star Dyson Sphere and Al-Waha Ringworld being the centerpieces of this project. These efforts however were partially successful at best; while it managed to mend its relation with the Concord, others remained wary of the GTU as tensions with other major galactic powers remained high, evident by the sudden declaration of war by the Florian Matriarchy against the GTU, merely 25 years after the conclusion of the Terran-Compact Wars.
The effect of mankind's inter-species relation[]
With the surrender of the Compact’s confederacy, its member-states were forced to sign the unequal Treaty of Westminster which officially ended the war and included a number of terms that effectively turned them into client states of the GTU; the Treaty required the Compact’s successor states to grant free immigration and military access to its territories for the GTU’s military and citizens (but not the other way around), restricted the amount of carriers and battleships its military could field, as well as several other concessions that effectively granted the GTU total control over their economic policies and political system. The Treaty however was still seen to be too soft by the more radical political circles of the GTU, as it did not restrict their overall military size (except for capital ships) and had controversially agreed to bear the majority of the debt suffered by the Rixian and Faraxian states; such decisions were made by the High Marshal as well as part of the National Council in a bid to pacify their newly-acquired vassals.
In contrast to National Council's expectation, the GTU’s general citizenry did not entirely reject their decision of signing the Treaty. Despite still retaining its trademark xenophobic mindset, centuries of friendly contact with the friendly Concord races and their loyal Wessari subjects had slowly changed humanity’s outlook on xenos. The best examples could be seen by the ascension of the Galactic Emancipation Organization as the dominant faction in the National Assembly, as well the months-long Peace Rally of 2501 in opposition against the forced labor policies imposed on Faraxians, Rixians and Polenians that were instrumental in the gradual abolishment the GTU's xenophobic policies.
By 2515, a series of popular reforms known as Aahana's Act were enacted across the GTU in response to increasing human support of xeno's right. For the first time in history, all xenos that hailed from the former Compact or those who resided for more than two generations were granted rights of citizenship tier status, with the Wessari in particular granted access of higher tiers and the right of full military service once reserved for humans only. In a way, the end of Terran-Compact War had hastened the shift on humanity's view of xenos, something that would’ve been otherwise impossible in the centuries of the Greater Terran Union's xenophobic past.
Addendum[]
- [1] Many historians in the future began to argue that the so-called Pirate Wars were in fact a campaign of suppression against anti-government forces at that time rather than a mere piracy suppression campaign, and it is named so as the GTU's way to verbally delegitimatize its opponent - and the fact that said elements indeed conducted some form of piracy to sustain its activities
- [2] The Three Fortress Campaign bears a striking similarity with the Battle of Gallipoli during the First World War; the Compact’s main motivation revolved around opening a straight pathway toward Earth and quickly knock the GTU out of the war (the Entente sought to reopen the Dardanelles to both threaten Constantinople and secure a route to Black Sea), and both failed due to them severely overestimating their strength and underestimating their enemy simultaneously.
- [3] The exact date when the Fourth Terran-Compact War began is still debated to this day; while many historian insist that the war began when the former Republican Polenian States’ territories rejoined the Algan Republic after the ARG's takeover (23rd February 2381), the Terran government is still adamant that the war truly began when the GTU formally declared war three years after the aforementioned coup (7th November 2384)
- [4] The treaty that ended the Fourth War was signed at the colony of Honshu in the star system Yamato, itself named after the largest island of the Japanese archipelago on Earth. Interestingly, its outcome more resembled that of the Korean War more than 400 years previously.
- [5] Political pressure from the other galactic powers meant that any form of military crusade against the Tyrum by the GTU could only be done if the Tyrum themselves attacked the Concord's member-states, allowing them to intervene in the war as stipulated by their existing defensive treaties with each other.