Terran-Compact War

Terran-Compact War
Date	February 2263 - August 2495
Location	Galactic North, predominantly the border regions and the Compact's core systems

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</noinclude>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 into its end during the successful GTU invasion during the Final Terran-Compact War. The Compact is 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 become the sole unchallenged power of the Galactic North, turning it into one of the galaxy’s foremost superpowers.

Background

The Greater Terran Union eventually emerges as the 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 past invasion, as well as the need of 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 in a war later known as Pirate Wars ^[1].

First contact with the Algan Republic and the subsequent governments - the Faraxian, Rixians, Skiron and Raltek, were established during the era of expansion as early as 2209. However, the Algan states eventually found itself in conflict with both Terrans and Skirons due to colonization rights as both nations surrounded the Republic, thus reducing the potential avenue for its expansion. Rixians 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 Alga-Rixian axis (in part of the democratic revolution funded by the Republic), the Skiron had no choice but to form a defensive pact with the Terran states 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 come at the 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.

Early Stages

Great Skiron War

Main article: Great Skiron War

The Rixian Directorate and the Vol Hive, emboldened by the GTU's apparent weakness, declared war against the United Clans on February 16, 2263. continues their secret build up of its military for their inevitable preemptive war against the GTU-Skiron coalition. Both Algan and Faraxian governments abstained from declaring war.

The war initially went favorably for the Vol-Rixians forces, with many of the Skiron-held system bordering Vol Hive are effectively under their occupation. The Rixians soon took the initiative to capture Thermopylae Station to establish a foothold into Terran space. 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 pacification, was sent. Alexei’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 its toll on the nation's economy.

The GTU quickly establish a defensive line known as the Macmillan-Ramaphosa Corridors along the Rixian-Faraxian-Algan borders, with the war escalating as the Faraxian Union join 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, it's economy was reeling. 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 Wassari 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 a rapid economic recovery and its Terran adversary turn increasingly inward, the members of the Compact quickly integrate themselves into the burgeoning quasi-federation with numerous free-trade treaty, joint technological exchanges and military strengthening program under their unity against their common enemy.

With the exception of the Algan Republic, the Compact eventually found itself devoid of option for further colonization, with much of their border are almost surrounded by the Greater Terran Union, the Khelzen, and the now-hostile Vol Hive. This situation prove highly consequential toward their future economic planning, as the lack of colonization effort allows 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 as one of the most advanced economies of the galaxy, being the third largest economies - just behind the Florian Matriarchy and the Ruu Confederated States - although it did not last for long as many other star-nations began to expand their territories and thus its respective economy, especially the GTU.

This golden age are especially advantageous for the Algan Republic; while its fellow allies are forced to rely on foreign trade and export to support their ever growing economy, industry and population, the Algan Republic continues to expand their territory due to the presence of 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 the 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 as one of the Great Powers of the era.

However, despite the Algan’s best effort, the majority of the contested Outer Rim region eventually fell under the Terran’s sovereignty and the Republic are effectively lost in their Race to the Frontier. Their rapid development and its prosperity however are 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 are pretty much equal with one another; while the GTU has larger territory and population, greater resources, and stronger military, the Compact in turn boast higher industrialization level, better developed and has more advanced economy than its rival.

Peronisti Incursion

Main article: Terran-Peronisti War

The colonization of the outer rim colonies had brought the GTU into contact with the Peronisti Union. They were located on the far side of the Galactic North, 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 in 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 it's 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 far away to ever catch the GTU of guard. They were confident that if war was to come, the Home Fleet itself could move from Terra 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 declare war. In a sense, the GTU was proven right in it's assumptions. While many border systems were captured by the enemy, the GTU fleet was able to meet the enemy fleets before they could threaten the core worlds. Despite most of the 1st Expeditionary were out of position, guarding the GTU's border with the Compact, they were able to move to the far side of the of the 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 battle group, reinforced by the Home Fleet, would then move to reclaim GTU territory. At the decisive Battle of Hlilje, the Peronisti were finally driven from human 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 rages on across the Outer Rim and more of the Fleet Command’s assets are 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 are heavily populated by Ospranians and Faraxian colonists prior to the Great Skiron War. The first successful revolt within the region occurred on the world of Yeedru, where the pro-Rixian rebels overthrew the local Land Force garrison and rejoined the Directorate soon after its independence. While the Compact neither support nor aware of such news they nonetheless capitalize the event vigorously in a vain attempt to destabilize the GTU, and soon embark to numerous espionage attempt 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 grand strategy planning known as Case Blue; With many planners anticipated that Compact will try a central thrust via a breakthrough against the Verdun and Thermopylae fortress system (and thus giving it a clear path toward Earth), the Armed Forces capitalizes it by opting for a massive flanking maneuver against the lightly populated Terran-Rixian borders and the Algan’s Outer Rim holdings, leaving behind a sufficient garrison on the Verdun and Thermopylae to wear the Compact main forces out via attrition.

On August 16th, the Terran states, in an attempt to rile the Compact into a war, proceed to present a ten-point ultimatum to the Rixian Galactic Directorate, in which they are given a mere 48 hours to respond as armies and fleets are 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 expecting the hostile reaction against the ultimatum amongst the Compact populace. As the Compact are unable to counter the popular demand of war against the GTU, the Compact eventually declare war against their bitter rival, thus giving the GTU a much needed casus belli to enact the War Plan Case Blue, culminating in the Second Terran-Compact War.

Within a year since the war began, the Compact began suffered a string of defeats with the GTU suffered only light casualties in return; the Battle of Tau Cygni and the invasion of Yeedru ends with a decisive victory for the Terran Armed Forces, while the Compact’s ambitious Three Fortress Campaign ^[2] against the Verdun, Fedeema and Thermopylae system are aborted after a multiple humiliating defeat against the heavily defended Fedeema system that saw much of the Faraxian strength are spent. The war dragged on for more than seven years as the large swath of Algan’s colonies across the Outer Rim, constituting a third of its territories while its militaries are utterly decimated by the end of the war.

As in 12th February 2321, the member-states of the Compact capitulated, culminating to the Armistice of Verdun. While the historians across the galaxy no longer regards this as the end of the Compact, it is certainly the beginning of its long, slow decline; Algan Republic in particular  were stripped of its Great Power status with the loss of its prosperous, resource rich Outer Rim colonies that contribute much of its economic prosperity, as the unity among the Compact's member-states began to show its 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 member in both swift and gradual manner. With the Compact’s military failed to capitalize its technological and industrial prowess, much of the notion of strength of the collective security provided by the unity under Compact are 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 the Fedeema (rather than toward Thermopylae as planned) whose claims are contested by both Faraxians and Rixians, and the Algan’s abruptly redirecting their forces to their Outer Rim colonies are 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 remain intact, the Compact is still able to replace the losses suffered during the war with relative ease, with its fleet and army strength were restored to its pre-war level seven years after the Second War. Even then, the catastrophic losses over much of its experienced sailors and troops had damaged much of its institutional knowledge and military tradition, one that they couldn’t recover until the end of the Long War. Furthermore, the loss of the resource-rich Outer Rim regions meant that the Compact is becoming more dependent on export from foreign star-nations to supplement their need of resources which slowly outstrip their local production, especially minerals. This particular deficiencies that exist within their collective military and economies, however subtle they are, will undoubtedly dictate the outcome of the future wars to come.

As the Compact, and the Algan Republic in particular, are desperate in restoring their lost prestige, their focus is turned toward the United Clans of Skiron as the star-nations are gripped into a civil war, the Compact unilaterally declared war against the Skiron, resulting in a short, decisive victory that temporarily restored faith of its respective people. Furthermore, the Algan Republic had been in possession of an abandoned hyper-advanced Tyrum warship found on the Selnoc system during the height of the Second War. Hope began to abound for Algan’s military in the potential technological leap that could turn the tide of the war as the Algan states began to pour their resources to reverse-engineer 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 are set into motion as the National Council capitalizes 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 the 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 in 12th November 2341.

The war had been extremely disastrous for the Compact. With much of the incomplete pre-planned defense line and their reconstructed fleets are swept away in the opening strike, the Compact are reduced to fighting a guerrilla campaign. This is not enough to prevent the conquest of the Algan and Faraxian homeworld in the Lex and Fax system respectively and many of its highly-developed core systems, and even the much needed trump card in the form of the greatly feared Khell’Zen mercenary armadas had suffered defeat during the Second Siege of Fedeema, forcing it to retreat from the war. Even worse is the fact that the much coveted technological leap from their research of the Tyrum vessel are lost with the Fleet Command successfully destroyed the secret research site during their march into Nimerium.

However, the success of the GTU did not last for long. The guerrilla warfare conducted by the Compact had at last prevent the blitzkrieg tactics employed by the 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 in 12th of June 2357, ending the war in a favorable term for the GTU and - as many other historian had pointed out - bringing the decisive end of the Compact’s golden age and status as a great power entirely.

Final Conflicts

The Reversed Fortunes

(TBC)

Byrum Catastrophe

(TBC)

Operation Qiyamah

Main article: Final Terran-Compact War

(TBC)

Aftermath

((TBC)

Addendum

- [1] Many historian in the future began to argues that the so-called Pirate Wars are 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 a GTU's way to verbally delegitimatize its opponent - and the fact that said elements indeed conduct some form of piracy to sustain its activities

- [2] Three Fortress Campaign bear a striking similarity with the Battle of Gallipoli during the First World War; the Compact main motivation revolves around opening a straight pathway toward Earth and quickly knock the GTU out of the war (the Entente seek to reopen the Dardanelles to both threaten the Constantinople and secure a route to Black Sea), and both fails due to them severely overestimating their strength and underestimating their enemy simultaneously.