Venusian Civil War
The Conflict
Prelude
The establishment of new cities across Venus quickly began to cause strife within the government when representation (based on city population) was shown to favor the older larger cities. The newer cities were out voted again and again on matters such as resource distribution and off-world trade rights. Voting sessions became more raucous affairs, attended by more and more disgruntled citizens who would gather outside the capitol building in New Hohen. Everything came to a head after the vote designating Andrewsson as the official training and station city for city-state military personnel. After the vote a representative from Andrewsson demanded the vote be thrown out, stating the ruling effectively removes statehood from the city and makes it subservient to the rest. They were rebuffed and the session adjourned. The riots that followed caused property and infrastructure damage across all of New Hohen, and claimed the lives of five representatives before order was restored. It's said that the war unofficially started when President Xu Hudson's shuttle was shot out of the sky as he traveled back home to Cathair.
The Engagement
There were no official campaigns or pitched battles during the Venusian Civil War, but the battlefields became the cities themselves. Heavy fighting was seen at every dock as shuttles from the newer cities tried, with varying degrees of success, to infiltrate New Hohen, Cathair, Vandrare, and Parisette. Meanwhile attacks were carried out in smaller docks as counter forces tried to stop them from leaving their respective cities. By the end of the second week the docks of Vandrare and Langosh were in unusable shambles and fighting had move into the cities themselves. Streets and alley corridors became gauntlets with crowd of people at each end shooting at one another. Explosions rocked some cities and fires gutted the insides of steel and stone buildings. Besieged crews worked around the clock to put out the flames and vent the smoke that filled the huge domes covering the city platforms. The skies within three cleared over the next few days, but in Cathair the fire spread and soon the city vanished in a black cloud both inside and out of the megastructure, streak of brown followed in the wake of the city as it glided along Venus's atmosphere. Soon, noticed only by spectators from orbit, the infrastructure damage became too much and the massive fans and turbines keeping the city afloat began to malfunction; Cathair listed, then sank into the acid yellow clouds.
Outcome
Once news of Cathair sinking spread through the remaining cities fighting halted and officers stopped giving orders. Full video of the event brought people to a stand still and all previously held hatred melted away. Everyone knew that they had made a mistake. Guns were put down, tears were shed, and without surrender or cease fire, the war was over.
Aftermath
It was decided that the government of the United Cities of Venus should be dissolved, and in its place the Venus Representative Collective was established. This new government gave equal representation and sovereignty to all cities, have no hand in the affairs of off-world trade, and serve as a legislative body for issues that effected the planet and all cities as a whole, this included foreign policy and the administration of a centralized defensive Navy.
Historical Significance
Legacy
The orbital station that would become the seat of the new collective was named Cathair Memorial Station; to remind all future Venusians of the mistakes their ancestors made, mistakes they should never repeat.
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