The Alliance War
"Why do we fight in order to maintain the peace?" - Derak Blines
After the end of the Bronze Age of the Empire in 4240, factions developed that warred with each other. The Remnant Empire fought to re-establish the Empire, while other factions, supplied and supported by other nations, sought to keep the Empire from reforming. These nations saw a re-established Empire as a threat, and thus did everything they could to destroy the Remnant Empire. The Alliance funded the main rival to the Remant Empire of the time, the Resurgent Parvus Legions, but the Parvus Legions were destroyed. The Empire never forgot, and many never forgave the Alliance for funding such a costly and bloody war.
After the reformation of the Empire in 4268, the growing empire was joined by the Alliance for economic benefits. The Alliance had been weakened and the Alliance economy was in ruins after tariffs imposed on the Alliance reached a fever peak. With the Alliance in Imperial hands, however, Ender taxed the Alliance heavily. The Alliance, still with a streak of independence, began attempting to leave the Empire. All planets, systems, and galaxies that joined the Empire believed that they had the right to leave the Empire whenever they chose. However, Imperial politicians maintained that an Empire where any member state could leave was an unsustainable form of governance. So, the Empire rejected any attempts by the Alliance to leave.
The Alliance, of course, was furious. Several key politicians and leaders began making plans for rebellion, and many military leaders began raising armies. The Empire, fearing rebellion if they put down these attempts to muster armies, did nothing. The Industrialized Alliance also began mass-producing battle droids; a technology that had been in use since the First Civil War, but never used to make standard infantry. However, the Alliance, determined and angry and frightened that the Empire would burn their homes to the ground, began developing battle droids.
The Alliance was a military bulwark of the Empire, who had attempted to demilitarize after the reformation. Thus, Alliance leaders knew that if they left, the Empire would not be able to effectively resist them leaving. Imperial politicians who realized this began calling for rearmament, but most in the government wanted to avoid bloodshed. But some generals, unsatisfied with their leaders and recognizing the threat the Alliance was increasingly becoming, began arming themselves and increasing the sizes of their armies through private means.
After the Alliance left the Empire in 4289, the severely weakened Empire and the Alliance went to war. The Heavily industrialized Alliance outnumbered and outgunned the Imperial Forces, but by the end of the 43rd century, the Empire had adopted a permanent war stance. The theatre of war developed into a War of Attrition. Both Intergalactic Titans were powerful, but the Empire had access to more raw resources. Thus, the Alliance began exploring and colonizing other galaxies to gain more raw resources. The Empire followed suit in order to maintain a numerical advantage over the Alliance.
You could think of the Empire at the time like Great Britain in the 1930s. They had just come out from a bloody war. They didn't want to trigger another war. But the Alliance had forced their hand. The Empire restarted genetically modified soldier programs and stepped up warship production to a fever pitch. But to make new soldiers took time. It took a few hours to make a new battle droid, but it took decades to make a soldier. The Empire needed to wait.
After a few years of war, the Empire realized that they were losing too much ground too fast. So, they decided to introduce mass conscription of the masses for the first time in a thousand years. The reason for the lack of mass conscription is simple. An ordinary citizen wouldn't stand a chance in a war against an army of genetically modified soldiers. But the Empire was desperate. And besides, the sheer numbers of the conscripted soldiers could overwhelm the Alliance.
In order to match the increased number of warships and troops that suddenly flooded the front lines, the Alliance brought out the ace up their sleeve. A new generation of Alliance warships, armed with Magnetic Acceleration Cannons, and produced in massive quantities decimated Imperial Navies. Imperial Tactics soon evolved to protect Carriers and Troop Transports by sacrificing Cruisers and Destroyers that could tank hits from Alliance MAC cannons.
In the time that the Empire had been focusing on producing a new generation of super-soldiers, the Alliance had been colonizing scores of worlds beyond the Alliance Galaxy. Now, as the tides of war turned against the Alliance, the massive surpluses of troops, ammunition, and ships turned the tide back in the Alliance’s favor. The Empire soon copied, beginning their own colonization efforts, but Alliance colonization was often faster and more effective than Imperial Efforts.
Remember that the Alliance didn’t want to destroy the Empire. The Alliance simply wanted to leave the Empire. All the Alliance needed to do was break the Empire’s will to fight. A such, the Alliance began considering attacks on civilian centers. The only problem was that almost all major cities had orbital defense grids. These were costly to break through, and though it would harm Imperial morale, the attacks would be pyrrhic victories. As such, the Alliance began training assassins and terrorists to kill leaders and decrease morale. However, this move alienated other nations, including the Southern Republic of Systems that joined the Empire.
The biggest battle in the first century of the Alliance War was the assault on Hoburg. An icy planet, the Alliance had set up a base on an Ice Volcano. Hoburg was considered the gateway into the Southern Alliance, and so recent fortifications by the Alliance made the planet difficult to attack. However, the Empire, needing to make progress against the Alliance, launched a full-scale attack. The Alliance, who had believed the planet utterly impenetrable, were shocked, but not unhappy, believing the Empire would be massacred there. However, the bravery of Captain Eli Heavy, not to mention the use of total and utter nuclear annihilation, won the battle. The Alliance scrambled to respond, sending hundreds of warships, while the Empire’s forces continued to amass over Hoburg.
As the war dragged on, many on both sides began to question the war. Derak Blines, who had served for the Empire and whose son had died in the war, called for the Empire to open negotiations with the Alliance. Regarded as a traitor, Derak became a hero within the Alliance, which only strengthened the opposition to him. Derak was executed on the 1st of June, 4301. His death was a national holiday in the Alliance.
While the coffers of the Empire and the Alliance emptied into the war, taxation increased. In the Alliance, taxation nearly reached the levels of Imperial control. In the Empire, heavy taxation and the lack of basic services led to various rebellions, many of which the Alliance funded and supplied. The Yellow-Wing rebellion in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way led to millions of deaths. The Scutum Arm Rebellion, funded by the Alliance, managed to attack Ender before being put down in 4563.
For each year the war raged on, the division between the Empire and the Alliance grew bigger. Senators on both sides realized this, and began tendering peace agreements in recognition that the longer the war went on, the less likely the war would have a peaceful resolution. The Peace Party began to gain supporters, and became particularly powerful in the war-ravaged western Empire. However, the War Party still held the vast majority of the Senate, and so various peace offers were ignored or suppressed. In addition, many Senators, even within the War Party, began to recognize that the increasing division between the Alliance and the Empire would mean that Alliance reintegration into the Empire would be virtually impossible if the war dragged on. The Alliance, however, would not rejoin the Empire, and so would not agree to any peace offer extended by the Empire.
Though hundreds of Senators in both parties began to question the war, the most hardline Senators still had an extremely vocal platform. In a speech by Pro-War Senator Krell Adavis, he described the Alliance as “Dirty traitors afraid of paying their dues” and reasoned that “If any member of the Empire doesn’t like the Empire, then they can just leave. Then every system can just leave if they want to. We can’t let that happen.” Opponents of Adavis pointed out that he had received massive campaign donations from both Brooks Propulsion Systems and ArmorMage Technologies, both companies that would profit greatly from a large war.
Speaking of the companies in the war, various companies sold components and ships to both sides. Notably, the Lukaris BodyArmor Corporation sold armor to both the Empire and the Alliance. These companies became unbelievably wealthy from the war, and even minor corporations that just sold, for example, bottled water to the military became insanely wealthy. Many blamed the Alliance War for the massive hold corporations would have on the Empire for a long time to come. However, corporations that sold to both sides, like Lukaris, were eventually boycotted and punished by both nations for treason and helping the enemy. For this reason, Lukaris eventually signed an exclusive contract with the Empire, dealing a major blow to the Alliance’s Infantry.
As Anti-War sentiment began to grow in the Empire, the Alliance plotted several massive terrorist attacks to finally break the morale of the Empire. This was a horribly calculated move. Terrorist attacks on New York V, Las Vegas III, and Ohio VI among others resulted in billions of casualties, and instead of breaking the Empire’s will to fight, it strengthened the Empire’s will. Pro-War senators like Adavis used the slogan “Remember the 14th”, a reference to the fact that the terrorist attack happened on March 14th. Many believed in hindsight, that the Alliance should have funded rebellions, or launched a major offensive against the Empire. At any rate, the Empire was now furious. The divide between the Empire and the Alliance grew deeper, and the war began to escalate.
Before March 14th, the war had fallen dormant. Only minor offensives were launched by either side, who were all exhausted by the centuries of war that had occurred earlier. In response to the 14th, the Empire began major offensives, and on the 17th of November, 4893, just 7 months after the 14th, the first Imperial forces launched an attack on Alliance home worlds. The Alliance was shocked. They had always been the attacker, and the home worlds of the Alliance slept peacefully in the fact that no Imperial offensive had ever attacked major Alliance planets.
The Alliance began a massive attempt to take back the conquered worlds, and by the end of 4950, almost all territories taken during the 4893 offensive were recaptured. However, many citizens on these worlds had grown up under Imperial rule, and their sympathies lay with the Empire. In their minds, the Alliance was the conqueror, not the Empire. This sentiment remained for the rest of the 5th millennium, resulting in several rebellions that weakened the Alliance front. The last rebellion was put down in 5003.
By 5000, the war had gone on for 800 years. Trillions were dead, and both empires were exhausted from war. The borders were almost exactly where they were at the beginning of the war. But still, both sides remained firm. The Alliance still wanted independence, and the Empire still wanted the Alliance to come back. But now, it seemed that the Alliance had a point. It had been independent for 800 years. It had its own government, its own culture, and it had its own standing military. The Empire’s claim to the Alliance was nonexistent. But the Empire had another reason for wanting to take over the Alliance. The Alliance had trained and funded terrorists to attack the Empire. The Alliance had invaded and taken the territory of the Empire, and most importantly, the Alliance was now the biggest enemy of the Empire. Neither side trusted the other not to attack if they demilitarized. The War Party began fearmongering. “The Alliance will destroy us if we reduce our military.”, said Adavis’s great-grandson Palkani Adavis, in a speech to the Senate. And he did have a point. The Alliance was constantly looking for an opportunity to attack the Empire. In 5019, as a token of goodwill, the Empire had demilitarized the Rinse, and the Alliance immediately annexed the area. The costly and destructive reconquest of the Rinse was a major blow to the Peace Party.
In 5103, Chancellor Elliott Grass was elected to office. He had promised to bring an end to the Alliance war by diplomatic means. But the Alliance, angry, scared, and calling for blood, refused. Now, why the Alliance was angry, scared, and calling for blood, was simple. The previous chancellor, Chancellor Dallin Koreli, had launched several massive offensives into the Alliance, many of which did heavy damage to Alliance Infrastructure. Though all the offensives were eventually repelled, the Alliance had a long memory. Grass, seeing that negotiations were getting nowhere, decided to end the war through military means. His rule saw the mass productions of millions of warships, and the growth of nearly 7 billion troops. He launched the largest offensive of the war up to that point in 5126. The massive offensive escalated the war to a point never before seen in the history of interstellar warfare. The Alliance began a campaign of scorched earth, and the Empire committed terrible atrocities along the way. By the time Grass was voted out of office, the offensive had reached into the heart of the Alliance, but the 16-year offensive saw the Alliance militarize to an absurd amount. Entire galaxies were strip mined in the desperate defense, and now, the Empire had to keep up with the Alliance’s new fleets of warships. As succeeding leaders for both empires increasingly militarized their respective domains, the war too escalated. By the 53rd century, the war had reached a fever pitch. Billions died each day, as trillions of Pecunias were spent on weapons of war. Both sides knew this was unsustainable, but neither were going to back down.
The event that would shape the next thousand years of war began with the 2504 Spartan Program. Spartans were used as commandos, taking strategically valuable targets, assassinating leaders, and generally giving the enemy a bad time. Both sides had used Spartans since the very first day of the war. But the boldest move by any Spartan program would come in 5289. After exactly 1000 years of war and chaos, the 529 Attack Legion sent 800 of its best Spartans on a mission to destroy the head of the Alliance. The plan to do this was quite simple. A major offensive would be launched to force an emergency meeting of the Alliance Senate. When the Senate met, the 800 Spartans would break into the Senate Building and hold the Senators hostage. Without the leadership of the Senate, the Alliance, which itself was an Alliance of various states, would fracture, and the Empire would be able to swoop in and destroy the Alliance once and for all. As the day approached, Spartans sneaked onto Alliance City, the then capitol of the Alliance. There, they waited for the emergency meeting. When the emergency meeting happened, the Spartans broke into the building and held the Senators hostage. There, they demanded a cease-fire, knowing full well that no cease fire could be made with the Senate out of commission. As they repelled rescue attempts, they slowly executed the Senators, and eventually escaped after detonating a heavy Antimatter Bomb in the Senate Building.
With the Alliance fractured, the Empire began several massive offensives. The took over several states, as the splintered Alliance scrambled to reassemble. The main forces of the Alliance had been destroyed in the first few days of this new offensive, as without organized direction, attacks were much more difficult to coordinate. The fracturing of the Alliance also revealed the deep divisions within the Alliance itself, as its member states dissolved into civil war. The end of the war seemed imminent.
The saving of the Alliance is credited with the Coalition of Barons, which was an organization of hundreds of states that together, resisted the Empire. The reason for their victories though massively outnumbered are numerous and complex, but many believe that the reason was that the soldiers and sailors of the Coalition were people with at the same time everything and nothing to lose. This coalition managed to keep the Alliance from falling under total Imperial rule, and rebellions in the territory captured by the Empire weakened Imperial offensives against the Coalition. As the Alliance slowly reformed, they set up a new capitol in Star City, a massive space station that orbited a black hole. The Alliance had survived, but just barely. The 55th century saw the two superpowers take a breather. The Empire had exhausted almost all their resources in the failed attempts to destroy the Alliance, while the Alliance had to take some time to reform and rebuild. The war would remain on pause until the end of the 57th century, when Hannibal Greene led an attack on the Empire in 5689.
Hannibal Greene was a beast of a man.
The Conflict
Prelude
After the fall of the Bronze Age Empire, the various non-imperial nations began influencing puppet nations to fight. One of the most powerful factions in the chaos that followed the collapse of the Bronze Empire was the Remnant Empire. This Remnant Empire was a direct continuation of the Bronze Empire and sought to reunite the Empire under one banner. The other nations decided that could not happen. So, they began to send their puppet states after the Remnant Empire.
The Empire never forgot, and never forgave. Shortly after the reformation of the Empire, the Empire launched an attack on the Alliance. Though small, the Alliance was in financial ruin. The Alliance had been hit with trade tariffs from nearly every human nation, and so was eager to join the Empire. There, however, they found that they were taxed heavily. Discontent grew within the Alliance.
Several key officials within the Alliance, including John Richmond and his sister Virginia Richmond called for the Alliance to leave the Empire. The Alliance, already militarized, found itself repeated rejections for applications for leaving the Empire. As discontent grew in the Alliance, with the people starving from taxation, calls grew for the Alliance to leave by force.
John believed that there could be a peaceful way for the Alliance to leave, but this sentiment became less and less popular as time went on. He died of poison in his drink, and many people blamed Virginia, but she denied it. At any rate, the strong leader rallied the Alliance to war, and the Alliance forcefully left the Alliance on the 18th of August, 4289.
Deployment
In the initial years of the Alliance War, the Empire had a weak military, and relied on its Navy to hold back the Alliance while the Empire grew soldiers. Despite the bravery of many sailors, the Alliance encroached ever closer to Ender. The Empire was thus forced to begin mass conscription.
The Alliance attempted to enter the Empire in the Perseus Arm, which saw the heaviest fighting of the early war. The destruction caused during the fighting sowed the seeds of the Yellow-Wing Rebellion in 4364. However, the Empire managed to mostly keep order.
The Empire and Alliance both made various attempts to invade the other, including the Battle of 5 Stars which resulted in an Alliance attack being repelled, and the famous Battle of Silver Clouds, a major Imperial defeat. However, the war remained mostly static during the first half of the war, with only temporary captures on both sides. The biggest change would occur in 6008, where a dispute after terrorist organizations kidnapped Imperial citizens brought the two empires to blows. After the incicdent,
Outcome
Aftermath
Historical Significance
In Literature
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