Scarcity War
All wars are won or lost before they are ever fought.
The Scarcity War was a global conflict between the Council of Mars and the Eurasian Coalition. While many countries participated in the conflict, many others decided to stay neutral to it, including but not limited to Luna, the Eastern United States and the Amazonian Commonwealth. Not much is known of the Scarcity War, as the Ulysses was forced to escape in the early days of the conflict. Nevertheless, it is widely believed that the majority of the conflict occurred in the interplanetary space between Earth and Mars, with neither side having the capability to send invasion forces in a sufficiently large scale.
As both sides would be unable to decisively turn the tide of the conflict in their favor, many among the Founders believed that the war escalated to a point where weapons of mass destruction far beyond what has been used before would be employed, giving little hope for Humanity as a whole to survive. Others remained more hopeful, with peaceful negotiations remaining on the table to avoid an extinction event. In either case, the result of the Scarcity War remains shrouded in mystery and is the subject of many research papers, though it is undeniably the root cause for the Ulysses' fate, and the Founders'.
History
The earliest roots of the conflict date back to 2088, when the Central Empire started a large space militarization program. Occurring only two years after the Council of Mars and Luna declared independence from their parent nations, the implications were clear: this new fleet was not meant to fight over Earth. Treating this as an aggressive move from the Chinese, the Council of Mars and Luna began their own space militarization programs, and were met with much more success than their Earthern rivals. The lower gravity and readily available materials made it nearly six times easier to assemble warships than it was on Earth, leading the two young nations to rapidly gain the means to defend themselves. While Luna maintained a sufficiently strong fleet to defend itself, Mars stayed true to its name and continued to expand its military capabilities over the following decades, albeit at a slower rate than in the 2090s.
This eventually culminated in 2143, where the Martian government had to focus on other problems, namely its rapidly growing population and the means to support it. While subjugating the nearby colonies was an option, none of them were capable of supplying the food and water required to sustain a growing population. The only planet capable of this was Earth. In 2149, after months of preparation, the Council of Mars declared war on the European Federation and the Central Empire, striking simultaneously on their military stations and shipyards and dealing a crippling blow to their militaries. In response, the militaries of the European Federation, the Central Empire, the Russian Republic, the Siberian Federation, the Bharat Continental Coalition, the Pacific Defense League and other minor nations banded together into the Eurasian Coalition, striking back at Mars with what few ships they had available. Not much is known of the aftermath, however, as the Ulysses and the Founders were forced to leave the Solar system shortly after the conflict escalated.
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