ASF-K'adurbian War

The ASF-K'adurbian was a major conflict between the Allied Systems Federation and the K'adurbian Stellar Empire that raged throughout the known galaxy in 2311. The war was a result of years of tension between the two superpowers.

Prelude
As the Votos-Human Alliance spread throughout the stars, they settled many colonies in what later would appear to be within the sphere of influence of the K'adurbian Stellar Empire. The KSE almost immediately demanded the relocation of these colonies. The colonists did not want to leave their established colonies and resisted the demands of the KSE. In response to this, a cold war began between the ASF and the KSE. Both sides sent fleets and built space stations to fortify the border.

Deception
This cold war lasted for decades, and resulted in strictly controlled and highly fortified area of space.

(more work is needed on this subplot)

Open war
Official war began on February 3rd, 2311, with the K'adurbian attack on ASF border station Station 9. Station 9 was only lightly defended by the 19th border squadron, and the station's weapons platform was being refitted at that time. The K'adurbians arrived with a medium sized fleet of 5 battleships and 2 specialised siege cruisers, escorted by a squadron of heavy fighters and bombers. The K'adurbian commander on board the IDF R'tar sent out a general hail, announcing the declaration of war in response to "ASF duplicity", and opened fire on the defending station and ships.

Station 9 proved to be no match for the heavy fire of the K'adurbian warships, due to the limited defensive capabilities the station possessed at the time. The defending ships put up a fierce fight with the limited preparations they got, and managed to destroy several K'adurbian fighters, bombers and one of the attacking warships. The resistance proved futile however, as both defending cruisers were destroyed by the larger K'adurbian fleet.

Roughly 3 months later, the war was fully raging between the 2 superpowers. The ASF Navy launched a new class of cruiser into service, the Nabulon class. The first ship of the line, the VSS Nabulon under command of Captain Jake Creen, became essential in defending several border systems, thanks to its advanced sensors and hyperdrive technology.

In June of that year, the VSS Nabulon spotted a K'adurbian scout ship. Captain Creen decided to follow it. This pursuit ended in K'adurbian space, just across the border. The crew of the Nabulon immediately noticed the K'adurbian Border Defence Station, but more importantly, a large enemy fleet amassing around the station. The Nabulon crew scanned 15 cruisers, 1 capital carrier, 30+ fighters and several bombers. The K'adurbian fleet noticed the Nabulon and sent 6 cruisers and several fighters to engage it. Being severely outgunned, the Nabulon fled back to allied space to notify the fleet.

Attack on Earth
"Admiral, it is worse! Look!"

- Jake Creen, 2311

Captain Jake Creen returned to Earth to debrief about his findings. He discussed the matters with his former mentor, Admiral Frank Cooper. Cooper did not share Creen's convictions that the fleet he saw was a K'adurbian Invasion fleet. Their conversation was cut short when Jake spotted a wave of K'adurbian bombers flying toward the ASF Intelligence Complex. The bombers started hammering on the buildings and infrastructure of the complex. ASF Aerial Interceptors quickly reacted and began taking down the invaders. Creen and Cooper fled out of the building after Cooper issued a call for an emergency council meeting aboard Helico Station. During their escape, a dogfight emerged between the invaders and the aerial guard. The invaders fled back into space, and vanished without a trace, which confused both Creen and Cooper and later several officials. Admiral Cooper proposed his plans for a new large offensive against the K'adurbians at Helico Station later that day.

Attack on Ancilicus
Near the end of June, the K'adurbians launched an invasion of the core ASF world of Ancilicus. The planet was defended by orbital defence platforms, a large ASF Dreadnought and several other ships. A large battle began between the Dreadnought and the K'adurbian fleet. Despite being far more numerous and having siege guns, the ASF defense proved to be more than a match for the K'adurbian fleet. Captain Jake Creen and Commander Belotja Taudan were present on the planet during the time of the attack, although not on active assignment in the ASF navy. After roughly an hour of battle, the orbital defense began to crack with the disabling of the ASF Dreadnought. Now having an opening, the K'adurbian Fleet began sending fighters and dropships to the planet to begin the planetary invasion in its capital.

What followed were many days of intense ground combat in the streets of the Ancilican Capital. Jake Creen and Belotja Taudan assisted the local militia to combat the K'adurbian soldiers. After roughly a week of fighting, all remaining K'adurbians were killed or imprisoned.

Counter-Offensive
After a huge boost in support, especially from Ancilicans officials, the ASF Senate agreed to implement Admiral Cooper's plan for a major counter-offensive. This offensive lasted a good portion of July and marked several victories for the ASF, although the costs were quite high.

Ursear Shifting
Until this point in the war, the Ursear Republic had remained neutral in the conflict, although maintaining trade routes with the ASF. However, an energy crisis kicked in on the Ursear homeworld, forcing them to look for new sources of Qwerrium, their primary planetary power source. The ASF could not supply enough Qwerrium to sustain the Ursear need, but the K'adurbian Stellar Empire had plenty. The KSE was willing to trade the needed Qwerrium in exchange for huge amounts of Titanium, Ursear ship armor or ships themselves. Fearing a massive increase in the K'adurbian war machine, the ASF requisted negotiations to settle the problem.

During these negotiations, the ASF offered to assist with implementing solar and fusion based energy production, but this was not compatible with the Ursear's current power network, requiring years to refit. The Ursear Republic grew more eager to start trading with the KSE, and implied in various messages that they would be willing to go to war over the needed resource if the ASF restricted these trade routes.

With this news, the K'adurbians grew confident that they would eventually win the war. Either by a huge boost in their military machine, or with a new ally on the other side of ASF space. This confidence caused any previous talk for peace to grind to a halt.

Final Engagement
With the ASF suddenly being threatened by the prospect of a lost war, the mysterious figure George Hawkin suggested a plan to Captain Creen to strike at the heart of the K'adurbian Empire, their capital planet of Netraxia itself. Using a large fleet and specialised weapons provided by Hawkin, the goal was to cripple the enormous spaceport of Ty'mal around Durbus.

The plan was approved by ASF President Rotalia Laqo, who wanted to attend the battle herself.

A large armada of 63 ASF ships was sent on September 9th, marking the beginning of the daring push. By diverting all these ships into a single fleet, the borders were left vulnerable. The K'adurbians took advantage of this by seizing several star systems in the days leading up to the offensive.

As the ASF armada cut their way through K'adurbian space, they gained a lot of attention and several K'adurbian fleets were now on an intercept course. As the armada and the intercepting fleets finally met on the edges of the Durbus system, a huge battle erupted. After the ASF armada began to seriously lose traction in the battle, a task force of ships were sent to finish the job and destroy the spaceport. Among this taskforce was the VSS Nabulon.

After engaging the spaceport with conventional weapons, the task force commanders quickly realised that the spaceport's shield were simply too strong to take down fast enough without dedicated siege weapons. As the situation becoming less and less favorable for the ASF armada, Captain Creen ordered to launch Hawkin's mysterious weapons. These torpedo's turned out to pass right through shields and impacted on the spaceport, resulting in several large detonations which crippled the enormous spaceport beyond repair.

Seeing their mighty spaceport destroyed was a psychological blow to many K'adurbian Commanders, and for a moment their attacks became disorientated and erradical. This opening allowed for the ASF Flagship to punch through to lower planetary orbit.

President Laqo sent out a general hail toward the planet and all remaining K'adurbian ships. In this hail she offered an ultimatum: Negotiate peace talks, or face a planetary bombardment with shield-piercing torpedo's

Peace Talks
The K'adurbian Circle of Advisors choose to negotiate peace, still shocked by the destruction of their spaceport. These negotiations started the following day, after a complete cease-fire had been initiated. The negotiations themself took place in the capital imperial complex on Durbus. The following Treaty of Durbus stated that all territories would return to their pre-war states and that the KSE would lay no further claim to the ASF border colonies. In return the ASF would help rebuild the K'adurbian interstellar infrastructure and allow trade between the UR and the KSE. The Treaty was signed on October 25th, thus finally ending the War.

Aftermath
The results of the war had enormous lasting consequences for the Galaxy, especially for the K'adurbian Stellar Empire. With the destruction of the Ty'mal spaceport and the severe damage to the superpower's fleet, it could no longer keep the empire's vassals under control, and large scale rebellions erupted on the vassal planets. By the time the Galaxy knew of these rebellions, the rebels had already gained a lot of traction and started declaring independence from the KSE. With these vassals breaking away from the empire, the superpower's former might fell and became much weaker than before the war. The loss of this superpower on the galactic stage was the main characteristic of the new galactic era, the era of Imperial Downfall.

The ASF suffered major losses as well, with a large portion of their fleet gone and many important planetary and deep space installations destroyed or badly damaged.

Despite still mistrusting each other, the ASF and the KSE started exchange programs, trade routes and scientific cooperation projects to learn about the different cultures and methods of both respective entities.