Battle of Earth

The Battle of Earth was the final major battle of the Vrox Rampage, ending the galactic war in a phyrric victory for the allied forces.

The battle was the first time that almost every galactic nation fought together for the same cause, and many see it as the first step towards Galactic Dawn.

Prelude
As the Vrox rampage was taking more turns for the worse for the allied forces, with the unrelenting invasions of K'adurbian, Ursear, and Federation space, and the occupations of Concordia and Bersalis, the allied forces needed to drastically reduce the number of Vrox ships. As Operation Collapse had been a succes and the Penthe Wormhole was collapsed, the Vrox could not bring any reinforcements and they did not seem to be producing ships in local space, their numbers could only dwindle. However, the Vrox's numbers were greater than the allied forces numbers. A decisive victorious space battle needed to be fought at a strategic and well defended location if the allied forces ever wanted to win.

After the Nova of Saris, the allied forces knew that they could not wait much longer. The Ursear Republic was on the verge of total collapse and both the Federation and the Stellar Empire's navies were in bad shape.

After the evacuation of the Ursear people, a plan was put forward. The idea was a ploy to lure the Vrox into a massive invasion of Earth, and fight the Vrox with the Sol systems extensive defensive networks. Captains Jake Creen and Belotja Taudan succesfully planted false intelligence that Earth was not defended by any defensive fleet but only its orbital defensive network.

The Battle, phase 1
The Vrox fell for the lure and committed the majority of their remaining forces into this assault, as they thought that controlling Earth was the key to defeat the Allied Systems Federation. When they arrived, it indeed seemed as if Earth was left undefended. To their suprise, it was actually very well defended.

Humanity had invested well in the protection of their homeworld ever since they ventured into space, and the Aegis Solarum still had many hidden tricks up its sleeve that very few outside the Federations ministry of defense knew about. As the Vrox approached Earth, it was greeted by volleys of torpedo's and large kinetic rounds from defensive platforms scattered throughout the Sol system. As a response, the Vrox began attacking Helico Station, which was putting out a surprising amount of firepower against the invaders, something that surprised the Vrox. After Helico Station was functionally crippled, and the Vrox fleets turned their attention to the planet below, they were greeted by yet another surprise. Earth's nuclear arsenal.

As military-grade nuclear weapons were basically made illegal throughout known space, Earth's extensive arsenal was kept absolutely top-secret. Stored in heavily shielded bunkers deep underground, impervious to scanners and sensors. As the invaders approached the Sol system, the arsenal was readied for launch.

A large volley of thousands of missiles was launched from the planetary surface. The swarm of missiles was too large for the point-defense systems of the Vrox and hundreds of missiles succesfully impacted their targets. The resulting blasts and EMP shockwaves crippled or disabled a good portion of the Vrox fleets, and greatly confused the rest.

Only a few moments after the volley detonated and the shockwaves had dispersed, the combined forces of the Federated Systems Navy, the K'adurbian navy, The Bor Royal Navy, and the remaining fighting forces of the Ursearian Navy arrived from a hyperlane exit point and began engaging the Vrox fleets.

The Vrox fleets were now sitting ducks for waves of bombardment from Earth's ground-to-orbit railguns, the orbital railguns in the Sol system and the heavy cannons of the allied fleets, and took heavy losses during this brief period of being disabled from the EMP waves. However, the Vrox quickly regrouped and started trying to escape.

The Battle, phase 2
Now with the Vrox on the run, the Allied forces had to keep the enemy within the Sol system so the orbital railguns could help with the engagement. This was no easy task, as the Vrox fleets were still a formidable enemy, even with the huge blow they already took. A grand chase began that encompassed a large section of the Sol system as Vrox split up and tried to escape, or attack orbital habitats and defensive installations. Many of these installations were crippled or heavily damaged by the Vrox attacks. The Vrox were also strategically targeting already weakened ships from previous engagements, killing thousands of crew during the chase.

But the Vrox fleets were cornered. Despite causing havoc throughout the Sol system, their numbers dwindled fast now. With little time or space to regroup and suffering from many communication or system failures, the invaders had little protection against the everlasting barrages of railgun and torpedo fire that rained down upon them. The Vrox eventually tried to make a stand in orbit around Jupiter. Its gravity field and many moons would provide a effective shield against the railguns.

Here the allied forces had to fight hard, but now they were finally at a numbers advantage. Eventually the last Vrox ships were defeated and the fighting resulted in a phyrric victory for the allied forces. The Vrox was defeated, their invasion halted. Their remaining numbers did not pose a threat to any capital planets anymore.

Liberation of Federation space
With the incredible boost of morale and the sudden shift of the war's momentum, the allied forces decided to press on and gain as much as they could. The Vrox was now in full retreat as only small contingents of ships made it out of the Sol system intact, of what used to be the majority of their fleets in local space.

After a brief conflict in orbit of Bersalis, the planet was liberated by a gathered army of K'adurbian warriors, Human soldiers, and Ursear militias from the Saris System.

The planet of Concordia was abandoned by the Vrox by the time that the allied liberation forces arrived. The damage done to the planet and its population were severe, and would require decades of rebuilding efforts.

Aftermath
While the battle of Earth ended in victory for the allied forces, it was not without its consequences. The Sol system was in ruins as most of the orbital infrastructure, orbital habitats, and defensive networks were either damaged, crippled, or destroyed. The loss of Helico Station put a huge dampener on ground-to-orbit flights, and required carriers and many shuttlecraft to make up for this loss until a new orbital station could be constructed.

The loss of life was enormous. Many thousands gave their lives chasing the Vrox around the Sol system and many more hundreds died as unevacuated orbital habitats were attacked. Earth and Mars suffered from brief orbital bombardment and orbital debris left over by destroyed ships.

The existence of Earth's nuclear arsenal and the extent of Sol's defensive systems caused great political uproar through the Allied Systems Federation and the rest of local space. It partially explained the nation's military budget that had been suspiciously high ever since the nation's foundation. It also painted humanity in a whole other light than that was previously generally thought. Ancilican and Vota senators demanded insight into the extents of the ministry of defenses operations, which also uncovered the existence of the Deep Science Institute, run by federation president Rotalia Laqo. Laqo's approval ratings with non-human federation citizens plummeted and was ousted out of office at the next election. Ancilican and Vota senators tried to seize control over the ministries of defense, justice, and finance. This did not fall well with human senators, and a political conflict began that toppled the government, resulting in the eventual fragmentation of the Federation and the foundation of the Terran Unitary State.