Beta Quadrant Conflict

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The Beta Quadrant Conflict, also known as the GA-IPA War, was a short-lived but violent conflict that took place inside the borders of the Interplanetary Alliance. The two opponents in the conflict were the Gigerdi Alliance and the IPA, but as hostilities escalated factions allied with both sides were drawn into the fray and soon the IPA was the focus of the entire Galaxy.

Background

"We cannot tolerate this band of renegades any longer. We have to act now, before anarchy spreads all over the galaxy once again."

- GA President Mal Dalleer

The foundation of the Interplanetary Alliance was not an easy one, as the vast majority of its member worlds used to belong to other states. While the United Commonwealth of Planets recognized the independence of the IPA, the Gigerdi Alliance saw it as an act of rebellion and open hostility towards the state. When one of the GA starfleet's grand fleet admirals, Mad Gigerdi Jr. defected on the IPA's side and became their president, the GA government chose to act by issuing an ultimatum: the IPA was to return all military equipment seized from the GA or face a declaration of war. The IPA bluntly refused all such demands and the war was declared by the GA.

About two hours later, the Bacterian Empire followed suit and declared an open war to the IPA, according to the mutual assistance guidelines of the Inter-Stellar Alliance. Following this the Great Council of the Hemmoian Federation, the third major signatory of the ISA, also confirmed a number of IHSF sub-fleets would be available to assist GA forces. This was a welcome development to the GA as their starfleet had only recently engaged in a campaign against the La'fin Republic and had not yet fully regained optimal status.

Meanwhile, the IPA's allies, including the First One Alliance and the Folan Star Empire, were also drawn into the conflict as mandated by their partnership treaties. Finally, the Democratic Hemmoian Republic also voiced their support for the IPA's cause. Thus, what started as an internal conflict in GA space quickly escalated into a galactic scale engagement. Tensions built up everywhere in the galaxy as both sides moved their fleets to their border zones in preparation of war.

Operation Sundevil

Main article: Operation Sundevil

Referred to as a "joint police action", Operation Sundevil was the code name for the Inter-Stellar Alliance member state's campaign against IPA. Grand Admiral Erwin Lerev of the Gigerdi Alliance was the supreme commander of the operation; the Bacterian fleets and the IHSF detachments under the command of Hemmo 240 Heiluja answered directly to him.

The tensions reached a flashpoint when a civilian convoy from IPA space was intercepted by a GA fleet. Although the vessels were identified as having a civilian configuration the commanding officer of the GA vessels issued an order to fire upon the convoy, insisting they were hostiles. At 09:43:10:77 Federation Standard Time, the reports started coming in and the Beta Quadrant Conflict began.

More fleets were pulled out of the docks to assist the main attack fleet up against the IPA forces. GAdm. Lerev authorized the use of Almasy class heavy command cruisers against larger IPA vessels.

Fleet engagements

At 07:53 local time, a G-Alliance military convoy moved thourgh an IPA system when a battle group attacked them from warp space. The convoy's escorts, including Bacterians, returned fire to the opposing forces - 4 Vemrer vessels, including battle cruisers. The attackers were decimated while the GA/BE fleet remained unscathed. The other Vemrer battle cruiser crashedlanded on the IPA world and was boarded later by GA troops and the surviving crew was detained. President Mal Dalleer of the Gigerdi Alliance expressed his annoyance regarding this development, considering a GA trade blockade of Vemrer space.

An IHSF sub-fleet of 4 Trident class Destroyers was engaged by a group of ships of unknown origin that had a vague Lightness-like signature, but were definitely not Lightness vessels. Admiral Kaljamaha reported that the group damaged one of their Tridents, and punched a hole in another's shields, but fleed when the sub-fleet was able to destroy one of the attacker vessels. The sub-fleet's sensors were unable to pick up their course, so the sub-fleet returned to their previous duty.

In short order, five star systems were taken from the IPA side by ISA forces. President Dalleer, in a HCNF interview, stated: "More will get done as soon as the Grand Admiral gets there with his 'new toys'," referring to the Almasy class cruisers.

Operation Eye of the Storm

Main article: Operation Eye of the Storm

Since a direct attack against the IPA's core systems was far too costly for the GA, a covert operation to destroy the IPA homeworld of Inster was planned by Grand Admiral Lerev. According to his strategies the whole support structure of the IPA would fall apart if the "head" could somehow be cut off from the rest of the "body" (the various states supporting the IPA). This top secret black op between the GA military and Section 18 was known as "Operation Eye Of The Storm".

Lerev had learned of a weapon of mass destruction under construction in a secret GA military R&D division laboratory disguised as an orbiting stellar cartography station. The weapon, known as a Plasma Storm Generator, was supposed to somehow summon a furious and powerful plasma storm where-ever it was placed. It was the brainchild of Admiral Vorex.

The Grand Admiral requested Section 18 to send its agents to retrieve the weapon from the station and bring it to his personal flagship, the GAS Crimson Reaper. Section 18 informed Lerev, that if he so requested, "additional resources" in the form of stealth ships could be diverted to his command for the duration of the operation; once he learned of these "top secret resources" and of their true nature he accepted the offer. Three Rubek's cube class Medium Commando Cruisers were placed under his command and the Plasma Storm Generator was placed inside one of them.

The operation called for the three ships to jump to Inster while cloaked and move the ship carrying the Plasma Storm Generator into the planet's atmosphere. Once there, the ship would decloak and active the generator in order for the storm to start. As the GA strike team inserted the cloaked cruisers inside the planetary shield however, the plan failed horribly; the ship decloaked too early. The Inster planetary defence grid detected the intruder almost immediately and started to blast away. To make matters worse, the Plasma Storm Generator didn't work as expected when dropped into the planet's atmosphere; quite possibly the prototype was somehow incomplete and didn't activate itself at the designated time and place. As one of the cruisers was destroyed the two remaining ones quickly escaped, thus proving that Inster had far better defenses than the intelligence sources had previously anticipated.

Cease fire and aftermath

After the miserable failure of Operation Eye of the Storm and growing civil unrest on several colony worlds, the Gigerdi Alliance was more or less forced to sign a peace treaty under the flag of the Inter-Stellar Alliance in order to save face. After only a few months after the conflict had started, a cease fire was issued and peace negotiations commenced.

As a concession from the IPA, President Mad Gigerdi Jr. resigned his commission and surrendered to GA forces.