Lightness War
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The Lightness War was the most devastating invasion of the Milky Way Galaxy, even surpassing the Timocracy War. The conflict itself involved almost all of the starpowers in the Milky Way, along with a few from the nearby Andromeda Galaxy.
Contents
The Political Situation Before the Invasion
Before the Lightness War, the three major starpowers of the galaxy had banded together by founding the Inter-Stellar Alliance. This new alliance spanning the Gigerdians, Bacterians and Hemmoians along with their allies and member states was still at that time taking baby steps in the galactic arena. The military assets of this alliance itself were small, and two thirds of the major starpowers were recovering from large wars or internal conflicts (i.e. The Daglian Conflict and the GA Civil War).
The arrival of a "great danger" had apparently been prophesized galaxy-wide during the years before the invasion, but no government had decided to listen to them. The invasion came as a surprise to almost all of the starpowers.
The First Phase: The Invasion Begins
It is an on-going debate among the galactic historians whether the Lightness' invasion into the Milky Way Galaxy was truly a spontaneous war of conquest or rather the execution of a complex, pre-designed plan finalized years in advance in accordance with some sort of ancient prophecy. As the war broke out however, this distinction was of little consequence to the peoples of the Milky Way, who found themselves fighting for survival against an unknown, technologically superior enemy.
The first system to come under attack by Lightness forces was Comosol IV in the Beta Quadrant (GA space). The ensuing battle was almost a complete victory for the GL forces, teaching the Gigerdian defenders a bitter lesson. It later became known that a small group of GA vessels had initiated first contact with a small number of Lightness vessels prior to the attack on Comosol IV; This contact had quickly turned hot, and the G.A.S. Exploreison was involved.
During the following weeks, almost all of the GA's Outer Rim territories in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants came under attack. The GA learned at an early point that it couldn't win single-handedly against an enemy of this size and technology: thus the first few weeks of the GL campaign saw GA forces making hit and run attacks against smaller concentrations of GL forces. The GA military as a whole wasn't completely ready for a full-blown invasion of this size, since it was still in the verge of reorganization of its' resources after the GA Civil War.
The Gigerdian President, Dalleer, ordered the withdrawal of GA fleet assets from the colonies located farthest away from Gigerdi Prime and the bigger population centers: this caused widespread disapproval of President Dalleer's actions among the colonies that had been left virtually defenceless against the invaders. It is no surprise that these colonies were forced to rely almost solely on their individual units of the Gigerdi Alliance Colonial Defence Forces, and later on had the strongest support for The Resistance and the IPA.
Also, during the first few engagements between the GA and the GL, the 47th Battle Group of the GA was able to strike minor victories against the GL by destroying smaller scout fleets and their fighter escorts near the outer rim colonies.
As the GA forces were still reorganizing, the Great Lightness found its' way to the Delta Quadrant: This meant that now both the Bacterian Empire and the Hemmoian Federation would be under attack. As the GL invasion to the Bacterian and Hemmoian territories ensued, the ISA attempted to organize a formidable defence of the Bacterian territories, because the Bacterians themselves were quite short on ships due to the disastrous Daglian Conflict along with their assistance in the GA Civil War on Nix Balmorra's side.
The first Hemmoian system to have come under attack by the GL was the Utt'nimkl system, located in the HFed side of the core worlds. This system, like many others, was completely wiped clean of any resistance, despite its large civilian population. The Great Council was initially unwilling to engage the Lightness, hoping the mysterious invaders would not attack if left unprovoked, but as reports of the high civilian casualties in Utt'nimkl started coming in the IHSF High Command was authorized to strike back with full force.
It became quite clear at this time that the Hemmoian Federation could contribute almost nothing to the ISA defences. Almost 40% of the Hemmoian Federation's fleet assets were destroyed in the opening stages of the GL invasion into the Delta Quadrant and the Gamma Quadrant. This left the Hemmoian Federation and its member states in a state of disarray, but unlike the GA, they were able to recover from it much quicker - and strike back.
The Second Phase: Full-Blown War
After the initial shock of the entire invasion, the GA Military finished the mobilization of its' entire fleet assets: several full fleets were formed and sent to recapture systems occupied by the Lightness. In a desperate measure, the Hemmoian Great Council authorised the use of Black Hole Generators aboard the new Black Hole Mk.I class carriers. The Hemmoian Federation scrambled together a massive fleet of ships to do battle against the Lightness, spearheaded by a sub-fleet of four ships. These were the IHSF Annihilator, IHSF Defender B, IHSF Conqueror and IHSF Dismantler.
Meanwhile, the GA Military Intelligence had been able to formulate a theory of the Lightness' tactics: it became apparent, that despite earlier reports and even rumours, the Lightness was almost solely targeting military installations across its' front. This sort of behaviour in battle raised many doubts over some sort of an ulterior motive, and the evacuation of civilian colonies and outposts in GA and ISA member state space was considerably reinforced.
The war itself only intensified at this point, when the Lightness fleets penetrated deep into the Alpha Quadrant and the Beta Quadrant. Stiff resistance by Hemmoian, Gigerdian, and individual ISA forces in their designated quadrants were met with even greater amounts of GL armadas showing up to do battle. The GA Military's objective was to deny the GL of passage into the densely populated systems, and to protect its' supply-lines. The Gigerdian systems of Torgo, Moldavar VII, Gamus, Tradagar, Sheenan V, Quunar's Star, Theron, Ulipses, Hyundaar, Gamaron and Vilaxar were almost completely destroyed in the brutal battles. At this time, the Hemmoians also fought a brutal battle in the Cipharg system, known as the Last Stand of Cipharg Twelve. Similar heroic battles and last stands were also seen at the Battle of Dekar V and the Weequlon Massacre.
As the Lightness pushed forward, the Hemmoians had been able to defend and reclaim their space with great efficiency. However, the GA along with its' allies started to quickly lose the initiative against the invaders, and found themselves in a rather poorly executed retreat from their original positions. The lines were growing thin.
The Third Phase: Center Cannot Hold
The final year of the Lightness War started badly for the GA forces, since it also had to assign ships to the ISA for the protection of the Bacterian Empire. And on top of that, the GA military was once again in full retreat against the incoming forces of the Great Lightness. Small skirmishes ensued for a while, until the larger fleets met again in battle. This time, the GA was able to score several major victories against the Lightness, and even cut their supply-lines into the Alpha Quadrant for awhile.
For awhile, the GA fell into a false sense of security. The strategic planners of the GA Military had thought, that it would take some time for the Lightness to reinforce their fleet assets in the Alpha Quadrant, which in turn would give the GA time to reinforce its' own forces. This did not happen, since during a particularly quiet day on the galactic front, the unthinkable happened: a small scout fleet of vessels belonging to the Great Lightness suddenly jumped into the Gigerdi system, the home system of the Gigerdi Alliance. The ensuing battle, known as The Battle of the Gigerdi System, was won by the GA forces in the nick of time. To this date, it is also debated, how exactly did the Lightness gain access to or find the system, in the first place.
Shortly after these tragic events, the Hemmoian front reported good news for the war effort: the main defensive force of ships had been able to successfully engage and destroy one of the main Lightness armadas that had been sent to conquer the Delta Quadrant. The Hemmoians had somehow managed to find a fatal weakness in the Molecular Shielding system of the Great Lightness vessels. At this point, the war started to slide towards the favor of the powers of the Milky Way Galaxy.
The T-Race Federation also joined the war shortly after these events, when the Lightness had taken a severe beating from the major starpowers, and thus moved to attack smaller powers i.e. the Humans. The GA also experimented with a new type of a sensor, that enabled them to track Lightness vessels by following the frequencies of their shielding systems, which left a distinct interference pattern. The T-race later provided the GA with a new type of an energy torpedo after considerable diplomatic negotiations. With this advanced weapon, even more victories were achieved against the invading Lightness forces.
The Fourth Phase: Sudden Peace
The peaceful end of this galaxy-wide conflict came as suddenly as it had begun. During one of the battles between Human and Great Lightness vessels, a diplomatic channel was finally opened by the Lightness. After a short discussion, a peace treaty along with an armistice was signed. Apparently, the Human captain got the Lightness forces to think about their war of conquest in a different light, and thus got them to stop. While it was originally believed this was due to the genuine advantage the peoples of the Milky Way had gained against the extragalactic invaders, it has later been theorized this was yet another stage in some unseen master plan of the Lightness.
Simultaneously, Hemmoian and Gigerdian fleets engaging GL forces recieved requests of an armistice. Eager to end the war which had caused enormous drain on manpower, infrastructure, and the economy, they agreed, along with the rest of the Milky Way powers. This peace treaty which the Gigerdi Alliance signed with the Great Lightness is known as the Treaty of Riganon. The universal treaty, which all of the Milky Way powers signed, had only one condition: the Milky Way powers would agree not to try and request reasons or explanatios for the entire campaign. "Reasons for the operation would be given at a later date, when the time is right", stated the agreement.
Aftermath
After all of the individual peace treaties had been signed and ratified between the Great Lightness and all of the starpowers of the Milky Way Galaxy, a sudden change of power took place in both the government of the Great Lightness and the mysterious T-Race. Very little is known about this incident, which could best be described as successful attempts to overthrow their legitimate goverments. These uprisings were apparently undertaken by civilians from both sides, and as said before, they were even successful. Some historians speculate, that in the case of the Great Lightness, this uprising could've been a direct result of their invasion campaign going bad by the unexpectadly stiffer resistance from their adversaries in the Milky Way. As for the reasons of the uprising in the T-Race territories: nobody quite knows why an uprising was undertaken there, and it remains a mystery even today.
As for the three major starpowers in the Milky Way, the end of the war against the Lightness was a welcome turn of events. The GA had fought an extremely devastating conflict, but as soon as the war ended, it started to rebuild its' colonial and military infrastructure back to its' former self again. What the GA did not foresee, however, was that due to negligence of the security of its' frontier colonies, the Beta Quadrant conflict would almost certainly be a direct result of a few years later.
As for the Hemmoian Federation, it too faced rebuilding of its' shattered worlds. The war had been less devastating to the Hemmoians when compared to i.e. the Gigerdi Alliance, but it had still left the Hemmoians in a position, where reconstruction in a on wide scale had to be performed.
The Bacterian Empire was, without a doubt, the major starpower to have had the smallest damage from the conflict. The ISA had almost single-handedly managed to keep the Lightness out of Bacterian space, and even fought heavy guerilla warfare against the invaders. The Bacterian military itself also managed to unleash its' deadly potential upon the Lightness, which had a hard time trying to contain it.
As a final note, the Lightness War itself also left a hidden legacy to the powers of the Milky Way: during the years following the end of the war, many previously hidden Lightness technology was found to be in the hands of a few starpowers i.e. the Gigerdi Alliance.
