War of the Ancients (Local Universe)

"Life thrives, stars shine, empires rise, and fall... But only one thing remains eternal - the War. Cities burn, plants wilt, and the Ancients will show the Confederacy the true consequences of the mistake they have made." - AnonymousTemplate:!War InfoboxThe War of the Ancients (WOTA), also abbreviated to W.O.T.A, and also known as the Third Intergalactic War, was an 832-year-long conflict mostly taking place between polities situated in and around the Via Sagittaria and Aylothn galaxies. The conflict was the most widespread conflict taking place in the region since the Great Empyreal Crusade also known as the Second Intergalactic war. This conflict was known to completely reshape both the Quintet Puontari Federation (QPF) and the Confederacy of Borealis (CoB) as superpowers. The effects of the war are numerous and are still obvious even ten thousand years after its occurrence.

Spawning from small conflict near the Vault of Secrets, the war quickly ballooned into a total war between the Quintet Puontari Federation and the Confederacy of Borealis backed by the greater Intergalactic Council. Throughout most of the war, the Quintet Puontari Federation captured valuable wormhole gateways, allowing them to greatly halt the Confederacy's counter-offensive. As the conflict drew to a close, the Intergalactic Council was able to muster enough strength to create a stalemate far from core systems. This stalemate was eventually followed by an unconditional armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Historians consider the War of the Ancients to have started on the 18th of November, 88,073 CE shortly after the destruction of the Vault of Secrets at the hand of a the CoB. This event followed with a subsequent declaration of full-scale war by the Quintet Puontari Federation, followed by very intense and prolonged conflict. The War of the Ancients saw the usage of weapons not seen within the galaxy since the beginning of the modern era. These weapons were often outside the technological capabilities of participating nations; participants often employed artifacts from more advanced precursor civilizations.

Research in the fields of FTL travel and military technology also skyrocketed, creating a boom of new corporations and bureaus specializing in the research and development of technology. The Celestial Plague was one of the largest consequences of the war. It continues to be a pestering issue to major nations in the modern-day. Intergalactic politics were shaken up so thoroughly because of the conflict that the Intergalactic Council experienced a large influx of members. This eventually went on to grow the power of the Intergalactic Council considerably, and is one of the numerous reasons as to why the Quintet Puontari Federation signed a ceasefire against the greater Council.

Timeline

Preface

Discovery

The United Federation of Star Systems, a prominent member state within the Confederacy of Borealis at the time, had a history of imperialist and expansionist attitudes. It had its sights set on a new target for colonization, sections of the Aylothn Galaxy not officially claimed by any nation. Within the vast untamed sections of the Aylothn Galaxy, lied a construct known as the Vault of Secrets. This Vault had travelled to the galaxy sometime before then. It was officially the property of the QPF, however, they were not certain of its location within the galaxy.

Upon further analysis of the Vault of Secrets, the UFSS decided that it was a very dangerous object, its vast size and apparent weapons capability were particularly concerning. They dispatched various scouts into the artifact, inadvertently triggering the automated defense systems. Within seconds the Vault's defensive protocols activated. It closed entrances, turned on its weapons, and signaled the QPF of its location and that it was being attacked. The signals took a substantial amount of time to reach them. By the time the QPF picked up the signals, scouts had already searched through much of the Vault of Secrets. Immediately, the Quintet Puontari Federation deployed an intimidating force to the Vault. The UFSS believed the artifact to be an ancient one from Sedrua or the Triumvirate Civilization. When the QPF arrived with a large military force claiming the artifact to be theirs, the UFSS did not yield control of the object, believing their claims to be a ruse.

Tensions began rising as the Vault was boarded by both UF and QPF forces in an attempt to take the Vault. Despite being met with fierce opposition and numerous warnings from the Quintet Puontari Federation, the UFSS would not give in. The value of the object was simply too high. The UFSS only increased their pursuit of the object upon finding ancient and powerful artifacts within it. The generals leading the boarding forces saw the great potential in these artifacts, and sent further reinforcements after learning of them. In particular, the Eternal Battery and The Perdition interested these generals. The Quintet Puontari Federation issued final warnings, before they gained control of the Vault's defense systems and began firing upon the UFSS's troops.

Beatrix

Main Article: Beatrix

In 719 BCE, a now-destroyed nation known as the Yohjan Confederacy created an artificial intelligence they named Beatrix. While the meaning of the name is lost, its influence has not been. Upon the collapse of the Yohjan Confederacy, Beatrix was unable to function as it had. It started destroying what it deemed to be threats to the Yohjan Confederacy. With no one with the authority to give it orders, it continued this rampage. In the 10,000's CE, it became increasingly violent in its methods, causing the deaths of two-digit percentages of individuals in Via Sagittaria.

While mostly contained by the beginning of the War of the Ancients, Beatrix had been becoming increasingly unpredictable. Rather than focusing on just its home galaxy, it and its forces began moving to Aylothn. In a large and empty region of Aylothn, it began to rebuild its lost forces. Mistaking the QPF for an ancient enemy of the Yohjans, it staged an attack on many of their worlds, prompting a military response. Beatrix would continue these attacks until well after the war when it was finally destroyed. The QPF blamed the release of the AI on the Confederacy of Borealis. They demanded fairly minor reparations, however, the CoB refused to pay citing "budget issues." The QPF responded with banning citizens from the CoB, banning trade with them, and deporting any civilians within their borders. This marks the first point in which tensions between the QPF and Confederacy came to be.

The Vault's Incident

With the Vault of Secrets activating numerous onboard weapons, UF forces were immediately fired upon following multiple warnings. Despite seeing the terrifying capability of these weapons, UF generals stood their ground, calling for more forces as the conflict began to escalate. Scouting forces mostly evacuated and were replaced with heavily armed personnel and drone forces. The Quintet Puontari Federation waited for these forces to board the Vault before they unleashing two weapons known as the Perdition and the Eternal Battery. In conjunction, the two devices devastated UF forces on the ship.

The Quintet Puontari Federation was initially unconcerned about the besiegement of the Vault of Secrets, while the UF was a capable military, they believed, it would be impossible for them to muster the force needed to take the Vault for themselves. As an increasing number of UF backup forces arrived, the QPF realized that they were serious about taking the Vault. Fissures and structural failures began to show on the surface of the Vault of Secrets several months into the siege. This called for an advanced section of the Vault's Incident, which consisted of constant firing, comparable to a state of total war. After another month, the Vault of Secrets had been probed and cleared, but its defenders would not allow it to fall. Resistance held through, with the UF and Quintet Puontari Federation entering a state of gridlock at the scene of conflict.

In the last stages of the Vault's Incident, UF forces slowly inched their way to the Eternal Battery. By then, a plan was created which would directly effect the battery by using focused EMP blasts, as well as extensive bombardment of the surrounding hull to let them in. After deeper planning and numerous brutal battles with the QPF military, the UF military placed effective EMPs all around the Eternal Battery, detonating them with an extreme amount of force. What followed was not a shutdown of the Vault, but instead a massive destabilization, which set off a meltdown in the Vault.

The UF forces, unaware of the meltdown, continued to board the Vault of Secrets. After a quick analysis of the power source, the offensive forces attempted to destroy it entirely. However, the Quintet Puontari Federation sent extensive backup to the chambers, causing further gridlock and extending the conflict for several more weeks. The QPF was soon overwhelmed and, knowing a meltdown was imminent, largely fled the region. Content with their victory, UF generals ordered many artifacts to be removed for study. After several days, UF forces attempted to remove what they believed was an inert Eternal Battery. The battery, already unstable, experienced a catastrophic failure once tampered with, causing it and the Vault it was powering to explode.

The blast obliterated UF military forces in the region. Their ships, while powerful, could not stand the equivalent to a nova. Other than the release of a large amount of energy released, Thaumaturgic energy was released. This energy warped or destroyed minds as it propagated across space, killing large numbers of individuals who would have otherwise survived the blast. Trillions of soldiers died as a result of the blast.

QPF-UF Front (88073 CE - 88805 CE)

Post-Vault's Incident ( 88073 CE - 88116 CE)

The Quintet Puontari Federation, interpreting the UF attack as an act of war, mobilized their large military. They intended to banish the UF and its allies from the Aylothn galaxy and force them to sue for peace. Many artifacts salvaged from the Vault of Secrets, including several offensive weapons and life forms now known as the Celestial Plague, would define the war. The Celestial Plague was intended to execute offensive attacks against the UF, hopefully forcing them out of Aylothn permanently.

The president of the UFSS immediately fired the generals for acting aggressively towards the QPF. Once he learned of the mobilization of QPF forces against military bases and colonies in Aylothn, he requested the Congress to declare war on the QPF. The Congress initially refused, mostly because a declaration of war would necessarily involve other member nations in the Confederacy of Borealis. They only authorized limited military action necessary to defend UF military assets until negotiations could take place.

As both sides sent extended forces to the site of the Vault's Incident, more fronts opened up as the Quintet Puontari Federation used their entire military to attack UF positions. While civilian colonists were generally spared, large numbers died to the indiscriminate rampage of the Celestial Plague. As the Plague made its way to new systems, it would prove to be the deadliest factor in the war. It would also prove to be the most important aspect. UF ships carried the plague from Aylothn to its home galaxy, Via Sagittaria in 88,113 CE. At once, it began propagating rapidly across the galaxy, causing large numbers of civilians casualties. The Confederacy of Borealis, upon learning of the Plague's origin, decided to attack action of its own against the plague. It carried out various assaults on facilities enhancing the Plague,

The War of the Ancients was raging full force by 88115 CE, as the QPF and the greater Confederacy were gearing up to higher conflict with deeper tensions. Numerous battles happening all across Federate hyperlanes which led to the Aylothn Galaxy. In the mean time, the Quintet Puontari Federation was evaluating the recovered artifacts from the Vault of Secrets, and hastily improved on the Celestial Plague, which ushered several bouts of innovation in the fields of biotechnology and self replicating technology. In the end, the Celestial Plague reached its second form, with many waves of ruthless machines and biohazards reaching Federate forces. Several decades passed with intermittent skirmishes and battles, which helped the Quintet Puontari Federation creep towards the core of the Confederacy.

Escalation (88116 CE - 88221 CE)

Further escalation of the War of the Ancients was started by the Quintet Puontari Federation, as they began to relentlessly send waves of the Celestial Plague to the Confederacy. At this point, the war had made its rounds all across the Local Universe, with many major nations taking notice and launching their own campaigns against the Quintet Puontari Federation. Most notably, the Commonwealth created a massive blockade near the areas of the Aylothn Galaxy, but expressed no hostilities beyond that point. The months following the blockade saw some major incidents near key Federate wormhole gates. These spawned a massive amount of stress over the possibility of a total QPF-CoB front. Further mobilization of the Vault Network and CoB military forces saw the rise of 'Total War' which would start shortly after the Vault Network breached numerous wormhole gates.

Less than a century of warfare had brought some of the harshest combat in history, bringing numerous Federate and QPF forces to their knees. However, this would become much more gritty at the reconstruction of Beatrix, an ancient military AI created by the Yohjan Confederacy iduring the War of the Final Transition . Upon the re-activation of Beatrix, they instantly began to train the AI billions of hours of combat tactics on its numerous servers, now being mass-constructed all across the Confederacy. Beatrix was originally designed to act as an advisor, always giving the best possible advice for the Federate military. Following it's seemingly nonsensical orders gave the Confederacy several victories on what were thought to be losing battles.

Despite their best efforts however, the Quintet Puontari Federation managed to invade a primary wormhole network, spurring up an immense amount of concern throughout the Confederacy. Eventually, bases of operations were established across numerous wormhole lanes, effectively cementing the Quintet Puontari Federation near the Via Sagittaria and Ventemir and Ouranir Galaxies. The first major assault of these would happen at the Ouranir Galaxy, easily ending any Federate influence in major regions. Deep implementation of the Celestial Plague also festered in these areas, making it almost impossible to traverse safely.

Deeper knowledge of the Confederacy also prompted the Quintet Puontari Federation to augment the Celestial Plague, to allow for faster spreading and a heightened sense of ruthlessness. They also sent a prominent capital ship, the PWV Reckoning, to heavily guarded wormhole gates to send drone forces across many regions. Before, it was just the Federate government in a state of war. After the extensive damages caused by the celestial plague, every single member-nation in the Confederacy declared war on the QPF, freeing more troops for the Confederacy to use. Over a period of a few more years, mobilization increased to a massive level, and interior wormhole gateways were disabled. This was in order to keep the Quintet Puontari Federation away from the other areas of the Via Sagittaria.

Several more decades of this gritty warfare would give way to a sort of gridlock, which kept the Quintet Puontari Federation and the Confederacy of Borealis at bay with each other. Developments of Beatrix also prompted several counter invasions, most of which were not successful. Defenses on both sides became more permanent, and as a result there were reports of numerous stealth operations and cyberattacks. The network of Vaults that the QPF had also moved much of its bulk to defense of numerous wormhole gates and hubs, which made stealth operations much easier to conduct.

Meanwhile, in the Ventemir and Ouranir Galaxies, the Celestial Plague caused great amounts of damage. In less developed areas, particularly in the Ouranir Galaxy, travel was almost impossible. Despite being one of the most powerful nations within the Confederacy, The State of Tenshi was unable to defend both clouds. They retreated to the Ventemir and Ouranir Galaxies, leaving the Ouranir Galaxy to it's fate. The multi-front war, caused forces to be spread out to the point of little being available for the relatively unimportant Ventemir and Ouranir Galaxies.

It was around this time when network of stealth and spy craft made its rounds on the war front, with numerous instances of valuable information being lost on both sides. The most notable of these pertained to the Ambrosia Galaxy, where the Quintet Puontari Federation detected a slurry of anomalous objects with minimal resistance. Plans were hastily created by POLIKY, and it was decided that the next major invasion would take place in the Ambrosia Galaxy.

The Great Ambrosian Heist (88221 CE - 88226 CE)

Main Article: The Great Ambrosian Heist

As the Quintet Puontari Federation grew tired of the gridlock, they slowly sent various components of the Vault Network near the front. Being immensely useful in the scope of storing personnel, servers, spacecraft, and weapons, these vaults were critical to ending the stalemate in favor of the QPF. These vaults quickly captured various wormhole gates scouted out during previous missions. The Quintet Puontari Federation utilized multiple legions of forces, breaking multiple places of the Federate front and charging towards valuable areas.

While the Confederacy did prepare and warn the nations of the Ambrosia Galaxy for such an attack, they did not foresee the sheer numbers and strength of the Quintet Puontari Federation. Soon enough, all Ambrosian gateways were shut down by the Confederacy, in the hopes that the Quintet Puontari Federation would not them. This did little to stop the Quintet, however, they simply used naturally-occurring wormholes known as the Janus Network.

Immediately, the Quintet Puontari Federation conquered the regions of the now defunct Federate gates, and instead set up their own by re-attuning the gates. It is told that in only a matter of hours to days, the Quintet Puontari Federation re-activated all Ambrosian wormhole gateways, applied impenetrable defenses, and entered the Ambrosia Galaxy not only for conquest, but for its valuable assets. These would aid in the development of the Celestial Plague, hopefully ending the war and holding the Confederacy preoccupied.

In the weeks following the raids against the Confederacy, the Quintet Puontari Federation directly invaded the greater Ambrosia Galaxy, appearing at numerous wormhole gates and beginning what is known as The Great Ambrosian Heist. The Ambrosia Alliance of United Systems, gaining warning from their Federate colleagues only months earlier, established a deep network of defense at the corresponding wormhole gates. However, even with the most sublime defense, the Ambrosia Alliance of United Systems was challenged by the waves of enigmatic spacecraft. Several small Vaults entered the area alongside numerous ships, including the PWV Reckoning and backup forces from the Vault of Reason. In only twelve days, the vicinity around all claimed Ambrosian wormhole gates belonged to the Quintet Puontari Federation, which were backed up by numerous drone forces from POLIKY.

Soon after this invasion, an abundant amount of defenses were instated to prevent any counterattacks by the Confederacy. Legions of Vaults were put in place to ensure this, and as a result the Confederacy could not reclaim many of their wormhole gates by the turn of the next few years. In the mean time, the Quintet Puontari Federation traversed through numerous hyperlanes in the Via Sagittaria, the Ventemir and Ouranir Galaxies, and the Ambrosia Galaxy.

During the conflict, the first prototype SICTIRIAD Generators was used by the Quintet Puontari Federation. While mistakes and failures were common, the generators gave the Quintet Federation unmatched mobility. This new-found mobility let the QPF ransack numerous research facilities and government-operated zones, finding out about the locations and abilities of many Ambrosian artifacts. The most notable of which, named the Thavmaphage, was easily discovered and found to be immensely useful for use in the Celestial Plague. After deeper fortifications and eventual containment, many samples and clones of the Thavmaphage were now in QPF hands. Deep genetic modification of the Thavmaphage would also make it much easier to spread, with a higher intelligence and swift spreading rate.

Upon deeper analysis of the Ambrosia Galaxy, the Quintet Puontari Federation managed to imperfectly clone numerous other artifacts, before returning to their wormhole gates with massive resistance. Not seeing any further purpose left in the Ambrosia Galaxy, the Quintet Puontari Federation intentionally released some samples of the new Thavmaphage, and left the Ambrosia Galaxy in a state of confusion and turmoil. The Quintet Puontari Federation retreated with minimal losses, and almost all forces returned to the Via Sagittaria Galaxy and the Ventemir and Ouranir Galaxies.

With this new version of the Celestial Plague at their disposal, the QPF let free the Thavmaphages and other artifacts, making the assault even more cumbersome for the Confederacy. Also heightening the conflict was POLIKY, which was able to hijack more wormhole gates to spread all across Federate territory. Assaults began to appear in protected areas, and the Confederacy appeared to be cornered with gridlock giving way to terror.

The Battle of Sekhmet (88112 CE - 88131 CE)

Main Article: The Battle of Sekhmet

The Battle of Sekhmet, while relatively short, was one of the largest and most important battles in the War of the Ancients. Large numbers of immigrants and refugees fled to Sagittarium during the War. Being in the center of the galaxy, it remained relatively untouched during the start of the war. It's population exploded. In particular, Sekhmet, an ecumenopolis under the control of Sagittarium, was growing rapidly. The Sagittarian government, in a unilateral move by the Chancellor at the time, intentionally sent refugees to this world, a world rich in production centers for materiel, to act as "shields." The QPF would either leave the planet alone or attack it and ruin their image while boosting morale among Sagittarian troops.

The QPF decided to attack Sekhmet. They released large amounts of Celestial Plague into the area. The planet naturally had a large number of ships defending it, most of them were newly constructed on Sekhmet itself. They prevented any of the plague from getting onto the planet but not without causing large amounts of debris to rain down onto the surface of the planet. Hundreds of thousands died to falling material or stray shots. Residential structures absorbed most of the blow while the much deeper and more well-protected production facilities remained unscathed.

The battle continued, the QPF doing everything they could to destroy the production facilities. While many were destroyed, they did far more to civilians than they did to the facilities themselves. Using footage and death statistics, Sagittarium started broadcasting the atrocities of the QPF across the galaxy. "All for one station?" was the signature slogan used to promote the idea of the brutality of the QPF. They already gave an AI the ability to directly control troops and now they destroyed civilians. These events were enough cause both Drusidia and Amme, two Neo-Terran nations, to declare war on the QPF for "violating common decency."

The Quintet Puontari Federation eventually stopped the battle. They tried to accuse Sagittarium of using civilians as shields, but since the planet was originally built with residential areas on top of production facilities, their claim was dismissed by an outraged public. If they completely destroyed the planet they would have likely caused more nations to declare war. For the sake of their image, they stopped the battle in 88131. Sagittarium would symbolically use ships built on Sekhmet in special operation units for the remainder of the war. The rest of the aforementioned region, while occasionally being brought under spurs and quick skirmishes, remained under a state of gridlock until the war ended.

Extended Celestial Plague (88226 CE - 88248 CE)

After the besiegement against Ambrosia, the Quintet Puontari Federation took to the Via Sagittaria area for combat, and completely unleashed the new version of the Celestial Plague in phases. This eventually overran the Confederacy, to the point where another major nation, the Commonwealth of United Economic Nations, took major notice of them. They began to impose blockades, sanctions, and small but frightening threats to the Quintet Puontari Federation.

However, this did not deter them in the slightest, and soon enough the Quintet Puontari Federation instated claims over the Ventemir and Ouranir Galaxies, as well as ownership over defended wormhole gateways. The Confederacy immediately saw this as a deep threat, and as a result they pooled together the entirety of the Intergalactic Council to assess the situation. The Confederacy, not trying to incite a mass war, merely recommended sanctions and a deep defensive treaty. However, after deeper negotiation, it came to the point where the Commonwealth and all of its member nations had to intervene with this war.

With the thought of total war hanging in the air, the Confederacy stood heavily concerned as the Celestial Plague continued to ravage populated areas. The full force of the Federate military was slowly dispatched to the site of attack, but it would prove to be difficult. This was because many hyperlanes and wormhole gateways were forcefully closed, to prevent any QPF advancement. This bought both sides some time for the building of defense and strategy. It was also a critical moment in the fields of Beatrix, which began to match POLIKY in terms of storage space and processing power. Over a crushing decade of gearing for a second push, the Commonwealth decided to step in once and for all.

Commonwealth Intervention (88248 CE - 88805 CE)

CUEN Axis (88248 CE - 88294 CE)

After a major meeting of all major nations of the Intergalactic Council, the Commonwealth decided that it was best to remain absent from the War of the Ancients, mostly because they feared 'total war' between numerous major powers. However, as the Quintet Puontari Federation relentlessly violated laws of war and crept towards core Federate space, the Commonwealth changed its mind on the ordeal, slowly passing in new sanctions, voting blocs with various nations, and eventually held the idea of attacking the Quintet Puontari Federation in its current state. Since most forces pertaining to the QPF were dedicated to halting Federate expansion and administering the Celestial Plague, the Commonwealth thought that it had easy access to the Aylothn Galaxy.

Defense forces from the Commonwealth were also stationed near the Aylothn Galaxy, and so it would only be a matter of a few months to a year for full mobilization of the Commonwealth military. Having the knowledge of POLIKY passed to them by the Confederacy, the Commonwealth also decided to draft up the idea for an advanced military AI, Hindsight. Already having several combat AIs from past conflicts, the Commonwealth reactivated them and forged them into one database, which is what created the modern-day version of Hindsight.