Table of Contents

The War

The Seven Systems have experienced conflict for as long as it's possible to remember – and, in all likelihood, they they fought wars before then too. Conflicts large and small, brief and drawn-out have occurred throughout all of recorded history, from the Selasi War of Independence to the Second Achelian-Kybele Trade War (which purportedly only lasted for two hours and thirty-seven minutes before Kybele surrendered).

However, none of them compare with the war that broke out following the Ananke explosion. The death toll from direct conflict is estimated to be in the order of hundreds of millions. Deaths from starvation, disease and internal crackdowns take that number up to the billions, though it is difficult to get an accurate measure due to the destruction of most infrastructure.

Theoretically still ongoing, this conflict has loomed so large in people's consciousnesses that it is known simply as this: The War.

Note - this page has been divided into a couple of sections, representing different stagesi n the fighting. Each section has a summary paragraph describing the general trends of the war, and a series of bullet points detailing specific events.

The lead-up to the war

For the twenty years leading up to the War, the Seven Systems had enjoyed an uneasy peace. A delicate set of treaties and trade routes kept the balance of power from tipping too far in any one direction, but only just. Recent conflicts, nationalistic pride and jealousy over resources have meant that a conflict has never been too far from breaking out onto the surface.

Initial Hostilities

Following the revelation of Selas's new bioweapon and the attempted assassination of their princess onboard the Ananke conference, Eunomia chose to attack their longtime rivals, Selas. The attack was swift, brutal and effective. Kedalion were also gearing up for war with a rapid place, and it looked for a short time as though an Achelian-Kedalion-Eunomian alliance would be unstoppable, before a friendly fire incident led to Kedalion and Achelia turning on each other.

Key events from this period of the War include:

Escalation

The second stage of the war is generally agreed to have started with the invasion of Cheimeros. Kedalion found themselves at a disadvantage against Achelia’s abundance of resources and skilled pilots, and looked to Cheimeros to equip themselves. This stage of the war was a hard slog for all sides, coming to a climax with an Achelian-Kybele-Briareon strike on Kedalion and the pioneering use of new tools by Eunomia that reduced the Selasi home planet to dust.

Conclusion

As Kedalion and Eunomia effectively won, the war itself started to peter out, though some planets continued fighting. Briareos surrendered but groups of Briareons continued to cause problems for the new regime, with a similar situation on Cheimeros.

The Seven Systems are in disarray, their population down to a fraction of what it once was and their landmasses largely covered in factories or rendered unusable. For the specific state of each system, please see the relevant system page.