Civil War
Following the loss of our homeworld - Earth - to the Progenitors, the Federation collapsed and splintered into no less than a dozen factions, all claiming to be the rightful successor to the Federation. Tyranny, separatism, unionism and business interests reigned the known galaxy. The major factions in this civil war were the Sixth Fleet, the Colonial Confederation, the Draconian Hegemony, the Centaurian Empire, the Federal Unionists and Sanctuary.
The Sixth Fleet made diplomatic efforts and secured a non-aggression pact with the Draconians and the Centaurians early on while securing Iskander's allegiance. On the other side of the galaxy, the Federal Unionists and Sanctuary were locked in a death spiral over Epsilon Prime, one of the former Federation's primary shipyard world. While the Centaurians and the Sixth Fleet joined forces to form the Coalition, the Draconian Hegemony launched a surprise attack on one of the Coalition's colonies. The attack was repelled and what followed was the invasion of Shoreridge III. Vice Admiral Johnson was arrested for treason for offering a military alliance with the Draconian Hegemony. He was found not guilty, but nonetheless relieved of command in lieu of General Danny Martin.
Utilizing their new assets, the Coalition assaulted the Draconian Hegemony and captured Faraway and annexed the Sigma Draconis system on February 26th. The same week, the Coalition has received an encrypted communique from the Federal Unionists, alerting them to the fact that a handful of Federal councillors - members of the supreme lawmaking body of the former Federation - were being held prisoner deep within Sanctuary space. The Ulysses S. Grant, as the fastest and smallest ship within the Fleet, was dispatched to rescue the councillors. Following the successful daring rescue attempt on the federal councillors by Second Lieutenant Kowalski, this operation was a success - they were able to rescue 12 councilmen - however in doing so the Coalition lit a fire under Sanctuary, who have assembled a task force of no less than 30 ships to methodically sweep west to east through Sanctuary space with the goal of locating and surrounding the Grant. And whilst the Grant might put up a good fight in a 1-v-1 battle with a destroyer, it is a ship built for speed; not for prolonged battle.
Furthermore, the Confederacy wouldn't grant the Coalition safe passage as doing so was considered an act of war by Sanctuary. The Grant's most obvious option was to navigate around the Confederacy through the east - and through unknown space - however intelligence have predicted that Sanctuary have almost certainly considered that option and have laid an ambush there.
The tactic chosen by High Command therefore is to be unpredictable: move westwards deeper into Sanctuary space, linking up with the Unionist movement in the far west, before making way back to Coalition space along the safer western frontier. In order to do this, they had to break their line of ships: this was meant to be achieved through wreaking havoc and chaos, launching hit-and-run raids on their colonies, drawing their forces out and spreading them thin - hopefully offering a chink in their armour to exploit and escape.
Sanctuary's formation was broken on Thursday (March 1st, 2298) via launching a series of raids to draw their forces out, and eliminating a local FTL comms relay - knocking out their ability to communicate for a short while. This was enough to form a small chink in their armour - which we exploited in order to slip past the Sanctuary task force. Having successfully eluded the Sanctuary's hunting party, the Grant then answered a call from Coalition spy and intelligence operative Major Nathaniel Riviera (callsign "Tinkerbell") and headed towards the Epsilon Eridani system - home to Epsilon Prime, a jewel in the what was the Federation's crown thanks to its cutting edge R&D and high tech industry. There, they discovered that Sanctuary had reverse engineered the Progenitor power source and were far into the development of a Progenitor Beam Weapon under the watchful eye of Doctor Przemek Lubomierz. The Infantry destroyed the weapon, captured Dr Lubomierz, and made their way back to the Grant.
Dr. Lubomierz, now held technically as a prisoner and under the instruction of FFRL, commissioned a number of missions to acquire Progenitor power sources and technology - from this drive, he has been able to assemble a prototype pulse cannon in the style of the Progenitor beam weapons. The Grant left Sanctuary space and, in combination with a Union fleet, successfully countered a Sanctuary attack on UH on Monday.
On Thursday (March 22nd, 2298), during the midst of a summit between the Colonial Confederation and the Coalition, Iskander was subject to an attack by the Progenitors. The Lubomierz cannon was effective in repelling the Progenitor attack - the first time in the history of the conflict that humanity has been able to successfully repel a Progenitor invasion. As a result, the Federal Unionists and the Colonial Confederation have agreed to join the Coalition in an alliance against Sanctuary.
On Saturday, the 112th were tasked with investigating an abandoned Sanctuary research outpost on Hades II. Upon arrival however they were captured within a Progenitor-controlled psychic construct - where eventually they had to kill themselves and their peers to escape. They finally came face to face with Adrammelech for the first time - who warned them that they must investigate Mars, as the Progenitors are "coming".
On Sunday, the 112th made an incursion in Sanctuary territory, broadcasting a speech by General Danny Martin to all of Sanctuary space imploring its inhabitants to rise up against Admiral Erin O'Brien.
After months and months of fighting and bloodshed, Sanctuary has finally fallen to the Coalition. Admiral Erin O'Brian has been captured along with her top councillors after fleeing the falling Fleet Headquarters before it crashed into Sanctuary. She was apprehended by the 112th, 'Davidson's Deathmakers,' and is being processed before formalizing Sanctuary's surrender. The last few bitter-enders prove to be the only obstacle remaining to reunifying the Federation. The days to come will consist of taking stock of the damage inflicted, and remobilizing as a unified fighting force once more to combat the enemies of the human race that have grown and multiplied while we fought amongst ourselves. Now is the time to pick up the pieces, and in our diminished state, begin the arduous process of taking back what we once took for granted. As the war draws to a close, the scale of the destruction along with the ground that's been allowed to fall into enemy hands poses a daunting challenge for the road ahead to restore the Federation to pre-Civil War levels of efficiency and production. To some, the future of the human race is disquietous, but the resilience of the human spirit shines through today. No one can contest that this victory was not an end to an epoch of strife and darkness in the Federation's history. From our mistakes, we seek to better right ourselves so as to make our journey to the future as smoothe and prosperous as possible for us. With the end of the civil war, humanity has the chance to gleam insight from the mistakes made, and arise from the ashes reborn; resilient and steadfast, immunized against the divisiveness that led to the deaths of so many. The future belongs to the citizens of the Federation, and to no one else.
