First Contact War

The First Contact War, known in the Ur-Han as the Rem'ti (lit. War of Humiliation) was a conflict between the Terran Federal Republic and the Ur-Han Empire which lasted 27 years and resulted in a Terran victory. The Ur-Han were the first sapient species encountered by the Terran Federation, after which the war is named. The Ur-Han's humiliation, which began with the Mer-Sam'ti War was complete by the end of the First Contact War, as they were beaten by an outsider race. The Terran Federation entered its own Era of isolation.
== Context of the war ==
By the early 2300s, the Terran Federation was in a golden age - every month new worlds were being discovered and the economy was booming. However many humans were disappointed that there seemingly were no space-faring species other than Humanity. This resulted by the near extinction of military research by the 2270s, and new exploratory Enterprise-class ships were designed to carry no weapons. The Terran Navy was at this point constituted of three armadas and a flotillas. These were however outdated ships from the early 2200s which were only good at destroying pirates. The Terran Army was also extremely lacking, being nearly reduced to a mere peacekeeping and law enforcement force. The dominant Democratic faction, which had replaced the Technocrats as the leading majority in the Assembly, were very pacifist and expanded democratic freedoms. Most demands for reform were met not with guns, but concessions in stark contrast to the Technocrats, which inherited the authoritarian style of the early Federation and First Commonwealth. 
The Ur-Han had exited their own golden age by the turn of the century. Instead, they now found themselves in a state of perpetual crisis. The Four Kings of the Golden Age were all great patrons of the arts and wished to be on good terms with the other nations in the galaxy. They treated the non-Ur populace well, and were extremely popular across the board. However, the new king, Orapt the First, was a party-king and preferred to delegate most of the work to his court. He was involved in a large-scale corruption scandal in 2308, adding to his growing lack of popularity. The next year he proclaimed slavery to be legal across all worlds for all non-Ur citizens. This infuriated the Ur-Han public, as they were staunchly anti-slavery and Orapt had failed to consult the Mastatolur, an assembly of the greatest sages of the kingdom. This began the Ur-Han revolution, where many worlds with non-Ur majorities entered open revolt, and many decided to throw away the monarchy. The exception to Orapt's inaction was foreign policy. His policy of hegemony and extreme aggression backfired in 2317 when the Mirdesh Federation and Surben Republic joined the ongoing revolution in the Ur-Han on the side of the revolutionaries. This began the Mer-Sam'ti war. This war was devastating for the Ur-Han and whilst the monarchy was preserved, the powers of the monarch were severely limited and the Ur-Han golden age was permanently ended.
== Course of the war ==
=== The First Incident and declaration of war ===
In 2315, strange reports of signals east of Xanadu were received. These were quickly identified as artificial. The Terran public was extatic at these news and pushed for exploration ships to be sent. The Terran government complied, and three Enterprise-class vessels were sent out in the direction of the signals. On the 23rd of May 2317, the ship FNS Audacious encountered a small Ur-Han fleet well within Ur-Han space. This fleet was dispatched after the three Terran ships were detected at the outer edge of Ur-Han space. The Ur-Han initially believed these to be Surben ships, but early scans showed that the FTL technology was different from that used by the Surben and Ur-Han. However, the Ur-Han also noticed that the ships seemingly lacked any weaponry. The FNS Audacious tried to contact the Ur-Han ships but to no avail, for 57h. The Terran ship proceeded to turn around to report its discovery, but the Ur-Han Admiral decided to open fire. The Audacious was destroyed in what's now known as the First Incident. 
The three ships were scheduled to return by early 2318. However, by june of that year, doubts were starting to rise as to the return of the Audacious. The FNS Intrepid and Venturesome were sent on the plotted course of the Audacious. In February 2319, they found the derelicts of the destroyed ship. Over the course of the following week, they conducted an extensive analysis of the wreckage. It was concluded that the destruction was caused by lasers and explosive weapons. Unlike for the Audacious, the Ur-Han fleet was unable to arrive before the Intrepid and the Venturesome, as these did not stop to scan planets and systems. The fleet would arrive two days after the ships had concluded that the damage was caused by weapons. The Ur-Han admiral noticed the ships were of the same design as the previously destroyed ships. He ordered these two destroyed too. The Intrepid was heavily damaged by managed to enter FTL, and the Venturesome was virtually unscratched, except for its sensors systems. The crew of the Intrepid and its sensors were transferred to the Venturesome and the Intrepid was left behind. The Venturesome arrived at Xanadu in early February 2320. The report was immediately sent to the central government by a Quantum-Entanglement Transmitor (QET). 
The Senate and Council almost immediately decided to declare war and send in the Armadas, the Assembly and the Chancellor were more undecided. The Assembly, dominated by the coalition of the Communist (now Labour) faction and the Democrat faction was staunchly anti-war. The Chancellor at the time, Dominic Zhu Wilde, was also skeptical but was not nearly as anti-war as his coalition. By late 2320, it was decided that a formal state of war would be issued and the Second and Third Armadas were sent to the location of the Ur-Han fleet. The first Armada remained in orbit of Earth for the time being. 
=== Initial Terran offensive ===
The Second and Third Armadas arrived at the location of the Audacious in early 2323. This time, detecting many more signals than the previous times, the Ur-Han sent their entire forces which were now free from the Mer-Sam'ti war. The Ur-Han force is estimated to have been about six times as large as the one which met the exploration ships. The Terran fleet was outnumbered 3:1, and was technologically far inferior. One of the major differences between Terran and Ur-Han ships was the lack of shields on Terran ships, which relied on a heavy armor for protection. The Ur-Han were however uncertain of their superiority, and were puzzled by the Terran FTL method. They did not immediately engage the Terran fleet. The stand off between the two fleets lasted for nearly a month, before Ur-Han forces decided to open fire. The ensuing battle, known in the Federation as The Battle of the Audacious and in the Ur-Han as the First Battle of the East, was a decisive Ur-Han victory. The Terran fleet was utterly destroyed: over 95% of ships had been put out of combat, and the remaining 5% were nearly universally damaged. However, the Ur-Han were unable to make any sort of offensive into Terran space. They believed this might have been a trap by the newly encountered species, which by now they had confirmed didn't match any other they knew of. They also were unsure of the location of any of the worlds of the Federation, and Terran computers proved nearly impossible to decrypt for the Ur-Han: most Terran capital ships were already using quantum computers, a technology the Ur-Han were unable to replicate. The Ur-Han were also unable to push, as many of the rebellions of the revolution had yet to be quelled. Slavery had been abolished and the king's powers restricted, but many still wanted to either abolish the monarchy altogether or at least get rid of Orapt. The Federation, initially worried about the loss, realized that the aliens had no intention of pushing into Terran space. 
=== The phony war ===
The period of the war from 2324 to 2338 is often coined the phony war. No conflict or skirmishes whatsoever occured. The Ur-Han were busy dealing with rebellions, especially with a major uprising on their homeworld and its moon in 2331, which wouldn't be quelled until 2340. The Federation was unable to go on the offensive due to the lack of forces. 
From early 2326 it was clear to the Federation that the Ur-Han were not going to invade Terran systems. From there on began the reconstruction of Terran fleets. Thanks to scans and the little debris of Ur-Han ships they had, Terran scientists were able to reverse engineer shielding technology. By 2330 this technology was ready for use. The already under way Fourth and Fifth armada ships would be retrofitted and given shields, where as the newly planned Sixth armada would be entirely made up of ships designed with shields in mind, the Sovereign-class. By 2331, the Fourth and Fifth armadas were complete, but the lack of shields which had been redirected towards the Sixth armada meant that only the Fourth armada received shielded ships. The Sixth armada was complete in 2334, and is the fastest armada build up in the history of the Federation, four years. It is estimated that at this point nearly 30% of the GDP was going to military spending. The Sovereign-class was estimated to even be superior to some Ur-Han ships. In 2335 the order of a new offensive was given, made up of the Fourth and Sixth armadas, led by Admiral Duncan Trevelyan, who had been a survivor of the Battle of the Audacious. 
=== Second Terran offensive ===
The Terran navy reached the site of the Audacious in may 2337. This time, the Ur-Han were too busy with rebellions at home to dispatch their entire navy. However, their fleet was still enough to match the Terran one, 1:1. The Ur-Han were however unprepared for the immense technological jump the Terrans had made in the span of just 14 years. Terran shields had been specially engineered to resist Ur-Han energy weapons, where as Ur-Han shields were poorly prepared against the new generation of Terran energy weapons. The subsequent battle saw the Ur-Han fleet get utterly crushed. The Terrans were able to scan Ur-Han computers and found a map of their Empire, as well as several grammar and vocabulary databases, which were sent back to Earth for study. Admiral Trevelyan pressed the attack and reached the nearest Ur-Han world, Mori-Ma. The world, inhabited by a population of around 30,000 had only a very small garrison, and it was subsequently invaded. Trevelyan deduced that there would be more ground invasions to come, and sent a message for several larger scale army transports to be sent. In the next four years, the Ur-Han were unable to dispatch a fleet large enough to deal with the Terran fleet, and so Trevelyan and his fleet captured several small scale Ur-Han worlds. In 2340, army transports arrived, and the first major ground invasion of the war happened. The Ur-Han world of Jum-ta'ki, with a population of nearly 30 million had a garrison of only around 15,000. This was mainly due to the fact that the planet had been in open rebellion for nearly three decades, and the garrison had been depleted, and the planet by now had near complete autonomy. The army transports, carrying over 35,000 soldiers each, allowed for a relatively bloodless invasion. The planet was fully controlled within 3 months. By now, Terran scientists on the FNS Dalmatia, Trevelyan's flagship, had managed to create a translator of the Ur-Han language. Instead of directly controlling the planet, Trevelyan made a deal with the local governor, where they would retain complete independence and would receive no penalties or occupation under the condition they do not interfere in the war. This deal was accepted by the Jum-ta'ki governor. Several other planets would receive the same fat as Jum-ta'ki within the following year. Sometimes this would happen with no bloodshed at all, especially for worlds which were still in open revolt. 
=== Ur-Han response and Battle of the Twin suns ===
The Ur-Han realized by 2341 that they couldn't stand idle whilst their nation was being torn apart by the Terran fleet. Orapt, decided that this was his occasion to reclaim legitimate power and gain popularity: he would lead the combined Ur-Han navy against the Terran fleet. The Ur-Han navy was in fact about twice as large as the Terran fleet, but most of the Ur-Han leadership was still stunned by the lack of losses which had been inflicted when the Terran fleet was last encountered. Despite his war cabinet's protests, Orapt went ahead with his plan. He assembled his navy and met the Terran fleet in 2345, at what is now known as the Battle of the Twin suns.
The Ur-Han were able to get in an alpha strike, putting out of combat two dozen Terran ships, out of almost 400. Whilst Ur-Han admiralty pressed the king to propose peace, Orapt decided that they simply needed to use their numbers to win. The first volley of the Terran navy on the other hand, destroyed well over 200 ships, out of a thousand. By this point, Ur-Han morale was extremely low: many were skeptical of the king's commanding ability and were terrified of the Terran fleet. Trevelyan, ever the pragmatist, sent a cease fire proposal in Ur-Han to the Ur-Han navy. Some Ur-Han ships decided to stop combat and withdrew. Seeing nearly a hundred ships withdrawing, Orapt ordered his ships to begin a close-combat engagement with the Terran fleet, his flagship leading the "charge". This proved a fatal mistake, as his ship, now isolated from the rest of the fleet, was focused by Terran ships and subsequently destroyed. The Ur-Han morale collapsed, and the second in command, Admiral Ter-Kum accepted the cease fire. 
=== Armistice and peace negotiations ===
An armistice was signed in 2345, but the war is considered to have lasted another two years before the full peace treaty. Admiral Trevelyan and his fleet remained in Ur-Han space, and used a QET found on the Ur-Han homeworld to communicate with Earth. For another two years, members of the Assembly and of the Senate debated what was to be done with the peace treaty. In the mean time, Trevelyan met with the Surben and Mirdesh ambassadors on the Ur-Han homeworld, and met representatives from the member species of the Ur-Han, notably the Dermkha and Tesrat. By 2347, it was decided that the Ur-Han would pay reparations to the Federation but that no effective border changes would be put into place. The Ur-Han were also to transfer much of their technological knowledge of both themselves and the other species in the galaxy. In 2348, a second treaty was signed which prohibited the Ur-Han or any other species from expanding towards the Federation or to attempt communications with the Federation. This was officially the beginning of the Era of Isolation. 
== Consequences == 
The First Contact war had a tremendous impact, especially on Terran culture. The Terran public went from believing that they were alone in the galaxy to being in a full scale interstellar war in a matter of years. The Federation entered a long era of isolation which stopped the general enthusiasm of exploration and expansion. The economy slowed down. The Federation became increasingly militaristic, and entered a perpetual state of military expansion and research which was only stopped in the late 2600s. The early 20th century fears of aliens were reignited, and many in the Federation became extremely xenophobic. The war shaped every subsequent alien encounter of the Federation. It also changed the political dynamics of the Federation. The Democratic-Communist (Communists now known as Labour) coalition, which had been the dominant political force for over a century collapsed over night, and gave rise during the war to the Technocratic faction. The Technocratic faction was the dominant political force of the Federation during the Solar Era, but was now resurgent. The Technocrats splintered by the end of the war and were now split into the Federalist and Technocrat faction, with the Federalists becoming the larger one of the two. These two factions would however converge into a coalition which would dominate the politics of the Federation up until the present day. The Federation also became increasingly authoritarian for nearly 150 years. The Bureau, which had been largely inactive since the end of First Commonwealth saw a large expansion. It started mass prosecutions of anyone believed to be an alien sympathizer. The ICA, the other branch of intelligence also became more active, and went as far as assassinating numerous Ur-Han kings as early as in the 2360s. 
The Ur-Han, whilst less impacted by the war then the Federation, were also shaken. They had just been humiliated a second time, right after the end of the Mer-Sam'ti war, and their king was dead. The Mastatolur retained emergency powers until a new suitable king was found in 2349. The king now had much reduced powers and could no longer legally ignore the Mastatolur. The Ur-Han economy was also crippled, not only by the nearly 50 year long non-stop war, both foreign and civil, but also by the exorbitant Terran war reparations. The Ur-Han public was also, with the exception of the few Terran indirectly occupied worlds, utterly terrified of the Terrans, which they saw as mysterious alien invaders of unstoppable force. They coined Humans Tij-Ru, literally meaning Warmongerers, a coin still used to this day. 
The wider galactic community was stunned by the lightning intervention of the Federation, and its immediate withdrawal from galactic affairs. It had disappeared as rapidly as it had appeared. The Surben especially, took interest in the Federation, and were the first ones to begin communicating and even trading with the Federation outside of the Terran sphere of influence, up until the Third Telom War.