Selde-Algranian War

"So they decided that because of one contested claim on a planet that really wasn't worth fighting over, they want to make the other extinct?! That's insane, and I thought some of our pre-unification wars were for petty reasons!" A Sealachan talking to a Shadraxian in the early 1740s.
Closer to a Cold War than a normal War, the Selde-Algranian war consisted mostly of petty border skirmishes until the final battle, where it quickly went from nearly a Cold War, into mass genocide.
== Overview ==
At first, the Selde-Algranian War seemed to be a cold war after an initial bout of hostilities over the small planet of Kreia. In reality, both sides were actively preparing for a war they both intended to start in the mid 1600s, a war that was only stopped by Sealachan involvement.
However, despite another powerful military, the Shadraxians, getting involved in 1735 to try and stop the war. The Selde and Algranians decided to end their war in 2031 after 438 years of preparing. During which time the Algranians had focused more on volume, while the Selde focused more on improving their technology.
The end of the war resulted in the Selde and Algranians becoming nearly extinct, with under 200 million Selde survivors (many of which had survived by not being on Seldeynia) and under 5 million Algranian survivors (nearly all of which would have been dead if not for the Sealachans).
== Reasons ==
The Selde-Algranian war started as a contested claim over a small planet that quickly turned to bloodshed with two species who decided on first contact that they despised each other.
== Major Conflicts ==
A list of major conflicts and battles from the war in chronological order.
==== Declaration Of War: Location - Kreia, Year - 1593, Algranian Victory ====
First contact with the Selde and Algranians took place on a small habitable planet called Kreia, in, now located in the middle of the Sealachan/Shadraxian enforced Neutral Zone. Both the Selde and Algranians wanted to claim Kreia as a colony, with the Selde having arrived first. Both species instantly took a strong dislike to the other, seeing them as foreign invaders, with both species claiming to have claimed the planet long before arriving there.
Armed conflict quickly happened between the Selde and Algranian survey teams once it became clear that neither species would let the other have Kreia. The sole survivor of this ground conflict was the Algranian Lieutenant Galren Algate, who was left with a scar on a snout, where the last Selde caught her with a sword before having her skull smashed by Galren's Piercing Hammer. The loss of their survey team prompted the poorly armed Selde survey vessel in orbit to flee, while the Algranian survey vessel, also poorly armed, went on to collect Galren once the Selde vessel had left before they reported back to Algrania. Neither of the ships engaged, as they were both poorly armed, and each had come to the conclusion that it was better to return to their homeworld and alert the military than it was to attempt to engage each other.
==== Truce: Location - Kreia, Year - 1593 (A Few Days After First Contact) ====
After the survey ships had returned from Kreia, the Selde and Algranian militaries both sent ships to engage the other to test their strength. The results were conclusive, both forces were equally advanced and incapable of providing a reliable victory over the other. Because of this, both militaries reluctantly agreed to a truce, signed on Kreia by both the Algranian High Admiral, and a 'Normal' Selde Admiral acting on behalf of the Selde Fleet Marshal. The agreement to a truce was known by both sides to be the start of an arms race, where both sides would stop whittling the other down, and focus on building a fleet capable of destroying the other without suffering equally bad losses.
Until the Sealachan intervention in 1651, the Selde and Algranian militaries kept to the truce, and didn't engage each other, although it wasn't uncommon for civillian vessels from either species to attack each other.
==== Sealachan Intervention: Location - Kreia, Year - 1651, Sealachan Victory ====
The Sealachans only got involved with the Selde and Algranians due to some of their human trading partners from nearer Selde and Algranian space starting to feel threatened by the large military build up by both sides with assorted weapons tests by both species taking place near the human shipping routes. By the 1640s, the reports had gotten so frequent that the Sealachans decided to have their military verify them. Once the Sealachan Military had verified the reports that the Selde and Algranians were each building a large fleet, the Sealachan military went on alert and posted many of their ships along the Selde and Algranian borders, to act if either species attacked the other.
In 1651, the Sealachan Military noticed that the Selde and Algranian fleets had begun massing near Kreia and ordered their fleet to intervene if a fight broke out, which it did a few days later when a small scout force from both sides moved close to Kreia and began to attack the other, breaking their truce. In less than an hour, the Sealachan fleet had entered the Kreia System broadcasting for a cease-fire after being forced to disable both the Algranian and Selde scout force (which had been diminished to just a few ships at this point).
Having seen the ease at which the Sealachans had disabled their scout ships, the Algranians and Selde agreed to a cease fire and to talk with the Sealachans. The Sealachans agreed, with the respective admirals from both scout fleets meeting the Sealachan fleet's commander onboard her command dreadnought to agree to terms. Within a day of discussions starting the terms agreed upon by the two admirals were confirmed with the Algranian and Selde leadership, with both sides as seeing the Sealachan terms as fair. The terms included a multiple light year wide belt of space between Selde and Algranian space, using the disputed Kreia System as the central point. This belt of space was to be called the Neutral Zone, and any Selde or Algranian ship attempting to enter it, be they civilian or military, would have to wait for a Selachan military vessel as an escort which would stay with the Algranian or Selde vessel until it was out of it's enemy's space. Any Selde or Algranian ship entering without a Sealachan escort would be disabled, it's crew arrested and taken aboard a Sealachan ship, and then destroyed by the Sealachans.
The Neutral Zone was mostly effective, although small skirmishes between the Algranians and Selde militaries would break out and conclude before the Sealachan military could arrive. The response speed of Sealachan forces was partly the reason both the Algranians and the Selde were so quick to agree to the terms, as they allowed for these small skirmishes to still take place, while providing a safe wall from any serious threat from the other side.
==== Shadraxian Involvement: Location - Neutral Zone, Year - 1735 ====
After their first contact with the Selde, Algranians and Sealachans in 1734, the Shadraxians had opened relations with the Sealachans, who they saw as the most civilised while agreeing to not get involved with the Selde or Algranians until they could learn to live with each other. By 1735, the Shadraxians had decided to help the Sealachans enforce the Selde-Algranian Neutral Zone because they admired the Sealachans ability to enforce the Neutral Zone without bloodshed on their part. The involvement of the Shadraxian fleet cut the number of Neutral Zone skirmishes between the Selde and Algranians by over 50%, as an Algranian or Selde skirmish fleet would risk Sealachan involvement as they could usually retreat back to their own space before being disabled, however, the Shadraxian ships were capable of crippling any Selde or Algranian ship short of a dreadnought in a matter of seconds, making escaping a Shadraxian ship nearly impossible.
==== End Of The War: Location - Seldeynia + Algrania, Year - 2031, Selde + Algranian Loss ====
The end of the Selde-Algranian war was as devastating to the Algranian and Selde people as had been predicted back in 1593, with neither species winning their final battle, leaving nothing but ruin in their wake. The combined death toll for the final battle of the Selde-Algranian War was over 13 billion, with 2 planets, Seldeynia and Algrania, being totally destroyed.
The first signs of trouble came when the Selde started massing their entire non-defensive fleet on the Neutral Zone border, an action which did not violate the Sealachan terms set out in 1651, but prompted an identical response from the Algranians, who massed their own non-defensive fleet at the Neutral Zone's border. The Sealachans and Shadraxians sent large portions of their own fleets into the Neutral Zone between the massed Selde and Algranian fleets, but refused to commit their entire fleets, keeping most of their forces deployed along the borders of Selde and Shadraxian space incase the Selde or Algranians decided to attack them.
After 3 days of waiting, the battle started, with the Selde being the first to enter the Neutral Zone with the Algranians following less than a minute. The majority of the Selde and Algranian fleets attacked each other, ignoring the Sealachans and Shadraxians, while a small group under the command of their respective flagship broke off and made a desperate run to their enemy's homeworld. Having guessed the breaking off fleets intentions, the Sealachans re-routed their ships in the Neutral Zone to Algrania, while the Shadraxians re-routed theirs to Seldeynia, leaving the bulk of the Algranian and Selde fleets to destroy each other.
Once the Selde breakaway fleet arrived in the Algrania System, the flagship S.W.V. Retribution took up a position directly above the Algranian capital city and opened fire with a single Nova Cannon blast upon the city while the fleet it had brought defended it from the Algranian defensive fleet. In a matter of seconds, the city was a smoking crater after the first Nova Cannon blast had hit it. Before the Nova Cannon that had destroyed the capital even began to charge again, the Retribution simultaneously fired it's other 4 Nova Cannons at the same spot. The resulting blast caused gigantic cracks to appear in Algrania's crust around the impact site and destabilised Algrania's core. After this Nova Cannon volley, the Selde fleet began to retreat to the edge of the system, chased by the Algranian defensive fleet. It was at this time the Sealachan fleet arrived and, having noticed the planet's destabilised core decided not the engage the Selde fleet as intended, but to try and evacuate Algrania. While the Selde and Algranian fleet continued to engage each other as they got further and further away from Algrania, the Sealachan fleet broadcasted a general evacuation order to Algrania while taking up orbit above it. Once in orbit, the Sealachans transported as many Algranian civilians as they could carry to their ships, with each ship filling itself to capacity before engaging their hyperdrives towards Sealach. Less than half an hour after the Retribution had launched it's attack, Algrania's core fully destabilised and the planet was shattered into millions of pieces, destroying all life still on it's surface. The Sealachans had saved a little over 1 million Algranians with their intervention, while the Algranian defensive fleet had been destroyed by the Selde fleet, which had broken away during the evacuation to destroy every Algranian colony, having left just one badly damaged Keral Class Cruiser behind to film the destruction of Algrania.
Meanwhile, while the Selde breakaway fleet destroyed Algrania, the Algranian breakaway fleet, led by the A.S.V. Vengeance, attacked Seldeynia entering orbit above the capital, with the fleet defending the Vengeance from the Selde defensive fleet. The Vengeance quickly entered it's tactical stance and fired it's main cannon in a sustained beam at Seldeynia's capital city, rapidly boring it's way to Seldeynia's core. Less than two minutes after the Vengeance started firing upon Seldeynia, the Shadraxian fleet arrived and upon seeing the Vengeance's attack, opened fire, quickly overwhelming the Vengeance's shields and destroying it. But it was too late to save Seldeynia, as in the time it had been firing, the Vengeance had done just enough damage to destabilise Seldeynia's core. Having seen this on their sensors, the Shadraxians ceased firing at the Algranian fleet, and started to transport Selde off Seldeynia and into their ships cargo holds. Thanks to the Shadraxian intervention which had done more than just destroy the A.S.V. Vengeance, the Selde defensive fleet overwhelmed the Algranian fleet within 10 minutes and had begun to assist in the evacuation of Seldeynia. Just 22 minutes after the A.S.V. Vengeance had begun it's attack, Seldeynia's core fully destabilised, which shattered the planet into millions of pieces, eradicating all life on it's surface as well as the battle damaged Selde defensive fleet which was still in orbit. The Shadraxian fleet survived, and proceeded to take the around 1.2 million Selde they had rescued (all "Normal" Selde, no "Giant" Selde, as the general Shadraxian opinion on "Giant" Selde was very poor, seeing them as sadistic and poor for society) to Shadraxia where they would begin the process of being re-homed.
Meanwhile, the main fleets in the Neutral Zone continued to destroy each other totally unaware their homeworld was being destroyed. By the time the destruction of Algrania and Seldeynia reached the Neutral Zone, over 95% of all ships involved were destroyed, with the 5% remaining all being heavily damaged Selde vessels. Despite winning the battle, and the war, the majority of Selde still alive in the Neutral Zone were emotionally crippled by the loss of their homeworld, with some committing suicide upon hearing the news.
==== Endless War: Location - Algranian Colonies, Year - 2031 (The Weeks Following The Final Battle), Selde Victory ====
While the Sealachans and Shadraxians were busy taking care of the survivors of Algrania and Seldeynia, the remaining Selde fleet, led by the S.W.V. Retribution, started destroying any Algranian colony they could find by blasting any settlement on them into a crater. During these weeks, the Retribution's fleet rendezvoused with the surviving ships of the Neutral Zone battle so that the Selde could wipe out the last of the Algranians as one. However, after 2 Algranian colonies had been hit, the Sealachans and Shadraxians started to send their fleets to defend Algranian colonies with orders to capture, not kill the S.W.V. Retribution's captain, Fleet Marshal Kersal. Most of these fleets arrived before the colonies could be destroyed, although 3 more colonies at the furthest edge of Algranian space were destroyed before these fleets arrived. The Retribution was never captured, and had fled with the rest of the Selde fleet to well outside of Selde, Algranian, Sealachan or Shadraxian space. The Sealachans and Shadraxians never located the Selde fleet and because of this, maintain a small fleet of about 3 - 5 ships (depending on class) in all remaining Algranian and Selde colonies incase Gargantine decided to come back and finish her mass genocide.Category:Selde
Category:Algranian
Category:Conflicts
Category:Sealachan
Category:Shadraxians