Rim War

The Rim War, also referred to as the Zaaroft War or the Punitive Expedition, is an ongoing armed conflict taking place primarily in the Outer Rim. The conflict began on 16 April 2688 when an armed fleet of spacecraft of the Zaaroft Imperium, a heretofore undiscovered spacefaring empire in the Outer Rim, attacked a Republic exploratory fleet. The Republic formally declared a state of war the following day, with punitive military operations beginning soon afterwards.
The conflict is currently being fought primarily between the Central Galactic Union and its allies, assisted by numerous mercenary groups and independent volunteer brigades, and the Zaaroft Imperium.
== Background ==
The Great War, waged from 2665 to 2675, saw vast changes in the interstellar situation. By the end of the conflict, the human nations of the Milky Way had unified into a single federation, and conquered the other interstellar empires. New land management policies provided greater room for human colonization and more resources for humanity. Nevertheless, the continued exploration of Milky Way was deemed an important goal by both the Bureau of Colonial Affairs and the Galactic Aerospace Agency. The Outer Rim Colonization Project was began in 2685 as a joint project of the two agencies, later joined by several departments pertaining to scientific research, interstellar exploration, and defense, with the goal being the mapping and settlement of the region of the galaxy furthest from Sol. The Outer Rim Exploratory Fleet was formed in 2687 and embarked in January 2688, commanded by war hero Admiral Charles Wilkins Taylor. The fleet made a series of Alcubierre jumps to reach the outer edge of the Outer Rim, depositing pre-fabricated jump gates along the way.
Unbeknownst to human civilization, a powerful empire had developed in the Outer Rim and had colonized large parts of the region. This empire, the Zaaroft Imperium, engaged in secret trade relations with far rim states in the Milky Way until their conquest in the Great War. The Zaaroft became a refugee haven for remnant forces in the aftermath of the Great War.
=== April Incident ===
On 16 April 2688, the OREF encountered a patrol of Zaaroft spacecraft outbound from an apparent Zaaroft trade outpost. Attempts by Admiral Taylor of diplomatic negotiation failed to establish peaceful transit, and the Zaaroft spacecraft launched a surprise attack without warning. Many of the Union spacecraft were destroyed in the battle, and around 112,000 personnel died. The remainder of the fleet limped away in an emergency jump. Before doing so, Admiral Taylor reported to the National Security Committee via his flagship's quantum entanglement communicator that the attack had taken place, that the attackers were previously-unknown aliens, and that they had identified themselves as the Zaaroft.
=== Declaration of War ===
Within an hour, Chancellor Maximilian presented the transcript of Admiral Taylor's report to the Central Galactic Congress. He requested a declaration of war against this new alien empire. After sixteen minutes of deliberation, the Congress voted to declare war. A document was written and submitted to a procedural vote as an official declaration the next day. The Ministry of War issued an order for general mobilization on 19 April. Planning began in the Joint Staff, the Forces Command staff, and the Allied Command Staff of the Galactic Alliance.
It was expected that the Central Galactic Defense Force would experience considerable losses, and Reserve forces would have to be reallocated to active service. An increase in conscription was ordered by the Ministry of War to offset the expected losses and replenish the Reserve garrisons, with the first groups of new conscripts selected on 1 May.
== Initial forces and operations ==
Through April and May 2688, special operations forces were deployed to the Outer Rim to perform reconnaissance. The details of their operations are highly classified. They provided sufficient detail to the Union armed forces to conduct planning for invasion routes. These plans were distributed to the Army Group commanders and Fleet commanders, and the mobilized expeditionary troops were massed at fleet stations in the Tellus Sector. The Union military decided upon a "punitive expedition" to attack the Zaaroft colonies with retaliatory strikes and raids. The plan was to draw the known forces of the Zaaroft empire into a massive battle of annihilation through these provocatory raids.
The initial action, Operation Thunderbolt, placed 160 Army Groups, 70 Fleet Marine Forces, 7 Expeditionary Fleets, and 70 Strategic Security Groups into Zaaroft territory. The operation saw the capture of 14 known major star systems in the Outer Rim. Each Expeditionary Fleet split its forces into two task groups, each assigned to a star system to clear it out prior to the deployment of soldiers. This placed several billion soldiers, stormtroopers, and marines on the ground across 60 worlds. Marine and State Security forces took the brunt of losses, with rates of attrition as high as 26%. The operation was launched on 17 May and captured all of its target worlds by the end of July.
Operation Cyclops and Operation Chariot followed on from this success in August, where another 120 worlds were captured. As with Operation Thunderbolt, the planets were captured relatively quickly, though with considerable losses. Part of this is attributed to the tactical use of the Beaumont Doctrine to bombard surfaces indiscriminately before landing soldiers. Modern analysis shows that the Zaaroft had stationed light defenses on their frontier worlds and gradually pulled their fleets back to a defensive "ring" around their core territory. This was not understood at the time, however, and Union forces continued pushing in order to provoke the Zaaroft forces to make a massive attack into a pitched battle of humanity's choosing.
However, the expected battle of annihilation failed to materialize. Union forces captured enemy worlds, most of them lightly-inhabited agricultural colonies. By the end of 2688, the CGU occupied over 500 Zaaroft worlds.
== Operation Constant Sorrow ==
The CGU stepped up its mobilization and deployed 130 billion soldiers into the Outer Rim Front, a tenfold increase from that of Operation Thunderbolt. The general staff initiated Operation Constant Sorrow, a sustained deployment of soldiers and the persistent conquest of Zaaroft worlds over the next four years. Dubbed by the media as an "island-hopping" campaign, Operation Constant Sorrow dramatically increased the number of captured worlds. As the operations advanced beyond the Outer Rim, they encountered increasingly tougher resistance. The rate of capture increased dramatically, but so did the attrition. By the beginning of 2692, the Union occupied over 7,000 enemy planets. This placed an unprecedented number of alien Zaaroft civilians in Union hands; a species which was little-understood, and with which humanity had not cultivated a centuries-long relationship, unlike the alien races of the Milky Way.
A conference of government officials, primarily Interior Ministry, Chancellery, and State Security officers, met in January 2692 to draw up a plan deal with the captive Zaaroft population. The government agencies involved with the occupation initiated the evacuation and recalibration of the captive species.
== Aera Campaign ==
The Aera star system was scouted as early as 2690; deep within the middle-belt colonies of the Zaaroft-held territories, its main planet was a 'fortress world' where an estimated one-fifth of the Zaaroft fleet was anchored in orbit. Its other worlds held considerable resource-extraction infrastructure and industrial facilities. With the success of Operation Constant Sorrow in seizing world after world, the Joint Military Staff undertook plans to capture Aera and destroy a considerable portion of the Zaaroft fleet. Military planners hoped for a repeat of the Battle of Khoz in the Great War, and structured the invasion to be similar to the Khoz Campaign.
Union forces deployed at the edge of the system on 16 July 2692 and advanced gradually inwards, destroying spacecraft and orbital stations as it moved in. Several Zaaroft capital ships fled the battle rather than fight, though many remained behind. The Union fleet overwhelmed them and neutralized the enemy space defenses after a bitter battle that lasted through 22 August. Union forces invested themselves around Aera IV, the main planet, by 25 August. After orbital defenses were established and the fleet undertook initial bombardments, the CGU Army, Marine, and Security Forces units deployed to the surface on 1 September. Air and nautical assets were then deployed to support the ground invasion.
The Zaaroft conducted an effective guerrilla campaign, going to ground and destroying resources rather than allow Union forces to utilize them. With knowledge of the terrain and infrastructure, they struck from the jungles and urban areas. Zaaroft field forces were destroyed in encirclement campaigns. However, despite some structural similarities to the 2667 Battle of Khoz, the Zaaroft defensive forces declined to commit to a direct confrontation. Annihilation of their armies through encirclement became an unlikely prospect as most of their combat forces were deployed as guerrillas and saboteurs. The initial battle for the planet was completed by 22 December. However, the pacification phase of the campaign lasted through late 2693. Air forces committed to the nuclear bombing of several contested cities rather than let them fall to the enemy; chemical and incendiary weapons were used in vast amounts as a defoliant, to flush the enemy out of hiding in the woodland.
The planet was declared pacified on 25 December 2693. Over 1 billion Union soldiers had been committed to the fight, with total number of dead, wounded, and missing estimated at 52 million.