Perth Empire

The Perth Empire was a faction in the Empire and Union universe. According to archeologists, the Perth achieved spaceflight and began colonizing and terraforming other planets sometime in the first millenium BC in the human timeline. The Perth as a species were much physically larger than humans, with an average height of three meters and an average weight of 250 kilograms. Their ships, both capital and subcapital, were much larger than human ships as well, but they did not build as many ships as the human factions; however, they also used fixed defenses far more in their territory, allowing them to send comparatively larger numbers of ships on offensive operations into human territory. The Perth used stone for building, as well as a specialized transparent silicate alloy, which is known as "Perth glass". The Perth encountered human settlements in 3205, and reacted hostilely; this began a war which lasted for 12 years. According to official Imperial Alliance records, at the end of the war, once it became clear that the Perth had lost, they committed mass suicide. It is unclear if any Perth survived this; in the 4500s some Asgardian historians determined that this act was ordered by the Perth leaders, as they feared invasion by humanity after the Perth Empire's massive defeats against the Imperial Alliance. According to the Perth ideals of honor, this would have been the ultimate shame, for an invader to take control of their territory. Some Asgardian and UN historians claimed that the Galactic Empire used a biogenic weapon on all the Perth colonies; however, this would have been impossible, as according to Imperial fleet movement logs Imperial ships were included in only two of the task forces sent to the six remaining Perth star systems at the end of the war. This narrative persisted, though, and was used as propaganda against the Protectorate by the Asgardians. In 4705, Bandorian Supreme Leader Soldat Aksonov secretly ordered an investigation into these claims, which was carried out by experts from the Duskhan League. In 4708, after a secret examination of the ruins of Perth colonies and cities in the six former Perth star systems, Duskhan experts determined that it was a likely possibility that biogenic weapons had been used against the Perth. A detailed examination of Imperial Alliance fleet movements in the final stages of the war revealed that in the final invasions of the six Perth star systems, Imperial and Bandorian ships were only present in two operations, those in Perth Tarana and Perth Dran, and in both cases most of the Imperial and Bandorian ships were ordered to remain in the outer reaches of the star systems, out of sensor range of the planets. Almost all of the Bandorian or Imperial ships which had gone closer were destroyed under suspicious circumstances, or had their sensor data erased mysteriously, with one notable example being the Bandorian supercarrier *Tolstoy*, the flagship of Bandorian Rear Admiral Ivan Komarov. Further, an investigation into the deaths of Ivan Komarov, Ruslan Kusnetsov, and Sergei Komarov revealed suspicious circumstances which could be explained by deliberate sabotage and assassination attempts by the UN and Asgardian Alliance, while these two factions were officially part of the Imperial Alliance. These revelations led to the Third Interstellar War between the Protectorate and the Asgardian Alliance, which at this time was now allied with the Alliance of Independent Settlements.