The Triton War

The Triton War was the first interplanetary conflict involving the Human Race. It is widely called one of the most important conflicts in human history, due to the widespread impact on politics and space travel as a whole it had.

## Prelude to War

The colony of New Dawn had been founded almost a century before the war. Its population numbered almost 600 million by the time the war occurred, and Triton II, its moon, had a population of 9 million.

Triton was an exceptionally rich and coveted moon. Terrestrial, breathable and settlement-friendly, its resources include plentiful metals and, above all, Hyper-Matter, the substance used in mass displacement engines, which was needed to fuel the expanding Systems Union Navy. For a century, New Dawn was one of the most heavily militarized planets in the Human intergalactic empire, dwarfing the population of all other colony planets except Mars and Venus. By 2507 discontent was rife within the New Dawn planetary government. Finally, in 2511, after securing the loyalty of the Fourth Fleet, most of whom were native to New Dawn, Triton and its mother planet formally announced their secession from the Systems Union by attacking the Third Fleet while it was beginning training exercises over the planet. In the ensuing Battle of New Dawn, over 260,000 loyalists perished, as opposed to just 10,000 separatists. The war had begun.

## Conflict

The early days of the Triton War were marred with confusion. At first, it seemed no proper response could be mustered by the Systems Union, and the Continental Chair was locked in meetings for hours with no end in sight. However, the next month brought with it the arrival of the Second and Fifth Fleets to the New Dawn system. New Dawn's First Fleet (in actuality the turncoat Fourth Fleet) fought a valiant but ultimately losing battle. With the destruction of the Fourth Fleet's flagship "Fist of Triton" the fate of the separatists in space was effectively sealed. As rich as New Dawn was, it could not produce ships at the rate of the Systems Union - especially with their fleets in orbit and blocking material transit from Triton-II.

   By June 2511, two months after the Battle of New Dawn, the Third Ground Army under the command of General Quincy Roswell had established a beach head on the planet near the town of Taborville. Realizing that the moon of Triton would be the main focus of the war, a blockade was established, and all ground assets were deployed here.

Taborville was the sixth largest settlement on the moon, but barely larger than a small city on Earth. A fierce battle was fought over the town for nearly a year, finally ending in loyalist victory when the Separatist First Army's line was broken on the southern front.

Taborville was the first battle of many, and it was certainly not the largest. By 2517 the separatist frontline on Triton II was reduced to just 50km away from the capital of the moon at Relsin. By this point most of the actual separatist soldiers on the planet had been killed or captured, and the planet's inhabitants, mostly miners and contractors, were being conscripted en masse. By the time Relsin was captured it was estimated at least 3 out of 6 million of the moon's inhabitants had perished due to the war, either by being forced to fight or by being caught in the crossfire.

The exact circumstances are unknown but at some point during the Battle of Relsin, the Relsin Purge occurred.

With the moon's separatist presence evicted, the government of New Dawn surrendered unconditionally, unwilling to see the same thing happen to the colonial jewel of humanity.

## Aftermath and Effects

The end of the Triton War had a profound effect on the human race. It had thrown space warfare into the limelight and established that fighting could indeed be done among the stars, and quite effectively. Humanity's exorbitant spending on war-equipped spacefaring vessels had not gone to waste, though some would blame it for the war's occurrence in the first place for years to come.

More than this, it allowed the Council to pass several acts near-unanimously, such as requiring all vessels to be armed. The Triton War also came very close to ending The Dauntless Project and had indeed forced several other colonial ventures to shut down.

Triton-II is now a government-controlled mining planetoid, with very little civilian population, as most who were not killed or conscripted were deposed and sought refuge on New Dawn.