The Formation of the FCAD

## CURRENTLY WIP

(Note to self - not humans that sent first message)

The Formation War was the culmination of gradually increasing tensions, escalating to the point that a war could start over almost anything. And it did.

A signal from an alien civilization, a low-power radio burst, reached Dra’konia observation stations all across the system. Analysis proved that there was no doubt; it had not come from any known Dra’konia source, and was not using any known protocol. (Later analysis and data-tracking by bored Dra’konia intelligence officials would prove that it was, of all things, the first telephone call made over a human 7G network, and revolved around the ordering of a pizza.)

In a fit of panic, a single Belter hab - Habitat 1270SM-CD4 - threw a single nuke at its neighbor, Habitat 1360SM-CD7. The nuke impacted, killing the five dra’konia on the hab at the time.

Its implications ended far more than that.

The incident polarized nearly every hab in the Belt, either siding with 1270SM-CD4 (who argued that it was an accident sparked by a fit of panic, gaining the demonym Twelvers) or siding with 1360SM-CD7 (who argued that the attack was fully intentional, and was using the alien transmission as a distraction to ensure the nuke wouldn’t be intercepted, and came to be known as Sixers.)

No one to wonder how 1270SM-CD4 obtained said nuke; they had, in fact, obtained it legitimately several months before on behalf of 1360SM-CD7, and were slated to use it against the asteroid to which 1360 was affixed. This was brought to light as a result of a bored observatory security officer who, in early 2046 API, thought to look up the manifests of transports to the region around the start of the war.

There was a third party that formed, believing that both sides were in the wrong (taking into account several equipment thefts by members of Hab 1360), but by that point there was no point in arguing. A more-or-less free-for-all war broke out in the Belt - no one could clearly identify which side anyone belonged to, and new distrust won out over old alliances.

Protesting populations clamored to stop the fighting in the Inner Planets, finally fed up with the internecine power struggle in the Belt. The governments held a great convention… and couldn’t decide who to attack. Each government held fast to preserving its core allies while wiping out their competition, no one would budge… and eventually, an accidental bump in a hallway turned into a fistfight, turned into a gunfight, turned into a fleet action, turned into a full-scale war between the inner worlds. Ships that slipped through the cracks were ordered to the Belt. Many went rogue, and were summarily hunted down by their previous comrades in a vicious cycle of distrust and chaos.

Now that the war was in full swing, the Belters wouldn’t stop because all of them saw opportunities to either gain an advantage over troublesome neighbors, or to cement their advantage. Because they were never self-sufficient, they saw a need to *become* self-sufficient through conquest against each other.

In stark contrast, the inner-planet governments were self-sufficient, but had an obligation to their people and to each other to keep the peace in the Belt. This forced them to keep fighting each other, so as to ensure that their preferred habs would survive and competing habs would be destroyed or weakened.

But there was a third party, which managed to keep completely out of the war: the O’Neill cylinders (known derogatorily as the “Tubers”) - not strong enough to intervene, and thus not beholden to fight for any preferred Belters, but self-sufficient so as not to need more power.

The Tuber governments saw an unprecedented opportunity: they could wait until the war died down, and then rebuild the system into something better, something stronger, something more united, following the generally peaceful and generally ethical policies and ideas prominent amongst the Tuber governments. So they formed a coalition: the Free Coalition of Aligned Dra’konia. And aligned they were - all with their mirrors pointed at the system primary, so as to leverage its effectively free energy.

About halfway through the war, as Praxis was starting to turn its minor advantages in almost every sector into a major advantage, a group of Belter mercenaries saw a threat to its own desires of continued conquest, and launched an attack on Praxis itself. They diverted three asteroids, each large enough to sterilize the planet on its own, and slammed them into Praxis. By some incredible miracle, several small populations of Dra’konia survived on its surface, along with the vast cultural archives beneath the surface. The surviving Praxic forces used their last reserves of cruise endurance in a final act of vengeance, hunting down the mercenaries and shattering their organization completely.

As all the sides gradually wore each other down, they got weaker and weaker as the situation got worse and worse. They were too busy fighting each other to think about the Tubers. And finally, that fateful day came when the militaries which the Tubers had had before the war, and had slowly accumulated… were stronger than any of the surviving factions. The Tubers seized their moment, launching subversion attacks - bribery, mutiny, etc. - against all of the remaining factions, gaining control over most of their remaining forces. They sought to unite the Belt and bring the Inners down to the level of the newly united Belt.

The Inner governments, seeing no way to win anymore, simply surrendered. The few Belters who valued the fight over a possible peace were stamped out by the now overwhelming Tuber fleets, leaving a fractured accumulation of habs with no desire but to end the fighting.

Now in a position to seize power, the Tubers - now the Coalition - moved in on the shattered remains of Praxis and began setting up the infrastructure to run their planned government, linking it to both the Belt and the inner planets. Their use of Praxis was leveraged to show impartiality. And, at long last, the war ended.