Twenty Years' War

## Factions

United Nations

Asgardian Alliance

vs

Bandorian Protectorate

Union of Human Workers

## Timeframe

16 June 3522- 16 June 3542

Result: Bandorian victory, Union defeat

## Background

The Twenty Years' War, lasting from 16 June 3522 to 16 June 3542, was a war of revenge by the Bandorian Protectorate under Supreme Leader Mi Xinchiang against the forces of the Union (Asgardian Alliance and United Nations), for the Asgardian Alliance's original betrayal of the Protectorate in the Second Interstellar War, and for the Union's defeat of the Galactic Empire in the Empire-Union War and their subsequent mistreatment and imprisonment of former Imperial civilians in Imperial systems captured by the Asgardian Alliance at the end of the war. In fact, one of the major goals of the war, which was partially achieved, was to take back the former Imperial systems that had fallen under Asgardian control. The Bandorian citizens mostly held a deep resentment and hatred for the United Nations at this point, which fueled the massive popular approval in the vote to start the war (all districts voted over 90% "yes" to starting the war against the Union, and 84% of districts voted over 95% "yes"). Mi Xinchiang publicized the vote and the declaration of war, which was symbolically given on 16 June, the anniversary of the defeat of the Galactic Empire, in coordination with a massive joint military parade on Lionus, in which troops from the Protectorate Ground Forces and the People's Army of the Union of Human Workers took part; over 10 million troops and 150,000 pieces of equipment were involved in the parade. In space, a massive group of ships from the Protectorate Navy, consisting of the First, Second and Third Fleets, as well as the massive completed super dreadnought *PNV Taiga* and its escort group, and over 150 ships from the UHW Navy took part in a space parade in orbit of Lionus. Both these parades were broadcast on multiple Hypernet channels, to make it clear to the Union that the Protectorate and its close ally were ready for war.

## Planning stage and strategic meetings to discuss superweapons

From June 3508 to May 3522, Mi Xinchiang and a group of 500 military strategists (split up into five teams of 100 strategists each) met on Vecrolla to discuss strategies to give the Protectorate an advantage against the Union in the coming war. The major theme and goal of the meetings was to design "superweapons", capable of causing immense damage to Union military infrastructure, while being precise enough to minimize civilian casualties; while some Asgardian and AIS historians later tried to portray Mi Xinchiang as a heartless monster, she was genuinely concerned with making sure that these weapons would cause few to no civilian casualties, while totally destroying the Union's warmaking capability. In addition to designing these "superweapons", a massive recruiting drive took place, which caused the numbers of enlisted personnel in all branches of the Protectorate's armed forces to rise by over 50 million. 30 million of these were recruited during the 3519-3522 period. Additionally, after the declaration of war, another 25 million (estimated) volunteered to join the Protectorate armed forces.

### Planned superweapons

Mountain King- Mi Xinchiang ordered research into the viability of restoring the Mountain King, which at the time was deactivated and in storage, and using it in ground battles, as well as making more battle robots based on the same design. Ultimately the idea was abandoned, as it would be very costly to build even seven more of the Mountain King-type robots, and if one of them was somehow destroyed, that would significantly reduce the Protectorate's ground forces strength.

Interstellar missiles- these were actually designed and constructed, but never used, and were officially destroyed after the end of the war. Later, when the AIS began developing interstellar missiles at the Darvin Missile Complex, the Protectorate used the research and designs from Mi Xinchiang's strategists to design their own interstellar missiles again, as well as developing effective countermeasures. The missiles themselves were of two different major design classes: kinetic kill missiles, which simply accelerated to an incredible speed using a warp drive and had no separate warheads, using their own mass to cause immense damage to their targets; and missiles with antimatter warheads. The second class of missiles were smaller than the first and were propelled by specialized laser waypoint arrays throughout Protectorate space along targeting lines to slowly accelerate up to top speed, having no onboard propulsion system and relying on stealth rather than ECCM (electronic counter-countermeasures) and shield systems to ensure they reached their destinations. These missiles needed spotter systems at the time of the initial stage while the lasers were boosting them to maximum speed, as they had to be very precise to make sure the missile was on course for its designated target. While interstellar missiles were not used in the Twenty Years' War, the team of strategists also developed the strategy of adding capital missile launch bays to all Bandorian capital ships currently in service with the Protectorate Navy (most ships already had these, but the new strategic guidelines caused redesigns to all capital ships which did not). This significantly improved their combat capabilities and ability to inflict serious damage on enemy capital ships in fleet engagements.

Autonomous robot armies- these never got past the initial design and research stage, as the Union of Human Workers objected to them on principle. Mi Xinchiang ordered research into this project to be stopped after the UHW's objection. This project was given the codename Vengeance Legions (later, a project to train special elite units was developed under a similar codename, Vengeance Squadrons, however, all members of the Vengeance Squadrons were humans). However, specialized autonomous armed androids and other mechanized units were used in many ground battlefields during the war, only in small numbers and generally for assassination or artillery support operations.

Genetic modification of animals for use as soldiers- this project advanced considerably, under the codename Terror Beasts, but was never actually put into use, although all the infrastructure was in place and at least one successful experiment with the process (see Tantoro) had been completed. The animals, chiefly insects, were designed to do two things: receive orders telepathically, and for their killing instincts.

Selective breeding of humans with telepathic abilities and extensive experimentation with these abilities- these humans would have served as controllers for the genetically modified animal assassins of Project Terror Beasts. This project was never officially acknowledged, though most civilians and military personnel involved with Project Terror Beasts knew by logical analysis that if the creatures they were producing were planned to be controlled telepathically, then there would have to be someone capable of telepathy to send the commands to the creatures in the first place. Experiments were also conducted with individuals believed to have telekinetic or teleporting capabilities. The results of this project and all files dealing with it were not initially released to the public, and it was the subject of many "conspiracy theories" in anti-Bandorian circles, some of which were later proven valid.

### Completed superweapons (saw actual use in the war)

Nicoll-Dyson superlaser arrays- used to destroy enemy space stations, capital ships, and even small moons/asteroids with only military outposts on them. The arrays used uncrewed, warp-capable spotter probes with cloaking devices and comm hyperrelays to provide detailed targeting information. Four of these arrays were constructed under the codename Project Morana. All of them saw use during the war, destroying a total of 1,205 space stations, 4,968 capital ships, and 15 moons and asteroids. According to official military records, all four Morana-class superlaser arrays, and their associated spotter units, were deactivated after the war. Two of the arrays were located in the outer regions of the Mystic star system, while the other two were located in the Darkstar and New Kursk star systems.

Human cloning and genetic experiments- under the Galactic Empire, the Nocturns, a military group of assassins, were started. Mi Xinchiang absorbed this program into the Protectorate's military capability, and expanded it to include restarting the Luna Project, a specialized genetic experimentation project. The goal of the Luna Project was to create the deadliest human possible, with incredible reflexes, speed, tactical abilities, intelligence, and creativity, as well as instinctively knowing how to use weapons and how to kill or disable an opponent as quickly as possible. Originally the Luna Project created 500 female clone assassins, using the DNA of a single human female volunteer. This was done during a period of time when the Imperial Army needed more recruits, as the recruitment numbers were lower than normal. However, once they saw the capabilities of the first 500 clones, the project leaders quickly decided for quality over quantity, and the project underwent further refinement with several subsequent smaller groups of 100 clones each. Unfortunately for the clones, the next Emperor was not in favor of cloning projects, and the order was given to terminate them, although some escaped to form a rebel movement, which was ultimately unsuccessful and resulted in the deaths of all the rebels. Under Mi Xinchiang, the Luna Project was revived and expanded. The new clones, which were made using the same genetic material as in the previous Luna Project, were produced in much greater numbers, and intended to serve alongside the male clones of the new Helios Project. The Helios Project and Luna Project were reformed to produce far greater numbers of clones, with initial estimates suggesting up to twenty million from each project per year. Specialized groups of clones with even greater capabilities produced as part of these projects were used as special ops units. These clone armies allowed the Protectorate to always have overwhelming numbers in ground battles during the Twenty Years' War. Additional genetic experiments were conducted on humans with telepathic abilities for use as controllers of the genetically modified assassin animals made under Project Terror Beasts, though the creatures from this program were never used during the war.

Antimatter-based weapons- used in the ships constructed for the Vengeance Squadrons, these marked the first time that antimatter was used in weapons developed by humanity. There were several variants- particle beam-type antimatter weapons, often called "antimatter lances", and the most common- torpedoes with an antimatter warhead. Brock Industries also developed the CAC (Contained Antimatter Cannon) and ACAC (Advanced Contained Antimatter Cannon); these weapons fired projectiles using an advanced ramjet propulsion system with small antimatter warheads, and were used in much the same way as a shell autocannon. All variants of these antimatter-based weapons were used to devastating effect against the Union in the war.

## Initial announcement and declaration of war

From 25 May 3522 to 28 May 3522, a general referendum was held to determine if the public were in favor of the war, as was customary in the Protectorate. On 29 May 3522, the results were announced. All districts voted over 90% "yes" to starting the war with the Union, and 84% of districts voted over 95% "yes" to this question. On 16 June 3522, Mi Xinchiang made an official declaration of war against the United Nations and the Asgardian Alliance, citing the Alliance's original betrayal of the Protectorate, as well as the Union's human rights violations in their treatment of Imperial citizens in former Imperial star systems captured by the Union in the Empire-Union War. On the same day, a massive military parade was held on Lionus, in which over 10 million troops and 150,000 vehicles, including hovertanks, MLRS, assorted other artillery pieces, and aircraft, took part. The First, Second, and Third Fleets of the Protectorate Navy and the newly completed Flagship of the Protectorate Navy, the super dreadnought PNV *Taiga* with its escort group, as well as over 150 capital and 500 subcapital ships from the UHW Navy, took part in a space parade in orbit of Lionus at the same time. The parades were broadcast over multiple Bandorian, UHW, and independent Hypernet channels, and several major UN and Asgardian Hypernet channels were hacked by Bandorian special cyber forces to display the broadcast as well. In the wake of the broadcast on Union channels, which included a message displaying images that showed the horrible treatment of former Imperial citizens by the Union government, there were massive protests in Sol and Asgard. Many of the protestors were arrested and placed in labor camps, which spurred some further protests and strikes in various industries critical to military industry, hampering the Union war effort. The Union governments accused all these protestors as being paid agents of the Protectorate, and in a response announcement, the United Nations and Asgardian Alliance's leaders stated that the Protectorate was being unjust and abominable in its declaration of war against them and in its alleged efforts to sabotage their defensive preparations.

## Opening fleet actions

The Protectorate began offensive actions on 17 June 3522, using its Morana-class superlasers to target and destroy a total of 84 targets, including 4 Union militarized asteroids and small moons, 27 Union military space stations, and 53 docked Union capital ships. On the same day, a task force led by the super dreadnought PNV *Taiga*, commanded by Mi Xinchiang herself, was formed to hunt down and destroy the UN dreadnought USS *Arkansas*, the last UN dreadnought still in service and one of the largest ships in the Union's fleet at the time. The rest of the Protectorate Navy was not idle during this time; on 19 June 3522, elements of the Second Fleet entered the Delos star system and began a battle there which would last until 4 July 3522, and ended with the retreat of the remaining Bandorian forces, after destroying the entire system defense force, significant additional Asgardian and UN naval forces, and conducting several orbital bombardments of military installations in the system. The operation was supported by the Morana arrays, which destroyed 3 naval space stations, 4 docked Union capital ships, and 8 surface anti-ship weapons in various locations in the system. On 25 June 3522, the Protectorate task force interdicted and destroyed USS *Arkansas* and its escort of eight destroyers in interstellar space near the Sol star system; PNV *Taiga* set a new record for fastest time to destroy an enemy dreadnought (six minutes twenty-two seconds), only using its main battery, I11Ms, and torpedos to achieve destruction of USS *Arkansas*. The Morana arrays continued to target and destroy Union installations all during this time.