Second Cluster War

The **Second Cluster War** is the fourth most destructive intergalactic conflict to ever occur in The Cluster and the largest war ever fought by the Coalition of Intelligent Organisms. It lasted over two thousand years and pushed the military technology of all races involved to their absolute limits.

## Background

The Second Cluster War was mostly incited by the Coalition, brought on by extragalactic exploration that was made possible only in the late 101st century with the development of the first fully-functional Fissure Drives. These devices made exploration into the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies possible. For a few centuries or so, the Coalition explored these galaxies freely. They focused their efforts mostly in the Andromeda galaxy, as reports of unexpected disappearances in the Triangulum galaxy quickly barred most people from visiting it regularly. Andromeda held new prospects for the Coalition, and the Department of Galactic Sciences was quick to analyze anything that they discovered. It was not long before the Coalition found ancient Aanom Vaults, each containing hordes of slumbering Aanom soldiers and specially-built warmachines that the Kaeolians had provided them years ago. In an attempt to collect and reverse-engineer the technology for themselves, the Coalition accidentally awakened the Aanom and triggered their biological programming for war. The Aanom quickly retaliated and drove the Coalition researchers away, frightening the entire Coalition public as well. It wasn't long before the Bedlam Society heard of the incident. The Society knew that the Aanom were created by the Kaeolian Empire to be the ultimate weapon of war, and that they would stop at nothing to obliterate the Coalition and all of its inhabitants. Since the Aanom couldn't engage in any sort of diplomacy, the Society motivated the Founder Council to unofficially declare war against them and mobilize the entire Coalition military against the Aanom. The Second Cluster War had officially begun.

Unbeknownst to both the Coalition and recently reawakened Aanom Legion, however, a third party was also preparing to enter the conflict only a century or so after it started. The Ghuldashi Exiles, led by the malevolent Ryi Poq Uytio, launched early attacks on the Coalition from their hiding places inside of the Triangulum galaxy. Recognizing the Coalition as a pawn of the Bedlam Society and its Zetylian benefactors, Ryi knew she would have to destroy the Coalition so as to ensure safety for the last remnants of the Kaeolian Empire. Since, like the Aanom, most Ghuldashi attacks were focused towards the Milky Way Galaxy, Aanom and Ghuldashi forces frequently fought each other, as well, since the mostly brainless Aanom forces couldn't recognize anything except their own kind as allies. The Ghuldashi quickly became fully embroiled in the war, turning the Second Cluster War into a three-way battle between the Ghuldashi, Aanom and Coalition.

## Progression

### Early Conflict: Coalition On The Defensive (11000-11300 C.E.)

In stark contrast to the First Cluster War, the Second Cluster War mostly remained in space, rarely involving planetary invasions. The few planetary invasions that did occur were focused during the early years of the war against the Coalition, who were the only empire involved in the war that possessed planetary colonies. The outer colonies the Coalition had worked so hard to rebuild following the Galactic Revolution were frequent targets of Ghuldashi and Aanom invasion fleets, and unfortunately, many of them were completely destroyed in the fighting, as the Coalition was reluctant to pull their defense fleets away from the core zones and leave their centers of power unprotected. Despite being the original instigators of the war, the Coalition was forced to remain defensive during the early stages of the war, as their military was still very unprepared and weakened after the series of conflicts during the Revolution. They couldn't fight both the Ghuldashi and Aanom simultaneously with the forces they immediately had on hand, and fell back to their Dyson Spheres to build up their forces until they were strong enough to launch a counterattack. Both the Ghuldashi and Aanom had a very good chance to wipe out the Coalition and end the war early, but fighting between them slowed invasion progress for both and bought the Coalition extra time for preparation.

The turning point of the war was when the Coalition began to field hypercruisers to drive Ghuldashi and Aanom forces out of the MWG, allowing them to push the offensive. Though still prototypes, the first few hypercruisers fielded by the Coalition proved to be very effective, possessing enough firepower to destroy entire armadas. Only 4 hypercruisers were ever deployed during the war, but they were enough to push the Ghuldashi and Aanom away from Coalition territory and equalize the state of the war.

### The Coalition Offensive (11300 - 12000 C.E.)

With the Ghuldashi and Aanom fleeing from the MWG, the Coalition was able to gather its forces and push the offensive, launching direct attacks on Ghuldashi and Aanom bases in their respective home galaxies. Since they were technically fighting both enemies at once, the Coalition had to manage its navy very carefully, as even with the help of hypercruisers, its forces were still limited, and somewhat technologically inferior to the Ghuldashi and Aanom, who used ancient, but extremely advanced, Kaeolian technology. 2 hypercruisers were sent to Andromeda and Triangulum, respectively, and managed to keep the Ghuldashi and Aanom busy while the Coalition improved its defenses in its home galaxy.

The Ghuldashi slowed their offensive during this time tremendously. Realizing that their forces couldn't compete with Coalition hypercruisers, they focused on improving their spacecraft to keep up with the evolving scale of the war. They became defensive and heavily fortified their outposts in the Triangulum galaxies, keeping the Coalition off their back. Ghuldashi defenses proved too powerful for the Coalition to breech, even with their hypercruisers, but the Coalition still chose to keep their forces in the Triangulum galaxy in hopes that they could eventually find and exploit holes in the Ghuldashi defenses to gain an advantage over them.

### Launch of the Myriad Terror (12000 - 12500 C.E.)

The Aanom were pressed hard by the Coalition's offensive. Their assaults during the early years of the war had hampered their defenses as they left very few ships in Andromeda to defend their bases. The Aanom were on the brink of defeat during this period of the war, unable to fight powerful Coalition hypercruisers or retaliate in any significant way. This all changed when they successfully reactivated the Myriad Terror, a massive battleship that could overpower hypercruisers with ease. Built by the Kaeolians as a contingency plan for the First Cluster War, the Myriad Terror was strong enough to reignite the Aanom offensive.

The Coalition didn't plan on going down without a fight, however. When they became aware of the new Aanom superweapon, they focused their entire war effort into destroying the Myriad Terror as quickly as they could. Needless to say, it wasn't an easy task. The Myriad Terror possessed enough firepower to vaporize entire Coalition fleets, and would be virtually impossible to stop if it ever reached Coalition territory. Thankfully, the Myriad Terror's sheer size rendered its FTL system slow and inefficient, giving the Coalition plenty of time to devise a method of destroying it. Their first attempt was at the Battle of Lirid, in which a huge Coalition armada, complete with 2 hypercruisers, assaulted the Myriad Terror and its escort. Though the Myriad Terror suffered extensive damage in the fight, it survived, while the Coalition fleets (along with both of the hypercruisers) were obliterated.

The Ghuldashi didn't see the Myriad Terror as much of a threat until the conclusion of the Battle of Lirid, when the upper limits of its combat potential were finally revealed. Realizing that the ship would inevitably come to attack the Ghuldashi after it destroyed the Coalition, the Ghuldashi began their own attempts at defeating the Myriad Terror. Luckily for them, they had just finished constructing their first Masochist-Pattern spaceships. Since they were originally intended to hunt down Coalition hypercruisers, the Ghuldashi assumed that the Masochist-Patterns would be strong enough to take out the Myriad Terror, which had been weakened extensively following the Battle of Lirid. The second major battle involving the Myriad Terror, the Battle of Niasima, was the first deployment of these new spaceships by the Ghuldashi. Though things appeared to be going poorly at first, unexpected aid arrived in the form of another Coalition battle fleet, headed by another hypercruiser. The Coalition, when they realized that the Ghuldashi were attacking the Myriad Terror as well, saw this as their golden opportunity to destroy the ship once and for all. The Myriad Terror, though it put up a good fight, simply couldn't compete with the combined assault of both the Ghuldashi and Coalition, and was destroyed in the Battle of Niasima, forcing its meager escort to retreat.

The destruction of the Myriad Terror left all three combatants in the war weakened. The Ghuldashi and Coalition had both expended considerable resources trying to destroy the craft, and the Aanom, following their defeat at the Battle of Niasima, were left without a bulwark for their assaults into Coalition territory. The pace of the war slowed considerably from this point on, though it wouldn't truly end until over a millennia later.

### The Fighting Fades (12500 - 13300 C.E.)

Without the Myriad Terror leading their forces, the Aanom were unable to continue their offensive push against the Coalition, and fell back to their bases. The Coalition and Ghuldashi did the same, having sustained heavy losses in their attempts at destroying the ship. The fighting continued, though at a much slower pace and much smaller magnitude compared to before. The Coalition's last hypecruiser, the *Acrisius*, was their primary fighting asset during this period of the war, leading occasional assaults into Ghuldashi and Aanom territory. It ended up seeing the most combat out of all Coalition forces, since it had lasted through the length of the entire war and had even helped destroy the Myriad Terror at the Battle of Niasima.

It was at this point that all three combatants in the war were considering a diplomatic end to the conflict. The citizens of the Coalition were war-weary and had started to lose interest in the fighting, since the Aanom and Ghuldashi were withdrawing their attacks and slowing their assaults to the point where they no longer posed a considerable threat. Ryi, though her forces had struck tremendous blows against the Coalition, was also taking some time to think over her plan of vengeance, slowly realizing that a venerable civilization such as the Coalition might be impossible to defeat with her minimal, if loyal, army of robots. Even Aanom Hyvork, the supreme commander of the Aanom forces, began to doubt the meaning of this war, starting to think that the Coalition and Ghuldashi may not be the armies the Aanom Legion was destined to fight. No actual diplomacy occurred during this time, but it was on everyone's minds. It only took a small push for diplomatic intervention to occur.

### The ZTI Activates (13300 - 13500 C.E.)

The final turning point of the war was the spontaneous activation of the Zetylian Tech Inhibitor, a gigantic construction inside of the Andromeda galaxy that held the capacity to render all advanced technology useless. It was far away from Aanom territory, and had been mostly overlooked during the course of the war. The activation of the device wasn't even noticed by the Coalition and Aanom, though the Ghuldashi took careful note of it. Ryi was particularly worried as since she and her entire army were robotic beings, the ZTI threatened to instantly kill off the Ghuldashi Exiles. Extinction was a concept she was no foreigner to, and so she made it her top priority to destroy the ZTI. Unfortunately, the Zetylians had prepared themselves for such an eventuality, and had armed the ZTI with a vast arsenal of high-tech weapons. The crumbling Ghuldashi army alone would not be enough to breach its defenses, which caused Ryi to embark on diplomatic envoys to both the Coalition and Aanom in an attempt to rally them to her side. This proved to be surprisingly easy, and soon, the combined armies of the Ghuldashi, Aanom and Coalition had gathered together to attack the ZTI in a legendary battle. Against all odds, they succeeded, and the ZTI was brought offline permanently.

The realization that survival might only be possible through mutual cooperation made all three empires chose to end the Second Cluster War once and for all. They put their differences aside and agreed to form a defensive federation, the Galactic Assembly. The Second Cluster War ended with no clear winner, but the result of the war seemed to please everybody. The Cluster would remain peaceful for the next millennia or so, at least until the Second Vuokra Invasion.

## War Technology

The technology involved in the Second Cluster War wasn't as advanced as that used in the First Cluster War, but it was just as dangerous and destructive. Hyper-scale ship construction, pursued mostly by the Coalition, changed the dynamic of space battles considerably. Space combat soon became less about advanced tactics and more about raw firepower and durability, since these were the only things a hypercruiser could boast in direct combat. Outside of special-use Coalition Drifters, small fighter craft were almost never used by the Coalition, as advanced point-defense technologies could easily destroy them. The Coalition themselves didn't use such point-defense technology very often, preferring instead to maximize the caliber of their ship-mounted weapons. As was typical for Coalition military technology, many of their ships were outfitted with bigger and bigger weapons as the war progressed, though this didn't always translate to more combat potential. The RBG Cannons used by Coalition hypercruisers were notably unwieldy and couldn't be used against anything smaller than a battleship, though their moon-sized bullets were widely feared for their ability to tear through almost any class of ship. This lack of mobility and focus on sheer size and firepower was both the Coalition's greatest strength, and their greatest weakness during the war, as these traits in their ship design were exploited by the unnaturally swift Ghuldashi Masochist-Pattern spaceships, which made them undeniably effective against large Coalition vessels. The Coalition never adapted their strategies much during the war, relying on the same brute-force tactics that they had used to win so many wars in the past.

The Aanom fought on similar terms to the Coalition, relying on the raw strength of their armies to overpower their foes. However, instead of using extremely large ships and weapons, the Aanom preferred to use copious amounts of small, expendable craft to fight for them. The base unit of the Aanom forces was the Xat, a small, knife-shaped fighter craft that was equipped with only the most simple weaponry available (usually a pair of low-energy plasma blasters or something similar). Xats, on their own, were virtually useless in combat, but when released into huge swarms containing trillions upon trillions of individual Xat units, they became a deadly force, acting as unified clouds of destruction that could burrow through ship hulls with their combined fire. Even larger Aanom ships, frigates and cruisers included, could be built in similarly large numbers, thanks to the extremely efficient manufacturing techniques the Aanom could use to build their armadas. One of the most uncanny abilities of Aanom craft, however, is their capacity to combine with each other to form flexible "grouper" ships comprised of multiple interlocking Aanom vessels. These ships possessed the firepower and durability of all the ships they were made out of, and could be configured to perform a multitude of tasks depending on their composition and shape. This tactic was frequently used by the Aanom in battles involving the Myriad Terror, as Aanom ships could attach themselves to the battleship and augment its combat abilities extensively. The mass-numbers tactics used by the Aanom gave them a major advantage over the Coalition, who lacked the AOE weapons required to destroy Aanom forces. The Ghuldashi didn't have this problem, as their highly-advanced novathrowers could decimate large groups of Aanom forces with ease.

Statistically speaking, the Ghuldashi were the most disadvantaged combatants in the war. Their forces were vastly lower in numbers than the Aanom or Coalition, forcing them to rely on careful hit-and-run strategies to gain advantages in combat. Ghuldashi ships were also considerably smaller than most Coalition ships or Aanom grouper ships, due to their functional and efficient nature. Regardless, the Ghuldashi made up for their lack of numbers with versatile, high-tech spaceships and excellent tactics. Ghuldashi weapons were some of the most advanced during the war, which was the biggest advantage they had. Antimatter cannons, a popular heavy weapon in the Ghuldashi arsenal. could punch sizable holes in Coalition armor, and ignored ECA Shields completely. Their robotic nature also gave the Ghuldashi some of the best electronic warfare capabilities possible, which proved especially effective against simple Aanom ship computers. Of course, what really helped the Ghuldashi fight the Coalition and Aanom on equal terms was their tactics and fleet management. Ryi gained military experience during her years as queen of the Kaeolian Collective, and was an expert tactician. Thanks to her advanced robotic command suites, she could coordinate Ghuldashi forces with speed and precision unheard of by the Coalition or Aanom, making crucial combat decisions almost instantly. These traits helped the Ghuldashi win battles they would have otherwise lost due to overwhelming odds, and kept them alive even during the vicious Coalition assaults early into the war or during the Aanom retaliation with the Myriad Terror.

## Notable Battles

### Battle of Eddon's Drift (11152 C.E.)

The first major conflict between Aanom and Coalition forces, occurring startlingly close to Coalition core territory. A sizable Aanom fleet, the 913rd Swarm, clashed with a Coalition defense fleet, the S15F99. Aanom forces were comprised of several basic carriers, each holding a large number of Xat swarm fleets and frigates. Coalition fleet was comprised of several patrol frigates, heavy frigates and 5 heavy cruisers. Carriers immediately launch Xats and frigates upon sighting Coalition forces, which proceed to attack. All Coalition heavy frigates, as well as numerous patrol frigates and 3 heavy cruisers, were destroyed, but not before dealing serious damage to Aanom frigate numbers and destroying one of their carriers. Most Aanom Xats remain unharmed during the fight. Shortly afterward, remaining Coalition forces retreat. Aanom forces return to their carriers and await reinforcements.

### Battle of Tarrazat (11199 C.E.)

Significant battle between Aanom and Coalition forces. Occurred near the orbit of the Coalition colony on Tarrazat. A large Aanom fleet, the 1233rd Swarm, was confronted by the combined forces of the S8F38 and S2F14 Coalition defense fleets in an attempt to stop them from moving further into Coalition territory. Aanom forces included numerous carriers with full Xat and frigate complements, as well as numerous battleships. Coaliton forces included several patrol frigates, heavy cruisers, mobile siege platforms and ultraheavy cruisers that had been refitted for anti-fighter support. Siege platforms deploy their weapons and begin attacking Aanom battleships and carriers, while the Aanom deploy the rest of their forces. Xat swarms do considerable damage to patrol frigate and heavy cruiser lines, but are eventually thinned out by the ultraheavy cruisers. Battleships succeed in overwhelming mobile siege platforms but are finished off by the ultraheavy cruisers. Coalition forces are victorious, and retreat to the nearest Dyson Sphere to replenish the heavy losses they sustained in the fight.

### Battle of Korlmen (11224 C.E.)

First major battle between Ghuldashi and Aanom forces. Occurred near the orbit of Korlmen, a former colony of the Mhrinian Concordat. Aanom forces were encountered by invading Ghuldashi forces during their retreat away from Coalition territory. Though originally a sizable fleet, the 394th Swarm had been weakened in a previous battle with Coalition forces and was reduced to half of its original size, left with only a few damaged carriers, cruisers and very few frigates and Xats. The Ghuldashi fleet, which was comprised of numerous frigates and a single battleship, caught them by surprise and swiftly annihilated them thanks to their superior weaponry.

### Battle of Sphere 13 (11240 C.E.)

First and only direct attack made on a Coaliton Dyson Sphere by enemy forces, also the first battle in which a hypercruiser was deployed. An extremely large Aanom force gathered in the system containing Coalition Sphere 13, backed by numerous groups of incoming reinforcements. As they approached, Coalition defenses on the sphere were readied, and all available defensive units were deployed. Heavy and ultraheavy Coalition ships were sent out in large numbers, but were quickly destroyed by overwhelming swarms of Xats. Most long-range Aanom craft were picked off by ground-to-space cannons located on the sphere surface, reducing the power of the fleet and preventing them from doing any significant damage to the integrity of the sphere. After about a day of constant assault, a Coalition reinforcement fleet (the S1F99) arrived, headed by a recently completed hypercruiser, the *Qiplot's Pride.* The combined firepower of the hypercruiser and its anti-fighter support ships were able to easily destroy the remaining Aanom forces, keeping the sphere safe.

### Battle of Vacoss (11551 C.E.)

First direct attack made by Coalition forces on an Aanom ship factory. A Coalition fleet containing an anti-fighter cruiser escort and several ultraheavy cruisers was sent to attack an Aanom ship factory satellite in the Andromeda galaxy. No major Aanom fleets were near the factory at the time, leaving only small defense fleets and built-in defensive turrets to protect the factory. Coalition forces quickly destroyed the defense fleets and began to bombard the factory directly, which prompted the Aanom to send in additional reinforcements. A specialized Coalition hypercruiser, the *Brutus*, was deployed the fight to support the dwindling Coalition forces. This hypercruiser was equipped with extremely potent RBG Cannons that obliterated the factory easily, allowing the rest of the Coalition forces to focus on repelling the Aanom reinforcements. When even more reinforcements are sent, the Coalition choose to retreat back to the MWG, declaring the battle successful.

### Battle of 5L-Substrate (11924 C.E.)

First incursion made by the Coalition against a Ghuldashi base, and first battle in which a Coalition hypercruiser was destroyed. 5L\_Substrate, a Ghuldashi Mainframe Core, was attacked by a large Coalition fleet headed by the hypercruiser *Brutus.* The Ghuldashi had detected the Coalition ships before they approached, and had already assembled a defense fleet to destroy the attackers, comprised mostly of various heavy cruisers and frigates, in addition to the mainframe core's armaments. Most of the hypercruiser's escort is destroyed in the first few moments of combat, but the hypercruiser itself remains relatively unscathed, and proceeds to bombard the mainframe core. Most of the Ghuldashi defense fleet has also been destroyed, and the mainframe core lacked sufficient weaponry to destroy the hypercruiser A fleet of reinforcements was sent to the battle shortly afterward, but, in a hurry to stop the hypercruiser, had miscalculated their Swapper Dynamos, and many of them accidentally teleported inside of the hypercruiser, mostly near its antimatter reactor complexes. This caused a violent chain reaction that destroyed a large part of the hypercruiser's rear hull (along with all of the Ghuldashi ships that had teleported inside of it) and rendered it unable to retreat or continue its attack. The Ghuldashi forces were successful.