Herschel Wars

The aresian armada approaches Asgard

### Result:

**Military stalemate*** Establishment of the United Colonies and Herschel Nations as separate governments respectively led by Earth and Mars
* Founding of the Spacers Legion and subsequently of Twin Moon

## Major Events

### Battles:

Battle of Schwarzschild
Skirmish of Deimos
Battle of Triton
Battle of Asgard

## Casualties

―The Free Republics' declaration at the start of the war, forming the Herschel Nations

The **Herschel Wars**, also called the **Colony Wars**, were a series of interstellar conflicts between the governments and extrasolar colonies of Earth and Mars that ran from 2235 until 2242. Part of the larger aresian-terran conflict, the wars led to the complete collapse of the Interstellar Collective and the establishment of two separate entities: the United Colonies, led by Earth, and the Herschel Nations, led by Mars.

The war had its origins in a 2231 row over colonisation rights between Earth and Mars to the planet Schwarzschild, which was initially colonized by aresian settlers before legal authority was transferred to terran settlers. After the aresians forcibly took back the planet, they proclaimed it a Free Republic and were joined by numerous other colonies, who banded together for mutual defence. Further clashes led to Mars and its colonies withdrawing from the Interstellar Collective, leaving the Earth-controlled governments alone as the United Colonies. A series of campaigns by the U.C. to reclaim the Free Republics led to the rebellious colonies banding together as the Herschel Nations, igniting full-scale war.

Although the U.C. outnumbered the H.N. at least 5-to-1, the H.N. possessed vastly superior weaponry and stealth technology, forcing both sides into a military stalemate; as a result, fighting was sporadic, with years passing between large-scale campaigns. This *status quo* was in place for seven years before finally concluding with the Bidara Conference in 2242, during which the United Colonies agreed to recognise the Herschel Nations' independence in exchange for the Free Republics stopping their research into antimatter weapons. The few colonists and spacers who refused to be governed by either faction formed the Spacers Legion.

The Herschel Wars were the largest, deadliest and costliest conflicts in human history until they were overshadowed by the Great Galactic War two centuries later.

## Background

In the late 22nd century, scientists Cameron Hammond and Zhōu Mǐn of the *Crusader* Program discovered Hammond-Zhōu Quintessence, a form of exotic matter that created warped areas of spacetime - sagittarius fields - when interacting with "normal" matter. Using sagittarius fields, humanity learned how to travel faster-than-light; engines that used HZQ as fuel were developed within ten years of the discovery. By the 2230s, not fourty years after the discovery, humanity had occupied two regions of space - the Home Systems and Kepler Space, with several bridge systems in-between - jointly known as the Settled Systems, which at the time stretched more than 600 light-years.

Extrasolar worlds known to have habitable conditions were colonised first; several of these worlds were within Kepler Space. Aresians, having adapted to Mars' harsh conditions, were able to colonise a wider variety of planets than terrans, who were best adapted to Earth-like conditions. Tensions rose whenever aresian settlers colonised Earth-like planets, thus restricting terrans to a relative handful of worlds; one such early case was the aresian colonisation of TRAPPIST-1e, renamed Harmony, an Earth-like planet orbiting a red dwarf.

Contention particularly arose when aresian colonists reached and settled Kepler-22b in 2231 and renamed it Schwarzschild; this planet was of particular interest to Earth as it was the first exoplanet confirmed to have oceans of liquid water. At the time, it was the most distant human colony and thus of great importance to the increasingly-militant martian government. Outraged by the aresian settlement of Schwarzschild, the Earth Directorate launched legal proceedings with the Interstellar Collective over colonisation rights; it was the Directorate's view that Schwarzschild was of cultural importance to terrans and thus should be transferred to them. The C.A.R.'s counterargument was that Kepler-22 was surrounded by other aresian colonies and thus lay under the terms of their sovereignty laws. Talks quickly broke down and sactions were ordered by both governments.

## Prelude

### Battle of Schwarzschild

> *Main Article: Battle of Schwarzschild*
>
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In 2231, with the case still undecided, a group of armed terran colonists invaded and occupied Schwarzschild, driving the aresian settlers from their homes. The C.A.R. considered this an act of war, but were legally unable to declare war in accordance with the Treaty of Olympus. This left the aresian settlers on their own to fight a guirella campaign to retake their home planet.

The rebel efforts would have fizzled out were it not for Solomon Jayne, a TranStar medic and war historian who provided tactical aid to the rebels. Thanks to Jayne's smuggling connections, the Schwarzschild rebels acquired weapons, vehicles and medical supplies, enough to fight off the terran settlers. The subsequent conflict was dubbed the Battle of Schwarzschild and concluded with an aresian victory; hundreds of terrans were killed. In the aftermath, the colonists declared the Free Republic of Schwarzschild, an independent republic outside of the Collective's authority.

The battle itself was not nearly as impactful as the legal battles that followed it; for two Earth-years, the Directorate and the C.A.R. were locked in a war of trade restrictions and sanctions over the C.A.R.'s support of Schwarzschild. Food and power production were strangled when the corporations sided with the Directorate, thus spawning accusations of corporate cabals within the Earth-led government. While all of this was happening, Jayne and his followers met with other burgeoning rebellions to eventually create an organized fighting force, the Defence Force of the Free Republics.

### Secessions

Directly inspired by Schwarzschild, the Collective's council on Harmony, the jewel of the aresian colonies, declared the formation of the Free Republic of Harmony and formally withdrew from the Collective. This was followed a day later by the withdrawal of the Free Republic of Gagarin; a week later, by Mars, the aresian homeworld. The secession of Mars in particular caused a crisis within the Collective parliment, leading to open combat in the parliment building on Lovell City.

On April 11th 2235, Harmony, Schwarzschild and Gagarin signed the Free Republic Charter, officially coalescing their respective militias into a single fighting force, the DFFR, and forming a confederate government known as the Herschel Nations. Less than a week later, Cassini and Mars signed the Charter, delivering the death blow to the Collective: the remaining Earth-loyal colonies banded together as the United Colonies, causing the DFFR to mobilize and the U.C. to declare war on April 20th.

## Course of the War

The Herschel Wars were a contest marked by the ferocity and frequency of battle. Over seven years, 500 named battles were fought, as were many more minor actions and skirmishes, which were often characterized by their bitter intensity and high casualties.