Datasea War

Combatants| * Ariphius Confederacy
	+ Ariphius Military
* Corporate Trade Alliance
	+ Varus-Sub corporate milita
* Allied militaries and sector militias;
	+ Zeta colonies
* Gorrf Empire (briefly)
* Grand Criminal Empire (briefly, unofficially)
* Allied mercenary groups;
	+ Fragment Militia
	+ Enadu sympathisers
	+ Regime Military
	+ Fractured Regime (briefly)
	+ Datasea Insurgency
* Onvo Syndicate
* Allied mercenary groups;
	+ Neriabois family
	+ Krayan freedom fighters

Commanders| * Intelligence
* Ariphius Council
	+ Charles Caravius
	+ Legislative vizier Lorenz
	+ State Command
* Ariphius Security & Enforcement Bureau
	+ Director Orjen
	+ Director Hazin
* Emperor Anlarch Sirestri (briefly, unofficially)
* Grand Emperor Varin Gorrf (briefly)
* Lords' Delegation
	+ Lord Muk
	+ Lord Geoffrey Zentin
* Setvik of the Syndicate

The **Datasea War** (3GE 964-73) was a period of galaxy-wide conflict and fierce geopolitical tension between the Ariphius Confederacy and the Tamarud Regime, and their respective allies. The Regime was the aggressor, with the goal of removing Intelligence as leader of the Confederacy and restoring the Regime as the dominant faction in the galaxy. Strategies on both sides were devised by superintelligences, Genesis and Intelligence, and as a consequence their artificial nature meant that many major battles were rarely won by either side, but instead continued, as the strategies of the two superintelligences were alike in many ways. The military of the Ariphius Confederacy was far more powerful than that of the Regime, but as the Datasea Insurgency attacked the Confederacy from within, the Regime amassed a rivalling military prior to the breakout of war.

Prior to the war, the Regime had amassed a military in secret in Edgespace after their devastating defeat at the culmination of the War Era and steadily grew to be an incredibly powerful political faction yet again, the revived progenitor of Intelligence known as Genesis as the head of state, presenting itself under the human alter ego Ivor. The Regime aimed to topple the Confederacy and remove an artificial being as head of state, unaware that Genesis had deceived the entire society, and that the true intention was to restore Genesis to its former glory as head of state. The Regime allied themselves with the Datasea Insurgency, and supplied them with weapons and equipment, with the intention of damaging the Confederacy from its heart on Nikrontri, while simultaneously invading from Edgespace.

## Prelude

### The War Era

Prior to the War Era, during the late First Galactic Era, the newly formed Ariphius Confederacy slowly expanded throughout the Galactic Interior and Inner Territories, while simultaneously making significant technological advancements. The datasea was created, allowing instant galactic communication.

Acting as the central body of the datasea was Genesis, until Ariphius scientists innovated further and created a more powerful superintelligence in the form of Intelligence, capable of governing the Confederacy as head of state. Genesis, after being replaced, was removed from the datasea system, though survived in a physical android body and went into hiding in Edgespace. With the strategies devised by Intelligence, the Confederacy quickly subdued and fragmented the Regime, collapsing the government and forcing the remaining officials into Edgespace. The Ariphius Confederacy, through aggressive expansion, became the dominant faction of the galaxy.

### Re-emergence of Genesis and Regime expansion

In circa 3GE 600, Genesis emerged from hiding as a sympathiser of the Fractured Regime, an organisation with the intention of restoring the Regime to its former glory. The Lords' Delegation, learning of Genesis, secretly placed him as the mind of the Fractured Regime. They set the illusion that the organisation aimed to bring a new age of freedom where a non-human AI did not rule the galaxy, but in reality it was an attempt to gain power.

With the strategies formulated by Genesis, the Fractured Regime allied itself with many isolated organisations and groups across the galaxy. The Datasea Insurgency joined the Regime's effort, trying to collapse the Confederacy from its capital on Nikrontri, their work funded by the Regime, who began the process of military expansion. The Regime eventually formulated a powerful military to rival that of the Confederacy.

### Nikrobiru Cold War

The Datasea Insurgency orchestrated terror attacks and sabotaged government operations in Nikrobiru City from 3GE 955 onwards. The Insurgency amassed great numbers by allying itself with Nikrontreen gangs and wealthy crime families, such as the Neriabois family, creating a small army of criminals wielding weapons smuggled in from the Regime. Agents of the Ariphius Security & Enforcement bureau enforced the law and exposed Insurgency conspirators, learning of the Insurgency's alliance with the Regime. This created further tension between the Confederacy and the Regime, and war was an inevitability.

## The war

### First Year

#### Battle of Brorrt

The Battle of Brorrt marked the first territorially aggressive move by the Regime, invading the Vurani Sector from space with warships. The stretch of territory was thin, only a small gap between Regime-dominated Edgespace and the Inner Territories. Several fleets of the Ariphius Naval Force were already posted in the sector, at Brorrt, and were quick to respond to the aggression with a naval battle in Brorrt's orbit. Eventually, the Battle of Brorrt involved the ground forces of both sides, the Army of the Confederacy meeting that of the Regime on the front lines on the planet's surface.

The heat of the battle lasted for several months, a constant, violent fight over control of Brorrt, neither side withdrawing because of the power the planet's position held. A Regime victory at Brorrt would give them a significant station to strike out at the Galactic Interior, endangering the capital and integrity of the Confederacy. The region of the Vurani Sector Brorrt was located in became known as the Brorrt Frontier, and remained highly contested throughout the war. Huge sums of money and resources were put into reinforcing the forces at Brorrt on both sides, and in the first year of the war alone had casulties number in the billions, collectively.

#### War across the galaxy

Regime forces began to strike out at other vulnerable locations across the galaxy, with many smaller battles following the Battle of Brorrt and the Battle of Hu Gani, which established another major front in the Hu Gani Frontier. Military funding was increased exponentially within the Ariphius Confederacy, to combat the ever-growing, powerful military of the Regime. State Command suspected that the Regime Military had much of its force lying in wait until the Ariphius Naval Force had been worn down and scattered across the many minor, mostly uncoordinated battles across the border of the Inner Territories and Edgespace. This further pushed the priority of military funding, and resulted in the Varus-Sub Corporation, the main producer of warships for the Confederacy, was forced to import hundreds of millions of refugees for underpaid labour in the shipyards of Alradia.

Many of the Regime's smaller scale attacks were directed at communication beacons and scanner outposts, space stations vital to upholding the communication power of the datasea and the conducting of business in deep space. The destruction of many of these stations reduced the influence of the Ariphius Military in the outermost sectors of the Inner Territories, and benefitted the Regime in allowing them to navigate the region without interference from the Confederacy.

### Second year

#### Territorial aggression

By the second year, the aggressive expansion of the Regime throughout the war's beginning had tired out is military, and the Confederacy's relative dormancy and lack of major action during the first year paid off, as the new fleets built by Varus-Sub were launched to take back previously lost territory in Edgespace and the Inner Territories, while pushing further into the outer sectors to gain new territory previously within the Regime. Syndicates within the Grand Criminal Empire began to rebel and ally themselves with the Regime as opportunistic mercenary forces, harming the Empire's integrity. The Empire unofficially fought for the Confederacy during this time, its forces attempting to weaken the Regime's infrastructure with the intention of stopping the smaller syndicates from leaving the union of the Empire. With almost total control of the black market, the Emperor Anlarch Sirestri cut off most major black market trade between the Regime and criminal organisations across the galaxy, which significantly impacted the production and acquisition of weaponry in the Regime.

### Third Year

#### Fall of the Grand Criminal Empire

The Grand Criminal Empire collapsed in 1GE 966, and the major syndicates within it the Gorrf Empire, Onvo syndicate, and The Fragment, separated. The Onvo syndicate orchestrated the collapse over several years. Its leader, Setvik of the Syndicate, was secretly an ally of the Regime and had smuggled weapons onto Nikrontri for the Datasea Insurgency since the Nikrobiru Civil War. While Emperor Anlarch Sirestri was resting in his quarters in the Grand Imperial Palace on Naratel, an Onvo assassin disguised as a servant snuck into his quarters and killed him while he was sleeping, unofficially dissolving the Empire, with Anlarch having no heir.

The Gorrfs became an independent criminal empire again, allied with the Ariphius Confederacy and briefly engaging in conflict against the Regime, when a military force invaded the outskirts of Naravien, the capital of Naratel, permitted entry by the Onvo Syndicate. The collapse of the Empire was harmful to the Confederacy, as it was one of the Confederacy's strongest allies, but Gorrf Space and the Gorrf Empire remained allied.

#### Political controversy

The war became a controversial topic within the Ariphius Congress on Nikrontri, with some political factions and delegations being pro-war military funders, while others being pacifists or unofficial Regime sympathisers. The Anti-war delegation was one of the largest alliances within the Congress, and was a pacifist faction that aimed to pressure the government into reducing military funding and corporate production, and attempt peace negotiations with the Regime. The Ariphius Council knew the Regime would never accept peace, and the Operations division of the Ariphius Security & Enforcement Bureau orchestrated a slow dissolution of the delegation, framing them as Regime supporters aiming to reduce military funding to weaken the Confederacy. The delegates in the alliance were arrested and the faction was dissolved.

#### Invasion of Ter Ganna

During the third year of the war, the Ariphius Military invaded the Ter Ganna sector of Edgespace, which was located in Regime territory. The sector bordered the Aeat sector, where the capital planet of the Regime was located, and if the Confederacy held control over the sector they would be in the position to invade the heart of the Regime. They launched a large-scale military campaign into the sector, quickly taking control of many of the smaller worlds within the sector while the Regime's military was focused on the Hu Gani and Brorrt Frontiers.