First Pan-Galactic War

## Prelude

In 2197C.E the SWOKs Consortium was gaining more and more power by supplying many factions with Ylkoppian Cube-snails and Stroxx. This rendered many dependent on them, some for entertainment some for medicine. By selling so many snails, the Consortium was able to build more and more ships and control more even more breeding planets for the snails. Witnessing the Consortium's gain in influence, other criminals wanted a piece of the cake for themselves. They started to claim resources from weak factions. Since many factions were still expanding, they also were in a dire need for resources.

As the technology for mining and refining was not as advanced and a huge chunk of resources got claimed by many factions, resource prices were rising rapidly. A rising pirate threat and bad sensor technology made exploring new sectors almost impossible. This led to rising tensions in the whole galaxy.

## Course of Events

### Outbreak

The final straw was, when in 2217C.E. the SWOKs Consortium was getting aggressive and were threatening a mining operation so they could take their ore. Due to gases that were heating up from mining lasers, a nearby asteroid exploded, destroying a corvette of the Consortium. This was mistaken as shots and so a battle developed between both factions, which escalated into a war. Due to the high tensions and need for resources, other factions joined the war, attacking those already in it to gain access to their resource reserves. Quickly the whole galaxy was at war with each other.

### Fighting the war

In the beginning of the war, the frontlines were very dynamic, and for a long time there was a constant change in the galaxy. Many factions and alliances started to unite, so they would have a chance to come out victorious. After a while there were four big and multiple smaller Alliances fighting for the resources, aside from the criminals and syndicates. The big ones were the "Free League of Independent Worlds", the "Graflokk Republic", the "Forsloof Monarchy" and "The Gaian Front". Around 2260C.E. each of the big alliances was holding around 15-20% of the Galaxy and the war was becoming more static. Each Alliance was trying to hold their territory, as the fear of losing more ships was higher than the need for resources. Another reason for the halt of the war were the syndicates, as they were harassing every faction in ill defended sectors. The members of the Alliances were already busy enough to defend their territories against the criminals and thus, were unable to stage any effective attacks.

### End of the war

In 2280C.E a peace between the four big alliances was declared. Shortly after, they founded the Pan-Galactic Republic and started to specifically hunt down pirates and syndicates. The smaller factions that had survived to this point were appreciating the help, as they were having a hard time to stand their ground against the criminals. A few years later, all factions, no matter their size, had joined the Pan-Galactic Republic.

When the lawful factions united, the syndicates saw that they rapidly lost influence over the galaxy. They started attacking each other, as they saw much better chances to win fights against other criminals than against on big army. This meant, that the demise of the SWOKs Consortium was set in stone. While they were one of the biggest Syndicates in the beginning of the war, they lost many of their forces, resulting in a loss of their breeding worlds. Thus they lost income which additionally slowed down their ship production. When the Pan-Galactic Republic was created, they also lost access to many of their customers, because now there was one big military force, instead of many unorganized militias.

## Aftermath

When the war was over, many lives were lost, but due to large scrap fields, the economy was booming. The Pan-Galactic Republic was founded, to organize the reconstruction work and maintain law and order in the Galaxy. Many started investing in salvage ships, as it was lucrative at the time and helped returning the war stressed economy to normal. This, combined with the combined effort of the Republic to research better technology, led to a period of prosperity. Other Goals of the Republic were the prevention of monopolies and the fight against pirates and syndicates

After the war, the SWOKs Consortium was only a shadow of its former self. Those who survived the war were hiding in the nebulas, preying on ships that passed by.