Great Sporeian War

An image taken of a Grox Counter-Attack

Grox | 134,000,000,000

Total: 212,560,000,000

The Fourth Sporeian War was a 79-year conflict between the Sporeian powerhouse, the Grox Empire, and the rest of the galaxy. The Fourth Sporeian War is marked as the first human interference in the Sporeian Galaxy. The Third Sporeian War was back in 2834 and was a Grox victory back then, but that would change. The war is the bloodiest in human history since World War III and around 1% of humanity's population was decimated in the battle. Humanity's wars had led to the moment and in the end, humanity would have to awaken the old monster inside to finally defeat the Grox. The population of the Intergalactic Space Empire of Earth was fed propaganda on how the war was going, but they all knew it was a waste of life. The government backed it however by saying that if the Grox ever got out of the confines of their galaxy they would never stop until the whole cosmos was theirs. The Grox were under their new supreme leader Grochius VI who was by all means a skilled tactician, but he had an overreliance on the Grox technologies. From the ashes of the war, the First Sporeian Empire emerged.

## Prelude

### Discovery of the Sporeian Galaxy

Humanity discovered the Sporeian Galaxy in 3122 when a Stellar Star Ship (The Stellar Freighter) went through a malfunctioning interstellar space bridge that was meant to take it to the military stronghold Ayes Stronghold in the Andromeda Galaxy so it could drop off supplies. The Stellar Freighter was a 1km wide spaceship meant to hold countless supplies and materials and was a major ship for Stellar. Luckily for the passengers onboard, they were not stranded in the middle of space. A Spikewalker vortex had just been opened up and the spaceship arrived. The hardest part was explaining what had just happened, The Spikewalkers spoke the common Sporeian tongue but the humans didn't know this language or what any of it meant, and they couldn't look to other empires as an example because the Sporeians had never been forced under Cosmos Power. Any other methods such as lights or hand signals would also not likely work. This led to the humans in the spaceship (forced in there by the Spikewalkers until they could identify the species). The Spikewalkers however were quite a peaceful race, believing in a diplomat ideology. Despite the distances, the Stellar Spaceship could establish communication eventually with the Stellar Mothership, which had been directed to a dwarf galaxy (one already controlled by ISEOE). The mothership had been using space bridges to access all galaxies under ISEOE in an attempt to get communication.

The new communication systems of the Stellar Freighter allowed it to finally contact the mothership. The Spikewalkers listened in, confused by the conversation going on but managed to shut the communication down before the mothership could hear the necessary details. The Spikewalker space control forces boarded the Stellar Freighter and looked at the computer, they couldn't understand the language and couldn't understand what "Stellar Mothership" meant. With that, they left and once again the Stellar Freighter was stranded. They stayed healthy by eating provisions on the ship but the loneliness and anxiety of their situation caused one crew member to jump out of the ship to his death. However, thanks to human technology the call had been tracked and the location was given to the government, who were fascinated by their new galaxy discovery. Scouting Squadron 274 was sent to the coordinates, making routine stops along the trip and eventually entering the Sporeian Galaxy. Unfortunately, the Stellar Freighter was stranded far in the galaxy and as the force went through, empires contacted them and since they didn't understand the language, they couldn't respond. Regular messages from these aliens were sent to the government and they had their best translators work all day and night to translate the language or understand the tones at the very least. Unfortunately, Scouting Squadron 274 was destroyed by an unknown race of militaristic Sporeian Aliens.

Realising they could not access the coordinates of the Stellar Freighter by simply flying through, humanity decided to try and find out what led to the spaceship being sent so far anyway and as language analysts worked, engineers worked to find out how the spacebridge had become faulty. Eventually, after a week, the basics of the Sporeian language were identified and put into notes. This was mainly based on records from the Great Cosmos Empires logs that had been recently translated with help from allies. These records mentioned an empire known as the Grox from a galaxy the Cosmos Empire called the "Sporeian Galaxy" which is what the Grox named it. This was analysed further and proven to be the galaxy the Freighter was stuck in thanks to the coordinates given. The log "Sporeian Dialect" (English translated) held the basics of the language and some more advanced terms. From these keywords, humanity worked and found more and more terms. Whilst this was going on the Spikewalkers did routine checks on the Freighter, making sure the humans onboard weren't up to anything. They didn't take any food or resources however and only took weapons from the storage crates. Humanity had to gamble, they had to hope the Grox spoke the same language as the rest of the galaxy if they didn't then it would take years to even understand the basic language. One of the ones who had learnt the Sporeian Language, Lara Lucia, contacted the Freighter again, which the Spikewalkers once again intercepted, but they heard Lucia "Hello" in Sporeian. The Spikewalkers entered the Freighter and immediately communicated. Lucia immediately spoke in Sporeian, "My Sporeian is not good, apologises".

Communication had been established and the government of ISEOE overheard it all. They called themselves "Walkers with Spikes" and so humanity dubbed them Spikewalkers. Hours of communication were done, the Spikewalkers being generous and using simpler terms whenever Lucia could not understand them. When asked about a scouting force the Spikewalkers asked if it was the foreign invaders with a blue and white flag to which humanity said yes. The Spikewalkers told them that it was the Ashonias Empire (with whom the walkers were allied) that shot the spaceships down. When asked how humanity had learned the language Lucia explained that the Cosmos Empire documents were the way. With that communication between the Spikewalkers and ISEOE was set up, the Spikewalkers allowed the Freighters crew to finally land on their home planet "Galactiplanet" and they were welcomed. They studied the Sporeian Language and when they had done so, even taught some of the Spikewalkers how to speak English. Eventually, wormholes were opened up by the Spikewalkers so humanity could enter the galaxy and even trade.

### Influence over the Sporeian

Many empires were sceptical about this new empire that had just shown up, but others thought it was destiny. The philosophical empires of the Sporeian believed that this new empire was the key to defeating the Grox. Over the years humanity and the Sporeian Empires all learnt each other's languages and as the prophecies had said, humanity heading into the Sporeian negated the threat of the Grox. The Grox whilst they still expanded, never declared war and they didn't need to. The empires around feared them so much that they didn't declare war on the Grox even when their systems were attacked. However, humanity's military put a dent in Grox's plans as more and more naval ships were sent to aid the empires being attacked. Humanity could also get spices from the Sporeian Galaxy, as that was the main thing they sold. They learnt more about the culture, Sporeian laws and more about the Grox. Eventually, they were so trusted that some empires allowed them to set up military bases on a spare planet they owned. Humanity also helped build up the armies of the Sporeian aliens by granting them funding for their vehicles and spaceships. The Sporeian culture wasn't so different to humanities, singing, dancing, games and other similarities. Humanity also introduced sports to the aliens such as basketball, tennis and Football. In particular, humanity offered friendly matches with sporeian aliens, especially football which had been the reigning sport in human civilization since the age before WW3. In particular, the Earthian National Team came from the Milkyway Galaxy to play matches. Humanity spent money on better education for Sporeian youths and eventually the Grox lost all fear they once had, a bigger empire than them had just appeared and was making the life of other Sporeian Aliens wonderful.

### Factions

With this attack, humanity used its influence over the Sporeian Empires to suggest a coalition, and many agreed. Humanity promised if this coalition went through they would work with the empires to get rid of the Grox once and for all. From this came a new faction, The Sporeian Order. The founding members were Spikewalker's allies and the allies of their allies. A key member was the Cheatatoms, an advanced race with around 2% of the Sporeian star systems and an eye for money. They are master hackers and got most of their riches from theft and some tactics unheard of. Because of this, they could use their vast riches to convince other empires to join the order, especially the merchant empires who were in it for the money, although this bribery worked for other empires as well. The hope was once this bribery ended, they'd feel united with the other empires, believe in the cause and keep fighting. By the start of the war, over 60 empires had joined the newly declared Sporeian Order, and the sides were ISEOE and The Sporeian Order against the Grox Empire.

## The Early War

### The Battle of Abyer

Abyer was a planet with around 54,000 Spikewalkers on it when the Grox Attacked. After forming the factions and repelling several other Grox invasions, the Spikewalkers and ISEOE went to meet the Grox face-to-face. Factions readied their spaceships, and produced more tanks, jets and warships, and in particular Humanity's Naval Squadron 109, The Hootsforce, came out of the vortex the Spikewalkers had opened and other empires witnessed the strongest force of humanity enter the Sporeian. Five Super Star Destroyers, over 46 Star Destroyers and their forces had been increased by humanity as well to well over 250 ships. They were followed by Naval Squadron 76, Naval Squadron 324 and Naval Squadron 101. The Grox had wiped out all of Abyer's population when Allied forces arrived. The Hootsforce remained on standby as it was Squadron 101 who took the fight with Spikewalker spaceships as well. The Grox launched their warships, rivalling humanities and suddenly the spikewalkers looked like jokes. In the ensuing conflict, Admiral Xeno of Squadron 101 developed a plan with the walker's admiral. The Star Assaulters flew past Grox spaceship lines and fired all of their missiles. As the Grox warships would turn to deal with the assaulters or open fire, the Star Destroyers would release the starfighters who would fly rapidly through the lines, disabling grox cannons and guns. Once this was over, the star destroyers would come in and clean up the lines with Star Cruisers following as escorts. Star Frigates were used to get rid of the smaller Grox warships. Nicknamed the Xeno Naval Plan, this strategy would be used by Allied forces for the next 4 years, and it was brutally effective.

Once the Grox Naval Forces were dealt with the assault on land would begin. Around 3 million troops of ISEOE would land and be immediately met with an onslaught from the Grox. Grox machine weaponry killed some before they could even aim their guns and the Grox already had air superiority, bombarding human positions. In the first hour, a million humans were dead, a scary show for all. The Spikewalker forces eventually landed, their spaceships attacking formations as well since Sporeian warships (except the Grox superships) were smaller and could attack more precisely. Eventually, as the battle raged on, the Grox took double humanity's casualties, humanity sent in three million more men. In the end, humanity came out victorious, but at the cost of 2.5 million in their first conflict. In total two ships of ISEOE were lost, five spike walker ships were lost out of 32 and the grox lost 77 of 84 sent. It showed that whilst humanity had the space warfare advantage, the Grox had the firepower on land.

### Plans and Strategies

With the Battle of Abyer being won, the forces needed to decide how they would fight this war against the Grox in a way to minimise casualties. Admiral Xeno offered his plan, confident since his previous naval one had worked so well. This would see the spaceships create a barrier around a grox system and destroy anything coming to stop them until the Grox exhaust the resources for the system, in which case humanity could send men in and easily clean it up with no spaceships getting in the way of the main forces. If it was a shorter war perhaps it would be effective but it was turned down because of the sheer magnitude of the Grox. Admiral Spieya of the Spikewalkers suggested constant bombardment of Grox cities until they were nothing but rubble and then the forces came in to clean the rest. This was refused because of how violent it was and how it could make them seem evil. Other admirals pitched their ideas in a very formal way but none were accepted because they took too long, involved too many casualties or made them look evil. Eventually, Admiral Bruce, the lead admiral of the whole ISEOE space navy came up with the strategy called "Barrier, Strike and Capture" strategy which was later given the name of the Bruce Battle Plan.

How it would work is that an empire would capture a grox system, set up a small supply base, let soldiers garrison it and immediately attack more and more grox colonies, using this new hub as a place to refuel ships and save time if the grox were to attack. As well as this, it allowed smaller empires to feel important, being allowed to let troops garrison these zones. It also let the Space Navy wreak havoc and kept them in check. This strategy whilst simple turned out to be the deciding factor long-term, the Grox focused on more complicated strategies. It was similar to lightning warfare which had been used quite a lot but on a much grander scale. They put this to plan and it was time for the Sporeian War to truly start.

### The first use of the Bruce Battle

The plan was put into action, and the Grox Planet of Ayx was swiftly attacked. The Hootsforce was finally deployed, the ISN Warspite in particular took down many Grox warships. The Xeno Naval Plan was once again used to deadly effect and the Grox had only a small garrison on the planet which was swiftly taken over by around 89,000 casualties for humanity. They set up the ammo base and the Sporeian aliens planted their technologies onto the surface. The Hootsforce was sent to Ceplenus, Naval Squadron 101 to Ektropean and Naval Squadron 274 attacking Fergi. Luckily for the humans, the Grox only had one colonised planet in a star system (a common trend amongst Sporeian Aliens as claiming one planet meant that the star system was yours) and so the plan went smoothly. Ceplenus was easily taken over in just a week with 185,000 deaths for humanity, yet the other squadrons had issues. Ektropen was a major Grox industrial hub and was defended harshly. Naval Squadron 101 lost five-star destroyers in the ensuing conflict and lost more spaceships than the Grox did. The land forces were also wiped clean, and the first wave of 1.2 million soldiers was killed within two days and the battle which was meant to last a week took two months. On the other hand, Fergi was volcanic and was rocky, unstable and mountainous. The Grox thrived on dead planets such as it but humanity found it hard to traverse. The space battle went well enough but forces on land were picked off. Eventually, in 3 months, they would finally secure the planet. This was worrying, only the Hootsforce had managed to take the planet in the time required for the plan to be effective. Elsewhere, other empires didn't have as much luck, being forced off by Grox defences. The only empire getting anywhere was the Spikewalkers who had taken 2 Grox star systems.

However, this long duration allowed Ayx to be fully armed and turned into a military post to refuel ships, and the Hootsforce didn't stop after Ceplenus, attacking two more star systems in the months it took the over squadrons. They took approximately 490,000 men over this duration. However, to be fair to the other squadrons, the Hootsforce ended up with planets that had fewer craters or volcanic activity, making their advances much easier. Humanity halted for a month, to refuel and boost morale. The Grox had attempted counterattacks but had once again been forced out. However, Humanity underestimated the Grox master strategy and just how adaptable they were. Each time the Grox were beaten they learnt something new about humanity, and they realised how well their master plan could be.

### The Rest of 3146

It was now August, and humanities progress was halted. The Grox had started to garrison their territories more effectively and humanity's previous fast attacks were slowly fading as the Grox forced them into a war of attrition. Each planet took months to take over, and everyone realised this would not be sustainable when the Grox had so many systems in total. Even the Hootsforce was eventually halted and lost over a million in a brutal campaign on the planet Gareleus, a crushing blow and proof that the early successes were simply coincidences. Humanity had underestimated the Grox Empire and it was beginning to show. The Grox hardly counter-attacked, but they defended well. The only times the Grox counter-attacked was when a non-human empire attacked them. For every star system humanity took from them, the Grox took two from another weaker empire that couldn't handle the attacks. This also showed a major problem, humanity couldn't be everywhere at once, nor could the Spikewalkers or other major factions in the Sporeian, and so empires with just small systems and populations were dead meat to the Grox and more planets to take over. Humanity despite all its attacks had only taken over one more than the Grox had taken over from other empires. Humanity needed more resources.

### The Government

The Government back in the Milkyway knew the scale of this conflict but didn't want to spend more and more resources on the Sporeian front. They knew that the population liked the war at the moment, but once the numbers got out, they'd quickly turn. They also didn't want to send so many warships, especially as they still needed to protect their domains elsewhere. They couldn't access total warfare either, as millions would be forced to construct spaceships which would not be a good look for the war effort. Admiral Bruce pleaded but the government continuously refused all requests. Propaganda was heavy, ignoring the losses previously and showing false reports on the battles going on. However, in the first year of the war, the government was horrified to learn around 21 million soldiers had been killed or gone MIA, it was truly scary, especially since they had the surprise attacks. As well as this, it was the Green Party in power, and they had a heavily different stance to the Red Party which had led 10 years before. They wanted terraforming, habitable environments to maximise profit and spend less on military budgets. They were voted in because the Reds had run out of favour in the previous years of scandals in the party and no one expected a war.

### The Sporeian Thunderstorm

The war had been going on for a year now, what was expected to be an easy battle turned out to be a long, dragged-out one that humanity had not prepared for. Despite earlier protests, the government finally sent the newly made Sporeian Division, consisting of 400 million soldiers, 5 more superstar destroyers and over 100 more ships. Tanks and jets were also supplied, with most of the spaceships sent being Star Carriers to carry supplies, weapons and men. Bruce's plan could finally be done more effectively and the forces sent were split up between the naval squadrons already in the galaxy. In particular, the most recent superstar destroyer, ISN Cymric had appeared. At over 7.5km long Cymric was the biggest spaceship in human history. With all of these new weapons, the Barrier, Strike and Capture plan could be put into full effect. Bruce addressed all forces with a speech and told other empires the plans. An event now known as the Sporeian Thunderstorm took place from 3147 - 3150. It started with a swift strike on Ducaria which was taken in under four days by the Hootsforce with 101,000 casualties. The same tactics were continuously used to deadly effect, in particular, the Cymric destroyed 52 of 125 Grox warships taken down in the Battle of Ducaria. The Grox Empire tried to carry on the war of attrition which worked so well for them, but the overwhelming firepower of humanity in these three years was too much. The Grox moved forces planned to attack smaller empires to defend themselves from the thunderstorm taking place.

In just the first month, the Grox lost around 43 planets and could only claim one. This was a staggering process and the government back home hammered this home, showing everyone the progress. Suddenly, more and more people wanted to join the army to defeat the Grox menace. Morale had never been higher in the war. September 3147 the first military outpost was taken over by the ISEOE, the planet of Ergan, a red, rocky planet with rough terrain. Despite attempts to save it by the Grox, it fell as expected in just a week, with humanity suffering 367,000 casualties compared to the Grox's 1,234,000. Another major battle around December 3147 was the conquest of Kawyes. This was significant as it was the first successful offensive without humanity getting involved. The Spikewalkers and some other empire forces liberated the planet Kawyes from Grox rule and freed the many slaves the Grox held there. They started their thunderstorm which, whilst not as effective, made the armies scarier from an outside point of view thanks to how easily the Sporeian aliens could make their vehicles. One military vehicle only cost 1,000 sporebucks (around 845 Qirsh) and it seemed as if they appeared from nowhere formed from nothing. They may not be the best weapons made, and they are quite outdated by human standards but they are easily producible and so helped the overwhelming firepower humanity was looking for. For comparison, a new STAR-87 Fighter Jet costs over 120 million Qirsh.

3148 was marked mainly by infiltrations. To help Operation: Thunderstorm go even faster than it was, a special force was created, and the Night Stalkers were formed. These were a special ops group focused on getting rid of key generals, admirals and political leaders of the Grox, as well as stealing valuable intel. They attacked under the cover of night and could never be traced. They were scarily effective with a success rate of over 98%, the highest of any force. They would continue to play a major part in the war, especially as it approached its end. Their design was also made to resemble the Grox, so if they were spotted from afar they'd be mistaken for some Grox. As the Night Stalkers lurked, the military forces of the allied forces continued their rapid advance across Grox territories. At some points, it seemed like the Grox had just given up, not bothering to mount any offensives, this was weird and unnatural. Humanity shrugged it off as shock but the Spikewalkers warned of a possible major offensive. Another thing humanity couldn't understand was the rate of Grox production, every naval fight had at least 100 Grox warships and soldiers everywhere.

As well as this, the most major battle of 3148 was the Battle of Malkuth. Malktuth was colonised by the Grox for a main purpose, to be as much of an obstacle as possible. The planet had many natural volcanic craters and created craters. Around key weapons and outposts, there were great metal walls, and below the planet were shelters for the mass production of weapons. Humanity first sent the Night Stalkers undercover to scout the planet and find key weaknesses within. They eventually located the entrance to the underground bunker and sent the coordinates to ISEOE. They got out of there as fast as they could and the mission was a success as a captured Grox warship was used to enter airspace and pick them up. With the intel gathered humanity launched their attack, Super Star Destroyers such as the ISN Gloryhammer and ISN Valiant destroyed major outposts with their lasers, and other ships doing the Xeno Naval Plan. When troops landed, most of the forces had already been wiped out by the warships or forced underground and humanity moved quickly. They entered the bunker eventually and before the Grox soldiers could fire, they were massacred. Humanity took the plans for the current Grox Weapons, sent them to headquarters and cooled the planet down to harden the lava.

3149 proceeded as normal, the Grox were currently re-enacting their plans without humanity knowing, as everything took place on their homeworld where the Night Stalkers could not reach or infiltrate. All attempts before had been failures and ended up in deaths or forced members being captured. Around June of 3149, a major battle took place over the heavily populated Grox Planet known as Malestire. With a population of 52 million humanity had to approach it differently. What humanity did to start with was send just five-star frigates into a force of 186 Grox Warships. Whilst the warships were distracted, space bridges opened behind the lines and instead of using the Xeno Naval Plan, Admiral Angus of the hootsforce defied command and used his Super Star Destroyers to destroy all smaller ships, using the smaller ships as mere distractions. With overwhelming firepower, the Hootsforce destroyed 173 warships, the Gloryhammer taking out 52 of them, Cymric taking out 62 and Warspite taking out 41, the rest destroyed by other warships. With this onslaught, the troops landed. General Rudiger was a traditional general and used classic military strategies. He managed to encircle a whole force of 500,000 Grox using a million men and in just an hour all 500k Grox were dead. This tactic continued and continued until he reached the capital where they surrendered. The Grox were deported, but some say they were killed in the Gloryhammer, as inspections after the war showed a chamber labelled "Jail" within the warship that produced pure oxygen (the very gas that the Grox could not breathe in).

3150 was the end of the thunderstorm, and a grand naval battle was ready to take place over the planet of Rathan Nova, a Grox naval outpost. The Hootsforce, Spikewalker's main squadron and the main squadrons of other empires all met with the Grox main fleet, consisting of over 2,000 warships against the allied 950. This is where humanity realised just how adaptable the Grox were. They tried using the Xeno Naval Plan, but as their smaller ships flanked the grox fleet, the grox fired missiles from the sides, penetrating the thin armour of the Star Assaulters and Frigates, destroying them. Unsure of what to do and full of shock, the squadrons didn't have any strategies and it was an all-out gunfight, ships crashing onto the planet of Rathan Nova constantly or blowing up mid-flight. Troops landed on Rathan Nova to secure it but they found themselves being killed by the fallen spaceships and debris more than the force defending Nova. The planet itself was volcanic as well and so whenever a spaceship's engines collided with the volcanic craters, depending on the ship's size shockwaves would be sent across the rocky battlefield. The moment where humanity had to get it together was when the Super Star Destroyer ISN Golden Eagle crashed into Rathan Nova, the sheer size of the warship meant the shockwave killed hundreds on the ground. The shockwaves also caused volcanic eruptions, helped by other warships' weapons hitting the planet, which scorched thousands and injured others so much they couldn't move. In the end, over 24 million soldiers were dead, and 157 ISEOE warships were destroyed. The Grox had lost 2 million soldiers but over 800 warships. It's still questioned who won as humanity abandoned Rathan Nova and the Grox didn't dare touch the wasteland littered with crashed ships. After the war, Rathan Nova became a tourist spot, the atmosphere was terraforming to allow life and it now exists as a war grave you can visit and pay respects to. With humanity losing so much power, the Grox now took their chance.

### The Grox Counter-Strike

As rapidly as humanity did it, the Grox did their counter-attack. This lasted just two years from 3150 - 3152. The Grox re-captured planets such as Malktuh and Ceplenus in an attack that humanity was not mobilised for. Even the other empires of the Sporeian were caught off-guard and the Grox superpower took over 9 star systems every month for four months. Eventually, the empires got a grip but even with garrisons the Grox forces overwhelmed tired troops. The government back home realised something needed to be done and ordered fresh new technology such as STAR-87 fighter jets and the IGSA-459 tanks to be sent to help the front. When the resources arrived humanity forced itself into a war of attrition, but the Grox were masters at this type of warfare and thrived. Their biggest issue faced was the new technology brought into the battlefield, Grox military vehicles being useless against Humanity's advances. Because of this, the Grox Counter-attack ended up not being as devastating as the Humans but was still major and turned the tide of the war.

### The Campaign for Hakkor

To make sure they were not caught out again, humanity ignored the losses they sustained and started Operation: Golden Gate. The operations endgame was the annexation of Grox Planet Hakkor. From intelligence reports, Hakkor was a key military base of the Grox, with over 75 million troops stationed there along with some of their most advanced technology. At this point, humanity had escalated the war ladder to 8.5, which meant that full force could be used on certain targets. The only thing stopping humanity was that Hakkor was surrounded by many smaller military bases they could not simply ignore. The Grox had also decided to slow down humanity by placing colonies on more than one planet in star systems, a tactic humanity utilised itself. 500 million troops were prepared, 50,000 IGSA-Destroyer tanks, 25,000 IGSA-459 main battle tanks, 10,000 STAR-87 jets and 2 million battle mechs, all being contained on 200 spaceships, 60 being star suppliers and the rest being escorts. Eventually, the Hootsforce joined this task force and this force, now nicknamed Force Golden Gate (based on the operation name) went straight for the first line of military instalments.

The first battle in this campaign was on Planet Zorcon and started with an orbital bombardment. This was all a part of the Kosmatka Naval Plan developed by Admiral Liwia Kosmatka, regarded as one of the most successful female admirals of all time. Her idea was to bombard key military areas and draw Grox fire. The Grox warships would go to attack the strike force attacking those areas, and another bigger force would deploy soldiers onto the planet in secrecy before they would join the strike force being attacked. An attack the Grox would not see coming, and it was brutally efficient. As with all human plans at first, the Grox had no counter and this strategy would be used across most of the campaign. Notable uses include the Battle for Deioarn, a planet the Grox used to keep Prisoners of War locked up and the Battle for Guavusi, another military planet with a key emphasis on mechs.

Eventually, the combined space forces arrived at Hakkor, and the Grox were prepared. Recent scouting by the Night Stalkers showed that the Grox had positioned a massive number of warships on the planet and that even if forces were split they would have enough ships to finish off a force of troop transports. However, the Grox still had not learnt that humanity was more resourceful than anything they had come up against, and the human mind was truly their biggest weapon. New plans were brought up to deal with this. Humanity didn't want to throw too many forces out at the Grox, they learnt from the Battle of Rathan Nova that a direct naval battle with the numerous Grox units was suicide and shouldn't even be tested. They would rely on the special forces they had deployed. Along with the Night Stalker, humanity created a new unit, The All Blacks. Their role was to work with the Night Stalkers and infiltrate power sources being used by other empires. Both units worked simultaneously and stayed hidden on any outpost of great importance. The Night Stalkers had gathered the intelligence and it was now the All Black's turn to wreak havoc. The Grox power sources were located underground, and getting past the forces would be tough but they had a trick up their sleeves. Invisibility gadgets cloaked them as they approached the first source of Grox power. It is nicknamed just "Power" by the Grox but was given the nickname "Groxilum" by humanity. The Grox guards were stationed and had no idea as the controls were suddenly destroyed and the power source turned off. This in turn set off a chain of power outages across the planet and even communications were cut out. Grox Warships were sitting ducks and that was when the Hootsforce and other allied forces arrived to destroy the forces.

Starting in 3154, the Battle of Hakkor was separated into three main periods, the Naval Battle of Hakkor, the landing on Hakkor, and the capture of Hakkor. All of this took place over two weeks. The naval battle was one-sided, Grox warships were unable to communicate and humanity had now realized a flaw in the Grox's advanced technology, it relied on a main power source in the local area. The only reason the warships could even fire was the backup power, which was discovered shortly after this battle when looking at a crashed Grox spaceship, that could only allow the warships to shoot its guns. However, the desperate Grox would fire a new weapon from their planet's surface, which because of the power had to be manually turned on. The Grox Anti-ship cannons, lasers resembling Super Star Destroyer lasers were fired at humanity's ships. However, the aim was off as the radars and aiming gear required the main power source to be on, so the Grox ended up hitting their ships most of the time. Eventually, the landing on Hakkor began, spearheaded by General Cordova now known as the "Sporeian Liberator" for his impact on the war and humanities forces. He never took surrender as an option and took this battle to prove himself. The Grox were still panicking and so humanity easily encircled many units. Luckily the outage also disabled the mechs from working, meaning it was just the Grox soldiers against the vastly more experienced army of humanity. Tanks destroyed many structures and jets without the threat of Grox mechs were left uncontested. The plan had worked and General Cordova proved his worth. For every soldier he lost, they killed 50 Grox soldiers, he motivated his men and treated them as equals, even fighting alongside them with the government-issued Fauthax Blaster. Finally, the final stage of the battle would begin, which was the capture of Hakkor. Cordova's forces joined up with the other forces on the planet under General Moloto and worked to fight against a guerilla campaign within the capital city. With Cordova's battle experience and Moloto's never-ending resistance, they worked and eventually took the capital. A victory for humanity and one for Propaganda. However, they could not celebrate just now, as they had to keep going and crush the rest of the Grox Empire, which still held over most of their star systems and was expanding in other ways against other Sporeian empires.

## The War Raging on

### The Sporeian Defence

As humanity was getting countless victories, an issue loomed over them. Even though they had been able to attack the Grox and push them back, the members of the Sporeian Order besides some major powers were being pushed back and many had been killed or massacred by the Grox.  The Grox may not have been the most powerful in the galaxy any more, but they had masses of fleets and soldiers everywhere across the Sporeian. Their homeworld was located at the centre of the galaxy, making any movement there hard. With the empire built around this core, they could expand similarly to how humanity did. Empires all around were torn to shreds, but hope arrived when the Grox tried assaulting a very militaristic Sporeian Nation nicknamed the Bloodyox. The Bloodyox mass-produced many weapons which made them a target. However, the Grox had been locked in a standstill for three months on the planet called Bliyain. The Grox deployed their battle mechs, towering over the technology of the Bloodyox. These mechs were at least 85 metres in height (278 ft) and 100 metres (328 ft) in length. However, the Bloodyox were prepared and had missiles, anti-grox weaponry and more. Eventually, the Bloodyox pushed on and won the battle. They joined with the Spikewalkers and some other forces and started a new offensive. Humanity sent Naval Squadron 42 and transport vessels with them. This task force under Admiral Silva would have great success.