The Solar War is the conflict between the nascent Solar Republic and the Society Remnant for control of the Core of the Solar System.
Background[]
Following the death of Octavia au Lune in November 743 PCE, ArchImperator Magnus au Grimmus rallied The Society's remaining loyalist fleets and withdrew to regroup on Mercury and Venus. About two months later, he began a counter-offensive to destroy The Rising and reclaim the Core in the name of The Society. In 754 PCE, the Rim Dominion became involved in the war on the side of the Society Remnant after they learned that Darrow had been the one who destroyed the Ganymede Dockyards at the Battle of Ilium rather than Roque au Fabii as he had led them to believe
Major Participants[]
Solar Republic[]
Darrow O'Lykos[]
As one of the major military leaders of The Rising, Darrow became the ArchImperator of the Republic military and served as leader of every major campaign in the solar war.
Sevro Barca[]
Cadus Harnassus[]
Orion Aquarii[]
Virginia Augustus[]
Dancer O'Faran[]
Publius Caraval[]
Victra Barca[]
The Volk[]
Sefi the Quiet[]
Valdir the Unshorn[]
Volga Fjorgan[]
Society Remnant[]
Magnus au Grimmus[]
Atalantia au Grimmus[]
Atlas au Raa[]
Xenophon[]
Volsung Fá[]
Apollonius au Valii-Rath[]
Lysander au Lune[]
Rim Dominion[]
Seraphina au Raa[]
Dido au Raa[]
Helios au Lux[]
Diomedes au Raa[]
Others[]
The Red Hand
The Red Hand is a terrorist group made up of fanatical Reds who originated as an extremist faction of the Sons of Ares that splintered away from the main organization in 738 PCE. The group was formed and led by Harmony, a former Sons of Ares lieutenant who defected due to the organization's seeming lack of direct action against The Society before The Rising, as well as her hatred of Golds and dislike of Red clans like Gamma who she saw as collaborators. During the Solar War, the Red Hand emerged as a guerilla force harassing targets across Mars and killing any Red from Gamma they could find.
Ephraim ti Horn[]
Ephraim ti Horn served in the Solar Republic military for the first three years of the Solar War before leaving the Sons of Ares and pursuing a life of crime, making a name for himself in the criminal underworld as a thief specializing in acquiring high-value targets. He blamed The Rising for getting his fiance Trigg killed, and resented the Republic government for the compromises that were made during the war, such as how the Gold who murdered his entire unit during the Battle of Luna was given a pardon in exchange for resources and intel.[1]
The Syndicate[]
The Boneriders[]
Pirates[]
Some Obsidians turned to piracy after being liberated from Society enslavement, taking the moniker of Ascomanni after the rumored descendants of the warlords who escaped the Dark Revolt.
Kuiper Ascomanni[]
Major Events[]
Battle of Luna[]
In the weeks following Octavia's demise, many Society legions were stranded on Luna as the Ash Lord withdrew to Mercury and the Rising took control of the moon. In early 744 PCE, the Ash Lord launched a counterattack to relieve the marooned Societal forces.
The three-year invasion was an extremely bloody affair, with Society forces forcing the Republic to fight block to block, city to city. Civilian casualties were notoriously high, with residential areas and schools leveled by stray munitions on both sides.
Liberation of Earth[]
Over the course of the Battle of Luna, combat spilled over to Earth. Republic ArchImperator Darrow O'Lykos led forces in the ground campaign, with Apollonius au Valii-Rath fighting Darrow and the Eight Legions' Second Cohort at Kardung La in India.
In 746 PCE, the Republic launched an invasion of Society-held territory in northern Africa, and drove House Grimmus forces out of their ancestral seat in the city of New Sparta.
At some point during the campaign, the Republic launched an Iron Rain on Earth that became known as the Wolf Rain.[2]
The battle for Earth lasted as late as 748 PCE, when House Grimmus legionnaires were driven from Africa and the Americas. However, a small holdout of Society forces remained entrenched in South Pacifica until at least 753 PCE.
Liberation of Mars[]
After the Society Navy was repelled from Luna, Mars became the next primary theater of the war.
In 747 PCE Apollonius au Valii-Rath laid siege to Olympia, where Sefi Volarus was leading the Obsidian migration from Mars' south pole. Valdir the Unshorn became one of the only humans aside from Darrow to survive a duel with the infamous Mad Minotaur. Darrow himself came with the Solar Republic's seventh and fifteenth legions to drive off Valii-Rath and end the siege.[3][4] The Siege of Olympia marked Atlas au Raa's entrance to the war following his return from the Kuiper Belt.
Some of the fiercest fighting took place on Mars. The worst part of the conflict was by far the "Rat War", a three year long campaign to liberate the tunnels and mines of Mars. The Tunnel War was considered to be even worse than the Block War on Luna. Not even the Obsidians sing songs of their victories in the tunnels.
The Battle of Mars in 749 PCE was the single largest battle of the war prior to The Battle of the Ladon in 754 PCE. Following the Solar Republic victory, the Society Navy withdrew from Mars and ceased its campaign.
It would take another two years before the tunnel wars to come to an end and Mars was officially declared free, although an army of Golds loyal to the Society remained encamped on the continent of Sirenia up until at least 753 PCE.
Siege of Mercury[]
The siege of Mercury began in 751 PCE and lasted for two years until Darrow launched a successful Iron Rain to take the planet.
In the first year of the Siege, Screwface was carved and sent undercover as a mole within the Society ranks. Only Darrow, Mickey, Theodora, and Mustang were aware of his status.
Although the Senate had denied an Iron Rain in August 753 PCE, Darrow ignored the order and liberated the continent of Helios, with over a million casualties. These heavy loses led to deep bitterness especially among the Obsidians, feeling that the Republic was using them as cannon fodder.
Kidnapping of Pax and Electra[]
The syndicate was able to kidnap Pax and Electra with the help of freelancer Ephraim
Dido au Raa's Coup[]
Battle of Gorgon Isle[]
Battle of Caliban[]
Approximately eleven weeks after the Iron Rain on Mercury, the Society Navy, led by Atalantia au Grimmus, launched a surprise attack on the Republic fleet in mid-November 753 PCE. Under false overtures of peace negotiations, the Solar Republic was duped into recalling half of its fleet back to Luna. The ships that remained were ambushed and destroyed over Mercury's Caliban Sea, leaving the Free Legions stranded on the surface of the planet.
The Battle of the Ladon[]
Eight weeks after the Battle of Caliban, Atalantia launched an Iron Rain against the stranded Republic forces on Helios on January 5th, 754 PCE. Despite the odds, The Battle of the Ladon ended in a Republic victory.
The Day of Red Doves[]
Five days after the Battle of the Ladon, the Solar Republic senate held a vote to decide whether to send a fleet to Mercury to rescue the stranded legions. Dancer and several Senators of the Vox Populi party were poisoned by agents of The Syndicate as part of a coup against Virginia orchestrated by the Copper senator Publius cu Caraval, using the accusation that the Sovereign had assassinated her political opponents to incite a mob to storm the Senate building.
The Long Night[]
Approximately four weeks after the Day of Red Doves, Lysander launched a surprise attack on the Free Legions from inside Heliopolis. The Long Night, as it was later called, resulted in Solar Republic forces being overwhelmed by a mob of Heliopolis residents loyal to the Society, stirred to action by Lysander. In the midst of the chaos, Cassius and Aurae arrived on Mercury to evacuate Darrow aboard the Archimedes, bringing Thraxa au Telemanus, Screwface, Cadus Harnassus, and around two hundred surviving Free Legionnaires along with them.
A separate group of survivors, led by Colloway xe Char, hid in the mountains for several weeks afterward before hiring iron smugglers to get them off the planet and past the Society Remnant's blockage.
The Sack of Olympia[]
Rescue on Venus[]
The Siege of Phobos[]
Nine months after The Long Night, the Society Remnant and the Rim Dominion launch a joint attack on Mars with the goal of seizing the planets moons to use as a staging area for an Iron Rain. The Siege of Phobos lasted for two weeks before Virginia and Lysander negotiated the Republic's surrender of the moon in exchange for being permitted to evacuate uncontested, as well as the exchange of prisoners taken by both sides.
Invasion of The Rim[]
Eighteen days after the end of The Siege of Phobos, Volsung Fá launched an invasion of Ilium with the combined might of the Volk fleet and the Kuiper Ascomanni, beginning with the ambush and destruction of the Ilium Guard fleet at the Jovian moon of Garmaga. Gaia au Raa and the Moon Lords sent an emergency transmission to the Dust and Dragon Armadas recalling them home from the Core. Helios au Lux was given imperium over both armadas for the voyage home, and they began their journey two days later.
In order to preserve their alliance against the Republic and make a gesture of goodwill, Lysander accompanied them along with an escort of ten Preatorians under the command of Rhone ti Flavinius. Lysander's personal fleet and those of his allies followed ten days after the Rim's departure.