Second Empire-Hierarchy War (FT)

The Second Empire-Hierarchy War was a conflict between the Hierarchy and the New Greater Empire in 240.

Relations between the Empire and the Hierarchy had already been strained for decades following the First Empire-Hierarchy War, during which the Empire claimed the planet Aokessho, home to the Hoi^3 a rebellious former child race of the Hierarchy.

In the years leading up to 240, the Katoku on Aokessho became unified under the new Dai'gor and started carrying out various attacks on Hierarchy convoys in both an attempt to gain new technologies as well as to seek revenge against the Hierarchy for their perceived betrayal in the previous Empire-Hierarchy War. In 240, the Hierarchy decided to retaliate against the Katoku, with some factions even seeking to bring the sapient cephalopods back under their control. The Katoku's fledgling space fleet was almost immediately destroyed by the Hierarchy within days, though several ships managed to escape the system. Before a land invasion could occur, however, the Imperial Navy arrived.

As the Empire claimed control over Aokessho, the Imperial Navy reacted to the attack by deploying the 6th Fleet, beginning a three-way war of attrition within the system and on Aokessho. After several weeks of space combat across the Aokessho system as well some terrestrial combat on Aokessho itself as the Hierarchy attempted to dislodge fortified Imperial scientific settlements like Kurage Station, Hierarchy attack forces penetrated into Imperial territory to cut off Imperial supply lines. The 1st Border Flotilla was able to intercept the Hierarchy force en route to Onogoro and was able to defeat the bulk of the force, with only a small vanguard force arriving in the Onogoro system, where they were defeated in the watery planet's orbit amongst the orbital shipyards.

However, a major land invasion was carried out on Matsutani, when the 3rd Fleet was caught off-guard by the sheer force of the enemy. After three days of assaulting the Imperial defensive blockade, 47 Krhażssa-class Shock Landers reached Matsutani's surface and a full-scale invasion began, though after a week of fierce fighting the Empire regained full orbital superiority and the Hierarchy forces were essentially stranded on the arid planet's surface. Fighting throughout the system continued for months, as did the surface battle, which the battle in space rapidly becoming a war of attrition.

After seven months and horrendous losses on all sides, the Empire and Hierarchy decided that the violent Katoku were not worth attempting to subjugate and a landmark armistice was signed between all parties involved, declaring the Aokessho System to be off-limits to both the Empire and Hierarchy. Secretly, the two hyperpowers also agreed to carry out a joint quarantine effort to ensure that the Katoku remain within their system for the foreseeable future.

However, the ceasefire was not recognised by Lizard Domel, the "Desert Gecko", one of the main leaders of the land invasion on Matsutani who had a grudge to settle with the Empire for killing both his older brother and senpai in the First Empire-Hierarchy War. Rather than retreating, the Desert Gecko took a large amount of loyalists and disappeared into the inhospitable and mountainous Keikoku region, building a hidden subterranean base out of one of the remaining shock landers and continuously leading raids against the Empire to this day.

The Empire and Hierarchy maintain an uneasy peace since the war.