Editing Blue Giant:The Treaty Zone (section)

==The War==

The last full scale war started in 2969 and lasted twenty three years. Each federal faction had one or two small fleets in the zone and the Empire had just three of its [[Blue_Giant:The Astræ'an Empire Fleets|twenty one fleets]]; The First Imperial Expeditionary Force in the rim zone, the Grand Imperial Fleet in the Outer zone and the Third Imperial Expeditionary Force in the inner zone. The Empire was slowly winning the war and had taken more than half of sector five. Of all the Federated Territory nations, only SYLA and the Shanshock could afford to keep fielding ships. The war ended because the Empire was also fighting with a race called the Hammerheads in the rim, and another called the puppeteers. Then one battlegroup of the third wing of the Grand Imperial Fleet encountered the Roach homeworld of Bone-ring, tried to conquer it, and was utterly destroyed. Ninty four out of one hundred battlegroups were converged on Bone-ring and were also destroyed. The war in the outer zone was put on hold as three quarters of the entire Grand Imperial Fleet headed towards Bone-ring. To prove a point, the Roaches destroyed three more wings, two attacking the planet and one still two thousand light years away. Finally the 2nd Fleet pulled back. (The roaches lost nearly two dozen individuals, more than had died in the previous million years.) The war in the outer zone collapsed, Federal forces had trouble finding enemies and confusion reigned. The imperial navy kept the reasons for their withdrawal concealed and for several years only rumours existed. The scale of the loss was just too great for people to comprehend.