Interplanetary Wars

A project page on everything related to the Interplanetary Wars and related conflicts in the 2100s. May be used as a dump for info yet to be added to proper pages. As this is a project page, all information here is still in flux.

Related pages:
 * Human history
 * ZGene

Name
Some historians use the contemporary "Interplanetary War" to refer specifically to the conflict fought between 2164 and 2170, though most interpretations use the plural Interplanetary Wars to describe the entirety of the conflicts taking place roughly between 2150 and 2170.

Context and causes

 * Overpopulation, food shortages and an environmental crisis on Earth. Rising sea levels lead to mass migrations and/or the necessity for vast seawall projects. Many coastal cities become uninhabitable. Massive population migrations across the globe as well as off-world. Out on the colonies, megacorporations hire migrants in search of a better future for cheap labor. In many places, working conditions and worker rights are abysmal.


 * Crisis of identity; rift between old national identities, contrasted with new common Earther identity vs. Martian, Lunar, Jovian ones + emerging sub-indentities on the colonies (generational divides of settlers on rapidly-changing colonies, divides between those descended from the original colonists vs. newer migrants, etc). Existential off-world threat unified most nations on Earth as a front; Earther/UN identity and Earth patriotism was born out of a necessity to safeguard common interests during the IPWs.


 * Colonist worldviews and values are shaped by the realities of extraterrestrial life: the harsh pioneer conditions give rise to tough, utilitarian mindsets, regimented societies, and large families. Many of the values and societal arrangements once taken for granted on Earth are reassessed and reimagined. Even as colonist societies progress past the pioneer stage and standards of living improve in the larger colonies, the pioneer midset and the values established in the early period stick.


 * Earth's reach exceeds its grasp: the squabbling, divided nations on Earth and an ineffectual, increasingly polarizing UN trying to keep them together are unable to manage problems on their off-world colonies, or prevent the rise of extremist movements. By the mid-22nd century, many colonies have declared themselves independent and are under the control of various extremist ideologies.

Theaters

 * Mercury (minor skirmishes)
 * Earth & Luna + various orbital/Lagrange point habitats
 * Mars (+prominent port stations on Phobos & Deimos)
 * Numerous colonies in the Asteroid Belt
 * Ceres
 * Jupiter / Jovian Moons
 * Europa
 * Ganymede
 * Io
 * Callisto
 * Various lesser moons and orbital stations/habitats
 * Saturn (later in the war)
 * Titan
 * Various lesser moons

Timeline

 * Early 2100s: NATO first establishes the early iterations of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, then known as Drop Jet Jumpers. (There are many differences in doctrine and deployment methodology dictated by the technology of the time, but the traditions later port over to the UNSC)


 * Prior to the IPW, there is a long "gray phase" of unrest and economic downturn lasting a couple of decades (c. 2140-2160), largely precipitated by the ZGene fiasco. With Earth largely dealing with internal issues at the same time, there is a wave of colonies declaring themselves independent. Even as extremist political groups take power in many places on Luna, Mars, around Jupiter and in the Asteroid Belt, Earth nations are hesitant to involve themselves directly. Meanwhile, both Earther and colonial governments and corporations began to fight proxy wars with PMCs and privateers.


 * 2147: Successful Koslovic uprisings on two asteroid mining outposts embolden further rebellions across the system over the next years.


 * 2160-2161: The Jovian Moons Campaign. A massacre of United Nations colonial advisors by Frieden death squads on Io lead to three months of fighting between Earther military forces and the Frieden, with the latter gaining the upper hand. A multinational UN task force follows several months after to reinforce the decimated Earth forces, with limited success. This marks one of the bloodiest conflicts on the colonies so far and results in a relative stalemate, leaving the Frieden movement in uncontested control of some of the colonies on Io, Europa and Ganymede. The campaign escalates tensions in the system, and sparks various offworld proxy wars between colonies sponsored by Earth nations. This in turn leads to political and eventually military conflict on Earth.


 * 2162:
 * February: The Rainforest Wars begin as various political movements and national governments clash over ideological differences in South America, while the UN attempts to manage the crisis with limited success. This sparks further conflicts off-world and leads to a considerable civilian death toll and ecological devastation. While the focal point of the fighting is in South America, there are conflicts across the globe. These conflicts are very muddy (politically and literally), and exacerbate Earth's existing problems.
 * Brazil specifically (or potentially a coalition of South American states) was attempting to turn large swathes of the Amazon Rainforest into farmland. Its government may have sided with dissident movements, or was simply acting on its own.


 * 2163:
 * May: The United Nations issues an emergency resolution establishing the United Nations Space Command. All space-borne national military forces are subordinated to the UNSC for the duration of the ongoing crisis.
 * December: The Mars Campaign: A large task force deployed by the UNSC arrives at Mars, launching blitzkrieg-style attacks on Koslovics at the Argyre Planitia industrial sprawl. This marks the first major off-world deployment of space-borne marines, informs future military doctrine considerably, and proves the effectiveness of the UNSC as a jointly-led organization.


 * 2164:
 * The Rainforest Wars have largely subsided, though minor actions continue on Earth.
 * The success of the Mars Campaign spurs a UNSC propaganda campaign and military buildup on Earth, with increasing resources now funneled to the UNSC. This is effectively the birth of the Earth-based patriotism that would shape much of the UNSC's and UEG's cultural character. The UNSC begins a systematic drive to crush the remaining Koslovic and Frieden strongholds across the system. Space warfare technology and tactics advance at an unprecedented pace.
 * The Battle of Delambre on Luna sees the Frieden movement effectively eliminated on the Moon; it also marks one of the first signs of the Frieden movement's splintering.


 * 2166: The Mars Campaign concludes after two full years, ending with the eradication of all Martian Koslovic opposition. The conflict continues in various habitats of the Asteroid Belt as well as further out-system.


 * 2169: By this point, the Frieden movement is effectively dead; most supporters have either gone to hiding or turned coat.


 * 2170: The last holdouts of the Koslovic movement are eliminated near Saturn and within the Asteroid Belt, and the surviving members are apprehended. With the Callisto Treaty, the UNSC is given complete military jurisdiction over the off-world colonies. The war has left significant swathes of Earth and the colonies devastated, and there are widespread famines and population displacements. To tackle these problems, as well as to address various issues inherent to the organization, the UN is reorganized into the United Earth Government, with the UNSC folded in as its military arm.

Unassigned/planned events

 * POSSIBLE: Asteroid/orbital attack(s) on Earth, likely perpetrated by the Frieden - New York City is a likely target due to UN Headquarters, though attacks elsewhere are possible (this would be circa early 2163). This may galvanize most of Earth's nations to band together, and justify the UN's emergency resolution forming the UNSC. OR it happens later on in the war and further galvanizes Earth/removes sympathy for dissidents.


 * Liberation of Rio de Janeiro (part of the Rainforest Wars, pivotal battle)


 * The Ceres Incursion (UN assault on Ceres, partly or wholly under dissident control)


 * The Siege of Europa (by the UN; this is part of later engagements in the Jovian system, circa 2166-67?)


 * Battles with the Frieden on Titan/around Saturn (2166-69?)

Earth and the United Nations
By the first half of the 22nd century, the UN had assumed an active role in managing various crises on Earth, including overpopulation, an ongoing climate crisis and consequent conflicts, as well as overseeing off-world colonial development across the Sol system. This development had prompted the organization to become increasingly involved in individual nations' affairs. Since some nations were more eager to push this "United Earth project", seen by many as a development toward a global federation, it created rifts within the organization which in turn spurred reforms that made the UN more decisive, and its resolutions more binding on the member states. (By this point, the UN may also have established a parliament as a more effective deliberative assembly - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Parliamentary_Assembly)

Meanwhile, many off-world groups saw the organization as ineffectual or corrupt; corporations seeking autonomy from Earth authority resented the regulations and oversight it imposed on bio- and nanotechnologies, while a disgruntled laborer class that had built up on the rapidly growing industrial hub of Mars and various Asteroid Belt outposts considered the UN to be a symbol of Earther oppression and bureaucratic bloat that turned a blind eye to their oft-squalid conditions, or the excesses of the megacorporations responsible for those conditions; the UN either was not doing enough, or was doing too much.

The UEG's formation was both the culmination of a decades-old "United Earth project", and a long-overdue reform of the UN, with the UEG formed both as a continuation of the UN's ideals and out of seeming necessity in the face of the fallout of the war.

Earth geopolitics/factionalism

 * Note: the UN is increasingly divisive around this period, and some countries will either break off or not participate in the UNSC/UEG project; this is also one of the causes of the Rainforest Wars.


 * URNA, UK and possibly EU (collectively as NATO) closely involved with UN peacekeeping operations in the buildup and eventually the formation of the UNSC, which leads to the UNSC drawing largely from Western (and specifically URNA/NATO) traditions, though various other countries are involved from early on (e.g. Australia + others, Korea, India?)


 * NATO-China war in the 2080s-2090s; fought partly or wholly in Africa over the continent's resources and strategic sites. Took the form of a cold war for several decades, and eventually escalated to a limited nuclear exchange. This leads to the construction of Crow's Nest and components of an anti-orbital missile-defense system in East Africa (the latter bit could also happen later, but is part of the same thread of development)
 * The East African Federation, having sided with the Western powers, undergoes notable development around this time, which later spurs its development to a major power in the next century
 * China potentially enters relative downturn after this, at least in the global stage, and may undergo a political reform. If they remain communist, they could potentially sponsor Koslovic-run colonies, at least initially. In any case, the fact it doesn't contribute much to the traditions of the UNSC indicates it either wasn't involved, or did not join until later.


 * Other wars and geopolitics-shaking conflicts in the late 21st/early 22nd centuries? Note: all need not be dated exactly.
 * Status of Russia? Had some space colonies (on Mars and elsewhere?), but was not quite as notable by the IPW to shape UNSC doctrine (or was on the losing side)


 * Korean reunification at some unspecified point in history


 * At least one American civil war, though not known by that name (to do: name the war & establish roughly what it was about and when), as well as the unification of the "political remnants" of the US, Mexico and Canada into URNA (this may or may not be related to the civil war).
 * This is reflective of a general trend toward larger regional federations on Earth in order to more effectively guard their interests in space colonization.


 * Africa is the most populated continent by 2100, but while its nations (e.g. East African Federation) are economically large, they may be dealing with internal issues.

UNSC
The early UNSC is an emergency force created in 2163 to deal with offworld unrest and threats to Earth; does not command Earth-based planetary forces until later. The UNSC is at first national spaceborne forces subordinated to a UN command (hence "Space Command"); membership was not optional for space forces, though planetside forces on Earth remained under the control of their respective nations. However, as the UNSC began to pick up momentum, starting in 2164 with the success of the Mars Campaign, more nations began to commit their forces to the joint effort.

UNSC branches only come about during the war in the buildup starting in 2164, when the UNSC begins to amass actual forces of its own. The UNICOM-NAVCOM divide may also come about at this time.

Notably, the UN's Earth-based elements were not under the UNSC's command until late into the war, and by then much of the fighting in the Rainforest Wars had already abated.


 * The "United Earth Space Corps" fits into all this somehow.

Koslovics
The Koslovics had activity throughout the system, but on Mars they became the most organized and prominent, even establishing a government and taking over several of the Earth corporations' operations there. Near Jupiter, Koslovic rebels were also prominent enough to make various Jovian-based corporations back the Frieden to get rid of them.

Vladimir Koslov was a second-generation Martian colonist who lived through a rapidly-changing Martian society. His work was emblematic of the zeitgeist of the early 22nd century, wherein old ideologies which had failed on Earth were being reevaluated and updated for the space age; more specifically, Koslov and his circle presented the thesis that, with the technological and social advances of the past century, Communism was finally not only viable, but inevitable, due to a rising juxtaposition between an underprivileged underclass and the exploitative practices of various Terran and Martian corporations, which their respective governments either failed to, or were unwilling to, regulate.

Koslov's leadership spurred major advances on Mars, and influenced much of the cultural character of the colonies along the Argyre Planitia and (?). The success of the Koslovics on Mars inspired dissident movements across the system, though none were as prominent as the Martian Koslovic state. Koslovic Mars was a full-fledged state and even sponsored off-planed rebellions; but didn't control the whole planet; there were several blocs. There was a sizable pro-UN population as well as independence movements unconnected to the Koslovic ideology. The Koslovics were just the loudest and attained most strength, with many unrelated groups eventually allying with them as their best hope for independence.


 * Prominent leaders:
 * Vladimir Koslov (more statesman than revolutionary, largely let others do his dirty work - was also fairly old by the IPWs and hardly participated in the action)
 * Others (Chinese, Hispanic names + others -> what was the ethnic makeup of the colonies on Mars, Luna, et al?)

Frieden
Note: "Frieden" is meant to be both singular and collective plural, though there is some ambiguity into this even in-universe.

Authoritarian and corporatist movement which campaigned for self-rule and self-sufficiency for the Jovian colonies and later other outposts on their own terms.

There were various Frieden cells on various colonies - insular but unified in basic ideas. While Ganymede and Europa were their hotspots and main power base, the Friedens did inspire movements on Mars and the Asteroid Belt, and at their height seeded the first (later failed) colonies around Saturn (where the last remnants of the movement also retreated for their final stand). The Jovian Autarky, the Frieden's most notable bastion, was an authoritarian police state with corporate interests fueling the militarization of their policing forces as much as ideological ones.

Major factors that led to the rise of the Frieden movement:
 * The decline (and in many places death) of nation-states and the breakdown of national identity, combined the rootlessness of many colonial populations. Youth longed for an imagined past home, wanting desperately to identify with something. It was a paradox, beginning with idealized Earth roots, then turned into a patricidal rage against the decadent and culturally dead Earth.
 * The Zgene crisis and the economic downturn it caused is what elevated them into popularity; the UN's response was seen as insufficient, even dismissive of the colonists' plight.
 * Koslovic (and misc. insurgent) violence, Earth nations' off-world proxy wars, economic downturn and rampant crime; the Frieden presented an alternative in the form of rigid societal regimentation and the creation of paramilitary death squads to combat the Koslovics or suspected sympathizers

The Frieden's ideology was heavily founded on expansionism within (and eventually without) the Jovian colonies, and the base ideology contained the tenet of a Jovian unification (which took different forms elsewhere, but retained a similarly bellicose and expansionist core theme). The Frieden were always seen as extremists, but managed to present themselves as a more tolerable alternative to the Koslovics in the eyes of Earth corporations, and even the (largely EU-based) national governments that sponsored colonies on Ganymede, Europa and the entire Jovian system. It was only after they rose to preeminence that they openly severed ties with Earth and called for an end to UN power; unofficially, even then, they retained sympathizers on Earth among those who opposed both the Koslovics and the UN's United Earth project. Still, the warning signs went ignored for decades. The Frieden ideology overtook various Jovian governments and they banded together, annexing nearby colonies in the process. Their Earther parent states were too weak to resist, or they too benefited from the Frieden indirectly; some of the corporations operating near Jupiter had much influence in the highest levels of the colonizing states' governments, which may have partly explained the mellow response to the Frieden's rise to power.

Friedenist society was heavily regimented amongst a rigid division of roles, and promoted idolization of the state over the individual. Labor unions were syndicalized under a select few institutions which functioned almost like a caste system; these institutions were in truth highly government- (and thereby corporate) controlled. Several major companies were government-linked, though the Jovian economy never fully transitioned to a state-controlled one -- which also ensured the companies could back off and eventually sounded the death knell of the movement.

In the end, the Frieden movement splintered from within. It was mainly the corporations that used to back them withdrawing from their arrangement as defeat began to seem more and more likely and suing for peace with the UNSC that effectively killed the movement, leaving only the most extreme hardliners. Reformist elements within the Jovian Autarky ended up signing the Callisto Treaty with the nascent UEG, and by then the roughest edges of the Frieden ideology had been all but eradicated. Still, vestiges of the movement lingered on for the better part of a century.


 * Prominent leaders:
 * Nadja Mielke (Jovian Autarky), assassinated in 2163 by Koslovics


 * Frieden at their height control the major colonies on Europa, Ganymede and the space around Jupiter, as well as resource outposts in the asteroid belt and around Saturn


 * The Jovians' special shock troops - (NAME) - became associated with the Frieden; highly trained since their early teens and later even childhood, they were widely feared due to their fanaticism and aggressiveness.

Others

 * Minor polities on offworld colonies (planets, moons, asteroids and space habitats)
 * Non-UN-aligned Earth nations, misc. rogue states
 * Extremist political movements independent of the Frieden or Koslovics
 * Mercenary/PMC groups

Technology
Human tech in this era is much more "grounded" and closer to the modern day than what we later see — notably, even the few "exotic" technologies the 26th-century UNSC has are absent, like gravity manipulation or forcefields (not even the atmospheric shields depicted in Halo Mythos' IPW spread illustration). Interfaces are tactile and holograms are scarce and only seen in physically enclosed tanks filled with a reflecting gas medium.

The lack of FTL communications means there is always a "light lag" present in interplanetary communications, which is noticeable even from Earth to the Moon. Coupled with weeks or months-long travel times, this makes the colonies (particularly those in the Outer System) very isolated indeed. It also means the defenders will know when an attack is coming well in advance, and gives them time to prepare.

Infantry were often forced to fight in vacuum or near-vacuum environments, or habitats with a constant risk of depressurization, which prompted the use of bulky vacuum-enabled combat suits; vacuum combat gear was one of the technologies to advance most rapidly during the wars, with suits and weapons used in the early years becoming antiquated by the end.

Ship design and aesthetics
The spacecraft used during the Interplanetary Wars were still a long way away from those of the 26th century. Not only had ship classes not yet solidified to the system we're familiar with, but they were also far more technologically crude.

Spacecraft design was heavily dictated by functionality, even more so than in the 26th century; ships were essentially constructed from a fixed set of modules whose functions were externally visible: fuel tanks, engines, radiators, sensor packages, weapon systems and ammo magazines, etc. Major distinctions include the lack of fusion reactors or hyper-efficient fusion drives, which means large and cumbersome fuel storage; there are no hull-embedded heat radiator mechanisms, so radiators are likewise large and vulnerable; and there is no paragravity, so artificial gravity is either achieved by thrust and/or rotating carousel sections, meaning that ships' decks are arranged perpendicular to the main thrust axis, rather than parallel to it as on later vessels.

Moreover, ships are painfully slow compared to the 26th century, taking weeks or months to cross interplanetary distances.

The wars saw a lot of technological development, with early-war vessels becoming obsolete within a period of a few years.