Hydra System Massacres

The Hydra System Massacres, also referred to as the Hydra Civil War, was a major military conflict fought across the Hydra system from 2467 until 2474. The seven year-long civil war was predominantly fought between the twin worlds of Bomogin and Samarkand in the system, with the United Nations Space Command and Colonial Military Administration playing a secondary role as peacekeepers during later stages of the conflict, alongside various minor factions. The massacres were so-named due to the excess of war crimes committed by the regional actors, with the war proving to be one of the bloodiest since the days of the Interplanetary Wars.

Background
The Hydra system was initially settled by the Reynard Colonial Services Enterprise corporation, as part of the Domus Diaspora of the 24th century. The company was granted large subsidies by the United Earth Government to develop colonial infrastructure across the system, and began to hire Belter labour on multi-year work contracts to construct space-based infrastructure across the system while settlers of Earth and other Inner Colony origin began to settle the planet of Bomogin - the "twin" roche world of Samarkand. Unlike the Belter labour force, the settlers of the Bomogin were direct employees of RCSE, and were granted extensive land rights and benefits on the new worlds in exchange for permanently settling the system with their families.

Throughout the later stages of the 24th century, the Belter Exodus from the Sol system put increased pressure on the Hydra system, as the contract workers began to realise they may not have homes to return to at the end of their work contracts. A series of strikes ensued across the system as the Belter workforce began campaigning for equal treatment as the colonists themselves, raising tensions across the system. Eventually, the Hydra system was caught up in the ongoing Inner Colony Wars, as continuous strikes isolated Bomogin and strained the already fragile colonial infrastructure to breaking point. The collapse of RCSE as an entity shortly thereafter was the final straw, with many colonists wondering now what to do now that their colony contracts were effectively void. Tensions flared, and former-employees and administrators of the RCSE on Bomogin pronounced the Bomogin Republic - using military force to suppress opposition and enforce order on the planet culminating in the establishment of a military-led junta.

In response, many colonists began to leave Bomogin and - in absence of slipspace drive technology - settled the Bomogin twin world Samarkand, founding the Free Samarkand Coalition, welcoming Belter settlers with open arms. The two planets continued to squabble, though both were barely able to survive with the resources they had and thus major conflict was minimal. The revision of the UN Colonial Charter in 2390 saw the institution of the "One World, One Colony" policy in an attempt to reduce intra-colonial conflict in the future. Samarkand was considered, for the purposes of the treaty, a moon of Bomogin and thus legally a part of the Bomogin Republic. Both planets supported the reunification, though disagreements as to how the new governmental entity should work brought up key points; the Samarkans did not wish to be under the heel of the Bomogin junta but instead seen as equals. The Bomogans viewed the Samarkans as rebels who should be brought back into the fold. Further compounding the issue were the Belter populations who majority-operated the system's spaceports and other orbital infrastructure who aligned themselves with the Samarkans, and often refused to provide their services to the Bomogans.

As the years turned into decades, talks of reunification all-but broke down entirely, with the system settling into a stalemate. Bomogin held the larger and more well-developed population and infrastructure alongside the political backing of the UEG, while the Samarkans controlled the system's own space infrastructure - though lacked any meaningful naval forces with which to patrol the system. As such, the outermost regions of the system mostly developed independently and fostered a "lawless frontier" spirit, free of any practical rule by the Twin Worlds or the UEG.

Cold war
As the UNSC-CMA Cold War developed in the middling years of the 25th century, the Hydra system became a site of interest to both the UNSC and the CMA; the system bordered the CMA-held Eta Corvi system and its naval base at Kingston. As such, the UNSC backed the legitimate government on Bomogin and were willing to overlook some crimes committed by the state in exchange for a firm ally in a strategic location. In response, the CMA began to supply munitions and materiel to Samarkan militias, to ensure that the Bomogans would be unable to attack Kingston directly in the event of full-scale war. In 2463, the carrier was intercepted by Bomogin colonial defense forces in a routine supply mission, during which a forced boarding of the carrier revealed a cargo of 11-B1 intercontinental ballistic missiles and Thor-class cruise missiles. The act was decried in the courts of Earth as illegal, with trade sanctions placed on Bomogin for their unlawful seizure of CMA property and personnel. An investigation into the CMA's supply actions was conducted, and ultimately determined that such weapons were permitted for the purposes of self-defence against the system's rampant pirate activity.

The missiles were shortly thereafter returned to the CMA, and promptly installed on Samarkand. In response, the UNSC began to supply the Bomogin colonial navy with arms, selling four old s to the Bomogin navy for the purposes of spacelane control, anti-piracy and orbital defense. Later known as the "Ek Chuaj Incident", this crisis saw the Hydra brush closely with the eruption of conflict between the worlds of Bomogin and Samarkand and represents one of the highest-profile examples of the Hydra system's use as a proxy conflict between the UNSC and CMA.

First massacres: Asaka, Cevennes and
In August 2467, the later-dubbed First Massacre was conducted by the Bomogin colonial navy. Due to lacking sufficient co-operation by most of the outer planets' space stations, the Bomogin navy was often effectively consigned to the region of the inner solar system due to sheer logistical concerns. The acquisition of the four UNSC frigates a few years prior had allowed the Bomogins to become more daring, and a series of naval operations across the system's inner asteroid belt slowly saw Bomogin establish a larger sphere of influence within the solar system. In August, the BRN Isthmia was en route back from a routine patrol when a "gravel canister" - an improvised space weapon consisting of a tube of small pebbles mounted on a chemical rocket - was fired at the Isthmia. The rock barrage caused no major damage, though did penetrate several fuel lines and coolant systems on the frigate. As a result, the Isthmia was left unable to return to its home port, and instead began to travel to the nearest capable dock at the minor planetoid of Asaka. The Isthmia arrived at Asaka and demanded to be allowed to repair and re-fuel as to be able to return home, to the refusal of the Asakan port authority. A standoff emerged, with the Isthmia submitting numerous requests to be permitted to board, while transmitting to command on Bomogin - ultimately culminating in threatening to forcefully board the station and subdue its residents if necessary. Continued aggravation by the Belter administration on the station ultimately resulted in an escalation of tensions, and the firing of two anti-ship missiles at the station itself. The first missile was successfully shot down by the station's point-defence, though the second impacted the interior hangar and causing the destruction of the asteroid as a whole - including the death of the station's 1,300 residents.

The Massacre of Asaka was immediately met with hostilities by stations across the system, including the Samarkans themselves. Over the next few hours, tensions rapidly escalated, culminating in the firing of Samarkand's ICBMs at Bomogin, declaring a new coalition force to destroy the Bomogin military junta and reunite the system as one entity. The Bomogin naval forces stationed between the two planets, along with ground-based mass drivers, were able to intercept the majority of fired missiles, though two were able to hit their targets on Bomogin's surface. The first missile struck the region surrounding the under-construction Bomogin hydroelectric dams which provided a significant portion of the colony's power, while the second hit the city of Cevennes - flattening the vast majority of the urban area in the region. Altogether, the Samarkan attack killed an estimated 134,000 Bomogin citizens, and the destruction of the hydro dam left the colony with rolling blackouts for years following. Nonetheless, Bomogin orbital defenses did successfully intercept seven additional missile attacks, including two missiles aimed at spaceports and military installations. The Bomogin naval forces quickly began a counterattack on the Samarkans, using their frigates to rapidly secure orbital control and using their mass drivers to begin a counter-bombardment of the Samarkan settlements. The Bomogin counter-barrage was less impactful than the Samarkan missile attack, doing relatively light damage to Samarkan cities and infrastructure - and killing around 400.