Calamity War

The last century of human civilization has been defined by catastrophe now known as the Calamity War. A war that engulfed the human sphere for 10 long years and changed humanity for ever.

In the years following the peace signed at the Treaty of Luna the war began being called the Calamity War or simply the Calamity in media, before eventually being accepted as the given name for the great war. The Calamity resulted in the deaths of millions of soldiers and civilians, both as a direct result of the fighting and as a consequence of the massive damage to infrastructure, economics and ecologies of the nations involved. The total damage caused by the war has never been accurately calculated, the cascade effects of the fighting being too complex to be measured. Research made by humanitarian aid organizations and official sources estimate that around 107-135 million people perished, most of them civilians. From all sides of the conflict around 45-60 million soldiers lost their lives in battle, accidents or sickness. Devastating as it is, some more practical historians point out that would it not be for the advent of modern technologies like the and space based warfare the deaths among soldiers (and the total number of deaths as well) would be significantly higher. Instead, civilian populations suffered the worst of the war. Destruction on a massive scale was unleashed as both parts used nuclear weapons, asteroid bombardment and newly developed Mobile Suits to target each others industrial, economic and military command centres, all of witch often lay close to or within major population centres on both Earth and Mars .    

Prelude

In the late 21th century humanity had already settled the major bodies of the inner solar system. Mercury, Venus and Luna all had outposts or fully fledged colonies as well as orbiting space stations. But it was Mars that had advanced the farthest since its first fledging outposts just a few decades before. Mars had, much thanks to it mineral deposits, water and lower gravity grown rapidly to support several cities, colony domes and even the beginnings of a terraforming plan to turn the red planet green. The massive corporations barely restrained on earth had found Mars ripe for exploitation and quickly set out to claim their part of the new territories, many of the cities on Mars had corporate sponsors, without witch they would have likely never been built. As the planets population and economic influence grew, so did their cities grow more interconnected. After generations of expansion, the people of the red planet felt they had more incoming with other Martians than with their Earth based corporations and began lobbying for independence. As tensions rose and negotiations came to a crawl, it was only a matter of time before the newly founded Martian Republic would come to blows with their interstellar neighbours.

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The 10 year war

Pre-war skirmishes

The first battles of the Calamity war were small skirmishes between Earth corporations and Martian Republic militias, unplanned and without authorization from either Martian Senate or UN Security council. Most of these early skirmishes were the results of security controls made by either Martian Militias or UN Security Forces on unwilling corporate convoys that escalated to violence.

The Space War

UN Spacy strike group firing their beam turrets

Historians are still disputing what came first: The long range missile strikes on UN space docks by Martian forces; or the declaration of war made by the UN on the Martian Republic. Whatever the truth the war quickly escalated into full blown war across the entire solar system. Both sides trying to strike decisive blows to the others navy and industrial bases in space whilst dodging the enemies attempts to do the same. In the first 6 years of the conflict, the fighting was mainly contained in space between the planets. With the exception of smaller surgical strikes by special forces neither side was willing to risk landing a military force on the others planet, just the thought of the losses a failed planetary invasion would mean was enough to dissuade any military commander from attempting it.

Instead the navies of Earth and Mars played a solar system sized game of cat and mouse and assaulting only military space stations. For the average civilian, the war blended into the background news of life as the years went on. Civilian space colonies were except from any military operations and both sides agreed to not drag civilians into the conflict. At this time in humanity's expansion into space very few populated space colonies were outside the orbits of Earth and Mars, and so even the people on these stations felt little impact of the war.
 

A new age of warfare

In the 7th year of the war, Martian forces deployed a new type of weapon to the battlefield hoping to size the initiative once more and bring the long years of fighting to a end. These humanoid mechanized war machines were named Mobile Suits and were developed in the utmost secrecy since the first year of the war. The first major action were Mobile Suits were deployed was a raid on UN forces Luna II base, were the manoeuvrability and durability of these new weapons completely outmatched the defences of the UN Spacey. After this complete defeat, the UN forces began a scramble to develop Mobile Suits of their own. Whilst some Earth corporations had been developing similar machines, none had anything close to what the Martian were now fielding; no one except Anaheim Electronics. Anaheim came to the rescue of the UN leadership and offered them access to their latest prototype Mobile Suits and few dared question how they had suddenly gained this technology.
A Martian Zaku Mk II

For 11 intense months the Martian Republic dominated the battlefield and at last had the confidence and superiority to take the fighting to the UN home: Earth. Whilst battles across the Earth raged and the Martians took more and more ground the factories of the UN worked night and day to produce the new wonder weapons designed by Anaheim Electronics. The Martian forces managed to not only gain a foothold, but claim and hold most of Europe, large parts of Africa and Australia as well as the North Pole before the secret weapon of Anaheim could be deployed; the Gundam.
 

The Ground War

Martian Forces first encounter the new Gundam mobile suits when trying to push east from their European front into the middle east. Six Martian Zaku Mk II mobile suits battle against Gundam Awlaan and Gundam Thania in the desert heat of the Jordan valley. The Martian mobile suits are piloted by veterans but are completely outmatched by the new Gundams, four Zaku´s are lost and the other two, badly damaged and with no chance of victory, retreat. This historic event is the first battle between mobile suits and marks a turning point in the war. The UN immediately launch a counter offensive with the few Gundam at their disposal leading the charge. The Martians, arrogant from their success and previous superiority are taken by surprise and loose ground quickly to the UN advance. Anaheim Electronics also supplied the UN with designs for lesser mobile suits, cheaper to build and easier to pilot. These GM-model mobile suits were built in great numbers by the UN and soon the battlefields of Earth are entirely dominated by mobile suit on mobile suit warfare.

While the Martians are being pushed back to their landing bases in Europe and Australia the UN Spacy, now equipped with space capable Gundams, begin strikes on the Martian moons of Demos and Phobos. During these raids the UN discovers Martian plans to launch a final devastating blow towards Earth, completely devastating it and knocking UN out of the war once and for all. The UN admiralty, seeing an excuse to invade Mars and get revenge for their Earth invasion, uses the discovered plans for Martian weapons of mass destruction as an excuse to land troops and mobile suits on Mars. Three Gundams; Pyxis, Gjallarhorn and Azag, supported by hundreds of UN GM mobile suits and thousands of infantry make planetfall on Mars in the 8th year of the war. The invasion force focused their efforts on the Mariner valley where they believed the Martian Republic was producing a new type of super weapon to destroy Earth.  

The Cataclysm

Towards the end of the 9th year of the war the Maritan Republic set in motion their plan to retreat from Earth. The fighting there has lost them to much and their chances to take and hold parts of Earth are lost. The Martian military leadership has without the knowledge of the civilian senate decided on a scorched earth strategy and taken the first step in what will be know as the Cataclysm. In December of DC -0002, in the 9th year of the war and less than a year before it ends, at least 30 million civilians die in an instant as the Martian navy sends four asteroids and a colony station hurtling towards Earth. The rocks hit North America, China and parts of Europe and the Middle-east, whilst the colony strikes southern Australia; all areas of UN military importance and were Martian forces needed to cover their retreat and destroy abandoned assets. The asteroids kill indiscriminately and the worst casualties are among those civilians that happened to live in the area targeted. Vast swaths of land are permanently scared and the earths climate is shaken to its core; changes to weather, earthquakes and tsunamis caused by the asteroids are estimated to have claimed tens of millions of lives around the globe. Martian forces have left the Earth but destroyed what they couldn't claim in the process.
The Mariner Valley in the days after the Cataclysm

The main UN force on Mars, spearheaded by the pilots of Gundam Pyxis and Gundam Azag breach the gates of a large Martian military research facility in the Mariner Valley, hoping to find the Martians secret weapon. When the news of this atrocity reach the UN forces fighting on Mars, despair and rage breaks out among the military like a disease. Whilst the majority of the force retreats in a panic, the pilot of Gundam Azag pushes on in a uncontrolled rage, fighting deeper into the facility. There, they find a weapon of massive destructive potential, but not the one finally used on Earth. The pilot of Gundam Azag takes the weapon, meaning to employ it on the Martian population and take vengeance for Earth. Gundam Pyxis´s pilot, seeing the madness in this, tries to stop them and a duel breaks out between the two Gundam. The pilot of Gundam Pyxis is believed to have been slain in the fighting. Both UN and Martian Generals and Admiralty can only look on in horror as the Mariner Valley is turned into a molten gash in the surface of Mars. Whilst the environmental effects of this second calamity is lessened by Mars weak atmosphere, the immediate destruction focused on the valley is tenfold to that on Earth. All five cities in or on the edge of the Mariner Valley is molten into the rock of Mars, leaving no trace behind. Gundam Azag´s rampage continues for 3 hours, killing both military and civilian, until the weapon prototype and Gundam both suffer critical reactor failures and meltdown, destroying a university and nearby spaceport in a massive thermonuclear explosion.  

The war for peace

Whilst voices speaking for a ceasefire had been heard in the governments and civilians of both parties for years the events of DC -0001 is enough to push even the most fervent pacifists to action to stop the bloodshed. Anti war groups on both sides now begin to conspire to depose or out-manoeuvre the warmongering politicians and generals in their governments.

On Mars, the Senate shut their doors to any military personnel in the days after the impacts on Earth, denying even the supreme commander of the armed forces access to their chambers. When the doors open again, 1/3 of the senate has been arrested by police loyal to speaker of the house, all on charges of treason. To the military, this looks like house cleaning to remove any senators working against their goal of total military victory, it is in fact the opposite. Those senators who could not consider engaging in peace talks with the UN where arrested and locked away, all whilst posing to the military as fervent supporters of the military's cause, all to buy time to begin peace talks behind the military´s back. Many Martian politicians feared the military leadership and rightfully assumed that the military would cease power if they suspected that the senate would try to take their power from them.

In the aftermath of the asteroid and colony strikes on Earth the UN was in complete disarray. Individual nations were scrambling to organize disaster relief for their citizens while at the same time calling for vengeance against the Martians. Whilst the UN representatives argued and begged for both aid and military action, only the UN Spacy could see the full picture. The admirals and captains of the UN space forces had seen first hand the death and destruction the war had caused for the last decade, many of them having been part of the fighting since the start. Some had witnessed the damage to Earth from orbit and been powerless to stop it, others had been above Mars and seen the destructive power of their own forces pointed at innocent civilians. All agreed that the destructive potential of humanity would only grow exponentially from this point and that if the war was allowed to continue the complete extinction of humanity could be the only outcome.
One of the many sites on Luna used for the early peace talks

And so it came to be that in the 10th year of the war two ships, a Martian Republic diplomatic corvette and a UN Spacy battlecruiser meet in low orbit over Luna to begin the first talks of ceasefire in secret from their own nations. The talks proceeded in secret for several weeks, different officials and ships meeting in and around Luna all whilst the UN Spacy focused their efforts on deescalating the conflict without the UN council catching on. At the same time, the Martian Senate dragged down the military machinery of Zeon with budget proposals and bids to re-organize the armed forces, all to slow the military from assaulting Earth once more and escalating the war further.

The hard work of these war-weary individuals on both sides at last payed off, as in November of DC -0001 a cease fire is signed by both sides and announced simultaneously across the solar system. The confusion is great in both UN parliament and Martian military high command, but with the signatures of top leadership off both sides on the armistice and their voices announcing the cease fire on the airwaves most have little choice but to obey and lay down their arms. There were however many who refused, those who had lost to much or invested to much into this war. Some fought guerrilla warfare in the outer edges of the human sphere and the most remote parts of Mars and Earth. Others fought to the death, headless of the orders to stand down. Many commanders were stopped by their own subordinates and crew as they refused the command to fire on their past enemies.

The single largest act of defiance came from the high commander of the Martian military as he assembled a sizeable force of veterans, ships and mobile suits and assaulted the Martian senate building directly in an attempted coup that claimed the lives of 43 senators and 463 soldiers defending the senate. In an act of comradery that would become the very image of the Earth-Mars Federation years later, a force of UN mobile suits lead by Gundam Awlaan descended from their cruisers in orbit and made planetfall on the red planet once more, this time to defend their former enemy´s democracy. Earther and Martian fought side by side against the hardened veterans of the Martian high commander and stopped the attempted coup at the steps to the Senate. A statue of Gundam Awlaan and the Martian commander Titania now marks the site of this momentous battle.

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The Treaty of Luna

When the dust of the ceasefire had finally settled the two side could at last meet in official talks to discuss a lasting peace. With no clear victor on any side, the negotiations are slow but few among the representatives want or can continue fighting. The talks take 6 months and mainly take place in Armstrong City in the historic Sea of Tranquillity on Luna. To those whom had been part of the ceasefire talks from the beginning Luna had become a symbol for peace and hope. In the end the gathered nations of Earth and the Republic of Mars emerge under one new super-state; the Earth-Mars Federation and a new era of humanity is announced to mark the event. The new era along with a new timekeeping is meant to be symbolic and help tie the nations together, this age is named the Dream Century (or DC for short) in honour of that ambition of peace and rebuilding. The timekeeping itself, whilst not mandatory and only planned to be used in formal settings is soon adopted across the solar system as the new calendar for humanity.
Armstrong City, Luna

The peace itself was based on mutual trust and the unspoken understanding that humanity could face extinction should they turn to total war again. As such many of the former nations under the new Federation got to keep their local leadership and laws. Military capacity was severely capped at the local level however and the new Federation where instead the ones responsible for organizing the military forces of humanity. The Federation where to be a representative democracy with member states electing representatives to take part in an Earth-Mars Federation senate. The nations and states in turn where free to select their representatives in any manner they saw fit, as long as they followed certain democratic guidelines.

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The Migration into Space

A typical space colony of the early DC era

In the later years of the war and especially after the Calamity on Earth and Mars, many whom had lived on the planets now no longer felt safe there. Coupled with the strained social and ecological situations on the planets many began to seek refuge in the space colonies that had before the war been relatively empty. The colonies had been built to house ten times the population that they had before the war, but the colonies had a hard time attracting people before the war. But by the end of the war, many were facing overpopulation. More colonies were built and farther away from Earth and Mars. Colonies in the asteroid belt attracted those who had fled from the war and wanted to start anew and communities grew with immigrants from all across the solar system. Many colonies hoped for independence when the ceasefire was announced, but were satisfied with peace, for now. The mass migration into space continued for years after the founding of the Federation, people who´s livelihood had been destroyed during the war leaving to star again were there was opportunities to be found or moving to where their government of corporation needed them.