After 500 years of exploration and conquest, the Sazzarran finally found an equal. The Djoreli Imperium. The fight between them caused other species to rally to both sides, creating the First Galactic War.
The war lasted nearly 30 years, with all species taking massive casualties and collateral damage to their colonies, and even some to their homeworlds. It only ended because the Sazzarrran were starting to lose more soldiers than they could train. They decided to call a truce, and withdraw back to their own corner of the galaxy, yet still managing to control several hundred worlds.
It took the Sazzarran Empire another 200 years before they tried another galactic wide conflict. During that time they built up their planetary defenses on major worlds, and setup well armed and armoured garrisons on all the other minor worlds in their sphere of influence. They also improved on space travel and were able to shift between worlds on well traveled space lanes in a matter of days instead of weeks. They were nearly at the level of the Djoreli in technological advancement.
This time, they used the assistance of the Gorakan Enclave, an alliance of space pirates, to perform raiding parties against common shipping lanes. Specifically, any shipping belonging to any allied worlds to the Djoreli Imperium.
As the Gorakan conducted their usual raids to keep up appearances, the Sazzarran and their closest ally, the Ja'kel, sent out scouting parties of their own to observe enemy colonies on their borders. Once they had enough information on the colonies, they attacked all of them at once. Fifty colonies were wiped out within hours. Another 200 were subjugated within days.
It took the Djoreli a few weeks to get the reports of raids against allied colonies. They sent out scouts to observe the activity and make contact with any survivors. By the time the scouts reported back, another 80 colony worlds were being attacked.
The Djoreli sent out a call to arms to their allies, the Irappa, Wadoran, Troell, and a few other less equipped species. Their fleets were massive, each numbering in the hundreds, as they moved towards the Sazzarran and Ja'kel borders. The Sazzarran and Ja'kel were waiting for them with their own fleets, also numbering several hundred each, and spread across 10,000 light years of space.
As the allied fleets advanced, they sent out Irappan anti-pirate patrols along the shipping routes to thwart the Gorakan raids. Eventually, they were able to protect the cargo ships to their destinations. The Gorakan just moved to other space lanes to harass other cargo ships. It was a game of cat and mouse between the Gorakan pirates and the Irappan patrols.
Meanwhile, the Sazzarran had set up magnetic space mines all around their subjugated worlds. If the Djoreli wanted their allied worlds back they would have to suffer a lot of casualties in getting through. The Djoreli were well versed in military warfare in space and on the ground. They had been exploring space and fighting various species for several hundred years before they met the Sazzarran. However, they knew the reptilian Sazzarran and their canine cousins, the Ja'kel, would bring a vicious fight. They were definitely the best adversaries the Djoreli had faced.
Over a period of weeks, the allied forces bashed into and sometimes through the Sazzarran/Ja'kel defenses, firing plasma torpedoes at the array of magnetic mines orbiting the colony worlds in order to clear a path for the dropships. For some worlds, this method worked, and the allied forces were able to set foot on those colonies, only to find the colonies were obliterated, or were well defended. It was a brutal battle on all fronts, on the ground and in space.
Weeks turned into months, as both sides were reinforced with food, fresh ships, weapons and various equipment. The Sazzarran and Ja'kel were well prepared for this conflict, which would be known as the Second Galactic War.
As the Sazzarran were busy defending their occupied worlds, and keeping the allied forces concentrating on them, the Ja'kel had taken a large fleet thousands of light years away and then back towards the home worlds of the minor allied species, who were less militarized. The intent was to do as much damage to key facilities that would debilitate the allied forces.
By the time the allied forces were told of the sneak attacks on their worlds, some of them broke ranks in the fleets to shift back as quickly as possible to protect what remained. This left the allied fleets a little weaker, which gave the Sazzarran the opportunity to send some skirmish fleets of their own. By the time those fleets arrived at their home worlds and major colony worlds, they saw mass destruction to their shipping yards and mining facilities. The Ja'kel had disappeared to their next target. Eventually, the Ja'kel fleet made its way back to the main battle front,
It was a vicious ship to ship battle, as the Sazzarran managed to penetrate a few of the capital ships with their boarding shuttles, and either take over an allied ship, or scuttle it if it was too damaged. the allied forces were not sitting down, eating popcorn while this was going on either. The ursine Troell were always keen for combat, and were prepared when Sazzarran troops tried to enter their ships. The Sazzarran never had a chance. The Troell cut them down with scything laser beams, plasma axes and sheer willpower.
There was victory and defeat on both sides for the next two years. The Sazzarran would not give up the worlds they had taken without a good fight. They got it in spades, as the allied forces continued to push through to as many worlds as possible. A number of them they had to abandon as they were key worlds with valuable resources and well protected by the Sazzarran and Ja'kel forces.
After four years of raids on their own worlds, as well as trying to regain their worlds at the main battle front, the allied forces badly needed some rest, refit and repair. They called for an armistice. The end result of the Second Galactic War was the Sazzarran managed to maintain control of nearly 100 worlds, while the Ja'kel claimed another 40 for their own. Of the remaining 200 worlds that were involved in the war, 36 of them were wastelands, 90 were no longer populated, and 74 were salvageable with an infrastructure and a sparse population of colonists.
The Sazzarran, although having lost almost half of their fleet and ground forces, were still going strong defending their occupied worlds. They would rebuild those worlds, and continue to expand further into the corners of the galaxy not yet explored. One such route would eventually take them to a blue marble of a world in a yellow star system.
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