Negotiating with the Grand Alliance had proven to be a strategic and pivotal event in our empire’s history. Full-fledged members of the confederation, we stood beside the Tezhnid, Qirus, and Scyldari against those forces which would enslave the galaxy, including the omnipresent Dabbax Reconquerors and their some-times allies, the Oned’Qarak.
The war began with an unprompted, undeserved strike against one of our ally’s planet on the boarder of O’Q space. Sworn to defend one another, our federation’s fleets made all due haste to the battleground, determined to quickly right this wrong and return stability, no matter how uneasy or tenuous, to the galaxy at large.
The Oned’Qarak had the full support of the powerful Dabbax Reconquerors empire, and brought the full of their armadas to bear as our noble fleets entered disputed space. Whole histories of that great interstellar war have been written, and are available elsewhere in this library, but often the social and societal toll such a conflict takes is overlooked.
Maintaining a war, even when part of a beneficent and positive coalition of states, is a costly endeavor, and put our hard-stored mineral reserves on the brink of empty. The council debated whether to restrict citizen rights, to prevent them from consuming so many goods, or whether to subjugate or reject other races from our planets. No solution seemed ideal, particularly for the varied, and often counter-productive, wills of the various political factions that had arisen and solidified over the past two hundred years.
Secondly, war imposes a heavy, if invisible, burden upon the populace. Knowing that fellow Lavans were fighting, and perhaps dying, for the defense of their homeland and its allies depresses morale, reduces productivity, and starts to bleed away the color and vibrancy of life. This was not a short war, as the distances involved meant that engagements could be months or years in the making, and the oppressive weight of continual warfare darkened many of our brightest spirits.
