Polaris Gateway
Polaris was the smallest planet in the Terminist System. Its army could barely field a million soldiers, and its navy only fielded thirty ships. Still, it was one of the most respected militaries in the galaxy. The reason, Polaris was one of the most technologically advanced planets in the known galaxy. Arguably their greatest achievement is the Polaris Gateway.
The Polaris Gateways are space stations that were created using a power source that yielded nearly endless amounts of energy. The power is used to create a gateway between two points in space. The Gateway would open, and the transport would pass through and would arrive several systems away at a different Polaris Gateway.
Polaris had always been an exporter of some of the most devastating technologies in the universe. When they came out with the Polaris Gateway, the businesses used it to get their supplies around the universe. Militaries asked to pass through the gate, but the Polaris didn't want their Gateways used to invade other systems.
A few decades passed, the planet of Polaris became wealthy. Though tensions over the utilization of the Gateways grew as the Polaris government never allowed the use of military units for transferring through the gate. When a smaller empire attacked hoping to take the Gateway, they found the planet of Polaris was more than just technology creators.
Polaris sent one ship to battle against a hundred. The ship returned an hour later after defeating the entire army. Polaris ships had specially developed armor. The other empire's ships shot the Polaris ship, but their attacks just bounced off. The ship also had a specialized bullet, they would fire and would instantly destroy any non-organic matter. No one could ever attack the Polaris army without taking heavy losses. That soon changed.
The Perside Empire formed in the Terminist System. The great power grew and looked to challenge Polaris for the use of the Gateways. Polaris refused and told them to attack. When they didn't know was the Perside Empire had one of the strongest navies in the galaxy. Only the Zeke Empire and Negallen Navy were even comparable.
Perside were capable of cloaking their ships in a way that even Polaris Technology couldn't see them. The Polaris got an alert that their closest Gateway was under attack by Perside ships. They opened the Gateway and sent one of their ships through, but when they looked for the attacking ship, they found nothing.
Perside Empire flew through the Gateway as the Perside ship traveled to the attack. The Perside ships docked and offloaded three brigades of soldiers into the space station. They stayed quiet and took the station with a minimum amount of fighting. From there, the Polaris Army took samples of the armor the Polaris Army used and augmented their weapons to penetrate it.
The armor was penetrated, their navies could no longer target the Perside ships. Their fleet was destroyed, their home planet was taken, and the balance of power in the region was shifted. That was something the Negallen Empire could not allow. When Polaris was taken, the Negallen Empire sent a declaration of war.
The Polaris Gateways were an invention like none other. Usually to maintain an empire you would have to build full militaries in every solar system you conquered. The larger the empire, the larger, the harder it was to maintain control over all parts. When the Polaris Gateways were built, it was possible to transfer one armada from one system to another.
The Negallen military was known for having one of the strongest naval forces. The Perside's stealth technology was closing the gap, but in a straight fight, Negallen ships would still win. After taking the Polaris Gateways, Negallen military knew the Perside Navy had a large advantage in a full-scale war.
The Negallen military stationed troops around the Polaris Gateways. Not knowing if they could trust anything from the Terminus System, trade was shut down. Since the gateway was a two-way link, the Negallen military alerted that if a portal from the Terminus system opened, they would fire and destroy the gateway regardless of who was coming. It was six months before the Negallen Navy could get ships to Terminus the old way, but when they did they quickly retook one of the ports and was able to reconnect with the Negallen military.
The war between the Negallen Empire and Perside Empire lasted only a year. Perside was holding the Negallen military off fairly well but then lost Polaris. With Polaris held, the Negallen military could shut down the Perside Gateways, and turned the war into a ship to ship contest. After that, it was only a month before the Negallen Naval command cracked the Perside stealth tech. The Perside Empire surrendered all their territory when their flagship was taken out by a small cruiser.
The Negallen military was now questioned by some of the larger militaries on the use of the portals. Many Polaris Gateways were created, and they stretched everywhere. The largest and most feared empire, Zeke Empire, was brought to help with the discussion.
The Zeke Empire was larger than the other six major empires combined and had a military might to hold all that territory. What was not well known was there was a system of planets just outside of the Zeke Empire that had people able to manipulate energy. The two were caught in a stalemate and were unwilling and unable to break it. The other six empires helped them by keeping raiders and pirates from trying anything within their borders. They already had ships that were capable of moving just as the Polaris Gateways allowed, but the discussion between the other empires moved farther and father to war.
The Zeke Empire created a treaty that helped the situation. The Polaris people get their independence, along with the Polaris Gateways. If the Gateways were attacked, all six empires responded. The Polaris government would allow the gateways to be used for military purposes, but any military that moved into a territory, not theirs was an act of war. The areas around the Gateways were considered Zeke territory. If one of the signers attacked, the Zeke would respond.
This treaty didn't pacify every concern, but all empires signed and the universe was in a relative state of peace. Worries began though. The Zeke were an empire larger than all others combined, with the Gateways under their protection it wouldn't be difficult for the Zeke to apply pressure to the other empires. This led to the creations of the Allies, and Federation.
The Allies were three empires known as Negallen, Crushain, and Scyther. The Negallen brought one of the most adaptive militaries and a strong navy to the group. The Crushain was an empire built on slave labor and physical strength. Their warriors were strong and brutal, only two other civilizations come close to matching, The Bali, and the Tammerians. The Scyther was a technology based society. They had one of the most advanced militaries.
The Federation was a combination of Conclave, Brutan, and Aklan empires. The Conclave was a group that specialized in mechanized warfare. The Brutan had one of the most well-trained militaries. Aklan was considered one of the largest populated empires in the galaxy.
While these groups knew they could never challenge the Zeke Empire and take territory. Together they knew they could defend one another. As it turned out, these alliances were a bad idea.
The Conclave and Scyther militaries both invaded the same planet. They landed at the same time and took half the world before either side knew the other was there. The two empires spoke, and talks went on for six months. While the politicians got nowhere, the Scyther and Conclave militaries talked to their alliances. The allies said they would support the treaty if a war was declared, and the Federation would support Conclave if the Allies declared war. Six months after the Zeke treats were signed, the Seven Empires War began.
The Seven Empire War grew more and more as the years ticked on. The Negallen Empire feared the Gateways were the only way to secure their empire while they performed a duel attack against the Conclave. The use of the Gateways became more and more Polaris great tired with the war. While the Gateways were protected, it was more known that the planet was not. Negallen Military knew about threats and made a deal of protection for the planet.
The order of protection was simple. Polaris would maintain their independence. The technology they developed would be used by the Negallen Empire. The use of the Gateways could never be interrupted. The Negallen military could now protect their entire empire.
During the Seven Empires War, a hundred civilizations came in and out of existence. Of the main participants, only two empires collapsed. Scyther fell to political strife within their empire. Conclave had to reconceive their military, their robotic military was good against one empire, but the combined assault from three left them outmatched. Also, both empires were still recovering from attacks on a planet called Rise.
While the war raged, pirates and raiders operated with impunity. Many pirates were paid to raid shipping routes of other nations. Raiders managed to conquer and control a group of space and created areas known as Raider Space. Five years into the war. A group of pirate came together and declared the Serpent King, their leader. He raided anything in his path. Soon this brought both raiders and pirates to the Gateways.
The Zeke Empire felt the effects of the war. Colonels on the outskirts of their territories got raided, protection of the Gateways was beginning to be a problem. The Zeke Empire had a long list of weapons no empire knew about. They teleported one small ship into orbit and fired a beam that ignited the atmosphere. They sent a message after "This is done." Ten years after the first shot the Seven Empires War ended.
In the negotiations, the Zeke gave control of the Gateways over to whatever empire controlled the territory. The protection pack remained between the Negallen Empire and the planet Polaris. No other conflicts occurred because of the Gateway.
