The initial shots in Selos’ nearly 700-year struggle were fired in August, 2478. Six cargo ships, stopping off in the Polymen system, on their way to Selos 2 were intercepted by a Jelq Navy battle cruiser called Hapton’s Call. The cargo ships were boarded and all cargo confiscated. Things went south from there, very quickly. Selosian frigates, having received intelligence on the location of the battle cruiser executed a hit and run attack in O’Render space and managed to cripple the massive gunship. They did not get away unscathed, however and lost four of their six ships in the effort. War was declared by both sides. For almost six months Jelq and Selos traded blows until reinforcements arrived from the core worlds and the Selosian forces were utterly decimated.

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Things settled down but the people of Selos 2, though defeated in war were far from defeated in spirit. Under the semblance of peace, they began a calculated effort to undermine the Jelq government. For years, while carefully rebuilding their military might, they infiltrated and destabilized the Jelq military.

 

In August, 2493, fifteen years to the day since the beginning of the first war with Jelq, Selos attacked. This time, they had the element of surprise on their side. Their agents within the Jelq Navy managed to render three entire fleets, each holding a destroyer and a dozen or so escort ships, virtually helpless. These fleets, targeted by Selosian warships, were blown out of the sky. It was a major victory for Selos 2, destined to go down in Selosian history as the Battle of Four Winds, named for the single destroyer they lost. It was the worst defeat in Red Sector A military history, but it would be Jelq’s last defeat of this war.

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Before the week was up, six fleets drilled in from throughout the sector, converged on Selos 2 and completely erased every warship and orbital station in the Selos system. Next, the Mandate Infantry, equipped with far more advanced weaponry, dominated the much smaller forces on the surface of Selos 2. From that point, in September of 2493, until June, 2510, Selos 2 was occupied by Terran Mandate forces. The people were brutalized, their economy wiped out and any possible means to wage war was totally eradicated. The 17-year occupation of Selos was a horrible, black stain on the history of the sector, but was only a hint at the atrocities to come.

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Jelq had amassed a military second to none in the sector. They controlled more than a dozen systems and drew on that power to maintain control and impose their vision of power on the rest of Red Sector A. Leading the charge to consolidate power was the House of Mary Church. The Drupka Ista Kera, a strikingly beautiful and imposing woman held the reins as the leaders of 16 worlds met on Jelq 2 years after the defeat of Selos 2, in 2495. Their goal was to ratify a constitution that left no doubt in anyone’s mind where the power would be located. The Selos system was represented by a delegation from Pritus Supalus, the only other habitable world of the Selos system, colonized a hundred years before by expatriate Selosians disillusioned with the struggle.

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When Selos 2 was finally freed from its captivity, the people, never truly defeated, began plotting their revenge. For generations, they toiled, appearing to outsiders as peaceful and obedient. Instead, working in hidden, underground facilities, they re-learned what they’d been forced to forget, studying technology discarded by or stolen from their oppressors. They began building and rebuilding, testing and perfecting new weapons and new ships. By 2590, they were fielding powerful, fast and agile ships, raiding caravans and colonies, and developing a taste for bloodshed.

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In 2665, the Scream ripped through Red Sector A. The initial chaos in its aftermath opened a window of opportunity the leaders of Selos 2 presumed they’d never have again. They launched everything they had at the Sector Navy stationed in Jelq space, laying waste to the Jelq Home Guard fleet. Selosian warriors landed on Jelq, reigning death and destruction on the capital city of Phorus, making their way through the streets, heading for the central complex housing the Court of Justice. It looked to be the end for Jelq, as citizens lay dead in their wake, or ran to escape their fury in what would come to be known as the Battle of Phorus.

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At Selos 2’s hour of triumph victory was torn from their hands in the form of an armada of warships called in from O’Render and Hvelfiham. The sector government would not fall without a fight and the fight left in it was overwhelming. Against the fierce but small Selosian war machine, the combined navies of the sector worlds need but swat a fly. Defeat was swift and crushing for Selos 2. Once their extant navy was destroyed, the bombardment and blockade began. Life on Selos 2 became all but untenable for the entire populous of the defeated world.

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This last defeat at the hands of the unified Sector Navy ended any hope the people of Selos 2 had of living free. It would be over 20 generations before the people of Selos 2 would be able to rebuild any factor of the war machine their ancestors once possessed. This dark age hardened them, fashioning them into a culture of survival. It forged a ruthless, calculating and fierce people, bent on revenge and willing and able to do whatever was necessary to achieve their goals.

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Now, in the 9th century since the first seeds of colonization took root in Red Sector A, Selos is once again moving to free itself from the fetters of tyranny, and though held down by the machine of their enemy, they rise and cut away, bit by bit the shackles that bind them.