Stoinian-Velutarian War 

Date	February 3rd 1584 PD - October 15th 1600 PD Ceremoniously May 9th 1600 PD with the Butchering of Velutaria
Loctaion	Southern section of A1-0, Stoinian Star Kingdom
Outcome	Pyrrhic Stoinian victory Hundreds of glassed Stoinian colonies Over half of Stoinian population exterminated Collapse of Velutarian Technocracy Butchering of Velutaria Extermination of Velutarians
Belligerents	-
Stoinian Star Kingdom	Velutarian Technocracy
Forces	-
Stoinian Armed Forces	Velutarian Armed Forces
Casualties	-
Millions of Stoinian naval warships Approximately 8.7 trillion Stoinian Terrans in total	Presumably entire Velutarian species, approximatley 20 billion Velutarians

The Stoinian-Velutarian War, more commonly known as the Velutarian War, was a conflict that began roughly 40 years ago and lasted for 16 T-years. It is the most bloodiest war in Stoinian history and is responsible for the current reforms which gave the military significant power that still lasts to this day. 

The war was instigated when Velutarian ship destroyed the Royal escort of King Alexandru III who tried to initiate contact with them. The Stoinians retaliated, but were quickly pushed back and thus began the Velutarians' push towards the Stoinian worlds. Over the next two decades, the Velutarian Technocracy vastly overpowered the Stoinians through technology and quickly made a footmark within Stoinian territory. The first six years were near constant defeat for the Stoinians as many of their colonies fell. Although a few naval victories were achieved by the Stoinians, they were nearly always pyrrhic. The secret Spartan-II's were instrumental in holding off Velutarian attacks. It was not before 1590 PD, when the Spartans-III came into the fight, that the Stoinians began to win battles against the Velutarians. Although heavy cooperation from the Spartans was required in such victories.

Background
The Stoinian Star Kingdom was in a new era of expansion lead by the new monarch Alexandru III, who made it the goal of the Stoinian Star Kingdom to solidify its hold on the sector through further colonization. Stoinia hadn't inaugurated new colonies in the last 30 years and expansion for new resources was desirable. However when King Alexandru visited a colony candidate, they were met with a Velutarian vessel. Contact was initiated by the Stoinians, but no answer came. Alexandru then set pursuit to find a way to communicate with them, however this lead to the destruction of his ship. The survivors came back with the horrible news and Stoinia was in turmoil.
The government declared a situation of war and set pursuit to the Velutarians by popular demand. However, the military under civilian command proved a disaster as officers and officials clashed against the technologically superior Velutarians. It was in this time of crisis that Grand Marshal Anson MacArthur demanded a military take over to lead the campaign with no civilian interference. With each loss, MacArthur's support grew and as he further clashed with Chancellor O'Connell a civil war seemed imminent. Now the Velutarians had also began bombarding plants with plasma beams, referred to as glassing, the situation was dire. For that reason the Royal Court instituted MacArthur as the Regent for the young King Andrei III, as a military leader was needed. So began MacArthur's rule with the mandate to fight the Velutarians.

The War
Early Battles
The first year of the war was known by near constant defeat on the Stoinian side. Stoinian naval forces almost always retreated unless they protected civilians while evacuating. It is often said that the first year was the year of the massacres. However when MacArthur took control, initial tactics didn't change much, except for the reckless attack against the Velutarians. MacArthur focused on keeping the Navy alive to fight another day. Meanwhile he consulted his officers for formulating a working strategy to halt the Velutarian advance.

Spartans
When MacArthur became Regent, ONI's Beta-5 Division approached him. They had engaged in making super soldiers in the infamous SPARTAN Program by decree of the late Iulian IV. They were designed to be the next generation of soldiers. They single handily were responsible on halting the Velutarian advance on colonies. They were mostly used for the most high risk operations, but were often seen helping the Royal Army as well. Even though their origin was shrouded in mystery at the time, many Stoinians welcomed them without questions. The initial 300 Spartan-II's were sparsely used and were rare to be seen on the battlefield. 
However the Spartans became more active in 1590 PD when the Spartan-III's were also deployed and the Velutarian advance was heavily halted due to the new amount of Spartan-III's. Although the Spartan-III's were used more expendably, they helped tremendously in the survival of the Stoinian Star Kingdom. Because of this, the Spartans gained near mythological status for their efforts and commonly referred within the Stoinian Star Kingdom as Mankind's best soldiers.

Operation Lionshield
In order to halter the Velutarian advance, MacArthur and his officers formulated a strategy to increase Stoinian survival. One of the more famous strategy is the mysterious Cole Protocol that still holds to this day. Naval forces rarely engaged the Velutarian ships, instead opting to live to fight another day. The Stoinians had a fighting chance on the ground and that's where MacArthur's strategy focused on. Massive planetary shield were rushed to the colonies to force the Velutarians on the ground. On the ground, the Stoinians fought off the Velutarians as long as they could.
Another method was the use of the new ODST Program. These elite Orbital Drop Shock Troops were dropped from orbit and brought havoc behind Velutarian lines. It wasn't uncommon for Stoinian ships to enter a planet's orbit and drop their ODST's and then leave the system. By this means the Stoinians kept reinforcing their troops on the ground.
Meanwhile research division focused on reverse-engineering any Velutarian technology they could get their hands on. Different contingencies such as the Infinity Program were designed to keep Mankind alive when all else had failed. One of the new inventions were the Magnetically Accelerated Cannons which were used against the Velutarians after the turning point in the war.
All these combined lasted for 13 years when the Velutarians continued their push against the Stoinians. However this would come to an end at the Battle of Triton, commonly called the Battle of the Line. Here, High Admiral Douglas William Hague, repelled the Velutarian advance towards Stoinia with the new warships. From then on the Stoinians started their offensives and gained back their lost colonies. For this reason the Battle of the Line is considered the turning point of the Stoinian-Velutarian War.

MacArthur's internal policies
MacArthur's rule was mostly focused on maintaining the fight. For this reason resources needed to have a steady income, but not all colonies could hold up and some had strikes. For this reason MacArthur appointed the newly created Legates as military governors on planets. While the navy retreated they experimented with new compact mining operations as to not be solely dependent on the civilian populace. Same was true for production, although many Stoinians switched jobs to sustain the war effort, military engineers were tasked in making automated factories which could be dropped on multiple inhospitable environments. This created the new doctrine of Stoinian vessel becoming completely self sufficient. Crews were halved to holster as many ships as possible to increase succes, earning space for other facilities.
MacArthur also used the Spartans as a propaganda weapon to keep morale up and maintain the fighting spirit. Not only on the Spartans, but on the many heroes of the war as well. Like High Admiral Cole and Hague. However the true hero is a Spartan-II, identified as John S-117, commonly referred to as Master Chief. In effect, Master Chief was the poster boy of the Stoinians.
Every planet received on their turn planetary generators and bunkers were improvesd to hold out as long as possible. Many young men joined the war effort, although not commended by MacArthur, it was common to see 16 or 17 year olds in the Army.
In effect MacArthur's rule was a military dictatorship as no democratic elections were held. It was deemed a distraction for the on going war. Regardless, many Stoinians cheered MacArthur's rule. Many civilian politicians from before the war were sceptical of MacArthur's move, but they had lost the faith of the populace.

Operation Lion's Wrath
With the victory at the Battle of the Line near Triton, where High Admiral Douglas William Hague defeated the Velutarian march towards Stoinian core territory, the Stoinians shifted tactics. They were now a matching force for the Velutarians and could finally begin with the long push to liberate the colonies. The fight the Navy so desperately awaited had come and with it, obliterated the Velutarian Navy.
The culmination of new Stoinian tech were the new superdreadnoughts designed by Admiral Jean-Luc Covrousier. With these superdreadnoughts the Stoinians could punch through the largest Velutarian ships and no fleet would be able to stand in their way.
 
 

• Death of King Alexandru III
  
• Outer colonies in the Tozoria Sector are attacked by Velutarian forces, thus beginning the Outer Colonies Massacre
  
• O'Connell's initial war plans fail
  
• Velutarians push deeper and have captured over 50 Stoinian colonies in one month
  
• Military take over by Grand Marshal MacArthur three months into the war
  
• Cole Protocol is instigated
  
• Operation Lionshield begins
  
• Spartan-II's are first deployed on Harvest
  
• Initial testing of MAC Cannons
  
• Velutarians initiate invasions within the Tozorian Corridor
  
• The First Battle of Tozoria begins
  
• The Battle of Charia begins
  
• Velutarians mount a large offensive pushin towards Reach and Qingdao
  
• The Battle of Reach begins
  
• The First Battle of Qingdao begins
  
• MacArthur replaces planetary governors with Legates
  

• Spartan-III's are first deployed on Hayseed
  
• Fall of Reach in 1593 PD
  
• King Andrei III holds his first command on board HMS Royal Rascal
  
• Defence of Corillia
  
• Defence of Elysium
  
• High Admiral Hague halts Velutarian advance to the core at the Battle of the Line
  

• Operation Lion's Wrath begins
  
• Defence of Arcadia
  
• Second Battle of Qingdao
  
• Second Battle of Gagarin
  
• Second Battle of Charia
  
• Second Battle of Tozoria
  
• Liberation of the Tozorian Corridor
  
• Corvousier launches his superdreadnoughts in the offensive
  
• Velutaria is invaded
  
• The Butchering of Velutaria