REFORMATION WAR
The Reformation Group was colonized by Solomani missionaries from -1830 to -1788 with major financial support coming from the Christian Church of the Stars. Based on Dingir, the Church of the Stars was a pacifistic, patriarchal order which fled the ever increasing conflicts of the Second Imperium for relative safety to Trenchan Sector. Being very industrious, the Reformation Group worlds rose quickly in population and power, colonizing several other worlds less than 100 years after arriving in Ramses subsector. Most members of the Reformation Group weathered the Long Night very well, maintaining trade and communications with each other and several adjacent independant worlds. In -440 New Jerusalem became the unofficial capital of the Reformation Group when it's diplomatic corps engaged the Thissera-Micean Cooperative in trade and began building the Reformation Navy in view of the continued aggressive expansion by the Second Empire of Gashikan.
The Empire of Gashikan continued to expand, swallowing up groups of planets and entire subsectors, until in -110 the Empire's borders were adjacent to the Reformation Group. The Reformation Council, and the majority of the Group's population, saw the Empire as hopelessly belligerent, if not downright evil. Commerce raiding by Gashikan 'pirates' against weaker worlds of the Reformation Group led to sanctions, embargoes, and naval posturing, and a situation much more serious than the Group had faced from Gashikan less than a decade ago.
Faced with a precarious situation the Reformation Council, still deeply influenced by Reformation pacifism, denied the General Staff of the Navy (headed by Fleet Admiral Artur Daala) first strike against the Empire. This decision proved to be fatal for the Reformation Group's independence. The assault by the Empire of Gashikan on the Reformation Group began after Empire officials proposed constructive talks on the planet Sanctuary in -110. Over the protests of senior military officials, the President of the Reformation Group(Henryk Yanakov) and several prominent members of the Reformation Council met with Empire officials on Sanctuary, backed by a substantial portion of the Reformation Fleet. Unknown to the Reformation President and the Office of Naval Intelligence on New Jerusalem, Gashikan had staged a major build-up of naval vessels in the Terres Novas and Montijo systems. As talks continued between the two powers the Gashikan fleets attacked the Reformation worlds Job, Isaiah, Trinity, and Rosario. These planets possessed few of the impressive Gabriel orbital forts and quickly fell to the Gashikan Navy. Vicious naval fighting occurred at the Reformation naval base Trinity but the Reformation forces were heavily outnumbered, forcing the Reformation to pull back to New Jerusalem. At the ecologically toxic world Rosario most of the orbital farms were destroyed during the fighting, causing massive starvation among the planets inhabitants.
Within the first month of fighting over half of the Reformation Group had been occupied by the Empire of Gashikan but counterattacks by Admiral Daala kept the Empire off balance, halting the Gashikan advance into the Group. The lighting war became one of attrition as Admiral Daala held the important high-population worlds of the Reformation Group, beginning a crash shipbuilding program by the Reformation BuShips. A brilliant naval tactician and strategist, Admiral Daala staged daring hit-and-run raids deep within the Empire using light forces while his heavier units defended the remaining worlds under his control, lengthening the war which Gashikan analysts estimated would last only two years. The Second Empire of Gashikan also never counted on the Rh/attes Republic, which were long-standing Reformation allies, from sending full-scale support to the Group.
After two decades of warfare which left no clear advantage in the conflict, the war stalemated along static lines and the Empire of Gashikan chose a radical solution to end the war. In swift hit-and-run raids the Gashikan Navy destroyed virtually every habitat dome on the Reformation world Samuel in -905, killing over 11 billion people. Reformation Group worlds responded with widespread fanatical resistance which then led to additional Gashikan demonstrative nuclear strikes at Eden Three, Jennings, Solitudo, and New Jerusalem, killing billions more civilians.
As Gashikan naval units closed on the last holdout, Jasper, the Orbital Mining Stations circling the planet fired giant rocks (using their huge linear accelerators used for mining) at the intruding warships, destroying many and forcing a retreat. In -88 the Second Empire of Gashikan engaged in massive fleet battles throughout the New Jerusalem system, orbitally bombarding the planet, and causing catastrophic damage to the capital. Stripped of their navy, Reformation defenses collapsed and the remaining planets surrendered to Gashikan, ending the 22 year war. At the end of the war over 2,305 Gashikan warships had been destroyed, mostly by Gabriel orbital forts and over 40 billion Reformation civilians had been killed, earning Gashikan a very bloody reputation across the sector.