Shield War

The Shield War was a conflict in the which lasted six years, from 93 ABY to 99 ABY. It began when the newly -capable Horzyx of Karzabrog attacked the Zarban Hegemony and ended with a grisly death toll and a mutually involuntary stalemate.

Combatants
Young even for a regional power, the Hegemony had only existed since 14 ABY (by the more common dating method). It controlled seven systems and eight planets (Zarban and Antipon were neighbors in the Zarban system) and included five sentient species—the founding Simyastos and the Temi Temis, Therati, Quaffans, and Shillins. The Hegemony had a much larger population than Karzabrog, but the Temi Temis, Quaffans, and Shillins were not generally warlike and had small presences in the Hegemony military. The Therati were better suited to combat, but many opposed Hegemony rule of their homeworld.

The Horzyx controlled only their homeworld and had never previously fought aliens on any large scale. However, they were an innately combative and violent people, and had honed warfare throughout the millennia. Ruthless and remorseless in combat, they had little in the way of rules of war as the term would be understood by most other species.

Course of war
The Horzyx attacked without warning, catching the Hegemony by surprise in the First Battle of Izziriak III. Attempts at diplomacy were rebuffed—usually in ways involving dead diplomats—and the Hegemony finally responded in arms. It began to build up a larger fleet, churning out vessels to meet the Horzyx's attacks. Izziriak III was eventually retaken, and the two sides settled in to a pattern of jockeying for position in Hegemony territory. With only nine systems between them, the two sides fought multiple battles at the same location over the war; Izziriak III alone saw six battles.

During the war, some Therati opposed to the Hegemony defected to the Horzyx, leading to a comrpromise of vital intelligence. Under the command of Simyasto admiral Lyrat Artarian, the Hegemony took the fight to the Horzyx in 96 ABY with the First Battle of Karzabrog. The Hegemony navy was forced to retreat, but the Horzyx proceeded more cautiously from that point on. They briefly overtook and occupied Jintip Secondary, but lost it again in a second battle weeks later.

In 98 ABY, at the Second Battle of Karzabrog, Artarian baited Horzyx commander Sykh Zen-Shik Thazza into a trap. When the two fleets jockeyed for position around Hyzorna, Karzabrog's moon, Artarian finally began bombarding the moon, intending to blast it to rubble and charge through to the Horzyx fleet. Knowing the casualties on Karzabrog would be severe if the moon was destroyed and the rubble rained down, Thazza sacrificed good position to fight the Hegemony head-on. The Hegemony was again forced to retreat, but Thazza was killed.

Out of steam
There were other battles after Karzabrog, but it was clear the war was losing momentum. The Horzyx had suffered enormous casualties and wreaked them upon the Hegemony in turn, and both sides lacked the resources to clinch a real victory. The Sixth Battle of Izziriak III took place in 99 ABY and was the final engagement of the war. The Hegemony voted down Admiral Artarian's plan to commit all its forces to the destruction of Karzabrog, considering it both genocide and tactical suicide, as the Hegemony would be defenseless against any other invaders. On their side, the Horzyx simply lacked enough ships or warriors to take and hold any noteworthy part of the Hegemony, and the tactical minds espousing this view argued down those clamoring for vengeance.

Permanent truce
Five years later, the Golden Empire discovered the Hegemony, still rebuilding from the war. The Simyastos agreed to dissolve their government, and all eight worlds of the Hegemony voted to join the Empire. The Horzyx insisted on putting up at least a token fight when the Empire found them the next year; after Aquila Corcer crushed the Horzyx army in the Third Battle of Karzabrog, they joined the Empire too.