Border Campaign Medal

The Border Campaign Medal was a military decoration in the Golden Empire. It was awarded for participation in battles which increased the Empire's territory. It was derisively called the "Conquest Medal" by its detractors.

The medal was a six-sided silver plate, with a gold-tinted galaxy on a black background. The medal hung from a red, gold, and green ribbon.

Multiple receipts of the Border Campaign Medal were analyzed on a case-by-case basis; individual battles, even against unconnected foes, did not always constitute separate "campaigns" for purposes of the award (e.g., Breek Zagrev's 155 ABY conquests of Chimet and Renthiv merited only a single award, despite the fact that Chimet and Renthiv had no connection with one another).

Because the Border Campaign Medal was something of a catch-all award for any conflict without its own campaign medal, between it and the Defense of the Empire Medal, a servicebeing who participated in combat at all was almost guaranteed to get at least one decoration.

History
Tariun Sakaros, the first Prime Legate of the Armada, had advocated for some campaign decoration acknowledging service in the Empire's various campaigns of conquest from the early years after the Great Liberation. Many beings were killed in the Empire's various conquests, and he felt all beings who fought in such campaigns deserved acknowledgement for the risks they undertook. His sister Rin was leery of authorizing decorations for individual campaigns, not wishing to antagonize the Empire's newly incorporated worlds and species by permitting campaign medals which referred specifically to those conquests.

The matter finally came to a head following the Conquest of the Chiss Ascendancy in 137 ABY. The defeat of the came after a difficult, hard-fought, and grueling campaign. Rin and Tariun finally compromised on the Border Campaign Medal, which would honor the risks undertaken by the Empire's servicebeings while not specifically naming any conquered species.