The Alliance of Free States was a breakaway groups consisting of the advanced nations of North America (US and Canada) and the Asian Pacific Rim (Australia and Japan). In 2082, responding to the Resolution 1212's erosion of Social Charter freedoms, and as the UN tightened its grip on research, the Alliance declared their secession from the UN. States participating in the rebel campaign were targeted for brutal suppression by UN Enforcement.
Under the Singapore Treaty they were joined by every major planetary colony settlement and orbital habitat. The UN responded with force. In 2085, large scale armed conflict returned to Earth. The UN immediately invaded the territory of the seceding nations on Earth. UN hovertanks, troops and ground support aircraft clashed with new Alliance military units made up of men and women from Alliance states who defected from UN control. until a single fusion warhead leveled Atlanta.
Desperate negotiations staved off a holocaust in the last minute, and the threat of war returned for first time after 70 years, with a divided world under a cold peace. The war ground to a halt in less than two months as both sides ran out of soldiers, weapons and materiel. The Alliance states managed to hang onto their home territories. An uneasy truce was negotiated between the UN and the Alliance, and the world entered an uneasy period known as the New Cold War with isolated incidents.
Meanwhile, AI research resumed in secret inside the Alliance, spurred by the demands of newly resurgent armed forces. Military starships were developed as the forces deemed the strategic importance of the colonies. The US Congress authorized the development of a new class of warships designated as light cruisers, Bunker Hill class.
The technological research created a large gap in combat capabilities and in 2111 the UN attacked. War returned on an interplanetary scale. The Secession War begun with a short and brutal phase with thousands of automated weapons destroying each other. Population centers on Earth and the colonies were bombarded from space by particle beam weapons. Armies fought tank battles supported by buzzing swarms of aircraft. Starships battled each other over asteroid mines, orbital habitats and planetary installations. The furious pace of the war once again chewed up the stocks of men and materiel in a matter of months.
9 Bunker Hill light cruisers built between 2111 and 2127
One example was the Battle for Delta Pavonis V in 2121 when the UN Geneva class cruiser UNS Sophia came up with a innovative attack and destroyed the Allied heavy cruiser CVS Triphid and the three escorted cargo vessels.
A new hope for the Alliance was the discovery of intelligent structures on the 6th planet of Deneb Kaitos, named Persephone. The USS Lexington and UNS Jericho departed for Mission 161 to investigate but a spy notified UNS Dharma.
Original timeline
After the Battle of Persephone, the two crews annihilated each other and the sole survivor attempted to continue the investigation, the relief fleet of Midway, Iwo Jima and Otawa assisted by Concord and a squadron of destroyers arrives at Persephone and defeated the UN fleet, which in desperation, denied the installation to their enemies by "glassing" it with a nuclear bombardment.
In 2141 the Alliance signed the Washington Treaty and surrendered to the UN suffering a total defeat. The Treaty formalized the re-integration of former Alliance states into the UN.
Alternate timeline
With memories and information coming from the future, a crewman of the Lexington warned the captain about the ambush and using the Hype/Telecon system, he was able to defeat the Dharma.
The end of the war saw the Alliance winning with the Alliance Treaty making the dissolution of the UN as a formal political organization and spelling out the same political realities places UN member sates back to their old roles as Line One or Line Two nations. It reinstated and updated the Social Charter in the Alliance nations; some of the former UN states who could do so emigrated to the Alliance, but most people left to the colony worlds, and the exodus continued with renewed fervor, encouraged by the Alliance.
See also
- Allied Command