Lakrux War

The Lakrux War, also known as the First Orion War, was a conflict that was largely fought between the United Systems and their attackers, the Visuran Compact, which lasted between March 9, 2240 and August 6, 2249. The war began on the tail end of humanity's colonial expansion era following their first encounter with an alien species. At this time, the Visuran Compact had first encountered humanity and had initiated several incursions into their space, leading into full-scale invasions. While some among humanity assumed the war was started from some grave offence committed by humans in their eyes, it was discovered later that the war started simply because the Visuran Compact was stronger than the United Systems.

Although humanity was near their breaking point, the Jirava Confederation came to their aid and forced the Compact into relenting their attacks.

Background
The development of the Void Jump Drive, along with humanity's natural inclination towards exploration, led to their rapid expansion to the neighbouring star systems, and beyond. New starship designs were churned out to meet a myriad of obstacles that they had encountered, or suspected to encounter.

However, a militaristic expansionary state called the Visuran Compact, who had already subjugated several less advanced species, encountered humanity several times, but without the United Systems' knowledge. After studying their technology, the Compact made their move to dominate Earth and its native species.

The war
On Vacural, the Compact assault group began an invasion of the world while engaging local United Systems forces before driving further into human territory. While the Systems Navy did their best in defence of the colony, the Compact's own military proved their technological superiority as their weapons and tactics tore straight through humanity's. In their invasions, the Visuran Compact had made frequent use of autonomous drone strikecraft, carrier platforms, and battleships: these being concepts that humanity had stopped using in their space navy. The United Systems commissioned smaller, autonomous drone warships to, at the very least, slow down their attackers while their new carrier and battleship class designs were being brought under construction. Despite all the measures they were taking, however, the United Systems were clearly losing this war by the end of the first year.

By the war's second year, the United Systems began utilizing specialized assets that they believed would work against the Visuran Compact. During the first combat trials for the automated strikecraft drones, the Compact had managed to hijack their control signals and turn them against the Systems Navy, resulting in a near-total loss. The Systems Intelligence Service soon felt their hopes go up into literal flames when they had discovered the uselessness of stealth craft against more advanced warships as their spy craft were quickly destroyed once they began full deployment. On the ground, United Systems Army were consistently defeated with very few victories, leading to several advancements that, while evening ground battles somewhat, still were not enough to stave off the Visuran.

With more time being saved due to the actions of many crewmen and soldiers, new warships were ready and being commissioned in larger numbers, each vastly more advanced than their predecessors. To combat the Visuran Compact, the Systems Navy grouped their light warships into wolf-packs that targeted Compact supply lines while heavy battleships used a numerically advantage against smaller Compact battlegroups. While the Systems Navy did take noticeable casualties, they succeeded in stalling their invader's advanced into human territory. Despite their successes, however, the United Systems were incapable of sustaining their war effort against the attackers.

As they reached their breaking point, the Jirava Confederation emerged in the midst of the conflict. With their entrance, the Visuran Compact willingly broke off their engagements, later sending their official declaration of an end to the war, news that left many baffled.

Aftermath
As the Lakrux War was the first conflict that they had fought against an alien threat, the human military was not properly prepared to fight against them. As a result of this, the number of both military and civilian casualties reached the millions, with the vast majority have occurred in the first few years of the conflict. Their losses slowed considerably as the war progressed as the United Systems government began to invest more into intelligence agencies and military budgets. Many debris-ridden star systems were scavenged by the Systems Intelligence Service in search of undiscovered alien technology, while others took what was left as salvage.

The impact of the war upon the people of the United Systems were immense, effecting the mindset of entire generations, including their perspective towards alien species.. Many worlds petitioned for the right of a planetary militia, forcing the Systems Armed Forces to facilitate the Planetary Defence Forces as local defenders of territories. PDF Army and Naval forces were granted the permission to purchase, construct, and field minor materiel best suited for defensive action, so they may better protect star systems when the Systems Armed Forces are not available.