Previous:	Skirmish over Elysium
Operation Samson's Pillars Part of the Skyllian Blitz
Date:	18 February - 7 March 2177 CE (17 days)
Location:	Across the entire Uifa'ar Nebula / Milky Way Galaxy
Outcome:	Strategic Alliance victory Alliance captures all three systems of the Uifa'ar Nebula Torfan falls: Hegemony warfighting capability impaired for months Uifa'ar Nebula falls, and doesn't return to batarian control for decades Skyllian Blitz ends two days later
Territorial changes:	Uifa'ar Nebula is militarily occupied by the Systems Alliance Armed Forces until the end of the war, and later abandoned by both sides.
Engagements:	Battle of the Dhopris System Battle of the Dhelile System First Battle of Torfan Second Battle of Torfan
Belligerents Systems Alliance Batarian Hegemony Commanders Marcus L. Shepard Sarann Francis † Nathan Montgomery † Harold Sing Norman Kyle Gerald Price Joseph H. Garrong Kastanie Drescher Nitesh Singh Viktoriya Arefyev Steven Hackett Osamu Nakamura Chang Teoh Balak Uhtero Sosvan Brer'genak † Catok Fon'beh Demo Kodkekk Fagrom Podpagan Khopor Khedmemon Strength Systems Alliance Navy Second Fleet 172 ships Third Fleet 247 ships Fourth Fleet 101 ships Fifth Fleet 89 ships Sixth Fleet 143 ships Seventh Fleet 199 ships Systems Alliance Marine Corps 20 gunships 3,000 marines 90 tanks Systems Alliance Army 1,000 troops 30 tanks Hegemony Army Army of Torfan 4,000 troops Ish'rah Garrison 670 troops Pales'pa Garrison 890 troops 45 tanks 60 aircraft Hegemony Navy Torfan Shipyards Defense Belt 3 Kugalth-class battlecruisers 18 Datzzzha-class heavy cruisers 29 Falo-class assault frigates Tar'hash Fleet 260 ships Daedoluz'h Fleet 188 ships Fleet of Contention 211 ships Casualties 6 gunships 19 tanks 25 marines from the 20th Shock Troops Battalion 150 marines from the 17th Shock Troops Company Entire Alliance army contingent wiped out All army tanks destroyed 22 ships destroyed, 89 severely damaged, 14 crippled Sosvan Brer'genak Ish'rah Garrison wiped out Pales'pa Garrison wiped out Torfan Shipyards Defense Belt decimated 186 ships destroyed, 13 severely damaged, 7 crippled Three quarters of the Army of Torfan wiped out

"The largest engagements of the war, what little there were, occurred during Samson's Pillars. I think command thought they were being clever when they named it that...we were going in to knock down the pillars that hold up the batarian military. Unfortunately, command forgot the part of the story where Samson was inside when the building fell. Good thing we we weren't that suicidal."

— Alliance naval officer describing the operation.

Operation Samson's Pillars, also known as the Uifa'ar campaign, and designated as the Torfan Strategic Defensive Campaign by the Batarian Hegemony, was the Alliance military's main offensive operation of the Skyllian Blitz into the Uifa'ar Nebula, occurring over the course of the last month and a half of the war. The Skyllian Blitz was split into two main phases: the Hegemony's offensive operations, and the Alliance's counteroffensive into Hegemony space. The Hegemony's offensive stage was brief, with only a few minor incursions into Alliance space that were all largely repulsed. The Alliance did not want a long, drawn out war with the Hegemony, with the military brass drawing up a plan to force a quick capitulation of the Hegemony without launching a costly, bloody invasion of Hegemony space itself. Operation Samson's Pillars was named for its ultimate intent: to deal a crippling blow to the Hegemony's warfighting capability that would leave them with no choice but to sue for peace, knowing that the batarians would fight on for years if they didn't. Alliance military intelligence managed to determine that the loss of Torfan in the Uifa'ar Nebula would deal the blow they needed, and massive mobilization of Alliance military forces along the border was immediately ordered.

Of the three systems in the Uifa'ar Nebula, all of them had an Hegemony fleet stationed there, so it was decided that their forces in the Dhopris and Dhelile systems would need to be engaged separately to keep them from joining and reinforcing their defenses in Riflar. To keep the element of surprise, the Fourth Fleet and Fifth Fleet would assault the Fleet of Contention in Dhopris, with the Second Fleet and Sixth Fleet attacking the Daedoluz'h fleet from the system's edge of Dhelile, not its mass relay: as a result, it took several days for the Alliance forces to reach the system at FTL. Meanwhile, the Third Fleet would besiege Torfan, with the Seventh Fleet providing fleet support against the Tar'hash fleet. Third Fleet would destroy Torfan's shipyards and bombard the planet's defenses from orbit, while invasion forces of the Marine Corps would deploy across the planet and secure it. Once Torfan fell, it was projected that the Hegemony would surrender, unable to continue the war with the loss of its main military world.

The operation went largely according to plan. Battle was joined in the Dhopris and Dhelile systems, with the Tar'hash fleet deploying its assets in preparation for what it believed to be an extrasolar assault, which allowed them to catch the Seventh Fleet before it could enter the system. Tar'hash was forced to pull back to the Torfan defense perimeter once they realized the Third Fleet was entering the system through the relay, and that they'd be encircled if they remained. Once the Tar'hash fleet was sufficiently engaged, Third Fleet deployed its troops to the surface of Torfan. The First Battle of Torfan was bloody, with casualties far in excess of what the Alliance had projected, and which was later blamed on inept command on behalf of Major Kyle. The Tar'hash fleet launched a desperate last offensive on March 7, with the batarian admiral circling his forces around the planet in an effort to catch orbital support vessels in a crossfire, and while they enjoyed initial success, they were eventually defeated. With the batarian withdrawals across the entire nebula, the Alliance achieved all of its objectives, making Samson's Pillars a success, especially once the Hegemony capitulated two days later on March 9, ending the war.