Third Spectre War
From FABT
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Varna's Tempest Uprising | ||||||||||||||||
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3 June 832 CE - 15 October 835 CE | ||||||||||||||||
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Tactical stalemate
Strategic Trespasser victory
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- "This one definitely felt more like a war. Battles were had, lives were lost, and the wars of vengeance continued. Cuna had built up a sizable force in her exile, and when she finally struck, it dealt a mighty blow. She was by far the greatest threat posed by the rogue spectres, and you need only look to her deeds. She did what her predecessors couldn't: first, she wiped out the Thessian Rangers until little remained of them but a memory. She then hunted down and murdered the Valiant Seventy and the Tecr'fer until little remained of those who had killed her uncle. She ruthlessly pursued her vengeance, leaving behind a death toll that dwarfed the Spectre Wars of the past. Finally she was driven close to defeat, only to slink away and leave her enemy with a bittersweet victory that more resembled a stalemate. Neither side achieved what they wanted, and so the stage was set for further conflict. But Cuna denied the Council their resolution...and for that, she may have whispered of a victory. A first for the rogue spectres, and the last."
- — An asari storyteller regarding the Third Spectre War.
The Third Spectre War, also known as Cuna's War and as the Council-Trespasser conflict, was a medium-scale conflict between the Citadel Council and the exiled ex-spectres of Cuna'Kannos and her ilk, spearheaded by the powerful and ultramodern Trespassers PMC, that took place between 3 June 832 CE and 15 October 835 CE that served as the third phase of the Spectre Wars. With the mixed results of Ezyn's efforts coming to a close in 816 CE, with him succeeding in killing those who exiled him, only for his escape to fail and thus ending his ambition of overthrowing Drecuns Tanculus, the only remaining rogue element was now Cuna'Kannos, niece of the late Ezyn. Ezyn's sister, Cuna's mother, was put under surveillance in case Cuna attempted to reach out, but she never did, fearing this exact scenario. Cuna, and the five former spectres who went rogue with her, instead remained in hiding until the Council called off their search. Only then did they reemerge, and begin plotting how to get back at the Council. Cuna's fellow spectres wished to part ways and start new lives, but Cuna instead offered them an opportunity to found a new mercenary PMC, one that would pride itself on its ex-military castaways, on its technological and tactical supremacy, and on its ability to be a private army of its own. None of her fellow spectres turned her down, and became the top commanders of what would be known as the Trespassers.
Cuna's first move was to seek out Ril'phiya Sabuve, the late Ezyn's widow who she perceived as having abandoned him. Failing this, she instead turned her attention to the Thessian Rangers, and began planning for war with them. She spent the next four years building up the Trespassers, dispatching her lieutenants across the Terminus Systems to hire veterans of wars past, with a focus on turians, who Cuna had learned made for some of the finest and most disciplined soldiers in the galaxy. The Trespassers first proved themselves in a turf war with the Emerald Army on Omega, who formed an alliance with the Winged Chevaliers and Onyx Guard PMCs, and even a preeminent drug cartel, the Barons, to destroy the Trespassers (although it's also believed the Onyx Guard and Winged Chevaliers were incentivized by the Special Tasks Group to spark a proxy war with the Trespassers to order to eliminate them without direct Council involvement). The Trespassers formed an alliance with then-minor PMC the Krimzon Guard, and curried favor with the Talons, the-then near-dominant drug cartel on Omega, who had maintained a vassal agreement with the Barons, and whose agents had discovered the Barons planned to pay the Winged Chevaliers and Emerald Army to fight for them in an overthrow of the Talons once the Trespassers were dealt with. The Talons as a result dedicated troops and resources to the Trespassers and Krimzon Guard, which bolstered their strength. The Omega Mercenary War became the largest in Omega's history for a time, scouring the entire station. In the end, the Trespassers were victorious, wiping out the Emerald Army and dissolving the Omega chapters of the Winged Chevaliers and Onyx Guard, dividing the spoils with the Krimzon Guard. The Barons were thoroughly obliterated by the Talons, and as thanks for their help, signed a deal with the Trespassers for a 40/60 split of the station's drug trade, an acknowledgement of the power the Trespassers now held. This single victory alone made the Trespassers immeasurably powerful, and well known throughout the galaxy. Finally, in the same year that the Omega Mercenary War began and ended, and with only a month gap between them, the Trespassers declared war on the Thessian Rangers in 820 CE. The resulting six-year long war saw the Thessian Rangers driven to complete destruction, its remaining members (largely those who were ex-military) either switching sides to the Trespassers or seeking alternative employment. Once Cuna had forced the CEO of the company to sign a humiliating contract to cede all remaining Rangers assets to the Trespassers, Cuna paid a personal visit to the CEO's home the following night and smothered her while she slept. While the Rangers would eventually return, they would never again be so powerful as they were, and would eventually be snuffed out and replaced by a permanent successor, the Eclipse, many centuries later.
With her immediate enemies wasted, and Trespasser power had its height, Cuna finally turned her gaze east towards the Citadel. Believing her time for revenge was finally at hand, Cuna summoned her lieutenants and began her plans for a war with the Council, but knew that even with her vast resources, manpower and military might, that she could not hope to take on the Council in a massive war. This required less raw strength, and more clandestine intrigue. For this, she turned to the "The Defunct", a special forces branch of the Trespassers formed during the war with the Rangers that was intended for more unique methods of warfare that didn't require armies and would mimick the subtle and lethal nature of similar special forces groups, being specifically modelled after the Special Tasks Group and Tecr'fer, utilizing the delicate efficiency of the former and the sharp bluntness of the latter. Utilizing the Defunct, she would begin her war against the Council by hunting down the still living members of the Tecr'fer and remaining Valiant Seventy who had been responsible for hunting down Ezyn and herself during the Second Spectre War. While this occurred, and to keep the STG and other intelligence services distracted while the Defunct did their work, Cuna used the cover of yet another war. Introducing her PMC and their services to the volus robotics company Tarkon-Vesep Inc., who had recently acquired a license to build a factory on the largely isolated Canctra in the Hawking Eta, only to find out that a mission of hanar cultists had found a cache of prothean ruins on the surface, and had claimed the planet in the name of the Hanar Primacy. The First Emissary, the head of the hanar state and of the Ardent Faithful, personally disavowed the claim, not wanting to provoke a territorial dispute with the Vol Protectorate, who had only been members of the galactic community for roughly thirty years. The cultists instead chose to set up camp around the artifacts, and built a large compound to protect it from "infidels and non-believers." Frustrated by the situation and wanting access to the planet's resources and relative isolation, Cuna offered the Trespassers' services for half their usual rate: at the same time, the hanar cultists sought out protection from a hanar paramilitary organization known as the Malefic Astarta; a militaristic hanar-supremacist group devoted to zealously protecting prothean artifacts through brute force and violence, and followers of the Stoicist sect of the Ardent Faithful. Both sides agreed, and the Artifact War, known to stoicists as the "Canctra Holy War", began as the Trespassers besieged the hanar compound and the Astarta defended it. The war would go on for the better part of a year, as the Astarta and Trespassers called in more and more of their own resources, finding each other evenly matched for fire and manpower. However, Cuna cared not for victory: the war served as a distraction for the Defunct to carry out their business, and it worked. As the quarian, salarian and turian governments (although officially the turians remained neutral, as the volus were a protectorate of theirs) threw their support behind the hanar cultists, they failed to notice Cuna's larger plan before it was too late to stop most of the damage.
But notice they eventually did: by this time, only twelve of the fifty-four Valiant Seventy remained, and all but one of the Tecr'fer agents involved in the Second Spectre War had been killed. Stepping in quickly to stop more deaths, the STG received approval from the Kasi'teh-13 (who were busy putting down a rebellion in one of the quarian clusters sharing a border with the Terminus Systems, who were attempting to secede and join the Terminus) to snatch up their quarian agent on shore leave on Thessia to place them, along with the surviving spectres, into protective custody at one of the many villas owned by Councilor Eshorame Pesajin on Mannovai, with round-the-clock STG protection. When Cuna received word of the transfer, she left the war on Canctra to her lieutenant and paramour, Shaeno'Ciris, while she took command of the Defunctors and devised a direct assault on the villa. The assault itself took the lives of most of the STG protective detail, six more turian spectres (among them Antoponia Itaso) and the Tecr'fer agent with severe facial injuries from shrapnel. Despite this, the survivors managed to stave off Cuna's assault, and she was forced to retreat when local police began responding to the gunfire. Cuna raced back to Canctra, knowing the Council was now fully aware of her involvement and intending to salvage the situation. Upon arriving at Canctra, she chose to bring an end to the war (which she intentionally dragged out) and launched an all-out assault on the hanar compound. The sacking of the settlement saw brutal atrocities committed by her soldiers, as well as the deliberate defilement and destruction of the prothean artifacts, with only one cultist left alive so that he could relay what happened to the primary Astarta stronghold north of their position. Cuna's trap worked perfectly: enraged by the mutilation of their brothers and the desecration of holy relics, the Astarta assembled most of their strength and marched to the compound. Eager and in a rush, they overextended their supply lines, which the Trespassers took advantage of, including their lightly guarded main camp, which the Trespassers attacked minutes after the Astarta left. When they arrived, they found the compound empty and in flames, but before they could turn around, Trespasser ships bombarded their position, causing heavy casualties, before Trespasser forces rushed in from all sides and butchered them: this all happened within mere hours of Cuna's return. By the time the Council finally received word of the attack on the villa, and began discussing plans for a new spectre initiative to hunt down Cuna, she had already wiped out the cultists, taken their pay from the Tarkon-Vesep company, and retreated.
This, however, did not dissuade either side, and both made preparations for war. While Cuna's forces retreated to Trespasser strongholds across the Terminus Systems, the Council formed a task force of thirty spectres, reinforced by a dedicated battalion of turian marines, operating from a mobile base in the turian operations frigate THS Anthem's End. To maintain maximum deniability and discretion, the ship was repainted and recommissioned under a shell company name, and the turian marines were put on "special assignment" and outfitted in mercenary equipment, striking up the fake PMC name of the "Steelheads". The operation would be spearheaded by the survivors of the Valiant Seventy and the lone Tecr'fer agent, who would remain on the Anthem's End for their own safety. For the next three years, the Anthem's End launched daring strikes and raids against random Trespasser targets across the Terminus, mostly after a few minor defeats against the Trespassers as Cuna accurately predicted where they'd prioritize and choosing to augment her defenses in those areas. Despite initial setbacks, the Council task force struck back and won several key victories, the biggest of which was the raid conducted on a ship-breaking yard that the Trespassers had converted into a dock to hide their ships, seizing a sizable portion of their naval forces and dealing them a financial blow as tens of millions of credits were also seized. However, Cuna gave as good as she took, with every successful attack by the Anthem's End being met with retaliation by the Trespassers in the form of hits on family, destruction of private property and ambushes on the Anthem's End itself, although all of the latter failed. Three major battles would be fought as well, with one Trespasser victory and two Council ones. However, the fourth major battle would be a devastating blow for the Trespassers, as it saw the death of Shaeno'Ciris and her men on Anhur. When she received word of Shaeno's death, Cuna promised a "retaliation so swift and brutal, they'll forget to breathe". Knowing they'd be expecting a direct attack or another hit on a family member, Cuna went for the unexpected: choosing a random asari world, in this case Trategos, Cuna set off napalm cluster bombs on Mount Zeorux, causing a massive avalanche that completely buried the trading port of Melatos, leading to the deaths of over 900 asari civilians. Cuna did this because a) the Thessian Republics were the one Council government that hadn't been caught up in the Spectre Wars military thus far, and thus the other Council races would have to explain to them why one of THEIR wars had been brought to their doorstep, and b) because it would make the task force look incompetent and incapable of doing their job (thus making their victories irrelevant in the eyes of the Council), and hopefully lead to the dissolution of the task force. While Cuna was right, and the task force was temporarily recalled and reprimanded for their failure to prevent the tragedy on Trategos and the asari government at being dragged into a war they wanted nothing to do with, it ultimately only steeled the Council's will to see Cuna eliminated, and they instead deployed forty more spectres as reinforcements and handed official control over the operation to the turian military. The Trespassers were defeated again and again, losing two more lieutenants, before Cuna finally realized the war was lost.
Desperate to score a decisive victory, Cuna assembled the Defunctors and launched a direct attack on the Anthem's End. The attack nearly succeeded, but still failed, and knowing the turians would cut off her escape, she instead escaped to the nearby turian colony of Nimines, where her forces swiftly captured and disarmed the settlement of Satilia and took them hostage. Cuna delivered an ultimatum: allow her men to leave, or she would level the town. The turians begrudgingly submitted to Cuna's request, with Cuna taking a ship, and a few randomly chosen hostages, and escaping offworld. True to her word, the hostages were dropped off on Zorya and were found the next day alive and well. Attempts were made to continue the war, but Cuna had issued an order to withdraw, and the Trespassers had fallen back into the Terminus. Cuna and her remaining lieutenants fled to Omega, and she transferred the rest of the company's financial assets to an Omegan bank before the Council could freeze them. Cuna taunted the Council by claiming to have proof they had been operating within the Terminus, and threatened to inform Tanculus if they didn't call off their attacks. Not willing to call Cuna's bluff, the turians pulled back their assets and recalled the Anthem's End, bringing an end to the Third Spectre War after three years of conflict.
The war was by far one of the largest of the Spectre Wars, and only the War of the Pretenders managed to eclipse it in scope. Cuna's brilliant tactics made the war the first in which the Council had no clear advantage, unable to simply throw spectres or special forces at the problem and hoping it would go away. Cuna represented the largest threat to the Council in years, and successfully meddled with their plans to kill her. The Council never succeeded in eliminating Cuna, who would go on to live a long life before passing away of old age and being succeeded by her children, and two more generations of children after that. She was the only one to survive these attempts, and unlike Kaaysha, she managed to build and maintain a powerful criminal enterprise that, despite the heavy cost in resources and manpower that the war inflicted on them, continued to thrive for centuries as one of the most powerful PMCs in the galaxy. While Cuna ultimately failed in her endeavours to completely eliminate those who were present at her uncle's death, she survived to tell of it, and in managing to thwart the Council's attempts at finishing her off, she had achieved, at best, a stalemate. However, many historians argue that the war was in fact a Trespasser victory, as most of Cuna's objectives were met, while the Council failed to meet theirs: killing Cuna, all her lieutenants and wiping out the Trespassers. As such, there is debate as to what the ultimate outcome was, although a stalemate is the most commonly accepted, politically correct conclusion. Regardless, the end of the war saw the longest period of time without another phase of the Spectre Wars, with a total of nearly three centuries going by before the conflict would begin its fourth stage.