Human-Ch'rix War (Contact!)

"We will drive them from our world, or see it burn trying"

-General Nathan Alder prior to the Battle of LEO

The Human-Ch'rix war was the first interstellar war in human or Ch'rix history. It devistated the planet Earth, and nearly destroyed Ch'rix civilization as well.

June 21, 2013 the Ch'rix invaded Earth with millions of soldiers with the sole purpose of conquering the planet, and securing a sustainable future for their civilization. Despite the Ch'rix technological advantage, humanity was able to fight the aliens to a bloody war of attrition and eventually defeat, with hostilities ending with the Ch'rix Surrender in 2018. The war is directly responsible for mankind's union as a single state.

African Conquest
Africa was quickly conquered by the Ch'rix because of the desert climate and lack of industrial capacity. As much of the continent was living under brutal and/or horribly corrupt regimes, the inhabitants of Africa became content subjects of the Ch'rix, seeing them as simply the new conquering thugs of the continent. A number of African resistance cells did form following the invasion, however they were in essence little more than just a continuation of the various guerrilla forces that had existed on the continent decades before. The only exceptions to this were the Rainbow Fist of South Africa, and the Muslim Brotherhood in North Africa (though their support was largely concentrated to Egypt and Libya).

North American Campaign
The Ch'rix invasion of North America was easily its most costing. After leveling Washington D.C. and Cheyenne Mountain, conventional strikes were carried out against the continent's various military instillation. Central America fell quickly given their lack of militarization, as did Canada, but the continental United States was able to resist the Ch'rix during the early days of the war. The Chain of Command had not yet been completely broken, and many of the military bases the Ch'rix attempted to destroy were able to effectively push back the initial attack. Contact between military bases was quickly re-established and a new Joint Chiefs of Staff was formed by the surviving Generals and Admiralty. USNORTHCOM commander General Charles H. Jacoby assumed command as Chairman, and effectively Commander-in-Chief. with the destruction of Cheyenne Mountain, the Joint Chiefs were forced to move from base to base, eventually settling in Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska.

From Fairbanks, the Joint Chiefs set up the military government and coordinated the nation-wide resistance against the Ch'rix. Relying primary on Naval and Air power, the Americans were able to at first push the Ch'rix out of the Northern States and even strike against their holdings outside of the US. Eventually the Ch'rix adapted to this strategy and began striking US air and Naval bases directly, and sinking the surface fleet with their attack craft. The Joint Chiefs were eventually killed via nuclear attack on Fairbanks, finally dissolving the union.

Informal resistance groups were left to fend for themselves, coordinating with Each other quite rarely. The most successful of these groups were Knights of Sedona, the Lone Star Resistance, and the Children of Liberty. It wasn't until General Nathan Alder escaped from Ch'rix captivity that any meaningful coordination between the resistance cells reformed.

Middle Eastern Campaign
The Middle East did not fall as easily as the Ch'rix had hoped. While they had climate on their side, regional powers such as Israel, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran were able to defend their territory quite effectively. The Muslim states were beneifted largely by a united populace that saw the Ch'rix as the ultimate infidels against the Prophet, while Israel's technological superiority and experience of defending themselves against overwhelming odds made them a particularly irksome thorn in the Ch'rix side.

Eventually the Ch'rix directly attacked the capitols of these powers, however given their delay the leaders were able to relocate before the attack. The Middle-Eastern nations also practiced a scorched Earth policy, quite literally in this case, using chemical weapons and in the case of Israel, Iran, and Pakistan, a nuclear response. This prompted the Ch'rix to initiate a precursor to their planned sterilization of the Earth, and commenced a region wide strike on the middle East, reducing its population by upwards of 55%. Many of the people living in this area of the planet fled north to Russia, and would not resettle the area for two decades after the end of the war.

Pakistan was the last Middle-Eastern power to fight on against the Ch'rix. Saved from the first and second wave of strikes by their endless network of mountain fortresses, the country fought on until the end of the War.

Counterattack
With the Ch'rix facing more setback every day against the Resistance, many of the Invasion fleet leaders began to propose more drastic measures to secure the Earth for their species. Whispers of a massive strike against the human race directly began to appear, which were intercepted by resistance intelligence groups. British and Russian agencies working together came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be long until the Ch'rix would come to the decision to simply sterilize the planet, and wait in cryosleep for it to become reasonably habitable for their species.

Rumors of the Ch'rix expulsion from Canada had reached Europe, and the recapture of Phoenix by supposedly the same commander, General Nathan Alder. Intercepted Ch'rix communications suggested that this commander was the same man who escaped from a Ch'rix starship over a year prior. British and Russian agents were dispatched by way of submarine to America, in the hopes of finding this man, and perhapse gaining his help in a preemptive strike.

General Alder met with these intelligence sources and together they developed a plan for a last despirate counterattack against the invaders. Of all the Ch'rix starships that had landed, three had been abandoned after their crews, and their attackers, had been completely wiped out. While damaged, these ships were still operable, and Alder and the other resisstance leaders planned to use them againt the Ch'rix before it was too late.

After months of rapid refitting and reconstruction three ships launched to an all out assault on the Invasion fleet. The three ships launched under the cover of a coordinated cyberattack and succesfully destroyed or crippled the ships of the invasion fleet outfitted with nuclear weapons. By th end of the attack the Invasion Fleet Master had been killed, and his immediate understudy surrendered to the human resistance forces aboard the Titan.

Aftermath
The Ch'rix formally surrendered on August 1st, 2018, however a number of informal provisions were included in the surrender. In exchange for agreeing to withdraw all forces from the Earth and leave the Sol System, while handing over all weapons and hardware currently on Earth, and releasing every human POW; General Alder gave the new Ch'rix Fleet Master a promise. Humanity would agree to give the Ch'rix enough fissible materials to allow them to return to their home system under full power, to not harm their colonization fleet and agree to refuel them before turning them away. The formal unconditional surrender was signed, and the two leaders shook on the informal negotiated peace.

Over the next year Ch'rix forces around the world began to withdraw from occupied territory, leaving everything that couldn't fly behind to the victors; while Ch'rix engineers worked to accommodate the crews of abandoned Starships. Fully aware of the challenge mankind faced after the invaders leave, General Alder called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations, going so far as to form a Provisional American Government out of Philadelphia to represent the United States. At the meeting, many nations were absent, and some sent conflicting delegations, as was the case with India. General Alder arrived with the American Delegation and was the one of the first to speak. Alder called for humanity to formally put aside their differences and form a single "United Earth." During the speech, General Alder symbolically renounced his citizenship to the United States. The delegation voted unanimously (after three straight days of debate) to unite as a single State, though the United Earth Charter would not be signed until several weeks later on 24 October 2018. Before that, however, General Alder was nominated by British Ambassador Stephen nominated General Alder to be declared Commander-in-Chief of a single Earth Military, a nomination that was confirmed in less than ten minutes.

After the signing of the United Earth Charter, General Alder left the UN to begin writing the Earth Constitution, while he would begin working with the new Earth Military to finalize the removal of the Ch'rix from the Solar System. For the most part the Ch'rix left without much effort, mostly just glad to be done fighting an unwinnable war; however in a few cases Ch'rix soldiers refused to leave, declaring independence from their leadership. In these cases Humans and Ch'rix loyalists found themselves fighting together, however briefly. With the Ch'rix fleet finally expelled from the solar system in 2019, General Alder returned to Earth to preside over the final debate of the Earth Constitution, formally resigning his command over the Titan.

The war left the planet battered, many of its greatest cities in ruins, and the human race would spend nearly a generation rebuilding.