The Second Extra Solar War

After the brutal and bloody Extra Solar War with Vekta and the ISA and 2nd Iron Republic rose out of the ashes. The Extra Solar War left Vekta and Ballistikov completely destroyed and killed around 400 million people. A humiliated Ballistikov would have great anger and resentment towards Vekta and the other planets within the ISA. Vekta would also have resentment towards Ballistikov for being invaded and destroyed by them. A few years after the Extra Solar War Vekta would join the ISA further angering Ballistikov.

Gunther Reinart, an extremely nationalistic anti-ISA military General for the First Iron Republic during The Extra Solar War would be the leader of the Second Iron Republic. The Second Extra Solar War would be inevitable. After rebuilding Ballistikov's military and infrastructure, Gunther Reinart would prepare his nation for war. This wouldn't come without it's challenges, this was made difficult due to economic sanctions put on Ballistikov by the ISA, as well as some political push back by other political parties back home. After withstanding sanctions and purging all other political parties besides the Iron Party Reinart would have the power he needed with no one speaker out against him.

So it began, a full scale invasion of Vekta by Ballistikov was launched, but this time it didn't stop there. Reinart would make sure to take care of what cost them the First Extra Solar. All of the the other planet states that belong to the ISA; Zeronus, Runekara, Toga, Euripides, Igrus, Granada, Brio, Corr, and Vivian. After Vekta was occupied and secured, immediate assaults were launched on the planets. Major naval battles in space took place in multiple solar systems. This was a multi planet war the galaxy has never seen before, the largest scale of it's kind to ever occur. Ballistikov also called upon its military allies within the Pacific Iron League fight along side it.

The ISA were taken by surprise by the defense network's failure to stop Ballistikovian ships from landing. The Ballistikovians overwhelmed unprepared ISA ground forces and managed to take large swaths of territory in a savage blitzkrieg. Inexperienced Ballistikovian troops pinned down the ISA troops while more experienced soldiers were sent to take strategic locations in Vekta City. ISA forces struggled, and failed, to hold the invaders back, and strategic locations such as the ISA Central Command were captured by the Ballistikovians.

A result of both the reliance on the SD platforms, and the years of peace which the ISA forces on Vekta had lived under. ISA General Bradley Vaughton was eventually able to reactivate the orbital defense network along with Adams; however, immediately after the defenses came back online, Adams murdered Vaughton and took control of the defense network for the Ballistikovians, using it to target ISA forces on Vekta. Two years into the war, however, the invasion had gradually shifted to the ISA's favor. The Ballistikovian's ground campaign was disrupted by their failure to capture Vekta City and the loss of General of the Army Joseph Lente, the commander of the Ballistikovian Third Army. Each planet was liberated one by one with the local population's willingness to enlist and fight back. The ISA took into consideration of utilizing nuclear weapons against the Helghast from General Dwight Stratson's proposal, with the weapons being prepared in Rayhoven Base, but requiring the approval of the ISA Council, as nuclear weapons were seen as a taboo weapon that was highly political damaging for the ISA to use.

Two years later, the ISA initiated Operation Archangel. An ISA armada was launched to Helghan (the planet that Ballistikov is on). in in order to swiftly end the war by capturing Gunther Reinart and thereby pacifying the Second Iron Republic of Ballistikov despite the UCN's orders to merely reestablish a blockade. Reinart had anticipated ISA retaliation and made preparations to defend Helghan at all cost. The ISA invasion force faced fierce resistance from Helghan's air defences and were unprepared to suffer heavy losses from their cruisers being shot down by Arc Cannons, stalling the invasion until the cannons were disabled by ISA-sponsored mercenaries.

ISA fleet moved over the Ballistikovian capital of New Blitzkov and besieged the city. Prior to the invasion, Reinart had the city's population evacuated to Konstantin. A second wave of the ISA invasion fleet, Battle Group Mandrake, was organized by fleet commander and now-Colonel Jan Templar and deployed in the assault of New Blitzkov. The ISA and Ballistikovians fought in a brutal urban warfare, incurring very high casualties on both sides, though the ISA continued their advance and capturing Visari Square and the Ballistikovian Military Academy. However, the Ballistikovians under Colonel Mael Radec activated a network of Arc Towers hidden beneath New Blitzkov which stopped the ISA from attacking the The New Blitzkov Palace. To ensure New Blitzkov's defenses remain standing, Radec had made orders to defend the Petrusite refineries that powered the Arc Towers.

Operation Arch Angel ultimately failed Roughly six months after the failure of Operation Archangel, the Vektan Colonial Government capitulated to the Ballistikovian government's demands, agreeing to a ceasefire. The ISA forces that had been left behind on Helghan waged a guerilla war against the Ballistikovians and attempted to find a way to escape the planet.

In the wake of Reinart's death, a political power struggle developed within the Iron Council between Admiral Orlock of the Ballistikovian Military and Jorhan Stahl, influential chairman of the private weapons manufacturer Stahl Arms, concerning on who would become Visari's successor. Stahl, in a bid to prove himself as more competent to lead Ballistikov's military, developed advanced weapons using irradiated Petrusite gathered from the Pyrrhus nuclear blast zone, such as newly advanced Arc Cannons, irradiated Petrusite-based perimeter defenses and energy shielding, and his experimental flagship which carried hundreds of missiles whose warheads were filled with irradiated Petrusite. Alongside a massive Ballistikovian invasion fleet to accompany his flagship, Stahl planned to eradicate all life on Earth by saturating the entire planet with Petrusite missiles, and thus fulfilling Ballistikov's victory and dominance over the colonies.

However, the power struggle between Orlock and Stahl began to escalate, with Stahl's refusal to hand over his irradiated Petrusite weapons to the military and the successful operations conducted by the ISA remnants, which include the liberation of Captain Jason Narville from a live execution overseen by Stahl. The Iron Senate, having grown tired of Stahl's arrogance and his failure to execute Narville, eventually voted Orlock as Autarch, who then used his new authority to order Stahl to turn over his Petrusite weapons and ships to the First Army. Stahl had no intentions of obeying the new Autarch as he was aware Orlock had made plans on having him executed after securing his weapons. The rivalry came to a violent climax aboard Helghan's spaceport, resulting in the death of Autarch Orlock and the Helghast race being plunged into civil war.

In the midst of this, the ISA remnants were given the opportunity to steal several Ballistikovian transports and to foil Stahl's attack on Earth. ISA soldiers led by Tomas Sevchenko hijacked Ballistikovian's Strike Fighters and attacked Stahl's flagship, destroying its Warp Coil from traveling to Earth and causing the flagship to plummet toward Helghan's surface. When Stahl attempted to land his ship, Sevchenko launched a nuclear missile on the flagship, causing the vessel's irradiated Petrusite arsenal to detonate over Helghan, and Stahl was presumed killed in the explosion. The resulting wave of energized radiation incinerated the entire Ballistikovian invasion fleet, the spaceport, and violently irradiated lots of life on Helghan's surface in what became known as the Terracide. Managing to avoid the cataclysmic explosion in time, the remaining ISA forces under Narville and Sevchenko then made their way back home to Vekta.

Ballistikovian infantry under fire

The UCA fleet destroying the SD platform

Ballistikovian infantry during Operation Archangel

ISA forces in action in Ballistikov's bleak urban slums