Federationist Civil War

Beginning
The Federationist Civil War was a conflict between the corporations of the Commerce Alliance, also known as Corps, and the Northern Star Federation. It lasted from 4834 A.E to 4836 A.E. It is known also as the Civil War, the Corp War and the Merc War. It was one of the smaller major conflicts the Federation was involved in.

After the A.I insurrection that happened in the colony of Vulkania with their riot control robots where eighteen people were killed by three rogue tanks in 4834, the Northern Star Federation outlawed the use of A.I and robots for combat purposes. Another motivation for this law being passed were the several different pirate factions plaguing the Known Galaxy at the time, which were using rogue androids for combat with government forces. With this law being passed, several corporations which mostly produced war and security robots found themselves losing half of their products. This angered these corporations, which united under the name of Commerce Alliance. The Commerce Alliance united several industrial and corporate governed planets, and all of them signed a bill to separate from the Federation and have free reign to produce whatever they wanted, how they wanted. This was not taken well by the Federation Council.

Upon receiving this bill, the first citizen at the time, First Citizen Jackson Ghal, proposed a swift and fierce response to this act of rebellion. The council approved and a small force was sent to the planets that signed the bill in order to intimidate these corporate leaders. However, the Commerce Alliance had been preparing for this response. Arriving in the planets, the Federationist forces were met with squads of privateers, armed to the teeth and armored as walking tanks. The Federal forces were driven to evacuate, and so begun the Federationist Civil War.

The War
Although the Corps were fighting for, primarily, the abolition of the Combat AI Criminalization Act, combat androids at the time were mostly composed of large, bulky AI cannons and artillery, occasionally with heavy armored vehicles and spaceships as well. This resulted in their ground forces being composed of biological soldiers.

The Corps made use of a small, however well armed, army of privateers. Mercenaries hired from the uncharted territories and Low Worlds, trained and equipped with cheap gear the Corps could afford. They made use of cheap, mass produced weapons and armor that put up a fierce fight against the Federal forces. Their main rifle was the SA-80, also known as the "Sabo". It is a bare bones, extremely modular rifle which could be adapted into both a pistol and a sniper rifle. It was a very new and effective design due to its price, modular nature and versatility. Much of the gear and vehicles the privateers used had "bumper sticks" and paint patterns which advertised the corporations in the Alliance as well as sponsors.

The defeat at intimidating the Alliance proved a major blow to the credibility of the Federation. The truth is that with the pirating age, there was a big rush at training new recruits for defending trade ships from pirating, which led to a steep decrease in the quality of the soldiers. The soldiers sent in the intimidation attempt were mere rookies and weren't expected to have to fight.

Within the following months, the Federation would attempt to bribe many of the mercenaries to sabotage their own efforts. Surprisingly enough, an army of mercenaries is very prone to stabbing itself in the back if it meant the other side was paying more. However, there was a clausule in the privateer contract stipulated by the Alliance that any attempt at sabotaging the efforts of the Alliance would be punishable by death. Many mercenaries did not read this part of the contract, as it was in between the lines. Soon, the bribing stopped working.

In 4836 A.E, as a consequence of their expansion during the war, the Federation discovered the Cloud Theocracy in Naruta.

The End
With economical solutions ceasing to work, the Federation was only really left with the choice of fighting the privateers. Although the mercenaries were well equipped, they did not have the training the older, most well trained Federation soldiers had. Most battles ended up in a privateer defeat, unsurprisingly. It would take mere months before the Corps resulted to desperate guerrilla tactics, and eventually they stopped fighting altogether. The surrender occurred in 4836 A.E, and the Commerce Alliance was dissolved. All corporations in the Alliance were nationalized, and this gave way for new ones to emerge. Notably, the android, AI and drone production corporation MechaWorks, which would come to produce the Human Relations Androids in 5034 A.E.

With the uprising and takeover of the factory planet of Mechania in 5045 A.E, the debate about combat androids was brought once again into discussion boards.