Cathayan Invasion

Prelude
Before the First Interplanetary War, the Cathay Middle Kingdom had risen to the height of its golden age. Evermore expanding, it encompassed thousands of inhabited isles and substantial colonies as far as the red wanderer Mars.

But the moment of its greatest triumph was the beginning of its downfall all the same. Despite all its glory, even mighty Cathay could not truly overcome the vastness of the void and neither could it tame the red planet easily.

Too different was Mars from the Cradle Earth, to deep was the abyss between the two worlds, for the pioneers of Cathaya to remain unchanged. The Middle Kingdom had been held together by tradition for centuries, but the hostile nature of the red planet and its unpredictable challenges called for new priorities and compromise. To a regime so much built on the stagnancy of culture and life, such divergence was an affront against all.

Discord was the Cathay Middle Kingdom's greatest threat. The fragmentation had to be quelled as quickly as possible and thus, the Middle Kingdom armed the first interplanetary fleet of war for an invasion unprecedented in human history.

Cathayan Invasion
The First Interplanetary War was not to be one of opposing armadas in space, prolonged bombardment or campaigns on the ground. In its effort to quell the divergence with stern action, the Cathaya Middle Kingdom had but one chance of swift victory.

The single largest expeditionary force the Middle Kingdom could muster and send across the void would have to achieve victory against the Cathayan Colonies of Mars, who would arm every living soul in total war, as they had nothing to lose.

The forces of Cathay
Whilst outnumbering the Colony in every aspect a thousandfold, the Cathay Middle Kingdom was confined greatly by time and technology. There existed no such thing as an interplanetary striking force, and so Cathay mass produced in the shortest possible time an armada of troop transports to cross the Void.

The forces of the Martian Colony
Little is known about the defenders of the Martian Colony. However, the pioneers inhabiting the newly built red world were among the best and most loyal of Cathay's citizens at the time. Forced to diverge by nature itself, they felt betrayal from their own motherland. Led by a new generation seeing the true future on the red planet alone, they would make a population armed and most willing to fight.

Forlorn hope
It is said the end of the Cathay Middle Kingdom had already come long before the invasion was announced. When the magnificent fleet left its berths over the gates of Earth, it was already merely acting out the last scenes of a tragic play. The causes of the downfall were threefold:
 * Firstly, the invasion of another world was without precedent and thus, all planning and training were based on speculation. With no experience to draw from, the invaders were blind, whilst the defenders fought on their own ground a battle of attrition well known to history.
 * Secondly, intelligence was on the defender's side. The colonies would be forewarned of the campaign long in advance and all their capacity would be put to war.
 * Thirdly, the Cathayan Invasion had only a single chance. Failure would spell an end to all efforts to quell the crisis silently with a strong hand.

Arrival
The Cathayan Fleet arrived at the Red Planet unopposed, a stream of silver light riding lances of fusion fire toward victory. All throughout the Solar System, the glorious imagery of the invasion was to be seen, transmitted through the Otherworld by countless souls observing. They saw what little webwork of infrastructure the colony maintained in space fall and with no losses, the fleet was set for invasion.

Rain of fire
As a glittering cloud, the fleet of Cathay descended, raining fire and destruction onto the colony. The great domes of the colony were split. Soon ash and dust filled the Hellas Planitia whole and veiled the destruction of all surface assemblies. Before the first vessels had landed, there was no doubt about the ends of this war. Cathay sought the extermination of divergence, nothing less.

Hidden war
Of what followed, little is told. The rain of fire was turned into streams of landing craft and pods. Waves of automatons and assemblies were soon followed by human forces and entire vessels descended onto the ground, penetrating the surface.

From there began the onslaught onto the core of the colony, the labyrinth of bunkers and lava tubes extending endlessly beneath Hadriacus Mons, which had been drilled deeper and further by the colonists ever since their arrival. Soon after, all feeds of the invasion were cut off by Cathay itself and no more information was given about the successive battles.

It is unknown how long the battle under the mountains of Mars continued, as no word of its outcome ever returned. For the longest time, it was entirely uncertain whether anything survived until the Red Dragon reemerged.

Stranding
The fleet in orbit was left in silence, disallowed from ever returning to the Cradle Earth bearing the shame of their failure. For a long time, it remained in place unchanging, keeping up the appearance of siege or occupation. Before the final fate of the hapless fleet and its commanders could be decided, the Cathay Middle Kingdom had already dissolved and the remains of its forces were scattered like leaves in the wind.

Birth and doom of Cathay
The failure of the Invasion spelled the end of the Age of Cathay whole. Whilst only one in a long chain of events contributing to the Middle Kingdom's downward spiral, it sparked great internal strain reducing the Middle Kingdom to a husk of its former self.

Amid the chaos of defeat, first systems of central connection were rooted in the very core of the disintegrating Middle Kingdom in an effort to retain unity once and for all. From this would eventually be born what is known to be the Central Realm.

Sleeping Dragon
Whilst Cathay turned inward amid struggle and chaos, the fate of the Martian Colony remained entirely unknown.

For long there were speculations ranging from total destruction to alien overlords - until, from the century-old ashes of the First Interplanetary War, the Red Dragon rose, a power forged in the fires of war and hardened by the cold, hard nature of the Red Planet.