Dalhart War

The Dalhart War (10,612–10,623 NE) was a major regional conflict in the galactic south of the Unified Vespian Directorate. The war was the fifth major houseless offensive in the galaxy, and at the time of the conflict, the second-largest of its kind. The war is widely studied and researched by Vespians within the Vespian Defense Forces and the Houseless clans, due largely to the fact that the houseless involved in the war took over a considerable portion of the Directorate, successfully took over Breach in The Wall, and conquered two heavily populated and industrialized sectorial capitals within the span of eleven years, all whilst holding off three-pronged counterattack by the federal government forces.

The conflict began with the Dalhart Uprising on Dalhart, a notorious penal colony home to some of the most vicious criminals of the Vespian species. Led by the Powell sisters, Scarlett and Felicia, the prisoners on Dalhart revolted against the authorities on the planet, killing most of the garrison there, and cutting off communication with the rest of the Directorate in preparation for plans to carve out a fiefdom of their own catering to the needs of other Houseless Vespians. As with most conflicts, the Vespian Defense Forces was slow to react, granting the Houseless prisoners under the command of the Powell sisters to launch an offensive using the warships stolen from the decimated garrison. The war finally came to an end when both Powell sisters and their lieutenants were killed in battle, and Dalhart seized from the prisoners.

The defeats suffered at the hands of the Houseless had once again stained the reputation of the federal military forces, and forced the government to implement a series of military reforms to increase the response time of the Vespian Defense Forces in future crises. Furthermore, harsh protocols dealing with prison revolts were also implemented by the government to handle any future problems with the prisoner population on other penal colonies. Finally, given the fact that many of the fighters on the Houseless side came, not from the penal colony of Dalhart, but from the Houseless clans already operating in the region, the military was quick to dispatch several taskforces to promptly locate and kill the leaders of those clans.