St. Vincent's War
In TN 1723, Northern and Southern units involved in yet another skirmish in the Badlands made a fatal mistake. Fighting over the remains of a colonial medical ship called St. Vincent, they released a deadly epidemic that came to be known as the St. Vincent Plague. This mutated colonial disease did not affect the soldiers, but they became carriers, spreading it with every breath. The Plague was deadly in children and as soon as the forces rotated back home, it spread like wildfire. Within a season, 5% of Terra Nova’s children were dead and the same number maimed for life.
Although a cure was found in time to save the future of the planet, both confederations saw red — unable to face their own culpability, they each blamed the other. A terrible war of retribution ensued.
Over the next few cycles attack after attack was launched across the Badlands and into the poles. Conquest was never the object; vengeance was. Civilian targets were hit along with military ones and tens of thousands died. The war only ended due to exhaustion. The polar economies were collapsing and eventually the Mekong Dominion withdrew its support from the Southern war effort, followed soon thereafter by the Humanist Alliance and Eastern Sun Emirates; a final Northern assault convinced the Republic that the time for peace had come.
The Peace Provisions that ended the war saw national borders sealed for several cycles as the leagues rebuilt. The Badlands economy recovered more quickly and this time saw the birth of Paxton Arms, the Badlands conglomerate that is now the planet’s leading weapons manufacturer.
In an unfortunate coincidence, one of the rare Gateship visits from Caprice occurred during the spread of the Plague. The adult crew unwittingly brought the disease back to the Gate World. Whether the disease spread through Gommorrah is unknown, but trade was apparently suspended for several decades as a result.