The Colony War

Not to be confused with the series "Space Engineers: Colony Wars", over which events of this conflict take place, the Colony War was the conflict between the group of Colonist Survivors led by Captain Jack Roberts against the Drone Reactionary Force, a faction of militaristic drones. While smaller skirmishes broke out between the Colonists and the DRF before the war's beginning, the true conflict would not begin until after the Colonists were driven from their space station, Watchtower Station, by the forces deployed from the DRF Hive. The two sides built bases and warships and fought several key battles before the Green Drone Armada (GDA) emerged from hiding and began conquering the galaxy, ending the Colony War by destroying the two factions at their weakest moment.

First Encounters
Jack Roberts, once a captain in the navy of Redwood Industries (RWI), led his colonists in an easy life of survival on an Earth-like planet in the P3-X2 system. However, when encounters with mysterious purple drone squadrons became more and more frequent, the Colonists found themselves being drawn into an early war with an enemy they did not even know.

One fateful day, a large DRF force attacked the Colonists' base, leading the charge with "Death Wheels" - large floating platforms brandishing heavy 300mm triple-barreled cannons - and backed up by large swarms of rank-and-file A-Bot drones and fast attack drones. The Colonists fought well and managed to destroy all the DRF forces, but not before catastrophic damage was caused to their base and most of their vehicles. This forced them to abandon their ground base in their new rocket and escape to space, where they built Watchtower Station and lived free of drone attacks for some time.

Eventually, the team returned to their ground base using the now-battle-ready rocket and a salvaged corvette called the Vanguard. When they arrived, the DRF had turned the base into a construction facility for new drones. The Colonists infiltrated the base but were soon pinned down by drone forces and their ships were destroyed, only being saved at the last second thanks to the timely arrival of Typhun and his souped-up freighter, the Dawn, which ferried the crew back to Watchtower.

Unfortunately, the DRF leader, Arron, launched a full onslaught of drones at the station, forcing it to jump to lightspeed and come out near the DRF Hive, the main DRF base of operations and construction facility, from which the attack continued. From there, Roberts sent six crew members - Finchy, Dark Lord, Deathdealer, Argo, T-Man, and Max - to sabotage the DRF Hive from within. They succeeded and caused the Hive to split in half, with one half crashing onto the planet and the other half being lost to space. However, the Dawn and Watchtower had both taken too much damage. Watchtower was abandoned and the Dawn was shot down on its way to the planet, causing Roberts and the remaining crew, Craz, Venom, Typhun, and Finn, to be marooned on the planet again. To make matters worse, the infiltration team had all been either brainwashed by Arron or killed. The Hive and the Dawn crashed several kilometers away from each other, on either side of the Colonists' old base.

Rebuilding the Colony
Roberts and the others awoke to find the Dawn broken in two pieces, with wreckage scattered around a DRF staging post, where a cage containing former CSS member iValz (who had gone missing some time prior) and four other men, Drakken, Faz Fazzington, Lewis, and Death King. The five captives joined the crew and began salvaging parts of the Dawn to make a new base, which was soon dubbed "New Dawn Base". The Colonists soon built a collection of rovers and small attack shuttles. Meanwhile, the DRF team led by Arron also began recouping and building a few small drones.

First Engagement
The first major battle of the war occurred a few days later. By this time, Lewis and Death King had gone missing already, but the rest of the crew utilized what vehicles they had to go investigate a set of coordinates obtained from a nearby derelict radar tower, which turned out to be the location of the old colony base. The DRF also somehow acquired the coordinates and the factions reached the base at the same time. The DRF Harambarry, the first large ship of the DRF team, backed up by smaller fighter drones, tore the CSS vehicles to shreds, but the Colonists were able to reach the underground hangars of the base first and secure the area. The DRF soon retreated. Inside the base, Jack and Venom were reunited with their RCSP Wyvern-class Gunship they first built before ever encountering the DRF, and took it back to New Dawn Base to repair it.

Pirate Attack
Soon afterwards, a band of pirates came by the system. A few pirate gunships caused minor damage to the DRF Hive and fleet before being destroyed. Another group attack a small isolated colony outpost, leaving only two survivors, Horza and Ler, who were both picked up by the CSS and joined their ranks.

Preparing for War
Over the next few weeks, both teams began assembling larger warships to attack each other. At some point, the DRF acquired laser cannon technology and outfitted it to a ship which they would use to attack from afar. They also built a ship dubbed "the Caravan" due to its shape and a handful of small ships. Meanwhile, Jack and Venom began designing a heavily armed destroyer, Craz began building a CNL Gunboat MK.I and some retrofitted CNL Raptor-class Fighters, and iValz and Finn began building a helicarrier called the Ironhand. Both factions also built defense emplacements around their bases.

Battle of New Dawn Base
Soon, the DRF were ready to attack the Colonists' base. Unfortunately, as they were about to deploy, a ramming incident occurred which destroyed the laser ship and nearly destroyed the Caravan, although it was repaired quickly. As the destroyer, which was named the Dawnbreaker in memory of the Dawn, and the Ironhand were not finished yet, the Colonists only had the Gunboat, Wyvern, Raptor fighters, and their defense grid to defend the base. Fortunately, these defenses were enough to hold out. The Caravan was destroyed and crashed into the ground just outside the base. In return, the CSS only lost Craz's Gunboat and a few fighters and other support ships, with minor damage to the base and capital ships. Sometime later, Eike Sky, an old friend of Jack's, crashed near the base in a fighter he'd been testing. With nowhere to go and no way to leave the planet, he joined the Colonists and helped them build their ships.

Operation: Return
The next major point in the campaign was the CSS's mission to reclaim the old colony base and use it as a forward staging post to attack the DRF Hive, which Roberts soon located with a scouting run. The Ironhand was brought online and led the charge to the base. When the Colonist forces arrived they began building a defense grid facing the direction of the Hive to defend the old base from future attacks. The following night, the DRF attacked in force, taking down a few CSS fighters and heavily damaging the Ironhand, but they were repelled soon after. The Colonists fell back to their base, gathered a small fleet of welder ships, and returned to the Ironhand's crash site, which was right on the ice lake just outside the old colony base.

The DRF attacked again, destroying the gunboat and a few welders with a long-range laser ship and a new prototype frigate, the Spitfire-class. The Ironhand took even more damage, and the crew eventually made the decision to give it a final voyage by taking it to attack the DRF Hive one last time. Despite the Ironhand's extensive damage, iValz managed to steer the vessel almost entirely to the Hive, but it was destroyed by defensive ships before causing any minor damage, thus ending the operation.

Missile Strikes
In the days leading up to the final battle of the first half of the war, the CSS continued to build the Dawnbreaker and an escort fleet of retrofitted CNL gunboats, outfitted with laser technology. On a few occasions, Jack and Craz converted a few gunboats into cruise missiles and piloted them to the Hive. The goal was to ram the DRF's shipyards and warships that were rapidly being built to counter the Colonists, but the missile strikes were always intercepted by the DRF defense grid before they could do any major damage. During this time, both factions built ships to take them to space if need be. The Colonists built a rocket called the Arrow and the DRF built a large cruiser which they nicknamed "Dora the Planet Explorer".

Battle for the Colony Planet
 For more information on the subject visit: Battle of the Colony Planet 

The midpoint battle in the war wrapped up the conflict on the Earth-like planet the Colonists had been living and fighting on for many weeks. The Colonists and the DRF launched their fleets simultaneously - the CSS Dawnbreaker, CSS Anubis, and five new gunboats were sent to hold the line at the old colony base, using the defense grid to their advantage; the DRF deployed four Spitfire-class Frigates and the Harambarry MK.II, as well as a number of Bee-class Drones to attack them. After a heated battle the evening and night after the fleets deployed, the DRF retreated to the Hive - or so the Colonists thought as they made hasty repairs to the Dawnbreaker using wreckage from the gunboats and the Anubis. The DRF Thunderlane, Spitfire, and Flitter were sent to attack New Dawn Base from the rear, cutting off the Dawnbreaker's retreat and destroying the base. With no choice but to press forward and attack the Hive while it was unguarded, Jack, Horza, and Ler crewed the Dawnbreaker and, like the Ironhand had before, piloted it to its last stand.

Meanwhile, Colonists Finn and iValz snuck under the Hive and planted demolition charges using a secret tunnel dug by Jack and Finn a few weeks prior. As the three Spitfire-class Frigates came up fast on the Dawnbreaker, the Colonist destroyer was bombarded by heavy fire and was downed. At the last second, Finn blew the charges and corrupted the drone software within the Hive, rendering the warships and other vehicles useless and destroying them. Both teams had lost their bases and all their ships but their escape craft, and subsequently, both factions boarded their escape ships and took off into space, leaving the planet behind for good.

Moving to P3-X2
The DRF ship, while in transit to the moon of the Earth-like planet, somehow was diverted off-course and crash-landed on P3-X2, a barren desert planet. They gathered the wreckage into a large mobile base rover and ended up settling in an abandoned outpost in which they built an extensive underground fortress in the side of a mountain.

Meanwhile, the Colonists located the wreckage of Watchtower Station and began repairing it. However, some time later, while Craz and Jack were trying to repair the FTL jump drive, Craz accidentally activated it, warping the Watchtower and the Arrow to P3-X2, where they crashed into an asteroid in the orbit of the world. A salvager named Mr. Castle joined their ranks after his ship was destroyed in the collision. They began expanding the Watchtower into the asteroid, constructing tunnels and production rooms within. Jack and Finn also began working on an atmospheric landing ship called the Pioneer, which they soon used to land on P3-X2’s surface and set up a small base.

Green Drone Threat
Soon after landing, the Colonists discovered Bashful and Lyderian and their huge rover, the Bison. They had been attacked by a mysterious enemy with “green eyes”. The following night, Finn and Eike were attacked by the same enemy on a scouting mission, and the rest of the crew set out to find them and the source of the mysterious enemies. They located a seemingly abandoned bunker and came across a large chamber with a strange man in the middle.

Meanwhile, the DRF mounted up in a convoy of Hedgehog-class Tanks and explored another entrance to the same bunker they found near their base. They soon came across the same room and saw the CSS troops on the other side of the room with the man in the middle - The Controller, leader of the Green Drone Armada, who spoke to the two sides of his war plans and ambushed them with a battalion of A-Bot drones.

Battle of Pioneer Base
A few days after the encounter with the GDA, the DRF scouted out the Colonists’ base, soon after Jack and half the team returned to space to construct a orbital platform to bombard the drones. They soon attacked the Pioneer in force, with three Hedgehogs, a group of Dog-class drones, and a few hover tanks of various sizes. The Colonists had also been working on a pair of hover tanks, but they were unfinished, leaving only the Bison, a bomber built by Lyderian, and the defense emplacements around the Pioneer. The DRF lost most of their vehicles, but not before doing immense damage to the Pioneer and demolishing the Bison. Venom and the rest of the ground team focused on quickly getting the hover tanks operational and repairing the Pioneer for their escape from the planet.

Meanwhile, the CSS Crossbow was launched - a floating aerial bombardment station that used a rotor gun designed by Craz to rain destruction on the DRF base from above. The station managed to do moderate damage, along with the hover tanks, to the DRF base and remaining vehicles, but it was destroyed and crashed down onto the main entrance to the base.

Evacuations
The ground team returned to the Pioneer to find it being ambushed by Green Drones. Venom ordered the evacuation and the Pioneer launched into space, though Lyderian was killed in the chaos. The DRF also evacuated after building a small fleet of ships and escaping to an asteroid cluster in orbit to begin building their deadly naval forces.

Commando Raid
A days weeks later, Jack, Craz, Castle, and Finn took the Arrow down to the surface to investigate the status of the DRF. They arrived at the base and snuck inside to wreak havoc, only to find that the drones had abandoned it and fled to space. Realizing this, the group returned to Watchtower and continued building the CSS fleet.

Attacks on Watchtower
Watchtower would be attacked twice in the following weeks, first by the GDA and then by the DRF. In the first attack, large squadrons of Green Drone A-Bots attacked the station from all sides, doing heavy damage to the Arrow before being repelled. No major damage was done to the Watchtower or any of the ships being built around its shipyard facilities.

The second attack was by the DRF, who used four cruise missiles to strike the Vengeance, the flagship being built by Jack. The Arrow was forced to crash against a nearby asteroid and was destroyed. Heavy damage was done to the Vengeance’s bow and part of the Watchtower’s weapon emplacements, Nevertheless, the Colonists continued to build up their fleet, even taking a new frigate built by Bash to destroy a GDA outpost nearby.

Operation: Return to Sender
The DRF attacked Watchtower again a few days later. This time, it was a hit-and-run style attack during which a ship named The Funky Chicken launched a large hunk of debris at the base, although it missed the Watchtower's asteroid and was destroyed by the rest of the fleet. Meanwhile, Craz's CNL Cruiser and a CNL Interceptor flown by Jack were used to chase off the Funky Chicken and force it to retreat back to the DRF base.

However, the Colonists were ready for a counterattack; Jack had designed cruise missiles similar to the ones the DRF had used against them in the Second Attack on Watchtower Station. Four missiles were scrambled and attached to the CNL Cruiser to carry them to the drones' base. Craz, Bash, Castle, and Ler attempted to pilot the missiles into DRF warships, but they were all shot down. Jack flew the cruiser and used its frontal bombardment cannons to deal damage to a few Silverstream-class Frigates, but was soon forced to retreat after taking some damage.

Battle of the Asteroids
Some time later, a derelict GDA destroyer in a small asteroid cluster began broadcasting a signal that was picked up by both factions, who each quickly scrambled a fleet. The Colonists sent the newly-finished CSS Vengeance, the CNL Cruiser, and two Avalon-class Corvettes, the Avalon and the Odin built by Venom. The DRF sent the Athena, their main transport ship, the frigate Luna Wolf, the orbital station Groundhog, and another ship piloted by DRF member Conrad.

Craz put a holographic projection of the Vengeance around the CNL Cruiser to confuse the drones, and the fleets each jumped to the location. Initially, the Colonists performed quite well, forcing the Athena to retreat and crippling Conrad's starship, although the Avalon, piloted by Venom, took substantial damage. However, as the Groundhog station exchanged long-range fire with the Vengeance and Craz's Cruiser, the Luna Wolf moved in and struck the two ships. The Groundhog was destroyed and the Luna Wolf fell shortly after after a failed ram attempt on the Vengeance. However, since the Colonists' fleet took extensive damage across the fleet, they decided to withdraw from the coordinates as well without the info on the GDA ship.

Battle of the Colonies
 For more information on the subject visit: Battle of the Colonies 

Destruction of Watchtower Station
Some time after the Battle of the Asteroids, Watchtower Station was attacked and invaded by three GDA Destroyers. Though the entirety of the CSS Fleet managed to escape, Watchtower was overrun by GDA infantry drones and A-Bots. Eike Sky was killed in the battle. Meanwhile, the DRF completed separate halves of two battlecruisers, the Excalibur-class and the Turtle-class. With time running out before the final battle, they combined the completed halves of the ships to form the "Exturtle" Dreadnaught.

The Battle Begins
As the two fleets faced off, the first shots were fired and the DRF Silverstream-class Frigates jumped into close range of the Colonist fleet, getting ripped to pieces one by one. Several minutes into the battle, the Exturtle engaged and scattered the CSS's tight formation, leaving each Colonist ship to engage drone ships in one-on-one or one-on-two combat. Finally, the last of the DRF fleet was eliminated except for the Exturtle, but not before dealing catastrophic damage to the CSS ships. The Vengeance and the Exturtle faced off and dealt heavy blows to each other, with the other able CSS ships picking away at the Exturtle's weaponry. The battle dragged on for a while longer before the only ships left were the Exturtle, the Vengeance, and the Avalon. All other ships had been destroyed, abandoned, or crashed onto P3-X2's surface.

End of the War
With the Vengeance and Avalon preparing to face off against the Exturtle one last time, another threat appeared. Five GDA Destroyers were closing in on the two fleets and preparing to fire their Atlas Superlasers. The Avalon was soon destroyed after the Vengeance and Exturtle each destroyed a GDA ship, and with it, Venom was presumed dead. The Exturtle finally fell as well, leaving only the Vengeance against three GDA Destroyers. At the last second, Jack, Finn, and Castle, who were controlling the Vengeance from its CIC, noticed that Craz activated the jump drives, which warped the ship into the unknown.

Aftermath
The end of the Colony War with the Battle of the Colonies also brought about the end of the DRF. Two members, Papple and Finchy, managed to survive the battle and found themselves joining up with the Colonist survivors. Only a small portion of DRF technology remained in the galaxy; scattered around Sector V5-C11 were multiple deactivated Silverstream-class Frigates and in the main asteroid belt of the area was the other half of the original DRF Hive.

The Vengeance and a few wrecks of DRF ships (including the section of the Exturtle carrying Papple and Finchy) crashed on an unnamed Earth-type planet controlled by the GDA, who had unleashed their full might on the galaxy, starting a galaxy-wide war fought against Redwood Industries, Crazy North Logistics, and the Royal Coalition of Spatial Protection. The Vengeance's wreckage remained there throughout the entire war until Finn's and Castle's salvaging organization began to salvage it about a month after the war's end.

During one battle of the war, Jack Roberts and his crew, now in command of the RWI Eclipse, a prototype science corvette, returned to P3-X2, which had since been turned into the capital world of the GDA. Their goal was to investigate and sabotage the GDA's defenses in the system and gather intel for the impending invasion. During the mission, they came across the wreckage field of the ships lost in the Battle of the Colonies. They also journeyed to Watchtower Station, which had been taken over and repaired by the GDA and turned into an orbital defense station. They snuck into the station via the Waffle Iron 2.0, a large swiveling door built by Craz over a cave to cover the shipyards within, and deactivated the defenses on the base, leaving the invasion fleet open to attack the GDA blockade.

Behind the Scenes
The Colony War is the plot of the similarly-named series by Captain Jack, "Space Engineers: Colony Wars". The Colony War brought about many classic ships among the Captain Jack Community, such as the Vengeance and the Dawnbreaker, as well as the "Waffle Iron" and "Salvage!" memes.

Colony Wars was an extension of the preceding series, "Space Engineers: Colony Survival", which was originally meant to be a multiplayer test in Space Engineers with a ten-person survival crew. Colony Wars turned into a bigger and better version of that "multiplayer test", bringing the player count on the server to twenty, stretching the limits of Space Engineers at the time.

Colony Wars is the second series in the Colony Saga, preceded by Colony Survival in late 2017 and followed by Colony Lost in late 2019 and Colony Alliances in mid 2021. Similarly, the Colony War (of Colony Wars) is followed by the Green Drone War (of Colony Lost).