Asteroid Skirmishes

The Asteroid Skirmishes saw an expansion of the Interplanetary Conflict.

History
In the aftermath of the War of the Jovian Moons, the Frieden Movement mounted several raiding campaigns, as did the Koslovics, albeit to a lesser degree. Chief amongst their targets were the lightly defended UN Naval Reserve Stations, which had access to hundreds of aging warships. These obsolete warships, stolen, refitted, and recommissioned, became the first primary combat ships of both navies. After such thievery, the Frieden movement turned its sights towards the mostly unguarded freighters crossing the Sol system. Similarly, they took to raiding various poorly defended asteroid colonies.

With the UN Navy scrambling to protect its assets, recover from the Jovian conflict, and reorganize, and the national fleets uninterested in providing universal convoy protection, a small organization stepped forward to fill the gap. The Unified Space Fleet, a small congregation of less affluent or prideful countries, saw the creation of new space force from what vessels those nations could assemble. In late 2160, the pitifully small USF nevertheless took on the gargantuan task of escorting commercial vessels or responding to distress calls from freighters or colonies alike.

The year of 2161 opened with burgeoning national space forces, including a significantly larger Unified Space Fleet. Despite its size, the USF had successfully defended a number of freighters and colonies from the Frieden movement; in an ironic twist, the USF even defended a trio of pro-Frieden commercial vessels from a Koslovic strike, allowing the freighters to return to Earth. However, it was not until a chance event, when the fleet responded to a distress call by an Indonesia superfreighter known as the KBI Penuh Andalan. The USF engaged a numerically superior Frieden ambush force, rescuing the Penuh Andalan, but taking damage in the process.

The event caught public attention, ultimately resulting in a further increase in the USF's assets; however, the acknowledgment of the Unified Republic of North America was grudgingly given at best, and the nations of the ESA did not acknowledge the USG at all. Despite this, the USF continued its campaign against commerce raiders, eventually culminating in a two-day battle with a Frieden raider task force; in the largest engagement of the USF's history, the Unified Space Fleet bloodily repulsed a superior opponent at tremendous cost.

This action - a small but valiant force taking on insurmountable odds in the defense of others - caught the public eye even more than bloodier Jovian campaign of the previous year. That the Unified Space Fleet had taken hellish casualties in the process gained international appreciation, amplified by the presence of what remained of the broken fleet in orbit over Earth. Still, the sudden fleet movements of August caught everyone off guard; the previously apathetic URNA dispatched the first squadron of their space fleet - with the fleet flagship included - and formed up on the battered USF flagship. Simultaneously, a battle squadron from the United Kingdom formed up alongside. The event marked a change in apparent national outlooks, with the various space forces of 2161 gathering into a single body - the International Fleet.

The I.F. picked up where the USF left off, providing far larger escorts, as well as an improved convoy system, by late 2161. While the asteroid skirmishes would continue well into 2163, the events of 2162 shifted international intention from space to the tropical regions of Central and South America.