Hivan War

The Hivan War was the first (and thus far only) invasion of the Web of Worlds from places outside its boundaries. It began in the year 30 WR with the arrival of the Hiveworld in the Crystal Dimension.

Upon its arrival in Crystal, the Hiveworld launched several Colonizers through the numerous space travel portals that connect with Crystalspace. The coordination of the Hivan landings was executed with such precision that most believe the Hiveworld had scouted out the Web of World for invasion prior to their arrival.

Colony Bases for the Hivan Invasion

• Crystal Dimension, in the woods of Toroia.
• Gate Dimension, in Fiona's Woods in central Zenan.
• Dragon Dimension, in the North, near Romero. The Hivans also raised the ruins of Agua and used it as an air fortress for Wasp assaults on Winlan.
• Merge Dimension, in the Quelban forests of Bal.
• Mana Dimension, in the Upperlands forest.
• Esper Dimension, in Narshe.

Early War: The Hivan Advantage

After each Colonizer landed, a burrow was hastily constructed and Battlesuit-wearing Hivan Soldiers fanned out to establish perimeters around their colonial bases. In Esper this meant the mass evacuation of Narshe, while bitter fights were waged in Toroia, Guardia, Winlan, Tasnica and Bal to keep the Hivans at bay. The Guardian city of New Dorino fell and was evacuated under the advance of the Hivans northward, but Toroia, Bal and Winlan managed (at great cost) to hold a defensive line from the initial assault. Tasnica went on defensive alert as the Hivans began to spread across Euser, and the native Moogles of the Upperlands were evacuated.

It took the Grand Army some time to mobilize in response to the Hivan threat. This was the first and thus far only war the Grand Army has fought without Celiose Cole at its head, as Celiose had been removed from his post as Generalissimo by the House of Lords for refusing to forcibly disarm the OmniSent. The change in leadership was painfully evidenced in tactical blunders early in the war; the mismanagement of the new Generalissimo is at least partly to blame for the expansion of the Hivan lines in Toroia, and the incursion into Mandala and other territories neighboring the Upperlands in Mana. In Dragon, the Luftwaffe was able to contain the spread of the Hivans and keep them from Winlan, but a secondary spread had already begun southward, toward Scande. In response, Halder Skalice was mobilized and SLCM-Ground was tasked with maintaining a defensive line at Spring.

In Gate, the Hivans moved both North and South. GA Sixth and Tenth Armies were stationed in Bangor and Porre, respectively, to contain the Hivan advance. While the Hivans did not press their lines forward to meet with the Tenth in Porre, they did attempt to push up across the Zenan Bridge into Guardia Proper. Some of the fiercest battles of the war were fought across the Zenan Strait, earning General Model Steinmetz heroic status in Guardia. Model Square was erected and named in General Model's honor following the war, and Model was thereafter known as the "Guardian Angel." The Hivans also spread East, through subterranean caverns in the Keldark Valley into Medina, where Jarrod Rogue met them with the Medinan Army.

The reports from each battle were grim, at best. The arrival of terrible Hivan war machines, like the aerial Wasps and the gargantuan Big Ones, struck great fear into the hearts of the people of the Web.

The Web Fights Back

The Web's counter-offensive broke the strength of the Hivan advance. Surprise had been the Hivans' chief advantage early in the war, but once Celiose Cole was restored to his post it was the beginning of the end for the invaders. A secret mission to scout out the Hiveworld was staged by a small cadre of Celpo agents lead by the Kuvallan King Kusader and the Celpo agent Union. Through Kusader's psionics, the Web learned much about Hivan mentality and strategic thinking, and the Grand Army put this knowledge to use in routing out the Hive's colonies in all the dimensions they had attacked.

While the Web's champions were cleaning up the remnants of the Colonization forces, the Guardians and their space fleet were tasked with actually destroying the source of the Hivans. As the Web's only militarized space fleet at the time, the Guardians gladly undertook this task. Bio-chemical agents devised by MerthCorp were weaponized and employed by Guardian bombers to attack the Hiveworld, while waves and waves of Guardian fighters and capital ships engaged the Hiveworld's defenders.

In the end, the chemical agents wiped out all life on the Hiveworld, and to this day it remains uninhabitable, locked into its orbit around Crystal III; a silent memorial to the first extra-Web invasion.

Aftermath

• The GSF established the Crystalspace Fleet, originally as a measure of quarantine to make sure no more Hivans emerged from the Hiveworld. The Defiance colony was established as an anchorage for the fleet. From here, Guardia would go on to establish fleets and colonies in several other Dimensions, in partnership with the Gate Three.
• The arrival of a hostile force from outside the Web was a wakeup call for several other nations, and the Grand Army itself. Nations like the Esper Union, Scande and Tasnica would eventually follow Guardia's lead and begin construction of massive space fleets and colonies, originally as a measure of Web defense, but later it developed into an expression of national power and pride. The Grand Army would also build SAGA and the Sentry Stations.
• Tasnica expanded after the Hivans had been purged from the Mana Dimension, annexing and granting statehood to the Upperlands, Mandala and Matango. Though already the largest nation in Mana with dominance over the Woldheim and most of the Euser continent, the aquisition of these post-Hivan War territories left only Kakkara and Pandora outside direct Tasnican control in the Dimension.