After decades of construction and funding the scientists and engineers of the Scummer Assembly had completed an intergalactic marvel: a stellar particle accelerator. The particle accelerator had been constructed around the MafiaScum star, and will allow us to study the building blocks of reality to an extent we could previously only dream of!
An interstellar habitat had also finished construction! Built in orbit of the gas giant which Meat World circled a second Serene Home had been founded, this time around a known stable star as well as engineered to perfection to exclude the possibility of natural disaster. The station could house billions of Scummers, but was mostly intended for the poor Snail Duders.
Following these leaps in scientific progress a number within our empire suggested an idea to the Assembly: a galactic space race. To promote peace in our volatile galaxy as well as facilitate technological exchange we could host a race in deep space pitting the technology of each individual civilisation against one another to prove who is best. It would consist of a number of competitions, to weigh the merit of the ships and pilots entered. The SIA was highly enthusiastic about this idea and swiftly approved a motion releasing funds to realise it.
At roughly the same an election was called, as the Assembly had lost faith in its president Bellaphant of the Silver Guard. Having seen how the supremacists approached politics the Scummers overwhelmingly voted for Maestro of the Free Thought Council. He won with 61% of all the votes, a change back the old way of things.
Shortly after the elections we received a transmission from the Postie Interstellar Confederacy... we haven't heard of these guys before?! The transmission was forwarded to the Assembly. The PIC was an ex-slave colony from the territories of Mafia Universe that had declared independence after a long struggle for freedom. They admired our Egalitarian way of life, hearing how the Posties that had moved to our planets lived in abundance and prosperity... they wanted to join us. We graciously accepted. That Mafia Universe was enslaving those it captured in war was new information to the Assembly, and severely soured an already shaky diplomatic relationship.
Anyhow, 7 other civilisations accepted the invite to participate in the Space Race. During the first rounds our own team was eliminated due to insufficient shield capacity... The other nations carried on however and within a month the winners had been decided!
Despite the peaceful message the Space Race embodied the SIA forwarded the first confederate motion to vote upon: a declaration of war upon Forum-62. Forum 62 withheld our ships from reaching Postie planets to help defend them against the rising threat of both the Nameless and the Mafia-451. The Forum-62 inhabitants were known religious zealots that enslaved all races they deemed as lesser, cutting them off from the rest of the galaxy would limit their income and potential to further the galactic slave trade. The Postie's agreed, and war was upon us!
Two other declarations of war were made by other parties as well:
The Wortsarians had long withheld themselves from entering any war or conflict, times however had change and it had become a matter of strike first or lose. The Druthean Archivists were the other ancient fallen empire within our galaxy, far preceding our own civilisation. They had never interacted with anyone until now, but apparently the Mafia-451's rise had not gone unnoticed.
Our own war was waged throughout the coming 7 years... and we were partially successful. Our fleets brought destruction upon the navy of Forum-62, yet we were unable to seize control of all the star-systems required to create a safe passageway to the inner rings of the galaxy.