First Contact War (2167)

The First Contact War in 2167 was a short conflict between the Malsuth Empire and the Corrundian Empire. It was sparked by a misinterpreted joke made by the Malsuth Diplomat Falvien Brutin Galden to the Corrundian diplomatic party.

Background
The Malsuth Empire was an uncontacted hermit civilization that had several colonies within their local space, densely populated core worlds that supported a relatively advanced Empire that relied on interstellar gates rather than ship-based FTL for interstellar travel. The Malsuth Empire had been unified for several thousand years preceeding First Contact and culture bleed eventually gave way to it being acceptable for a Malsuth being rather relaxed in their conduct, no matter the situation's importance. This resulted in the Malsuth diplomat dealing with the Corrundian party to make a ill-fated joke which resulted in a plasma bolt fired from the Corrundian head diplomat taking his arm off, and him being subjected to a faux execution and placed into hiding.

The Battle of Malsuth Prime
The only battle of the war, the Battle of Malsuth Prime was a short skirmish between the Malsuth Navy and the Corrundian Navy. The Malsuth Navy was a ill-prepared fleet which was setup for anti-piracy duties rather than a full-fledged war against a interstellar enemy. The Malsuth Fleet however preformed far more admirably and effectively than expected of for a fleet with barely any conventional weapons and no point defense. Novvysk-Class Light Frigates using their EMP Missiles as a rudimentary Point Defense helped to keep Corrundian missiles off of the MNLD Sweden, while the Sweden kept most Corrundian fire off of the Novvysks.

The Corrundian Fleet started the battle as a 40 ship fleet under the command of Command Marshal Boren Wurghast, who eventually called in for 40 more reinforcements to bring the final total of Corrundian vessels taking part in the battle to 80. The Corrundian Fleet began the battle by attempting to take down the Sweden, a goal not completed. However the Corrundian Fleet did manage to give the Sweden severe hull damage which led to the vessel being destroyed completely in a later engagement in the orbit of Malsuth Prime due to failures in the superstructure's connection with the vessel's armour, resulting in plasma splitting the vessel open and flooding it under sustained fire. The Corrundian Fleet then switched its objective to destroying Malsuth shipyards as a strategic attack against the Malsuth. The Malsuth then gave in and re-opened negotiation channels with the Corrundian Empire.

Aftermath
The direct aftermath of the First Contact War is the opening of borders and trade between the Malsuth and Corrundian Empires. It also set the stage for the Malsuth emergial on the cluster political scene, allowing them to become a modern cluster superpower. The long-term aftermath would be the lingering animosity in the Malsuth Empire, starting the Malsuth-Corrundian hostilities. Said hostilities exploding in 2174 with the Malsuth-Corrundian War.