Vostol

Overview
Vostol is an ARC colony located only a short 28 light years from the ARC home colony Prestige. The colony is about the size of Venus, and is actually one of the 12 moons of the gas giant Remedy. Vostol is unique to humankind as a whole as it is one of the relatively few habitable moons known to humanity compared to the number of habitable full-sized planets. It was the site of a significant battle between the UNMC and ARC armed forces from the 12th-15th of February, 2337.

History
UNC reports on Vostol are not very clear even as of 2345, even with their occupation of the planet and its star system for a good portion of the Factions War. ARC settlements on the colony were fairly well developed and a medium sized city was already halfway complete at the time of the UNMC invasion, showing that the rebels had been colonizing the moon for at least several years. Vostol's anchor planet Remedy was apparently being mined for helium by the ARC in vast quantities, as well as multiple anti-matter production facilities lined around the system's star Opal, which prompted the protection of 85 ARC Navy ships. The UNMC discovered Vostol from interrogations of ARC naval personnel, and quickly sent a combined UNNF/UNAC fleet into the system to deal with the military occupation.

Battle of the Opal System
The UNMC fleet arrived on the outskirts of the Opal system on February 12th with 60 ships, but did not immediately attack Vostol or any ARC installations, instead sending large contingents of fighter squadrons to distract the ARC sensors. Once in range, the Confederation Navy engaged the UNMC fighters with their own fighter squads near the orbital perimeter of Remedy, but still had to defend their helium mining installations which took away some forces from the main battle. After several minutes, half of the UNMC fleet finally jumped forward and attacked the ARC fleet directly, who then ordered all their fighters to turn attention to the UNMC ships. Several UNMC vessels were damaged by fighter weapons before the enemy squadrons were forced to retreat by a combination of UNMC ship point defenses and UN fighters. The other half of the UNMC fleet then jumped in to the orbital space around Remedy and destroyed 3 of the helium mining structures, only because of the anti-ship defenses installed on them. The entire UN fleet then formed together around remedy and destroyed several ARC ships before the survivors retreated back to the main ARC fleet in orbit of Vostol. Already having lost 19 ships, the ARC fleet was at a decreased state of effectiveness which the UNMC took to their advantage. When the UN fleet jumped to Vostol they simply charged the rebel ships with full force, and subsequently obliterated most of the ARC vessels in minutes with overwhelming firepower. Only 14 ARC ships survived the battle in Vostol's orbit and were able to limp away to the edge of the system, however the UN didn't pursue the ships and instead deployed UNAC forces to Vostol's surface. The UN ground forces only encountered light resistance and were able to defeat the local garrison in a matter of days, ending the battle of the Opal system in a definitive UN victory. 2 Weeks later, an ARC fleet returned to the system and attempted to remove the occupiers from Vostol, but once again failed to defeat the UNMC. After this, the ARC would not return to the Opal system until a month after the Faction War's conclusion. Almost 2 months after the initial occupation, a large UN fleet was gathered and deployed to the Giovanni system from Vostol, leading to the Massacre at Giovanni.

After the war
At the ending of the Factions War, The Opal system was gradually returned to the hands of the ARC who started rebuilding the damaged infrastructure extremely quickly. Vostol only required minor reconstruction as the battle there had been short and not very widespread, and the colony's population greatly increased in the following years due to ARC citizens relocating from other devastated colonies.