Sauran Theatre

Sauran liberate Zaretian slave colony
Sauran of the Forces of Freedom raided a sizeable Zaretian slave colony in an effort to free the prisoners. After a brief skirmish, they forced the defenders to retreat. But as they reached the slave holding area, they encountered the prisoners, who had managed to overthrow the guards and escape on their own, though it is unlikely that they would have been able to progress any further without the Solidarity's aid. The monarchy retaliated by declaring war on the Sauran and launching several probing attacks into Sauran space.

Stormbreaker
As the Sauran wing of Stormbreaker was advancing, one of their fleets came across a world that was in the process of being strip-mined by an unknown alien race. The Sauran admiral, a devout member of the Sustainers of Nature, ordered his men to deploy to the planet, of which 20% of the surface had been rendered uninhabitable, to put a stop to the alien's operations. A small strike team was deployed to disable an anti-air battery so that the main force could land. The guns were destroyed, but the aliens retaliated almost immediately and in vast numbers, pushing the Sauran back to their landing zone. Unable to advance and at risk of being overwhelmed, the Sauran activated a distress signal which caught the attention of a nearby Diabloian task force, which moved to support the Sauran. The Kastalians, who had been silently monitoring the situation, also intervened. After another round of fighting, the combined Peacekeeper assault successfully repelled the aliens from the planet. The aliens, calling themselves Asanians, vowed vengeance against the intruders, warning the Peacekeepers that their mistake had cost them their future.

Downfall
The Asanian Syndicate and the Margan both had a strong desire to eliminate the Sauran Solidarity as they saw the Sauran as the antithesis to their very way of life. When the Sauran wing of sledgehammer was being planned, the Asanians petitioned to spearhead the assault, causing some irritation with General Ganos, who had been leading the Sauran front for most of the war. The Margan, seeking to further prove the Syndicate's worth to wary allies and confident that a combined assault could devastate the Solidarity, supported the Syndicate. Frustrated, Ganos decided his forces would engage a second front with the Solidarity while the Asanians and Margan opened a second combined front elsewhere.

The Margan and Asanians slammed into the Sauran's defenses, who were not prepared for the Syndicate's forces. As the Solidarity redirected fleets to the front, Ganos struck, breaching a hole in the Solidarity's now thinned defenses. Asanian and Margan forces dug deep into the Sauran's outer colonies, indiscriminately destroying everything in their wake and killing civilians and soldiers alike. With the Solidarity focusing most of their efforts on the combined assault, Ganos focused on capturing and holding colonies to establish a new foothold within Sauran space; though some of those captured by Zaretian forces would be brought back to the Monarchy as slaves, most were instead executed to satiate Ganos' temper. When Operation Downfall was initiated, the Zaretians ended their offensive, pulling back into their newly captured colonies. The Syndicate, meanwhile, continued to engage despite the Hammer Dynasty relocating to Norsus.

During the invasion, the Sauran were contacted by representatives of the Repzork Empire, who requested an audience with representatives from the Council of Aradan on the remote neutral colony of Sethyr. The Solidarity reluctantly accepted, and sent Na'dak and Commander Lunéss Zru, who were met by Ambassador Orva. The Ambassador explained that the Repzork were intent on eliminating both the Margan and the Asanian Syndicate once the Great War had concluded, and that the Repzork sought to acquire the Sauran's advanced terraforming technology in exchange for offering the Sauran safe refuge from their enemies in the event that their empire collapsed, though with the implication that they would become a client state in the process. The Marshal's Council, whom Orva referred to as his 'benefactors', planned to use the terraforming to undo the damage the two Warlord powers had caused to 'Oltavar's Grand Design' and that the capacity to undo the Margan's work would serve as a trump card in the eventual conflict.