Legend of Galactic Heroes:
The Fall of Iserlohn
In one small part of space, a war continues. In war there can only be one victor. Space is an uninhabited wilderness and bloody wounds disappear with time. Maybe the multitude of stars in the sky remember those wounds. Maybe it is fated that even those stars will vanish one eday. Man's presence in the midst of these stars is all that remains of a forgotten battle.
At this time, in the middle of the universe, an insignificant island, a galaxy, was at war. The combatants are the Galactic Empire, or the Galaktische Reich, a nation based on autocracy and absolute monarchy, and the Free Planets Alliance, based on democracy.
Trading with both sides is the small city-state of Phezzan, a feudal territory founded at the beginning of the war. Remaining neutral in the conflict, it watches both sides battle.
The war has been going for 150 years.
The date is Space Year (Universe Calendar) January 796, Imperial Year (Reich Calendar) 487. The Battle of Astate rages on between the Alliance's Combined Fleet against Reinhard von Lohengramm's fleets. Even though the Alliance outnumbered the Reich forces 3:1, and they initially surrounded the Imperials, Reinhard managed to device a strategy that ultimately lead to a victory.
However, this victory wasn't total, for an Alliance officer, Commodore Yang Wenli, deviced a counter-strategy which allowed the Alliance to diminish its already heavy losses and allow them to retreat.
Despite this, however, this insignificant conflict would soon be seen by how Yang Wenli described it: an unnecessary, stupid war that only caused further division and weakness in humanity.
Something that would prove fatal for the oncoming onslaught.