November 2245 - Regula
The Regula colony hadn't any inhabitable (or even terraformable) planet, but still had many purposes for the Earthers. Mining of rare earths (which, well, were not so rare thanks to more than thirty available star systems, but people kept calling them rare anyway) and waters (from comets), astronomical and geological studies, and more importantly, security. The system was the key to Beta Durani (a major colony) and also allowed access to Katepyn (itself a very important outpost).
On its south, were a route to the Torata Regency, and another that linked to the Ventuki Conglomerate (Vree), the Moradi Kingdom and the Thrakallan Imperium.
The Torata had a long history of conquest on their own homeworld, and when they went in space, had constantly battled with their neighbors (the EA, the Vree, Kor-Lyans and Thrakallans) to take border systems they coveted.
They had also learnt to not mess with the Earth Alliance in the 2220s, but now, because of the Minbari War, they made regular probes in Regula, and it was well-known they really coveted Beta Durani, Katepyn and Ross 128 too.
Two or three times per month, the Torata Border Fleet sent fleets in the system, hoping to see it abandoned. They avoided combat because the Torata Navy was small, and the Torata preferred to wait until the humans were destroyed, or their fleet forced to abandon the border systems.
The Earthers were getting used to this. This time, ten jump points opened. But instead of the usal small fleets, 34 Golthar cruisers escorted by 68 Atlac corvettes, and 1,870 Tuka fighters entered the system.
The 20 Hyperion and 30 Olymus frigates defending the system, with their 1,200 Starfuries, were on alert, as they were every time the Torata came, but everyone was still surprised when the Torata actually fired. Instead of dealing with both the human cruisers and fighters, the Torata fired their 408 laser accelerators and 1190 particle accelerators (mounted on the Golthar and Atlac for the particle accelerators, Golthar only for the lasers), and their 3740 light cannon particles (mounted on the Tuka), all at once, targeting the 20 Hyperions only.
The Torata weapons were not very powerful (that was the price of their light weight and small size), but they were accurate. The first collective shot put the Hyperions out of fight, and the second collective shot pierced the hulls, causing the air to escape and the human crews to die, sometimes slowly. Nobody would be able to assist them in time.
The Starfuries raced to fight the Torata fleet, but the Torata, when designing their ships, had gambled everything on speed and maneuvrability. So, the ships escaped the wrath of the Stafuries (going all in different directions), except for a few corvettes that were destroyed.
Then, the Torata put a minefield on the jumpgate, and deployed 7,000 Tolgat unmanned defence platforms. Then, either the Starfury pilots died in space from lack of air, self-destructed, or tried a bonzai charge on the Torata fleet, which was shredded by the Tolgats and the fleet.
The next day, the Torata repeated this in Katepyn, and then on Ross 128 (which the humans could only access through Katepyn). The Earthers had effectively been cut from the Thrakallans, the Moradi and more importantly, the Vree.
The Torata were not alone in this. The Ch'lona Cooperatives and the Koulani Directorate had attacked since August 2245. In their first attack, the Ch'lonas even managed to land on Signet, and the Koulani on Delphi, before both were repelled. Then, they made small-scale raids for months.
In November, the Ch'lonas and Koulani brought overwhelming forces to Signet and Delphi too. The Earthers, as usual, expected mere raids. They lost the two planets.
It became clear that the three powers had coordinated the thing, lulling the Earthers into a false sense of safety (with only probes or small attacks), and then struck all together.
The EFNI was surprised at this level of coordination, since the Koulani and Ch'lona (even if they had allied around 2169 against the EA) usually fought each other and the Torata were loners. This failure of intelligence was a black mark for the service, but it would be mostly forgiven, considering the EFNI had to focus on the Minbari threat.
The three vulture nations were confident that, with the Minbari War, the Earthers would be unable to respond, and that they would be soon dead anyway. They were wrong.
AN : According to the maps, the Centauri are "north" and "north-west" to the EA, the Narn are "north east", the League is "east" (and continues behind the Narn territory), the Minbari are "west". And there are a lot of species mentioned in the Galactic Guide and the roleplay sourcebooks that like "south", such as the Thrakallans, Tokati, Torata, Ch'lona and Koulani. The three last species were in constant small-scale conflict with the EA, their other neighbors and sometimes each other.