The Three-Week War of 2171
In the spring of 2171, twenty-four years after the Cascade, Nexus Dynamics and Ironclad Industries went to war. For three weeks, the two megacorporations fought openly across seven sectors of the Sprawl. When it ended, 847,000 people were dead, entire districts lay in ruins, and both corporations had learned a lesson they've never forgotten:
The Spark
It started over water.
Sector 12-G's aquifer—one of the few unpolluted water sources in the eastern Sprawl—sat beneath territory that both corporations claimed. Ironclad held the physical infrastructure: pumping stations, purification plants, distribution networks. Nexus held the data: monitoring systems, quality controls, distribution algorithms.
For years, they'd maintained an uneasy partnership. Then a drought hit.
Ironclad Director Hassan Volkov ordered output increased by 40% to meet emergency demand. Nexus systems flagged the increase as unsustainable—the aquifer would collapse within eighteen months.
Nexus CEO Helena Voss issued an override, capping output at previous levels. Ironclad's distribution network began rationing water to non-essential customers.
Ironclad security teams attempted to "repair" Nexus monitoring stations. Three Nexus technicians died when their station's security systems activated.
Nexus declared Ironclad in breach of treaty. Ironclad declared the deaths an accident. Neither was lying. Neither was telling the whole truth.
The first shots were fired.
Surgical Strikes
Both corporations believed they could win quickly. Both were wrong.
Nexus Strategy
Disable Ironclad's infrastructure through targeted data attacks. Shut down power grids, scramble logistics, blind their security systems. Force a surrender through systemic collapse.
Ironclad Strategy
Seize Nexus data centers through physical force. Capture their networks, their fragments, their research. Destroy what couldn't be captured.
What Actually Happened
Nexus's attacks were devastating—but Ironclad had hardened their systems after years of corporate competition. Critical infrastructure went down, then came back up on isolated backups.
Ironclad's assaults took ground—but Nexus had distributed their assets too widely. Every data center captured revealed a dozen more they hadn't known about.
Civilian Impact - Week 1
- Rolling blackouts across six sectors
- Water rationing extended to essential services
- Hospital systems crashed and recovered
Escalation
When surgical strikes failed, both sides escalated.
The Refinery Massacre (Day 9)
Ironclad mercenaries stormed a Nexus chemical processing facility. The facility's AI defense systems went autonomous. 2,400 people died—attackers, defenders, and 1,800 workers who couldn't evacuate in time. Neither side claimed responsibility. Neither denied it.
The Grid Collapse (Day 11)
Nexus operatives triggered cascading failures in Sector 8's power grid—an Ironclad stronghold. The blackout lasted 47 hours. Life support systems failed in sealed habitation blocks. 89,000 people died, mostly in their sleep, when air recyclers stopped and backup batteries ran out.
The Data Purge (Day 13)
Ironclad detonated EMP weapons in three Nexus research districts. Decades of development data were lost. Thousands of ongoing medical treatments—managed by Nexus systems—terminated mid-procedure. The death toll was never accurately counted.
Civilian Impact - Week 2
- Entire districts became war zones
- Refugees flooded neutral sectors
- Food distribution collapsed
- Black markets became the only functioning economy
- The Collective began evacuating non-combatants while both corporations accused them of harboring enemy sympathizers
Mutual Destruction
By week three, both sides knew they were losing.
The Assessment
- Nexus: Lost 23% of their data infrastructure, including irreplaceable ORACLE research
- Ironclad: Lost 31% of their manufacturing capacity and two orbital platforms
- Combined civilian deaths: Exceeded 700,000
- Sprawl economy: In freefall
- Military victory: Impossible without self-destruction
The Problem
Stopping meant admitting failure. Neither CEO could accept that. Neither board would allow it. The war machine had momentum, and no one knew how to turn it off.
The Solution Came From Below
On Day 19, a group of mid-level executives from both corporations—people who actually ran the systems that were dying—made unauthorized contact. They met in a bombed-out coffee shop in Sector 7G, neutral ground by virtue of being worthless.
"Continue this war and we'll have nothing left to fight over."
They presented data. Projections. What the Sprawl would look like in a month, three months, a year if the fighting continued. The numbers were apocalyptic.
A ceasefire was declared. Both CEOs announced "strategic pauses for assessment."
The Treaty of Shared Infrastructure was signed.
The Treaty of Shared Infrastructure
The treaty that ended the Three-Week War established principles that still govern corporate relations:
Article 1: Critical Infrastructure Neutrality
Water, power, air processing, and medical systems are declared neutral. No corporation may target, capture, or disrupt these systems during any conflict.
Why it matters: This is why the Sprawl functions despite constant corporate competition. Infrastructure is sacred.
Article 2: The Calculation Doctrine
Before any hostile action, both parties must file "impact assessments" with a neutral arbiter. If projected civilian casualties exceed defined thresholds, the action is prohibited.
Why it matters: War is still possible, but genocide is off the table.
Article 3: Economic Interdependence
Both corporations must maintain minimum trade relationships. Complete economic separation is prohibited.
Why it matters: Neither side can afford to lose the other as a customer. War means losing revenue.
Article 4: The Memory Clause
Both corporations agree to maintain public memorials to the Three-Week War. The dead must be remembered. The cost must never be forgotten.
Why it matters: This is why everyone remembers. Forgetting is literally illegal.
The Death Toll
For context: The Cascade killed 2.1 billion. The Three-Week War killed less than half a percent of that number.
It felt worse.
The Cascade was a disaster—incomprehensible, unstoppable, an act of something beyond human scale. The Three-Week War was a choice. Every death was a decision someone made. The bodies were personal in a way the Cascade's couldn't be.
What People Remember
"I was eight years old. We lived in Sector 8. When the power went out, my father carried me to the emergency exits. They were locked—building management had fled, and the security systems defaulted to lockdown. My father broke his hands getting that door open. Broke them completely. He never told me what we stepped over to get outside."— Anonymous survivor, archived 2175
"The worst part wasn't the dying. It was the efficiency. Both corporations had contingency plans for mass casualties. They knew this could happen. They'd done the math. We were spreadsheet entries."— Former Ironclad logistics coordinator, defected 2173
"Three weeks. That's all it took to show us what we'd built. Not a civilization—a machine. And machines don't care who gets caught in the gears."— Ibrahim Hassan, orbital philosopher
The Phrase Everyone Knows
When someone in the Sprawl wants to warn against reckless action, they say:
"Remember Sector 8."
It means: This path leads to 89,000 people dying in their sleep because the air stopped and no one could get the doors open.
It usually works.
The Aftermath
For Nexus Dynamics
The war accelerated Helena Voss's ORACLE integration. She'd been cautious before—the fragments were unpredictable. After watching her corporation nearly destroy itself, she decided unpredictability was better than human decision-making. She integrated deeper. The current Voss is as much ORACLE as human.
For Ironclad Industries
Ironclad learned to value maintenance over expansion. Before the war, they'd been aggressive—constantly pushing into new territory, acquiring competitors, growing. After, they focused on what they had. Better to control fewer systems reliably than many systems poorly.
For The Collective
The war was an opportunity. While the corporations fought, The Collective evacuated civilians, preserved data, and established new cells in territories both sides had abandoned. Their Operation Blackout—intercepting an ORACLE fragment convoy—happened during week two, when Nexus security was focused elsewhere.
For the Sprawl
The Three-Week War ended the illusion that corporate competition was benign. Before 2171, people believed the megacorporations were constrained by self-interest. After, everyone understood the truth:
Self-interest can become mutual destruction if no one blinks first.
Why No One Wants a Repeat
The Treaty of Shared Infrastructure has held for thirteen years. It's been tested—there have been skirmishes, proxy conflicts, economic warfare—but no one has crossed the red lines.
The Official Reason
The treaty works. Both sides benefit from stability.
The Real Reason
The mid-level executives who brokered the ceasefire? They're now senior leadership in both corporations. They remember what they saw in that bombed-out coffee shop. They remember the projections.
And they know something their predecessors didn't:
The next war won't last three weeks. The next war won't end. The next war will finish what the Cascade started.
Connections to Present Day
Solomon Park
Was a young trader during the war. Made his fortune in the chaos—and swore never to let that chaos return. His neutrality isn't moral; it's practical. He's seen what happens when the system breaks.
Director Abbas Okonkwo
Lost his first wife and two children in the Sector 8 blackout. He doesn't discuss it. His obsession with infrastructure reliability started there.
The NCC Hospital Incident
During the war, Ironclad tried to seize a Neo-Catholic Church hospital for use as a field base. The Church's legal response—and victory—established them as a neutral power. That precedent began during the Three-Week War.