The Vitari ( Fortiserpens Kinensis , Hardy Serpent of the Kin ), are a reptilian race from the Yuravin Expanse of the mutual periphery between the three great powers. Their home world, Verisk, is located in the center of the Expanse at the center of a corridor of systems thought to have been created by the passage of a black hole. This corridor represents the only means of passage across the expanse for several thousand light-years. By the time this pathway was discovered by the Imperium and the Alliance the Vitari had already expanded to both ends of the corridor.
The Imperial operation to conquer the Nyfreta System begins.
The United American Navy commences operations.
With orbital support to the nearly million strong Imperial ground force severed the next phase of the plan is kicked off with the release of 5th Gesir-Panzer Corps of the Vitari Surface Forces and two fully equipped UAS Marine Divisions for general operations. Having been hidden under holographic canopies or in specially prepared underground shelters they rapidly organize into staging areas upriver from the Imperial push and then come thundering south.
The fight over Nyfreta III continues for another hour as a combined effort by exo-system strike craft and the pair of marauding Hood class strike ships soon exterminate or drive off most Imperial space assets. The task of seeding the local space with mines and hunter killer satellites begins alongside an effort to recover any Imperial survivors.