Earth Alliance Civil War
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The Earth Alliance Civil War is an armed conflict in the Babylon 5 series, in which President Clark dissolves the Earth senate and orders martial law throughout the Earth Alliance worlds. It formed a major element of the show in seasons 3 and 4.
EarthForce's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General William Hague, had suspected for a long time that Clark was involved in the assassination of former President Luis Santiago, and had begun a low-level counter-conspiracy that included Captain John Sheridan. Because of Sheridan's war record, Clark thought he would be an anti-alien warhawk that would support him. However, he didn't realize that Sheridan was completely loyal to the truth and considered aliens to be (potential) allies. Sheridan eventually persuaded the Babylon 5 command staff officers to join the counter-conspiracy.
A year after ascending to the presidency, Clark's doctor gave testimony that Clark's claim that a case of the flu kept him off of Earth Force One was a lie, that he hadn't been sick at all. In danger of the truth of his assassination conspiracy coming to light, President Clark acted quickly: citing the appearance of an alien vessel near Ganymede that destroyed a base there, President Clark declared martial law throughout the Earth Alliance. Earthforce troops stormed the Senate building to put a stop to any impeachment hearings, then stormed the office of the military Chiefs of Staff who weren't loyal to Clark. Military patrols were then put on the streets in every major Earth city. The Interstellar Network News, revealed that they had been intimidated into keeping quiet about what they knew about what Clark was doing the last year, EarthForce troops were descended on the ISN building and cut the transmission.
Before he could be captured, General Hague attempted an unsuccessful counter-insurgency. With only five Omega class destroyers Hague tried to escape the Solar System at the Io Jump Gate transfer point, but was intercepted by a Clark-loyal fleet. Only Hague's own flagship was able to escape, the EAS Alexander.
The governor of Mars publicly stated that he would defy Clark's order and not implement martial law. In retaliation, President Clark ordered the full scale carpet bombing of civilian population centers on Mars. Other outer planets like Orion 7 and Proxima 3 had seceded from the Earth Alliance in protest, and set themselves up as independent states. EarthForce achieved space superiority over Orion 7 and Proxima 3, which were now cut off; Earthforce was now occupying Mars, and though there was fierce groundfighting the Martians were losing. Effectively, Babylon 5 was the only Earth Alliance planet or base that President Clark did not control.
The EAS Alexander stopped at Babylon 5 for repairs, as Captain Sheridan said they would render humanitarian aid in repairing them. Unfortunately, General Hague had died from wounds en-route. Then Captain Hiroshi's EAS Churchill, another Hague-loyal Omega-class destroyer, arrived at B5. In a public transmission, Sheridan announced Babylon 5 had declared its independence of the Earth Alliance, seceding to "function as an independent state until President Clark is removed from office".
An EarthForce fleet of two Omega class destroyers, the Agrippa and Roanoke, and many wings of Starfuries were headed for Babylon 5 to arrest the command staff and put it under jurisdiction of Nightwatch. In the resulting battle the EAS Churchill was critically damaged and rammed one of the Clark-loyal ships, destroying both. Babylon 5's defense grid fired the final volleys to destroy the other, as opposing Starfuries engaged in dogfights and Clark-loyal commando squads boarded the station, resulting in costly fighting against the Babylon 5 security forces and Narn supporters. Ultimately, the Minbari Delenn intervened, promising to destroy any Earthforce ships that tried to attack Babylon 5. The EarthForce Ships retreated. Babylon 5 would become the bastion of opposition against Clark.
Sheridan defeated the EarthForce vessels blockading Proxima III. He managed to destroy one of Clark's ships, and another was seriously damaged. The remaining ships defected to Sheridan's side. Over the next several weeks, Sheridan's forces began a systematic campaign against Clark's forces. Even though Sheridan was furious over the killing of innocent civilians, he took great care not to kill Earth Force personnel unless left with no choice. Large numbers of Earth Force personnel defected. Eventually, Sheridan was lured to Mars when his father was captured by Clark's forces. Sheridan himself was captured and tortured for over a week, but refused to be broken. Eventually Sheridan was rescued by Michael Garibaldi, Lyta Alexander, and Dr. Stephen Franklin, and returned to the fleet.
Clark decided to trap Sheridan's forces with advanced model destroyers which had been fitted with Shadow technology. When Commander Susan Ivanova learned of this, she took the White Star ships in the fleet, and engaged the destroyers. She managed to destroy all the vessels, but was seriously injured in the process.
Sheridan then allied with the Martian resistance to defeat Clark. In the Battle of Mars, most of Clark's fleet deployed to meet Sheridan head on. However, the Martian resistance smuggled many Shadow-altered telepaths onto their vessels, which when activated disabled 25 out of 35 destroyers without firing a shot. Sheridan then took the fleet directly to Earth, and sent a message saying that they had come home to end Clark's tyranny.
Finally, the resistance on Earth had the support they needed. Senator Crosby led a group of people to Clark's office with the intention of placing him under arrest. Realizing that he would soon be captured, Clark committed suicide with a PPG. In one last vindictive act, he turned the planetary defense grid back on to Earth. The weapons would have destroyed 40% of the planet's surface. Sheridan and his forces quickly moved to destroy the platforms.
After Clark's suicide, Susanna Luchenko of the Russian Consortium was named President. Former ISN reporters were freed, and returned almost immediately to their jobs. ISN was no longer the new order's propaganda arm. President Luchenko announced that the justice department would prosecute those who had committed crimes during Clark's reign of terror. She forced Sheridan to resign, he agreed to do so after Luchenko offered amnesty to those who had followed Sheridan. Once Sheridan got her to agree to put the amnesty in writing, he resigned as an Earth Force officer, and was soon elected President of the newly formed Interstellar Alliance.
After his overthrow, in exchange for their aid, Sheridan declared Mars independent.
