The First Trade War

Military: War

While piracy and small skirmishes had arisen locally and on planets, the first real inter-system war was fought 73 years after the discovery of the gates. Two corporations, Agri-Star and Harrison Armory, were in conflict over a resource rich cluster of systems. The Republic tried to intervene but was mostly a toothless organization without any real significant military projection.
  The results were devastating, as whole colonies saw their planets glassed in an attempt to cut the profit margins of each of the corporations. Billions died, dozens of worlds were left a smoldering ruin, and the republic was exposed as mostly ineffective government at the beck and call of whoever had the most money to throw around.