Legend of the Galactic Heroes

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Legend of the Galactic Heroes (LotGH) is basically Japanese Star Trek... if Star Trek was about Alexander the Great conquering space in order to settle a long running debate with his nemesis about the relative merits of dictatorship vs representative democracy.

Epic space war. Humans fighting humans. Death Stars colliding. Peaceful protesters getting nuked. Manly men in power armor hacking at each other with axes. Exterminators used on Mormons. Eighty proof coffee. Foppery and whim. And above all else, good people, remarkable people, being killed meaninglessly.

The Basics

LotGH follows two commanders on opposite sides of a space war, alternating between their perspectives between chapters and episodes:

Yang Wenli

Representing the righteous freedom fighters of the Free Planets Alliance we have Admiral Yang Wenli, a reluctant soldier who enlisted because he wanted to be a historian but couldn't afford college. His coffee is straight brandy, and he wins his battles running away. Yang wants nothing more than to conclude the war in a peaceful stalemate so that FPA is still around to pay his pension, but freely admits that if he'd been born in the Empire, he'd be happily fighting for Reinhard.

Reinhard von Lohengramm

Fighting for the Imperious forces of the Goldenbaum Dynasty of the Galactic Empire, we have Reinhard von Lohengramm. Fighting to save his sister by taking over the entire goddamn galaxy. Has sex once before dying of space-AIDS literally days after conquering everything. Lost his best friend to assassins, lost his nemesis to religious terrorists; got revenge for both of them.

Plot

The main story of LotGH begins in the year 796 UC. Roughly 300 years prior, the founders of the FPA had escaped the Empire in secret, settling a new world and building up their forces in secret until they were eventually encountered by the forces of the slowly expanding empire. War immediately broke out, and has been fought more or less continuously for about 150 years. The FPA enjoyed an initial advantage in that they had known contact was inevitable and had been on a war footing since their nation was founded. The empire however enjoyed an enormous advantage in resources and population.

By 796 UC, the war has become stalemated and the galaxy divided roughly in half. The charted, navigable warp routes between the two stellar nations flow through two choke points, the systems of Iserlohn and Fezzan. Iserlohn is defended by a massive space fortress held by the empire, while Fezzan is an autonomous state nominally held by the empire but recognized as a neutral zone by both sides. Interstellar travel off the charted routes is painstaking, slow, and dangerous, so the war has become focused on the Iserlohn corridor.

Reinhard von Lohengramm, a young upstart disliked by his seniors who would love nothing more than to see him die in combat, is sent into FPA space with a small fleet to test the FPA's response. Beating the odds, he defeats twice his numbers before being fought to a stalemate by a group led by Yang Wenli. Returning in glory, Lohengramm's prestige and power grows.

Likewise, Yang Wenli is hailed as a hero for preventing a bad defeat from becoming a total rout. Yang is tasked with launching a retaliation strike against Iserlohn Fortress. Using deceit and guile, he manages to bait out the base's garrison fleet, while getting a strike force into the base, turning it against the Imperials when they realize they'd been duped and returned.

The surprise, instant capture of Iserlohn reverses war sentiment among the FPA's leaders. No longer content to sue for peace on favorable terms, they resolve to use Iserlohn as a foothold to launch an invasion of the Empire. Reinhard's superiors, still trying to get rid of him, place him in command of the defense. Reinhard's forces respond by looting food and supplies from all the planets in the FPA's path. Their aim is to create a deliberate humanitarian crisis that the FPA will be forced to respond to, slowing their offensive to a crawl and forcing them into supplying whole worlds or face uprisings on the worlds they're "liberating".

It works. The FPA's offensive stalls, the Reinhard's forces prey on supply fleets until the alliance fleets are short on resources. When the empire finally turns its harassment into a full counteroffensive, the invasion collapses and retreats back through the corridor with massive losses. Reinhard's successes have now made him the most powerful admiral in the Empire, with the broad support of most of the military.

797 UC

796 UC concludes with the the emperor, Kaiser Friedrich IV, dying of natural causes. With no clear line of succession, a power struggle ensues. The Kaiser has three grandchildren; two older daughters married into powerful families, and a young, spoiled grandson named Erwin Josef. Reinhard the Prime Minister Klaus von Lichtenlade support Erwin Josef, enraging the rival claimants and indeed most of the nobility who see Reinhard and Lichtenlade as usurpers trying to put a puppet on the throne.

The nobles, led by Otto von Braunschweig and Wilhelm von Littenheim (the heads of the two families the emperor's granddaughters married into), assemble a force called the Lippstadt League intending to challenge Reinhard. They manage to sway some of the military, led by the aged military genius, Admiral Merkatz, to support their cause. Reinhard, now military commander of the loyalist forces, rallies his admirals and brings the fight to the rebelling nobles, pressing them back.

A colony owned by Braunschweig launches a rebellion against him, and is nuked in response. Reinhard learned of the attack and ordered it to be intercepted, but his adjutant, Oberstein, stalls and allows the attack to occur, while making sure that it's documented. The attack is broadcast throughout the empire and support for the league evaporates. The nobles of the league are turned on by their own retainers. Most of the regular military who sided with the league surrender to Reinhard and are reabsorbed into the fleet, while Admiral Merkatz defects to the Alliance.

At the very conclusion of the conflict, an assassination attempt is made on Reinhard, ordered by the Prime Minister. The attack is foiled but Reinhard's closest friend and second in command, Siegfried Kircheis, is killed. Taking the initiative, admirals Oskar von Reuenthal and Wolfgang Mittermeyer charge back to the Imperial capitol of Odin, capturing the Prime Minister and seizing the Imperial Seal. Reinhard is now the sole power behind the throne.

Meanwhile

Reinhard was concerned that a civil war in the empire would invite another invasion by the Free Planets Alliance. To keep the alliance distracted, he dispatched a prisoner of war turned traitor with a plan to incite the disgruntled FPA military into launching a coup.

It works. In fact it works quite well, with virtually every fleet EXCEPT Yang Wenli's turning against the government. Yang, out of stubborn loyalty to the concept of representative government, refuses to join the coup and leads his fleet against the rebels. In the aftermath of the failed invasion, Yang's fleet is the most experienced and strongest fighting force left in the alliance, and with some difficulty is able to sweep through the rebel forces and arrives at the capitol of Heinessen. The coup fails and its instigators die in a murder-suicide to conceal the truth of the Empire's involvement.

798 UC

The year begins with the war on hiatus. Yang Wenli is grilled by an ingrateful government that somehow manages to resent him for saving their butts, fearing his growing political power and not understanding his motivations. They also don't understand why he has given shelter to a former enemy, Admiral Merkatz.

In the empire, the child emperor Irwin Josef sits on the throne but not for long. Disaffected nobles, the last remnants of the league, kidnap the emperor and flee to the alliance, forming a government in exile. Rumors fly that Reinhard orchestrated it, although in truth he merely did essentially nothing to prevent it. For all intents and purposes, Reinhard is now emperor. And his first act is... to launch a super-massive no-holds-barred invasion of the alliance through the totally undefended Fezzan corridor.

799 UC

It works. Yang's fleet is half of what the Alliance has left and it's all the way out in left field at Iserlohn. Yang's superior and mentor, Admiral Bewcock, leads what remains of the alliance forces in a delaying action until Yang can get his forces to the field.

Reinhard is pressing ahead, eagerly seeking a final showdown with Yang Wenli. However, at the climax of his battle, Heinessen signals surrender.

Aware of Reinhard's reckless desire for a battle with Yang, Reuenthal and Mittermeyer rushed the Alliance capitol to force a quick end to the conflict. They did this at the request of Hildegard von Mariendorf, a minor noble who had backed Reinhard in the civil war and now serves as his aide and advisor, occupying the void left by Kircheis's death.