View source for War of 2016

{{Conflict
|prev = [[Congo Ground War]]
|next = [[Resistance-Harvester War]]
|name        = War of 2016
|image       = [[File:War of 2016.png|360px]]
|date        = July 2<sup><small>nd</small></sup> - July 4<sup><small>th</small></sup>, 2016
|place       = *[[Earth]] 
*[[Moon]] 
*[[Rhea]] 
|result      = <b> <font color="lightblue">Human pyrrhic victory </font> </b>
*Final defeat of alien threat on Earth
*Emergence of Earth as an interstellar leader of the [[Sphere]]'s resistance
|side1       = {{flagicon|United Nations}} [[United Nations]]
<b> Supported by: </b> <br>
[[File:Flag of Resistance.svg|25px]] [[Sphere]]
|side2       = [[Harvesters]]
|commanders1 =<div style="width:100%; text-align:left;"> 
{{flagicon|United Nations}} Heads of Earth's governments 
*{{flagicon|United States}} [[Elizabeth Lanford]]†
*{{flagicon|United States}}/[[File:EsdLogo.jpg|20px]] [[David Levinson]]
*{{flagicon|United States}}/[[File:EsdLogo.jpg|20px]] [[Joshua Adams]]
*{{flagicon|United Kingdom}} R. Clarke
*{{flagicon|Russia}} A. Zebachev
|commanders2 =<div style="width:100%; text-align:left;">
*[[Harvester Queen (IDR)|Harvester Queen]]†
|forces1     =<div style="width:100%; text-align:left;">
{{flagicon|United Nations}} Earth Armed Forces
*[[File:EsdLogo.jpg|20px]] [[Earth Space Defense]]
|forces2     =<div style="width:100%; text-align:left;">
*[[Harvester mothership]]
*Harvester [[Fighter]]s
|casual1     =Heavy losses
|casual2     =
Heavy losses
}}
The '''War of 2016''' was the second large scale conflict between the human race and the [[Harvesters]]. The war occurred on 4 July 2016, exactly as it occurred twenty years earlier in the [[War of 1996]]. The invasion began when an [[Harvester mothership|enormous alien mothership]] entered Earth's orbit, destroying the planet's defenses, and devastating numerous European and Asian cities upon its atmospheric entry. The aliens returned to finish where the previous invasion had failed, with the intent of harvesting Earth's resources, killing all life on the planet in the process. 

The aliens' plans was narrowly averted when the [[Earth Space Defense]] launched a desperate ambush which killed the aliens' [[Harvester Queen (IDR)|queen]], which rendered the invaders inactive and their mothership automatically retreating from Earth.

==Background==
Shortly prior to the aliens' defeat in the [[War of 1996]], a [[City Destroyer (Umbutu)|City Destroyer]] landed in the region in what would later become the [[National Republic of Umbutu]] and attempted to drill into the Earth. After the [[Mothership (ID4)|mothership]] was destroyed, the City Destroyer was rendered inactive. However, the aliens sent a distress message into deep space to warn of their species of their defeat on Earth. The aliens' transmission was noticed by human scientists and humanity was made aware of a possible second invasion. Within a span of twenty years, humanity reverse-engineered alien technology left over from the 1996 conflict to prepare for this new invasion.

Due to time being relative in space travel, the distress message finally reached [[Harvesters' homeworld|the Harvesters' home planet]] in 2016.

==Prelude==
On July 3, 2016, the [[Earth Space Defense]] lost contact with [[Rhea Base]]. After several attempts to contact Rhea failed, the ESD used the Hubble Space Telescope to examine Rhea and found it to be destroyed and replaced by a massive vortex created near [[Saturn]]'s orbit. Soon afterward, [[Sphere's ship|an unidentified alien ship]] emerges through a [[wormhole]] near the [[Moon]]. Believing the unknown spaceship is responsible for the destruction of Rhea Base, the ESD were then given order by the United Nations Security Council to attack the ship in which the [[ESD Moon Base]] fired its main weapon at the ship and causing it to crash on the lunar surface. 

Despite humanity believing they have eliminated a hostile alien threat, the ESD soon lost contact with their base on [[Mars]]. The ESD were then alerted that the true perpetuators were the same aliens of the 1996 invasion after reviewing captured footage of a [[Harvester mothership|massive mothership]]. Unfortunately, humanity was too late to prepare their defenses against the new invasion. 

==The Invasion==
The Harvesters arrived in Earth's orbit on July 4 during the midst of humanity's celebration of the 20th anniversary of the War of 1996. The sudden arrival of the enormous spacecraft caught Earth forces off guard, as the alien mothership quickly and effortlessly destroyed the ESD Moon Base and Earth's [[Orbital Defense System]] before entering the planet's atmosphere.

Due to the immense gravity of the mothership conflicting with the Earth's gravity, massive chunks of earth along with cities and people from most of Asia and the Middle East were pulled towards the ship. The mothership landed over the North Atlantic Ocean and caused the floating structures and debris to rain over Europe, and its landing annihilated the entire United States East Coast and much of northwestern Europe. The vessel then proceeded to drill into the Earth to harvest its molten core for fuel, which would destroy Earth's magnetic field in the process, and thereby rendering the planet lifeless from solar radiation.

[[File:Harvester battle 01.png|250px|thumb|250px|ESD forces approaches the mothership.]]

The ESD rallied available and surviving military forces to launch an counterattack on the Harvester mothership in an attempt to kill the [[Harvester Queen]], on the basis that this will cause her attendants to fall in disarray and retreat from Earth. ESD forces utilized aerial drones to disable the mothership's [[energy shield]] and allowing ESD fighters to escort [[ESD bomber|bombers]] to drop [[Cold fusion weapon|cold fusion warheads]] on the mothership.<ref>[[Alex Irvine]]. ''[[Independence Day: Resurgence (novel)|IDR: Official Novelization]]'', p. 300-301 ([[Titan Books]], 2016), Apple Books.</ref> 

After succeeding in disabling the shields, ESD fighters led by Captain [[Dylan Dubrow-Hiller|Dylan Hiller]] were assailed by alien [[fighter]]s and the mothership's defense weapons, which makes it impossible for the ESD to make a direct attack on the vessel. Hiller attempted to lead the bombers into the mothership, but the aliens anticipated this move and launched their counterattack in which they unleashed a electromagnetic-like pulse that disabled the ESD fighters and destroyed ESD satellites, and downing human communication in the process. The bombers that were able to drop their payload were intercepted by alien drones, which they contain the explosions in energy shield bubbles. Only 7% percent of the ESD fleet survived and returned to [[Area 51]].

ESD Director [[David Levinson]] was on the Moon investigating the wreckage of the unknown ship and recovered a container. After being literally swept up by the arrival of the Harvester mothership, Levinson and his companions took the container to Area 51 and opened it to reveal an artificial intelligence dubbed as the "[[Sphere]]". The entity explained to the humans that it was sent by a party of refugees to help evacuate humanity to a planet occupied by a resistance force of countless other races which opposed the Harvesters. The Harvesters were also aware of the Sphere's presence and will make their attempt to capture it in order to learn its vital secrets.

==Killing the Harvester Queen==
{{Main|Second Battle of Area 51}}
In desperation, Levinson and Dr. [[Brackish Okun]] made an alternate and desperate plan to kill the Queen. Realizing that the Harvesters were invested in finding the Sphere and that the Queen is locked on to the Sphere's "RF frequency", Levinson and Okun put the Sphere in an isolation chamber and duplicated its frequency into a transmitter on a [[space tug]] loaded with cold fusion bombs, fooling the Queen to be lure outside of Area 51 and capturing the tug while the ESD contains the explosion through shield generators provided from Area 51. However, the pilot of the tug must sacrifice themselves in order to blow up the Queen's personal ship as it captures it. [[Thomas Whitmore]] volunteered to pilot the space tug on the suicide mission.

[[File:A51 battle 136.png|thumb|250px|The queen is left vulnerable.]]
After the frequency was activated, the Queen and her forces were lured to the trap. During the subsequent battle, Whitmore led the Queen's ship to the trap before the space tug was taken to the warship. The Queen soon realized the trap, but was too late to escape as the warship is trapped in the force-field activated by Levinson and Whitmore detonated the bomb. However, the Queen survived the explosion by using a personal energy shield on her exoskeleton. Now knowing the location of the Sphere, the Queen and her remaining forces attacked Area 51 while enveloping herself in a swarm of fighters to protect herself. After bypassing Area 51's defenses, the Queen almost obtained the Sphere until [[Patricia Whitmore]] commandeered a fighter and destroyed her shields projector, allowing Captain Hiller and his surviving squadron, who hijacked some alien fighters, to finally kill the Queen by repeatedly shooting her exposed backside.

With the Queen dead, alien forces fell into disarray as alien drones fell unresponsive and caused many fighters to crash. The Harvester mothership automatically stopped its excavation and retreated into space.
==Aftermath==
A majority of Asia, Europe, the Middle East, parts of Africa and the North American eastern seaboard were heavily devastated by the invasion. Cities such as [[London]], Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Washington and [[Singapore]] most especially suffered from either being lifted by the Harvester mothership's gravitational pull or severely damaged by the massive ship's landing or from the fallen levitated debris.

Despite the major losses, humanity's tenacity was enough to convince the Sphere to bestow its advanced technology - such as faster-than-light travel - to humanity and offering them to join in its [[Sphere's resistance|resistance]] to lead a counterattack against the Harvesters.
==Gallery==
===Arrival of the mothership===
<gallery orientation="landscape">
IDR First Trailer SS 042.png
Harvester Arrival 01.png
Harvester Arrival 02.png
Harvester Arrival 03.png
Harvester Arrival 07.png
Screen Shot 2016-07-25 at 9.06.09 PM.jpg
Screen Shot 2016-07-13 at 9.10.08 PM.jpg
Harvester Arrival 09.png
Washington 09.png
Screen Shot 2016-07-23 at 10.47.32 PM.jpg
</gallery>

===Landing aftermath===
<gallery orientation="landscape">
Aftermath 01.png
Aftermath 02.png
Aftermath_03.png
Aftermath_04.png
</gallery>

===ESD counterattack===
<gallery orientation="landscape" widths="185">
Harvester battle 01.png
Harvester battle 02.png
Harvester battle 03.png
Harvester battle 04.png
Harvester battle 05.png
Harvester battle 06.png
Harvester battle 07.png
Harvester battle 08.png
Harvester battle 09.png
Harvester battle 10.png
Harvester battle 11.png
Harvester battle 12.png
Harvester battle 13.png
Harvester battle 14.png
Harvester battle 21.png
Harvester battle 23.png
Harvester battle 28.png
Harvester battle 30.png
Harvester battle 31.png
IH08.jpg
Harvester battle 33.png
Harvester battle 35.png
4a.jpg
</gallery>

===Area 51 battle===
<gallery orientation="landscape" widths="185">
A51 battle 07.png
A51 battle 08.png
A51 battle 10.png
A51 battle 24.png
A51 battle 26.png
A51 battle 35.png
A51 battle 49.png
A51 battle 136.png
A51 battle 145.png
A51 battle 147.png
A51 battle 162.png
7956.jpg
</gallery>

==Appearances==
*''[[Independence Day: Resurgence]]''/''[[Independence Day: Resurgence (novel)|novel]]'' {{1st}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Events]]
[[Category:Independence Day: Resurgence]]