Speaking as someone who reads a lit of Military sci-fi, There's only so many different ways you can have an insteller war -- it's the details that different the story, as well as the skill of the writer writing it. Afteer all, my one original project involves a new wizard and his dragon famillar. Alan Dean Foster and Pip and Flix, Steven Brust has Vlad Talos and his pair of Jihergs. All I have to do is put my unique spin on it.....
Craig
Good point, and for details, history provides all sorts of background situations/politics that can cause wars, so you can do more than just "Us-them" style war. How many people know what it was like to be a foot soldier in the Boer War, Crimean war, or the Spanish Civil War, for example? One can do all sorts of shuffling to provide the details to flesh out your story, and give your characters issues to chew on.
