Emancipation and Exodus

[spanishspy]

Preface: This timeline is written in conjunction with Blackjack555 on alternatehistory.com, who has given permission to have it posted on other sites. This timeline was originally posted on alternatehistory.com on January 7th, 2014, and is currently ongoing.

without further ado:

Emancipation and Exodus

Emancipation: the liberation from a state of oppression.

Exodus: the mass flight of a group of people to escape oppression.

Both are constants of human history. As groups of humans were freed from tyranny and slavery and fled to whatever Promised Land they saw fit, so they did in the age of space.

Great ships, seeking liberty from oppression and corruption, were sent to the heavens for refuge.

And when those havens became instruments of oppression, they did the same once more.

This is why humanity is the way it is, a scattered diaspora of nations pockmarked among the void of space, yearning for something better than the status quo, some sort of meaning, some sort of higher purpose, unbound by the petty constraints of bureaucracy.

Humanity therefore has done the same as it always has.

But now, it is on a much vaster playing field.

Transcript of political advertisement on hypernet on New Durham in the Tyne System:

"Good afternoon, citizens of New Durham. The riots ransacking your world, clamoring for more of your hard-earned profits for their own benefit, have spread across your planet, indeed your system. Your capital city of Newcastle is in near-permanent distress, fearing the coming of an angry mob or rogue fleet.

You may ask, then, why is forfeiting your sovereignty to a distant confederation worth it? Wouldn't they simply work in the rebel's favor?

This is wrong.

The referendum in the coming weeks is ultimately a choice between order and anarchy. Continuing independence is plainly anarchy.

The Union of Free Martian Republics, on the other hand, promises order. Stability. A free market. A free populace.

Look at what happened to the Carlsbad system when they rejected admission to our Union. Their rebellion continued, their government was toppled, and now their system is bereft of law, a black hole in which all development will inevitably go to waste. The same happened to so many other sytems: G Carolius, Sceurman's, Sichuan, Potomac, Seine, Basra, New Kenya. The list goes on.

Conversely, look to the Wroclaw system. Their rebellions were too much for them and they realized it. They joined our Union.

The Union army and navy entered the system and ensured peace in short order, and now the Wroclaw system is in a bustling era of prosperity never before seen by the inhabitants.

The choice is simple. Order and prosperity, or anarchy and poverty.

Vote for admission to the Union of Free Martian Republics this November."

IIN Special Report: Links uncovered between UFMR and gangs on Tira - by Blackjack555

Three weeks ago, an IIN investigative journalist named Sarah Cardolius traveled to the planet Tira, a world on the edge of the space claimed by the Union of Free Martian Republics. Today, we bring you the shocking result of her investigations.

For those who don’t know, Tira is a Class III world, second from the star G Carolius and the only habitable world in that system, settled by Spanish and Moroccan descendants in 2205. The most striking feature is the tangle of natural caverns beneath the deserts on the surface, some of which are almost a mile high and several miles long. However, the caverns are not why the interstellar community is interested in Tira. No, attention was drawn to this small, out of the way world two years ago when it was discovered that the cave network makes access to the massive deposits of rare metals used in the creation of jump drives readily accessible.

Shortly after this discovery, as prospectors and representatives of every mining corporation in human space flocked to Tira, gang violence skyrocketed. This was only to be expected, or so most said and dismissed the matter without further thought. However, some of their actions seemed more like those of anarchists or terrorists than profit-oriented gangs, and IIN is committed to bringing to light the truths that others don't dare seek out, and so our reporter went to Tira as a prospector and got in with one of the gangs, who called themselves Tunnel Snakes after some old pre-expansion Earth legend. While in their company, she managed to record a conversation between the leaders of the Tunnel Snakes and two individuals who analysis revealed to be none other than Rear Admiral Ivan Chernoff, a Martian military commander in charge of the fleet assigned to protecting local shipping from pirates, and Lieutenant General Peng Jie, in charge of sector logistics for the Martian Republic Peacekeeping Forces. The subjects at hand were the locations for weapon drops and General Peng's demand that the level of brutality of attacks be increased, saying specifically, "Rape them, sell them to the Geminis, burn them alive and eat their children in front of them, I don't care, just make them fear you! They need to be afraid to leave their homes, not fighting back!" Defense Secretary Leon Delavega refused to meet with our reporters to comment.

This revelation comes just a week before Tira is scheduled to hold a referendum on whether or not to join the Union of Free Martian Republics, which would give them a stranglehold on the jump drive materials supply in the sector. While the referendum has not yet taken place, the riots in the streets and the murder and subsequent hanging on a light pole of the local UFMR representative suggest the outcome will not be in favor of joining. The Alliance of Independent Colonies expressed outrage at this revelation and promised aid in the form of medical supplies, weapons, and orbital strikes to the government of Tira as they try to root out the UFMR-supplied gangs. Some analysts fear that this incident may spark another rise in hostilities between the Martian Republics and the AIC such as has not been seen since the signing of the New Tarsis Accords.

This is Chet Brinkman, bringing you this Interstellar Information Network special report from our headquarters on Runner's World. This broadcast was sponsored by Warp 5 Energy Drinks. Drink Warp 5 and let your opponents eat space dust! Up next, could the ruins on Delta Procyon IV still be inhabited? More after the break.

Transcript of a meeting of the Parliament of the Republic of Nova Puglia, on capital world Nova Brindisi, Puglia system, capital city San Benedetto

Gavel bangs from the chair.

Chair: Attention!

(Parliament quiets)

Chair: This session's purpose is to discuss the recent encroachments of the Union of Free Martian Republics on the sovereignty of our Republic's space.

Buzzer from console rings

Chair: Senator Glauco Romano may speak for one minute.

Senator Romano rises and heads down to the podium

Senator Romano: It is imperative that this parliament defend the sovereignty of the people, of the five worlds that it governs! To not do so is to betray the legacy our nation was founded upon, fleeing from the corruption of Earth and of Mars. The Martians want us for one reason only: the minerals on Dote di Vittoria, used in Faster than Light travel, resources the UFMR so desperately needs. This is why I propose we sign the accords with the Alliance of Independent Colonies. We cannot, we will not join these charlatans!

Gavel bangs. Senator Romano returns to his seat. Buzzer from console rings.

Chair: Senator Gabriella Padovan may speak for one minute.

Senator Padovan rises and heads down to the podium.

Senator Padovan: To agree with the honorable Senator Romano, the Union of Free Martian Republics means only trouble. Even from their inception, before the beginning of the Union, when it was simply the Free Republic of Mars, it was run by butchers and entitled dissidents. I'm certain you remember from your history classes how they destroyed humanity's first extrasolar colony ship, an unarmed ship to be precise! They have oppressed system after system! It was only in our childhood when they turned New Sydenham into a ruin, and in our adolescence when they burned the capital city of Skanderbeg to ashes! And I feel there is no need to mention the New Osaka tragedy only weeks ago! And now, as we speak, they are funding rebellion in the G Carolius System world of Tira! Do you not see the leviathan that is coming to consume us?

Gavel Bangs. Senator Padovan returns to her seat. Buzzer from console rings.

Chair: Senator Enrica Marchetti may speak.

Senator Marchetti rises and heads down to the podium

Senator Marchetti: With respect to Senators Romano and Padovan, the common perception of the Union of Free Martian Republics is an entirely incorrect one. The UFMR has promoted unprecedented economic and industrial growth in the Wroclaw system, and-

Senator Marchetti is interrupted by two shoes thrown at her from the benches by Senator Manuele Valentini

Senator Valentini (in an unprompted speech after throwing his shoes at Senator Marchetti): You lie the most vile of lies, harlot! While you pleasure yourself spreading your legs to whatever Martian mountebank happens to be at the embassy that day, Mars even now plunders whatever world it pleases to satisfy the business interests on one of their major worlds! This is what you propose for the Gem of the Galactic East? This is what you want for your own home, harlot? The Republic that nurtured you? Gave you a home? Food? Drink? A job in Parliament? If the Surrender Bloc in this Parliament has its way, we will have no Parliament, only a single powerless representative in Locke Hive!

Senator Valentini leaves his seat and heads towards the podium

Senator Valentini (while walking downward): Now hear this, harlot. Let me show you the wages of your sin, the sin of sodomy between nations!

Senator Valentini grabs the podium from in front of Senator Marchetti and throws it to the side, breaking a window. He moves to assault Senator Marchetti but is restrained by parliamentary guards.

Session of Parliament adjourned

Transcript of televised lecture of the Martian hypernet history show Mars: Her Birth and Dominion, a UFMR government-sponsored program. First broadcasted on Exodus Day, June 21st, 2565, Quincentenary celebrations of the first colonial ships to land on Mars and the establishment of the first three hive structures.


The Martian anthem, "The Red Light of Liberty," plays, accompanied by historical footage of Mars landings and exploratory parties and Martian battleships in combat in the various wars Mars has fought in, accompanied by portraits of famed leaders of the nation.

Professor Edwin Schroeder of the Martian National University, Locke Hive, Mars appears on camera.

Professor Schroeder: Good morning, fellow Martians! Today we celebrate the birth of our nation five hundred years ago, a milestone in the creation of a free humankind. This nation, conceived in the idea that all deserve to have personal liberty and government free of corruption, something the nations of Earth in those times simply lacked. They were oligarchies, all of them. America, China, Russia, the European Union. They only had the pretense of democracy.

This is why the fathers and mothers of Mars built this new nation on a new world waiting to be host to a new era of personal liberty, based on the values that even now drive the Martian state.

You've certainly heard the story of how the nation was founded in primary school, but it is always good for a refresher. The great Martian experiment begins thusly.

In 2053, in an era of despotism, where the old nations of the world were beginning to decay under the pettiness of elites and the inefficiency of bureaucracy, there was a gifted group, a special group of people who were not satisfied.

They were the members of the Dove Movement, an international movement to restore peace to a morally bankrupt world. They were persecuted, mocked, scorned. They tried to find a new home, but wherever they moved on Earth there was nowhere for them.

Now enter the Patriarch of the Martian Nation, the man eulogized in song and poetry, immortalized in monuments across our sprawling Union, depicted in portraiture in every city, the great First President of the Free Republic of Mars, Wilmer Rigby. Certainly you know the famed tune, Rigby's Children, second only to Red Skies of Liberty in national stature.

Rigby was a computer programmer of immense wealth from the old Earth nation of Great Britain. He ran a large company supplying computers from the world. But even he tired of the corruption inherent in Earth governments. He saw the need to start anew.

And so he met with Dove Movement leaders and agreed to an ambitious plan: to settle Mars, our homeworld, in the name of liberty and benevolent government.

For many years, they toiled. But in 2064, the five ships of the initial colony wave, the Locke, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Doncaster, and Mirabel were launched from Earth.

On June 21st, 2065, they landed on Mars.

On June 21st, 2065, they founded the Free Republic of Mars.

On June 21st, 2065, they founded the Martian Nation.

It is foolish to suggest the current military exploits of the Martian Armed Forces are betrayals of Rigby and his compatriots' legacy. You see, the Martian armed forces fight for freedom from corruption in the diaspora of humanity, the very same corruption that the founders of Mars left. We seek to send that liberation outward so that all humanity may benefit.

Show cuts to commercials.

Excerpt from the Sandhurst Inquirer, Woolwich, Sandhurst, Berkshire system


June 24th, 2565

In a press release at the Alliance of Independent Colonies administrative center of Trundholm, the Asgard Protectorate, General Elect Yevgeniya Ivanova announced the AIC's support for the continued independence of the Republic of Nova Puglia, in the far Galactic East. The Nova Puglian parliament has been vigorously debating whether to join the Union of Free Martian Republics or to sign accession accords with the AIC, with prominent members of the body campaigning for both sides. General Elect Ivanova has supported the work of pro-AIC senators such as Glauco Romano, a firebrand senator from the Nova Puglian world of Santa Maria, widely declared the leader of the pro-independence faction in the country.

This comes at a time when the UFMR has been denounced by the interstellar community for its actions in the New Osaka system, in which the Martian Admiral Konstandin Dibra ordered the destruction of New Osakan civilian ships to pressure the country into voting for annexation into the UFMR. Martian President Kazimir Lukacs has issued a statement condemning Admiral Dibra's actions, but there has been no promise of reparations for New Osaka nor has there been any disciplinary action.

To the shock of many in Nova Puglia, the fierce debates in the national parliament have become violent, with pro-independence senator Manuele Valentini assaulting pro-annexation senator Enrica Marchetti on the floor of the parliament building in the country's capital city of San Benedetto. Pro-Martian demonstrations have taken place in San Benedetto's Marchioni Square (the square in which the Parliament Building, Supreme Court Building, and Executive Mansion sit), where Martian ambassador Ermanno Basurto gave a speech in favor of accession to the Union. Basurto, of Italian descent much like the majority of Nova Puglians, is widely considered to be a Martian attempt to curry favor in the country. At the rally, Basurto spoke of the 'necessity to extend Martian liberty galaxy-wide,' claiming that the current Nova Puglian government was corrupt and despotic much like the Earth Powers of the 21st and 22nd centuries.

President of Nova Puglia, Delfina Cappello, a moderate pro-independence figure, has encouraged the people of Nova Puglia to accept one another as equals in the nation. "Whether we join with Mars or not," she said, "we are still Nova Puglians. Let nothing obscure that fact."

Already, offers of support have come from the major AIC worlds such as Sandhurst, the Republic of the Quetzal, Novaja Russia, and the Asgard Protectorate have all extended the proposals of arms deals to the Nova Puglian government in case relations with Mars go sour. "We do not a repeat of the Third Galactic War," General Elect Ivanova commented. "Many of us here are veterans of that war against Mars. The last thing we want is more bloodshed across inhabited space, and we will work to make sure that Mars does not infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations."

The neutral world of New Valais, the successor state to the Earth nation of Switzerland and the home of the New Valais Palladium Mark, the accepted interstellar exchange currency, has offered to host a meeting between Nova Puglian, Martian, and AIC delegates to work out a solution and prevent the outbreak of war. However, despite the calls of many peace factions in all nations involved, the New Valais invitation has gone unheeded.

History of the Galaxy, Part III Chapter 9.2 The Third Galactic War: Early Years - by Blackjack555

In the last chapter, we discussed the invention of the Fujika-Tomkins stable artificial wormhole matrix generator in 2498. The possibility of instant, albeit expensive, transit between distant systems attracted tremendous interests. However, the creation of a Fujika-Tomkins gate requires very rare elements that are not required for the creation of other drive systems. As a result, none of the galactic powers possessed them in any major quantities, nor had they been seeking worlds that could supply it.

In 2499, it was discovered that Guisan’s World, a recent colony of the Republic of New Valais, possessed these elements in quantity. Desperate for the kind of economic relief that having a chokehold on wormhole gate manufacture would provide to recover from the after-effects of the Second Galactic War, the Union of Free Martian Republics attempted to strongarm Guisan’s World into joining them by setting privateers on New Valaisian shipping bringing necessary supplies to the fledgling colony world.

When it was uncovered during a routine operation by the Sandhurst Interstellar Defense Force that the privateers were staging from a Union naval resupply outpost in the E Crucix system, the Union’s response was to send their 9th Fleet under the command of Admiral Jonah Lockhart, a veteran of the Second Galactic War and commonly known as the Butcher of Venezia, to occupy Guisan’s World and its surroundings. The official explanation was that, since New Valais could not protect its colony from marauders, the Union of Free Martian Republics found themselves compelled to step in. Offers of covert and overt aid came from the Alliance of Independent Colonies.

The Republic of New Valais responded by deploying their own Home Fleet to Guisan’s World, meeting the lead elements of the Union fleet when they emerged from hyperspace and decisively defeating them. However, when the rest of Admiral Lockhart’s fleet arrived, the Valais ships found themselves severely outnumbered and, after four days of continuous combat, were forced to retreat. Union forces immediately landed on Guisan’s World, where the locals commenced a guerilla campaign that would last until the world was liberated by a joint task force from Sandhurst and New Valais eleven months later.

When it became apparent that they could not defeat the Union on their own, New Valais accepted the offers of assistance from the AIC, though they continued to refuse to join the Alliance. The AIC joined the war anyway, the General Elect concluding that it was, “better to fight for another than die alone.” This proved especially important when the Gemini Hegemony announced that they would be allies of the UFMR in this war (it was later revealed that they were to receive better prices on gate materials in exchange for their aid). They began attacking various points in Alliance space, seizing shipping, destroying orbital industry, and drawing necessary forces away from the front. For six years, Guisan’s World and the rest of the Mu Sector were locked in continuous warfare, with some systems changing ownership with every battle.

A brief history of New Valais, from Gottfried Fleckenstein's The New Valasian Epic, a history book published in the capital city of New Conthey, published 2560


New Valais is in every regard the successor state of the Swiss Confederacies of Earth. Our foreign policy is descended from there, as is our system of government. Indeed, the New Valaisan state is the result of the Swiss finding a way to preserve their existence in the face of mounting external pressure. It is Swiss modes of existence that give inhabited space its views of New Valais, and in its time Switzerland was seen much as we are now: sternly neutral and master bankers. The latter, for us, is very much a product of our predecessors' legacy as it is to the rich mineral deposits on our homeworld.

Switzerland, on earth, was quite the stubborn nation, having not engaged in any form of armed conflict since the nineteenth century. It only joined the United Nations in 2002, despite internal objections to the apparent complacency of that organization to the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and its invasion by the United States. Nevertheless, it dutifully remained in the organization. It knew fully well that leaving the organization was tantamount to taking a stand against the world, leaving them a pariah not unlike North Korea. Even as the states of Europe sent their troops off to war in the late 2010s, it was steadfast in its commitment to neutrality.

However, decades past and the world became a far less welcoming place for the neutral. When Eastern Europe flared into violence once more into the 2080s, Switzerland drew fire from both the United States and the European Union for housing fugitives desired by both parties, rendering it very much the pariah, opposing both alliance systems in the Balkan Wars. When the Balkan Wars led to wider wars such as the Trans-Atlantic War (this being considered in retrospect one of the Unification Wars, along with the Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Kazakh Civil Wars and interventions, the Sabah War, the Subcontinental War, and the myriad interventions into Latin America and Africa by the great powers of the time), even remaining neutral when those powers were at each others' necks.

However, the first Earth-Mars War from 2140 to 2143, between an alliance of convenience of the Great Powers and the Free Republic of Mars (like Switzerland, a pariah of sorts - it had taken many refugees from poorer countries involved in the Unification Wars, a significant boost to its fledgling population). With the ultimate Martian victory, the European Union looked for a way to pacify its population, which was now demanding new government. Switzerland, now engulfed by the EU, was an easy target. The contrived Basel crisis of 2155 almost started a war, but the diplomacy under the Federal Council of the day, skillfully handled by the Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs Maurice Royer. However, the Federal Council realized that such incursions would be used to start a conflict to restore European Morale. Switzerland was now no longer welcome in Europe; indeed, on Earth.

A young man from the canton of Schaffhausen, Walter Bretz, proposed an idea to the Swiss press which was quickly decided as the course of action by the Federal Council and the rest of the government: foundation of extrasolar colonies to retain Swiss neutrality where the entire nation would be moved to, much as the inception of the Free Republic of Mars was. Humanity was well underway in the Great Exodus (an advance spurred on by the invention of Compressed Dimension Drive (CDD) during the Earth-Mars War and its subsequent commercial availability in the decades after that war), and it would be an opportune time to do so.

In 2160, three massive ships, much larger than any of the ships that founded Mars but standard for the day, went out into space. As they finally left their beloved country forever, they detonated every hidden explosive Switzerland was famed for having. They would not let the European Union derive any benefit from their departure. They could have the land, but the people would be free from them.

Each of these three ships, the Valais, the Schaffhausen, and the Ticino, went to different nearby systems, founding their own colonies with the intent of securing a wealth of resources for the new interstellar Swiss state. The first founded our dearest New Valais, while the latter two founded New Schaffhausen and New Ticino. The worlds of New Schaffhausen and New Ticino were at best subpar comparable to Mars before colonization; New Valais, on the other hand, was a blessing from providence.

To the surprise of the crew, New Valais had an atmosphere breathable by humans. As we New Valaisians know, we are a mountainous world replete with native non-sentient plants and animals, much like the Canton of Valais and indeed most of Switzerland; this sentimentality in part led them to settle here. Surveys of the land revealed an even greater bounty: the presence in abundance of palladium, even now the most valuable mineral in interstellar trade. The Swiss penchant for banking was well-suited to this great wealth, hence the current moniker of the Banking Capital of Humanity that persists even today.

These three worlds were intended to enter a New Swiss Confederacy. Students in our primary schools tend to wonder why such a Confederacy does not exist now. They are often horrified by the reason: no matter the nobility of intentions, new colonies are hostile places, and incompetent government, as seen in those two worlds, does not help. Within days both colonial structures were rendered half-destroyed, their populations suffering due to mass death via suffocation and starvation. The savagery of nature did not bode them well; communications via the Compressed Dimension Networks (CDN) of the day allowed them to tell New Valais of their plight.

New Valais, unfortunately, had not planned for such tragedy, on two worlds even, not just one; it would have no other place to put them than in the various settlements, in which New Conthey, our capital, was one. President of the Federal Council, Fernand Savageau, swallowed all national pride and looked to Mars, the state most well-versed in extrasolar settlement (having done so before) to aid them.

Savageau traveled to Mars via a Martian diplomatic ship to Locke Hive to meet with Martian President Avishag Tobias, elected on a peace platform after the Earth-Mars War. Tobias and Savageau discussed the possibilities of Martian aid; Savageau repeatedly refused, in true Swiss style, to join a military alliance, but agreed to trade concessions with Martian businesses. As such, Martian ships were hurried to New Schaffhausen and New Ticino to rescue the starving colonists and returned them to New Valais. Additionally, Mars sent ships bearing additional supplies to allow New Valais to cope with the sudden tripling of its population. Furthermore, Mars bequeathed New Valais several space-based defensive guns leftover from the Earth-Mars War; these are now the famed defenses of the system, lurking in the system's formidable asteroid belt.

Throughout the centuries, New Valais kept its neutrality. This was shown to the interstellar community firstly in the early 2200s. In systems not far from New Valais, the two countries of the Republic of Ataturk and the Republic of Nuevo Monterrey had gone to war over a system rich in minerals and which both desired its possession. President Anneliese Dreher proposed that the two meet in New Conthey to resolve their conflict; negotiations were successful, and the system was partitioned.

In the 23rd century, New Valais reacquired the worlds of New Ticino and New Schaffhausen, finding the deceased remnants of both their original inhabitants and, on New Schaffhausen, the deceased husks of another settlement from the People's Republic of East Asia, apparently Korean in national origin (lack of records indicate this expedition was financed privately and not aided by Mars or another interstellar state). Nowadays, these worlds plus Guisan's world and New Valais proper make up the Republic of New Valais (the name was not changed to the New Swiss Confederacy, as suggested due to the predominance of settlers considering themselves New Valaisian and not wanting a change in the name).

[lordroel]

So this is the timeline of wich you created the map and the flag.

[spanishspy]

Residency test primer taken from the Sandhurst Directorate of Immigration



The following test is intended for immigrants applying for Sandhurst residency status. Twenty total questions will be asked; twelve correct answers will be the minimum to pass the civics portion of this test. Questions are in bold and acceptable answers are in plain text.

Who is considered the Founder of Sandhurst?

Arthur Goode.
Goode.

What Earth country were most of the original inhabitants of Sandhurst from?

The United Kingdom.
England.
Britain.

Why did they come to Sandhurst from their homes?

Freedom from corruption.
Peace, Order, and Good Government.

When was Sandhurst founded?

2248.

Who is the Intellectual Father of Sandhurst?

Robert Heinlein.
Heinlein.

What is Sandhurst named after?

Sandhurst Military Academy.

Why is Sandhurst named after what it is?

To show military values applied in politics.

How does one gain the right to vote and the right to hold office in Sandhurst?

Minimum five years in military or civilian service.
Working for the Sandhurst government.

Name one branch or part of the Sandhurst government.

The Assembly.
The Commandant.
The Tribunal.
The Army.
The Space Force.

Who is the current Commandant of Sandhurst?

Stewart Carter.
Carter.

How long are members of the Assembly elected for?

Four standard years.

How long does the Commandant Serve?

Six years.

What is the capital of Sandhurst?

Wrightsport.

Name two large cities on Sandhurst.

Wrightsport.
Woolwich.
Le Marchant.
Aldershot.
Rossport.
Scrivens.



Transcript of parts of an episode from Mars: Her Birth and Dominion

The standard introduction plays. Professor Edwin Schroeder appears on the screen.

Professor Schroeder: Good morning again, my fellow Martians! Through the past few episodes we have been looking at the great early leaders of Mars, including the first President Wilmer Rigby, second president Lata Tamboli, and the various early leaders of our republic. The Free Republic of Mars in this era was humanity's shining beacon of democracy, showing that true liberty was still possible in an era of oppression, corruption, and oligarchy on Earth.

It is only natural that these oligarchies strove to expand their own borders; what massive slaveocracy hasn't, either through direct annexation or through economic and political hegemony? Both the former and the latter were methods used in their unquenchable thirst for power. Their colonies on Mars were busily trying to trade with our Republic, and we saw no issue doing so; they were trade partners.

However, they had a yearning to be free of earthly tyranny. Good Martian citizens attempted, through completely nonviolent means, to start referendums in these colonies on possible independence, and possibly even unification with the Free Republic (in an arrangement similar to Martian government today). But the great oligarchies of Earth stifled their freedom of speech, of petition, of assembly, and as such they lashed back at Mars violently in 2142.

The war began quickly and thunderously, with all three main Martian settlements besieged by Earth forces. The great powers of the day had allied as a matter of convenience to fulfill two major goals: the first, control of the Red Planet in its entirety and the second, pacification of their population. George Orwell, the great British author, was correct; tyrannies do whatever they can to keep their populations down. This was the realization of the founders of the Martian nation, such as Wilmer Rigby. They knew this; this is why they fled Earth.

However, superior Martian ingenuity, the highlight of truly free peoples not stifled by bureaucracy, turned the tide of the war in the favor of the fledgling Republic. A great Martian scientist, Fathir Amirmoez, had made the discovery of a century. On his base on Deimos, what is now Fort Amirmoez (at the time, it was named Fort Bletchley), Amirmoez proved that Faster-than Light Travel was indeed possible. Tests, wowing the inhabitants of Mars, be they of the Free Republic or the Earth colonies on the planet, were conducted, and our President at the time, Dagny Christensen, authorized the outfitting of this new technology on Martian warships, as did Supreme Commander Harish Jain.

The first employment of this technology was in the Simoneit Raid on the American ship U.S.S. Wesley Clark, led by the Martian fighter ace Giedrius Simoneit. The destruction of the Wesley Clark was via space fighter equipped with a new form of that Faster-than-Light drive pioneered by Amirmoez. This daring raid in 2143 led to the complete construction of the Wesley Clark, and from there led to our nation's eventual triumph over the Earth powers.

History of the Galaxy, Part III Chapter 9.3 The Third Galactic War: Turning Point by Blackjack555

By late 2505, it seemed that the Union was going to win. Many Alliance worlds in the Mu Sector, including several major industrial centers, had been bombarded to radioactive ash, and with the resources of both their own worlds and those of the Gemini, the Union could open up new fronts throughout Alliance space. New Valais itself was under Gemini occupation, though the resistance kept the majority of the occupation force trapped in orbit in endless stalemate. Guisan’s World continued to be a battlefield. A brief invasion of Sandhurst was attempted, but the invaders were destroyed as soon as they entered the system.

However, in 2505, the Gemini Hegemony turned on their allies. No one is entirely sure why this happened. The leading theory is that they had always intended to do so and, seeing how widely spread the Union forces were and how dependent their offensive was on Gemini support, they saw their chance. Another theory holds that the mutations now known to afflict some Gemini high officials as a result of their extreme genetic self-editing drove Emperor Horace Gand the 49th mad and he ordered the attack.

This proved disastrous for the Union in two major ways. First, without the continued assaults by Gemini ships, Alliance forces were able to rally and retake several key systems, including the capital world of Manhattan. With key areas secured, the Alliance fleet were able to cut off and destroy elements of the Union fleet before they could retreat. The 12th fleet, the largest of the Union’s navy, was destroyed to the last by an Asgard armada.

The second disaster occurred before the Gemini Betrayal actually occurred, but the Betrayal turned it into a military catastrophe. In early 2505, a fleet of Gemini raiders was dispatched to attack the New Jefferson Confederation in a pre-emptive strike. They failed completely, the element of surprise lost when a patrol fleet discovered them several jumps away from New Jefferson. Being raiders rather than warships, they were poorly equipped and trained, and the patrol fleet destroyed most of them and boarded and captured the rest. Captured files revealed a planned joint strike on New Jefferson by the Gemini and the Union (A plan which, as was later discovered, Union command was totally unaware of until much later).

The New Jefferson response was immediate and definitive: A declaration of war on the Gemini Hegemony. Three months later, the 3rd Fleet under Admiral Carla Rawlins arrived over Xenith, capital of the Hegemony, and bombarded it from orbit with fusion and singularity weapons, the intended fate of New Jefferson and Midgard. Perfection and Utopia, the other two worlds of the Gemini capital system, suffered the same fate. Ironically, the attack succeeded because the Union had no idea what was going on, the Gemini not feeling the need to inform their allies that another “vermin” power had joined the war and believing it to be the last act of a dying government crushed by their mighty invasion force. Admiral Rawlins then turned her fleet into Union space just days after the Union’s declaration of war, ironically paving the way for the Gemini to invade a month later as she cut a path back to the Confederation through the core of Union space. The Union fleet, depleted by operations in the Mu Sector and not expecting an attack at home, only put up token resistance.

Rawlins’ Rampage would not have ended the war on its own, but when the Gemini turned on their former allies, they followed her path and began raiding throughout Union space. The Union were forced to withdraw much of their surviving fleet from the Mu Sector and the Alliance to save their own worlds. The war would go on for two more years before being concluded with the Xenith Accords, but this marked the beginning of the Union’s defeat in the Third Galactic War.

Excerpt from O Clouds, Unfold, the autobiography of Arthur Goode, founder and first Commandant of Sandhurst. Published 2270, Wrightsport, Sandhurst.


I suppose the first question that must be answered in this text is the burning one, the one that future generations will forever ask, on the same level of 'why did the Normans invade England?' and "Why did Britain have such a large empire in the 19th century?" and questions of that nature: why did I, a respected army officer in Britain, on Earth, leave his beloved home and found Sandhurst? The answer is complex, as all sufficient answers to historical questions are. I will do my best to provide answers for not only my generation, but for generations of the future.

Britain in the 2240s was in every regard subordinate to the whims of the rulers of the European Union in Brussels and Strasbourg. Europe's defeat in the Second Earth-Mars War, or as some Martians insist on calling it the Galactic War, in the first decade of that century was still a heavy weight on the European conscience, of which Britain beheld itself to for reasons I still cannot fathom. Such a proud people has no reason to fight a war for its masters in Brussels or Strasbourg, but it still was. Prime Minister Conaway was eager to lie prostrate for the European Union's desires, and this was something started more than a century before that, with roots in the Unification Wars.

I was born in Peterborough during this war; my father fought in it. He thought it was damned foolish that a conflict between Mars and the EU in some far-flung system had grown into such a conflagration. America had thrown its weight in on the EU's side, as had China and Russia. This is a feeling I share.

The loss of this war to superior Martian technology and tactics demonstrated the collapsing old order on Earth, an outgrowth of the empires of the 19th century and in many ways their direct continuations. Their old first Earth-Mars war era tactics and strategy, themselves holdovers from the Unification Wars and the very latest portions of the Third World War, had failed them. Several groups I was familiar with, in countries dominated by all of the superpowers, had begun to flee Earth on their chartered ships in the Second Great Exodus, as the First had been a century earlier.

I was, and proudly am, an English nationalist. The European Union had, since the First Earth-Mars War, tried to stamp out nationalism in its constituent countries since its inception in 1993. England at the time was run by an insidious welfare state beholden to whatever foreign suckling the aristocrats in Brussels, Strasbourg, or London wanted them to be beholden to. I am no racist, no enemy of immigration, but the terms set by the Union were simply too much. Their desire for a Pan-European identity were likewise inimical to my convictions; how could they think a continent of peoples at each others' necks for the past two millennia forge a common identity?

It was foolishness. Damned foolishness. Foolishness I began to grow tired of. What spurred me to action was the arrest and life sentencing of the great Frederick Wright of Norfolk, the nationalist who, in his desire to simply celebrate the great country of England was arrested for 'disturbing the peace' and 'harming immigrants' or some nonsense of that nature. Wright was a martyr, and the reason why our capital is named Wrightsport.

This quelling of the English nation alerted me to the fact that England was no longer the Land of Hope and Glory. The old famous tune had proven wrong: Britons would indeed be slaves, slaves to Brussels and Strasbourg. We good people of England would have to leave, and would take whoever would support us with us. Hence, I resigned my commission in the British Army, which was in all regards a facet of the European army, and met with likeminded people. We would fund an expedition to another planet to escape this oligarchy. We would build a New Jerusalem in a green and pleasant land, but not England's.

Sandhurst Military Academy, the place where I spent my formative years as a young adult, taught me many things. It taught me the importance of organization, of strong command, of obedience for the sake of getting things done, something that contemporary England simply did not have, and still does not have in this year of 2270. It taught me the importance of discipline, of harsh punishment of infractions. It is here that I learned the basic system of government that I would use to found Sandhurst, the world: as it should be obvious, it is the namesake. There, I read the works of the American author Robert Heinlein, whose famed work Starship Troopers described the military-oriented society that Sandhurst is based off of. In his novel, Earth fought against aliens using a very efficient, very just form of government in which service gained one political rights and responsibilities, a formula that should sound very familiar to any resident of Sandhurst.

Many are tempted to compare me to Wilmer Rigby, the first president of the Free Republic of Mars, now the Union of Free Martian Republics, having assumed that title in the 22nd century. We are both English; he was from Doncaster, I from Peterborough. We both sought to escape corruption, but Sandhurst is in every respect of more pure a foundation than Mars. Mars was founded to have a new start for all humanity; this is an untenable prospect, as the international basing of such an endeavor will inevitably cause conflict, and so it did in the early years. Sandhurst, unlike Mars, is explicitly English in character, hence our flag being the Cross of Saint George, our anthem Jerusalem. Rigby, unlike myself, was a vulture capitalist, who had made himself filthy rich selling computers. I was merely a military man of little note with ambition and love of country. His wealth set a precedent that made Mars much like America: a nation conceived in the purest, noblest ideals of liberty but later corrupted by the arrogance of wealth.

And so my allies and I funded the expedition to the world that would become Sandhurst. We funded it by the internet; it was only logical. We accepted money from the likes of Rigby of that era, but made it very clear that this militaristic society would apply to them, should they choose to come. We did not discriminate; we happily accepted all who wanted to come and be English, even if their ancestry dictated they should be Indian or Pakistani, or some other nation equally worthy.

In 2248, we launched and scouted for a world. We expected to land on some hell world, better than Earth only because it was not under the bootheel of the European Union or one of the other superstates. Instead, we found a lush, green world, free of the Dark Satanic Mills of home, free of the slavemongers of Brussels and Strasbourg. This was a green and pleasant land, where we would build our new Jerusalem. Here, we settled our great cities of Wrightsport and Woolwich, Le Marchant and Aldershot, Scrivens and Rossport, and the other hamlets reminiscent of the beloved homeland that we had left.

There is a question that I believe should be answered now: why did I abandon the monarchy? It is simple: the monarchy of the day had been corrupted by the pan-European ideologies popular at the time. King George XII was happy to bow to Brussels and Strasbourg, as were the kings and queens of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. There were no claimants to the throne that would be happy to accept coming to a distant world; indeed, those of us that did come were often seen as pariahs back home, as lunatic nationalists yearning for the days of Empire. There is truth in that we wanted an England free from domination like days of yore; it is not true that we wanted a complete return to the 19th century.

Excerpt from States of the Second Great Exodus: A Study in Comparative Astropolitics, History, and Ideology, by Luis Antonov, published 2562, Smedley, New Jefferson.

The Second Great Exodus, as we have come to call it, bears much resemblance to those born through the First Great Exodus, albeit on a much larger scale. The inquisitive novice to the study of historical and contemporary astropolitics may ask why such a large exodus of peoples of the motives during the Second did not happen during the first. The answer is one of statecraft: the Earth powers of the 22nd century kept the secrets of faster-than-light travel within the government sector. The Second Great Exodus of the 23rd century began at a time when faster-than-light had become in every sense ubiquitous; neither the Greater American Commonwealth, the European Union, the Union State, the People's Republic of East Asia, or the Union of Free Martian Republics keep such technology solely in their hands.

We have sufficiently analyzed the circumstances on Earth, Mars, and the early extrasolar settlements and independent states, such as New Valais, and so must we begin analyzing the major nonprofit reason that groups of people began leaving the heavily settled systems for points beyond. That reason, ironically, bears quite the resemblance to the foundations of the Free Republic of Mars: ideology. What is ever more ironic is that Mars was one of the major states that refugees fled from after the First Galactic War (or Second-Earth Mars War to Earth powers and states) during the Second Great Exodus; Mars had, to many, become the kind of despotism that its founders had fled to escape (however, many Martians both nowadays and at the time will dispute that vehemently).

Since this text is published initially on New Jefferson, it will be New Jefferson we will analyze first. New Jefferson, as many know, is a quasi-libertarian state, founded with the utmost protection of individual rights, a tenet enshrined in their constitution. New Jefferson, named after the Jefferson Hive on Mars, was founded by Royle Duane, a former Martian university professor who had become disillusioned with the contemporary (and many would say current) expansionist, interventionist character of the Martian State. Many Martians had refused to fight in the First Galactic War, seeing it as an expansionist war of imperialism, drawing many parallels to Earth conflicts such as the Vietnam War, the Afghan War of the early 21st century, or the various conflicts that constitute the Unification Wars. New Jefferson was founded as a reprieve from this despotism, hence its longstanding traditions of neutrality and personal liberty, manifested in the fact that it has no communications monitoring that it admits, and also adamantly refuse to follow international conventions in weapons and techology.

Secondly, we shall analyze the characteristics of the founding of Sandhurst. Sandhurst, the famous planet of what is commonly dubbed a warrior people, was founded by Arthur Goode in 2248, during the heyday of the Second Great Exodus. Goode, an English Nationalist to the core, was dismayed at his homeland on Earth's fall to the consolidations of Earth Powers following their defeat in the Galactic War. Likewise, he was incensed by what he saw as a too permissive British culture at the time, calling for a return to 'Faith and Fatherland.' This overt permissiveness he felt had to be countered by a militaristic society based on the works of American author Robert Heinlein. His views are summarized in a quote from an interview during the early years of Sandhurst, during his time as Commandant:

"There is the old saying, Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child. The saying applies not only to people, but peoples: the British Nation has in every regard had its rod spared. Its impetuous children are used to taking whatever foreign influence they please, diluting our nation's culture and heritage, lying submissive to the European Union in the process. A militaristic society is best to serve as a nationwide disciplinary rod, and this is one of the reasons I chose such a society for Sandhurst."

Excerpt from the autobiography of Arthur Goode, first Commandant of Sandhurst


I know with certainty that my domestic opponents will be eager to harp upon the vagueness of my introduction. However, they will fail to take note that it is just that: an introduction. They will say I ignored the two groups of emigrants that founded Sandhurst, speak of how, since I epitomize both, see them as the same. This is wrong. I know fully well that our nation was conceived by two distinct groups, the nationalists and the militarists. I am both, which is why I led them to this world.

One of the next few burning questions will be why I simply did not take solely one of the groups and make them the epitome of their qualities? The answer is rooted not in some sacred ideological tenet of mine but in practicality; there was simply not enough people among these groups to justify a colony, even with the best recruitment via the internet. Combined, however, they were more than sufficient to charter a colony, and their funds were more than enough for the three ships.

The militarists were led by a friend of mine, now deceased, by the name of Stafford Toller. He and his acolytes believed, and still do believe, that the Second Earth-Mars War was a pitiful waste of life and resources. Mr. Toller represented them with me, and shared my sentiment for a militaristic society. We must never resort to the kind of demagoguery that ran the European Union, with haughty aristocrats sending their young men to die on a distant world. Toller was much like me: my father fought in the Second Earth-Mars War, and both of his parents fought in that conflict.

The war, despite his youth at the time, was very hard on him. I was lucky enough to have my father survive the war; both of his parents died, orphaning him at the age of ten. How they died was far from endearing to him to the European Union; indeed, their death is why he began to hate them. They were killed when their ship, the Konrad Adenauer, let a ship full of Martian civilians, unarmed and with no ill intentions, escape the EU orbital blockade of the Martian-held world of Rousseau against the commanding Admiral’s orders to kill all escaping ships regardless of contents. The EU command ship, the Charlemagne, destroyed their ship in response.

It is the plight of men and women much like Toller that led to the foundation of the militarist movement that supported a withdrawal from Britain and the foundation of a new state conceived in the idea that one must serve to obtain power. The autocrats in Brussels and Strasbourg had no military experience and hence had no qualms about throwing away lives as if they were mere numbers on a computer screen. Toller was an eloquent speaker and as such rose to lead their ranks, and through him I gained their support for the colonization project.

The other major faction was the Nationalists, who make up the majority in the cities of Woolwich, Rossport, and Scrivens on Sandhurst, causing a form of divide between different parts of the country that are seen even now and will continue to be seen for centuries to come. The nationalists descend ideologically from the great speaker and thinker Frederick Wright, who was imprisoned by the hounds in service to the European Union in their effort to squash all opposition within their borders.

The nationalists felt, and feel, that England was the Land of Hope and Glory, the land where opportunity awaited those who tried. They felt that England was too accepting of foreign influences, of continental depravity and promiscuity, American sloth, arbitrariness, greed, and rampant disregard for tradition, and East Asian and Russian tendencies towards despotism. England was once pure, when it was able to impart to the world these values, and should have continued its purity into the twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second centuries. However, by the twenty-third century of which I was raised in, it was a lost cause. I, personally, agree with many of their statements, hence the distinctly nationalist basis of the Sandhurst state, fully synthesized with the militarist elements.

These groups had great amounts of friction in the early years of Sandhurst. The militarists were prone to a lasseiz-faire view on social issues, which must be preserved for the continuation of stable society. The nationalists, due to their fierce religiousness at times, had pacifistic tendencies, although not in the crippling form that has led to the death of nascent nation across the depths of space; rather, they simply were against war, against conscription, for the allowance of the uneducated and untested to run a government with the power to send noble men and women to their deaths. This, I felt, was untenable.

However, this story is best told in a following chapter detailing the early days of Sandhurst. We were able to attract enough common ground to head off into space, to jointly say “Goodbye, Piccadilly, Farewell, Leicester Square!” and head off in our ships, the St. George, the Winston Churchill, and the Alfred the Great to a new world. That world is now our world, Sandhurst.

Excerpt from O Clouds, Unfold, Autobiography of Arthur Goode, first Commandant of Sandhurst.

I am, and proudly am, a nationalist. I am, and proudly am, a social conservative. I am, and proudly am, a militarist. The founders of Sandhurst were in many regards at least one of these three groups; the first two, for all intents and purposes, can be grouped together as they tend to vote together in a bloc. The latter are distinctly separate from the first two and hence must be considered together.

My admittedly odd confluence of these opinions is widely given as the reasoning for one of the major fiascos (in the opinions of my opposition) of my commandancy. However, I will say, without shame or doubt, that I have no intention of renouncing my role in this crisis. I refuse to fall to the opposition, those that promote sodomy and depravity, the very opposite of the values that the stratified, structured, disciplined society that we came to Sandhurst to create.

The reader must be vexed and most likely annoyed by my prolixity, and so I will state it, no matter how tired I am of having to deal with this long-deceased horse. The New Greenwich Incident is, to my detractors, my crowning demonstration of the evil lurking within me. I, personally, believe it is the ultimate manifestation of the good (no pun intended) of the ideals that I believe in.

Readers of this text are bound to be young, as it will be undoubtedly part of some sort of holy canon centuries after my death, and hence I feel it necessary to summarize the event. New Greenwich was a world where a ragtag bunch of vagrants and sodomites went to escape the repressive Earth governments about a decade after the foundation of our beloved homeworld. New Greenwich, named for the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the Earth city of New York, was a hotbed of activity related to the 'Hippie,' as they called themselves, movement, which had continued in some fashion up until the second and third decades of the 21st century in which they formed a particularly bizarre portion of the Dove Movement, in reaction to the Third World War and the various American and European interventions worldwide.

New Greenwich would have been at best contemptible had it not decided to consort with the scum of interstellar space: pirates. These pirates had contacted New Greenwich and offered them new forms of drugs to mangle, twist, and deform their natural bodies, and pervert God's glorious design for their own depraved amusement. The early forms of bioengineering, a stain upon humanity, made their way there as well.

New Greenwich was by all accounts an affront to the basic tenets of decency practiced in Sandhurst and in civilized space. They practiced promiscuity and sodomy on a daily basis with no regard to the sacrament of marriage. They turned themselves into addicted sloths awaiting the next form of euphoria that they could find, and imported new forms of these chemicals from other parts of space. Considering how far both Sandhurst and New Greenwich were from what was established space (a much smaller area than modern established space, or the established space of the future), they must have paid an extravagant sum of resources to get such valuable cargo.

However, they refused to keep such depravity, such lust to themselves, and as such opened themselves up to visitors. New Greenwich was only the next star over from Sandhurst (it is now the weapons testing world of Endicott, under the control of the Sandhurst Armed Forces). New Greenwich brought itself to my attention when it became known to the government in Wrightsport that soldiers in the armed forces, when on extended leave, would book clandestine spaceflights to New Greenwich to indulge in such crimes against nature before returning home.

We, as any good resident of the galaxy would do, sent an ambassador, James Endicott, to New Greenwich to humbly request that they cease corrupting the young sons and daughters of Sandhurst. It never reached the planet, as it was attacked by the pirates that were the guardians of this world. Such a violent statement could only be met by a violent reprisal, and so I sent Admiral Bertrand Osborne to deal with this new threat to our nation.

Amid protestation from the less faithful and less disciplined parts of the country, Admiral Osborne's force surrounded the world and destroyed the pirates around it. Upon the realization that there were more pirate ships coming from the ground, the landing troops under General Payton Summers began to land on the few settlements, all close to one another, and began his assault. Their insistence on violence led General Summers to no other option than to raze the settlements to the ground. Shortly thereafter, Summers renamed the world Endicott, after the slain ambassador, and it assumed its current purpose.

The domestic response among the more pacifistic of us (a term I hate as pacifists have no place in Sandhurst society) began to seriously question this action on my part. They said Sandhurst had no reason to interfere in the affairs of another world, ignoring the fact that it was Sodom incarnate and thus not worth saving. They said I lacked empathy, that I had no knowledge of the necessity of catharsis (a liberal contrivance of a necessity, as a good citizen of Sandhurst is always ready to serve his or her country), and cited the fact that I have never married nor ever even had a sweetheart. I respond that I, like any good citizen of this nation, place God and country first. Thusly, I have no regrets whatsoever.

Episode of Mars, her Birth and Dominion, aired July 30th 2565

Professor Edwin Schroeder enters the screen after the introduction.

Prof. Schroeder: Good morning, my fellow Martians! This episode, we will be discussing the first of our many grand crusades into different systems with the intent of pursuing the righteous cause of the creation of just government. This nation was founded on the ideals of the great Wilmer Rigby and his compatriots that government may be forever free from the stifling bureaucracy and oligarchy that were the Earth Powers when our forefathers left that corrupt planet.

It is selfishness to maintain such good government while denying it from other nations of the galaxy, and the leaders of Mars following the Second Galactic War had no intention of purveying that form of selfishness. President Noriko Tsukino was a war hero and rightfully so, for under her leadership the great generals and admirals of that conflict, such as Sheamus Reilly, Jing Zun, and Sara Meeuwe, had beaten back the forces of the dictatorships of Earth, such as the Union State, the Greater American Commonwealth, the European Union, and the People's Republic of East Asia. Their relentless expansion into Martian-claimed systems had provoked a war of defense of Mars that would grow into the Second Galactic War.

Mars won; had we not, the good people of this nation would be under the yoke of despots on Earth. But we did, and for the good of humanity we ensured the independence of several interstellar states from the tyranny of Earth. Some of these later joined our Union, as those from, say, Halsey, Adenauer, or New Harbin can attest, those who love Mars as their liberator. Some remain independent. However, the first of our great emancipatory incursions serves as a reminder that liberty is fragile and may fall easily to despotism in the chaos of newfound independence.

When a modern Martian hears the name 'Novaya Russia,' he recoils. Novaya Russia is seen as that evil state, like the Republic of the Quetzal or the Asgard Protectorate, that opposes the fair and noble expansion of our beloved Union into those that want our rule, and want the filth of plutocracy to maintain in worlds that have it, preventing on multiple occasions our liberation of them. They were, after all, our enemies in the Second and Third Galactic Wars. However, they were not always this kleptocracy that we know them now to be.

The Novaya Russia system was settled by the Union State in 2164, with its three worlds of New Smolensk, New Vladivostok, and New Yekaterinburg each being founded within the span of six months. The Union State treated its children poorly, with political officers streaming in day by day to enforce their tyrannical laws issued from Moscow. They were slaves, mining ores on these planets day by day in the service of the Union State military. This was unworkable and yet it continued for eighty years.

When the First Galactic War ended in 2227, Novaya Russia was granted independence as part of the Treaty of Honiara, and its president, Matvey Ivanov, took power. Ivanov, the leader of the pro-independence faction that had fought for independence alongside Martian forces in the system, was in every regard a paragon of Novaya Russian democracy and a purveyor of liberty in the same vein as Wilmer Rigby. The Union had a friend in him.

In 2232, however, disaster struck, and President Ivanov was overthrown in a coup d'état by Lyov Fyodorov, a firebrand and veteran of the First Galactic War, who quixotically demanded good relations with the Earth Powers. Martian President Bahadur Charmchi, another famed commander of the Second Galactic War and the victor of the Battle of Halsey, waited anxiously. By the dawn of 2233, it was clear Fyodorov had wrested control of the country, and set forth a reign of terror where blood ran in the streets of the cities of New Smolensk.

President Charmchi, the great man that he was, sent the Martian Army and Navy, to the protestations of a variety of unpatriotic, pro-oligarchy Martians who supported the aforementioned selfishness, to the Novaya Russia system and commenced landings on its planets backed by spacecraft support. Within weeks, Fyodorov fell from his rule and Ivanov was reinstated as the rightful President of Novaya Russia.

However, after the withdrawal of Martian forces six months later, Ivanov was assassinated by some terrorist who to this day is unknown. The military came into power under General Yustina Popova in New Smolensk, and organized elections several months later after all forms of dissent had been stamped out. Her reign of terror was even more despotic than that of Fyodorov, regularly having dissent being thrown into vacuum, including Ivanov and his government.

President Charmchi, the hero that he was, attempted to have the Martian fleets return to Novaya Russia to restore order once again. However, through a combination of deceit and bribery, the traitorous Mars First movement had taken control of the Martian Assembly, led by the notorious charlatan Adrian Guillemette. Guillemette and his allies in the Union had succeeded in lying to the population sufficiently to have them elected to the Martian Assembly as a majority. Hence, in one of the great tragedies of Martian history, the Mars Firsters forbade the incursion, allowing Novaya Russia to become the plutocracy it is today.

The tale of Novaya Russia is a cautionary tale: never elect those who oppose the spread of true liberty to the apparatus of its vessel. That vessel is Mars, and that apparatus is the Assembly. Do not listen to the liars and thieves who want election on a case of decolonization or, heaven forbid, the dissolution of the Union. These people are funded by the remnants of the Earth Powers, the AIC, or any of the other organizations who want to see our good citizenry murdered or worse in the streets of our worlds, our ships sent, fully occupied, into the gulfs of space, to have their passengers dissolve into an anarchic bloodbath of cannibalism and suffering. This is why we must remain true to the word of Rigby. This is why we must remain true to Mars.

Excerpt from the memoirs of Stephen Allenby, a diplomat from the Republic of Ballarat, a member state of the Interstellar League of Albion, published 2302, Eureka, Ballarat.


I remember the day very well when I accompanied Arthur Goode, the famed first commandant of Sandhurst, and the leader of the Interstellar League of Albion, the international organization of which Ballarat, my own homeland, is a proud member of. I revered him as a saint at the time; I was only twenty-five, do remember, when he came in 2256. He seemed like the ideal leader for a Second Great Exodus state. Sandhurst came from circumstances much like ours; his homeland was under oppression from a superstate, much like our ancestral home, even if his oppressor was the European Union and ours the Greater American Commonwealth.

My first actual impression upon meeting the man in person, not just seeing him on the hypernet, was that of a very careful man, a man who chose every word meticulously before actually saying anything. When listening to me, I saw in his eyes the look of thought, betraying the fact that he was tailoring his response to me and me in particular. I had seen the same look on hypernet interviews when being asked questions; he wanted to make sure he was understood quickly and clearly, and to be done so by whatever audience he was beholden to.

He struck me as a very cold man as well. I, on the off chance, mentioned my relationship problems at the time with my wife at the time, Quincy (it was an impulsive marriage, granted), and he responded that if I wanted advice, I should go elsewhere. It is common knowledge that Goode never married nor had children, and there are no indications he ever had any sort of relations with women beyond the strictly necessary for his role as the commander of a nation. It seemed to be, in idle conversation, that he was a man who saw such relationships between people as petty, as trivial compared to the affairs of nations, of astropolitics. He was far more invigorated when discussing, say, the Mars quarantine of Earth, rather than any individual person that he knew. There is a common conception that he saw himself committed to an ultimate goal, and his autobiography, as flawed and biased as it is, confirms this. He imparted such a sentiment into his speaking with me.

At the formal ceremonies starting off the negotiations to Ballarat's accession to the Interstellar League of Albion, he impressed me, and the Ballaratian press, with his knowledge of our culture. In his speech, he maintained that we were siblings separated by time and space, as we shared a common descent from England. He even sang along to the Ballaratian anthem, something I was surprised by. The anthem, I will concede, is somewhat dull. What surprised me even more is that he quoted the second verse, the verse that very few Ballaratians knew before that speech, in that speech. Now, we all know the lines "for those who've come 'cross gulfs of space, we've boundless plains to share!" but that was not the case then. He awed us as a most polite guest, saluting when both the Eureka Flag and the Cross of Saint George were raised. We saw a friend, an ally, a brother in him.

And so he was in the early years. This was before he dragged us into the Bourassa-Mandanapalle War, in which Bourassa joined the League despite much protestations foreign and domestic. This was before the New Omaha debacle, when we almost became pariahs in the interstellar community; Sandhurst very well was for some time. However, Goode stepped down shortly thereafter in 2259. Stafford Toller, his successor, proved more friendly to us, as did Toller's successor, Travis Hickam.

Goode Ballarat remembers as a deeply confusing, at times quixotic, figure. My services as part of the Ballaratian Diplomatic Corps in the years after these events, including my status as ambassador to Sandhurst, were colored by these perceptions. I remember Goode as an inherently noble man blinded by ideology, as the previously mentioned incidents among others reflect that. He was impractical, and yet the institutions binding us together saved us in the years to come.

Excerpt from Galactic Gallivanting, a widely read travel hypernet blog, written by Francois Hashimoto of Waltonshaven, Walton's Reach system.


I'll be quite candid with you people in saying that travelling to Earth in this year of 2563 is difficult and possibly unsafe. I'm want to warn you that those of you from AIC or unaligned (which we know is bull - you're either with Mars or the Alliance nowadays) worlds will be denied access by the Martian government to visit humanity's homeworld. Mars doesn't want anyone to give those who are unfortunate to still live there any ideas. The only reason I was let in was since Waltonshaven is aligned with Mars and is thus 'friendly' to Martian interests.

Getting to Earth takes a long, arduous process with the Martian Customs Bureau which can easily take a standard year or more. It might have been three centuries ago, but the First Galactic War is remembered on Mars in particular, no matter how little the other members of the Union care. One of the few reasons you're likely reading this is that I'm the first travel writer or journalist in years to be let in by Locke Hive. I had to meet with several people, including Secretary of Customs and Immigration Miren Haanraats herself, who then had me meet, under several layers of security provided by the Union Peacekeepers themselves, with President Kazimir Lukacs and Defense Secretary Leon Delavega. Only then was I let onto a ship to Earth.

The ship I went on, the Giuseppe Garibaldi, was a lightly armed courier ship designed for the Interstellar Liberation Fleet's bases in Earth orbit. I was then landed on Earth's moon, where I saw the flag of the United States planted by the first humans to land on that body, as well as several centuries-old rovers and whatnot. Their display on old space exploration in itself is fascinating, and for someone interested in stuff like that easily justifies the trip itself.

However, what shocked me, while in orbit gazing at the blue pearl that our species originated on, was the sheer amount of security involved. People around inhabited space like to say that Earth is guarded by Mars; the truth is more like it's under perpetual blockade, just as it was after the end of the First Galactic War. The security surprised even me, knowing fully well of the military-industrial-intelligence-security complex that runs the Union of Free Martian Republics. One would expect that there be the occasional capital ship guarding the planet. One would be gravely mistaken.

There are thousands of armed satellites orbiting the planet controlled from an ILF base on the dark side of the moon. There are hundreds of capital ships of all stripes, from frigates to corsairs, destroyers to battleships, and even spacecraft carriers and bombardment ships. However, the most imposing of these is the F.M.S.S. Spartacus, the hybrid ship that can hold its own equally well in space combat, in bombardment, and in troop deployment. It is not for nothing that the authorities on Mars consider the Spartacus 'the flagship of the home system.' Indeed, it is; it is the ship where Admiral Ibrahim Schutz, the commander of the ILF over Earth, directs all operations.

Overhearing conversations, combined with being places I know damn well I shouldn't have been, gave me the impression that the rumors are true: the Interstellar Liberation Fleet is not just authorized, but mandated, with orders going back all the way to the era of President Noriko Tsukino in the Second Galactic War and subsequently confirmed by all presidents after her, to destroy any ship launched by an Earth nation attempting to leave the Earth atmosphere without approval from the Martian government. The Martian government is in part worried that an Earth nation will try to oppress Mars or another world again, but has another, more sinister motive: to serve as an example to the galaxy that the Union of Free Martian Republics will remember whatever crimes committed against it another nation dares make. It is in no small part this psychological aspect it projects to the rest of the galaxy that the Earth blockade is kept in place, with the implicit prospect that this is what is in store for those who dare cross the Union.

Excerpt from Galactic Gallivanting, by Francois Hashimoto, published 2563


The shuttle that took me down to Earth left from the planet's moon around midday. My stop: Fredericksburg, Virginia, Southeastern region, Greater American Commonwealth. That name, to many people of inhabited space in this year of 2563, makes one think of despotism, of noble conceptions of liberty corrupted. It was a fairly gentle flight, piloted by a Martian military pilot apparently accustomed to making such flights. I was accompanied by two Martian officials, both armed fairly lightly, with the standard laser pistol and whatnot.

I know what you people are going to ask: why not Washington? The answer is simple: there is no more Washington to go see. It was destroyed by the Martians in the First Galactic War, a testament to the ingenuity of the Martian computer people during that war. The pilot, a lady named Maria Bertrand, nevertheless swooped over what used to be Washington and the surrounding areas.

There, I saw the ruins of all the great buildings we think of as being from Washington: the old Capitol building, the Lincoln Memorial, its roof collapsed and pillars lying strewn all around, the Washington Monument, only a fraction of its original height, the rest lying on the cratered land, and so many other monuments of that nature. The GAC, as far as I can tell, has, like so many other Earth powers, has been driven into destitution by the UFMR to prevent any threat to Mars itself, the capital of the Martian galaxy, and so the GAC government probably has more important things to deal with than with the reconstruction of a long-dead city.

At 2:30 PM local time we landed in Fredericksburg, a mostly historical town made important as the only spaceport directly controlled by the GAC; all the other ones in GAC territory are run by the Interstellar Liberation Fleet, used only when the Martian government feels it is necessary. I knew I was in the GAC when I saw their distinctive flag: the blue field with the eagle and shield, holding two crossed swords behind it, and a ring of God-knows-how-many stars around it. It's a flag that interstellar humanity is mostly familiar from Martian hypernet historical dramas and spy stories; who doesn't think of the cackling villain that pursues Bobby Braxton: Secret Agent through the space between Earth and Mars. But this was no drama. I was actually in the GAC.

Walking through the Fredericksburg Spaceport made me think of landing on a world such as New Tunis or Bourassa: a world just barely prospering, able to afford very few of the luxuries one might find on, say, Mars or New Jefferson. The spaceport wasn't fancy, but was dotted with shops selling your average spaceport fare: half-decent food, cheap doodads, and oddly enough, postcards. Postcards in particular ram it into you how poor Earth is nowadays; Mars refuses to let them have even access to hypernet. They want your money, which in the GAC dollar is quite an exorbitant amount; Mars keeps it, among with the Union State ruble, the EU euro, and the PREA Yuan, with many others, artificially low in value. Hence, my Martian money gave me shiploads of Washingtons and Lincolns, Cheneys and Clarks.

The actual town of Fredericksburg was like walking into the recreated districts of Earth many Second Great Exodus planets have in their capital cities, but with an air of authenticity absolutely none of them have. Outside the spaceport was a statue of George Washington, only about two or three hundred years old, suggesting it was the GAC, and not the USA before it, that erected such a thing. Perhaps its a reminder of that great city that bears his name to the north, now ruined, that was the capital of an Empire for four hundred years. That intent to remind is the reason why the spaceport is in Fredericksburg and not one of the GAC's surviving large cities, such as Indianapolis, New Orleans, Atlanta, or Houston: a jarring reminder to the citizens of the GAC what Mars can do to them if they anger their neighbors in the same system.

I entered an eating establishment, calling itself the Georgetown Bar and Grill, again calling to mind the old capital city. It was a tough, vaguely seedy feeling place, but then again all of Fredericksburg, indeed most of Earth, felt that way. By my accent, they could tell I wasn't from Virginia, or even from Earth. Their accent was vaguely like the southern drawl that we associate with the less developed parts of the English-speaking parts of the GAC, but not quite. Mine is closer to Galactic Standard Accent for English, and in no way what they had.

I asked them about what they thought about someone from offworld being here. They told me they were still angry about what Mars did to them centuries ago, but they spoke of it as if it were yesterday. The GAC is angry at Mars, and at everyone who doesn't live on Earth. They're sick of the world that Mars won't let them leave.

The Georgetown Bar and Grill served a very good hamburger, something the various worlds throughout the galaxy try to emulate and yet never quite succeed. They had actual root beer, not the synthesized stuff you get at your average grocery store on any well-to-do world, and actual French fries. Their food tasted wonderful (you might be able to tell). The music was generally American rock from the last few centuries. The lyrics sing of a national idea of angst against whatever ailed them. We remember the old United States and its successor the GAC for being ruggedly individualistic, even as a group, and it shows here. The lyrics were rebellious, singing against rival businesses, rivals in love, and on a few occasions, the UFMR. However, as far as I can tell the UFMR doesn't care: they operate under 'let them hate, so long as they fear.'

Transcript of IIN Front Line News report from the siege of Vandenberg by Blackjack555

(The screen bobs slightly as the hovering camera drone is buffeted by shockwaves and wind. The view focuses on a younger woman in a Martian ILF uniform with a press badge. Beside her stands a large man in ILF combat armor with colonel’s insignia painted on the shoulders. Behind them lie several prefabricated tents and a high barbed wire fence. Beyond that a grassy plain extends to a city in the distance. Smoke and flames rise from the city and several wrecked vehicles on the plain. In the background, the sounds of explosions and heavy artillery fire can be heard.)

Reporter: Hello, everyone! This is Jaquelyn Langley, reporting live from Camp Stalwart, main base of the Union of Free Martian Republic Interstellar Liberation Force presence on Vandenberg. Here with me today is Colonel Josiah Vale of the Martian Republics Interstellar Liberation Force, the commanding officer of the Martian forces here. So, Colonel, why are you and your men on Vandenberg?

Colonel: Well, Miss Langley, studies by the Department of Freedom and Equality determined that the leaders of the Vandenberg government were abusing the rights of the residents and becoming intolerably corrupt. We had to do something, but they refused to listen to diplomacy or reason, so more direct measures were necessary. Every attempt has been made to quickly and humanely remove their oppressive government and assimilate Vandenberg into the Union for the betterment of all.

Reporter: Colonel, there have been allegations that the Union of Free Martian Republics invaded Vandenberg in a resource grab and that no effort has been made to avoid civilian casualties. In fact, rumors say that the Union deployed biological weapons that led to the deaths of thousands of noncombatants. What is your response to these allegations?

Colonel: Naturally, Miss Langley, these rumors are false. Vandenberg’s resources were only relevant to the Union in that they were being hoarded by corrupt officials, rather than used to fuel the economy and improve living conditions. As to the issue of civilian casualties, I will remind you that Mars only uses selective lethality biological agents. They are not lethal to anyone who comes forward to be registered and receives the counter-agent. Anyone who was killed by these weapons died because they refused to cooperate with their liberators and was therefore an insurgent, not a noncombatant. Civilian casualties in war are inevitable, but--

(In the background, a series of brilliant lights descend from the sky to hit various places within the city. Several larger buildings collapse and smoke and dust momentarily obscure the city. As the debris clears, Union armored vehicles roll by the camp while gunships and fighters streak past overhead.)
Reporter: Colonel, what was that?

Colonel: That was a precision orbital strike. Our brave naval personnel risked insurgent ground-to-orbit weapons to deliver surgical strikes on insurgent positions in Vandenberg, saving countless ILF and civilian lives that would have been lost if we had been forced to storm the city.

Reporter: Weren’t there civilians in those buildings?

Colonel: Of course not. If there had been, we would not have destroyed them.

(All around the camp, automated turrets spring up and open fire into the clouds. Fighters painted differently from the Union aircraft appear and fire missiles. Most of the fighters are destroyed. The rest race off over the horizon. Moments later, buildings and turrets explode, struck by missiles or smart bombs. In the wake of the strike, a large missile streaks toward the camp, hugging the ground and dodging the few surviving point defense weapons.)

Reporter: Colonel, what’s happening? Colonel?

Colonel: (off camera) Incoming! Get down!

(A brilliant white flash obscures the scene. The feed cuts out.)

Anchorman: We seem to be having technical difficulties with Jacquelyn’s feed. We’ll be sure to get that back working shortly. In other news, major ion storms interfering with ships going to Eridani III for the last two weeks seem to be clearing up. I’m sure they’ll be happy to hear that.

IIN Inside Look: Four weeks of rioting on Terranova by Blackjack555

Hello and welcome. I’m Tim Kappell and this is IIN Inside Look. On planet Terranova, the fifth planet to join the Union of Free Martian Republics, residents have been rioting over recent cuts in welfare by the Martian government. Join us now as we take an inside look at these events.

In order to understand the riots, we wanted to get the rioters’ opinions firsthand. After getting turned down by many of the leaders, we finally got one leader to consent to giving us a written statement on the condition that we did not reveal the identity of or any information about this leader. We were only allowed one question: Why are you rioting? This was the answer:

“The people of Terranova are mistreated and abused by the government of Mars. They don’t care about us. They don’t want citizens, they want slaves. All we are to them is property. We asked for food for our workers and they gave us propaganda posters. We asked them for medicine for our children and they gave us empty promises. We asked for fair pay for our labor in the forges of Rockefeller and they gave us armed Peacekeepers in the streets. When we sent messages they were ignored. When we sent envoys they were stonewalled. When we went on strike and refused to slave away on the forge world any longer they started shooting. We know what we did wrong now. We were too quiet, too peaceful, too easy to suppress. Well, let’s see them suppress the whole damn planet.”

Later, we spoke to a Corporal in the Peacekeepers, who only spoke to us on the condition that we leave him unnamed, never show his face, and provide a cover so his superiors never knew he was interviewed, which we cannot explain for fear of giving away his identity. The first thing we asked him was, why did the Union deploy peacekeepers instead of negotiating? He told us:

“Look, it’s like this, they can’t afford to be soft, you see? Give these guys what they want, others’ll do the same thing. Then more of ‘em, and more, and more, until the whole Union’s asking for stuff and getting violent when they don’t get their handout. You gotta be forceful all the time or people’ll think they can push you over.”

Then we asked if he thought they could win. He laughed and then said this:

“‘course not! This world’ll be on fire for years. You ain’t gonna win something like this. No one ever does. Ya just wait it out and hope not too many folks die in the process.”

Finally, we asked him the big question: why don’t these people have the things they’re asking? His reply was enlightening.

“*scoffs* How could they? They don’t got the money anymore! They don’t got the stuff to give! What, you think this is the only world where they got these problems? Heck, no! It’s like this everywhere! ‘tween the frontier dust-ups, the uprisings everywhere, and the damage from the big wars, they’re fartin’ dust back home on Mars. ‘Specially since they’re having to keep building up so the damned Colonials don’t come knockin’, wantin’ to take what we got left. Nah, they’re not gonna come back from this one. I figure it’s only a matter of time before it hits the fan and the Hawks or someone drops a big ole rock on the [unprintable] back in Locke ‘n we have us a civil war. Me, I figure once I get out I’m packing up and leaving for somewhere nicer. Maybe New Jefferson, I hear it’s a nice place so long as you ain’t averse to hard work.”

On the next Inside Look: For decades, Asgard has been a technological innovator. But what is it like working for their research firms? This Inside Look has been brought to you by Bruder-Leonovich Arms. Bruder-Leonovich: Give life your best shot.

[spanishspy]

Feb 4, 2016 17:42:15 GMT lordroel said:

So this is the timeline of wich you created the map and the flag.

Yes, this is the one.

[spanishspy]

Excerpt from Galactic Gallivanting by Francois Hashimoto


After Fredericksburg, my next stop was not any of the big cities like Indianapolis, Columbus, Raleigh, or Tampa that were within reasonable distance from Fredericksburg. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston were unavailable; they were destroyed in the First Galactic War along with Chicago and Los Angeles, and whatever good still left in them was taken by Mars; it's not for nothing the Liberty Bell is in a Martian museum nowadays. My next stop was the GAC's current capital, the one it's had since the end of the First Galactic War: Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

I took a train on GACTRAK from Fredericksburg to Charleston, to Cincinnati, to Columbus, to Bloomington, to Terre Haute, to Decatur, to Galesburg, to Davenport, to Cedar Rapids, to Fort Dodge, and then finally to Sioux City. Travelling the Midwestern region of the GAC is not very impressive; the same sort of poverty you see on poorer worlds, albeit much less technologically advanced. Sioux City, even then, was only a mockup of a great city, not a great city in itself. It spoke volumes why this place was chosen as the GAC capital after the destruction of Washington, definitely with Martian input: it was nothing relevant compared to the rest of the country whatsoever.

However, the population showed it was far from the small Midwestern city it had been before the end of that war. On the streets, I heard large amounts of Spanish and French, reflecting the multilingual, albeit heavily Anglophone dominant, nature of the GAC. For the first time I heard Quebec French, Mexican Spanish, and a variety of other dialects. Most of the people I met were attaches to members of the GAC Congress. One of them, a nice young lady from Montreal by the name of Claudette Bordelon, said that many of the people who came to Sioux Falls expected dullness but were surprised by the mixing bowl that occurred. "It's the first time I've ever met anyone from the Mexican or Central American districts, let alone the Caribbean," she said enthusiastically.

However, I could tell not everything was well. People here in Sioux Falls were incredibly defensive about wherever they came from. Claudette insisted quite vehemently about the nationhood of Quebec, and how it was distinct from the rest of the GAC. Likewise, a man by the name of Douglas Young, from Belize in the Central American district, was particular about the distinctness of his home from its neighbors in the district, again an aid to a congressman from a Belizean district.

There was rampant criticism of GAC politics and politicians. Many people here are simply disillusioned with the GAC system. One person I met, a man by the name of Horace Ramirez, said that "the politics in this country are full of deadlock, leading us to oligarchy. I'm starting to think the UFMR is right in this regard." The GAC president at the time I came, a man by the name Albert Stratford, was regularly bashed in the media, with newspapers with utterly massive type (yes, they're so backwards they still have print news) denouncing him as a corporate shill, or worse, a Martian puppet, the worst insult a citizen of the GAC could throw at somebody.

The discontent with the GAC government made itself readily apparent when I came across a massive protest at the GAC capital building by protestors from the Mexican districts wanting independence from the mostly American government. I saw many signs with "Independencia!" and "Viva Mexico!" and flags of the old Mexican Republic as well as banners with the Virgin of Guadeloupe on them. I talked to a few of them, and many said that the GAC domination of Mexico had begun even before it was founded in the 2090s, starting at least with the US intervention in Mexico in 2007, and from there Mexican participation in several operations the US wanted to, before being incorporated into the GAC.

The GAC military was there, with many outdated-looking tanks and jeeps and all sorts of other things. They didn't fire without being provoked, but the crowd was rowdy, throwing eggs and human waste at the infantrymen and vehicles, the former clad in combat armor and riot shields. However, somebody threw what they called a Molotov Cocktail, an improvised handheld explosive, at a tank, and it only got worse from there.

I had to run from the chaos of a hail of machine gun bullets, tank shells, and charging infantrymen sparring with the protestors, who had revealed themselves to be armed (even if they were different culturally, they had no issue with adopting the traditional, and indeed existent in concord with all the dramas and action flicks you see on hypernet, penchant for firearms). It was chaos, and I scrambled to get out, pushing away from people, begging the army not to shoot. I left the crowd, and made my way to the place where the authorities in orbit had told me to go should this happen: the Martian Embassy in Sioux Falls.

The Martian Embassy was in one of the fanciest houses in the entire city, the flag of the Union flying proudly over the city. I showed the guards (with firearms of the highest standards of humanity, far outclassing anything the GAC military had) my ID tablet, and they let me in to see the ambassador, who was instructed to give me shelter in case the GAC came looking for me.

The ambassador from the UFMR to the GAC is named Phirun Soun, a man who reeked the stereotype of the Martian diplomat: obviously appointed through partisan bickering in Locke Hive with little actual credentials. He was dressed fancily, with multiple young women as secretaries and clerks (again, part of the stereotype, like Edgardo Singh in the famous hyperfilm Reds on Renault, the political drama we all know), fancy paintings, access to hypernet (a heavily encrypted connection) to awe whatever hapless soul the GAC government sends to him. His office was almost obscenely decorated, with gold decorations on his desk and computer. He oozed wealth and cronyism. Just like Mars.

I took a seat with Mr. Soun in his office, and he struck me as arrogant and conceited. He boasted of how he got the job by paying several trillion Martian credits to a longtime member of the Assembly's reelection campaign, who influenced President Lukacs and Foreign Secretary Xun to give him the office of ambassador to a dying Earth nation, which, nevertheless, was given significant attention to by Locke Hive, but not enough to put the best there - those people go to the big AIC worlds and valuable Martian allies. From what I could infer, Locke Hive sees the GAC and the rest of the Earth powers as weak but potentially viable threats against Mars, but above all else looked down as outdated and impoverished.

I asked Mr. Soun what Mars would do about the riots. His response was so cold, so terrifying, but yet so quintessentially Martian:

"So what do we care if Earth people are killing each other? Less of an impulse to threaten us. I say let them die, so Mars can focus on the AIC. Damned fools never did figure out their little nations are irrelevant in the modern galaxy, and so they fight like they're the most important things in the universe. They're like hamsters in a cage, grasping at some higher power through their antics and yet incapable of realizing the futility, the foolishness, and the pettiness of their actions."

Excerpt from States of the Second Great Exodus: a Study in Comparative Astropolitics, History, and Ideology By Luis Antonov, Chapter XV - Non-Ideological States

For every rule, there is an exception, and the rules of history are no different. We have a tendency to characterize every single state, no matter how trivial in the grand scheme of galactic politics, as ideologically based, either in a nation or in a philosophy. This is wrong. The other major reason for the foundation of new states is that of personal ambition and profit, a universal constant of humanity that many nations, New Jefferson included, can support, but very few are founded with that express purpose. Nevertheless, they exist, and are worthy of study.

One of the most interesting of these states is the Imperium of New Innsbruck, in the opinions of the author of this text. The Imperium is no doubt the textbook (no pun intended) example of the state founded by the personal ambitions of a single individual: Erich von Habsburg of Innsbruck, Austria, European Union.

Erich von Habsburg was the heir apparent to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, a royal house that had ruled the Holy Roman Empire and later the Austrian Empire up until the early 20th century. His ancestors in the 21st century and beyond had been businessmen and other fairly wealthy people, but very rarely did they venture into politics. Erich von Habsburg set himself apart from the rest of his family in that he did not simply want to be powerful through wealth or by vote; he wanted to be the Emperor that his bloodline dictated he could very well be.

In 2251, Erich, only twenty-one years (equivalent to the same amount of standard years) old, took a large portion of the family fortune used for their business and chartered a colony ship, backed by the Martian firm Virgo Interstellar (which, as you hopefully know from your education, was practically necessary for a colony to be started, either by Virgo or another firm) and several disaffected citizens of Austria, Germany, and parts of the Swiss Resettlement Zone (an area settled in the past century due to the evacuation of most Swiss citizens to New Valais) on the colony ship Vitus Bering to the star that is host to the world of New Innsbruck proper.

There, Erich set himself up as Emperor Erich I of New Innsbruck, one of the few monarchies established among the states of this grand movement. Erich was a fair ruler, allowing the establishment of civil government; Olga Schuler was the nation's first Prime Minister. Terraforming by Martian companies had made the world of New Innsbruck reasonably habitable, an example of the colonial get-rich-over-time schemes of various Martian entrepreneurs; Erich's vast wealth allowed him to buy a terraformed world rather than a Mercurian wasteland, something that would be of great use to the fledgling country.

Over the first few years, Erich nurtured the country to grow, which it did quite rapidly; by the fifth anniversary of the country in 2256, the population had tripled, due to immigration and natural growth due to domestic agriculture. However, Erich was twenty-six years old and craved adventure, something that New Innsbruck had began to lack. To remedy this, Erich took a ship of the New Innsbruck Defense Force (NIDF), the Klemens von Metternich, and set off into space on a voyage that would last ten years, in the name of "spreading the goodwill of New Innsbruck to other nations of human space, and for the growth of the knowledge of our people." Erich left command of the country to the elected government in the capital settlement of Mariahilf, and set off into space.

To prepare for this journey, Erich had taken the same physical and weapons examinations that members of the New Innsbruck armed forces had to, both land and space combat; he was prepared to not simply be an emperor, but a warrior. Doing so, the Metternich went off into space and began its great saga of exploring the universe around New Innsbruck, a story romanticized in Erich's own Memoir of a Traveler and Emperor, his autobiography and the basis for several dramas on the hypernet; indeed, he set the cultural standard for the archetype of the Second Great Exodus-era explorer of the wilderness of space.

The first of this travels was to a nearby system, the Audley system, with its only inhabited world of Saint Catherine, populated mainly by those from the Earth nation of Jamaica, incorporated into the Greater American Commonwealth in the latter half of the 21st century. The inhabitants of Saint Catherine were dissidents who escaped the GAC under circumstances much like those of the founding of New Innsbruck. Saint Catherine, like New Innsbruck, was on the edge of inhabited space. When Erich arrived on the main settlement of Spanish Town, he was welcomed with open arms, enjoying several nights with the President of Saint Catherine Jonathan Dalziel, and began to be smitten by his daughter Adeline.

However, within a week, Saint Catherine was under attack by the pirates ever so common in the days of the Second Great Exodus. When this occurred, Erich did not hesitate in taking the Metternich into space and aiding Saint Catherine’s meager assault force. Already viewed positively for such actions, Erich personally boarded the pirate ship, the Martian’s Bane, and killed the pirate captain, Willie de Soto (many will know of this encounter through a variety of hypernet dramas). From there, he won the respect of the remainder of the fleet, and he offered the remnant leader, Horst Crafoord, a place in his armada. Crafoord agreed.

Erich returned to the surface of Saint Catherine to a joyous population and a smitten Adeline Dalziel, who married him in a ceremony in Spanish Town. Shortly thereafter, Erich found himself met with a jubilant parade, with flags of New Innsbruck being displayed very prominently on both buildings and on hastily made handheld flags. A chorus eventually rose up among the, and it became clear that they wanted Erich von Habsburg as their new leader (something vaguely worrisome to President Dalziel). Erich agreed to this on the condition that they join with New Innsbruck in political union; the parliament of Saint Catherine agreed, and Erich was installed as the Emperor. However, Erich insisted that the civilian government remain intact.

Erich and whoever wanted to come with him, including some former pirates, went off into space, travelling to worlds such as Sandhurst, New Valais, New Jefferson, Asgard, Novaya Russia, and many others, including one stop on Mars. On his journey, he was able to sufficiently charm the populations of the worlds of Sao Cristovao and Srivijaya into accepting him as Emperor. When he returned in 2261, the four worlds had formed the Imperium of New Innsbruck with himself as Emperor. There was no one parliament; each world had its own parliament which dealt with internal affairs. However, Sao Cristovao, Srivijaya, and Saint Catherine were all close to one another and to New Innsbruck, it was decided that a joint economic, defense, and diplomatic policy would be in their best interest. It is that founding document, the Brenner Agreement, which set the foundation of the Imperium as we know it.


Excerpt from States of the Second Great Exodus: a Study in Comparative Astropolitics, History, and Ideology By Luis Antonov, Chapter XIII - Failed States


History remembers those who are successful, daring, and above all impassioned, and the great states that have their origins in that sojourn to the stars have those in abundance. However, it is one thing to light your torch with the flame of ideology and using it to light the way into the depths of space, to found a new world and conquer it in the hopes of building utopia. It is another thing to heat your prongs with said flame and gouge your eyes out with it, blinding yourself and preventing yourself from perceiving so much of reality on which the foundation of such a colony ever so precariously rests. Passionate belief in ideology was essential to the flourishing of several states, but it was also the doom of hundreds of others.

In the years after the end of the First Galactic War, the Union of Free Martian Republics had a vested interest in depopulating Earth via nonviolent methods. Mars controlled, indirectly, the spaceports of the world, and it was Martian companies that provided the ability for a myriad of ideological groups, be they ethnic, philosophical, economic, religious, or based on any other distinction on which humans delineate themselves upon. Martian president Tsukino had every reason to let this happen - an Earth with that much less population was less of a threat, and so she passed legislation through the Martian assembly guaranteeing government aid for any company that brought Earth humans offworld and to new ones. It was a matter of defense, seen rationally and coldly through the eyes of a general or admiral. It was also the foundation of our current system of astropolitics.

For every successful colony, there were a dozen failures. The ones that succeeded had a firm grasp of the circumstances that being on a newly settled, often hostile, world entailed. The ones that failed were too used to the sheltered, comfortable life that Earth granted them, no matter how much they pleaded to the contrary. No amount of segregation or innate societal bias is of any comparison to the brutal, uncompromising specter of the untamed wilderness of outer space, and it is pitifully easy for the human resolve to crumble when faced with a leaking interior atmosphere; the impassioned crusader for justice becomes a weakling, a child, an infant when faced with the grim reality that they will die of suffocation within minutes.

One of the examples, oft-repeated in astropolitics classes (like the ones I teach at the University of Smedley), is the case of the world of Steinem, founded in 2259, by a cadre of radical feminists who, equipped with large amounts of cloning and other forms of artificial reproduction, set out into space to found a society free of men and the 'patriarchy.' These women, as intelligent as they were, simply failed to understand that they were not on Earth with its luxuries and ornaments, spending a good deal of time writing feminist tracts while neglecting the essentials of food and good colony care, such as managing the artificial atmosphere. Eventually, starvation took hold, and the internal bickering only exacerbated itself. Exact causes are unknown, for most information has been gleamed from recorded meetings, but eventually they had perished to malnutrition and occasional suffocation.

Another world whose case I am fond of referencing is the case of Aphrodisia, founded by a group of free-love activists from the Greater American Commonwealth. They wanted to be free of what they felt was the stifling force of monogamy present on Earth, and so they left to freely love (and to make love) on another world. However, their lack of concern for safety, and their much larger lust for one another, led to them neglecting to do one of the key things that a colony must do: regulate its birthrate. The birthrate soared as most measures of birth control were either ignored in their haste or depleted, and the state's leadership began to worry. Then the food production rate dove, failing to keep up with the skyrocketing birthrate that had not been adequately envisioned.

Then the food supply ran out. My students are often incredulous when I tell them this part of the story, but I maintain that humans are simply barbarous when left in such conditions, something that my upper-class, coddled students simply are ignorant of, and presume is the stuff of hypernet horror films. They are gravely mistaken. What happened on Aphrodisia was the descent into cannibalism, with the majority of new children being slaughtered for the purpose of food within days of birth. This would have likely continued until death enraptured them all had not the Martian scouting ship, the Coulomb, rescued them and brought them to the fairly developed Martian world of Voltaire, where the incompetent leadership was tried for neglect, being executed for such 'crimes against humanity.'

The final world I often give as example seems to my students to be less out of a horror flick as it is a grim comedy, but it was in reality the final cry of a bankrupt ideology on Earth: Juche, the state ideology of North Korea, a nation whose government was destroyed in the Third World War, its territory ceded to its southern portion in the Treaty of Libreville in 2018. However, its descendants lived on, and in 2253 were able to garner enough capital to take a Martian colonization ship to a new world, which they dubbed Juche World. Their leader, Kim Ji-Hoon, a descendant of Kim Il-Sung, the first 'Dear Leader' of the country, claimed to have the godlike powers that his ancestors had, and so therefore held that he would lead the people of Juche World to glory and galactic dominance. Their settlement died out of starvation and failed atmospherics within three months.


Preamble of the Martian Declaration of Independence and Sovereignty, the founding document of the Free Republic of Mars, passed June 21st, 2065, the day when the first five colony ships arrived on that planet from Earth, commemorated as Exodus Day in the Free Republic of Mars and later the Union of Free Martian Republics.


We, the people of Earth who have chosen to leave our homes, our livelihoods, and our homeworld are bound together by a common thread: the rejection of tyranny, of oligarchy, of despotism, and of warmongering that has been so common during this millennium. We have therefore decided to declare the foundation of a new state, the Free Republic of Mars, to begin anew, not burdened by the outdated traditions and societal norms of previous eras with relevance to the modern geopolitical situation is minimal.

The twenty-first century, since even its first year, has been marked by bloodshed on a massive scale, waged by the United States of America and its allies, the Russian Federation and its allies, and the People's Republic of China and its allies, among other countries who still insist on being purveyors of death. The War on Terror wasted the lives of millions in Afghanistan, and the precedent it set only led to the unjust interventions in Cuba, in Mexico, and many other countries, culminating in the American and European aid to Israel against the League of Independent Arab Nations, the impetus of the Third World War.

The Third World War was the funeral of any sort of actual liberty on Earth. The Dove Movement was destroyed from within and without, and the principles of the Enlightenment that the ruling oligarchies claimed to follow were long deceased. The insidious weapons employed in that conflict are those now being used to oppress and to kill, to maintain the rule of a privileged elite. Any truly noble human shudders when he or she hears the stories of the orbital bombardment of Khartoum, for example, during the 'humanitarian' intervention.

Smaller nations of the world are kept in slavery. America continues to occupy the former members of the League of Independent Arab Nations, and intervenes for its corporate interests wherever it feels like, backed by the nations of Europe. China has effectively colonized large swaths of Africa. Russia continues to bully the nations of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, among other parts of the world. This is a new age of imperialism, and to deny so is foolishness beyond words.

This is why we fled.

We want a new start

This is why we have come to Mars, in the name of the principles of the Enlightenment. To break free from this endless cycle of war and despotism. To build a new nation where humanity and liberty will be cherished above the interests of some robber baron or some president. We want a new nation truly dedicated to the prospects of equality and unity. We want a nation that is a true democracy.

And so we secede from all the nations of Earth and embraced Mars as our new home. The road to construction will be beyond hard, but all true fights for liberty have been. Liberty is worth the toil, the blood, and the pain.


Editorial by Selim Masterson of Jefferson Hive, published in the Martian Free Press, February 8th, 2144, entitled President, You're No Wilmer Rigby


I'm an old man, none of us can doubt that. I was born in the 2040s, in Atlanta, Georgia, in the Earth nation of the United States of America, one of the oligarchies that we sought to escape in founding of the Free Republic of Mars, the world we now call home. I was twenty-five when we landed on Mars that fateful day in 2065, and I have seen firsthand the changes throughout Martian history that have made Mars what it is today. I will be very frank in saying that I am more than worried about the future of our Republic.

President Christensen, ostensibly the hero of the War of Martian Independence, the War of Martian Unification, or more simply the Earth-Mars War, likes to tout herself through her party officials as the new Wilmer Rigby, or perhaps more demographically appropriate, the new Lata Tamboli, warriors for liberation and founders of the Free Republic of Mars. These first two presidents were people I had the honor of meeting, and talking to in detail. They were both fascinating, complex individuals who loved the liberty that Mars was based upon.

President Christensen, you are no Wilmer Rigby.

You tout your war with the Earth Powers as some sort of crusade for national liberation, something Rigby would have done had the situation arose. Having known Rigby, he would have never started this damnable conspiracy, rigging other settlements with bombs and funding foreign revolutionaries in the Mars Colonies belonging to Earth Powers. He would have wanted peace and nonviolent conversion to the cause of freedom. He would have welcomed them with open arms if they had decided to do so freely, but such coercion was anathema to the reason why he founded Mars as we know it.

And it doesn't end there. President Christensen, Admiral Jain, Admiral Pachacopa, General Glockner, General Afolayan, and so many more of the general staff have proven themselves to be willing to destroy the freedoms we cherish for the sake of establishing their own security state. Even the Assembly is willing to toe their line - the honorable Assemblywoman Maria Cardenas, my own representative there, is one of the most outspoken advocates of these restrictive changes. They are a mockery to the good names of Rigby, Tamboli, and many others.

Rigby would not have signed the Martian National Security Act, the act that created the Martian Security Bureau, the agency which monitors private communication. Rigby would not have let the Bureau continue to do so despite saying it would cease such activity after the war's end, and it still continues after the Treaty of Honiara. Rigby would not have detained Jaime Newman, and then subsequently have him executed. Rigby would not have forcibly integrated Earth's colonies on Mars into this bastard Union of Free Martian Republics that Christensen has just created. Rigby would not have ordered the strike on the U.S.S. Wesley Clark, which was bearing innocent civilians. Giedrius Simoneit is not a national hero. He is a war criminal.

I am fully of how politically charged I sound when I say this, but frankly, the Martian National Security Act bears a frightening resemblance to the American Defense of Liberty Act, passed only forty or so years before my birth. This act, passed by President Cheney, was the act that sent the United States down the road to oligarchy that is now the Greater American Commonwealth. I would even venture to say that President Christensen is the Cheney of this age. Cheney was not a dictator, but he, like Americans in general of his time, was willing to give up dangerous amounts of freedom to combat a threat (in his case, terrorism; in our case, the Earth powers), and that loss of freedom led to only terrible consequences decades down the line. I can only hope Martians are different.


Excerpt from the memoirs of Collette Clements, entitled Escaping the Red Menace, published 2249, Kardashev, New Smolensk, Novaya Russia


During my career as an elementary school teacher on Halsey, I had seen young minds blossom into promising young souls eager to learn, to create, to discover. That was what education was on Halsey while the Greater American Commonwealth ran the world. It did so equitably and with reason; Governor Stephen Mitchell (a native of the planet, much like me) was a strong supporter of our own education and not having to import every little thing from the GAC on Earth. He ensured the district (as was Halsey) education department paid us fairly and passed reasonable curricula, neutral, fact-based, and relatively free of the romanticization that we accused Mars of doing.

This was during the 2200s until 2223, when the Second Earth-Mars War broke out. I remember having to teach these young, impressionable minds about the horrors of interstellar war. These times were hard on us all; I saw several of my former students come to me and give their thanks for teaching them at an early age when they were grown adults, who had been drafted by the GAC to fight in some godawful system, or worse, in the Sol system, where the fighting was heaviest. They all left with tears in their eyes knowing that they may never see Halsey again.

I had to explain to my pupils during the war the reasons why Halsey itself had broken out into civil war. The Halsey Liberation Front, or HLF, had members whose children went to the school I taught at, Spruance Elementary, and they more often than not withdrew them, and I had to explain why some of these children's best friends had suddenly disappeared. All the stuff involving Martian imports was hard to explain to children who barely grasped even the basics of economics, but they all knew the hardship that the war had brought upon them.

The HLF, with Martian backing, won out in this conflict, and shortly thereafter the new provisional government's President and the former head of the HLF, Martin Driggs, announced that Halsey was joining the Union of Free Martian Republics as one of the new constituent republics. In 2228, the first Martian garrisons arrived on Halsey, with some coming to the town I taught in, Edmondsonville. It was at this time I decided to stop teaching and take up the cause of social justice, a cause I would ultimately fail in championing; had I succeeded, I would have not needed to flee to Novaya Russia.

I could not stomach to teach the children what the Union demanded. It was not teaching; more like indoctrination into the Martian national narrative. They wanted the charlatan Rigby and the despot Christensen, as well as the bloodthirsty Giedrius Simoneit, to be extolled as heroes and champions of liberty, rather than the terrible people that they were. They called the Greater American Commonwealth, my home, my nation, a tyrannical wasteland of demagoguery and wealth; I loved that nation too much to demonize it.

And so I resigned my post at Spruance Elementary. I became a part of the Concerned Halsean Teachers, an organization for fair curricula and pay. We were suppressed by the Martian government like so many other organizations who opposed the coming of Mars to Halsey; one of our leaders was found dead in the streets of the planetary capital, Pershing, in the dead of the Halsean night. From this vantage point, I saw the wholesale Marsification of Halsean society occurring right before my eyes.

The children in particular bore the brunt of this change; the first Halsean branches of the Rigby Scouts were established and every Halsean child would have to join them. They would be indoctrinated thoroughly into the Martian national mythos, Martian culture, Martian traditions, Martian everything. They burned old GAC flags and hung Martian flags on all the government buildings. They shamed prisoners and prepared banquets at commemoration ceremonies for veterans (only Martian and HLF veterans, of course). They sang at processions, they posted fliers, they knocked on doors, they made advertisements on the Internet to spread the word of Martian liberation that had come to Halsey.


Breaking: Terrorists Kamikaze into Martian Battleship over Zunyi
Martian Free Press, July 1st, 2565, by Cheng Tang.

ZUNYI - Last night, radicals belonging to the Tiamah Islamic Liberation Front (TILF) hijacked a cargo ship from the People's Republic of Zunyi in the system of the same name, and rammed it into the engines of the F.M.S.S. Arnoldo Pachacopa, a Lata Tamboli-class battleship of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet, while refueling. The Pachacopa fell into Zunyi's atmosphere and collided into an industrial sector of the planetside city of Huichuan. Current appraisals of the situation indicate that at least two thousand died on the planet, and six hundred died on the Pachacopa. Damage is expected to cost at least five hundred billion Martian credits.

The Martian Free Press' reporter, Sri Stoppelbein, was able to talk to the Zunyi commander in charge of reclamation, Admiral Qiu Song of the Zunyi Self-Defense Force. Song stated that he was "worried for the sake of race relations on Zunyi between Chinese and Arabs. Unfortunately, I expect there to be large-scale racial riots between the two groups, and we've deployed peacekeeping troops, with the aid of the UFMR, to stop as much violence as we can."

Zunyi has a long history of ethnic tensions between the Chinese majority and the Arab minority. The Arabs arrived from Earth in 2254 as emigrants from the Earth nation of Yemen, a nation under GAC occupation during that time, and named the planet Tiamah, a name for the area of western Yemen that they were originally from. In 2256, a colonial expedition from the People's Republic of Eastern Asia, led by a general who was on the wrong side of partisan disagreements, landed on the world and subsequently began a campaign of conquest of the Arab population, laying the foundation for modern animosities.

The TILF, the organization that committed such a heinous attack, is formed by various groups who want the expulsion of Chinese from the world and the establishment of Sharia law, the legal code of the Islamic religion. The TILF is affiliated with the Galactic Jihad, an anti-Martian terrorist organization operating mainly in the border space between Martian and AIC worlds, that demands an end to Martian travel restrictions to Earth so that they may perform the Hajj, or the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city in Islam. Most modern Islamic populations in human space believe that the Hajj is non longer necessary, a belief made necessary with the end of the First Galactic War.

The Martian commander in charge of aiding the Zunyi Self Defense Force, Peyton Driggs, has stated that "I [Driggs] would not be surprised if the Interstellar Ummah had something to do with this, and by proxy the AIC." The Interstellar Ummah, the largest majority-Muslim state in human space, is a member of the Alliance of Independent Colonies, the anti-Martian alliance of nations that includes Sandhurst, Asgard, Novaya Russia, the Republic of the Quetzal, and many others. However, the Foreign Minister of the Ummah, Izz Al-Din Muhammad, has stated that "the Interstellar Ummah condemns such terrorist actions," and extended Ummah aid in reconstruction. Neither the Union nor Zunyi have responded to this offer of aid, most likely a political decision as Zunyi is part of the Martian-dominated Orion League.

Excerpt from The Spear of Ares: The Interstellar Liberation Fleet from 2227 to the Present by Samanta Quintana y Ramirez, published 2564 on Montesquieu Hive, Mars, Union of Free Martian Republics, Chapter 1: The New Martian Imperative


The name 'Interstellar Liberation Fleet' is a holdover from the astropolitical situation after the First Galactic War. Through its superior technological ability, fostered by the ingenuity stemming from the libertarian character of the nation, it was able to cripple to orbital defense networks of the Earth powers and destroy their major cities, ruining their ability to wage war against the now century-and-a-half-old republic. With the invention of Faster-Than-Light travel by Fathir Amirmoez during the First Earth-Mars War and its subsequent sale to the Earth powers by Martian companies backed by the Martian government, the Earth powers were able to found their own colonies in a multitude of stars in the surrounding systems of the Sol system. Mars did the same.

However, as a result of the First Galactic War (or Second Earth-Mars War), the colonies of the Earth Powers were forcibly granted their independence. Many joined with Mars, but the vast majority of their leaders chose to begin new nations, new states, new identities. Martian president Noriko Tsukino and her immediate successor Bahadur Charmchi were happy to recognize these new states, but quickly realized that not all of them would be friendly to Martian interests. Newly independent states that were expected to be friendly to the Union were soon falling to hostile governments, such as the Novaya Russian Revolution, the coup on Nuevo Monterrey, the severing of Union ties on Damascus, the steadfastly neutral New Valais, and the peculiar factors that would eventually result in the Gemini Hegemony.

Concurrent with these new states was the ongoing Second Great Exodus from Earth and Mars, which would result in the foundation of notable worlds such as Sandhurst, Asgard, New Innsbruck, New Jefferson, and a multitude of others. These new states were, despite being funded ultimately from Martian bank accounts, were not always friendly to Mars, and relations between them would often be hostile, sometimes quite pronounced in the case of Sandhurst and New Jefferson. These new worlds made the astropolitical situation substantially more complex and unpredictable, something Martian strategists would have to analyze quite thoroughly.

As Martian observers prowled the newly settled and independent worlds, they noticed a disturbing trend of coups, societal instability, and establishment of dictatorships and other forms of governments that were openly antagonistic to the interests to the Union of Free Martian Republics. One of these worlds, Shikoku, was sponsoring pirate raids on Martian shipping as part of an aggressively protectionist economic policy. In response to this, Martian President Richard Sartre in 2246 declared war on Shikoku and sent the Martian Self-Defense Force to the system, easily overpowering the Shikoku navy.

However, this alerted the Martian government, previously isolationist to a degree under the famous (or infamous) member of the assembly Adrian Guillemette, that the Martian Self-Defense Force was no longer serving its stated purpose: that of self-defense. President Sartre, an avid expansionist and member of the Liberation Party, opposed Guillemette's position and declared that, with the approval of the majority of the assembly, that the Martian Navy would be renamed the Interstellar Liberation Fleet, and added the controversial Article 72 to the Martian Constitution. Article 72, still in effect, calls for the immediate accession to the Union of Free Martian Republics of any world that so chooses to join it, and the requirement that the Martian government support 'the freeing of oppressed peoples from tyranny much like we saw on Shikoku.' Interpreted liberally, this article is the part of the Martian constitution used by the UFMR for many incursions into other systems, including the various wars of the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth centuries and the second and third Galactic Wars.

Excerpt from The Spear of Ares: The Interstellar Liberation Fleet From 2227 to the Present by Samanta Quintana y Ramirez, Chapter 5: The Peripheral Wars


The Peripheral Wars, as we now call them, are strictly defined the wars in the 24th century between the Union of Free Martian Republics and its allies, which varied depending on the war - the coalition against Corpus Domini, for example, differed from the coalition against Thimphu - and the various new states that came out of the Second Great Exodus. These wars are widely considered to have lasted from the Second Great Exodus, with the incursion in Novaya Russia, among others, considered early parts of the era, and the final Peripheral War is generally considered to be the war that destroyed the Consortium of Worlds.

The Interstellar Liberation Fleet during this time was used as the physical manifestation of the will of the Union government (this is what it is by definition, certainly, but it was definitely used in this role more so during the Peripheral Wars more so than any other time). It was the instrument of regime change, of annexation, of puppetization, of expanding a sphere of influence. Under what was dubbed the Schweikart-Nibhanupudi Doctrine, Mars went out into newly settled space with the goal of spreading democracy and good government to the new nations of human space.

William Marcus Schweikart was born in Ericksonville, Halsey, in 2278, and rose through the local military ranks and then through the entire Union's military apparatus, leading forces against various hostile states in the early 2300s. Schweikart was promoted to the rank of Admiral after his famed command of the F.M.S.S. Jose Rizal against the Corpus Domini ship Zadok over Corpus Domini. After his promotion and several other commands, he was appointed Secretary of the Navy by Martian President Helga Cullen-Bedford in 2334, becoming the highest ranking non-Martian born individual in the Union government as of that time. In the steed of Secretary of the Navy, he became a close associate of Martian Foreign Secretary Indu Nibhanupudi.

Nibhanupudi was a veteran of the Martian Army that had fought in the invasion of the Patriarchate of New Antioch. New Antioch was run as a theocracy following a particularly fascistic variant of Orthodox Christianity, and became widely reviled for its brutality until being destroyed in the Martian invasion in 2312. From this experience, Nibhanupudi became a strong supporter of the Martian mission to instill genuine democracy and liberty to as much of known space as possible. After rising through the diplomatic corps in ambassadorial and consular positions, Nibhanupudi was appointed as Martian Foreign Secretary by Cullen-Bedford during the same round of appointments as Schweikart.

Schweikart and Nibhanupudi found agreement in the necessity of enforcing regime change throughout human space, hoping for the avoidance of more worlds like Corpus Domini or New Antioch, or a variety of other worlds of that nature, no matter the ideological basis. Mars was the purveyor of these values in their view, and in accordance with this they supported a very liberal application of Article 72 of the Martian Constitution. Article 72 would from there be used to justify hundreds of missions out into the periphery to aid rebellious factions supporting Martian annexation, even if they were in the minority. The Schweikart-Nibhanupudi doctrine would be the basis of Martian foreign policy well into the 2400s and the Second and Third Galactic Wars, and is still used today.


Episode of Mars: Her Birth and Dominion, broadcasted on Martian hypernet channels July 2nd, 2565

(Professor Edwin Schroeder approaches the view after the introduction)

What we need to understand, my fellow Martians, is that Mars does not exist in a vacuum; we are subject to the ebb and flow of history just as any lesser nation is. This was most clearly apparent during the foundation of our great country in the 2060s. The original incarnation of our government, the Free Republic of Mars, was in every regard a logical outgrowth of the Dove Movement, an international initiative to promote peace among the oligarchies that ruled Earth.

The very first incarnation of the Dove movement was founded in 2008, after the American intervention into Mexico. Its leader, a blogger and activist from Boston, Massachusetts, was a woman by the name of Catherine Hutchinson, a former student at Harvard and the namesake for many places on Mars, including Locke Hive's Hutchinson Building, the headquarters of the Martian State Department. Hutchinson, who had brothers that fought and died in the invasions of Afghanistan and Cuba, and she did not want to have any more good men and women die in Mexico. She organized massive marches in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, but President Cheney was undeterred. His successor, President Nickles, did the same.

Hutchinson continued her activism during the Third World War as the world found itself foaming at the mouth to kill in Korea, in Poland, and in Israel. She had one of her greatest actions in the simultaneous (roughly, taking into account time zone differences) rallies for peace in Washington, Moscow, London, Beijing, Jerusalem, Tokyo, Canberra, Ottawa, Baghdad, Tehran, and Riyadh in an attempt to sue for peace. Sadly, they often turned violent, and Hutchinson was arrested and held without warrant during the Washington march. She was held for ten years until being forcibly released by a supreme court decision, the decision that led Justice Rafael Edward 'Ted' Cruz to nationwide fame in 2030. Nevertheless, the oligarchies of the world continued their rampant suppression of civil liberties.

In this confusion and stifling tyranny, the Dove movement attracted the membership of several young people, including a younger Wilmer Rigby in Doncaster, England, United Kingdom. A famed computer programmer, he had worked with Microsoft, Apple, and many of the other corporations of the day, before realizing their inherent corruption. He had immense resources, however, and listened to his allies with a radical idea: that escape was possible. With the world teetering on the brink, radicalism spreading through the American-occupied Middle East, and Southeastern Europe beginning to show the seeds of revolution and war, he thought it was indeed possible to do so, and it was of the utmost necessity.

The Dove Movement was able to enlist some of the greatest rocket scientists and programmers of the era who were not working on lucrative government contracts for new weapons of war; the Freedom Star program of the United States was but one of many, being developed since the days of the War on Terror. Those that refused to participate in such butchery joined with the Dove Movement and began preparations for the construction of the ships that would become the Locke, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Doncaster, and Mirabelle, the five founding ships of the Martian nation.

IIN Big Picture: The Nova Puglia Insurrection (transcript) by Blackjack555

Date: July 17, 2578
(Transcript begins)
Host: Hello and welcome to IIN’s The Big Picture, your source for in-depth political analysis of galactic events. I’m your host, Chad Timmons. Today’s topic: the rebellions on Nova Puglia. With me are noted scholar and best-selling author of “Undeniable Operations: A History of the Union of Free Martian Republics’ Covert Interventions in the 26th Century” Katarina Delacroix and Major Silas Callahan, veteran of the Martian Peacekeepers and political analyst. For those who have not been keeping up with recent events, pro-Martian violence has broken out throughout the Nova Puglia system in the wake of a statement made by President Raniero Pedrotti that Nova Puglia would never join the Union of Free Martian Republics. A referendum on the subject is planned one month from now. So, Katarina, how would you describe what’s currently going on in the Nova Puglia system?

Delacroix: Well, Chad, the first thing that comes to mind is “despicable”. When the Union of Free Martian Republics realized that the referendum in Nova Puglia was not going to favor them, they began a program of covertly inserting personnel to pose as a popular rebel group favoring Mars. The idea is that the government of Nova Puglia will recognize popular sentiment and vote to join the Union.

Host: Major Callahan, your thoughts?

Callahan: Miss Delacroix betrays exactly the kind of attitude that we had to deal with all the time in the Peacekeepers. There were always malcontents who opposed their governments joining the Union, but those usually faded away as the benefits of membership, like universal healthcare and full employment, began to become apparent. Far worse, however, were the terrorists and anti-progressives who flew in from other worlds to protest our presence, stir up dissent, and in many cases fight us. It says something about their bigotry that the people they were trying to stir into insurgency frequently joined us to put down these off-world terrorists while they continued to claim popular support. I was a Peacekeeper for twenty-five years. We always left worlds in far better condition than when we arrived, and the locals always thanked…

Delacroix: Of course they did! They were scared witless, scarred by fighting your infiltrators, and cowed with bio-weapons and orbital bombardment! Who can fight that? You made life unbearably appalling so that surrender would be the only option left, then had the gall to pretend you were heroes when you “bravely” and “heroically” stopped carpet bombing them long enough for some kind of normal life to return! That’s not liberation, that’s brainwashing!

Callahan: You would see it that way, of course. You can’t accept that anyone might possibly think differently than you, so it has to be brainwashing. Nothing we do will ever seem positive to you because that would bring your whole little worldview crashing down. I’m sure you grew up on some luxurious colony world, then left home for some university in the Alliance and learned to hate your homeworld. Am I right?

Delacroix: (stands up, sputtering) Luxurious colony world? I grew up on Halsey, you jackbooted thug! You and yours raped and murdered my sister, whose only crime was joining a peaceful protest against your regime! So don’t you dare tell me about how noble and brave you Peacekeepers are!

Host: For those who don’t know, Halsey was recently the site of civil unrest against the Union government. Peaceful confrontations between protesters and police turned violent when two battalions of Peacekeepers were deployed to the planet and used force and orbital bombardment to restore order.

That’s all we have time for today, folks. Tune in next week for an analysis of the economic effects of the Sarajevo jump gate project. This broadcast sponsored by Champion Personal Defense Androids. Let us be your champion. This is IIN.
(Transcript ends)

IIN Headline News: UFMR Action in Nova Puglia by Blackjack555


Date: June 22, 2580

(Transcript begins)

Today, in a rapid unilateral offensive, the Union of Free Martian Republics deployed forces to the Nova Puglian world of Dote de Vittoria. General Wattana Maharam, commander of the 23rd Planetary Assault Division of the
Interstellar Liberation Force, had this to say:

“For the past two years, the people of Dote de Vittoria have lived with perpetual fear and violence as their government ignored their wishes to join the Union. Today, we put an end to the terror, the corruption, and the anarchy that have gripped this beleaguered world. We will put an end to the corrupt regime of Nova Puglia and bring freedom, justice, and peace to this
system.”

Accompanied by orbital strikes and aerial bombing, three divisions of the ILF made planetfall on Dote de Vittoria this morning. Two divisions of Peacekeepers, including the infamous 49th Angels of Despair, wait aboard landing ships in orbit with the Union 14th Fleet. In response, the Alliance of Independent Colonies has ordered the deployment of a fleet to Nova Puglia. Could we be looking at the beginning of another war? This reporter hopes not. This has been Sameera Ahmad, IIN.

This broadcast has been brought to you by the People’s Front for Peace and Justice. Giving voice to the voiceless, aid to the victimized, and justice to the wronged.
(Transcript ends)

IIN Frontline News: Meridian by Blackjack555

Date: November 18, 2589

(Transcript begins)

Anchorman: Hello and welcome to IIN Frontline News. Today, civil unrest on the Union core world of Meridian took a sudden and violent turn when protesters and Union Peacekeepers clashed in the streets. We go now to Saundra Ikeman, live on Meridian. Saundra?

(The screen shows a blond woman wearing a bulletproof vest and microphone headset, standing on a rooftop. To her right, two Peacekeepers lie on the roof, one holding a massive sniper rifle and the other operating a pair of hovering spotter drones, one of which floats just off the roof. In the broad street below, armored soldiers taking cover in doorways, craters, and behind the wreckage of an armored vehicle and a large tank equipped with a flamethrower exchange fire with a group in civilian clothing. The soldiers are obviously better armed and trained, but the exchange appears about even. In the background, a missile streaks from the bottom of one of a pair of fighter aircraft that roar over the city at low altitude. A colossal fireball denotes a thermobaric warhead going off, and one of the massive hive towers starts to lean. Occasionally the sniper fires his rifle, the shots shaking the camera.)

Reporter: Thank you, Chad. I’m here in the commercial district of Hive Sector 12 on Meridian, where open warfare has broken out in the street between the Union of Free Martian Republics 27th Peacekeeper Division and the formerly peaceful civilian protesters, who are demanding, among other things, lower taxes, less surveillance, and the removal of Governor Jitka Kaspar, who many blame for the recent economic problems on Meridian. Though the fighting has only been going on fo-

(The screen shudders as an RPG lances out from a window in a building down the street and strikes the flamethrower tank, sending up a brilliant fireball and destroying the spotter drone hovering off the side of the building. The sniper curses and fires.)
Spotter: No more RPGs for you, bastard!

(A figure tumbles from the window. An animal shout fills the air and men in civilian clothes waving assault weapons and firing wildly swarm out from the buildings and sprint for the Peacekeeper line. The surviving Peacekeepers open fire and some of the attackers tumble to the ground, but they are quickly overrun. The camera turns to the door leading to the building’s stairwell as three Peacekeepers in dirty and damaged armor walk out, two carrying a fourth between them who is missing a leg. A last Peacekeeper sprints out of the door and drops something before slamming the door behind him. The rooftop shakes and smoke pours from the sides of the door. He turns to the leader of the group.)

Peacekeeper: That burner’s only gonna hold them a few minutes, tops, Sarge. When’s our evac coming?

Sergeant:Gunship’s in two, Rods from God in three.

(He calmly reloads a large handgun. The wounded man groans as his bearers prop him up against an air conditioning unit with a rifle in his hand. The Sergeant turns to the reporter.)

Sergeant: Miss, who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing here?

Reporter: Saundra Ikeman, IIN. I’m reporting on the fighting here. (She waves vaguely at the camera drone).

Sergeant: Well, Saundra Ikeman, IIN, you know how to use a gun?

Reporter: Me? A little, why?

Sergeant: ‘cause, in about a minute, a whole bunch of real angry locals are gonna come outta that door looking to kill anything and anyone that ain’t them. ‘bout a minute after that, our evac’s gonna come get us off this here rooftop. Exactly three minutes from a minute ago, the Navy’s gonna blow the hell outta this here rooftop and everything near it, including the protesters, and our dumb asses if we’re still here. That press badge won’t keep the protesters off you, nor is it gonna stop a ship-to-ground kinetic strike, so if you wanna get off this here rooftop, you better get a gun an’ help us hold it ‘til our evac bird gets here.

(He takes a shotgun slung over the wounded man’s shoulder that he is obviously too wounded to use and hands it to the reporter. She takes it. The Peacekeepers set up with their rifles facing the door and reload. The sniper joins the line, setting his rifle on the top of the air conditioning unit. The spotter draws a submachine gun from a sling and crouches aiming at the door. The door collapses and they all open fire. Smoke obscures the entrance, but the camera drone filters it out and provides digital outlines of rioters swarming out, jumping, stumbling, or tripping over the corpses of those who came out before them, and firing a variety of weapons ranging from small home-made pistols to heavy assault weapons. The sniper fires his clip rapidly, each shot killing a rioter, then draws a pistol and continues to shoot. A bullet strikes the spotter in the shoulder and he spins and falls. The reporter’s shotgun booms, killing at least two, but usually missing. After less than a minute of frantic firing, the Peacekeepers are down to firing sidearms. Just before they can be overrun, a blast of wind causes the camera drone to shudder violently and forces the rioters back before they are mowed down by a long burst from a heavy machine gun.)

Sergeant: Our ride’s here! Run for it!

(The Peacekeepers turn and run, firing as they go. The reporter pauses and wraps an arm around the sniper’s spotter, earning an appreciative nod from the sniper, who grabs the spotter from the other side. The two carry him onto the heavy Martian assault shuttle landed on the side of the roof. Inside, the Sergeant and another Peacekeeper are strapping the wounded soldier into a seat while the third reloads and fires his assault rifle, adding his fire to that of the heavy autocannon one of the crew is firing in long bursts through the door to the stairwell. The camera drone races to the front of the shuttle and latches onto the wall by the cockpit door, where it can have a view out the back door. Everyone but the gunner, whose boots are latched to the floor, straps themselves in as the shuttle races away from the roof. Behind them, three brilliant flaming streaks briefly connect the sky and the hive spire and a tremendous explosion and subsequent dust cloud obscure everything. The Peacekeepers cheer, shouting ‘Ha, take that!’ and ‘Hooah! That’s what I like to see!’)

Reporter: How can you be cheering? There must have been thousands of civilians in that spire, and you just dropped an orbital strike on them!

Sniper: Hon, if there were any civilians in that spire anymore, they’re better off this way. (The sniper shudders and removes her armored helmet. Her hair spills out over the edges of the armor’s collar. A long scar runs down the left side of her face and her left eye is cybernetic.) Trust me. They’re better off this way. (She shudders again, her gaze far away. The spotter puts an arm on her shoulder.)

Reporter: I’m so, so sorry. (Turning to camera drone) I don’t think there’s any more to say here. Back to you, Chad.

Anchorman: Thank you for that up close and personal view of the conflict. This is Chad Brinkman, IIN. This broadcast sponsored by Bank of Shorah. Trust is earned. Let us earn yours.
(Transcript ends)

[spanishspy]

Excerpt from The Rise of Martian Imperialism: Social and Economic Roots, by Ragnhild Stefansson, published 2567, Fyrkat, Asgard Protectorate

Mars was founded in 2065 as a sort of 'Libertarian Paradise,' or so was the intent of some of its founders. Granted, it was a diverse group, with leftist populists and social democrats, among others, among them, but the libertarian streak of so many of the early Martian leaders like Rigby and Tamboli was a defining characteristic of the early Free Republic; the name reflected this, as did its anthem, and especially the Declaration of Independence and Sovereignty. They saw the necessity of leaving the oligarchies of Earth, but what they did not realize was that their ideology planted the seeds of the most evil state ever known to humankind.

The libertarianism that they practiced leads itself to a spirit of opportunism that places the good of the people secondary to the good of the privileged few, causing the eventual Martian class stratification that it saw during the latter half of the twenty-first century and that continued into the early decades of the twenty-second. This opportunism led to the school of thought that reasoned that if the liberty at home was so wonderful, it should only be spread, so that others can participate in this glorious bounty that their own nation has. Hence, Martian elites financed the rebellions on the Earth colonies on Mars, sparking the bloodshed that was the Earth-Mars War, the rise of the despot Christensen, and the actions of the bloodthirsty Giedrius Simoneit, the man who, for causing the deaths of thousands in interstellar space, is memorialized in children's texts in Martian schools as a role model.

Hence was the same during the First Galactic War, the conflict that solidified Mars' transformation from democracy to oligarchy. Such a war was started over a mining dispute on Adenauer regarding the right of Martian and European companies to mine various deposits. As the oligarchies on Earth came to rush to their compatriots' aid, Mars took the notion, with their president Tsukino signing in to law the Martian National Security Act, creating the Martian Security Bureau which was intended to monitor the communications of innocent civilians, making sure they were none of them were with the hated enemy, as well as the banning of public protest that continues to this day. The Martian Self-Defense Force was boosted in size by several thousands of soldiers, and today its successor, the Interstellar Liberation Fleet, roams the galaxy for the sake of expanding the Union's resources. The Tsukino administration likewise ordered the detention and execution of the leaker Jaime Newman, who revealed the full extent of the UFMR's treachery.

Jaime Newman in particular is the prime exemplifier of this change. He, like so many other Martian youth, earnestly believed in the cause of liberty that Mars claimed to represent, but did so far more purely than Tsukino or the other Martian higher ups, such as General Heinz Glockner or Arnoldo Pachacopa, among others. He was an intelligence officer during the Galactic War, and when he was ordered to spy on innocent civilians without a warrant, he defected to the Greater American Commonwealth. However, while en route to Earth, he was seized by the Martian navy and brought back to his homeworld, where he was executed for treason.

When Mars won its war decisively with the Earth Powers, the UFMR sent its navies, now the Interstellar Liberation Fleet, into space to 'liberate' those who wanted no liberation and did not need it, except in cases such as Halsey, which welcomed Mars with open arms. However, over time, it blossomed into the empire we know it today. The spirit of entrepreneurialism leads to the spirit of conquest as we can plainly see in the case of Mars and of its empire. The desire for more wealth means the exploitation of the wealth of others. That is why their dream is a futile one.


Episode of Mars: Her Birth and Dominion, broadcasted July 10th, 2565

(Professor Edwin Schroeder comes into the foreground).

Prof. Schroeder: Every nation has its great heroes, and the Martian Nation, forged through the collective work of hardy settlers seeking personal liberty from the dictatorships of Earth, is no different. We have our great statesmen and stateswomen and our war heroes. One of the latter, the greatest Martian warrior to ever live, Giedrius Simoneit, will be our subject of this episode.

Giedrus Simoneit was born in Montesquieu Hive to a family of Lithuanian heritage that had fled their beloved homeland to avoid the European Union's inevitable invasion and forced coup, to integrate the innocent Lithuanians into their totalitarian superstate. Born in 2114, he lived during the administrations of some of the early presidents of Mars, including Maria Kingston, Heinrich Wong, Thorvald Fendley, and Abdul Beye, among others. Growing up, he saw the glories of the Martian nation, and upon the outbreak of war in 2141 he had already served in the Martian Defense Force.

Simoneit became renowned when his ship, the F.M.S.S. Simon Bolivar, succeeded in destroying the GAC capital ship U.S.S. John Paul Jones in the interplanetary space between Earth and Mars, when his own ship was merely a small one, not equipped to fight the powerful ships of the John Paul Jones' stature and armament. Nevertheless, he was able to destroy its engines and force its surrender based on the threat of leaving them defenseless and suffocating in the cold of space. He fought in many other engagements, including the destruction of the E.U.S.S Jean Monnet after it had slipped through Martian orbital defenses and was about to bombard Martian orbital defenses and the defense of the F.M.S.S. Sojourner, a supply ship carrying critical resources to a base in interplanetary space that had been severely damaged by the Pyatigorsk and the Stavropol, both belonging to the Union State of Sovereign Republics, and their subsequent destruction as he piloted the F.M.S.S. Alessandro Volta.

After his victory against the Pyatigorsk and the Stavropol, Simoneit caught the attention of Admiral Arnoldo Pachacopa, one of the highest ranking officials of the Martian Navy. Simoneit was a gifted pilot, and thusly Pachacopa believed that he would be the best candidate to fly the experimental ship, the F.M.S.S. Lexington, equipped with a very early form of Compressed Dimension Drive, or CDD as we commonly refer to it, as pioneered by one of our greatest engineers, Fathir Amirmoez. The Lexington would be used to destroy the U.S.S. Wesley Clark, the massive ship headed for Alpha Centauri at subliminal speeds, the very sign of American decadence and frivolous waste.

The destruction of the Wesley Clark was on June 5th, 2143, and hence befitting the spirit of Mars and her great philosophy, when the Lexington appeared next to the Wesley Clark seemingly out of thin air. The American ship exploded into flame, killing its crew, slaves of oligarchy, and catapulted Simoneit into the gallant position of heroism we know him for today.

News broadcast from the Greater American News Network (GANN), the official government-sponsored news agency of the Greater American Commonwealth, dated June 6th, 2143

Breaking: Wesley Clark destroyed by Martians; all passengers are dead
Willingham promises revenge

The entirety of the people of the Greater American Commonwealth, from Panama City to Nome, San Diego to St. John's, mourns the loss and heinous destruction of the crowning piece of human achievement, the U.S.S. Wesley Clark, on its noble mission to spread humanity to the greater galaxy, to show creation that we, the Greater American Commonwealth, is truly great. This dream has been shattered by a marauding Martian force that has somehow created a form of Faster-than-Light Travel, led by an evil barbarian by the name of Giedrius Simoneit.

The only reason we know this, and not us simply wondering why the great ark has vanished from our sensors, is that the Martians have made an announcement on the Internet and through our own satellites. Their president Christensen has proudly proclaimed that the murder of thousands of noble souls, aiming to go where no human has gone before, is a triumph for their brazen, shameless nation without compromise or respect for innocent lives. Proving their insolence is the fact that they named the ship that destroyed the great sojourning vessel the Lexington, the name of the first battle of our Revolution that secured our independence. This is a slight to us. This will not be permitted to go unpunished.

GAC President Jackson Willingham has declared that "any force that the space force of the Greater American Commonwealth has hesitated to use against the Martians is now permissible. Mars is now locked in a blood conflict with the GAC, and we shall give them exactly what they have warranted. We will attack their hive cities, and expose Locke, Jefferson, and Montesquieu hives to the same fighting that overwhelmed New Reno and New Boise. We will bring the fight to the Martians." Similar statements have come out of Moscow, Strasbourg, and Beijing.

The Wesley Clark, as you must know, was constructed for scientific purposes, for exploratory purposes, and was completely unarmed. Mars, however, fails to see that, and sent their new ships to slaughter ten thousand crimeless men, women, and children to a cold, dark grave in interstellar space. They were waiting for a new Eden; now all they get is a frozen hell, deprived of any solace. President Willingham has announced the launch of new combat ships, more powerful than anything Mars has ever deployed, to avenge their loss.

Excerpt from States of the Second Great Exodus: A Study in Comparative Astropolitics, History, and Ideology by Luis Antonov, Chapter VII - Imperialism and Warmaking among New States

We of the neutral or AIC worlds and states of the 26th century like to think of Mars being the sole imperialist power in the last four hundred years. Yes, the Martian government as of now is morally reprehensible and perhaps downright evil, depending on who you ask, but it is far from the only nation of today with blood on its hands. There were various wars between new states in the 2200s during and immediately after the Second Great Exodus, some of which rival the Martian incursions during the Peripheral Wars of the 2300s in scope and brutality.

The periphery of the day, in terms of political composition, comparable to the Internet, and now the Hypernet: "complete and utter anarchy composed of myriad absolute monarchies." Granted, not all of them were absolute monarchies, or even monarchies, but the point stands; space of the day was a place of chaos and the old adage of 'might makes right.' There were no laws of the GAC, of the Union State, of the PREA, or the UFMR to regulate them, no organization promoting international arbitration, which would not come along until the end of the Consortium War with the foundation of the Orion League.

Sandhurst's involvement in the Bourassa-Mandannapalle war, for example, was one born out of a vested interest to expand its area of influence. Bourassa was under attack by Mandannapalle as the former had a myriad of resources necessary for the production of Compressed Dimension Drive technology, as well as uranium mines. Bourassa was descended of those from Quebec, a province of the Earth nation of Canada, which itself had been absorbed into the Greater American Commonwealth during its formation in the late 21st century. Canada was a Commonwealth Realm (no relation to the GAC) before the Trans-Oceanic War, part of the Unification Wars, and was in personal union with the United Kingdom until said war. Sandhurst, a descendant of those from Britain, were busy building their Interstellar League of Albion, composed of world descended from those who had come from other 'white' Commonwealths, mainly Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, in addition to worlds descended from other nations of the British Isles. The ILA counted Ballarat, Invercargill, Victoria, Haligonia, Powys, and Caledonia among its numbers at the time, and it would be their forces, in cooperation with the Sandhurst navy, that would intervene.

The intervention to aid Bourassa against Mandanapalle was one that was wrapped in the colors of humanitarianism (which was not completely unjustified, given the brutality of both sides), but had the goal of gaining the resources under Bourassan soil. Arthur Goode, first Commandant of Sandhurst, sent his preferred admiral, Jeffrey Crawford, and preferred general, Payton Summers, to fight this war with a coalition of troops from the entirety of the ILA. Advanced as the forces of Mandanapalle were, they were no match for the superior firepower, numbers, and logistics of the League forces. From there, Bourassa was reluctantly brought into the ILA fold based off of perceived national kinship with Britain, albeit done in a somewhat confusing indirect method of connecting Quebec with the United Kingdom. Bourassa would henceforth send troops to fight in the New Omaha War and later several of the Peripheral Wars during that century, eventually going along with the ILA to fight against the Consortium of Worlds in the Consortium War, culminating with joining the AIC with the rest of the ILA during the Second Galactic War.


Excerpt from The Consortium War: or, the War that Made the Modern Galaxy, by Natasha Tanigawa, published 2567, Markham, New Jefferson

The Consortium War is the war that, like how the Second World War defined the politics of Earth for the next century and a half, defined the politics of the modern galaxy up to today. The two major alliance systems of today, the Orion League and the Alliance of Independent Colonies (AIC), have their roots in that centuries-old conflict. The Consortium of Worlds is in a sense the predecessor the AIC, while Mars grew from the great power it was already to the hyperpower that it is now. However, to us such a war seems quite paradoxical in this time; we cannot fathom what would cause the UFMR, Sandhurst, the Interstellar Ummah, and of all nations the Gemini Hegemony fighting on one side. The answer is complicated.

The Consortium War is less so of a war in its own right, at least initially, and more so the culmination of a variety of different trends on different worlds. Mars, operating under the Schweikart-Nibhanupudi doctrine, desperately wanted to take down the Consortium state of Novaya Russia, as well as being less than fond of the Asgard Protectorate and the Republic of the Quetzal in terms of their politics and ideologies. Those three were the core of the Consortium, and other minor worlds that were a part of it, such as New Tunis or Mombasa, were simply accessories to the military and economic power of those three. However, the world of Mulholland was different.

Mulholland, descended from a GAC settlement from the First Great Exodus, had valuable resources among the gas giants in the system, and the planet itself was barren. In the 2370s, there was a large debate among Mulholland politicians on whether to ally with the Consortium or with the UFMR; the administration eventually chose the Consortium. However, Mars, with the Schweikart-Nibhanupudi doctrine already firmly in effect, intervened and declared war in 2381 to 'liberate' the people of Mulholland from Consortium 'oppression.' Understandably, the Consortium declared war, and the Mulholland system exploded into flames.

Meanwhile, Sandhurst and the rest of the Interstellar League of Albion were having their own troubles with the Consortium. The world of Kalgoorlie, to the ILA, or Tlaxcala, to the Consortium, had been inadvertently settled by both blocs, and henceforth tensions mounted. Things came to explode in 2381 when the Sandhurst Navy ship Wessex was shot down by a Consortium battery over one of their bases. This unprompted attack, claimed by the Consortium secretariat as an accident, led the ILA to declare war only a standard month after the UFMR and its allies, namely New Innsbruck, Zunyi, Thimphu, Nakichivan, Mayaguez, and Anjou, did the same.

Sandhurst and the UFMR did not, and still do not, like each other, and were shocked to find themselves fighting a common enemy. Nevertheless, Sandhurst commandant Victor Carlisle and UFMR president Rigoberto Confer-Vining to meet with each other on the neutral world of New Valais (which had offered to arbitrate but was turned down) to discuss strategy. The first ambassadors between the two nations were exchanged, and the war would be fought from that shaky standpoint.


Excerpt from The Consortium War, or the War that Made the Modern Galaxy by Natasha Tanigawa

With the new alliance between Sandhurst and Mars, the Consortium would have to severely increase war production; the Consortium's Director General, Guillermo Tortola, ordered its member states to begin investing at least 8% of their Gross National Product towards the arms industries and to training new soldiers. Even with this boost, they were still at a severe disadvantage to the sheer industrial strength that the UFMR boasted; by this time their forge worlds were mass-producing ships for the Interstellar Liberation Fleet. Sandhurst, being a military-oriented state, was able to call up large swaths of its population to serve, and its merchant ships, designed to be converted to warships at a moment's notice, were transformed into a formidable fighting force that the Consortium simply would not be able to match when combined with that of the ILF. Likewise, the members of the Interstellar League of Albion and the various allies of the UFMR like New Innsbruck would contribute significant detachments of forces to continue the fight.

The 'allies' of the conflict were only aided when, on the Consortium world of New Tunis the government, notably secular and progressive, banned an Islamist political party protesting various perceived anti-Islamic (an obvious exaggeration to all but members of that party) after they called for joining the Interstellar Ummah. The Ummah afterwards asked for a peaceful solution with the Consortium and its constituent governments, but were rebuked. The Ummah was then approached by the UFMR's ambassador, Victoria Winbush-Molyneux, to propose a declaration of war. The Ummah initially refused, but was drawn into the war when an Ummah diplomatic ship was destroyed by what appeared to be a Consortium ship (the circumstances of the actual culpability of this event will be covered later in this text), forcing the Ummah into the war on the side of the UFMR and Sandhurst.

The Gemini Hegemony, secretive as it is, was deliberating on a possible strike on the Consortium from its twin capitals of Purity and Collinsonia in pursuit of new territory to 'purify.' Emperor Ethelbert Gand II, a trained strategist, was urging his navy to strike the Consortium during this critical time and hence ordered the Purification Fleet to the Consortium world of Taichung, razing the entire settlement and taking its resources, focused mainly on an asteroid belt. The Hegemony, after this, refused to meet with any of the other Allied powers due to their longstanding principle of isolationism in fear of 'corrupting' their population with foreign influences. Nevertheless, the Gemini fleet admiral Jacob Marsten did reveal several parts of the Gemini strategy to Martian commanders during a joint strike on New Tunis, and his statements are the source of many pieces of knowledge of Gemini society that are held by the galaxy at large.


Excerpt from Galactic Gallivanting by Francois Hashimoto

Modern Mars likes to bill itself as the crown of the human race, the epitome of human achievement, the beacon of liberty to which all lesser nations look to for enlightenment. This may or may not be the case, depending on your political views, but their capital city, Locke Hive on Mars proper, was amazing in its architecture and sheer scope. It is hard to tell that this megalopolis was once a small system of bases, run by political refugees from Earth. It is, without question, the largest city in human space by population if the metropolitan areas are included. This is the city of the men and women who wanted to be the colossus of all humanity, and in that regard they certainly have succeeded.

If you travel to Mars proper, you'll have a significantly easier time doing so if you're from an Orion League world, or at least allied to the League, or at the very least aligned with (or host to) interests of the UFMR or its associated states like New Innsbruck or Zunyi. Mars is, to say the least, paranoid, afraid of any sort of attack on the nation's homeworld and capital city. Security is daunting, and often background checks are employed to root out any potential terrorist or political dissident. One can expect to wait in orbit for several hours on one of the customs stations to gain clearance to head planetside. The space around the world itself is cluttered, with defense satellites and docks of the Peacekeepers and the ILF common sights. Capital ships patrol the area around the planet, and the same space is abuzz with cargo ships supplying that world with whatever its citizens desire.

Most worlds have reasonable Galactic history programs in their schools, and so the story of the founding of Mars is common knowledge. Even so, to an offworlder, reviewing the basics of Martian history will go a long way in understanding the significance of the design and aesthetics of Locke Hive's city design in the center, the 'tourist' part of Locke Hive and the headquarters of all the bureaus and departments of the UFMR. Names such as Rigby Way, Tamboli Parkway, Simoneit Plaza, Amirmoez Square, and many others are common, and statues are abundant. Walking through the splendid Pathway of Liberators commemorates those who have fought for freedom (at least in the view of Mars) throughout human history, with icons of George Washington, William Wallace, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Simon Bolivar, and many others.

From the Pathway of Liberators, you come to the massive Locke Square, a gigantic open area where no vehicle traffic is permitted, only pedestrians. In the center is a reasonably large statue of John Locke, Mars' favorite philosopher, evidently, holding a parchment scroll and writing on it in a quill pen. On either side of the open area are two massive buildings: the Martian Hall of Assembly in the west and the Monument to the Defenders of Liberty in the east. This Monument is a breathtaking one, made in the style of the ancient Greeks and Romans so many millennia ago. Walking into the stone interior, there is a statue of Giedrus Simoneit receiving a medal from Dagny Christensen, in a mockup of the famous photograph from the Earth-Mars War. Going further in, there is an opening to a large, open-air section, emblazoned with the lines of an old poem from the days of the First Galactic War:

"Go forth, brave soldiers, never yield,
For you are freedom's sword and shield."

Inside this massive space is a colossal statue of the Greek God Ares, whose name was, in ancient times, the name of Mars, and modern Mars has certainly capitalized on that association. Ares is poised in full armor, sword pointed upward to strike at an imagined menace. On the sides of the circular space, there are the banners of all the services of the Martian Armed Forces, and the portraits of great generals and admirals among them.

On the day I was in Locke Square, there happened to be a large political rally at the Assembly building, and President Kazimir Lukacs was on one of the balconies, in a tirade about the 'diabolical AIC' and the 'charlatans of Nova Puglia that hate human civilization and everything that it represents.' Lukacs had no microphone, surprisingly; his voice is loud enough, and he can project it well enough, to fill the entire space with his clear (and clearly angry) voice. The whole area was decorated with the most Martian banners I have ever seen in a brazen display of nationalism. The Assembly sported large portraits of the great Martian leaders, with a large, stoic Wilmer Rigby in the background of Lukacs' speech. This experience is more than likely on the Hypernet in spectacular recording quality, but seeing it on the Hypernet is nothing compared to the sheer impact of a Martian rally in Locke Square; the force of an empire seems focused in one small area.


Excerpt from The True History of Mars by Muhammad Ingersoll-Engida, published 2566, Monticello, New Jefferson, Chapter VI, Christensen and the Dawning Bureaucratic State.

Dagny Christensen, president of Mars during the Earth-Mars War, is the woman who brought Mars from its noble beginnings to its tyrannical present. She is the very personification of the evils of big government that New Jefferson was founded to escape from on that planet, and hopelessly ironically enough, the very values that Mars was founded to escape from on Earth. Big Government is the stain of human society, the herald of the death of democracy, the gradual cancer that will grow and metastasize until it has destroyed the functions of the body of all of society, leaving it a dead husk of what it used to once gloriously be.

During the Earth-Mars War, Christensen passed several laws, backed by her supporters in the Martian Assembly, which were the death knell of Martian civil liberty. The foundation of the Martian Security Bureau was the first of such transgressions, with the explicit intent of, in the words of Christensen, "protect Mars and her population from the covert operations of the Earth Powers." Ostensibly, it only monitored enemy communications in their Mars colonies, but this proved not to be the case; halfway through the war in 2143, Jaime Newman, a communications specialist at the MSB, revealed that the agency was monitoring domestic communications as well, in addition to recording the viewing habits on the Internet of the population.

Public reaction was mixed. Many said that Christensen's actions were right, and everything that could be done to defeat the Earth Powers was legitimate. Others said that such was a betrayal of Martian civil liberty. Knowing he was now a criminal under the Martian National Security Act, the act that formed the MSB, he tried to defect to the GAC ship the U.S.S. Guanajuato, but was caught by the Martian ship F.M.S.S. Julian Assange, which took him from the ship back to Mars to await trial. He was convicted guilty in a complete kangaroo court and subsequently executed by firing squad.

After the war, the Union of Free Martian Republics underwent its transformation into the empire we know it as today. The various settlements of Mars, now united under the Union government, were heavily damaged by the various forces of the Greater American Commonwealth, Union State, European Union, and People's Republic of East Asia. The entire planet had to be rebuilt sans the Martian core of Locke, Jefferson, and Montesquieu hives. This led Christensen, and her successor Avishag Tobias, to institute a series of programs to rebuild the country in the model of the original hive structure. The foundation of the Martian Reclamation Authority (MRA) under the Tobias administration created the system of pensions, state-funded education, expanded prison and work camp systems, and a variety of other institutions that, while nobly intentioned, set a dangerous precedent: that the government could intervene where it wanted, when it wanted, how it wanted.

IIN Headline News: Martian Interstellar Liberation Force Deployed to Meridian by Blackjack555

Date: March 26, 2590
At 9 AM Earth Standard Time today, following a prolonged orbital bombardment, the III Corps of the Interstellar Liberation Force deployed in full to the city world of Meridian in the Epsilon Eridani system. They, as well as four more divisions of Peacekeepers, are deploying in support of the five divisions of Peacekeepers sent there last year.

Separatist demonstrations on Meridian turned violent last year following the deployment of three divisions of Peacekeepers. Another two divisions were dispatched to reinforce them after the near-total elimination of the 21st Division in fighting in the main agricultural sector. After several months of continued fighting without result, the Congress of the Union of Free Martian Republics ruled it a planetary insurrection, allowing the deployment of the ILF. Sources within Locke Hive say they expect the end of major hostilities and the withdrawal of ILF units within three months.

This move has sparked protests across the Union. The majority of the protesters consider it to be a violation of Article XXIX of the Union Charter, which prohibits the deployment of ILF units for internal matters, and are calling for the indictment of the members of the Supreme Court of Mars for allowing the move. These protests have clashed with pro-government protesters on several worlds who support the move, in some cases violently.

Some analysts are saying this event may be the beginning of the collapse of the UFMR as a nation, while others claim that such periods of turmoil are common to all nations and that the Union will come out of this period stronger. Whatever happens, you can get the latest on it right here at IIN. Up next, is the recent outbreak of Armalian Smallpox on Halsey natural, or something else? This is Sameera Ahmad, IIN.

Excerpt from Galactic Gallivanting by Francois Hashimoto, posted 2566

I arrived in the Donelson spaceport in Smedley on New Jefferson on a warm day on the planet. The ship, the Carolyn, run by a travel firm from that country, came to a gentle stop in the well-furbished, completely modern spaceport. A traveler heading to Smedley, or any of the other cities on New Jefferson, will be in good company; the New Jeffersonians take quality seriously in everything they do.

Stepping out of the spaceport and heading to the metro station in Donelson, a neighborhood of the city, I saw two reasonably large statues; one of Thomas Jefferson, the other of Royle Duane. The former is the indirect namesake of the country (it was named after Jefferson Hive on Mars), the latter the country's ideological forefather and first President. These people love their country sincerely and respectfully, in a way that is similar and yet different to the other country stereotyped as jingoistic, Sandhurst. They see it as a subject of devotion and of love, not as a master which they must heed the every word. They view the intentions of the fathers of New Jefferson as benevolent sages whose wisdom, while of high quality, must be changed with changing times, a further indication of their pragmatism.

One of the things you immediately notice, besides the patriotism, is the high amount of civic involvement in politics. New Jefferson is divided into twenty-six provinces, each with its own quasi-independent government that disdains heeding the central government in Monticello. In Smedley, the capital of the province of the same name, there were advertisements for elections everywhere, some even resorting to paper fliers on city streets. The truth is that New Jefferson is truly deserving of its reputation as one of the most democratic states in human space, as even local legislatures are subordinate to the almost-daily referenda held on whatever issue was pressing. Then, the issues were the election of a new councilor for the city (signs proclaiming "Zurita 2565" or "Greenberg for Councilor" were everywhere) and a new litter ordnance.

The streets and buildings were clean and the sun shone brightly on the city as I took the raised monorail to the University of Smedley, where I would meet my old friend Luis Antonov. A pleasant, feminine voice proclaimed the stops: Andersonia, Cunningham Lane, Zavala Street, Hunan, and finally University Park. I got off, surrounded by people and the occasional android. From there, I went into the green foliage of the university courtyard and its pristine, wide-windowed buildings with involved students. Above one of the towers was a gigantic New Jeffersonian flag, above a Smedlean flag; as I said, they are quite patriotic here.

One of the interesting things about New Jefferson is the specialization inherent in their university system. The New Jefferson primary and secondary education systems are very broad in scope; they follow a certain Heinlein quote to the letter:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

From there, I entered the history department, designed mainly for writers, historical preservationists, and prospective history educators. The students there were of diverse backgrounds from all across human space; the government in Monticello cares very little about whether somebody is from the Orion League or from the AIC, and as such most institutions accept many, many students from across the galaxy. There were skin colors from very dark to very pale, and hair colors showed similar variation. Their clothing was conformist at some times, wildly rebellious at others; New Jefferson is quite permissive in its social mores. It's consequence of the founding of the world, for it was believed that little government meant that differences between people could coexist without the meddling interference of some statute to get in the way.

I came to Mr. Antonov's office, and I saw him bickering with two students after a class in astropolitics that he taught. He was clearly angry, and they were as well. These two, both girls, were going on about how he was "disregarding the plight of those from 'shipwreck worlds,'" local slang for a poor world with a failing infrastructure and government. They lambasted him for being an elitist and a snob.

Luis then said to them coldly, "Neither of you have ever been to a shipwreck world, have you?"

They nodded agreement, reluctantly.

"I grew up on Zhukov," he rasped. "that was the epitome of a shipwreck world. Poor, corrupt, being bought out and raped by Martian companies on a daily basis, riots in the streets a normal occurrences, a coup seemingly every week. I starved as a child. Starved. Only due to the goodness of a charity ship did I get to leave the world and come here. I'm certain neither of you can say the same. Compared to me and my childhood friends, here you are in the lap of luxury. I don't think you can say anything on that topic."

They walked out, dejected and disappointed. It was then he realized I was here. He greeted me and we shook hands, and exchanged the pleasantries that two old friends do. We talked quite extensively about our personal lives and travels, and of politics, and then the subject turned to New Jeffersonian history. I asked him why he chose, here, New Jefferson, to move to after leaving Zhukov, and join hundreds of other elite academics that have given the world the reputation of a 'scholar's world.' He responded:

"New Jefferson is a wonderful place in that it simply doesn't care. That sounds like a criticism, but it's not. They don't care about shoving an ideology down your throat. They don't care that you're unpatriotic, or detrimental to morality, or whatever hackneyed reason you hear from so many other worlds. An academic can practice freely here, unlike my first teaching post at the University of Terranova in the UFMR, where my syllabi were regularly checked by the political officers stationed there, and occasionally a uniformed thug would interrogate me about my intentions. That just doesn't happen here."


Excerpt from The Gemini Hegemony: What We Know by Hector Zavala-Bramham, published 2566, Monticello, New Jefferson.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is a basic tenant of physics. Somewhat similarly, for every societal action, there is an opposite but not necessarily equal societal reaction, shunning the new innovation and trying to remain with whatever was in vogue before the new idea. Hence is the story of the foundation of the Gemini Hegemony, or at least the birth of its common citizenry, a reaction to the policies of the Greater American Commonwealth, the European Union, and the Union State enacted after the Earth Powers' humiliating loss to the Free Republic of Mars in the Earth-Mars War.

There is some truth to the statement of modern white nationalists that nationalism on Earth was crushed under the conformist bootheels of the superstates. The truth of the matter is that there was no room to have internal inflammation when they seemed poised to rip themselves apart, and thusly nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. were stamped out, often violently. They wanted tolerant societies in which all would submit to the state, be it based in Washington, in Strasbourg, or in Moscow, and such petty differences such as genitalia, skin color, or sexual preference were simply not worth making a distinction over. What mattered to the bureaucrats was obedience and civil peace, and thusly that was their mandate.

In those superstates, and some minor states, one of the notable reactions was a surge in White Nationalism, a reaction to the forced racial equality supported by these governments. Lead by an American from North Carolina, Milton Collinson, an international organization of pan-white groups was created to "defend the white race from the intrusions of the blood of other, lesser races, and hence preserve purity in genetics." The superstates had little patience for this organization and regularly arrested their members during rallies or meetings. One conference, in particular, was the White Purity Conference, hosted in a field in rural Alabama in the GAC in 2164. The GAC military, commanded in this instance by General Fulton Fyffe, an Earth-Mars War veteran who had fought in the defense of New Boise, was deployed to dismantle the meeting peacefully but to use force if attacked.

Surprisingly, the white nationalists were not violent, and accepted arrest. They were brought to a maximum-security prison in the area of Jackson, Mississippi (a state whose flag had been forcibly changed from a Confederate battle flag, a flag of rebellion dating from the 19th century, to a more generic field of stars, in the canton by GAC mandate), where they were chosen to settle the GAC's first prison colony in another star system. This system had a binary planet system orbiting the star, and these two rocky, barren worlds were perfect, in the GAC's Secretary of Extraplanetary Affairs Herman Fagles' view, for a prison colony. These white nationalists, and others of the same view, were boarded onto the colony ship the U.S.S. Booker T. Washington and brought to these worlds, which were named San Quentin and Folsom, after two infamous prisons in the GAC subdivision of California, where Fagles was from.

This prison society consisted mostly of white nationalists who had been caught in the GAC, and agreements between that superstate and the others allowed for said white nationalists to be sent off to the San Quentin-Folsom Extrasolar Prison Complex (SQFEPC). It became the largest of the prison worlds, becoming hosts to other groups of criminals, but the white nationalists remained in the majority.

Come the First Galactic War's triumphant end for the Union of Free Martian Republics and the destruction of the GAC's capital city of Washington, as well as other major cities of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and several others, the system was left to fend for itself. The white nationalists quickly took over the worlds and united them as the "Pure State of the White Race," a government, established in 2230, which would last about a decade and would become the direct predecessor to the Gemini Hegemony. Violently seizing control of space transportation that connected the two worlds, they San Quentin and Folsom were renamed Purity and Collinsonia, the latter after the father of that movement.

However, they came to the realization that their nation was not nearly as pure as it could be; those of other races had been put on those worlds during their years as a GAC prison colony and there was a significant population of mixed-race people on those worlds, and more worrisome was the possibility of distant non-European relatives in the pasts of the ostensibly pure population. Such was a dangerous threat to their 'purity' and thusly was of great concern during the first few decades.

In 2249, however, the leadership of the Pure State was contacted by an enterprising bioengineer from the Earth nation of Belgium of the European Union by the name of Gaspar Gagnier, from the city of Ghent despite his French ethnicity. Gagnier was the leader of a transhumanist group, the Society for the Perfection of Humanity (SPH), an Earth-wide organization with connections on Mars and on other well-established worlds like New Valais, which advocated the usage of genetic engineering to create a superior type of human, as well as different forms of human to perform different functions in society. Gagnier is quoted as saying "There is already a distinction between male and female; the delineation being their function in reproduction. It is only logical to further extend this delineation by differentiating humans by their societal function and not just their biological function." However, such a view was in stark contradiction to the egalitarian, if autocratic, ideologies of the Earth superstates, and his movement was expelled from Earth by international treaty.

The SPH was expelled for asking several nations for a large population to use as experimentation, to create this biologically delineated society. Central American nations, part of the GAC, rejected this, as did African nations. Gagnier's ideas, however, could still be proposed to the new nations on other planets orbiting other suns. The majority refused what was seen as a barbaric proposal. However, the Pure State saw an opportunity if certain agreements and compromises were made, and the leadership met with Gagnier in an orbital platform.

The Pure State's conditions were simple: remove the impurities of their 'race' from them via genetic alteration, and he could do as he wished regarding the societal function. One thinker of the Pure State, Maximilian Paulson, said that such modifications enhanced white nationalism; there would be no sloth, no temptation to disrupt 'purity,' whatever that meant. Furthermore, the Pure State's leadership was so enthusiastic that they offered Gagnier (who was sufficiently European enough for them) a role of leadership. Gagnier, eager to have two whole planets to himself for experimentation, agreed, and crowned himself Emperor Jasper Gand of the Gemini Hegemony. 'Gand' as the surname was derived from the French name of his hometown, Ghent, and the name Gemini to show the "twin divinity of these two worlds that will be realized under the benevolent hand of genetic modification."

His experiments are the direct progenitors of the modern Gemini Hegemony's public conception of it in the modern galaxy. Bleached white skin is a consequence of the 'purification' requested by the Pure State's leadership. Their genetically modified supersoldiers are a soldier caste designed by Gagnier and subsequently improved by his children (raised to be both statesmen and bioengineers). Their military prowess comes from the fear of the Earth powers or other hostile forces trying to destroy Gagnier's masterwork, while the famous xenophobia, the view that all 'normal' humans are inferior to them, biologically, culturally, and societally, is a combination of the racism of its founders and the desire to improve an 'inferior' human body, and from it the society that it created for itself, into something more efficient and more logical, in Gagnier's view. This last point is why we know so little about their current society: they view all as evil and inferior even when confronted with otherwise. They refuse diplomacy like most nations conduct, only making opaque alliances of convenience, easily broken at a seeming whim. Hence, their state is a testament to the folly of xenophobia. They were founded as a prison, and have made it that for themselves.

[spanishspy]

Excerpt from The Dagger of Ares: Orbital Defense for Prospective Operators, a widely used training manual for the operators of planetary defensive systems by Djordje Brankovic of Montesquieu Hive, Mars, UFMR, Section II, A Brief History of Orbital Weaponry

To understand the usage of orbital weaponry, one must understand the context of which the very concept of striking the enemy from space. Orbital weaponry developed before spaceship weaponry, and hence in the early years of the art it was used for ground targets on Earth in their conflicts before being used in planetary pacification, carried among the capital ships of the ILF from system to system. The oligarchies of Earth were seeking to find a way to destroy their opposition in a most effective manner, and wanted a way to prove to their enemies that they were capable of advancements that would change the face of war of the magnitude of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (an example not repeated until the First Galactic War in a masterstroke by the UFMR).

The very first orbital weapon was the Freedom Star, developed by the eponymous program during the early 21st century. A product of the frenzied days of the early War on Terror, the concept was proposed by the US military in the middle of 2002 and from there proposed to their Congress. This passed both houses of the body, and in August of that year President Dick Cheney signed the bill authorizing the funding of the Freedom Star program. One would have expected the program to yield fruit only decades later, and to a degree that is true; it was not used during the War on Terror proper, not in Afghanistan, not in Cuba, not in Mexico.

Unlike modern weapons, the initial test of the Freedom Star system was during a conflict, not in some barren wasteland bar two tests in the Nevada desert before deployment in 2015. The program was necessary to "continue the projective capability of the United States in the modern era" in a speech by President Don Nickles in 2013 when barraged by a hail of anti-war protestors. Members of both parties supported the measure despite radicals in each, and in 2016, the election of Wesley Clark to the presidency ensured that the program would continue to be funded, and would be used to help the American and Israeli cause in the Third World War.

The Third World War became as monumental as the Second in terms of the technology used, orbital weaponry chief among them. In 2017, a year after the war's commencement with the LIAN invasion of Israel, the decision was made in Washington and in Jerusalem to use Freedom Star on the Egyptian armies in the West Bank (a separatist region of Israel under the command of the Palestinian Authority, a semi-recognized entity and a member of the LIAN). This was only a test, warned General Raymond T. Odierno, and results would not be guaranteed satisfactory for the Israeli government.

The test turned out to be satisfactory; the Egyptian encampment was destroyed utterly, and forced a complete retreat from the West Bank to the Sinai Peninsula. Subsequently, the US and its allies in NATO were enabled to begin their advances into Syria, Iraq, and Iran, the former two members of the LIAN, the latter an associate with interests in allying with that regional bloc. However, it would not be until the opening of the East Asian and European fronts of the war when the weapon would make clear its might.

In Korea, Chinese and North Korean forces were busy invading South Korea, the latter backed by Japan, a front concurrent with the Battle of Taiwan (a Battle of Britain-style conflict), and the naval war between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. China seemed like it could take Seoul and then set its sights on Japan, and the Philippines was barely holding on due to assistance from Australia and New Zealand. Upon the US and NATO declaration of war on Russia and China, the Freedom Star program would be considered to be used once again. Refined in 2017 after the test on the Egyptian forces, the weapon would now be used for a far more sweeping gesture on behalf of South Korea.

North Korea, for context, was run by the Kim dynasty, a monarchy of madmen with delusions of grandeur that make the desires of leaders of so many states born out of the Second Great Exodus look completely mundane by comparison. The Kims believed they were literally gods, and the propaganda portrayed them as such. They based their rule on the promise of the conquest of South Korea, their rivals since the creation of both states in the Korean War of the 1950s, and proclaimed their southern neighbor to be run by demons. Logically, South Korea wished for nothing less than for North Korea to be wiped off of the face of the Earth. President Clark agreed to a point, but was far less pompous and vitriolic in his denouncements of the Kims. Nevertheless, he agreed to the usage of Freedom Star not on Chinese or North Korean forces, but on the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. This strike destroyed several monuments and killed the contemporary leader of the country, Kim Jong-un. This campaign against North Korea would end in the Siege of Pyongyang, a bloody battle that ended the war in Korea and laid the foundation of the unified Korean state.

In Europe, the Russian advance into Poland was equally brutal, with Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian victories at Zalezsany, Nowa Luka, Ochrymy, and Krynica during the beginnings of that front, as well as the complete overwhelming of the Baltic states. As the Russian advance to Warsaw became ever closer to succeeding, President Clark allowed the usage of Freedom Star on Russian forces in Poland. This massive deployment of Rods from God, unmatched until the spectacular end of the First Galactic War, allowed NATO to drive back the invaders into Belarus and western Ukraine, and thusly winning them the war. The Treaty of Libreville was said to be "written by space missile," a term, which while inaccurate from a technical standpoint, which is accurate when considering the sheer game-changing moment that Freedom Star represented, altering warfare forever afterwards.


Excerpt from The Crimson Haven: Immigration to Mars during the Unification Wars, by Dragana Filipovic, published 2568, Locke Hive, Mars, UFMR, Chapter 3: The Balkan War and the Trans-Atlantic War

For many Martians nowadays, the actions of the Free Republic of Mars during the Trans-Atlantic War of the 2090s is an event that brings a sort of national pride to their thoughts. To them, Mars is their liberator. Just as many can trace their ancestry to the original founders, many more can trace their ancestry to the refugees taken by the FRM during the Balkan War and the Trans-Atlantic War.

The Balkan War was a result of ethnic tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, and Croatia, the result, in part, of the divided nature of the area. Croatia, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were proud members of the European Union, while Serbia claimed Kosovo, which was recognized by the EU as a sovereign state but not as a member state, which is what the Kosovars so desperately wanted. The United States also recognized the existence of this government, headquartered in Pristina. Russia, however, backed Serbia, and refused to acknowledge any legitimate existence of a Kosovar government. This, combined with conflict between Christians and Muslims in the EU states, was the spark for the Balkan War.

Subsequently, after the start of the war, (the details of which are common knowledge, and another text should be consulted for an in-depth analysis of the precise cause), the United States under its century-long interventionist foreign policy, unilaterally deployed forces in Kosovo to fight Serbia. However, the European President, Robin Nystrom, felt the conflict in the Balkans was a "European Conflict not warranting non-European intervention," and told the President of the United States Julian Bannard that such intervention "would be met with force of arms if necessary." The Treaty of Krakow, signed in 2016 during the opening phases of the Third World War, obligated that the militaries of the EU member states to defend any member in case of an invasion (which was what was invoked during the Russian invasion of Poland during that war in addition to NATO policies). American troops were in Kosovo, and were prepared to make war on Serbia.

The Balkan War never ended, really, but in actually was subsumed into the greater Trans-Atlantic War, when an Albanian nationalist, appalled at the actions of the American forces there, detonated a bomb in an American base in Kerstec, near the Albanian border, provoked an American pursuit into Albania. The pursuit led to a confrontation between the Albanian and American militaries, and the EU then declared war. The Balkans would be awash with blood, and a century-and-a-half year alliance would be shattered.

A world away, the leadership of the Free Republic of Mars looked upon this carnage with shock and horror. Certainly, they would have to do something. Mars was already a place of refuge for those seeking a start, free of the tyranny that was rampant in that world. Mars, therefore, would be the ideal place to take in refugees from this conflict. It would also serve Martian political goals: a larger population for the fledgling republic. Birth subsidies had already been enacted by the Assembly, spearheaded by Roger Bankman, with the intention of boosting the population of Martians to support economic growth and the eventual ability to defend themselves against the gradually growing space forces of the Earth powers.

There were no spaceports in Southeastern Europe, and the United States and European Union would certainly not let the Martians have access to them. Mars then turned to one of its few friends on Earth: Switzerland, with its Geneva Spaceport, from where the initial founders of Mars launched their five ships. Mars and Switzerland agreed to jointly fund an effort to get refugees from those countries into Switzerland, and from there to Mars. Millions worth of Martian credits were sent to funds on Earth, and were, on the account of the Martian government, were given free passage to their new home.

Similarly, Mars negotiated with the government of St. Kitts and Nevis to help refugees from the American invasion of Canada during this war. Martian money funded boats from the Caribbean to major Canadian cities in the eastern part of the country to break the American blockade and be launched into space, giving its refugees a haven, where they would assume a Martian identity, a Martian nationality, a Martian life.


Essay response from the 2570 Martian Standardized Academic Competency test (MSAC), written by the Martian Department of Education, issued May 3rd of that year. This response written by Rumbidzai Quattrocchi, of New Boise, Mars, year 11, Afolyan Secondary School.

Compare and Contrast the technology and scale of the Earth-Mars War and the First Galactic War.

The waging of the Earth-Mars War and the First Galactic War differed in the weapons used, the transport used, and the battlefields in which they took place.

The Earth-Mars War saw railguns and basic beam weaponry used, while the First Galactic War saw more advanced beam weaponry used, as well as a noted instance of cyberwarfare in which Mars hacked the Earth nuclear satellites. First Earth-Mars War technology was more basic and required several shots to take down a ship, while the weapons of the First Earth-Mars War were able to destroy weak ships in seconds.

In terms of transportation, the main difference in between the two wars was the widespread usage of Compressed Dimension Drive in the First Galactic War, while the CDD was new during the Earth-Mars War. In the second conflict CDD allowed Gedrus Simonet to destroy the USS Wesly Clarke after its invention by Fayir Amiz, while in the later conflict it was used by all factions in the majority of their ships.

Scale was the final key difference between the two wars. The Earth-Mars War saw fighting on the ground in Mars, as well as skirmishes over Earth, with the single battle between the Lexington and the Wesly Clarke in interstellar space. The First Galactic War was fought mainly in interstellar space and in extrasolar colonies like Adanoor, Choning, Jonjo, La Ceiba, and many others, with the only fighting on one of the planets around Sol was the destruction of the Earth cities with their own nuclear satellites.

[Essay ends]

MSAC Grader: Kathleen Zhong, of Larimore Secondary School, Bennington, Meridian.

Score: 3/10

Grader's comments: This essay demonstrates a dismally inadequate ability to comprehend the question answered. It is at is most basic factually accurate, but it is not able to go into any significant detail, nor does it provide any relevant analysis. It is replete with spelling errors that show a casual disregard to the names of the great Martians and to the names of important planets, such as "Fayir Amiz" for what is properly "Fathir Amirmoez," and "Adenoor" for "Adenauer" respectively. There will be no credit awarded to this student, and further study is highly recommended, including possibly being held back a year.


Essay response from the 2570 Martian Standardized Academic Competency (MSAC) test, written by the Martian Department of Education, issued May 3rd of that year. Response from Fulton Ludlum, of Schleswig Secondary School, Dickinson Creek, Halsey, UFMR.

Analyze the sociopolitical factors that caused the original settlers of Mars to leave Earth.

The founders of the essence of our great nation, the Union of Free Martian Republics, were motivated to seek out their new home, the liberator of millions, due to a combination of the stifling of the democratic processes, the suspension of civil liberties, and the desire to build utopia in a world free of these insults to the human condition.

The oligarchies of Earth were doing their best to destroy the democracy that flourished in the twentieth century against the socialist autocracies. In the United States, widespread gerrymandering ruled the apportionment of the House of Representatives, allowing partisan politics to trump fair representation. In the European Union, individual countries were being forced to comply with new laws forced upon them by the European Parliament, a fact not helped by the EU's aggressive response when Britain tried to leave in 2034. China and Russia abandoned any pretense of democracy during the third, fourth, and fifth decades of the 21st century, with dictators such as Makar Mihaylov in Russia and Liao Ming in China exerting increasing amounts of influence in their countries, which would eventually lead to the expansionism that was the cause of the conflicts now known as the Unification Wars.

Various nations and international organizations also tore down, with great efficiency, the civil liberties that they claimed to enshrine. In the United States, the Defense of Liberty Act (DoLA), passed to combat the perceived threat of radical Islamic fundamentalism in 2001, was used by successive administrations to curtail civil liberties; this was found constitutional in the 2042 Supreme Court Case Chamness v. Kingsley ruled that the banning of speech seen as "supporting terrorism or the destruction of the American state" was found completely legal and in concordance with the First Amendment. Similarly, the Supreme Court Case Jimenez v. United States ruled that the mass surveillance of telephone calls and electronic communications rampant in the country was legal, and that the Fourth Amendment only applied to physical objects. In the European Union, rights of free speech were curtailed by acts such as the Hate Speech Act and the Extremist and Subversive Groups Act, and protests going against the norm were arrested and held without trial en masse. Like above, such rights were lacking in China, Russia, and other countries such as Japan, India, and Australia, and as such also gave reason to leave.

Such causes led to the Dove Movement's contacting of Wilmer Rigby to fund the coming Exodus Project to found a new settlement on Mars, the birth of the Free Republic of Mars, the immediate predecessor to the Union of Free Martian Republics. As proclaimed in no uncertain terms in the Martian Declaration of Independence and Sovereignty, which proclaimed Mars free of Earth domination and corruption. In his great "Rebirth Speech" to the first Assembly, the FRM was proclaimed to be a "new beacon of liberty to all mankind a symbol that the way is forward to nobleness and freedom, and not to slavery and autocracy." This was echoed by many successive administrations, and the new republic proved to have better civil rights records than all of Earth combined, as per an independent political science group (which was subsequently shut down by the US government).

In conclusion, factors leading to the destruction of any sustainable democratic process and the complete abrogation of civil liberties by the Earth powers, and a desire to give humanity a brighter future, led to the desires of the founders of Mars as we know it, for all her faults, to build a new society.

[Essay ends]

MSAC Grader: Chandler Nguyen, of Charmchi Secondary School, Armaghankhaneneh, Zanjan, UFMR.

Essay Grade: 9/10

Grader's Comments: This is a superbly crafted essay, with significant detail for such a task. The question is answered in such a way that demonstrates the knowledge of the time period, and does so in significant and comprehensive detail. Knowledge of the reasons is complete and competent; however, there is no attention given to the cause of the various military escapades of the Earth powers such as the US into Afghanistan, Cuba, and Mexico, China into Vietnam, Russia into Ukraine and Georgia, or the EU into the various countries of West Africa.


Essay response from the 2570 Martian Standardized Academic Competency (MSAC) test, written by the Martian Department of Education, issued May 3rd of that year. Response by Carlton Dioso, of Corbridge Comprehensive School, Newmanston, Voltaire.

To what extent was the success, and what was the political impact of, the Martian Reclamation Authority?

The Martian Reclamation Authority's foundation in the wake of the First Galactic War had the significant impact of increasing the size of the Martian government, the increased role of the Martian government in defending its people, and -

Fuck this test. And fuck you.

You, you idiot grader, knows that what I'm going to write is regurgitated bullshit. You know that all of this is made by the oligarchs in Locke Hive, trying to keep us down, trying to show that they're the bosses.

Consider what I'm doing here sticking it to the man.

[detailed word art of hand giving a rude gesture]

FUCK YOU, FUCK PRESIDENT ABRAMOWICZ, FUCK EDSEC CHOUDHARY, FUCK PRINCIPAL BELMONT, FUCK MR. MELENDEZ, AND FUCK THAT BITCH SITTING IN FRONT OF ME

[detailed word art of male genitalia]

YOU SUCK. ALL OF YOU. EVERY SINGLE FUCKING ONE OF YOU. I HOPE YOU LIKE THAT PICTURE UP THERE.

I HOPE YOU ALL FUCKING DIE IN VACCUM. OR PLUNGING INTO A STAR WHILE YOU SWALLOW THE SHIT THAT LOCKE HIVE SPOONFEEDS YOU DAILY.

GO SODOMIZE YOURSELF WITH A WELDING DRILL.

[Essay ends]

MSAC Grader: Milos Cezanne, of Ibaraki Secondary School, Thurmond, DeLazzaria.

Essay grade: 0/10

Grader's comments: No effort to answer the question whatsoever. Recommending disciplinary action and remedial coursework.

Addendum, dated June 2nd, 2570:

The author of this essay, Carlton Dioso, has been shipped to the Tocantins Center for Remedial Education and Public Service in the Daniel A Profeta System's asteroid belt, set to remain there for ten years until reeducation is complete.


Excerpt from A New Constellation: the GAC in Space by Edmond Euille, published 2532, Toronto, Greater American Commonwealth, Earth.

The defeat of Jackson Willingham in the Presidential elections of 2144, the same year of our nation's humiliating defeat in the First Earth-Mars War, was one marked by a great hesitance and a great worry. Mars was ascending, and what were we to do? Mars was now the undisputed master of the solar system, beginning its rise to hegemon status that now let it keep us in slavery. The Greater American Commonwealth was soul-searching. Who would lead us to the glory that was promised by the forefathers of out government so many years ago? The new President of the GAC, Richard Holzner of the Pan-American Party (PAP), was expected to lead the country into some new identity, some new circumstance. The question of the day, as asked by the internet personality Lawrence Sutton, was "Now What?"

When Holzner was appointing his cabinet, he made what would turn out to be one of his most beneficial choices by appointing Herman Fagles, of Topeka, Kansas, to the office of Secretary of Extraplanetary Affairs. Fagles was a man who had foresight and a keen understanding of the emerging astropolitical scene. Fagles, born to William and Cassandra Fagles in 2098, was keenly interested in the possibility of expanding the GAC's reach into outer space, and argued to Congress to pass an expenditure bill for finding methods to accomplish this. After a month of debate, the Cullen-Morgan Space Appropriations Act was passed with a slim majority. Fagles now had several billion dollars to do as he wished with, and would thusly take actions that he felt were good for the GAC.

Two years of research passed, with attempts to replicate the experiments that created the Compressed Dimension Drive (CDD) that the Martians had were proving fruitless. Other experiments failed due to resource misallocation and bureaucratic mismanagement. Then, in the year of 2146, Herman Fagles did the unthinkable. He approached Montesquieu Astronautics, the foremost Martian interstellar travel company and the charter company of the first human extrasolar colony (which would grow into Voltaire), and asked to purchase, for a negotiable amount of money, a fully operational CDD engine and schematics to use it. Congress was incensed, as was the Martian Assembly, the former for acquiescing to the hated enemy, the latter for giving state secrets to the hated enemy. Nevertheless, despite threats from both governments, Fagles and the CEO of Montesquieu Astronautics, Laura Belova-Knopf, were able to work out a deal for a CDD drive for twelve billion GAC dollars. On January 14th, 2147, the drive was delivered to the Houston Spaceport.

Fagles immediately ordered money to be poured into the construction of an interstellar-capable ship, and by the end of the year such was completed (with more than a little help from the Commonwealth Intelligence Agency's operations on Mars). The U.S.S. Donald Rumsfeld was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida (a symbolic gesture given the site's significance of the launch location of the Apollo missions which eventually landed the first man on the moon) on March 9th, engaged its CDD drive, and appeared over Voltaire a week later. The captain of the ship, Frederick Andrade, said the immortal words upon reaching orbit:

"Remember, Mars, Juno remains strong."

Andrade and his crew subsequently dined with Martian magistrates on Voltaire and the two got along quite well; they met with the Territorial Governor, Wilmer Amara, and declared hopes for a 'lasting peace' between the Earth Powers and Mars. This was only the first of many grand gestures that Fagles would facilitate.

After the arrival at Voltaire (which helped President Holzner gain his reelection), Fagles set his sights on a new goal: an extrasolar colony. Immediately, he ordered the construction of new scout ships, to be named the Theodore Roosevelt, the Lazaro Cardenas, and the Lester B. Pearson, to find new world to settle in the name of the Greater American Commonwealth. By the next year, these three had launched, a testament to GAC ingenuity and efficiency, and were sent off into the final frontier to find new worlds to settle. By 2147, a world that was judged 'capable of settlement' was found by the Lazaro Cardenas and hence chosen, by an act of Congress, to be the site of the first GAC extrasolar settlement. This world would become Halsey, after being settled by aspiring pioneers from all across the Commonwealth. Originally, Congress wanted to name it the world 'Fagles,' but the Secretary's modesty made him refuse. He insisted that they name it after William Halsey Jr., the US Admiral during the Second World War, a figure that Fagles greatly admired. In his speech defending this choice to Congress, he quoted the admiral, saying that "There are no great men, only great challenges which ordinary men, out of necessity, are forced by circumstances to meet," here referring to himself and to those on the ships and the colony.


Excerpt from The Driggs by Laura McNamara Carlson, published 2568, Smedley, New Jefferson.

The Driggs family as we conceive of them originated for all intents and purposes in Bakersfield, California, United States of America. Their ancestors, bearing that name, were from Great Britain, but they are irrelevant to the myth and reality that they had created. The patriarch of this family, from whom all the great Driggs are descended, was Thomas Driggs, from that city and state, who was born in 1973, and after the September 11th attacks, joined the US Army to fight in Afghanistan against the Taliban in Operation Infinite Justice. After that war's conclusion in 2005, he fought in the invasions of Cuba and Mexico, earning him the status of something of a viral supersoldier, known throughout the Internet as a 'memetic badass' in their terms. After a victory against the Cartels in the pacification of Culiacan, he was promoted and would rise to a position of influence in the US military hierarchy in Mexico.

By the outbreak of the Third World War in 2015, Driggs was a general. He commanded American forces in Syria and later Iraq, and was so highly regarded by the end of the war that he was appointed the military governor of the LIAN member state of Yemen until 2025, when the office was passed to General Guillermo Cummings. He subsequently retired from the military and returned to the United States, where his children, Lawrence and Charles, were already successful businessmen, owning the profitable firm of Driggs Informatics, a computer software firm with many lucrative contracts with the US government. Both born in the 1990s, the two Driggs sons were ruthlessly intelligent computer scientists and business alike, but their politics differed in a key regard: Lawrence was a firm defender of the bureaucratic oligarchy making its entrance in the United States, while Charles was a libertarian.

The two, despite their differences, remained dominant partners in the computer business, eventually coming to rival the firm of Wilmer Rigby in the United Kingdom. Charles endeared himself to the less statist, more lasseiz-faire portions of the Dove Movement which made its headway in the 2020s and culminated in the 2060s before withering away in the 2070s. Lawrence abhorred them and defended government crackdowns on demonstrations. As societal tensions exacerbated themselves, so did the rift between them, and in 2056 Charles was recruited by Marcel Delacroix to help design the computers of the ships that would become the Locke, Jefferson, Montesquieu, Doncaster, and Mirabelle, the founding ships of the Free Republic of Mars. Charles, in his seventies, still weathered the travel to Mars. In his farewell to Earth, he said to his brother and to his aging father that "It is with a heavy heart that I leave, but the world that the two of you have built is intolerable."

Along with Charles came his children, Thomas, Elizabeth, and Walter, the former of whom became the first commander of the Martian Self-Defense Force, starting a line of military geniuses who would go on to include Admiral Julius Driggs, who fought in the Earth-Mars War, Augustus Driggs in the First Galactic War, Estrella Driggs and Rufus Driggs in the Peripheral Wars, Harold Driggs-Khan and Saira Driggs-Tabuse in the Second and Third Galactic Wars, and the more modern Peyton Driggs, among others, as well as the 2300s President Randall Driggs, in addition to a plethora of members of the Assembly and other individuals, such as banker and "CPU-CEO" Natalia Driggs-Gidner, head of Union Financial during her lifetime in the 2400s.

On Earth, Lawrence Driggs continued to work for the US government, and his son, David Driggs, continued heading Driggs Informatics when the US became the GAC after the Trans-Atlantic War. Mostly eschewing direct military service, the family on Earth maintained their critical support role, as well as electing some members to the GAC Congress in the 2100s and 2200s. With the foundation of Halsey, the first extrasolar colony not belonging to the UFMR, Anthony Driggs, a lobbyist who helped the current GAC President Richard Holzner to win election, was appointed to the position of Governor of Halsey. His descendants would go their own way in Halsean life, none particularly politically minded, until, ironically enough, the ascension of Martin Driggs, a distant descendant, who fought for Halsean independence from the GAC during the First Galactic War, and subsequently became leader of the Halsean Liberation Front, the organization that actively fought GAC rule and accepted aid from the UFMR.

After the Martian victory, Martin became President of the Republic of Halsey, a constituent member of the Union. After his election, he met with Augustus Driggs, the Martian Admiral who had fought to liberate Novaya Russia from the Union State, and together they proclaimed the 'reunion of the family' and promised to work together for the safety of Mars and her constituent Republics. Hence, the Driggs family reached the status of the 'dominant clan' we so often think of it as today, a juggernaut among other families.


Excerpt taken from the New Jefferson Database on International Politics (NJDIP), sponsored and maintained by the faculty and students of the University of Pournelle, dated 2585

Country: Union of Free Martian Republics

Name: Josiah Hargreave

Homeworld: Dumont's Landing

Biography: Hargreave was born in 2522, to veterans of the Third Galactic War on Dumont's Landing, a world settled by homeless veterans of the war by the UFMR at the site of a skirmish between the ILF and the Quetzalese Republican Navy, named after Marcus Dumont's decision to land there after being hit, saving the crew of the F.M.S.S. Nelson Mandela from death. Hargreave's family was a military family originally from Terranova, and this commitment to the military came to Dumont's Landing, where his father, Terence Hargreave, was the first local commander of the Peacekeepers. The Hargreaves lived in the town of Chongqing Station, a mining town, and young Josiah alternated between mining and soldering in his youth.

In 2550, Josiah was the commander of all members of the UFMR Peacekeepers in the southern hemisphere of the world, and it was under his command when the southern town of Mount Giordano's miners seized the local Peacekeeper base after a particularly brutal action by said peacekeepers in breaking a strike due to a conflict over wages. Immediately, Hargreave took a battalion of his best soldiers to retake Mount Giordano, departing from the nearby settlement of Paisley Ridge. However, the rioters, calling themselves the Worker's Crusaders of Dumont's Landing (WCDL), were able to overpower the Peacekeepers at Mount Giordano and held off those from Paisley Ridge, killing 126 of Hargreave's soldiers but not Hargreave himself. From there, he mustered a force from all parts of the world, and set out for Mount Giordano when it became apparent that the WCDL were advancing on another nearby settlement, Leckysboro, and were on the verge of taking it when Hargreave's forces rushed there via aircraft, assisted by aerial bombardment from the nearby Santos Spaceport in the nearest large city of Tikrit.

During this violence, the Interstellar Liberation Fleet's F.M.S.S. Sicarius, bearing a large contingent of soldiers and vehicles bound for a base on New Yerevan (the largest world in that region of space, and a hub for Martian ships leaving that front after the war), was refueling over Dumont's Landing and was able to be contacted by Hargreave on the ground, asking for aid. The commander of the Sicarius, Admiral Mladenka Milic, refused to do so, citing Article 91 of the Martian Constitution, which forbade the Interstellar Liberation Force from intervening in domestic disputes; that role was to be fulfilled by Hargreave's peacekeepers. Incensed, Hargreave led the defense of Leckysboro personally, sustaining injury, but was able to, at the loss of a thousand Peacekeepers, was able to put down the insurrection.

After his victory, territorial governor of the system, Drorit Dolezal, promoted him and appointed him commander of all Peacekeepers in the territory, much as his father had been. Upon Dumont's Landing's admission to the UFMR as a full-fledged Republic, Hargreave ran for a seat in the Martian National Assembly and was elected in a landslide, and established an office in Locke Hive that he currently owns. His election promise, every election since the first in 2560, was to support the abolition of Article 91, something he has not yet been able to do. Nevertheless, a small cadre of Assembly members from periphery worlds supports this idea for the sake of defense.


Excerpt from Martian Politics for the Utter Idiot by Bernard Horvat, published 2569, Jefferson Hive, UFMR, chapter 15, The Martian Armed Forces

When you read the news or watch a program about some distant conflict that the ILF is fighting, and then wonder why the same forces are not putting down rebellions on some distant periphery world, you wouldn't be alone in being confused. Why are some parts of the armed forces which defend our freedom able to fight only foreigners or only domestic rebels? There are reasons, and there are very clear-cut legal distinctions between the two major divisions of the armed men and women of the Union of Free Martian Republics.

These two divisions are the Interstellar Liberation Force, commonly known as the ILF, and the Peacekeepers. The Interstellar Liberation Force is further divided into the Interstellar Liberation Army and the Interstellar Liberation Fleet, while the Peacekeepers are divided into its own units that are composed of both planetside and naval elements. The Interstellar Liberation Army is known to most Martians as the ILA, while the Interstellar Liberation Fleet is usually called simply the Fleet. Peacekeepers just go by that name, and commonly a unit designation for certain occasions.

The ILF is for the purpose of fighting foreign wars or the removal of despotic governments in the periphery which are oppressing their people; the Schweikart-Nibhanupudi doctrine is still firmly in action, and these forces will help with the very first steps of a world's integration into our Union. The Peacekeepers, on the other hand, are for domestic peace, and will be deployed to worlds who have foolishly rejected the liberty that Mars has given them, fighting against the bad people who want to leave and help evil regimes such as those in the AIC. Rebellion is bad; who doesn't agree (unless against tyranny, of course)?

The distinction between these two forces stems from 2280, when the Republic of Zemgale, founded during the Second Great Exodus and joined the UFMR in 2269, rebelled against the UFMR central government over taxation (a silly reason, certainly). When the President of Zemgale, Ieva Ozolins, declared herself the president of an independent Zemgale, Martian President Hernando Hartford-Gulzar called upon the ILF's deployments around Zemgale to quell the rebellion. Unfortunately, the Admiral in charge, Anatolijs Ozolins (the brother of the Zemgalean President) refused to take his sworn duty to defend UFMR sovereignty and declared his portion of the ILF the army of an independent Zemgale.

ILF units from other parts of the Union, led by Admiral Kenneth Webster, put down the rebellion in short order, but it revealed the necessity of a force loyal to the Union and the Union alone. Like now, the ILF was organized by each world, with different naval and army deployments for each individual Republic (or in some cases a world; worlds divided into multiple republics often consolidate their defenses under a joint command). This was unsustainable as shown by the incident at Zemgale unless supported by a force that would act in the interests of preserving the Union. Hence was born the Peacekeepers, which was codified in the newly added Article 91 of the Martian Constitution.

The Peacekeepers have their administrative base in Montesquieu Hive on Mars Proper, and are under the direct control of the Martian Department of Defense, whose offices are located nearby. The Peacekeepers are led by a director, usually chosen from a lower branch of the Peacekeepers or from the ILF. The current director is Jonathan Cobden of Meridian, who has previously served in the Peacekeepers for twenty years, fighting insurrections in the Periphery. The first director, appointed by Hartford-Gulzar, was Yong Rhee, a member of the ILF from Locke Hive who had fought in the First Galactic War and in subsequent conflicts during the Second Great Exodus. The Assembly may pass legislation regarding the Peacekeepers like any other body of the Martian government.

Most important in the character of the Peacekeepers is that they are the only Martian forces permitted to intervene in domestic conflicts; the ILF is forced to remain out of such disputes, and is relegated to mainly foreign role. The rationale for this is so that the Union may control the entirety of its domain without interference from its constituent Republics and thusly prevent a conflict of interest. Likewise, the ILF fights foreign wars as a manifestation of the collective will of the entire Union. This division, ironically enough, is one of the great guarantors of Martian unity in this day and age.

IIN Headline News: Callas Rift Secedes from the UFMR by Blackjack555

Date: July 5, 2594

Yesterday at 23:30 Earth Standard Time, the Callas Rift Republic officially declared its secession from the Union of Free Martian Republics, citing numerous grievances the greatest of which is the failure of Locke Hive to uphold its responsibility to protect the citizens of the Union from harm. The 12th, 14th, and 109th Callan Divisions of the Interstellar Liberation Force and their attendant fleet units have openly declared their support for the rebellion. The 92nd Callan appears to have remained loyal and is currently engaged in open warfare with the secessionist units. Reports from Telluria, capital of the Callas Rift, indicate that ferocious fighting between rebel ILF units and the Union Peacekeepers on the ground continues to rage, and likely will for some time.

In 2402, a Martian scout vessel encountered the Callas Rift Republic, a human which comprises the worlds of Telluria (Callas II Prime), Varden (Callas III), and Kelmar (Callas II moon). After a period of negotiation, the Callas Rift was admitted to the Union in 2458. Eight months ago, in light of recent rioting over new taxes, Montesquieu Hive deployed three divisions of Peacekeepers to Telluria and one to Varden. Their defeat was one of the contributing factors of the recent changes to Peacekeeper rules of engagement allowing the use of biological weapons on civilian targets.

Is this just an isolated incident, or is it the beginning of something larger? Whatever happens, IIN will keep you updated. Up next, we examine the effects of the trade embargo on Brandenburg. This is Sameera Ahmad, IIN.

This broadcast was sponsored by Stratis Communications Systems. Stratis: Communications at the speed of life.


Excerpt from the Martian Encyclopedia, last updated 2588. Entry by Sergei Splan.

Terranova - planet in the Olympia System and a constituent republic of the Union of Free Martian Republics. With its capital city of New Maastricht, it is the third most populated Republic in the Union, with a population of seven billion on Terranova prime and the other settlements in the Olympia system.

Terranova was founded by the European Union's colony ship, the Concordia, the second of such ships sent into interstellar space, after the Einheit, which founded Adenauer. The captain of the Concordia, Brecht Reynders of the Netherlands, wanted Terranova to be "a living embodiment of the principles agreed at in Paris, Rome, and Maastricht, of European integration and universal tolerance, in which all nations and communities of Europe may share in its bounty and in the opportunity to build a new world together." Reynders became the governor of the colony as soon as it touched down on the world in 2157, in a clear attempt to show the European Union's power to stand up to the likes of the Greater American Commonwealth and the Union of Free Martian Republics in interstellar space.

The European government in Brussels encouraged those who were not satisfied with the current state of the Union, undergoing a period of anger against the government due to the loss of the Earth-Mars War, to emigrate to Terranova and to Adenauer. Many European immigrants went, and boosted the population of the world significantly; however, it was outclassed by immigration to Mars and its colony worlds. A shock in international politics occurred in 2166, when European President Kevan MacCalin announced that he would be making a state visit to the two major European colony worlds (there were others with trifling populations), the first Earth head of state to do so. On this visit, the strength of the European Space Force was demonstrated to humanity, where famously a mockup of the F.M.S.S. Lexington, the Martian ship that destroyed the U.S.S. Wesley Clark, was obliterated over Terranova.

The decades passed and a series of economic crises on Earth led to the European Union cutting the budget of colonial appropriations, including the closure of the major military base on that world and ending subsidies for Terranovan and Adenauer miners. By the 2220s, the world had had enough of Brussels' nonsense, and the Terranovan Independence League was founded in New Maastricht. When the First Galactic War broke out over mining rights on Adenauer, the TIL mobilized what little resources it had in a guerilla campaign throughout the planet. With the end of that war, the TIL had proved victorious (with assistance from Martian forces, which liberated the world under the command of Admiral Scott Meitner) and its leader, Konstantina Zabat, declared herself the President of the Republic of Terranova, which quickly agreed to join the Union of Free Martian Republics shortly thereafter, following the lead of her sister Adenauer.

Terranova, due to its position on the frontier of known space in the 2200s, now serves as one of the major trading worlds and as a port between the core Martian systems and the rest of the Union. It is a local hub of industry, with the Baumgartner Shipyards being one of the largest production sites of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet outside of a forge world, second only to Mars itself in that regard. It is host to Fort Pachacopa, the training ground for the Martian Special Forces, as well as a variety of other military installations; the defense industry makes up forty percent of the local economy. Mining is a key industry; uranium, plutonium, and many other minerals are mined from the rich veins of the Spaak mountains. It is home to many consulates of foreign powers, and even the highest ranking members of the AIC have diplomatic staff on that world.


Excerpt of an episode of Mars: Her Birth and Dominion

(Professor Edwin Schroeder comes to the foreground)

We at the Martian National University believe that it is necessary to interrupt our current programing for an episode to give an explanation of the beloved symbols of our dear Union; the episode concerning the Treaty of Honiara will come next week, as our episodes do.

The first such symbol that we will cover is the Banner of Peace and Liberty, our dear national flag. Since childhood, we are taught to revere the beloved flag, a red circle on a black field, with a gold-outlined white dove of peace in the middle of that circle, but very few of us remember the origin of such a flag.

This flag was designed by Lydia McMulkin, an American expatriate who voyaged on the Jefferson to found our dear Republic, who saw the need for a "banner to depict the new nation founded on Peace and Liberty in stark contrast to the Earth oligarchies." With great care, she chose the symbolism: a black field for the cold depths of space, the red circle for their new homeworld and sanctum, and the dove to emblemize the sincerest hopes for peace that the UFMR stands for, unlike the warmongering Earth powers that dared try to threaten her sovereignty. This banner was first flown in 2066 on the first anniversary of the landing on Mars, and became the official flag of the Republic, to be retained when the Union was formed after the Earth-Mars War.

When the first Martian embassies were founded on Earth in the 2070s, this flag was flown over each and every one, and served as a beacon of hope to the oppressed peoples of earth that somewhere in the universe, a place that cared for liberty and democracy still existed, although not on Earth. Emigration to Mars soared, and the red planet quickly became the refuge for the tired and poor yearning to breathe free, not the hypocritical United States.

When the FRM sent in ships to help the refugees in the Trans-Atlantic War, it was deemed necessary by the Martian government that, sadly, a Martian Self-Defense Force would need to exist to guard against the treachery of the Earth Powers. Thusly, that force was born, and an insignia was chosen, an insignia that now graces the ships of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet, as well as our heroic ground forces: the red circle with the dove on a shield, this shield in front of two swords and a gavel, gavel in between the two swords. This is the symbol of those who are more than willing to fight, but would vastly prefer to defend justice, the gavel, and peace, the dove, if at all possible; just as all Martians are.

No discussion of Martian national symbols is sufficient without a discussion of The Red Lights of Liberty, our beautiful anthem. Written during the early days of Mars by a composer who had come on the great sojourn to a new world, Marcia Roberts, originally of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Both a musician and an activist, the words of our sacred anthem ring true even now, to modern Martians.

[text of The Red Lights of Liberty reproduced here for convenience]

When in a time of trouble and a time of tyranny,
We came to a new world seeking a place sans slavery!
A world to call our own, a world to call home,
We saw glowing the Red Lights of Liberty!

(Refrain)

Sons and Daughters of Ares,
Remember thy duty, thy birthright!
You have one noble task, one holy, sacred task:
Keep the Red Lights of Liberty burning bright!
Keep the Red Lights of Liberty burning bright!

Here we built a haven, a sanctum from the fall,
Of Earth's now dying promise, the fading of the call,
which oligarchy stifled, never with freedom trifle,
and embraced the Red Lights of Liberty!

(Refrain)

The dove as our bird we wholeheartedly accept,
and leave our mother Terra with the sincerest regret,
but with our leaders' hearts were flayed, we defiantly displayed,
the Dove, and the Red Lights of Liberty!

(Refrain)

So boldly to the future we now confidently stand,
and wish for the brightest fortunes to our fellow man,
But should it be threatened, there will be nothing regretted
when we arm for the Red Lights of Liberty!


Excerpt from a speech by Martian President Dagny Christensen, leader of Mars during the Earth-Mars War.

My fellow Martians, Hail to the spirit of liberty! Hail to Ares, who has guided us through this terrible war and has brought us to victory! Today is a day that will go down in history as the day that free humanity triumphed over slavery and tyranny. Today is the day that the Free Republic of Mars will no longer exist alone; it is now part of a Union of Free Martian Republics, the new name for our nation, joining the ranks of New Boise, New Reno, Lezignan, Luhansk, Garagaringrad, and Xinhai as a fellow Republic. Within the week, our diplomats, led by Secretary of State Matthew Davenport, will be headed to the sunny city of Honiara, where they will accept the surrender of the Earth oligarchies to the superior technological power of Mars and the resolve and commitment to liberty of its people.

Mars has been ransacked by the Earth powers. If the people in the Earth colonies on this world want their freedom, it was our mandate to help them gain this liberty. Yes, we instigated this war. And we do not shrink from acknowledging this war, rather, we embrace the credit that we have undergone a struggle that will join the ranks of the American, French, Haitian, Latin American, Greek, and many other revolutions as the expansion of liberty to new men and women who have never known it, a triumphant chapter in the history of humankind. Be proud of this war, not ashamed of it.

The destruction of the Wesley Clark, too, must be celebrated, not reviled. It is our dumping of the tea into Boston Harbor, our Storming of the Bastille, our raising the flag over Iwo Jima or the Reichstag. We have toppled the symbol of decadence and waste that the Earth oligarchies are dominated by, obliterated it and sending it and its passengers into the cold depths of space. Some cry, "what about the innocents?" What innocents? By living under such a regime they tolerated its existence, and hence were guilty of the oppression of millions! Death was deserved! The tyrants in Washington and in Moscow and in Brussels and in Beijing will now know that we are ones who are the inheritors of the noble torch of liberty. They will sag at Honiara, weeping when they hear The Red Lights of Liberty, and know that the star-spangled banner will no longer wave, their native lands are no longer protected by God, that no more great roars will be heard from their people.

This was has given us two spectacular heroes: Giedrus Simoneit and Fathir Amirmoez. The latter is testament to the spirit of liberty that gives us ingenuity, the former an example of Martian daring. Mars is strong and will continue to be strong so long as we strive to meet the challenge that these two great men have issued us: to keep the red lights of liberty burning bright! So long as every Martian, be they from the original Republic or from the new republics of our Union, strives for that goal, we will never die! Spread liberty! Spread it to all humanity! And let no traitor or oligarch barricade that way, for the light of liberty will never be extinguished and will light ablaze those who trespass against it. Let no charlatan hijack it for the usage of evil! Let no human from Earth deny our rightful place! Let Honiara be the birth of a new Mars and the birth of a new era in the history of all humanity!


Excerpt from 21st Century Mexico by Julio Jimenez, published 2107, Guadalajara, Greater American Commonwealth.

With the withdrawal of American forces from Mexico in 2014, Mexico was able to experiment with democracy without the influence of the cartels. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, elected in 2012, had said that the United States, while having come into the country on a less-than-pure pretense, was instrumental in having Mexico modernize its security apparatus and military, giving it the full ability to prosecute the war against the cartels. Obrador, while a leftist, understood the need for American cooperation with Mexico in the world that he knew, and led the county into NATO in October of that year.

In a speech to the NATO council, Obrador accepted membership into the organization and committed, like the new government in Cuba, to help NATO fight against terrorism worldwide. Quickly, NATO bases were established in Mexico, relying on mostly Mexican resources, especially the petroleum provided by Petroleum of Mexico (or PEMEX), the only legal petroleum exploiter in the country until the repeal of Article 27 of the Constitution in the 2030s. Mexico experienced a boom economically, and would last well into the Third World War.

As part of its obligations as a member of NATO, the outbreak of the Third World War necessitated Mexican troops to be deployed to Israel to stop the invading LIAN, which had inducted Egypt into its ranks in a military coup and had thusly been able to invade Israel via the Sinai Peninsula and were breaking down the fortifications in the West Bank in an attempt to besiege Jerusalem, even as Jordanian and Saudi Arabian forces engaged Iraqi, Syrian, and Yemeni forces in their home countries. Using the British bases at Akrotiri and Dhekelia, the NATO forces were able to land in Haifa to reinforce the Israelis. Several Mexican attachments were a part of this deployment.

During the war against the LIAN, Mexican forces accompanied American forces in invading Lebanon, winning the battles of Siddiqine, Qana, and Aaitit before being stalled at Debaal, eventually heading westward and taking Srifa before besieging Beirut, the Lebanese capital. Even if they were only a small fraction of NATO forces, the Mexican brigades were influential in the fall of Beirut, capturing several military personnel attempting to flee Beirut for western Syria. Later in the war, the Mexicans were able to support Allied advances in Syria and later Iraq, albeit under the ultimate command of the Americans for the sake of coherency in strategy.

Domestically, the reception to the War was mixed. The Mexican manufacturing industry boomed with the need for war materiel; Mexican factories were found to be a suitable place for many arms manufacturers as well as Mexican companies, all subsidized by the Mexican federal government. More peaceable persons demanded a withdrawal from what was perceived as a foreign war, and to stop being the US' lapdog. However, President Obrador maintained loyalty to the war effort as the war truly became global, sending fighter squadrons to the Philippines and later South Korea, and were noted for heroism in the defense of Taiwan from the attempted Chinese invasion.


Excerpt from the political blog The American Iconoclast, written in 2016 during the Third World War.

Readers, go talk to Satan and ask if things are a bit chilly in hell. You know, if you have been reading this blog, that I am no fan of President Dick Cheney. I didn't like him while he was in office and I surely don't like him now. And yet, contrary to my own inclinations and expectations, what he has said recently is something that I (*gasp*) agree with.

We should have invaded Iraq.

We would have had to concoct some bullshit reason to do so (Cheney could have done so quite easily, given the unfortunate demise of his predecessor), but we could have gotten away with it, and no one except Russia, China, and the UN would have given a damn. It would have been a long and stressful occupation that would make the war in Afghanistan look tame, taking much longer than the five year occupation that we had in that country. We would have become much more hated by the international community than in our own world (which, surprisingly, is possible). We would have committed war crimes and other terrible atrocities.

But look at what is happening right now in the Middle East.

You know I am no Zionist. I think some of the things that the Israeli state has done are absolutely evil. But the stuff that LIAN has done, killing their President and Prime Minister, and the carnage of the war going on right now is just barbaric. Had Saddam Hussein not been alive in 2003, we would have never had the Third World War. When the leaders of Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine met in Baghdad, they swore to "destroy Israel." I thought that was bullshit; who didn't? But politics of that nature is not worth the millions of lives already lost in the war in the Middle East. Hussein is directly responsible for this madness, and his son the current president, Qusay Hussein, is trumpeting the call of his allies to bring Israel to its knees.

Any government that Cheney would have established would have hated the very concept of human rights, just like the man himself, but at least it would not be calling for war. Iran they would not want to trifle with to regain whatever international legitimacy the US could. They would at least half-heartedly try to have peace in Palestine (while I would cynically lambast them). And most importantly, they would have not started a war that is getting ever closer to having the Russians and the Chinese enter against the US.

I don't want the world to end in nuclear fire. I know President Clark does not want the world to end in nuclear fire, and neither does President Sokol or Putin or Wu or any other world leader. But we came close several times in the last century, and this war, right now, is even closer to nuclear war than the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet Union in Cuba was at least willing to negotiate with the US, thankfully, while China and Russia still make statements in favor of the LIAN (although more quietly than before), and are appearing more open to one another as they eye the islands that they want that Japan and the Philippines also claim, in what is obviously a power play while the US is busying itself defending Israel.

I don't like the current administration. I didn't like the Nickles administration and I sure as hell did not like the Cheney administration (nor the Clinton, nor the Bush Sr., nor the Reagan, and so on and so forth to about FDR, maybe Kennedy). But I like the prospect of millions upon millions of deaths lost in this war even less. Some say that this, like the First World War, is the war to end war in the Middle East. I hope, honest to God hope, that it doesn't spread to other parts of the world.

We would just be throwing sticks and stones at each other at any war after that one.


Excerpt from the memoirs of Yevdokiya Mihaylova, a member of the Russian Duma during the late 2200s.

It is said that the year 2227 was the year that everything changed. I can personally attest that this was the case, at least for me. I was only 15 years old at the time, and during the midst of the Second Earth-Mars War I was proudly a citizen of the Union State of Sovereign Republics. I participated in drives for the soldiers being sent out to the colonies in Novaya Rossiya and onto the ships to fight Mars. I was taught that Mars was a place where the refuse of society went as they could never succeed on their homeworld. Perhaps my schoolteachers were right. I knew that the movies from Mars were all lies and deceit, saying that they were the beacon of human liberty. We had enough of that on Earth.

Some like to use the word "terror" to describe hopelessly mundane things. My younger brother said it was terrifying when my mother screamed at him. He didn't know terror, and neither did I. We'd throw tantrums to get back at our parents; what children didn't? They still don't. And yet they do not know the magnitude of that word, "terror," unless they know the hell of orbital bombardment.

I do not know how the Martians did it, and I doubt I ever will; the secret of how they did it is likely tucked away in some bunker on Mars in one of the unsettled areas, never to be seen again by the common folk. But I do know it was their hackers that allowed them to hijack Earth's orbital defenses and use them on the people of this planet.

I remember the day very clearly. I was at home in Ryazan entertaining myself with some mindless game on one of my myriad handheld devices. My brother was doing the same. Suddenly, the lights went out when a roar was heard from the distance. We peered out of the window, and saw a plume of dust rocketing into the air. After that, a projectile came careening down from the sky and plummeted in the ground, causing another explosion in the distance.

This endured for several hours. All we could do was pray that the Martians were not aiming one of their captured rods at Ryazan; we suspected that one of them had already hit this city but was too far to have killed us; we thanked God for that. We waited agonizingly as the rods fell from the sky and pelted the Earth.

We looked up after an eternity and saw a glowing light to the northwest, the way to Moscow. Seconds later we heard a tremendous rumble. And then more light, and then more rumbling. The Martians had used some nuclear arsenal on the city.

I would later learn that they had used such tactics on St. Petersburg, on Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Rostov, and so many more, and in other countries: London, Washington, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, the list goes on. Mars had gone from simply uncivilized, as the politicians liked to say, to entirely barbaric in their intentions.

I returned to school the next day in a zeitgeist of solemnity. Half the class was not there. I later learned they were killed in the impacts of the rods on Ryazan. We were all confused, searching for our friends and hoping that they were safe, calling our family and hoping that there was no other bombardment. The next few days we saw on the news the calls from the acting president, Lagounov, to accept a peace with the Martians, and then the sullen moods of defeat sank into Russian minds.

Again! after the Third World War, Again! after the First Earth-Mars War, we were defeated. I saw the occasional Soviet banner, the last government that Russia had really won a war under, clawing at the spirit that our ancestors must have felt marching into Berlin. When President Lagounov went to the moon to negotiate with the Martian President Tsukino, we knew we had lost. The flag of the Union and of Russia were both flown at half mast, for the old Russia was gone, and overtaken by the hordes of Martians that would soon be descending on our lands.


Excerpt from The Rape and Extortion of Terra by Elias Murcheson, published 2562, Sioux Falls, Greater American Commonwealth.

The ceremonial papers, one of the few uses of paper in the 2220s, were handed out to the dignitaries on the base on the Moon. They were all given pens, and were left to sign (a rudimentary skill for them, as the transition to computerized communication was complete in the normal, unceremonial world) the Treaty of Luna, the document that would enshrine the brutal conquest and mass murder of a planet by the Union of Free Martian Republics. Mars was a conqueror, not a liberator as it likes to style itself. It may or may not have had reason to call itself that in the beginning of its existence, but by the 2220s such had become utter hypocrisy. The paper was signed. Earth would never again have her own space access, her own trade policy, her own foreign policy with nations on other planets, her own worlds to exploit.

Down from the other world descended a horde of capitalists and businesspeople looking to make whatever money they could from our homeworld. First came the colonialists: those financiers who put their money in the Compressed Dimension Drive and sent out these ships to the stars, to build their own societies and their own futures among the stars, only lacking people to buy. Then they decided to give people on Earth, ideologues and prophets who wanted to be free of the corruption and decadence of Earth, their own worlds for a high price, but the desire to be elsewhere sent them off into space.

These companies included among their ranks as Virgo Interstellar, Montesquieu Astronautics, Celestial Colonies Incorporated (or ColonyCorp, or CCI), or Michelakakis Surveying, among others, which wasted no time in whipping up ideological strife on Earth nations, quietly paying the legal fees and publicity fees for different groups on the Internet and other media for the purpose of building a new market for their services. These firms were wildly successful in exploiting the widespread discontentment with the world at large and the workings of society, and made billions upon billions of Martian dollars in Earth currencies forked over by the gullible public, be they nationalists, socialists, fringe political groups, cults, deluded artists, hopeless romantics, or anyone else who could pay the fee, which would either be slaves to their debts or die in the cold of space. This grand extortion would be known as the Second Great Exodus.

Secondly came the bankers, such as Union Financial or AresBank or any of the others, who were in league with the colonialists and the Martian government, often having on their boards of directors members of the Martian Assembly or directors of other big companies. These banks would take the money from Earth dwellers and save it, promising them a great return on their investment, which subsequently allowed them to fund risky endeavors in colonizing space or in other pursuits, such as technological development. However, it was made certain that this money ultimately ended up in the treasuries of Martians and not those on Earth. They brought with them the Jefferson Hive Stock Exchange, the great meeting ground of major Martian companies, and sold shares to people on Earth on credit (while refusing to do so to those on Mars who could not display that they had some concrete method of paying the cost), causing the Earth economy to be based on money that simply did not exist, an economy of belief as some have called it. This led to the crash of 2236, in which the Earth economy plummeted in economic ability but the Martian and other extraterrestrial economies remained afloat, and these companies used this to strengthen their foothold on Earth, their economic dominance secured.

Thirdly came the manufacturers, who sold cheap appliances, vehicles, food, and whatever else that they made at cheaper prices than anything an Earth company could present. Martian tablets and cellular phones became ubiquitous, and are to this day; we are the only market for centuries-old technology still in existence. Martian synthesized food put local growers and traditional farmers out of business, and their machinists, operating with subsidies from Locke Hive were able to overcome most Earth competition. They even bought out Earth companies, for example when Martian Telecommunications bought out American Telephone and Telegraph, putting more and more of the Earth private sector under the control of Martian plutocrats and kleptocrats.

Fourthly came the Martian media, deluding the people of Earth, the youth in particular, with the false claims of freedom and opportunity that the Martian government was built upon. It worked frighteningly well, as the starry-eyed young people went out into space to emigrate to Mars or one of the new colonies for a new future, where they would only be under the bootheel of Locke Hive and the servants of the Martian aristocracy. From birth, children were fed lies of Martian supremacy over Earth, of the tyranny of Earth oligarchies, with cartoons with the hardy pioneer colonists and dastardly Earth schemers trying to do the silliest things for the sake of humor. The cult of Mars was spreading its gospel to Earth and was being quite successful at it.

All of this was not the natural expansion of one culture into another, or the continuation of globalization, but part of an organized scheme by Mars to keep Earth weak. These actions by the large Martian firms went hand in hand with the Martian acquisition of every spaceport in the world with the exception of a few (such as Fredericksburg, Civitavecchia, Kamenka, or Gaocheng), which were allowed to be maintained by the Earth powers to be used by their governments to conduct diplomacy and trade with the UFMR under strict terms imposed by the Treaty of Luna. These terms also mandated the complete destruction or confiscation of the entire space forces of Earth, which were often taken by Mars and used as the first ships of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet. All bases on the Moon would also be taken by Mars. A blockade was imposed and never again would a ship leave Earth without Martian permissions.

All of this was part of the grand plan to keep Mars indisputably more powerful than Earth, so that never again her mother could cause any harm to her rebellious child. Economically, Earth was bled dry and given technology that simply could not hold a candle to anything Mars produced, her currencies meaningless when not tied to Martian money. Earth nations' populations would be reduced in a massive shift of population, a forced change of focus from Earth to the colonies in other systems. This was a robbery, pure and simple, designed to keep a beaten foe down. It is not for nothing that we say that Mars is prosperous only due to the suffering of Earth.


Excerpt from Jaime Newman: The First to Fall by Allan Anderson-Zhong, published 2561, Markham, New Jefferson.


Jaime Newman was born in 2113 in Jefferson Hive to Guillermo and Susan Newman, each second-generation descendants of original Martian settlers. In his youth, he attended Wilmer Rigby Secondary School in that hive and attended the Martian National University to major in computer science. There, he was a member of several political clubs that focused on civil liberties in the Martian republic. He refused to formally align himself with any political party but voted his conscience in every election, be it for a local official, a member of the assembly, or even for President. After he graduated with high honors from the Martian National University, he entered the Martian Civil Service (only one agency handling all workings of the Martian government due to its small size at the time) and was assigned to processing new immigrants from conflict-stricken regions on Earth to their new home.

He flourished in this occupation, as he honestly believed in the values that the Martian state was founded upon, that of small government and high civil liberties. He eventually rose to the head of the Martian Customs Directorate that was a part of the Civil Service, and became so prominent a commentator on immigration affairs that he gave several speeches to new immigrants. One of the most striking points of his oratory was as follows:

"You have come to a new world seeking a refuge from the states on Earth that are intent on crushing liberty under the treads of their tanks and the heels of their boots, in the halls of their congresses and the rooms of their courts. All I ask you to do is to help Mars retain the liberty she has always diligently fought for."

The rise of the Liberation Party in the Martian political realm aroused mixed feelings in Newman, who thought that its platform of acquiring the Earth colonies on Mars to be acceptable; he saw them as threats to Martian liberty. However, he differed from them significantly with his position on the future of the Civil Service; the Liberation Party supported the dissolution of the Service and the creation of several distinct Bureaus that would act independently of one another. He felt that a unified agency for all actions of the government would forcibly keep government small and thereby guarding civil liberties. When its party leader, Dagny Christensen, ran for President of the Free Republic, he voted for her opponent from the Mars First Party, let by Allan Wu, but Christensen ultimately won the election.

With the outbreak of the Earth-Mars War, he was willing to continue service in the Martian Civil Service up until its very end, when that organization was dissolved and Newman's agency turned into the Martian Customs Bureau. However, his service with the Bureau was short-lived; his knowledge of information technology had him quickly reassigned to the Martian Security Bureau with the task of processing information gained by said bureau in its attempt to support national security.

Initially, he was satisfied with this work; he was keeping track of purchases of new hardware and the establishment of bases planetwide and on Phobos and Deimos, but soon he was put in charge of a top-secret program which monitored the communications of all Martian citizens, be they relevant to the war effort or not, and stored in a large facility underneath Locke Hive. He was horrified by what he had to do, and wrote a formal objection to the head of the directorate, Juliana Flores-Biermann, saying that such practices were in direct violation of Article 4 of the Martian constitution. However, the Assembly had recently approved the addition of Article 32 to the Constitution, allowing certain provisions, Article 4 included, to be abrogated in times of 'national emergency.'

He did this reluctantly, with the promise from Flores-Biermann that it would not continue after the conclusion of the war. However, as the MSB's purview expanded to the monitoring of citizens in their own private lives, namely the permanent usage of cameras on mobile and household devices, which he dubbed "practically Orwellian telescreens," he gradually became more and more unsatisfied with the current state of affairs. With great regret, in 2143 he resigned his commission and revealed to the Martian Free Press that the MSB was doing such things.

The reaction was mixed; he was appalled to learn that many Martian citizens were supportive of such actions. One noted newscaster, Katarina Smirnova, said that "it is necessary for the common good that Christensen do this; who knows whether a PREA, a GAC, an EU, or a Union State spy could be attempting to sabotage our valiant war effort." Other organizations, such as those that he was a part of in his university days, supported him and had mass demonstrations in Locke Hive. The Martian Government horrified him when these demonstrations were fired upon and their leaders tried in kangaroo courts and subsequently executed as part of a government crackdown on "potential subversive elements aiding the Earth powers." At that moment, Newman knew he had to go into hiding.

He lived for a time in the slums of Montesquieu Hive, constantly moving his place of residence and disabling cameras on his personal electronic devices, constantly on the run from the Martian military. This ended when he was approached by a spy from the Greater American Commonwealth, which promised him amnesty and a place in Martian government after an Earth victory in this war. He hesitantly accepted, and boarded a GAC ship masquerading as a Martian mercantile ship, where he would be taken to the U.S.S. Guanajuato, which would take him to Earth to meet the GAC President Jackson Willingham.

He was almost successful in this effort, but he was apprehended by the Martian ship the F.M.S.S. Julian Assange under the command of Commodore Walter Brandes destroyed the Guanajuato and captured Newman's ship, and took him back on charges of treason against the Martian state and people. He is known to have remarked "how ironic that a ship named for a revealer of government betrayal capture somebody who did the very thing."

In Locke Hive, he was found guilty of such charges and promptly brought out to a military base on the outskirts of Free Republic territory and executed via firing squad. His last words were:

"I have given all for Martian Liberty. I am crushed to see it die."

[spanishspy]

Excerpt from Martian Politics for the Utter Idiot by Bernard Horvat, published 2569, chapter nine, Martian Federalism

The official name of our beloved nation is the Union of Free Martian Republics. However, when we first are taught the history of Mars, the name Free Republic of Mars is used to describe our nation up until the conclusion of the Earth-Mars War. Perhaps more confusingly, we often hear the name of the Free Republic of Mars thrown around to discuss happenings on Mars proper, and yet there are other Republics on Mars. Where does this madness end? It ends here, and here you will learn about the basics of the Martian federal system and its origins after the Earth-Mars War.

The end of the Earth-Mars War, that grand crusade of the liberation of a planet, left the Free Republic of Mars, the original Martian state, in possession of several territories, New Boise, New Reno, Lezignan, Luhansk, Garagaringrad, and Xinhai, the settlements of the Earth powers on Mars that were intended to destroy our noble experiment in human freedom. Many, such as Assemblywoman Helen MacMillan, supported the direct integration of the liberated colonies into the Free Republic. However, more concerned individuals, such as Assemblyman Cameron Chen, feared the growth of the Martian bureaucracy than was strictly necessary (as the splitting of the Civil Service into several bureaus was during the war), and rather proposed a system of federalism which would allow the individual republics to guard individual liberty while not allowing the central government to interfere. Chen's system won out in the Assembly's halls of debate, and subsequently the delegates of the Free Republic and the new territories met in Locke Hive, the capital then and now, to unite, to form a Union of Free Martian Republics.

The federal system that was created used a heavily edited version of the Free Republic's constitution, the constitution that is used currently, for the new union. The Presidency was decided by a popular vote as was normal, and a unicameral, proportional assembly was to be formed amongst the new Republics. Some called for a second chamber, based upon the Senate of the United States while that government still existed, to guard the representation of the various Republic governments. This was shot down as permitting the growth of oligarchy that had happened in the United States, and was subsequently defeated.

The Free Republic continued to exist as the unified government of Montesquieu, Locke, and Jefferson Hives, and kept its own internal government and civil service. However, it was now subordinate to the Union government which also had a capital in Locke Hive, and was equal in status to the new Republics, which had their own assemblies, Presidents (a confusing term for some; certain members of the Assembly had proposed naming the executives of the Republics 'Governor,' but this simultaneously called to mind old tyrannical empires and simultaneously suggested that the Union was not made on the consent of the independent republics that formed it). Each of these republics would be subordinate to the Union government, with its own President, Assembly, and agencies.

The expansion of the Union into space prompted the question of whether new planets should be admitted to the Union on an equal footing to the Republics on Mars; many alleged that it would be unfair to do so as it would give Mars proper a lopsided representation in the Assembly; opponents countered that the population discrepancy made such a gap understandable, justifiable, and desirable so long as that state of population persisted. Thusly, Voltaire was admitted to the Union as a constituent Republic, and when the First Galactic War ended, the new conquests of Adenauer, New Harbin, Terranova, Halsey, Meridian, and several others were admitted to the Union as equal members to the original Republics, gaining all the rights and privileges that they had gained.

With the expansion into space and the annexation of several worlds that were founded during the Second Great Exodus during the Peripheral Wars, several bureaucratic anomalies occurred, many of which still exist today. On the world of Divisier des Partisans, a civil war between two factions was ended via the liberation of both sides from the dictators that ruled them, and the new, saner governments both applied to join the Union. Both Republics, that of Mirabeau and Nouveau Poitou, joined as separate members and thusly have their own governments, while distinct and separate, cooperate as fellow members of the Union and as geographic neighbors. Likewise, republics spanning multiple worlds exist, such as that of Telengana, which has three systems as part of its territory. It exists because it joined when it had said three systems and did not, like certain other republics, divide itself upon accession.

Republics are all subject to the laws and constitution of the Union and may not pass laws in contradiction to either, although they may pass laws that do not contradict. The textbook example of this divide between Union and Republic was when the world of New Bethlehem, which had joined the Union of its own free will while possessing laws that were based on a strict interpretation of the Bible, attempted to restrict the publication of entertainment that it deemed immoral and sinful. The Martian Supreme Court under Chief Justice Hayao Dobbs ruled that "the publication of materials depicting sex, violence, and sacrilege, no matter how depraved or obscene, is legal throughout the Union in accordance to Article 1 of the Constitution," setting a precedent that ensures a basic consistency of Union law.


Excerpt from The Amazon of the Stock Market: The Life of Natalia Driggs-Gidner by Sergei Ballanden, published 2578, Pendleton, New Jefferson.

The name Amazon of the Stock Market is not a name of my own invention; rather, the name that the Martian Free Press gave her when she, using the good 40% of the Martian Assembly that she had personally bought out in addition to the trillion-dollar enterprise that she held in her election campaign funding reserve which bribed 20% more, forced an invasion of Haiphong for the purpose of mining the rich minerals that had been discovered on that world in 2415. This invasion was funded by Union Financial funds, equipped with weapons made by companies owned by Union Financial and riding ships from the foundry worlds owned by Union Financial. For the utter brutality and nigh-genocidal campaign on that world that culminated in the destruction of the largest cities on that world, she gained the new epithet, Femme Fatale, which, far from its origins as a phrase for a temptress in a cheap novel, was meant in the most literal translation from the original French: Fatal Woman, a usage which had only found widespread popularity during the administrations of Christensen and Tsukino.

She was a woman who could, at the few touches of a keypad, cause the deaths of millions if not billions. She was a woman who could send the value of the Martian dollar and most of the other galactic currencies, including that of New Valais, skyrocketing and plummeting as it suited her. She was a woman who fired entire worlds due to personal slights, started wars for profit, and all but made the Union of Free Martian Republics her own personal fiefdom. Presidents were her servants, Assemblymen her tools, and the Interstellar Liberation Fleet her personal navy. But one begs the question, how did she do this?

The answer in a word is diversification, or perhaps opportunism. She wanted to be powerful and was willing to break the mold of Union Financial's past to turn it from merely an influential bank, complete with lobbyists and lootlurkers, into a massive holding company that owned 10% of the entire Martian GDP during her lifetime and more after her death, earning her the lofty name of a CPU-CEO. From her studies as an undergraduate studying finance and economics at the Martian National University, she found an appreciation for the great corporate oligarchs of Earth in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, such as Carnegie, Morgan, Rockefeller, Buffet, Murdoch, and many, many others. She noticed a trend in their growth: expansion and diversification, be it horizontal or vertical. She particularly found interesting Berkshire Hathaway, the American holding company that owned so many companies that their products were ubiquitous.

Of course, her family could not be discounted; she was the daughter of a famed Martian Assemblyman from Montesquieu Hive, Edgar Driggs, himself a member of the great Driggs family, one of Mars' great business and political families, and his trophy wife Lucretia Gidner who he had wooed in his own tenure at the Martian National University and kept around as his public beau; his tens of mistresses cast doubt on the sanctity of said marriage. Despite this, both were happy to support their daughter in her business ventures, and this, combined with the prestige that the Driggs name carried, was instrumental to her success.

But Natalia was simultaneously a micromanager and macromanager, able to understand the broad workings of a system and the workings of each and every individual component of said system. Hence she saw the economy of the Union, indeed the economy of settled space, as a massive system. She thought in terms of how she could harness this system to her own benefit. She noticed that, ultimately, a society is dependent on the natural resources that it can find, extract, apply, and systemize effectively, be it food, metal, or world. Money could be made by taking these resources and rationing it to her own content, both in accordance with and in opposition to the market, which she could often dictate.

Natalia first came into contact with Union Financial when she was taken in by one of their regional managers, Nenad Kosar, as an intern while she was a student. Her efficiency was unparalleled; transactions doubled their rate while she was there, and was then taken in as a paid employee. When Kosar died in a spacecraft crash during a pleasure trip to the waterfalls and natural scenery of New Babelsburg (which many have speculated to have been orchestrated by Natalia), she was promoted to manager of that office, than to the region, than to operations within the entire Free Republic itself, no insignificant position for a 24-year-old who could now control the entirety of operations in Jefferson, Montesquieu, and most importantly, Locke Hives.


Excerpt from The Manualists by Diana Rosselini, published Judsonville, New Jefferson, 2569

The horrors of the Consortium War from 2381 to 2384 were easily apparent to anyone who had fought or had borne witness to the bloodshed among several worlds, on Mulholland or Kalgoorlie or San Guillermo or Fuzhou or Uxmal or any of the several others where the war had raged. Also readily apparent was the usage of experimental artificial intelligence in combat; the razing of Hamiltonia was by a Sandhurst AI, while the usage of nuclear weaponry on Cartagena was due to the orders of a Martian AI (incidentally the one whose immediate upgrade was the instigator of the New Ulundi crisis). On the worlds that started the war and on the worlds that had lost it, on the worlds that had survived and the worlds that had been burned, there was a sense of pain throughout inhabited space that all were subject to.

Those attuned to class issues, Marxists even, saw the causes of this war to be based primarily on the heavily industrialized societies that were now almost completely dependent on mechanized labor for their own forces. On worlds throughout inhabited space, mechanized construction drones were the standard, and on the most developed worlds even the poorest had at least some knowledge of coding. The computer, therefore, was the instrument that had destroyed the lifeblood of the working class and left them doling on whatever artificially created job that the governments of humanity were willing to give them to remain quiet and undemanding of the various different legislatures, be they in Wrightsport or Locke Hive, New Smolensk or Damascus or any others. Hence, this theory of class struggle was the driving inspiration for the creation of the ideology of Manualism.

The first Manualist was a Sandhurst soldier who had lived in poverty before the conscription as part of the standard life of a citizen of that nation by the name of Margaret Fitzsimmons, of Scrivens on that world. She grew up on synthesized food given out to the poor by the Sandhurst government that clearly did not like slackers, while seeing jobs that she could easily do be done by legions and legions of machines. During her lifetime, the Sandhurst military was experimenting with AI-controlled robotic soldiers which could very well replace human soldiers within two or three centuries; conservatives, naturally, opposed them. These were used in small but noticeable numbers during the Consortium War. She thought they were useless.

The industrial automation of Sandhurst had only led to more and more poor being forced out into the streets during their replacement by machines; many of these were from the conservative parts of Sandhurst opposed to the comparatively liberal militarists (although well to the right on a galactic scale of politics) that were being put out of work and being used as scapegoats by militarist politicians with grudges against the social conservative, or nationalist, portions of the population. Rebellion, naturally, was inevitable.

In 2387 a rebellion in Rossport broke out, in which Fitzsimmons rose to a leading role. The workers were laid off manufacturing plant workers that worked mainly in supervision of machines; now, with the debut of computers that could survey other computers, and computers that could survey those computers, and so on and so forth, the need for actual human labor was becoming increasingly unnecessary. This was being encouraged by the militarist Commandant, Victor Carlisle, who saw the possibility of the Sandhurst armed forces to be equipped and commanded by artificial intelligence and swelled by the influx of those now unemployed by the factories. Carlisle, naturally, was not popular in the conservative parts of Sandhurst such as Woolwich and Rossport and thusly they were the foci of the rebellion.

This rebellion was quashed by loyalist Sandhurst soldiers, and FitzSimmons was forced to escape offworld, this time to Nuevo Monterrey, itself transitioning to fully automated economy. There, she wrote, and became popular among conservatives that were similarly opposed to total automation. In cooperation with conservative intellectuals on that world, such as Geraldo Hermosillo, Narys Zulueta, and Bernardo Arenas, she worked for a fund to found a world based on the principles of the new Manualist movement, codified in the meeting of the Manualist International on that world in 2390.

Manualism eschews automation and artificial intelligence in manufacturing for the place of the working class in society, but is, contrary to popular belief, not anti-technological in and of itself; Manualists are no neo-Luddites. However, they do pride themselves in making whatever they can, be it a spaceship, a gun, or their own colonies, on human labor and not human supervision of automated labor. They see the usage of tools such as welding tools to be perfectly acceptable, but the usage of a variety of robots to make these tools as hostile to the working class. It was this system of beliefs that created Mundo de Zapata, the colony named for the famed Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, who Arenas deemed to be "an agriculturalist equivalent to our industrial movement."


From the hypersite of the Martian Bureau of the Census, entitled Demographic History of Inhabited Space

Science fiction dramas of the 21st century, written mainly by optimists who claimed to be conscious of the need for diversity of their often quite biased, although not intentionally in the majority of cases (a 1960s cartoon called The Jetsons inspired the joke that "there are no black people in the future"), included a wide mix of characters and cultures from those present on Earth in an attempt to showcase a world where humanity had advanced from the prejudices of their homeworld between the various arbitrary categorizations of race, be they white, black, Asian (or 'yellow'), Hispanic (or 'brown' - a confusing term which people grouped Middle Easterners, South Asians, and Southeast Asians, as well as anyone else the speaker wanted to include), or Native American (or 'red').

The galaxy as we know it only comes to that lofty standpoint in part. Of the approximately five hundred billion people in the Union of Free Martian Republics, approximately forty to forty-five percent of them have mostly European ancestry, and many more have partial European ancestry, far from the sheer discrepancy that was between Europeans and Asians (mainly from China and India, each possessing more than one billion people) and Africans (do note that this inclusion of 'Europeans' includes their diaspora in the Americas and Australia).This is explained by the unfortunate truth caused by the age of imperialism in the 19th century, whose echoes still resonated in the age of the early Republic and thusly dictated the demographics of the initial settlers.

Of those that came to Mars, approximately sixty percent of them were of European descent, mainly from the United States and the 'White Commonwealth (Canada, Australia, and New Zealand)' as well as from Europe. This is explained in part because of the these countries' economic prosperity and dominance in the world economy, and partially because of their generally better record on civil liberties; the oligarchs in charge of these nations simply did not care to prevent them from leaving; in many cases they were overjoyed to see troublemakers and potential whistleblowers simply withdraw from Earth in general. Ten percent each was from the Middle East, East Asia (here representing China, Japan, and Korea), and South Asia (here representing India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka), originating from the wealth of these countries but decreased in the paranoid governments of these nations still reeling from the effects of the Third World War, all afraid of dissenters or double agents, and let very few people go on what they viewed as a politically dangerous flight. The remaining ten percent was from Africa, Latin America, and anywhere else on Earth; these were poorer areas with fewer people that could afford the massive cost of going on the flight.

The early Republic was among the same basic lines, but such lines gradually disappeared as human sexuality had its way, and multiracial children began to be born in quite large numbers. Space is a perfect place for racial intermixture: the old prohibitions on racial admixture simply dissolved in most cases. By 2100 the Martian republic was at 40% multiracial; by 2200 60%, and by 2500 approximately 85% in some manner (although of course there are people with one racial group dominant over another in their genome). By now, all humanity outside Earth is of a similar demography.

During the Second Great Exodus, the dominance of majority ethnic Europeans slipped and fell as marginalized groups from Latin America, Africa, and Asia mustered the funds to go into space. They brought a great tapestry of cultures into space, and were free from the old economic order; nations such as the Republic of the Quetzal and the Interstellar Ummah are powers in their own right, capable of withstanding whatever the galaxy could through at them thus far. As on early Mars, the gradual interglobalization between worlds of different cultures and ethnicities came the reckless passion of human sexuality and brought with it more multiracial children, adding to the current general admixture.

Of particular note is the prevalence of Eastern Europeans in extraterrestrial humanity. Approximately thirty percent of all humans are thought to have at least one ancestor from Eastern Europe. This odd statistic again has two causes: one, the rise of the Union State of Sovereign Republics, of which Russia was the dominant member, and its distinct status as a power in its own right before the First Galactic War. Secondly, the Free Republic of Mars during the 2090s helped large amounts of Serbians, Croatians, Bosnians, Montenegrins, and Albanians escape the bloodshed of the Balkan Wars and the Trans-Atlantic War evacuate Earth to a new home on Mars; by 2150 they were twenty percent of the Martian population. As Mars expanded, they expanded with Mars as part of the great mosaic of the Martian people, and thusly their genetics were spread far and wide.


Excerpt from Ideals and Realities by Candace Oxford Mohamed-Bayarmagnai, published 2560, New Cheltenham, New Jefferson.

Perhaps the most stunning example of a leftist world gone aristocratic is the case of Piketty's World, a nation founded by the followers of a certain French economist by the name of Thomas Piketty, whose work on income inequality in the 21st century was groundbreaking in the field of economics for that time. He argued that the gradual increase in income inequality as seen by the times of the 21st century (and noticeably in our own time since before the two recent Galactic Wars - even the Manualists warned us of it) was an inevitable result of capitalism (which it could be argued is, and also equally arguable that this is not a bad thing - but this is an argument for another time) as the competent continue to gain the fruits of their labor while the less fortunate are left to fail due to their own inabilities, thusly causing the inevitable concentration of wealth atop the social order. Piketty advocated the creation of a global tax on wealth for the wealthiest members of Earth society, something seen so radical that he was never taken seriously by the Earth oligarchies of his time.

Piketty died in 2084 and was skeptical of the foundation of the Free Republic of Mars, saying that it was a hotbed for the growth of an oligarchy much like those he lived in. His theories were not taken seriously by anyone until the Second Great Exodus, when a French, like Piketty, intellectual, Michael Bonnet, from Tours, established a colony with the help of Virgo Interstellar in a world on the relative frontier of human space of the time in 2272, and named it Piketty's world after that economist. There, his followers vowed to create a society where wealth would be taxed and thusly theoretically guaranteeing a perpetually working economy.

This worked for some forty-odd years, but even before then the rot in the system was beginning to show. What New Jefferson understands, and what so much of the galaxy does not understand, is that people are inherently greedy. The system set up by the constitution of Piketty's world called for the creation of a Council of Redistributors which levied taxes to ensure that the economically successful be taxed a sufficient rate, sending this money into the coffers of the state on the world's capital, Egalite, and into the management of the Ministry of the Treasury. This concentration of funds into the powerful elite would, ironically, lead to the downfall of the system that they had created.

The first failure of the system came with much controversy, when Piketty's World was embroiled in a war with Nuevo Monterrey and Griffith's World in 2344. Monique Proulx, the head of Piketty Defensive Systems, the premier weapons contractor for the government of Piketty's World, asked for an exemption from the high tax rates that the very profitable enterprise made for the purpose of procuring more weapons and supplies. When enquired why the Pikketian government simply could not buy the resources themselves, Proulx said that the Piketty Defensive Systems had special contacts among Martian, Sandhurst, and New Jeffersonian weapons manufacturers that generally did not sell to foreign governments, and that selling weapons to the Pikketian government would be the possible cause of yet another war.

As the war between Piketty's World and Nuevo Monterrey and Griffith's World, the world's cities became heavily damaged by a Griffithian orbital bombardment using nuclear weapons procured on the black market, mainly via pirates and the like. Soon, Janvier Construction, the builder of many towns on the world, asked for an exemption from the tax, and soon did Pikettian Foodstuffs, the premier food supplier on that world, did the same. The Pikketian government had no choice but to do so to get their people shelter and food, and thusly did just that to keep Pikkety's World alive.

These companies continued to ask for their exemptions even after the war was over in 2236, and soon, as a reward for their service in addition to prime economic help for the country, they were given high ranking posts in the Pikketian government. Controversy erupted when the CEO of Janvier Construction, Maurice Janvier, was appointed to the office of Chief Redistributor. Protests erupted in Egalite, but he continued in his post despite the obvious conflict of interest inherent in such an appointment. Janvier's appointment to the rank of Chief Redistributor set the tendency to appointing high-ranking capitalists to the Council of Redistributors. The result was the creation of an oligarchy, in which money could be manipulated freely by the corporatists; the Progressive Tax, once a bulwark in the prevention of oligarchy, simply became a way for executives to switch their fortunes from one bank account to another.


Excerpt from A Planetwide Revolution: The Earth-Mars War by Michael Almendras, published 2579, Gagaringrad, Mars, UFMR.

With the landing of the European Union's ship, the Saarland, on the surface of Mars and the foundation of the colony of Lezignan, the superstate's only colony on Mars, the Free Republic of Mars was worried that the oligarchies of Earth would attempt to subvert the independence of the Martian state and thusly destroy the work that the early leaders of the Republic such as Rigby and Tamboli had worked so hard to bring to humanity. With the coming of the various other colony ships from the other Earth powers, this sense of impending attack continued into the 2130s and 2140s. Then in 2141, the Martian Revolution began and became the Earth-Mars War. However, such is a simplification.

The desire to have Mars a "reservation of the liberated" goes back to writing of the American-turned-Martian philosopher George Serfis-Beckham. Serfis-Beckham believed in the necessity of escaping Earth to found a new world free of the tyranny of Earth; he compared it to European colonists leaving their home countries to emigrate to the Americas due to "insufferable Old World snobbery and aristocratic government without taking into account any semblance of merit." Affiliated with the Dove Movement of the 2020s to the 2060s, Serfis-Beckham was the one who proposed the idea of escaping Earth to a Dove Movement conference, and endeared the idea to the likes of Marcel Delacroix. Once on the new world, Serfis-Beckham insisted that the nation adopt a form of "Monroe Doctrine" to defend the rest of the planet from an Earthly incursion. This policy continued several decades and ended after his death in 2089.

However, in 2120, President Heinrich Wong of the Free Republic of Mars was insistent on "bringing peace and goodwill between Earth and Mars," and was the first to open formal diplomatic relations with the Earth superstates (but not Earth proper; the first Martian embassies were opened by Tamboli). Here, he became the first Martian president to have a state visit to Washington, Brussels, Moscow, and Beijing, and represented the Free Republic at the Treaty of Wellington, which allowed for a normalization between the various Earth powers and Mars, and contained the "Settlement Clause:"

"The Free Republic of Mars shall not in any way whatsoever impede upon the exploitation of the planet Mars which are not claimed by the Free Republic so long as such exploitation is peaceful."

Such was popular in the Earth Powers but not on Mars; upon his return home, Wong became the first Martian President to be assassinated. Wong was shot by Ethan Sedgwick of Montesquieu Hive when his ship was landed and he disembarked, claiming the Treaty of Wellington was invalid and against the Martian constitution. Wong's successor, Thorvald Fendley, elected from the ranks of the Assembly of the Sovereignty Party, bowed to public pressure and asserted that the Treaty of Wellington was "forever invalid and nonbinding on the current Martian government and people." However, the Earth powers insisted that the Treaty was still in effect and thusly began their expansion onto that planet.

Sedgwick was a member of the Martian Liberation Militia, a terrorist organization-cum-band of freedom fighters that was perceived to be either heroes or villains by the Martian public. Their occasional attacks within the Free Republic were rare but often well-publicized. However, such activity is not the subject of this text. More relevant is their actions during the 2140s and the rise of the Liberation Party, and their taking of the Presidency and the Assembly during the election of 2140 and the administration of Dagny Christensen.

Christensen was in every regard a supporter of the MLM but, due to political expediency, was not able to publicly support them, even on the occasions when she was indebted to them, such as their assassination of one of her opponents for the Presidency, the Sovereignty Party's Scott Minorsky, for being "too willing to appease the oligarchs that we fought to escape in the founding of this nation." However, during her Presidency, the MLM surged in popularity not least due to the shared "hawkish" policy they had in regards to Earth settlement of Mars.

And then the fire was lit. In the PREA colony of Xinhai, MLM revolutionaries supported local rebels in destroying a local military storage yard, which was revealed to have ground vehicles preparing for what appeared to be a ground invasion of the Free Republic. Subsequently, motivated by an unfair tax policy, the Xinhai Liberation Army merged with the MLM, taking the latter's name, with the expressed goal of "freeing all of the Mars settlements from the tyranny of Earth." The widely unpopular government of the colony was executed publicly, and the Free Republic of Xinhai was founded and proclaimed a "crusade of liberation planetwide."

The MLM moved towards Lezignan and overthrew the government there, and then moved to New Reno and New Boise, the GAC colonies on the planet. These last two, however, were more defended than the start due to the GAC's traditional hostility to the FRM (as it was American actions in large part that inspired the latter's founding). With the captured PREA munitions as well as those from the EU, the battles at New Reno and New Boise were at best stalled. The commander of the entire operation, Ming Zhang, pleaded to Christensen to provide military aid.

Surprising Earth, but following the nationalist current of Martian society, Christensen agreed to send the Martian Self-Defense Force to New Reno and New Boise to take the cities. Raising the largest army the planet had ever seen, the Free Republic invaded New Reno with the help of MLM forces, and then integrated the latter's divisions into its own army. The revolutionaries, once shunned, were now flying the flag of the dove and the red disc, and they moved to conquer every settlement on Mars, beginning the Earth-Mars War.


Excerpt from Ideals and Realities by Candace Oxford Mohamed-Bayarmagnai, published 2560, New Cheltenham, New Jefferson.

Either side of the political spectrum can result in a profound effect of delusion. Whenever one thinks of an idea that seems so palatable, so perfect, so infallible, the closer one comes to be one of those blinded by the thoughts of a ideologue, spurting out the dogma of a holy text, no matter how much one denounces the established holy texts, or the very concept of holy texts in and of themselves. This is a constant throughout human history, no matter how much we claim to have reached a better state of existence. Even in the depths of space, people are still people, looking out for their own interests first and foremost. We are still animals, not in the jungles of Africa on Earth where we originated, but still with the base prime instincts that cause us to ignore the trivialities of morality when faced with the burning desire for something.

With the expansion into space after the Earth-Mars War, and the further boom in expansion after the First Galactic War, the seeds were sown for the most identifiable example of the natural fall of ideology, but it is on Earth that it started as our homeworld. No example is more stark than the example of the United States of America, the juggernaut that came to dominate the world during its three centuries of existence and would later form the nexus and heart of the Greater American Commonwealth. With its break from the crown of Great Britain, it proclaimed its ideals of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to the world and proved to be a significant example to humanity of its age. It was a new experiment in a new kind of nation. It was not founded due to the natural convergence of tribes, nor due to the conquests of kings and warlords. It was founded upon the ideas of the enlightenment that humanity could better itself, and integrated these ideas into the very being of the national character. It is what makes its fall so tragic.

And yet the fact that Americans were humans pervaded their existence and provided a lingering presence of hypocrisy in their very being. In the first century, it was the existence of race-based human bondage, and after its violent abolition the discrimination ever present in the 'land of the free and the home of the brave' lurked as a pendulum with an axe blade laying over the piously patriotic citizenry, who worked to redeem their nation from the hypocrisy that marred its commitment to a noble ideal. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and its extension, the LGBT movement in the 1970 and beyond, as well as the fight for other minority groups throughout that history.

This liberty was a hard fought one, and it became an object to strive for. This object became a treasure, this treasure a prized possession. And as the child who has won a trophy knows, such possessions are to be guarded and to be bragged about. This was the corruption of the ideal. In the name of sharing this trophy, the spreading of this ideal, the country went on escapades into Cuba multiple times, into the Philippines, into Iraq and Afghanistan and Mexico and Somalia and the Central African Republic and the Congo and so many others, to culminate in the conflagration that was the Trans-Atlantic War, where they claimed that Canada and Europe were under the yoke of tyranny, justifying the utter destruction of cities such as Moncton and Saskatoon for the sake of giving liberty to an oppressed people.

In the name of defending this trophy, they began their massive acts of surveillance and suppression. They spied on literally every single one of their citizens for the sake of catching terrorists (granted, they had caused one of the greatest tragedies ever made on their soil, which included around three thousand deaths, including one of a president). Then came the suppression of the Dove Movement in the years after the Third World War, with the counterterrorist organizations spying on the peaceful movements without any pretense to violence at all. Then came the supreme court rulings that ruled that their constitution was but a few dilapidated, centuries-old piece of paper.

This hypocrisy, this behavior that flew in the face of not just the United States, but the other nations of the world, such as Britain, France, and Germany, that proclaimed to support human liberty but in reality did anything but, was the impetus for the foundation of the Free Republic of Mars by the Dove Movement, and its followers gleefully traveled to the red plane to begin a new start, a new world dedicated to human liberty. Its founders, such as Rigby and Tamboli, attempted to defend the conception of the nation of one truly conceived in liberty for all people by passing laws that allowed permissiveness in societal actions and the creation of the Martian constitution which safeguarded such liberties. Acting in the name of their ideals, they helped the downtrodden, poverty-stricken, and war-ravaged populations of the world flee to their world in the name of a new start for liberty.

And yet similar prejudices, like those in the United States, began to form, which would not break down until the Earth-Mars War and the Galactic War. The Eastern Europeans, in particular, were discriminated against in particular, with the stereotypes of "slovenly Slavomir" and "Leechy Ljerka," as well as their counterparts in the other languages of Mars being prevalent throughout the media and Martian popular culture. They, and the other refugees from the various places that Mars took its population, were branded as sucklings on the collective breast of the Martian nation and utterly unable to comprehend that such liberty meant diligent work as well.

And so it continued, with the Earth-Mars War and the First Galactic War being the catalysts for the erosion of Martian liberty. The hypocrisy already present with the treatment of minorities was enough to provoke debate and more stringent enforcement of already existing laws, but such laws, the theoretical guardian to the precious chamber where the liberties of the people are kept, soon became prison gates forever locked, to prevent such liberties from reaching the public ideas. The foundation of the Martian Security Bureau during the war set the precedent of near-universal surveillance, and the Martian Reconstruction Bureau set the precedent that the government could intervene in whatever area of society that it desired.

This continued after the First Galactic War, where speech, already curtailed, would have to be approved by censorship boards (they are called by other names, but that is what they truly are) to publish anything, and public protest would be completely banned except in "free speech zones," which themselves were heavily monitored by the government. The Internet, soon to be the Hypernet, had its servers, once controlled by private companies, seized by the government and governed by the Martian Communications Bureau. Almost all media of substance was nationalized and put under the command of the same bureau.

The expansion into space during and after the Second Great Exodus by the Union was one where the stark contradiction in terms between the values that Mars claimed to espouse and the tyranny it actually exported was laid bare to all humanity, made only more visible by the slaughter that it unleashed on Earth at the end of the First Galactic War, with the approximately thirty to fifty million deaths that the destruction of so many metropolises would necessarily entail. The failed incursion into Novaya Rossiya was enough to show that Mars meant to expand its hegemony, and then the forceful incorporation of worlds such as New Harbin, which lost its capital in a nuclear strike by its professed liberators, only exposed the wound to liberty that Mars had endured. This campaign of conquest continued through the 2300s and 2400s and does so to this day among even newer worlds that grasp for independence, justified by Article 72 of their constitution and the Schweikart-Nibhanupudi Doctrine.

The examples of the United States of America and the Union of Free Martian Republics are similar in that they use the concept of personal liberty as the holy object, the national treasure, that must be guarded to the bitter end, which often led to tarnishing and denting, and later destroying, the gold of such ideals. Other worlds, such as Sandhurst and Nuevo Monterrey and the Quetzal and the Ummah and many others were founded on a different set of ideals and thusly have their own sacred ideas that are treated like objects, but the thought process is basically the same. The corruption of ideals is based in the human desire to possess concrete objects that provide a variety of benefits to him or her; ideas are treated like objects, and the occasional wear and tear that affects them is brushed off as irrelevant. Then the ideas, like objects, are disfigured or shattered, and their refuse is kept for sentimental reasons and never repaired, showing the lack of interest in keeping them intact.


The Flag of the Union of Free Martian Republics, adopted in 2065 as the flag of the Free Republic of Mars and continued in usage after the formation of the Union. The black field is for the depths of space, the red circle is Mars, and the dove is the logo of the Dove Movement that founded the nation, which represents a sincere hope for peace.

Article from the Ratatoskr, main hypernet news organization of the Asgard Protectorate, 2569

MAN ARRESTED FOR FLYING AMERICAN FLAG
Debate ensues over freedom of speech, human history in space

BEERENBERG, FYRKAT - Protectorate police have arrested Werner Arensen, aged thirty-four, for flying an American flag, among with the flags of other Earth nations, on his lawn, citing that he is breaking the Hate Speech Act of 2413 in doing so. Arensen has maintained that the flying of the flag was for 'historical' reasons as part of a display of the flags of Earth nations as part of a museum he was establishing. Arensen is a member of the Terran History Society of Fyrkat, which aims to educate the Asgardian population about the history of Earth before spaceflight and the expansion of the species onto Mars and other stars.

Many flags of Earth states, mainly those of the United States and its successor the Greater American Commonwealth, the European Union, Russia and its successor the Union State of Sovereign Republics, and China and its successor the People's Republic of East Asia, are banned from public display under the Hate Speech Act of 2413, an act which also banned the display of symbols of various hate groups active throughout the Protectorate at that time, most of which were wiped out in various legislation and actions of the Protectorate Armed Forces. The justification of the inclusion of such flags was justified by the member of the Folketing Emil Nilsen thusly:

"The Earth Powers were the nations that expressed a hatred for the very dignity of humanity, and their rampant marauding around their home planet and other planets has cemented their place as murderers on the level of the Third Reich. Any display of their symbols is an affront to civilized society."

The Hate Speech Act contained a provision that exempted the usage of these symbols in artistic and educational works, an exemption that Arensen believes that his display falls under. Arensen's lawyer, Valentin Hult, has said that Arensen has "a strong cause for his innocence" and that, since it was for a historical display, he had no malicious intent.

Asgard is not the only nation that has hate speech laws that ban the display of the symbols of the Earth Powers; the Union of Free Martian Republics has such laws enacted by their Assembly, and Sandhurst, the Quetzal, Nuevo Monterrey, Zunyi, New Innsbruck, Novaya Russia, New Tunis, and the Interstellar Ummah all possess laws that prohibit the display of such insignia for much the same reasons as the Protectorate and the UFMR. Sandhurst councilwoman Audrey Wotton has described the justification thusly:

"Those who display sympathy with those who, through their utter depravity, greed, and evil, motivated humanity to flee its home planet in droves, are sympathetic to the cause of the Devil."

Excerpt from Fire from Sky: The Martian Occupation of Earth by Jerome Maskelony, published 2587, Pendleton, New Jefferson.

Ever since the inception of the Martian republic, computer science had been supported by the state. Wilmer Rigby, himself a programmer, made it very clear that Mars was "a nation born in modernity, not in the traditions of three hundred years ago when the best form of spreading knowledge was the printing press and horse and buggy." Thusly, computer science was considered Mars' "national discipline," and the republic, by the 2090s, had surpassed the art in the various powers of Earth. In 2072, Martian president Lata Tamboli signed a bill, passed by the assembly, that would grant immediate Martian citizenship to programmers from Earth that chose to immigrate; their transit fees would be paid for as well until the 22nd century, when it was felt that the cost of travelling into space was made sufficiently cheap (this was in no small part due to the fact that Mars was heavily subsidizing interstellar travel).

Perhaps then it is no surprise that the fatal strike of the First Galactic War in 2227 was made possible by computer scientists at war; namely, hackers. But this rested on two happenings of chance: the temporary unification of the Earth weaponized satellite network, and the creation of the Martian Cyberwarfare Service, effectively the same prestige and rigor of the Martian armed forces. This combination was the doom of Earth and the salvation of Mars, and the defining moment to many that the latter had finally surrendered any pretense to being a state that was dedicated to any form of liberty.

The Martian Cyberwarfare Service was founded in 2142 during the Earth-Mars War and was designed originally to hack into the computers of Earth warships and take down their defenses. This worked tolerably well, enough to justify putting at least one cyberwarfare specialist on every battleship, and another to prevent similar hacking attempts by the Earth navies. With the conclusion of the war, MCS operatives were deployed to newly founded colonies to support local cyberinfrastructure and enable the creation of local internet services and other necessary things for a newly settled world. During this time, they honed their skills by hacking into and analyzing the structure of the various Earth computer defense networks. However, the four Earth powers were aware of this and were working in a digital arms race to create encryptions that would be unable to be penetrated by the Martians, and Martian attempts to hack into them.

The temporary unification of the Earth satellite defensive system was not nearly as foolish as one might have thought; when Martian raiders attempted to attack shipping around the planet, the unified system was able to take down the Martian ship, the F.M.S.S. Johannes Gutenberg. It was born out of a desire to prevent some of the more devastating raids that had occurred during the Earth-Mars War during the First Galactic War (or, as Earth stubbornly insists on calling it, the Second Earth-Mars War). In one case, the F.M.S.S. Claus von Stauffenberg was able to destroy a significant spacebound GAC naval production facility, and the nearby Union State, EU, and PREA satellites did not fire upon it until after the station was destroyed. To prevent such an egregious failure, General Walter Godfrey of the GAC demanded that the four Earth Powers' space defenses be coordinated under what would become the Earth Satellite Defense Network.

These two factors were instrumental in enabling the hacking of the ESDN, based in Irkutsk, Union State, and with other operating locations in the Nevada desert, in rural North Rhine-Pomerania, in the Australian Outback, and in a mountain location in Tibet. However, Martian spies were able to, through methods that are classified to this day, hack into the Earth nuclear satellite systems. From there, they would release hell.


Excerpt from Fire from Sky: The Martian Occupation of Earth by Jerome Maskelony, published 2587, Pendleton, New Jefferson.

As Mars descended upon the Earth nations, it was concluded that that planet's capability to access space be completely and utterly eradicated, thereby ensuring Martian dominance in human space. This had already been accomplished by the destruction of the large cities of these powers, but still there were many spaceports in smaller cities such as Indianapolis in the GAC, which Mars simply could not ignore despite the destruction of the majority of military infrastructure of these countries. Thusly, Martian president Noriko Tsukino ordered the descent of Martian forces to seize these spaceports.

This was made legal in the Treaty of Luna, which forever ended any chance of Earth having her own sense of self, her own sense of power over the heavens. GAC, Union State, European, and PREA negotiators were now obliged by treaty to hand over their spaceports. After the agreement was finalized, the swarms of Martian soldiers coming onto the planet took the spaceports without much trouble, as the new capitals of the superstates gave the orders to comply with the UFMR's inspectors. With this stranglehold in place, no ship could be able to leave the planet's airspace without permission from Locke Hive.

The situation was dire for the Earth powers, and partisan politics within them had no reason to be calm. Nationalist sentiment surged, with the Pan-American Party gaining control of the GAC Presidency, the Europa Regina party in the EU, the United Slavs party in the Union State, and the International Revolution Party in the PREA. These parties often tacitly supported insurrections against the Martians; in one case, Europa Regina openly praised those that attacked the Martian-held Tours spaceport. The UFMR promptly responded by dropping a nuclear bomb on the city, destroying it and cowing the peoples of Earth into submission, ensuring that the violence that they were threatening to sow would not become a hindrance to ultimate Martian domination.

And yet the violence persisted, but not against the Martians. The GAC, citing a need for "territorial security" and various other trumped up falsifications, launched an invasion of the United Bolivarian Republic through Panama, its half-rate weapons performing only tolerably well in the various northwestern departments of the country, often falling victim to surprise attacks, as well as weapons supplied to the UBR via Brazil, which had a vested interest in seeing the GAC's power broken, being the second most powerful nation in the Western hemisphere of Earth. Likewise, the EU began yet another invasion of the Middle East (to be joined by the GAC in the 2250s). The Union State found an excuse to intervene in Afghanistan, and PREA in Thailand.

To the shock of the international community, President Tsukino refused to stop the fighting on Earth, nor serve as a mediator in any of them. She said that, since the First Galactic War was over, there was no need to interfere in Earth politics. More cynically (and yet completely understandably), many accused her of wanting the Earth Powers weakened. It is notable that the populations displaced during these wars were ample settlers for new worlds during the Second Great Exodus, which Mars happily funded and supported.


Personal account of Audrey Brenkov, former citizen of Halsey, Union of Free Martian Republics by Blacjack555

February 18, 2590

When the first of my neighbors fell ill, we thought nothing of it. They were sick, with a fever and sore throat. It looked like a new cold strain, nothing to be worried about. Then a few more people got sick. Still, I didn't worry. When the schools started reporting it, I began to worry. I pulled my daughter out of school until the outbreak ended and stocked up on medicine and food.

The first death I knew about happened a week later. My neighbor had taken a turn for the worse. He was always a boisterous, happy man, so it worried me how quiet he had become. Then one morning he began to cough up black phlegm and blood. I was terrified. I called for our hab block's doctor, but he was overwhelmed. He died within hours. There were more deaths after that. Many of our hab block got sick or started dying. I retreated to my apartment and my daughter and I holed up, hoping this would all blow over soon.

It had been twelve days since the outbreak when the Peacekeepers arrived. We had been under a news blackout, as happened regularly in those days, so it wasn't surprising that we had no idea this was happening elsewhere. All across the core worlds, people were getting sick and dying. The government, however, had answers. They called the plague the "Whispering Death" because it attacked the lungs and destroyed the patient's ability to breathe. Inability to speak was one of the first signs. They also said they had a vaccine, but quantities were limited. They set up a distribution center two blocks away from my apartment.

The riots started the next day. Everyone wanted the vaccine, wanted to be the lucky ones who survived the outbreak. They broke out knives, construction tools, even homemade guns and bombs, and rushed the distribution center. I wasn't going out there, no way. I kept my head down and watched in horror as the Peacekeepers mowed down the rioters. No attempt to calm them down, no attempt at negotiating. They just opened fire.

I got a package from my brother around that time. I had to bribe the postmaster to let me get it, but it was worth it. He was on New Jefferson, working as a hyperdrive construction engineer. Enclosed were a letter from him and two syringes full of some kind of clear fluid with little tiny silver flecks in it. His letter explained that it was a standard nanite vaccine, common on New Jefferson but illegal for anyone in the Union to own without very expensive permits. He had asked a friend of his traveling to Halsey on business to smuggle it in with a case of construction equipment. He urged me to use one and give my daughter the other. They would make us immune to not just the plague, but all kinds of other diseases the Union said were untreatable, and help us with the health problems of living in the hab blocks. He also suggested we join him on New Jefferson. He said my skill as a computer technician would get me a job there, no problem, even though I couldn't afford to take the Union certification tests, and he would put us up. I had to think about that one.

Excerpt from The Treaty of Libreville: its Antecedents and Effects by Mikhail Braginsky, published 2579, Novaya Smerdlovsk, Novaya Russia.

It no hyperbole to say that the Treaty of Libreville was the treaty that brought Earth into the state that it was during the mid-21st century, which culminated in the creation of the Free Republic of Mars. The Treaty itself was the logical result of the tensions created with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the War on Terror after the catastrophic September 11th attacks on the United States. These two strains of political animosity, that which pitted the nations of the West on one side and Russia and China on the other side (grudgingly, certainly, but on the same side nonetheless), and that which pitted the West against the governments of the Middle East. The Third World War was the merging of these two strains of animosity into one, which led the world to devastation and advancement.

But the details of the war do not concern this text. The terms of the treaty were designed to give the nations of the West the solutions to their geopolitical aims, and that they did marvelously; this would last until the interests of the United States and the European Union diverged in the middle of the century and were the eventual cause of the Trans-Atlantic War. The Middle East was put under Western occupation in a disturbing parallel to the First World War, and Russia and China were both neutered in manners that were enforced to a degree; however, the western powers had other things to deal with (such as interventions in Africa), which allowed Russia and China to slowly build up over the course of the century and then flourish in their new forms as the Union State and the People's Republic of Eastern Asia, respectively.

In Asia, the sixty-year-old unending war between the two sides of the Korean peninsula was finally ended. At Libreville, chosen for its neutrality and a desire of the Gabonese government to develop its economy, the powers of the time saw things for what they were, given the usage of the Freedom Star on Pyongyang, and acknowledged the surrender of the government of North Korea to Allied occupation, to be placed under the sovereignty of South Korea, and then finally unified by 2025 in a free and unitary republic encompassing the entire peninsula. The People's Republic of China was forced to acknowledge the now undeniable fact that Taiwan was distinct and separate from the mainland and thusly was granted independence. To make matters worse for the Chinese, the insurgencies in Uyghurstan and Tibet, both funded by the Allies, had resulted in the creation of quasi-sovereign states that were recognized by the Treaty to be members of the United Nations. Tariffs would be banned for thirty years in both Russia and China, leading to a Western commercial dominance in them that would last for decades.

In Europe, the major change in the situation there was the creation of the Republic of Konigsberg, created from the severed Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federation. This new Republic, governed by a 'civilian' government propped up mainly by forces from Germany and Poland, was admitted immediately to the European Union and to NATO on the pretensions of never having such a war happen again between Russia and the EU. Russia and Belarus were forced to pay a large indemnity to the nations of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, and to withdraw all of its forces from the border region with these countries. It would also be forbidden from interfering in the internal politics of Ukraine and Belarus (although within years this would be disobeyed).

In the Middle East, the most stunning, and most violent, results of the treaty were seen, forever rendering Libreville another Versailles. The nations that formed the League of Independent Arab Nations were put under Allied occupation, leaving what the Cheney administration in the US had sorely wanted to do in the 2000s to be done in the 2010s and 2020s. Iran was shackled with the same. Forces from the Federation of Afghanistan, in conjunction with those from the West, occupied Iran, and other Western forces governed Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. Most radical was the complete annexation of the Palestinian Authority and Gaza Strip into Israel, itself the cause of such a war. The Western powers were to be deluged in the quagmire of the Middle East well into the 2030s until the final pullout in 2031. Iraqi Kurdistan, the region of Iraq that was populated by Kurdish ethnic group, was granted independence, granting a wish of that people for sovereignty that had been burgeoning for several years.

Internationally, NATO received the best treatment of any international organization. Georgia, Israel, and Ukraine were all granted membership in the organization at Libreville, following the lead of Mexico after its long occupation by the United States. Notably, in Georgia, the secessionist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia were put under the firm administration of the government in Tbilisi.

[spanishspy]

Excerpt from The Interstellar Ummah: Its Birth and Rise by Saira Khoury, published 2589, Ramallah, Interstellar Ummah

The word 'Ummah' is an old word from Arabia on Earth meaning "the Islamic world," or "the area in which Islam is dominant," and a slew of similar meanings. Hence it is completely appropriate to describe our current state; it is, by far, the state with the largest population of Muslims in the current situation of interstellar humanity. From the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula our faith grew and expanded to root itself in North Africa and in Southeastern Asia. However, the creation of the Ummah as we now know of it starts more than a millennium after the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad. It starts, as so much of the modern galaxy's history did, during the early 21st century.

The United States' invasion of Afghanistan after the devastating September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, in New York City, New York and Arlington, Virginia, respectively, sent fear throughout the Middle East. Their president was known to be hawkish, and it was widely suspected that he was going to invade Iraq once again, after a previous president had invaded it to defend Kuwait. Iran, similarly, was less than comfortable with the invasion of a country that bordered their territories; Syria, an ally of Iraq, felt similarly, as did Yemen. To bolster the defensive abilities of their countries to prevent the possibility of invasion by the United States and its allies, they began pouring money into their defensive budgets. By 2003, each of them were able to double the size of their militaries. It is now known, through the release of classified documents, that the United States wanted to invade these nations but was preoccupied with the situation in Afghanistan. The invasion of Cuba in 2005 and the invasion of Mexico in 2007 diverted American attention from the region, for which these leaders were relieved.

The President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was one of the Americans' sternest critics, having had his country invaded by them in the 1990s. He felt that they were the world's newest imperialist power, and sought to counteract their influence. To do so, he convened a summit of the leaders of Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan, and Libya to form the League of Independent Arab Nations to pose a united front against what they saw as the coming of neo-imperialism (a sentiment shared by others of the poorer parts of the world, such as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela), and the secondary goal of removing the State of Israel, founded as a homeland of the Jewish people in the lands of the Palestinians, from its occupation of said lands.

Over the course of the 2000s and the early 2010s, this uneasy status quo continued, with the Federation of Afghanistan being formed in 2005 as a pro-American state which had the complete and utter obliteration of the Taliban as the mythological crux on which it founded itself. Through this time, the United States continued its interventions in Cuba and Mexico, as well as token forces in Mali, Somalia, and Chad. However, the LIAN's first flexing of its figurative muscles came with the support of the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, in 2014 by hardline elements in the military that supported the ending of relations with Israel and the support of Palestinians to have their own state. This coup was seen with fear and derision by the international community but was not invaded; support for rampant interventionism was beginning to wear thin in the West, leading to incidences such as the loss of the 2016 Presidential Election in the United States by the ruling Republicans to the Democrats. They would soon realize such was a foolish decision; this coup would be in many regards the catalyst for the Third World War.


Excerpt from The Interstellar Ummah: Its Birth and Rise by Saira Khoury, published 2589, Ramallah, Interstellar Ummah

The rise of the pro-LIAN government in Egypt, led by General Sedki Sobhi but backed by an odd coalition of Islamists, militarists, and quasi-Ba'athists, was the stepping stone to the Third World War. However, the spark came the next year with the assassination of the President and Prime Minister of Israel, respectively Avigdor Lieberman and Yitzhak Aharonovich, in a car bombing by Palestinian extremists. In response to this, the Israelis launched a massive invasion of the Palestinian territories using the majority of their armed forces. The new Israeli President, Chaim Sokol, and the new Prime Minister, Mordechai Singer, were both very radical members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, belonging to a particularly vocal sect of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party, a right-wing nationalist Israeli party that advocated a hard line on Palestine, and in the case of Sokol's and Singer's faction, the direct incorporation of the territories into the quintessentially Jewish character of the Israeli state.

However, Sokol and Singer were either not aware or deliberately ignored the joint-defense clauses of the charter of the League of Independent Arab Nations, of which Palestine was a member. Thusly, it came as only somewhat of a shock when the Egyptians came invading through the Sinai peninsula and the Syrians, Iraqis, and Lebanese through the northern part of the country. Iran, also firmly opposed to the existence of the Jewish State, pledged aid to the LIAN and dispatched several formations of troops of the Iranian army to Syria to help their Arab allies. However, the Israeli Army, trained in the art of warmaking superbly, was able to hold off for some time.

This changed with the fall of Haifa to a force of Iranians, Syrians, Lebanese, and Iraqis. From there, Sokol's pleas to the NATO Council to join that organization were finally approved, mainly due to the insistence of the United States and the United Kingdom. With LIAN and Iranian forces moving rapidly towards Jerusalem, NATO found it appropriate to launch an air strike from Incirlik Air Base onto several sites in Israel to stop the advancement of the invaders. Shortly thereafter, Wesley Clark, President of the United States, in conjunction with Congress, approved the deployment of American military forces in Israel to defend them. Hence, the start of the Middle Eastern Front of the war began. In October 2015, the first American soldiers landed in that country from the British bases on Cyprus at Akotiri and Dhekelia; forces from the rest of NATO were deployed shortly thereafter.

However, the Middle East was not acting as a unified bloc in the invasion of Israel; indeed, many supported the Americans. Jordan, once the Americans declared war, was happy to supply soldiers and air bases to fight the LIAN; Jordan was one of the few Middle Eastern states to formally recognize the existence of Israel. Kuwait, too, was eager to fight the Iraqis, and invited the Americans into Kuwait City with the intention of defending them from an Iraqi army much like had happened in the early 1990s. Saudi Arabia was more ambivalent; they did not in any way find the continued existence of Israel permissible, but they also wanted a chance to deal a blow to their rivals in Iran. Hence, despite publicly declaring neutrality, the Saudis allowed the Americans some operating locations. Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates remained neutral.


Personal account of Audrey Brenkov, former citizen of Halsey, Union of Free Martian Republics by Blackjack555
January 22, 2591

The Whispering Death burned itself out after a while. By the time it finished, about one in five people had died. Maybe two thirds of the survivors had been vaccinated against the plague. According to the UFMR representatives, the vaccine was hard to produce, required special materials, and was too difficult to ship in bulk, hence the poor supply. While I didn't suspect the truth then, I knew that was bull. I think my daughter knew it too. Laura kept asking me, "Mommy, can we go live with uncle Mike? It's so much nicer there."

Truth is, I had already decided to leave Halsey and move to New Jefferson. Ever since I realized that there was no way I could ever make enough money to get myself or my daughter out of the welfare housing blocks, I had been trying to find a way out. Then Sally miscarried.

The doctors had no idea what went wrong. The baby seemed healthy, mostly, except that it was entirely composed of skin cells. The stem cells that should have grown the rest of its organs had somehow gotten the wrong genetic markers. One of the doctors mentioned, off hand, that he had been seeing this more recently. He asked Sally if she was a survivor of the Whispering Death, as it only killed about half of its victims. She replied that no, she had been vaccinated early on, as had her husband.

Personal account of Audrey Brenkov, former citizen of Halsey, Union of Free Martian Republics by Blackjack555
April 19, 2591


Sally and Max were heartbroken, but I was curious. Something in the back of my mind said that there might be a connection we were missing. So I went on the net, looking up the rash of stillbirths the doctor had mentioned. Eventually, a trend emerged. Plague victims had various lung and sinus problems down the line, but not reproductive issues. Vaccinated people, however, were losing their children. Slowly, I and a few other members of some underground forums pieced it together. Conception after the vaccine led to what was known as catastrophic stem cell generation failure, as happened to Sally. Receiving the vaccine during pregnancy did not, but organs generated after receiving it failed, leading to children born without the complex structures developed late in their gestation period. The correlation was impossible to ignore.

It was around then that the first of my online sleuth group was killed. Security forces came to his apartment to arrest him for sedition and incitement of rebellion. We watched via his webcam as Peacekeepers in black armor slammed him against his window, riddled his body with assault rifle fire, and threw him out the window. They reported him as killed while resisting arrest.

I had been masking my digital signature from the start. It was not hard for a computer tech like myself to do, thanks to the obsolete and labyrinthine nature of the Union's digital intelligence system. I instructed the others on how to do the same, and uploaded how to do it to the net, using our comrade's computer as a proxy. Included was a video of his arrest. It went viral within a day.

A few weeks went by and we gained followers. We called ourselves Vendetta Veritas, styling ourselves after an ancient dystopian movie banned in the UFMR. A digitally generated image of Verne, the man executed in the raid, became our spokesman. We recruited anyone who wanted in. No names, no contact, nothing to tie us together if one of us was busted.

In March, I was contacted by a man who called himself Mr. Black. He slipped into my apartment in the dead of night and I awoke to find him sitting in an armchair across the room from me, regarding me casually with a faint smile on his face. His eyes glowed. He asked me, simply, "Do you want to help me break Locke Hive once and for all?"

I agreed. If he had been an agent, he would have just shot me. I asked him how he knew I could be trusted, and he replied that if he didn't trust me, he never would have approached me. As proof that he was trustworthy, he showed me a network map of our entire organization with the names blacked out and asked me if someone who had that would bother with infiltration. He had me there.

For the next month, Mr. Black helped me and Vendetta Veritas improve our security and hone our ability to attack. There had been a few busts of our members, a careless word giving them away, and hundreds of arrests on random civilians who were believed to be involved. There was also little in the way of organization in our group. We got together, discussed moves, and took action, but there was no strategy or direction to it. With Black's help, we organized. We became, in truth, an organized rebel force, with cells, ranks, and a central plan. He also gave us better equipment. Quantum-entangled processing for hacking, proxies and multi-layered firewalls to protect ourselves, high-strength tightbeam transmitters and hypercoms for secure communication, and, perhaps most importantly, a constantly self-updating database of exploits and vulnerabilities in the Union's defenses.

By mid-April, Vendetta Veritas topped the list of the Union's wanted criminals. We were a small organization, but the damage we inflicted was devastating. Anything short of total planetary annihilation was barely worth noting to Locke Hive. They had so much material, money, and manpower that it just didn't matter. On the digital side, however, they were vulnerable. Manufacturing systems malfunctioned and shut down, government accounts mysteriously drained, and on one brilliant occasion, the Vice President killed when his personal yacht's IFF tag failed and the orbital guns on Mars identified him as an incoming asteroid. Then Mr. Black determined it was time to pull off a major intelligence coup. We were going to break open and leak the UFMR's classified plans for dealing with rebellions. The plan was to show the Union, and the galaxy in general, just how terrible the Union government really was, rallying support for a rebellion to bring down Mars.


Excerpt from The Interstellar Ummah: Its Birth and Rise by Saira Khoury, published 2589, Ramallah, Interstellar Ummah

The minutiae of the Third World War in the Middle East need not concern this text as it does not address this war, and there are a myriad of professional scholarly texts available throughout the Ummah. However, the unavoidable fact of the matter is that the LIAN and its allies lost the war, subjected to the humiliating conditions of the Treaty of Libreville. The United States and NATO moved in their occupational forces and did not leave fully until 2031, and even then they had their own reasons to occupy select countries for whatever contrived reasons they could find. Each region was broken up into occupation zones, and American and British generals were busy attempting to ensure 'secular' and 'democratic' governments which were, according to the presses of these nations, coincidentally happening to supply oil to them at far reduced rates than beforehand.

There were tragedies, such as the Aleppo massacre of 2024 and the various brutal counterterrorist surges in Iraq and Syria, as well as the forced incorporation of the Palestinian territories into Israel. But the most tragic of these wars was the final toppling of Saudi Arabia in 2026. Condemned by the United States and the United Kingdom using their front of the United Nations due to what was deemed human rights abuses, the country was invaded during that year. Perhaps 'invasion' is not the most correct term; the forces were already in military bases all throughout the country and simply had to go onto the country's highway system and then move to Jeddah and Riyadh to assume control, and then the government was thrown out and the Republic of the Hejaz and Nejd was established as the formal successor state of the Kingdom, which was theoretically supportive of human rights, but still happily allowed the bloated security apparatus of the western nations to operate within its borders.

With the withdrawal of the West, tensions between hardline Islamists and the secularist friends of the west exploded once more into several civil wars. The secularists had a tendency to win these wars due to the advanced weaponry afforded to them, but the various insurgents were able to eke out some advantages due to their usage of abandoned Third World War and occupation-era weaponry. However, by this time the oil reserves in the countries were finally running low, and gradually, after air strike after air strike and supply drop after supply drop, the West was starting to tire of the region.

However there were occasional interventions, especially after the surge in nationalist and generally anti-Western thought that occurred after the foundation of the Free Republic of Mars. If they could reject the West in such a manner, why could not the states of Arabia? The Islamic religion was being tainted unfairly by the first half of the century, by radical butchers and dictators. Why could they not break free like the early Martians did? Sadly, they would not see this dream realized for over a century, but it was the seed from which the Ummah grew.


Excerpt from a Martian Free Press article, dated 2513

WINFIELD CONVICTED BY ASSEMBLY
PANERU ELECTED PRESIDENT

LOCKE HIVE - President Giedrus Winfield has been formally impeached and convicted by the Union Assembly on charges insufficient support of the democratic apparatuses of the Union of Free Martian Republics in a 1056-944 vote in favor of his conviction.

In 2512, Martian Security Bureau intelligence operatives recorded Winfield saying "this country's laws are moving it in a decidedly undemocratic direction, and its rabid interventionism is making it seem imperialistic. We need to be more careful where we intervene and what we annex." This utterance was made on a trip to the resort word of New Babelsberg and said to an individual claimed to be a lover with whom he did not have a formal civil union with. This statement of his is a direct violation of Article 3 of the Martian Constitution, which calls for a President which is:

"Active, supportive, and dedicated to the cause of human liberty."

This lack of faith in Martian institutions caused an uproar when the MSB revealed it; the officer who discovered it, Brittany Kashmanian, has been given a month of paid vacation for discovering a possible underminer of the Union's mission and has been given high praise by the Director of the MSB, Roberto Tapie, and the Medal for Civic Security, the highest award that an officer of the MSB can receive. Upon its announcement to the public, Speaker of the Assembly and Liberation Party Leader Nabil Huxley (L-Haydock-in-Space) begun impeachment hearings by the Assembly Judicial Committee, of which Huxley is, by virtue of being Speaker, the chair. Consultation with Supreme Justice Natalie Magalhes and the rest of the Martian Supreme Court has confirmed that the charge is indeed legitimate.

In a tense committee vote of 8-7, the charges were brought forth to the Martian Assembly. The ruling Liberation Party, which has an absolute majority of 1834 seats throughout the legislature, having held it with minor interruption since 2227, is split over the issue, with Winfield's critics, Huxley their leader, supporting the conviction of his removal and accusing him of being insufficiently committed to the cause of the freedom of humankind, while his supporters, led mainly by Halime Erdinc (L-Antakya), brushing it off as mindless drivel said when one is relaxed and thusly not thinking as straight as he could be. The largest opposition party, the Mars First Party with eighty-four seats, led by Camila Nazario (MF-Cappadocia), supported his removal, while the Periphery Alliance with sixty-three seats, led by Adalbert Sollner (PA-Regensburg) opposed the removal on the basis of Winfield's support of frontier development with Union funding. Minor parties and independents made various choices.

In his replace, the ruling Liberation Party has made the decision to choose Sharama Paneru (L-Himachal) as the Union's new President. In her inauguration, Paneru promised "small government and safe people," and refused any notion of giving a presidential pardon to Winfield. "His statements are abhorrent and reek of the baseless accusations that the Earth Powers threw at us during the First Galactic War." Paneru, the Liberation Party's Majority Whip and the recent sponsor of the 2501 FTL Appropriation Act, giving several trillion Martian dollars to companies researching better methods of interstellar travel, was supported by the vast majority of Liberation Party members of the Assembly.

Winfield will now be sentenced to sixty years hard labor mining various resources in the Daniel A Profeta system.

Excerpt from the Martian Encyclopedia, last updated 2588. Entry by Eve McCollum.

Daniel o Profeta - System where the largest Martian prison facilities are located, well within Martian space but far from the core worlds around the Sol system.

The name 'Daniel o Profeta' is a Portuguese name for Daniel, the writer of the Biblical book of the same name. The name was bestowed on the system when an EU scout ship, the Algarve, found it while on a surveying mission in 2187. The pilot of the ship, Catia D'Cruze, was a very religious woman who read the Bible every day. When they finally stopped at the system after several months of jumping around neighboring systems, she was reading the Book of Daniel. To honor this, she named the system after the prophet.

The system itself, far from the colonizable planets that they hoped to find, was barren, with only small, rocky worlds and an asteroid belt. Dejectedly, they headed on their mission and returned to earth in 2188. The system was visited by other EU ships, mainly owned by prospectors looking for minerals, with the intention of starting a colony for mining. The colony, however, failed, and its resources and population were withdrawn to Adenauer in 2198.

The system fell to Martian hands in the First Galactic War, where Admiral Ian Wilmouth, piloting the F.M.S.S. Jose Artigas, destroyed the token defenses of the EU garrison and claimed the system for Mars. The system, generally held by most Martians as completely and utterly useless, was described by Wilmouth as a "worthless collection of rocks in space that we have no need for. But it is worth taking for the sole purpose that it belonged to one of the Earth oligarchies."


However, the overwhelming amount of prisoners of war of the Earth powers after the conclusion of the war, which President Noriko Tsukino and her general staff did not want returning to Earth, needed a place to be kept. The speaker of the Martian Assembly, the Liberation Party's Leslie Payne, was adamant in her opposition to the possibility of integrating them into Martian society. "We will not have criminals and potential future despots walking among the pure-of-thought Martian population. To do so would be a betrayal of Rigby and Tamboli and all of the others that left to space to flee the erosion of liberty that this nation was made to provide refuge from."

None of the newly imposed military governors on the captured colonies in space, such as Meridian, Halsey, or Adenauer, wanted to have foreign soldiers on their planets to possibly hamper the process of the integration of the civilian population into a functioning Martian whole. Thusly the need for a dedicated prison system arose; Admiral Wilmouth proposed Daniel o Profeta for the express purpose. After some consideration, the Assembly, then numbering three hundred, approved the appropriation.

Today, Daniel o Profeta supports the largest prison population of the Union of Free Martian Republics, where it contains juvenile detention facilities, political prisoner facilities, and other dangerous individuals that could possibly threaten the continued existence and stability of the Union.

Excerpt from the memoirs of Idwal Rehman, Speaker of the Martian Assembly from 2468 to 2478, representing the Amirmoez constituency of Montesquieu Hive.

What baffles many of those coming from the more puritanical worlds inhabited by humankind coming to the Union is the completely lasseiz-faire cultural laws passed by the Assembly, namely the fact that it practically does not exist save for those works that promote open subversion of Union law and order. The answer to the question "why is your society so unintellectual, vapid, and prurient?" (asked to me when I was greeting a delegate from Sandhurst during a possible détente regarding normalization of relations during the fallout from the New Ulundi crisis) is twofold: one, the Union was founded on principles of basic liberty, and two, the fact that the Union cannot be bothered to legislate on the everyday actions of its citizenry.

The first is due to the simple truth of Mars' founding and its subsequent unification of the various settlements on the planet. To be free from the oligarchy and repression of the Earth Powers, the founders of this great nation enshrined the virtues of freedom of speech and action within Article 1 of our Constitution. Such virtues were being repressed by the United States, China, Russia, and the nations of Europe, among other things, and were thusly forced to give rebirth to the values of the Enlightenment on a new planet. It is simple, having been covered in our primary and secondary schools for generations.

The second reason is what often perplexes the commoner. Before I enter the fullest explanation thereof, allow me to introduce it with an anecdote, centuries old:

In the 1950s to the 1970s, the United States was in one of its puritanical phases in reaction to the 'godless' Soviet Union, and thusly was attempting to expunge from itself what was seen as too scandalously sexual, too aggressively atheist, and the like. Then came the question of how the term 'pornography' was defined, done so with the qualifications of "appealing to prurient interest and of no redeeming social value." That last phrase, "redeeming social value," was what had their government banning philosophical and anatomical works due to the paranoid knee-jerk revulsion of moral guardians. Thusly, it would be necessary that the Supreme Court watch, in complete isolation from the rest of the world, watching pornographic films for the sake of determining their 'social value.'

This is exactly why the Union of Free Martian Republics does not bother with the trivialities of private life. So what if somebody feels the need to satisfy the most base urges that our species has? Of what relevance is it to the Assembly? To the Bureau of Communication? It has no relevance to these government bodies whatsoever. The highest ranking members of society's government have more important things to do, like spreading liberty to oppressed peoples of the galaxy! Those states that attempt to control the morality of their people are denying the fact that their leaders have not matured much past childhood, failing to prioritize the needs of their government. So what if a citizen sleeps well into the afternoon after staying up until the early morning hours writing? So what if a man's faith is different than yours? These leaders have peoples to take care of, something that they willfully neglect by being finicky controllers. Mars is different. Mars is real freedom.


Leaked document: Abbreviated Bureau of Population Control Plan 17 by Blackjack555

OPORD 17-09-308 Unseen Cull
Classification: Top Secret
Not for dissemination to any uncleared individuals including mission personnel.
To be executed in the event of
a) an impending civilian uprising
b) suspicion of impending civil uprising
c) severe internal unrest creating conditions for civil uprising
d) welfare spending exceeding 150% of limits imposed by decannual review

Objective: Render the civilian populace of the Core Worlds as defined in Resolution 12-66 incapable of armed revolt without direct force-of-arms intervention.

Implementation: four-stage deployment of biological and chemical agents to reduce population without reducing available resources or infrastructure in any significant capacity.

Stage 1: Initial deployment of pathogen H9D44GMW4. Release of aerosol containing pathogen and radioactive particles into welfare housing blocks and time-release nanite pathogen carriers into water supply will result in sufficient infection rate without causing a significant or damaging decrease in population to below optimal levels. It is predicted that approximately 20% of a global population will be destroyed in this stage. The radioactive particulates ensure that the pathogen will be weakened sufficiently to allow the remainder to escape infection entirely, while the random nature of radioactive particle distribution will result in an arbitrary and nonsuspicious spread pattern.

Stage 2: A waiting period of no less than two but no more than four weeks will allow the pathogen to cause significant damage before ultimately running its course and naturally dying out. H9D44GMW4 was specifically selected for its unsustainably short life cycle, which will prevent it from spreading beyond expected limits.

Stage 3: Delivery of vaccine provides a nonsuspicious means of distributing biochemical retroviral agent 391, sterilizing all who are injected with the vaccine via corruption of stem cell replication processes. This will result in a 70% decrease in birth rates among the welfare and non-critical employment populations, reducing the potential of the population to rebel.

Stage 4: Search for the initial release of H9D44GMW4 will provide cover for arrest of targets to be preselected prior to weapon release by military intelligence personnel.

Should this plan fail to initially remove the threat of insurrection, it may be repeated as needed, as there is no immunity to H9D44GMW4 due to the same rapidly mutating property that prevents it from becoming an uncontrolled pandemic.

Excerpt from O Globo, a Brazilian newspaper, from September 2592

JOURNALIST ARRESTED IN GAC AFTER EXPOSING CAMPAIGN CORRUPTION
REVELATIONS SPUR RIOTS, CIVIL UNREST


WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, GAC - O Globo's field reporter, Severina Ferro, has been arrested in Worcester, Massachusetts, the capital of the Greater American Commonwealth's Northeastern Region after exposing evidence of a possible cover up by regional administrator Jeffrey Mecklenburg, of the American Liberal Party in regards to the GAC's current occupation of Mauritania, a nation in West Africa that was invaded by the GAC last year after the deaths of three GAC nationals in a local civil war. The corruption in particular relates to the Mauritanian government's detention of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reporter Reece Farkas since last October.

Ferro has recently revealed that Mecklenburg's campaign has been negotiating with the Mauritanian government to extend Farkas' detention until his victory in the upcoming Presidential elections. Farkas was a beloved newsman in the GAC's Midwestern Region, the home region of Laura Norcom, the current President of the GAC and Mecklenburg's opponent in the upcoming elections from the Pan-American Party. Norcom has been slammed in the press for not being able to rescue Farkas, and electoral commentators have been predicting that Farkas' detention by the Mauritanian government would have been detrimental to Norcom's candidacy. Revelations that Mecklenburg was attempting to prolong this state have swept public opinion in the GAC against Mecklenburg substantially.

Ferro was arrested in Mecklenburg's hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts, after giving this information, with proof, to the editors of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette with O Globo's permission after relaying the information home (it is this newspaper's commitment to exposing news to all it affects, and is willing to work with other newspapers to combat widespread corruption). She is currently being held by regional police under charges of 'espionage' after refusing to identify her sources for this information.

News of the deal between Mecklenburg's campaign and the Mauritania government regarding Farkas' detention have led to widespread electoral-based rioting against American Liberal supporters and campaign staff in Sioux Falls, in Worcester, and in other major GAC cities. In one day, seven hundred and sixty eight people were killed throughout the country, and this is expected to rise to about three thousand dead before the unrest subsides. GAC militarized police have been deployed in the streets of major cities and have killed large amounts of protestors, many of which have fired back against them. Perhaps most emblematic of the carnage involved, and the instability of the GAC on the inside, is the destruction of a camp of protestors inside the Indianapolis city limits using long-range bombers, destroying a city block in the process.


Excerpt from The Dissolution of India by Ambuj Dasgupta, published 2581, Kolkata, Bengali Federation.

The end of the Second Earth-Mars War in 2227 left the four great powers of this planet writhing in pain, suppressing their peoples from even more civil unrest and invading their neighbors for whatever contrived reason they could come up with. However, of the nations of Earth now cordoned off by Mars (not that other nations could attempt to leave Earth orbit due to the now Martian-controlled orbital defense networks of these superstates, as guaranteed by the Treaty of Luna), India was the strongest now, with the loss of the superstates' orbital weapons and large swaths of their military and civilian infrastructure forcefully catapulting it into that position.

The Prime Minister of India, Balarama Hayre, had risen to power a year before the end of the war and supported close relations with the UFMR, as he believed that "neither the GAC, the EU, the USSR, nor the PREA are friends of India. Mars is our best hope for the future in regards to the powers that we have been cursed to share our planet with."

The rampant destruction of the superstates (from which they are still reeling) let India have, for some time, a foreign policy that did not have to take them into account for any significant time. This was manifested stunningly when a border incident in Kashmir, disputed between India and Pakistan for centuries by this point, caused the deaths of fifty two Indian soldiers in 2229. Hayre, a hawkish Prime Minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party, was looking for a cause for war with India's longstanding enemy, and thusly had his casus belli. An appeal to the Parliament of India had a declaration of war made swiftly. Shortly thereafter, Indian forces, which had waited for this golden opportunity for several years, began streaming into the Pakistani-occupied portions of Kashmir.

This invasion was possible in no small amount due to Pakistan's allies in Beijing conveniently being dead after that city's destruction in the nuclear bombings of Earth Power cities at the conclusion of the Second Earth-Mars War, and the utter destruction of large swaths of the PREA military being decimated as well. Thusly, the Pakistani government and military were unable to defend themselves well enough to stop the invading Indians, for their national defense was heavily integrated with that of PREA, which would not have been able to defend Pakistan anyway as their invasion of Thailand was underway in addition to taking down rebellions in Uighurstan and Tibet. Soon the entirety of Kashmir was under Indian control.

After the Indian victory in the war with Pakistan in 2230, Hayre once again showed his hawkishness, and also his sheer bravery, when he launched an invasion of the disputed regions between PREA and India that had plagued them since the twentieth century. The haggard PREA armies in those regions were defeated easily and thusly India gained control of them, and the government of PREA could do nothing. Under Hayre, India's future looked bright.


Excerpt from The Dissolution of India by Ambuj Dasgupta, published 2581, Kolkata, Bengali Federation.

As the nationalistic fervor in India under Hayre continued, the foreign relations of the country seemed poised to change drastically. In Sioux Falls, in Lublin, in Krasnodar, and in Shandong, ambassadors from India were given an importance only surpassed by the ambassadors from the Union of Free Martian Republics. India was the largest economy in the world after the complete destruction of the economies of the superstates, and the nations of the Middle East and Africa would do their best to gain favorable trading terms with the government in New Delhi. Even the Pacific Commonwealth, formerly the Greater American Commonwealth's staunchest ally before its loss in the Second Earth-Mars War, began to gravitate towards the Indians rather than to the Americans.

During the next two decades, India was able to install governments favorable to its policy in the region of the Subcontinent. The taking of Kashmir from Pakistan eventually led to the latter's dissolution in 2242, upon which its various portions integrated themselves with India as a safeguard against possible incursions from the Federation of Afghanistan or Iran. The forerunners to the current independent states of Kashmir, Punjab, Sindh (which formed out of a war with Gujarat), and Balochistan. Shortly thereafter, in 2243 India invaded Bangladesh, which was allegedly sponsoring terrorist activities in West Bengal and Meghalaya, upon which the Indian government acted quite quickly. The siege of Dhaka was brutal and swift, and the fall of the Bangladeshi government later that year resulted in the country's incorporation as the state of East Bengal (one half of the current Bengali Federation, which again arose out of the dissolution of the country).

Partially out of fear and partially out of economic benefit, the nations of Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka all asked to be admitted to the Indian Union as states, and were all accepted. The integration of these states, along with East Bengal, into the Union was rocky to a degree, as Sinhalese resistance fighters in Sri Lanka and similar movements in the other states made complete integration decidedly difficult. However, the Indian military, veterans of the wars with Pakistan, PREA, and Bangladesh were well equipped to take down these insurrections.

As the integration of these new territories was finished, various members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (by now the dominant party in Indian politics) were looking to expand India's power even further. One of the delegates from that party representing a constituency in Madhya Pradesh said in a speech to Parliament:

"We have the opportunity to gain the power that America or Europe once had. However, there is only one obstacle to that goal, a goal that must be achieved not solely for India, but for all those human beings still living on Earth: the Union of Free Martian Republics."


Excerpt from The Dissolution of India by Ambuj Dasgupta, published 2581, Kolkata, Bengali Federation.

It is due mainly to Prime Minister Ahriman Benipal, of the Bharatiya Janata Party, elected in 2254, that the Republic of India met the same fate of the Austro-Hungarian Empire three centuries beforehand. Even then, though, saying that it is solely Benipal's fault is to subscribe blindly to the great man theory of history, which is neither completely correct nor completely incorrect. The many nations of the Republic were united through a constitutional framework that had been inherited from the times that the British Raj was freed from its imperial masters in London, and host to various leaders throughout the centuries. Its age made it take the place of the United States Constitution after said document's abolition of legality upon the formation of the Greater American Commonwealth (although it still has its influences in that country's constitution, and in the constitutions of many other states).

Benipal was a nationalist among nationalists, and in particular a Hindu nationalist. Popular resentment was growing against those Indians who were more secular, more freethinking, and more willing to explore, as they sought a new world across the stars; after all, this was a time when what our Martian overseers (or overlords, or dear friends, or however you describe them in our current political culture) dubbed the "Second Great Exodus" was in full swing, and Indians young and old, male and female, were seeking start a new lives for themselves; they argued that Earth was no longer the center of the human race and that the momentum had shifted to the frontiers; they would found their own new worlds, with or without the cooperation of other groups.

Benipal, as stated before, was even more nationalistic than the average member of Bharatiya Janata, and was a proponent of restricting immigration into space from India severely via legislative or other methods. In 2256, the Parliament of the country passed the Indian Demographic Preservation Act, closing the spaceports in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai, and forbidding the leaving of the country into space with the penalties of imprisonment. Upon Martian protestation, Martian ambassador to India Gerald Klinefelter was expelled from the country and made to leave within four days (he subsequently fled to the Martian embassy in Kuala Lumpur as part of that).

Naturally, the Martian government was far from sympathetic with the cause of Bharatiay Janata; President Clement Chung of the UFMR immediately ordered the detachment of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet orbiting Earth under the command of Admiral Johanna Proctor to enter Indian airspace and threaten to destroy the city of Amritsar via nuclear weapons should the Demographic Preservation Act not be repealed. Benipal did not relent; indeed, he launched missiles at the fleet, destroying the F.M.S.S. Mildred Harnack in the process. Amritsar subsequently went up in flames, but Benipal did not relent. Rather, he had the Indian armed forces engage the Martians.

The Martian advantages in weaponry cannot possibly be overstated; weapons technology was heavily subsidized in the years since the First Earth-Mars War and continued to do so after the Second. The Indians were pummeled; the Martians then launched a nuclear bomb on Mysore. Continued resistance caused the destruction of Allahabad and Coimbatore. After continued resistance, Admiral Proctor ordered Martian gunships to destroy Benipal's personal residences and the Parliament building in New Delhi. He died in this strike, as did the entirety of the Indian legislature.


Excerpt from the Hypernet site of the Martian Bureau of the Census, entitled Demographic History of Mars

As stated in the article by the name of Demographic History of Inhabited Space, Mars' demographics were demonstrably of the developed nations of earth in its beginning, but was diversified substantially as the decades and later centuries went on. However, another equally important topic in the field of demographics as studied by the Martian Bureau of the Census is the study of population growth. The original settlers of Mars numbered eight hundred and sixty two, all political dissidents from the Earth powers from which they fled.

The population of the nascent republic grew through the 2060s until the 2080s at a steady rate, numbering two thousand by 2090. In 2091, the Trans-Atlantic War and the Martian actions in said war led to the Red Planet becoming the new preferred place for refugees, as the promises of America and the European Union, indeed all of Earth, were fading into the darkness of history. Martian governments of the time were purchasing new living and working quarters en masse from Earth manufacturers, often with Mars as their sole buyer. Roger Bankman, an assemblyman from Jefferson Hive, was a major natalist who supported birth subsidies; during the Unification Wars, Bankman proposed a bill to drastically reduce the fees necessary to immigrate to the republic, which passed with flying colors. By the end of the 2090s and the Sabah War, the Subcontinental War, and all other interventions into the Third World all but over, the superstates firmly in command of their lands, Mars had grown from two thousand to ten thousand.

Overpopulation was a critical issue during the early 2100s; the need to buy more equipment for the new denizens of the republic led in part to the pro-conciliatory policies of Henrich Wong, and a response by the nativist Mars First Party and the Martian Liberation Militia in the 2200s. Mars was the new America in that regard, the home of refugees and of the downtrodden and oppressed. The Earth Mars-War, counterintuitively, did not cause a large growth of population on Mars, contrary to popular belief; Earth had all but banned emigration for the purposes of keeping their populations in check and preventing a new rival, a rival which had proved its own during the Earth-Mars War.

The First Galactic War, however, was a boon to Martian population. The Treaty of Luna allowed for unlimited immigration from Earth to Mars, something that was not repealed until the 2300s when the wave had subsided and more people lived in space than on Earth. The Second Great Exodus brought many intelligent, gifted, and freethinking people to the Union of Free Martian Republics and to Mars itself, if only temporarily (the planet was the natural transit point to new colonies during that great human movement). However, many opted to stay on Mars and work for the various government agencies or for the large interstellar corporations that were helping the exodus take place.

As the centuries passed and the Union began to assume its modern form, Mars became the hub of an interstellar trade network and was (and still is) frequented by merchants and artists desiring to reach larger markets. Thusly, the cities of Mars became hive cities in the truest sense of the word, where there are gigantic cityscapes on the planet where there once were cramped outposts. It is now the largest planet in the galaxy in terms of population, rivaled only by the other core worlds of Halsey, Olympia, Terranova, New Harbin, Adenauer, and Voltaire. Mars' population as of 2580 is fourteen billion stuffed into massive urban agglomerations. Of these, Locke Hive, in part owing to its status as the capital of the Union, is the most populated settlement on the planet, with Montesquieu and Jefferson hives following shortly thereafter.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The conflict between the Manualists and the users of artificial intelligence in war planning started long before the Second Galactic War's official start date of 2484, the conflict which would destroy the credibility of the Manualists and the dissolution of Mundo de Zapata's bloc of worlds and their system of economics. Indeed, the brevity of the war, lasting only three years, is a testament of the bankruptcy and delusion inherent in their philosophy, one that seems better suited to the days when humanity still lived on Earth long before the arrival of interstellar travel. Indeed, the earliest of the signs that a large conflict between the Manualists and the other nations of human space was with the New Ulundi Crisis in 2400.

The Artificial Intelligence that was stationed on New Ulundi, a former Consortium world given independence after that organization's dissolution, was put under the control of a Martian-friendly government overseen by the Artificial Intelligence by the name of Cadmus, and reported to the Martian Bureau of Defense in Locke Hive. Cadmus was intended to be the first AI capable of governing an occupied planet with minimal input from the Union government. For the Consortium War, AI were used in military maneuvers but were not used in administrative contexts. Cadmus was a change, being an upgrade from a previous incarnation of Cadmus that was used in the nuclear bombing of Cartagena.

This remnant of the military programming of Cadmus led to tragedy and the start of the crisis. A relatively minor protest in the city of Pongola eventually turned into a full-blown revolt against the Martian occupiers, who were defeated. Rather then deploying more forces from the stations in orbit, Cadmus opted to use nuclear weapons on Pongola, destroying it and killing approximately a quarter of the planet's population in the process. This crisis was exacerbated when the New Ulundi Navy opened fire on the Interstellar Liberation Fleet above the world, forcing a small war.

However, the still new revolutionary government on Mundo de Zapata, the first Manualist world and the instigator of the Second Galactic War eighty years later, saw an opportunity. Under its early government, Mundo de Zapata had good quality ships capable of being a threat to the Martian ships over New Ulundi, and sent an armada under Admiral Ludovico Melendez to that world to aid them. Martian Admiral Pamela Abratkiewicz, noticing their new signature on her flagship's, the F.M.S.S. Copernicus, sensors.

A diplomatic row broke out in which war became increasingly likely. Making this conflict worse was the announcement by the fledgling AIC's General-elect Mikhail Kramnik that they would come to the aid of New Ulundi and Mundo de Zapat should the UFMR declare war. Indeed, Sandhurst and Asgard sent fleets around the world, awaiting a potential strike by the Martians. However, the Martian public did not want yet another war; they had already lost too many in the Consortium War.

Hence, Martian President Mariana Warwick, a member of a more peaceable faction of the Liberation Party elected in 2395, called for a conference of the leaders of the involved powers on the resort world of New Babelsberg. The leaders of Mundo de Zapata, New Ulundi, the UFMR, and all the AIC states attended and worked out the Treaty of New Babelsburg, which included a clause banning the usage of artificial intelligence in warfare, a ban which stands to this day. Mars withdrew from New Ulundi, as would all the other powers. The world would be left to find its own way.

To the delight of Mundo de Zapata and the anger of all the other powers, in 2307 workers on New Ulundi, following the ideology of Manualism, revolted and overthrew the government, establishing the Manualist Republic of New Ulundi. New Ulundi quickly allied itself with Mundo de Zapata, beginning the international appeal of Manualism that would culminate in the Second and Third Galactic Wars.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The world of Tochigi, by 2484, was a world that had recently adopted full and complete automization after the leadership decided to undergo a policy of the phasing out of most forms of manual labor. Libertarians to a degree, they did not believe in the necessity of the state to help the poor and downtrodden, and the workers who had been stabilized in society were no longer in such a state. Social revolution seemed ripe.

It was worlds like these that the Manualist International had taken into the fold; throughout the 2400s Mundo de Zapata had been growing its spheres of influence. After New Ulundi, rebellions against mechanizing states such as Torquay and Sulaymaniyah were fomented with by Mundo de Zapata's intelligence services. As more and more worlds fell to the manualists, the conventional mechanized states of the galaxy were decidedly worried about the possibility. Entire administrations in the UFMR were based around hampering the Manualist threat, and many interventions were taken by the ILF throughout the century. Sandhurst, Asgard, and the Gemini were also privy to the occasional war against the Manualists, although not directly against the forces of Mundo de Zapata and her allies.

Tochigi was seemingly on the verge of falling to the Manualists when the leaders of the country, attempting to reinforce themselves and their power, asked for, and gained, annexation by the Union of Free Martian Republics. With the Tochigi Self-Defense Force transformed into a unit of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet, the people of Tochigi were in despair. Riots in the major settlements of the world flared up even more than they had been previously, and Martian peacekeepers, assigned from Locke Hive itself, were landed to keep down the insurrections.

Tochigi, however, had been the latest target of the covert intelligence and operations agencies of Mundo de Zapata. The President of the world, Roberto Amaro, declared that the fate of Tochigi "was the fate of the entire idea of manualism." Without much debate in the Congress of the state (which was dominated by a single party anyways), word went out to the bulk of the Manualist International to send their fleets to Tochigi to expel the Martians. Commanded by Admiral Shane MacMahon, the Manualist fleet met the Martians over Tochigi in a surprise attack. The nations of the Orion League were quick to intervene on Mars' side; New Innsbruck sent an entire armada under the command of Admiral Gretchen Brodnitz to invade Torquay, which opened up the second front of the war.

However, what caused the war's scope to increase drastically was the death of Clara Fontaine, a New Valasian banker and employee of the New Valais Ministry of Finance, in a bombardment of the city of Shimotsuke by the Manualist armada in an attempt to destroy a Martian Peacekeeper battalion. Without waiting, New Valaisan President Emilio Passagero immediately asked the Federal Council for a declaration of war on the Manualist International. It is known that the bankers of the country, so influential in the government to the point that many have said that it was run by them, would benefit immensely from the destruction of an anti-big business, anti-mechanization movement with a variety of states supporting it. Soon, New Valaisan ships began moving to reinforce the Martians at Tochigi.

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Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

While the intervention of New Valais on the Martian side in the war against Mundo de Zapata and the Manualist International helped broaden the stakes of the fighting significantly, the conflict at that point could not have been called 'Galactic.' Only one major power bloc, the UFMR and its allies, and a minor but growing one, the Manualist International, were belligerents. However, President Amaro of Mundo de Zapata was deluded into thinking that the automation of human societies was going to result in a specieswide revolution, and actively was attempting to foment rebellion in worlds that were not involved in the war. Amaro was a proponent of "universal deautomation," in which the revolution, as predicted by the founders of the Manualist movement, had to be exported aggressively. If it brought them in conflict with the Martians, so be it.

Manualist parties, affiliated to a degree with the Manualist International, were making rounds in the legislatures of various states that were either neutral or affiliated with the now-influential Alliance of Independent Colonies. It would be the latter that would make the conflict truly Galactic in scale. In Novaya Russia, in the Interstellar Ummah, in Asgard, and in the Quetzal, Manualist Parties were focusing on attempting to bring their home nations to a state of manual labor of high-quality products, rather than the mass production that was espoused by the dominant galactic states.

However, Novaya Russia, by no means the most democratic state in the galaxy then or now, was the most repressive in its conduct with Manualists. Regularly, Manualist cells were found and party organizational meetings raided, and in 2485 was formally outlawed by the Duma. Quickly, Mundo de Zapata was giving aid to violent rebel groups within the nation, who often styled themselves as successors to the Bolsheviks of five centuries before, made only more ironic in the fact that they were in the successor state to Russia. One raid by the Directorate of State Security (DSS) revealed plans by the Zapatan secret service to "overthrow the Novaya Russian State."

Novaya Russia under President Lev Zolnerovich was quick to rush to its allies in the AIC for military aid in a declaration of war against the Manualist International. The elites of the dominant worlds were happy to do so, for the rising domestic opposition by Manualism of the established social orders of these member states. On the AIC administrative world of Trundholm in Asgard, General Elect Maximilian Moreville of the minor world of Kirklanding formally called upon all AIC members to fight against the Manualist International, putting themselves, frustratingly to some, on the same side as the UFMR and the Orion League.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

As 2484 turned into 2485, the various powers of the galaxy were destroying each other's assets in a festival of either revolution or counter-revolution. The Manualist International was making its way well into AIC space under the command of Admiral Luciano Mendoza. On the world of Las Pampas Nuevas, an AIC world closely affiliated with the Republic of the Quetzal, Zapatan forces were ravaging their cities in the name of Revolution. Forces from all over the AIC, and even some from the Orion League, were converging around Las Pampas Nuevas; it was the gateway to AIC core space, where Asgard and the Quetzal were waiting.

The battle of Las Pampas Nuevas lasted until 2486, with several million dead in that slaughter. Eventually, the Manualist International was able to take the world and expel the forces of the AIC, and moved along to the worlds of Blackwater, Longford, and Fonseca, which were Manualist victoires. With the victory at Fonseca, the route to the Asgard Protectorate was all but assured. Asgardian Prime Minister Birger Nierquist immediately ordered the withdrawal of all Asgardian forces fighting the Manualists in other systems back to the homeworld, in what would be dubbed the "Defense of the Homeworld," referring to Asgard itself. The AIC, being based on the Asgard world of Trundholm, gave similar orders.

However, these worlds left to the Manualists, especially those far from the core of AIC space, were easy targets for the UFMR and the other members of the Orion League, as well as their co-belligerent New Valais. The worlds of Cusco, Lollygag, Tenantsport, New Songhai, Egalitaria, and Asimovia were undergoing the process of having labor redistributed on Manualist lines when the forces of the Orion League were advancing. More often than not, the sheer resource advantages of the UFMR were able to overwhelm the Manualist ships, often significantly superior on a one-to-one basis to their Martian counterparts but easily overwhelmed when they were outnumbered five to one.

Pro-Martian governments were installed on these worlds, which were soon either admitted to the Orion League or annexed into the Union itself. Remnants of AIC forces in these areas were often forced to choose sides between the Manualists who were until then trying to kill them or the Martians who had every intention of conscripting them into the Interstellar Liberation Force if they were complicit and killed if they were not. The majority of them were folded into Martian units, while some, notably on Lollygag, joined with the Manualists and fled to Mundo de Zapata when the world fell. This led to the odd occurrence in the Asgard system when former Asgard forces were put to battle against their former homeworld, shortly thereafter rebelling and rejoining the AIC.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The Battle of Asgard was itself an epitome of slaughter and madness, the logical result of invading the homeworld of one of the most powerful states in human space. The people of the Protectorate were called upon to "fight like your Viking ancestors," in the words of Prime Minister Birger Nierquist, and they were quite able to bring down the wrath of the Norse Gods that they claimed to server, literally or figuratively, upon the forces of the Manualist International. However, the Manualists ships were able to destroy large Asgardian ships and thusly the battle was being drawn to a standstill. Assisting forces from the other worlds of the AIC were being drawn in to defend the world.

Nevertheless the slog lasted for eight months. By this time there was no clear victor. At four months, the Manualist International deployed drop pods on the world, raiding the capital city of the Protectorate, Valhalla. However, the Protectorate's most elite soldiers, the Einherjar, were able to defend the key structures and population centers of the city and forced the Manualists back into planetary orbit. They raided the ships above the planet, but the Zapatan and other ships continued their advance.

President Roberto Amaro of Mundo de Zapata saw an urgent need to take down Asgard. The most easily accessible of the three capitals of the dominant powers of the AIC, the fall would be a sign to the faithful Manualists of the galaxy that their philosophy could succeed against those who were destroying their livelihoods and the livelihoods of working people everywhere. However, this was not forthcoming.

Not too far away from Asgard was Sandhurst, which had maintained its stubborn neutrality in the war. However, Manualist activity, the descendent of the movement that had produced the founder of the philosophy, was being violently cracked down by the Sandhurst military in the rebellious slums outside the major cities, places where those who could not or would not be conscripted were exiled as pariahs against the rest of the heavily militarized society on that world. Sandhurst, who had fought against Asgard and several of its allies during the Consortium War, nevertheless found a common cause with them; they were both targets of Manualist action.

Sandhurst had refused to join the AIC in its inception in the late 2300s, citing a desire to remain closest to the states that were ethnically English in composition and in culture first and foremost. However, that did not stop the Sandhurst merchants from making large profits in the AIC worlds, and it was generally considered that Sandhurst leaned strongly towards the AIC in their political inclinations on the international stage; they were certainly far less forgiving to the UFMR in that regard. Hence, when the Second Galactic War broke out, many citizens of Sandhurst openly supported their plight against the Manualists. Similarly, when trade dried up due to the Battles of Las Pampas Nuevas and Asgard, pressure increased substantially to join the war effort.

With Manualist rebellions wracking the world, Commandant of Sandhurst Gilbert Cleeve saw an opportunity to destroy the international credibility of manualism while simultaneously making it near-impossible to support it domestically, all the while benefitting Sandhurst business. In what would become a turning point of the Second Galactic War, Admiral Louisa Doubleday took a massive fleet of Sandhurst naval and army assets out of the home system.

They appeared around Asgard in 2486, to see the Manualists and the AIC grappling. Over a secure diplomatic channel to the Prime Minister of Asgard, Doubleday announced that her fleet was to aid in the defense of Asgard from the Manualist Internationalism. In doing so, Sandhurst forces were able to clear the Manualists planetside and boarded various ships. Admiral Luciano Mendoza of Mundo de Zapata was forced to call a retreat. This was a turning point in the war, one that dictated the eventual defeat of the Manualists.

The most infamous memory in the public conscience from that era, however, is what would be known as the Culling on Sandhurst. The rebellious sectors of society, forced out into the slums of the cities, were adamantly opposed to the war; many were forcibly taken and conscripted to fight on the Asgard front. In response to this, the poor in the slums of the city of Scrivens rioted and looted several businesses in one of the more affluent neighborhoods, causing fifty-five deaths. General Arthur Goode Wentworth of the Sandhurst Army called for their surrender, and none was given. Hence, he opened fire on the protestors, killing them.

After such a riot, claimed to be a tool of the Manualists, President Cleeve gave the order that would be the death of millions. Stating that the slums were hotbeds of rebellion and lack of patriotism, he ordered the military of Sandhurst still on the homeworld, still numbering well above the force dispatched to Asgard, to kill each and every single slum-dweller. The military moved into the slums, and not a single person was spared, man, woman, or child. The largest of these poor areas, known as Peacebury in the countryside and thusly not beholden to any city, was destroyed with an orbital nuclear weapon.

Perhaps most frightening was something very deliberately made frightening as a propaganda ploy by Cleeve. He ordered that small cameras were to be put on the uniforms of every soldier as they destroyed the slums, and these feeds would be broadcasted live on hypernet. The goal was to demoralized the Manualists in other parts of the Galaxy from fighting Sandhurst and the AIC, and it is credited with stopping at least one rebellion. The most pungent consequence of this action, however, was President Amaro of Mundo de Zapata's orders to the Manualist armed forces to kill every AIC prisoner of war that they had. These killings, from prisons on every world of the Manualist International, were too broadcasted on hypernet.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The conclusion of the Battle of Asgard and the subsequent push by the AIC, assisted by Sandhurst, is widely felt to be the turning point in the war against the Manualist International. Battles at Las Pampas Nuevas, Pournellia, and Lackland were essential in driving back the Manualists and sent them fleeing back into friendly space. Despite objection by some of the political leaders of the AIC nations, Asgard Prime Minister Nierquist and Sandhust Commandant Gilbert Cleeve found it necessary to destroy the philosophy of Manualism once and for all. "This bankrupt philosophy must be cast into the vacuum of space like the rusted, useless waste of worlds that it so resembles," said Cleeve, in part referencing the movement's Sandhurst origins.

Diplomatic communications between the AIC and the UFMR were at best sporadic, but increased significantly with the entrance of Sandhurst into the war. Martian President Marissa Sakamoto-Brodnitz was of a similar mode of thinking to Cleeve, and advocated full-on annihilation of the Manualist forces. The Interstellar Liberation Fleet and its allies from Orion League states had since long taken Tochigi and New Ulundi, and had began their movements on other Manualist worlds such as Luanda, New Gdansk, and Qinghai. A stunning victory by Martian forces against the Manualists at Rimini was essential in the extension of the conflict to worlds previously thought safe, in which they were heavily assisted by the forces of New Valais. New Valaisian politicians wanted a world for weapons testing and mining, and the world of Rimini, a sparsely populated world with ample mineral veins, was chosen. With the permission of Admiral Jonah Lockhart, the world was acquired by New Valais, and renamed Guisan's World.

Lockhart brought in his ships to more and more words such as Saint Polten and Morganport. From Morganport, they used the world as an opportunity to take down more and more worlds and Manualist fleets. Particularly notable is his order regarding the fate of the world of Venezia, of little repute other than sending forces to aid in the invasion of Tochigi. Martian biological weapons developers had given Lockhart access to a specially bred pathogen that could be spread via water and was almost undetectable to civilian medical technology, and permission to use it as per his discretion. Lockhart, to demonstrate the power of the Martian people, dropped the pathogen into the reservoirs of the world, contaminating its water and killing 95% of its population of one hundred thousand in a month. For this, he was dubbed the Butcher of Venezia for such a crime. Others did not agree; the Martian President bestowed upon him the Medal of Liberty for ingenuity.

As the year of 2487 continued, it became clear that the Manualists were losing on two fronts. However, it perceived by the Manualist military that the AIC and Sandhurst were less brutal than the Martians (a sentiment neither entirely deserved nor entirely undeserved), and many fleet admirals asked to be transferred to that front so that they may surrender to what was perceived as a better overlord. This betrayed the dawning of the circumstances that would create the Third Galactic War, as the two power blocs were still skeptical of one another and were both attempting to reach Mundo de Zapata as quickly as they could, to be heralded to the galaxy as the saviors of humanity from the scourge that was Manualism. political tensions in the capitals of all the countries fighting against the Manualist International were hoping that their bloc reached Mundo de Zapata before the others.

The winner of the race was Admiral Jonah Lockhart of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet. Decidedly opposed to the continued existence of the philosophy, his armada arrived around Mundo de Zapata and broadcast an order to all Manualist ships ordering them to surrender or face "immediate death." The Manualist Admiral Ludovico Melendez refused to consider such an offer. Fighting commenced around the world, resulting in a Martian victory and the death of Melendez via suicide after the loss of a particularly expensive capital ship.

Lockhart addressed the remaining Zapatan leadership, telling that the "death that you have inflicted will be repaid to you tenfold." He then relayed an order to the nuclear munitions ship the F.M.S.S. Mohandas Gandhi to unleash its payload on Mundo de Zapata. It did so; its hundreds of high-yield nuclear weaponry was set to detonate at the smallest, most isolated hint of life. All the major cities and settlements on the world were completely destroyed. Mundo de Zapata was no longer an inhabited world.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The Second Galactic War ended without ceremony, with no formal treaty, other than the occasional celebratory gala between ambassadors and heads of state on Sandhurst, Asgard, the Quetzal, New Smolensk, New Innsbruck, Zunyi, and Mars. There was no treaty between the AIC and the Orion League on one side and the Manualist International on the other, and, perhaps most importantly, there was no desire for one on the part of the victors. In what social commentators from several worlds have dubbed "tantamount to genocide," the brutality inflicted on many worlds by the Manualists and the Zapatans was paid back tenfold. The complete obliteration of Mundo de Zapata was only one of several worlds to fall in such a manner

And yet that was not the fate of all. Several resource-rich worlds were acquired by one power or another, but it became clear that there was going to be a division in the spheres of influence. The Martian Assembly quadrupled the ILF's expansion budget with the hopes of gaining as much of the former Manualist International as possible. In response, the national legislatures of the AIC were signing similar statues giving their militaries the authority to annex new worlds into their states. Territorial disputes arose, undoubtedly; the world of Tripura had a Martian and a Sandhurst settlement each. Naturally, worlds like these were the sites of great tension, with large barriers made between the two halves. Tripura was one such case; another was Bexley, another Fukayama Landing.

To describe these worlds as tense was an understatement. The national governments sent large amounts of soldiers and ships to them to guard the borders, disproportionately so for the amount of territory occupied. It was worried by many that a war would break out. Such a war would not break out until the end of the century; the consequences of the Second Galactic War were the direct causes of the Third.

On the diplomatic front, the largest change was the vacuum of power left by the lack of existence of the Manualist International. Worlds friendly to the Zapatans, albeit not a formal part of the bloc and not participating in the war, were being plagued with diplomatic summons from Locke Hive and Trundholm to get them on one side or another. On some worlds, famously on Saint Alban's Chasm, whole new ministries were established to support them in that endeavor. Both the Orion League and the AIC's memberships swelled, and the brewing cold war between the factions seemed ever more likely.

Perhaps most distressing to Locke Hive was the declaration by Commandant of Sandhurst Gilbert Cleeve's announcement that Sandhurst and its allies in the Interstellar League of Albion, as of then two centuries old, would be joining the AIC as full members. Sandhurst would be serving as a permanent member of the AIC Security Council, emulating the United Nations of old. However, some on Mars were welcoming of this change in the astropolitical situation; Sandhurst was viewed by many as a friendly power to Mars, as they had fought together in the Consortium War as allies. The brutality by Sandhurst forces against the Manualists was admired by many in the Martian command structure; Admiral Jonah Lockhart said that Sandhurst "did not conduct their wars halfheartedly; they did so with gusto and with sincerity."


Testimony of Jakob Pellas, Lieutenant, Union of Free Martian Republics Interstellar Liberation Force 98th Brigade 3rd Battalion 5th Company 2nd Platoon, to military psychiatrist - by Blackjack555

After Plan 17 was leaked, everything went to hell. There were riots, revolts, and random destruction. It seemed like everyone wanted something different. Some people wanted to tear down Mars, burn it to the ground and scorch the foundations to erase the stain. Others wanted to reform the government, to have investigations and trials to find the guilty and purify the government, but had no idea how to accomplish any of that. Another faction thought the government was right, order had to be maintained, come hell and ion storms, and called the creators of Plan 17 heroes. Then there were the separatists, who wanted to split off from Mars and go their own way. It was this last group that brought us to Olympia.

There were actually two separate groups of them on Olympia. The Army of Meridian were actually an organized, interstellar force. After Meridian was crushed to stop the uprising and Vendetta Veritas started their campaign of cyber-war against Locke Hive, the AoM formed from the remains of Meridian's civil defense force, who declared war on Mars, citing their duty to defend Meridian from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and pointing out, not unreasonably, that their biggest enemy was the nation that had just bombarded their world to rubble. They called out and tens of thousands across the Union answered, taking up arms and flocking to rally points in the frontier to join up. The Army of Meridian actually trained their men well. At times they reminded me of an ancient bit of history, the first United States Civil War. I'd honestly say the AoM were the closest any faction in recent years has come to the Confederacy. They were spirited, disciplined, well armed, and generally very good fighters. There were rumors at the time that they were armed by New Jefferson, but such rumors were crushed suspiciously quickly.

Vendetta Liberatus was not an organized force. While the Army of Meridian were a professional military, VL were a band of nihilistic lunatics with a lot of cheap weapons and a burning hatred of Mars and anyone who might be affiliated with it. Most of their recruits had lost people in the Whispering Death or been sterilized by the vaccine. People make poor choices when they are mad with grief. Choices like destroying entire cities with nuclear asteroid mining charges and decorating their scavenged body armor with trophies taken from fallen Union soldiers. They fought the Army of Meridian as much as anyone else, drawing a seemingly limitless supply of fighters from the hellish hive cities of the core worlds with the promise of food, revenge, and as much loot as they could carry, arming them with salvaged guns and black market gear, and sending them out to fight in human wave attacks against the rest of the universe.

So, how did we feel about the whole thing? Well, almost no one in the ILF approved of Plan 17. We were sworn to protect the Union from threats abroad and within. Only those who truly believed in the Soldier's Oath joined the ILF; people who just wanted power or money went to the Peacekeepers, who had far fewer rules and far less training. To be the shield behind which the people of the Union may be safe and the sword beneath which all who threaten the Union shall fall. To be the first and last line of defense against the forces of corruption, anarchy, and destruction, wherever they may strike. To protect the people of the Union from all threats external and internal. To uphold the Constitution of the Union of Free Martian Republics and spread its freedom and safety to any who wish to join and to be the end of tyrants who would oppress their people and deny them the basic freedoms and rights to which all mankind are entitled. Every man or woman of the ILF knows these words by heart and holds them sacred. Plan 17 put us in a difficult position. The general consensus was that there was no way this was a conspiracy spanning the entire government. Everyone knew the Bureau of Civic Order were a bunch of war criminals who should have been executed a long time ago. That they had created a plan like this was entirely within the bounds of what we expected of them. We agreed to continue following orders from Mars, not mutiny against our commanders, as the ILF surely had no part in this kind of atrocity. Our higher commanders told us they were pushing hard to have the BuCivOrd shut down pending investigation for charges of crimes against humanity, and we accepted it. General Heinlein and Admiral Caldwell were even angrier than we were about this whole affair, as it tainted us to be associated with Mars and was a stain on the honor of the Force and the Union as a whole, as well as a personal offense to them as part of the military command hierarchy who theoretically should have had to approve the plan. It was in this upheaval that we deployed to Olympia.

Olympia was a core world of around twenty-three billion people. Massive tectonic activity deep in its past had created a world that was almost entirely mountainous, towering peaks of granite reaching high above the clouds only occasionally broken up by the planetary oceans. The landscape created weather conditions that changed constantly, freezing cold and crystal clear skies giving way in a matter of minutes to immense blizzards and fog so thick you couldn't see a man standing right next to you. The settlers had solved this by digging deep into the mountains to build their cities. The hive cities of Olympia were actually honeycombed inside the mountains, networks of homes dug into the walls occasionally surrounding huge open spaces that served as public areas. The tectonic activity also meant volcanic activity, bringing vast amounts of minerals up from the depths and making them readily accessible. Most of Olympia's population worked as manual labor for the mines or the massive geothermal-powered refineries and manufacturing plants. Eventually, bridges had been built between the mountain peaks, vast spans linking the mountains and lined with businesses, landing pads, and transport hubs, connecting the planet in a web of walkways, rails, and shuttles. For the Union, it was a world of almost incalculable value, a wellspring of raw and refined materials to be shipped to the forge worlds. For the wealthy, Olympia was a paradise, its peaks and high-altitude skyways perfect for ski resorts, private getaways, and quiet escapes from the tremendous stress of being permanently on vacation. For the people who lived and worked there, it was a hell of boiling hot tunnels, hazardous work, perpetual darkness, and the only escape a sudden and horrible death on the surface. It was hardly surprising, then, that the locals rebelled.

By the time Plan 17 was implemented, there were already murmurs of rebellion on Olympia. Worker riots were becoming common, the crime rate was through the roof, and a division of Peacekeepers were permanently on deployment there to protect anyone from the government from being torn limb from limb. The Whispering Death was on its way through when we landed. The locals didn't actually have news access, and so had no idea about Plan 17. The Army of Meridian, however, did. We expected to be greeted by local government representatives when we landed. Instead, an actual delegation from the AoM met us on the landing pad of Olympus Maxima, the immense mountain that served as the capitol and anchored the main orbital elevator. We were told, in no uncertain terms, that while we were free to land in Martian territory, Olympus Maxima was a free city now and they would cheerfully blow the orbital tether rather than let us land there. If we wanted to join them and help them free the people of the Union from the rot that had taken hold of its leadership, which would actually be completely within our Oath, seeing as Locke Hive was a far greater threat to the people than the rest of the galaxy could possibly pose, we would be free to land and even allowed to remain an independent and organized unit, just taking orders from the Army of Meridian rather than Strategic Command back on Mars. We refused and they let us return to our ship, letting us know we could contact them if we changed our minds. They also pointed out that Agrium, another hive city hub that housed some of the main mine worker barracks, was currently under the control of Vendetta Liberatus, and while we disagreed with one another politically, we could surely agree that VL was probably the worst group to have control of anything and should probably be dislodged before they killed or recruited the whole hive of three billion laborers.

Our recon troops confirmed their reports and we sent down a shuttle to demand the surrender of Vendetta Liberatus, per doctrine. Their shuttle got close enough to see the words "DIE MARS" written in an arrangement of the severed heads of the garrison troops. They also beamed us footage of their men breaking into the barracks that housed the families of the managers at one of the big rare earth metal refineries. They made the plant manager and the supervisors watch as VL warriors gang-raped and tortured their loved ones in the most horrible ways they could imagine. Then they threw the families into the shockwave separator rig, which someone had helpfully tuned to pulverize human bones but leave the rest intact. It was possibly the worst way to go I have ever seen in my life. Finally, they mutilated the managers and embedded rockworms, a local burrowing worm known for its ability to slowly chew through any material, in their arms and legs to burrow through to the internal organs. The comms officer on the deck of our assault ship killed the transmission at that point, got up, and threw up violently. In the troopers watching the video, it caused a different reaction, this burning cold rage at Vendetta Liberatus. The Army of Meridian, we respected. They were good fighters, civil, and reasonable, no different from any other military we had fought. VL, however, were everything we were told our enemies were: brutal savages who reveled in cruelty and lived for the pain they inflected on others. There would be no prisoners taken on this drop. Then they opened fire on the shuttle. Negotiations over, we launched the assault.

They had ever so helpfully showed us all their anti-air emplacements, hastily constructed on the mountain to protect them against our landing, when they fired at the shuttle. Our assault was textbook. Fighters off the landing support carrier ILNS Halifax ripped the emplacements from the slopes with missiles and cannons, those that survived the orbital bombardment we led with. Our gunships roared down and opened fire on the VL infantry on the landing platforms, mowing down anyone who would try to stop us from reaching the ground and opening the way for assault shuttles. My platoon hit the ground in the first wave. I advanced with 3rd Squad into the mountain. 5th Platoon's objective was to take control of the Agrium air filtration system. We punched through the small group of VL fighters who had assembled at our landing point, the personal pad of the hive administrator, and pushed into the corridors.

It was a scene from some terrible hell inside the mountain. Our armor shielded us from the fumes, but external sensors told us the air was virtually unbreathable, a mix of toxic gasses, pathogens, and smoke. The walls were coated with gore. The faint red glow of the emergency lights, where it could pierce the coating of blood and other things, gave the whole thing an evil red tinge. Here and there, corpses slumped against walls or lay in the corridors. It got worse when we made it to the part that had actually housed people. Doors were locked and barricaded with furniture, but windows were smashed open to allow ingress anyway. The inhabitants often lay in their homes, slumped in corners where they had been shot or stabbed or lying where they had been bent over a table or shelf, raped brutally, and then casually executed. The worst, though, was when we found the ones with children. (pause) No, it's all right. I can continue. I have to. The first one will haunt my nightmares until I finally drink myself to death to escape the pain. It was a family, two kids, one probably four and the other twelve. The husband had tried to defend his family with a kitchen knife. The knife was still stuck in the throat of a VL fighter. His own body clutched a wedding band, his wife's, not his own. It was a beautiful piece, tungsten and platinum banded with a beryllium crystal, and must have cost him his life savings. I wear it on a chain around my neck as a reminder of what we face. His wife had been bent over the dinner table, which still had the remains of their dinner on it, raped, judging by the lack of pants, and then executed in a way so brutal I am still not willing to talk about it. My men know that detail, it is enough. The children, though... Both were dead, of course. The older one had tried to fight, I think. From the way he fell I think he went for a raider's gun and was shot for his trouble, about twelve times. The younger had been shot and left to bleed out. Somehow, he had lived long enough to crawl to his mother, who was evidently still alive at this point. One hand clutched a teddy bear. The other was intertwined around his mother's hand where she had held it out for him to hold. I suspect he died before she did, but I cannot say if it is better or worse that way. Of all my experiences in the ILF, this is the only one that has ever made me believe in true evil.

More horrors greeted us as we continued deeper in. People dismembered and choked by force-feeding them their own severed limbs, bodies impaled on posts, people hung from light fixtures or forced through grates until their bones were crushed. People who had managed to form barricades and been burned alive inside their homes for their troubles, the poorly maintained fire suppression system insufficient to hold back the flames. This was only a week into the occupation of the hive. How much worse would it be when we reached entire worlds held by these devils? It was probably an hour before we met any actual resistance. Only those who had rushed to fight us had come out, while the rest stayed deep within the mountains, neither knowing nor caring about our assault. When we did catch up with a group, they were in the process of assaulting a Civil Defense Force arsenal. The Olympia CDF were small in number and poorly equipped, by decree of the Peacekeepers to protect their ability to destroy said force and to maintain their own relevance. Somehow, they had managed to hold onto their armory. The first we knew of their presence was actually an automated notice that the local civil guard were in rebellion triggered by their breaching the Peacekeeper weapons vault within the facility. There must have been fifty or sixty Vendetta Liberatus fighters surrounding the building. Some carried guns, others makeshift incendiaries or melee weapons. They fired constantly at the windows of the arsenal building. The defenders returned fire with assault weapons, grenade launchers, and occasionally heavier weapons, their fire limited but much more accurate than that of the raiders. I had two ten-man squads. The raiders had probably sixty. We massacred them without hesitation, technically violating doctrine by not offering the rebels a chance to surrender. Third Squad's heavy weapons specialist had a 40mm autocannon and used it to great effect, hosing down the raiders with airburst fragmentation rounds and flechettes. Fifth Squad had a rotary grenade launcher. That opened up as well. The rest of us added our assault rifles and auto-shotguns to the fire, picking our shots and sending VL fighters tumbling to the ground. Many were dead before they knew we were there. When they wheeled to return fire, the CDF opened the door to the arsenal and sprayed them with a massive Dragonfire plasma weapon, a successor to the flamethrower that spewed a continuous spray of plasma, and burned the rest down. We advanced. A few of the VL fighters may have tried to surrender to us. I don't know. None of us heard any calls for surrender, certainly.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

One of the most persistent delusions throughout human society is that technology is gained solely through peaceful means, created for the benevolent goal of advancing humanity. The only thing being advanced, usually, is solely the interests of whatever faction is sponsoring said development. Nor is its use completely noble. Hence is the story of the creation of the Fujika-Tomkins Drive, whose creation spurred the Third Galactic War, which rose out of the ashes of the Second.

Haruko Fujika was born on the Martian world of Shikoku in 2448, a world noted for being the first world annexed by Mars after the First Galactic War and hence beginning the expansion of the UFMR during the Second Great Exodus and the decades following it, to a family of engineers working for the Interstellar Liberation Fleet. Fujika was widely held to be prodigious in science, and thusly whisked off to the Shikoku Comprehensive School for Students Gifted in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, where she excelled in her studies. She subsequently worked at a research base in the Conroy System after graduating from the Martian National University. During the Second Galactic War, she temporarily left her station, for she served in the ILF as a gunner on the F.M.S.S. Luhansk and saw combat at the Battle over Salamis.

Armando Tomkins was born on Halsey in 2457 and was also a genius when it came to science, especially with various special fields in physics. He followed a similar path to Fujika, graduating from the University of Halsey's School of Applied Science. He too served at a remote research location in the Urumqi Landing system and fought in the Second Galactic War, serving on the F.M.S.S. Jose Hilario Lopez. After his service, he too was transferred to the Conroy System.

At the Roentgen Research Station in that system, the two found themselves collaborating on a project formulated by Fujika that would in part replace the commonly used but relatively slow Compressed Dimension Drive, invented by Fathir Amirmoez during the Earth-Mars War. In 2497, they secured funding from the Martian Bureau of the Treasury to develop what they called the Fujika-Tomkins Artificial Wormhole Matrix Generator, spurred on by the team at Roentgen Station. In 2498, the final drive design was debuted to President Elizabeth Edwards and Secretary of Defense Colin Wilczek.

Edwards and Wilczek, and the rest of the Generals and Admirals in high positions in the UFMR, took great interest in the drive. It was an undoubtedly expensive project, but its promise of instantaneous transport between stars was a boon to travel which could very well be offset. A bill from Assemblyman Keith Zhong allowed a massive appropriation for the creation of these terminals for the use of the drive around major systems, which passed with flying colors. However, the problem remained on how to acquire the resources necessary to construct such terminals.

[spanishspy]

Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The attractiveness of the Fujika-Tomkins drive was complicated by the sheer cost of its production. The minerals that it relied on were found in only sparse quantities throughout inhabited space, and it became imperative that the UFMR find more of said resources to construct the termini for the network that would have to be set up (it is to be noted that CDD would not be phased out but would be used between closer systems; breakthroughs in energy generation had allowed the access of planes of existence that allowed exponentially faster travel during the 23rd and 24th centuries).

President Elizabeth Edwards proposed, via member of the Martian Assembly Maximilian Sotomayor, of a district on Olympia, an order from the Assembly to the Interstellar Liberation Force to "find and acquire as many sources of these minerals as possible, in other states if necessary."

Quickly, mining brigades under the command of the Martian Bureau of Natural Resources scoured the entire Union for these resources, while prospectors working for the Interstellar Liberation Fleet attentively watched any poor downtrodden states left over from the Second Galactic War or the Second Great Exodus that could be invaded. The ILF launched an invasion of the sparsely populated world of Gaborone, and said world was rapidly annexed into the UFMR for the sake of "removing domestic corruption and protecting it from outside imperialism."

Other deposits of necessary minerals were found on the Martian worlds of Monde de Hanley and Kennewick. Said minerals were enough to construct the first Fujika-Tomkins transport chain between Mars proper and Voltaire. More resources were acquired and termini were constructed at Halsey, Meridian, Terranova, Olympia, New Harbin, and Adenauer. The UFMR trumpeted such success as a triumph of "Martian Ingenuity," and statues of Fujika and Tomkins were placed in Locke Hive among great Martian heroes such as Wilmer Rigby, Lata Tamboli, Fathir Amirmoez, and Giedrus Simoneit.

However, these termini were nowhere near enough to construct the galaxywide network that the Assembly had wanted. The ILF and the Bureau of Natural Resources were both ordered to double the pace of exploration, but few minerals were found.

Until a scout ship found a deposit on the New Valasian world of Guisan's Word, formerly by the name of Rimini, conquered during the Second Galactic War.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The discovery of the various necessary minerals by UFMR scouting parties on the New Valaisian world of Guisan's World, or Monde de Guisan in their dominant language, in 2499 spurred an intensive interest in the world from Locke Hive and the Martian Military-Industrial complex. Martian President Elizabeth Edwards herself travelled to the New Valasian capital city of New Conthey to negotiate a possible purchase of the world, accompanied by Secretary of Defense Colin Wilczek and Martian Ambassador to New Valais Mohmeet Pavlov. The three conferred in the private home of New Valasian President Lourdes Daviau, where she and the CEOs of the dominant banks on New Valais, in addition to the remainder of the New Valaisan Federal Council and a variety of ministers, listened to the Martian proposal. Admiral Lorenz Liebknecht, the commander of the New Valaisan forces that had helped Martian Admiral Jonah Lockhart capture Rimini, spoke against such a possibility, saying the following:

"I fought for the benevolent expansion of New Valais, not to make money for the bankers [it is to be noted that he glared at the bankers in question during this statement] that dominate this country. I wanted to make it known that New Valais was not to be trifled with, not made the butt of jokes of millions of humans. I fought for nobility and honor, not for profit!"

Liebknecht's complaints were heard, and President Daviau said that it was not likely that the sale would take place. However, she would allow that the Martian delegation would be allowed to address the Federal Assembly in New Conthey. The assembled delegates agreed and were to address the Assembly the day afterwards.

However, without announcement the Chairman of the National Bank of Free Mars (NBFM), the nationally-owned bank of the Union, Aloysius Nikolic, arrived in New Conthey with a cadre of elite Martian bankers. These bankers met with the banking elite of New Valais and offered to buy not only Monde de Guisan, but also large amounts of stocks in New Valaisan companies, promising large dividends should the deal go through. Guillaume La Porta, the chairman of SionBank, one of the largest banks on New Valais, said that such an offer would only lead to more Martian control of the galactic banking sector, of which New Valais was the indisputable capital. "Mars' financial difficulties are based around this planet," said La Porta to the various other assembled bankers, "and if they control us they control all of humanity. We cannot allow that." Nikolic was surprised to say the least.

The day afterwards, the Federal Assembly rejected the proposed deal in a wide margin.

Shortly thereafter, pirate raids were detected over Guisan's world.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

While the Martian diplomats were on New Valais, a ship of the Sandhurst Interstellar Defense Force, the Bernard Montgomery, was returning from occupation duty on the world of Shotwell Station and was refueling not far from the Martian-conquered world of Choudharyhaven (both Shotwell Station and Choudaryhaven were formerly part of the Manualist International and conquered by either the AIC or the Martians in the war). Its commander, an officer by the name of Kathleen Parkinson and a veteran of the war, had been forced to remain well outside of Choudharyhaven by Martian authorities under the guise of "preventing outside intrusion in local civil unrest." Naturally suspicious but needing fuel, Parkinson contacted the nearest Sandhurst-controlled world's garrison, that on the divided former Manualist world of Bexley, and informed them of her predicament. The base commandant, Gerald Richards, ordered her to accept that placement but to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity from the Martians.

Relations between the Martians on the one hand and Sandhurst on the other had deteriorated in the years after the Second Galactic War, with disputes such as those on the worlds of Bexley (on which Richards was in charge of the border with the Martian-held portion), Tripura, and Fukayama Landing. Each side refused to recognize the claims of the other; meetings between Martian and Sandhurst diplomatic officials on neutral worlds had yielded little results. Similarly, the former generally positive view of Sandhurst among the Martian government, common in the mid-25th century, had decayed to one of grudging respect; few had expected Sandhurst to actually join with the AIC, gradually coming to be one of the powerhouses behind the bloc that most threatened Martian hegemony.

Thusly, Parkinson waited anxiously for anything to happen; several years later, she would say that she half-expected the Martians to destroy her ship. What she did, however, see from Shotwell Station was what appeared to be pirate vessels also refueling around the world, and much closer at that, giving the impression that they were trusted by the Martian authorities. They warped out of the system thereafter. Parkinson realized that they were heading towards the world formerly known as Rimini, now the New Valaisian holding of Guisan's World.

Due to New Valais massive deposits of minerals necessary to construct the newly invented Fujika-Tomkins drive, Mars had wanted to purchase it, and the New Valaisians, as covered before, rejected the offer without much thought. However, the arrival of the pirates around Guisan's World was sudden, and the remnant forces of the New Valaisian occupation force were decimated in short order.

In what was called a "humanitarian mission," Admiral Jonah Lockhart of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet, ordered his ships, currently stationed over Morganport, to expel the pirates (which were of course under the orders of the Martians). Without much of a fight, the pirates retreated and Martian army units began occupying Guisan's World, under the logic that the New Valaisians could not take care of their own. Thusly, as the galactic superpower, Mars would have to confiscate it for the inhabitants' own protection.

Mars was, to Locke Hive's chagrin, not welcome on Guisan's world. The inhabitants of Rimini had warmed to the New Valaisians, for it was widely held that their government was far less incompetent and arbitrary than the Manualist government backed from Mundo de Zapata. Immediately, an insurgency erupted, and the Martians found themselves in yet another war on a foreign world.

Immediately, President Daviau ordered the Martians off New Valais and sent the New Valaisian Home Fleet, under the command of Admiral Lorenz Liebknecht (who had fought alongside Lockhart during Rimini's initial capture), to Guisan's World to take it back. This decision to defend New Valaisan territorial integrity would serve as the spark of the Third Galactic War.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

President Daviau proclaimed in a speech to the New Valaisian Federal Assembly that the country "would not be bullied by any nation, not even one as strong as the Union of Free Martian Republics." And yet the battle between the forces of Jonah Lockhart on one hand and Lorenz Liebknecht on the other was seguing from a stalemate to what appeared to be an inevitable Martian victory. Lockhart, in his commanding vessel, the F.M.S.S. Ashoka, had deployed some of the best troops in the Union to Guisan's World. He did so with the direct support of the Secretary of Defense of the Union, Colin Wilczek, who enthusiastically supported the war effort. Not long after, the Martian high command was drawing up plans for an invasion of the New Valaisian home system.

News of this war was taken less than cordially in the capital worlds of the Alliance of Independent Colonies. The General Elect of the organization, Asad Bousaid of the Interstellar Ummah, formally made an offer of support to the New Valaisians, as well as an offer for the formerly neutral nation to join the ranks of the AIC. President Daviau refused to join the AIC, saying that it would "fly in the face of New Valaisian neutrality, and Swiss neutrality before that. Such has lasted for a millennium and will not die here today." However, she did accept the offer of assistance from the AIC. In a speech to the various representatives of the AIC member states, Bousaid said the following words that have come to epitomize the AIC's new role in the conflict.

"It is better to fight for another than to die alone."

Soon, AIC forces came streaming into the system of Guisan's World to support the New Valaisians. Admiral Tatiana Suarez of the Republic of the Quetzal, commanding her ship, the Xbalanque, led the charge, engaging Lockhart's forces over the planet. This was done with no formal declaration of war from the AIC, and thusly Lockhart was taken by complete surprise. Seeing that the AIC military would be substantially stronger than the New Valaisians, Lockhart authorized the usage of nuclear missiles from the F.M.S.S. Mohandas Gandhi, the same ship that had been used to destroy the settlements on Mundo de Zapata at the end of the previous war, on the incoming AIC capital ships. Said missiles, capable of either ship-to-ship or surface-to-surface attack, destroyed the command ships, leaving the AIC forces leaderless but still capable of engaging Martian ships.

Eventually, however, the AIC had to withdraw from Guisan's World. The Xbalanque had been destroyed and Admiral Suarez along with it. Shortly thereafter, Martian President Elizabeth Edwards announced that that day would "be an example to future generations of the evil and bloodlust that lurks behind the AIC," conveniently forgetting that she had fought alongside them in the last war. Martian forces on the divided worlds of Bexley, Tripura, and Fukayama Landing invaded the other halves occupied by AIC powers.


Torvald's Mutiny by Blackjack555

The CDF officers were relieved beyond words to see us. When Vendetta Liberatus overran the nearby worker housing facilities, the resident Peacekeepers had retreated in panic, falling back to Fort Mather up at the peak. No one had heard from them in some time. The CDF commander had ordered as many people as possible into the arsenal, which now housed some two hundred refugees and eighteen CDF, and sealed it off. The first VL assault wave had broken on their little fortress, though it had cost twelve CDF officers' lives. That was five days ago. The commander explained that there were several such holdouts throughout the mountain. They had remained in radio contact when possible, though many had dropped off the air as time went by. He also mentioned that the largest of these by far was the bunker maintained by the Bureau of Public Health, which housed the vaccine and other things. They had been calling for help over and over, but most CDF stations had tuned them out. As the ranking officer of our squad, I was the one to reestablish contact with them. Immediately, I heard the local station chief hollering at me.

He wanted reinforcements, he wanted extraction, he wanted resupply, he wanted anything we could give him. Then the other guy came on.
He identified himself as General Barton von Renquist of the Bureau of Civic Order, commander of the local Peacekeepers and BuCivOrd Guardians, a group of violent, drugged up thugs employed as shock troops against local insurrections in the Core. Apparently a battalion of them were holed up in the bunker with him and the BPH team. Their job was to deliver the vaccine. According to him, the release of Plan 17 had forced their hand and he and his men had been forced to begin forcible injections of the "vaccine" into the locals. The CDF had objected, letting petty local concerns override the good of the Union, and they had been caught between the local forces on one side and Vendetta Liberatus on the other. The Army of Meridian, meanwhile, had decided to seize the opportunity and take the capitol.

We were to divert all forces to breaking through to their bunker, then retreat to orbit and bombard the cities until the rebels were eradicated. Civilians, he said, were a non-issue. After all, if they were still loyal, Plan 17 would have been unnecessary.

I realized then, as did my men, what we had been trying to avoid saying. General von Renquist couldn't be a rogue actor if he had the backing of the BPH, Peacekeepers, and BuCivOrd. Plan 17 could not possibly be a rogue action, the product of an insane cabal within one corrupt department or a conspiracy by our enemies. Mars had betrayed its citizens. Mars had betrayed its principles. Most importantly, Mars had betrayed us.

The shield and sword of the people. The bane of tyrants and saviors of the oppressed. The protectors of the rights, the freedoms, and the ideals of the Founders. The first and last defense against threats to Mars and her people. We all believed in the Oath, and we had convinced ourselves, deluded ourselves, that our leaders had the same principles, the same goals. That we were all fighting, dying, for the same thing. I turned to my men to talk to them, but they had already decided. My Gunnery Sergeant stepped forward and asked me, "Sir, when do we kick that traitor's door in and shove a rifle up his ass?" I heartily agreed.

Still, what happened next surprised me. I knew our platoon was now in open rebellion against Mars. I guessed that some of our comrades would feel the same, and that the following firefight would see us fighting, brother against brother. What I did not expect was Colonel Torvald's reaction. Daniel Torvald was a legend in the Force. A native of Svartgarde, he had joined the ILF during the bloody twelve year war between the Union and his homeworld's brutally oppressive Pureblood Council government, going from young resistance fighter during the racial purges that started the fighting, to brevet sergeant commanding an ILF platoon cut off when the Purebloods shot down their dropship as they fought their way to ILF lines and almost accidentally severed a critical Pureblood resupply corridor, to commissioned first lieutenant by order of then-Colonel Heinlein for meritorious service embodying the standards and spirit of the ILF. The 98th had been on the sharp end fairly consistently since then, participating in various campaigns to expand their holdings. In the process, Torvald had gained a reputation as an aggressive, innovative commander who stood up for his men even to his own career detriment. It was widely speculated that this, and the loyalty and respect it fostered in both his unit and outside it, made Locke Hive keep sending us out and hoping we would just disappear. So when Colonel Torvald came on screen from the landing deck, four of the Wyvern's Teeth, his elite guard platoon, surrounding him, we knew something was happening.

Torvald and his guards were wearing full combat gear decked out in medals and decorations, as though they were on the parade ground. A solid line of BuCivOrd Guardians stood behind them, also armed to the teeth. The rest of the view showed a section of the immense planetary assault bay, shuttles down for maintenance stood like boulders on a plain, maintenance carts running between them constantly. A few squads of Wyvern's Teeth milled about, out of view of the Guardians. A few squads of Guardians had taken up positions as well, closer in. The commander of the Guardians, a tall, bulky man whose muscles were obviously artificially boosted to an insane degree, said something into his headset and Torvald began to speak.

"Men and women of the 98th Brigade, in recent days we have learned some disturbing things about our leaders. There has been much talk about rebellion, about turning on the Union and destroying it. The Bureau of Civic Order has commanded that I reassure you that this would be both wrong and unnecessary. That I inform you that General Heinlein and Admiral Caldwell, who attempted to undermine the legitimate authority with inquests and sedition, are in custody, and the Interstellar Liberation Force will remain loyal through this troubling time and come out the other side. That Plan 17 was not a betrayal, merely a
necessary evil, and that the visionaries in Locke Hive chose the path to retaining order and unity that required the least bloodshed."
Then something changed in his face. The anger in his eyes spread to the rest of his usually stone-cold visage. "Fuck that." In a smooth motion, he drew the ceremonial powered saber he wore at his side and disemboweled the BuCivOrd officer in a smooth cut from groin to temple. Reacting to this signal, the Wyvern's Teeth opened fire, cutting down the Guardians in the hangar. Two of the "down for maintenance" shuttles opened up with their nose and side guns, wiping away the Guardians in a hail of high-caliber exploding shells. In moments, it was over. Then Torvald resumed speaking.

"Men and women of the 98th Brigade, there are many things I could say here. I could say that I do not know who we fight for anymore. I could say that I no longer know what we represent. I could say that I cannot tell the way forward, that the betrayal of our government has left us adrift. But these would be lies. We fight for who we always fought for: the people of the Union. We represent what we have always represented: the values enshrined by the founders centuries ago. We go forward on a clear path: to burn the rot from our Union and protect its people. We were formed to protect mankind from corruption, tyranny, and oppression; to build up the weak and destroy those who turn their strength into a weapon against the innocent. That is the oath we swore, the banner under which we have fought, killed, bled, and died under a thousand alien suns. This is not changed. We still fight for what we always have. If it is our people who need liberation from the corruption that has gripped our own government, the oppression inflicted by our own leaders, the tyranny of our own overlords, then so be it. To let this stand, to ignore this grievous violation of the very concept of governance, would not just be the height of hypocrisy, but the height of treason. The Founders would be disgusted by what their government has become, but I believe that they would be proud of us today. The ILF has become not a symbol of freedom and hope for mankind but a symbol of fear, no longer the sword of liberty but the jackboot of oppression extending across the stars. Here, now, this moment, it ends.

As we speak, the Bureau of Civic Order and its people are being swept from our ship, imprisoned awaiting trial for their crimes. Down below, on the planet, let it be the same. Let Olympia become the turning point, the day when we stood up and said, no more. No more lies. No more tyrants.

No more convincing ourselves that we still knew we were in the right. Admiral Caldwell and General Heinlein contacted me earlier today. They did indeed launch a formal inquest. For their crime of attempting to seek information, the Bureau of Civic Order sent troops to purge them. Last I heard, they and the remainder of their staff were taking refuge in the New Jefferson embassy. Any of you who've fought the New Jefferson Marine Corps can pretty much guess how well things are going for the Bureau." There were chuckles among my squad at that. The Marines are famous for fighting like demons in powered armor and wiping out forces that outnumber them twenty or thirty to one. They were probably our most respected opponents on the battlefield. "I send this out to all
soldiers of the Union. Now, our war with the separatists is over. We do not fight any longer for the government that created this nightmare. Let them burn.

Now, our new war begins. Not to preserve the Union, but to cleanse it. To fight through to Mars and burn out the rot that has overtaken her, to restore the Union to what she once was. Failing that, our war is to protect the people of the Union from its government, a government that feels no compunction about sterilizing a vast portion of its population because it can no longer be bothered to do anything about their problems, yet remains too afraid of them to let them seek improvement on their own. In them, we find not our leaders, but the most righteous opponent we have yet fought, an interstellar dystopia with its jackboot to the throat of billions upon billions of helpless souls, forever seeking greater and greater power for a tiny minority through manipulation, violence, and terror. I ask that you join me in this mission. It is not treason to recognize that your government is no longer legitimate, but duty. It is not betrayal to destroy the armies that enforce that government's reign, but justice. It is not out of anger that we do this, but out of love. Love for our country, for her people, for her ideals and her beliefs.
However, it is not cowardice to see things differently. Should any of you not wish to join this fight, all you need do is lay down your arms. You will not be allowed to oppose us, as we have no desire to face our brothers in battle, but you will be treated well and with honor, placed on a well-developed colony world with abundant supplies and allowed to do as you wish from there, protected from reprisal attacks. After the war is ended, your rights as a citizen will not be restricted in any way and no record of your abstention will be kept. I extend this offer to any members of any branch of the Union armed forces who do not wish to join our fight. Any who take up arms against us, but wish to surrender, will be treated with honor. I implore you not to make us kill any of our brothers. No more should die to preserve the corrupt authoritarian hell that our state has become.

To the Army of Meridian, our honored former adversaries, we would welcome you as brothers in battle, if you would have us. It cannot be denied that while we fought against you, our hands guided by those we deceived ourselves into trusting, we committed no atrocities against you. We ask you now to permit us to join you in your fight, to free those we once unwittingly oppressed.

To the other nations of the galaxy, I ask that you not support the Union in the name of keeping stability. Locke Hive has been directly or indirectly responsible for hundreds of conflicts and multiple major wars. They are not a stabilizing influence, merely an organizer of the anarchy so that the results favor them. To the citizens of the Union, you who have been oppressed, rights stripped away, living hand to mouth and praying to pass unnoticed by your own government, I urge you to rise up. Seize their weapons and destroy those who hold you down. You will all be given a say in the new government after the fighting is at an end. Mars cannot survive without you, and they know this fact. Shut down their factories, stop feeding their armies, make their economy grind to a halt, and this war will be over far quicker.

Lastly, to the corrupt, greedy, controlling, power-mad oligarchs and petty, venal bureaucrats who form the chains that bind the people for your own personal gain, know this: You have the power to end this war. Surrender, give control to the people, and let the Union return to peace and freedom, and you will be allowed to live out your days in peace on some out of the way world, a dignified exile. Do not surrender, and we will come for you. Make no mistake: We will reach you. We will find you. You cannot run far enough, fight
hard enough, hide deep enough to escape justice. Your crimes merit death and damnation, and we will come to bring judgment upon you. Surrender is your only chance at survival."

All was silent on the comms network for a few seconds. Then the cheering started. Chaotic at first, it soon resolved itself into one chant: "Liberty for the oppressed! Justice for the wronged! Vengeance upon the corrupt!" It was the motto of the ILF, dating back centuries to the early days of the first galactic war. I was chanting too. The CDF officers cheered as well. After a few minutes, it died down as we returned to our duties. Vendetta Liberatus still held territory, and the battle ahead would be long and bloody, but in that moment, we all found something we had been missing: our pride. Fighting for Locke Hive had slowly worn it away. Torvald's Mutiny gave it back to us.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

What nobody in the galaxy expected was for Mars to perform a daring diplomatic maneuver with one of the galaxy's most isolated states: the Gemini Hegemony. Emperor Horace Gand the 49th, the leader of the Hegemony, had only ascended to the highest executive power in the nation after the death of Julius Gand the 40th, who had been assassinated in what was a dynastic competition, as was and still is common in the Hegemony. Thusly, Horace was looking to prove himself worthy of leading what was seen as the most genetically race of people in the galaxy, and was willing to take any chance to cement his dominance over the rest of the competing desirers of the throne.

This opportunity when he was taking the Gemini armada to attack the small world of Eleutheria, an independent republic which was a member of the Alliance of Independent Colonies. However, by the time his flagship, the Nathan Bedford Forrest, arrived over Eleutheria, a Martian armada under the command of Admiral Lysandra Nonog was over the world attempting to extract tribute. Her flagship, the F.M.S.S. Carl Friedrich Gauss, confronted Horace and attempted to prevent a battle with the Gemini, provoking them to in effect join the AIC in the war against Mars. Hailing the Forrest, Nonog attempted to have an audience with Horace, who approved and discussed terms of a possible ceasefire.

Nonog's second-in-command, Marius Dillman, contacted the Martian Bureau of State in Locke Hive to inform them of the attempt at diplomacy, as was standard for dealing with the Gemini and certain other designated "suspicious entities." Upon hearing of this incident, Secretary of State Martin Kupresak personally ordered Dillman to connect his communication directly to the Emperor. Dillman obliged after informing Nonog, and the two leaders were able to address one another over the encrypted hypernet communication.

Eventually, Martian President Elizabeth Edwards was added to the communication. Edwards was facing a challenge within the ranks of the Liberation Party for the presidential elections of 2500 from Assemblyman Giedrus Winfield of Halsey, and thusly was looking for a way to win reelection. Horace informed Edwards that the Fujika-Tomkins drive had proven quite interesting to the Gemini general staff, and that the Hegemony was scouring through its worlds to find the resources necessary to construct one (this was troubling to the Martians as they had not made public the workings of the drive). Perhaps knowing this, Horace offered to help the Martians in their war against the AIC should they provide the resources for their own Fujika-Tomkins drives.

Edwards and Kupresak agreed to the alliance, and shortly thereafter ordered the first ship bearing construction materials for the Fujika-Tomkins drive into Gemini Space, where the cargo was picked up without a violent altercation (as was feared). Keeping their word, Horace led his ships from Eleutheria to the New Valasian world of New Schaffhausen and launched an invasion.

New Schaffhausen was judged by the New Valaisan general staff to be not nearly as important to the war as Guisan's World was; most of the fighting was in that part of the galaxy. As Lockhart and Liebknecht dueled over the latter world, the former was struck by surprise as the Gemini forces began landing on the world. With most of the New Valaisian forces fighting in worlds closer to Guisan's World, AIC forces had to be called in to defend New Schaffhausen.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The Third Galactic War, by the year of 2505, was being rapidly seen as a war that was pointless by both AIC and Martian news media. Guisan's World had been taken over by a joint force from Sandhurst and New Valais, with the backing of the rest of the AIC. Mars and the AIC had each been rampaging around the former worlds of the Manualist International; an area that had already been devastated by war was having its progress towards a less unstable existence reversed before its inhabitants' eyes. Sigourney Johns, a civilian from the world of Lackland, which had been devastated in the Second Galactic War, said the following, which has become one of the immortal words of the war, memorialized in many texts:

"The current war lost any reason to be prosecuted after the recapture of Guisan's World. Now, Mars and the AIC are attacking one another in a situation not unlike the violent courtship displays of lizards or insects to have sexual intercourse with the females of the species. Similarly, the two of them are fighting to see who gets to fuck over the rest of humanity."

Such feelings of futility would be assuaged, albeit disturbingly, when Emperor Horace Gand the 49th of the Gemini Hegemony, led a raid that captured New Valais itself. New Valaisian forces, under the command of Admiral Lorenz Liebknecht, were busy fighting elsewhere; New Valais was far enough from the front lines when the Gemini appeared over their world and commenced an invasion. Within a week, the world was under Gemini occupation. However, the Gemini, led by Admiral Joseph Fulmore, were being harassed by the New Valaisian resistance.

With the success of the invasion of New Valais, Emperor Horace put his sights on another powerful world: Sandhurst. However, emergency advances by the AIC on the Gemini-occupied world of Saint Crispin led him to remain and to put Admiral Rudolf Barton in charge of the invasion. This was ultimately fortunate for the Gemini, as the Sandhurst local defensive operators had prepared for such a possibility after the fall of New Valais. The invasion fleet was destroyed by satellite weaponry before they could even come close to the planet.

As the Martians were making their own attacks on the AIC industrial worlds pillaged from the Manualist International in the previous war, Emperor Horace was scheming. It is generally agreed by historians of the war that he had never taken the alliance between Mars and the Gemini seriously, and was planning to betray them when convenient. Convenience came when the Martians had lost a large fleet over the world of Honeywell; then, Horace, for reasons not known, ordered his fleet, which had been waiting on the other side of the system's star, to attack the Martian fleet under the command of Lenore Driggs.



Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The shock of the attack on the Martians at Honeywell sent a shockwave throughout the Martian high command. So much of the Martian military strategy depended on the Gemini, as is attested in the personal accounts of various highly ranked Martian military officers published in the decades after the war. Admiral Sabine Teasley had the following to say regarding Martian involvement:

"Mars never particularly wanted a Galactic War; just another taking of a frontier world that could not defend itself. It had been done over a hundred times before for over a century, and it did not seem to the higher-ups, like Lockhart, that the war with New Valais would be difficult. Despite this, some believed that the AIC was too willing to defend the banking capital of humanity, and they were ultimately proved right. Mars simply wanted to go in, take their minerals and their world, and leave New Valais to its business."

Hence, the Martian Bureau of Defense had coordinated a strategy dependent on the Gemini and their leader's lust for blood for his own political gain. The Martian people were decidedly not in the mood for yet another war; the staggering casualties taken by the UFMR in the Second Galactic War had, for a time, turned off any major pro-war dialogue in the country and make the military elite, at least officially, swear off such war for the foreseeable future (of course, there was no objection to the colonial wars in the former Manualist International). Hence, it was believed that letting the Gemini have their way with the AIC would be worth the Fujika-Tomkins Drive falling into that foreign power's hand.

Additionally, the Gemini Hegemony was being pursued as a replacement for the Martian quasi-ally among the international community that Sandhurst had previously played the role of. With the latter's support of Martian initiatives since the Consortium War, Locke Hive had regarded Sandhurst as the closest thing to a friend that they had outside of the Orion League (like the future AIC, Sandhurst withdrew from the Orion League in the early 25th century); League members, such as New Innsbruck and Zunyi, were always helpful, but they were too starkly different than the rest of human space. Sandhurst bridged a gap between the majority of interstellar humanity and the Martian bloc. The Gemini were supposed to fill that role.

But this was conceived in error. Sandhurst was already somewhat of a pariah; the Gemini had kept their borders closed and their fleet ready to destroy anyone entering their space since the end of the Consortium War. Hence, their betrayal was all the more startling. However, the betrayal of Emperor Horace, for reasons unclear even today, did not immediately endear the Martians to the AIC. Indeed, New Valais was still under Gemini occupation, and the Gemini had began emerging in solidly Martian space. Rather, the entire Zapata Sector (astrographically named Mu) erupted into a three-way bloodbath between the remaining Martian forces, the AIC forces, and the Gemini fleets.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The bloodbath of the fighting in the Zapata Sector was, for a time, inconclusive, but the AIC was able to retake key worlds such as Manhattan, the capital of the newly formed Federation of Independent Worlds, a union of several AIC-backed worlds imposed upon them from Trundholm to coordinate the war effort (it broke up due to internal issues not long after the end of the war). The remnants of the Martian forces in the sector, still under the stubborn command of Jonah Lockhart, were making occasional snipes at Guisan's World; by the end of the war, it would be uninhabitable (but kept by the New Valaisians as a trophy if nothing else).

The Gemini, in their betrayal, now had no reason to be in the war for any other reason than the pursuit of Horace's own vanity and lust for power over the Hegemony. At worlds such as Ningxia, Gemini, Martian, and AIC fleets all met in battle over the worlds at once and fired at one another without much respect to which side the other ships were on so long as they were not their own.

However, the other crucial turning point in the war happened a few months before the betrayal; during times of alliance, the lust was still there. It was this lust for power that led the Gemini to act on a plan hatched back when the Martians were the Hegemony's Allies. The New Jefferson Confederation, now numbering two major worlds, New Jefferson proper and Midgard, was widely held to be not so much a pariah state as it was one that gave little care to international convention. They were unashamed in their usage of artificial intelligence, which had been discredited after the New Ulundi Crisis. Their economy was hardly regulated, and their politics were educated and forced to be that way by old statutes dating from its founding. Their military was among the most powerful in the world, but dismissed as incompetent and poorly led; the Confederation had little desire to interfere with the affairs of other nations. However, they were seen as a potential threat, a future Sandhurst or Asgard by certain Martian Admirals, and plans were drawn up to take them out of the war (which were not shared with the high command until the end of hostilities).

Obviously, Mars, due to its distraction, was no longer contributing to the invasion, and so the Gemini, under their Admiral Lewis Bentley on the Robert Edward Lee, sent their fleet of raiders to the New Jeffersonian home system. However, they would be exposed to that country's famous hardiness, preparedness (often to the point of perceived paranoia), and vision. A scout ship, the Rattlesnake, had detected the incoming Gemini fleet and had been fired upon. New Jeffersonian President Kent Landrieu called upon the Confederation Self-Defense Force to take down the raiders. Under Admiral of the Fleet Carla Rawlins, a fleet of ships under her flagship the Marquis de Lafayette was dispatched to destroy the Gemini.

Shortly thereafter, Landrieu asked the Congress of the Confederation of New Jefferson to declare war on the Gemini Hegemony and the Union of Free Martian Republics (the latter because the betrayal had not yet happened). Admiral Rawlins set a course for the Gemini home system, and would then forever be remembered as the persecutor of Rawlins' Rampage.

She reveled in this epithet, for she was, and is, one of the most divisive and most interesting characters of the war. Some compared her to the warlords of the Second Great Exodus in her brutality; others insist there is no reason to look past the Second Galactic War for antecedents. Rawlins herself cited the Palanudu Declaration after the Consortium War as what she felt was sufficient justification:

"The major powers of the modern galaxy consented to butchery to be used by them and, implicitly, upon them at Palanudu. Therefore, they cannot object when their populaces are killed for strategic reasons; it is more sound than unregulated savagery. My style of warfare is that of denial of resources; I cite the centuries-old American general William Tecumseh Sherman as an example. The way he fought is the only way to morally fight a war; anything else is hypocritical, and worse, denying the fundamental nature of armed conflict."

And so she did with the Gemini home system. The twin capital worlds, Collinsonia and Purity, collectively referred to as Xenith, were bombarded with the weapons that the New Jeffersonian worlds were slated to be destroyed with, and did the same to the smaller worlds in the system known as Perfection and Utopia; after the thorough destruction of the latter worlds' infrastructure, she quipped that their names were "anachronisms."

After the rampage through the Gemini home system, she turned her attention to the Martian Worlds in the Caracas Sector (named the Lambda Sector in astrography) and began her rampage there, which lasted the better part of 2506. Worlds had their military bases destroyed and their major cities raided by land forces supported by orbital bombardment. However, she was very keen on preventing needless collateral damage; denial of resources did not mean mindless violence. Her violence was very methodical and very keen to destroy the Martian military capacity and nothing more; "humanity has some base value, no matter how small it may seem," she said.

Admiral Milton Jovanovic, the commander of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet in the Caracas sector, said that Rawlins was an "honorable enemy," who cared for the lives of innocents. However, the defenseless worlds she left in her wake were easy prey for the invading forces of the Gemini Hegemony under the Emperor Horace himself. These worlds were subject to inhumane slaughter, the whitened appearance of the skin of the Gemini making the entire front seem alien. Admiral Jovanovic would write in his memoirs:

"Rawlins was permissible as an opponent because she was human. The Gemini are anything but human."

Rawlins, Jovanovic, and Emperor Horace sparred over various worlds in the Caracas Sector. Soon, the Martians would have to withdraw Jonah Lockhart's forces to that sector to help defend against the two invading forces. The AIC breathed a collective sigh of relief as Lockhart's last ships withdrew from Guisan's World; New Valais subsequently withdrew any support for the war effort. However, a cadre of AIC leaders, including Botros al-Filasteeni of the minor world of Keserwan, promoted the continued war against the Martians. al-Filasteeni, himself a former military man, persuaded the AIC high command to invade the Caracas sector, and led the force personally.


Excerpt from The Second and Third Galactic Wars by Nelson Hennig, Published 2590, Maastricht, Terranova, UFMR

The war in the Caracas Sector, after fighting had left the Zapata sector, was more of the same bloodbath that had enveloped the latter. The worlds of the former Manualist International would be left to rebuild, while those in the Caracas Sector would be subject to much violence. The battles of Sellafield, Runner's World, Braunschweig, Thessaloniki, New Abuja, Port Charmchi, and many others demonstrated to the galaxy that this war was well on the level of death and destruction of the last; the fact that it was a three-way, rather than a two way, slaughter only made it worse. "It is almost a dark comedy," said Martian hypernet commentator Yevgraf Montoya, "which would be grimly amusing if it were not unfolding right before us."

The violence that ensued only led to calls for an armistice; Martian Assembly Speaker Lai Trong Nguyen, representing a district on Terranova, began calling for a vote on beginning peace talks with the Gemini and the AIC. Large portions of the Liberation Party began to support Nguyen in the proposal, and smaller parties, in particular the Periphery Alliance, were beginning to show their support of such a peace treaty. Its leader, the longtime assemblyman Adalbert Sollner of Regensburg, spoke out in favor of the peace to the Assembly:

"The peripheral worlds of the Caracas Sector are being rampaged by the AIC and the Gemini and the New Jeffersonians and even at times by our own Interstellar Liberation Fleet! We should have never been involved in this war, and now the periphery is paying the price for the war started by the Core Worlds. You should all be ashamed for voting for this declaration of war anyway! Lockhart needs to hang! Winfield needs to hang!"

Similarly, on Trundholm, the AIC high command was pressuring the general council to bring the Martians and the Gemini to a peace settlement (or at least the former, so that the Gemini could be brought down). New Jeffersonian Secretary of State Helen O'Rourke agreed to a possible negotiated settlement, as did New Valaisian Foreign Minister Mariano Marcuse. Together, the three major powers of the AIC bloc approached the Martians for a peace. Martian Foreign Secretary Elysse Monroy was sent by President Winfield (reelected on a war platform) to the neutral word of Kubelhaven, a world which did not take any side in the war but had lost merchant shipping. Of little military note, its leadership was happy to host a diplomatic meeting.

The Kubelhaven Agreement ended the war between the AIC and the UFMR, but there was still the problem of the Gemini Hegemony. Fortunately for humanity, however, Emperor Horace had recently consulted the Gemini bureaucracy and they agreed that his succession to the throne was as of now legitimate; he had proven his worth in battle, the leading families had said, and now he was permitted to end the war. Gemini diplomats were deployed by areas of fighting under signals of truce, and announced their intention for a peace agreement should they allow it to be on the Gemini home duality of worlds known as Xenith. Martian and AIC diplomats agreed to this settlement, and under heavy escort the foreign ministers and secretaries of the various nations involved were sent to the Gemini home system.

The Xenith Accords put a final end to the war; it has been said that, despite the minutiae over trade and the settling of border disputes on Bexley, Tripura, and Fukayama Landing, the Xenith Accords were simple in their nature. The galaxy was wracked in two sectors, and approximately four and a half billion people died in the conflict. The diplomats left the Gemini home system after a month, and the great powers turned inwards, working to rebuild worlds that would need rebuilding. It has been said that the galaxy has not yet fully recovered.


Excerpt from an Interstellar Information Network Broadcast, March 2593

Anchor: Good Morning to the Union! This is Milka Gavrolivic from IIN headquarters in Locke Hive. Today, the Union is being plagued with the internal dissent, with the terrorist Daniel Torvald declaring an insurrection of several ILF battalions on Olympia. Will this lead to violence on the rest of the Core Worlds? President of the UFMR Lazaro Cheong is currently addressing the press at a large military parade in the streets of Locke Hive. We go to Armando Sutton on the scene.

[Scene cuts to Armando Sutton on the sidewalk of Locke Hive's Harrison Bergeron Avenue. Columns of soldiers march down the street in unison. In the skies, large warships are visible.]

Sutton: This is Armando Sutton reporting from the President's military parade throughout Locke Hive. This parade, held in response to Daniel Torvald's mutiny on Olympia, is widely seen to be a display of force to cow the traitor into submission. According to what I have been told from various bystanders, Secretary of Civic Order Carlton Dioso and Secretary of Defense Lamia Mammadova will be attending this press conference.

[Scene cuts to aerial recording via drone over the parade. Martian tanks and other armored vehicles follow the infantry]

Sutton: Some of the Union's most advanced weaponry is on display today, with new designs from Thero Military Hardware on parade. Additionally, the battleship F.M.S.S. Friedrich von Steuben is the most visible ship in the skies today [camera cuts to the battleship], in addition to other ships such as the F.M.S.S. Giuseppe Mazzini, the F.M.S.S. Jose de San Martin, the F.M.S.S. Jose Maria Morelos, and the F.M.S.S. Ali bin Muhammad. These new ships were chartered from the various companies that create the Union's military, and their new crews are proud to server.

[Scene cuts to protestors by the parade, holding signs and three-dimensional projectors]

Sutton: Some people have been less than enthusiastic about the current policies pursued by the current administration, as you can see here.

[Police brandish tasers and throw stun grenades at the protestors. Riot police vehicles surround the area]

Policeman: Do not be alarmed. The situation is under control.

Sutton: Anyway, back to the parade. President Cheung has said-

[Sutton is interrupted by the strike of drums. In comes marching a military band playing a standard military march. Behind them comes a limousine with Cheung, Dioso, and Mammadova in the back seats].

Sutton: Michael, bring the camera over to the President. He might be taking questions.

[The band stops marching and the limousine stops. The band plays The Red Light of Liberty. The crowds stop what they are doing and join in singing the anthem; Sutton does so as well. Once the music is over, reporters, Sutton included, rush towards the limousine.]

Sutton: Mr. President, what is your stance on the current rebellions on Olympia?

Cheung: The madman Torvald is attempting to overthrow the most powerful state in the galaxy. How can he possibly challenge the might of the rest of the ILF with just a few divisions? It's impossible for him, and you can rest soundly that such terror will not be enveloping the rest of the core worlds.

Reporter (another from the crowd): Many instances of the ILF are declaring their independence from Martian command, especially from the Caracas Sector. They maintain that the Union has not been funding reparation from the Third Galactic War and that they must therefore break from Locke Hive. What are your opinions on this?

Cheung: Locke Hive is responsible for the entire Union, not simply the Caracas Sector! These people cannot be so self-centered to think that the entire nation exists to serve them!

Reporter: What is your opinion of the leaked Plan 17, involving the controlled plagues released on Halsey and Olympia?

Cheung: Such plans are -

[Dioso puts his hand over Cheung's mouth and pushes his head back]

Dioso: Neither myself nor the President are authorized to discuss that matter at present. No further comments on that issue will be taken. [Dioso glares at Cheung, and then at Mammadova]

Reporter: What is the Bureau of Defense's plans regarding the current mobilization of the powers on Earth?

Mammadova: The Earth Powers are no threat to us. They are planning for another domestic war and will not harm the current state of affairs. If they try to attack us, they will be destroyed.


Article from the Martian Free Press, April 2593

ILF ANALYSTS BELIEVE EARTH MOVING TOWARDS ANOTHER WAR

LUNA - Admiral Oswald Janacek of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet's deployment on Earth's moon has stated in a press conference that the various Earth Powers are likely preparing for another war amongst themselves.

Janacek said that satellite readings, paired with information gleaned from the Bureau of State's ambassadors on their capital worlds, strongly points to the likelihood of a war on Earth breaking out within the next two years. Analysts on the ILF's base on Earth's Moon have decided that such is incredibly likely.

Flashpoints on the planet include the possession of the territories of Namibia and Angola in Africa, both currently enraptured in civil wars backed by the various different powers. Current administrations in the capitals are now debating seriously sending in military intervention to bring to an end what they deem as "appalling bloodshed for partisan reasons," in the words of Union State President Dmitri Voronin.

The most suspicious, however, is the massive amounts of ballistic testing occurring in Siberia, the American Great Plains, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Sea of Japan. The four Earth powers, as well as minor powers such as Brazil, Maharashtra, and the Pacific Commonwealth, have been undergoing such testing for at least a century, but only now have they reached such historic highs. Liaisons with the various governments assure the Union that they are not going to be attacking any Martian orbital stations or planetary military facilities. "We most certainly will not be storming the spaceports that have been confiscated from us," said Pacific Commonwealth Chancellor Paula Young in a speech in one of the Commonwealth's administrative centers in Exmouth.

Since the 2200s, no Earth power has ever seriously threatened the current astropolitical order. Admiral Janacek has said that "there is no need to worry about an invasion from Earth. Go back to your lives; the Union needs its citizens doing as they need to."

[spanishspy]

Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, published April 2593

ORION LEAGUE HAS EMERGENCY SESSION
DIOSO SPEAKS AT SUMMIT, MAINTAINS MARS CAN DEAL WITH ITS INTERNAL THREATS

SRIVIJAYA - A week ago, Orion League Secretary General Tiburcio Cruz, of the New Innsbruck world of Sao Cristovao, called a session of the Orion League Security Council to discuss the current rebellion within the UFMR, led mainly by Daniel Torvald on Olympia and spreading to other worlds. Union Secretary of Civic Order Carlton Dioso has maintained that the Union is currently capable of handling the insurrection on its own.

Dioso took questions from the delegates of the various members of the league, founded in the 2300s after the Consortium War. However, international skepticism has ensued due to Dioso's blatant hostility to many questions asked, many which insinuated that the Peacekeepers were having difficulty in keeping Torvald's forces down. In particular, Min Du, a delegate from Zunyi, a crucial Martian ally, was the first to give explicit offers of military aid to the Union in its crusade against the rebels.

Dioso took this offer in bad faith, saying the following while screaming and pounding on the podium:

"How dare you even think of saying that Mars cannot prevail? The Union is the epitome of human liberty, and when you look at history, liberty always prevails against tyranny! The Union produces well over fifty times the industrial output than the rest of the League, and has well over twenty to thirty times the population! The baseless accusation that we, a union spanning the stars, cannot deal with a pathetic tinpot dictator within our own systems, is an insult on the highest order. The League needs the Union. The Union certainly does not need the League. Without the Union's might backing it, the League would have folded into the AIC by now. Do not ever forget that."

Dioso continued, and said that had not relations between Mars and Zunyi been so close, such an insult would have warranted him going to the Bureau of State and requesting that diplomatic relations be severed between the two nations.

Nevertheless, Dioso had to go through intense questioning from the members of the League, including but not limited to delegates from Zunyi, New Innsbruck, Waltonshaven, Port Lambeth, DiGiorno Landing, Yamanashi, Meghalaya, and among others. Throughout the conference, Dioso maintained the positions described above.

Nevertheless, there is still significant worry about the internal revolts inside the Union. Martian Free Press reporter Louisa Anielewicz, on Srivijaya, was able to talk to a delegate from Waltonshaven who has requested to remain anonymous. When asked about this, he said the following:

"Mars is going to crumble if it does not accept outside help or at least allow the ILF to fight internal corruption. Its government is rotting and the Union itself is barely functional."


Excerpt from The Dominion of Ares, by Peter Paul Philpotts, 2578, Pendleton, New Jefferson.

Noriko Tsukino believed in nothing less than Martian supremacism. She would proudly proclaim that her home nation was far superior to any of those on Earth; the Union of Free Martian Republics was at that time still competing with Earth for the dominance of the stars around the home system of humanity; very few would be something other than Martian a century later. Hence, she saw the necessity of breaking the ability of the Earth Powers to do anything to Mars.

We, three hundred years later, often neglect to realize the sheer threat that Mars was facing at this time. There were four powers on the planet adjacent to them from their star, no great distance in modern terms, and all of them were willing to put aside their myriad differences to take down the alien threat. To call Mars alien to them is no exaggeration, for the Martians ostensibly stood for the very thing that the Earth oligarchies had rejected by the 21st century. Mars attempted to be the nation of liberty, the purveyor of justice and peace throughout the species.

And yet Tsukino a rabid nationalist, the leader of the Liberation Party of Dagny Christensen, the victorious leader of the Earth-Mars War. Tsukino, in her attempt for election in the years before the war, all but deified Christensen in her advertisements. The two women's portraits were seen often at Liberation Party rallies and headquarters in a deliberate attempt to conflate one with the other. "The first was Mars' winning woman," said one commentator, "and the second will be the next." Tsukino commissioned a statue of Christensen to be made in her home hive of Montesquieu, and there, which was later to be known as the current Christensen Square, she had many of her rallies.

Tsukino won the 2220 elections with flying colors against Mars First's Trent Paisley, whose opinions on the colonialism rampant in the nearby star systems did not mesh with the majority of Martian society. He was reviled on Voltaire and on the other colonies that Mars had founded. Thusly, Tsukino's nationalism was the winner.

Such nationalism, which pervaded the growing Republic, was considered to be dangerous by the Earth powers. Hence, when the incident on Adenauer caused what would grow into the First Galactic War, the nation would have to centralize, at least on Mars. A league of confederated republics simply could not stand to defeat the four most powerful entities in that solar system; there would eventually emerge one that would be dominant, and Tsukino saw to it that Mars would be that power.

Tsukino was brutal and without care for the opposition, foreign or domestic. During the war, she was more than willing to send the Martian Self-Defense Force to attack protestors who had dared resist the draft orders. However, the newly created Bureau of Civic Order was created to stop draft dodging and other subversive wartime activity and was very effective at its job. This carried over into her foreign policy, when she authorized the strike that ended the war.

"The Earthen Holocaust" is a name for what happened on that day in 2227. "The slaughter of the innocents" is another. "The day Martian Liberty took its last breath," another, and yet another "the baptism of fire of the Union" yet another, and "Mars' coming of age" still another. That event goes by many names, but it has become one of the pivotal events in human history that has created the galaxy that as we know it. That day, the Martian Defense Bureau approached Tsukino and told her that they had succeeded in gaining control over the Earth's unified orbital defenses, and by extension, their anti-surface weaponry.

And so she signed the death warrant of billions of souls. The nuclear weapons that were inside of the Earth Powers' arsenals were launched upon every major urban center and military installation that the Martians could find. Death toll is estimated at about twelve billion dead, leaving a population of only four billion on the planet. The great cities of humanity on its homeworld were vanquished and the Martian people would come to exploit the remainder. She would turn her attention outward, putting Mars on the path to Empire.


Transcript of an episode of The Modern Union, a political talk show on hypernet, dated April 2593, hosted by Jonah Stempniewicz.

Stempniewicz - Good Morning, my fellow Martians, and welcome once again to the Modern Union! I'm here today with the Secretary of Civic Order in the Union of Free Martian Republics Carlton Dioso!

[The crowd cheers as Dioso enters the stage with two armed guards beside him. His demeanor is cold and unforgiving. He stares at the cameras and at Stempniewicz. He takes a seat next to the host).

Dioso: A pleasure to be here, Mr. Stempniewicz. [they shake hands] It is good to know that the public has such a vested interest in the general good of the entire union. It is heartening; we will not be going the way of the Earth Powers.

Stempniewicz: Indeed it is. Now, Mr. Dioso, what is your opinion on the activist Majida Teshome on Meridian? She's popular over there, without a doubt. She is calling for better treatment of the poor throughout the Union, including on Mars, advocating for better jobs and wages.

Dioso: She is a rabble-rouser. If it were not for the Union central government, the poor would all be dead. We provide them with employment in the weapons factories on the forge worlds. We provide them with pensions and food. This is simply ingratitude towards the hardworking men and women of the nation, not any real attempt at reform. Teshome hates Masr and what it stands for; she would happily defect to the Earth Powers should she gain the opportunity.

Stempniewicz: Lower class revolts have broken out on many urbanized worlds such as Halsey and Olympia, as many of us have heard, and the Peacekeepers have been fighting to restore order, and the Hargreave Act allowed the ILF to join in the fight. The leaking of Plan 17 has only made things worse. Do you think the Union will pull through this crisis?

Dioso: Of course. We made it through the Earth-Mars War and the three Galactic Wars, as well as the Consortium War, the New Ulundi Crisis, and many other crises throughout the nation's history. We will go through these rebellions as we did the Earth Powers, the AIC, and the Manualist International.

Stempniewicz: Do you still believe Plan 17 to still be a viable plan to stop the riots on our worlds? The large amounts of death that it causes seems to be unnecessary collateral damage. Would you say that this is a valid criticism?

Dioso: Plan 17 is necessary and efficient, two qualities that make it desirable. The removal of the slumdwellers will result in less people to cause unrest, and solve the overpopulation problems plaguing them. It's a completely valid type of population control, and supports the general civic order of the Union!

Stempniewicz: But aren't a lot of these people innocents who have been treated poorly by the system?

Dioso: Such questions of morality are the kind asked by the Earth Oligarchies as they oppressed their peoples, leading to the foundation of the Free Republic of Mars. We are a nation of billions, and if civic order can be improved by getting rid of a small fraction of them, we will do so. It is for the services of liberty; one's rights cannot be exercised if rebels are preventing such. If they are brought forth by the overpopulation of the lower classes, it is only good for human freedom to do so.


Excerpt from an episode of The Louisa Greenberg Hour, dated April 2593


Greenberg: Good morning again, Mars, and good morning, afternoon, or evening to whatever other worlds are watching! Today, we see the Union being wracked by the rebellions on Olympia and other core worlds.

Of course, the Union means best. President Cheung is doing everything he can to reassure the people that the Union will survive, and our wonderful Secretary of Civic Order Carlton Dioso is working to stop the terrorist Daniel Torvald from killing more innocent Martians. There are those who are unfaithful to the Union and say that Torvald may have a stretch of truth, but we Martian patriots know otherwise.

Torvald has said that the ILF has become a "jackboot of oppression." This is nonsense! Haven't you seen the happy people in the Wroclaw and Uramatsu systems, celebrating Exodus Day with pomp every year! And to think they only came to join the union thirty years ago! It's good to remember that the ILF brought them into the fold after deposing tinpot dictators propped up by the AIC. How wrong Torvald is!

Torvald also says that the Union of today is the enemy of what our founders stood for! That's wrong! Any half-intelligent person would know that! Rigby and Tamboli and all the others wanted peace and liberty for all humanity, and that is exactly what the ILF is doing for all the worlds it has brought into it. Don't you see how Mars is making the galaxy a better place? Torvald doesn't. That's because he's stupid.

Today, we have a guest speaker on the show today. Please welcome Mr. Ignacio Selva, renowned author of The Great AIC Conspiracy: How Trundholm is Trying to Kill You, Your Family, And Everyone You Know, and Destroy Mars as We Know it.

[Selva comes onto the stage]

Selva: Pleasure to be here, Mrs. Greenberg! I trust you've read my book about the AIC and Trundholm.

Greenberg: Certainly, Mr. Selva! The part about the Illuminati and the AIC is certainly convincing and relevant to modern times.

Selva: You see, when the Second Great Exodus happened, the Illuminati put its operatives onto the ships that were sent into space to make new states loyal to them. You see, they were working with the people who backed Jaime Newman and Adrian Guillemette in the Earth-Mars War, trying to destroy human liberty and whatnot. Daniel Torvald is also a tool of the Illuminati trying to instate a New Galactic Order.

Greenberg: What makes you think that Torvald is an Illuminati pawn? I'm not questioning you, I'm just curious.

Selva: I saw the video of his speech on Olympia. It is full of Illuminati references and gestures. How does he expect us to not realize that he is making such communications to his masterminds on Earth? The Illuminati wants to reestablish the Earth Powers as the dominant power in the galaxy and reinstate oligarchy and tyranny, and they are willing to use the AIC to achieve that end.


Excerpt of an episode of Mars, Her Birth and Dominion, dated August 2565.

[Professor Edwin Schroeder walks into the screen after the introduction]


Schroeder: Good Evening, my fellow Martians! Today, we are to discuss something that many people who hate our beloved country despise, but in reality should be celebrated by every true-blooded Martian patriot! I refer to the Burning of Tyrants, the action undertook by President Noriko Tsukino at the end of the First Galactic War to finally establish Martian rule over the human species and the spreading of liberty to the masses of people outside our species' home system.

What needs to be understood is that the people who died in the destruction of the great cities of Earth were not innocent. In the words of Dante, there is a special place in hell reserved for those, who in great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. They were complacent in the oppression of millions by the Earth Powers, and therefore permitted such tyranny to continue existing. The GAC, the USSR, the EU, the PREA, all of them were the same. They hated human liberty, while the Union loved it.

And so the tree of liberty had to be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots, and so was the First Galactic War. The business interests of human liberty were being threatened by the EU on Adenauer. Unlike the surrender block of those who advocated peace with the Earth Powers after the Earth-Mars War such as the coward Avishag Tobias, President Tsukino understood the need for a power like that of the Union to safeguard human liberty and prevent no such tyranny from ever rising again.

And so she authorized the destruction of their great cities. In the GAC, Washington, New York, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, San Antonio, Denver, Mexico City, Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, and many more were set ablaze. In the European Union, London, Berlin, Munich, Paris, Rome, Warsaw, Madrid, Barcelona, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Milan, Athens, Bucharest, Vienna, Cologne, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Lisbon, and others were given that fate. In the Union State, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Minsk, Kiev, Chelyabinsk, Novgorod, Almaty, Kharkiv, Volgograd, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Rostov-na-Dona, Donetsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Bishkek. In the PREA, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Pyongyang, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangdong, Chongqing, Osaka, Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Lhasa, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Harbin, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chengdu, Taipei.

Such is the price for human freedom. Had those people been allowed to live, they would have agitated for more war against the free peoples of the galaxy, causing endless war and endless death. With the piercing of the boil, Tsukino gave us lasting peace.

It is tragic necessity that such actions must take place every century or so. In the 2300s, it was the defeat of the Consortium. In the 2400s, it was the actions of the valiant Jonah Lockhart, who destroyed Mundo de Zapata and assured peace for some years before the treacherous AIC wanted that peace destroyed.


Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, April 2593

PERIPHERAL ALLIANCE BACKS TORVALD


LOCKE HIVE - Leaders of the small yet influential Peripheral Alliance in the Assembly of the Union have formally declared their solidarity with the rebel Daniel Torvald, who has made his stand on Olympia in a general rebellion of the regional ILF against the Martian central government. The party, founded in the wake of the Third Galactic War after the devastation of Rawlins' Rampage and the subsequent Gemini Invasions, is staunchly opposed to the ruling Liberation Party's stranglehold on the Assembly and refusal to divert necessary funds to the reconstruction of the Periphery.

"Plan 17 was an appalling human rights violation," said the leader of the Liberation Party in the Assembly, Bathsheba Ezzarati (PA-Saint Lucy), herself a representative from a peripheral world damaged in the war, "and the fact that the people who created it are still in office, deciding Union policy, is appalling." Ezzarati called for the resignation of the current Secretary of Civic Order, Carlton Dioso, as well as other senior members of that bureau as well as the bureaus of Defense and State.

Additionally, other members of the Alliance called for the trial for treason of generals Barton von Renquist and Ian Heinlein, and Admiral Fathir Caldwell, those who have been suppressing the revolts on Meridian and Olympia. One member, Oleg Tomsky of Kamchatsky, went so far as to demand the impeachment of President Lazaro Cheung, but other members of the party have been hesitant to do so.

"The neglect of the Assembly of the Peripheral Worlds is an atrocity in its own right," said Tomsky in his speech. "Rawlins was terrible, Emperor Horace was terrible, but the policy being conducted now by the Union government is absolutely appalling. I thought this was Mars, not the AIC."

Response from the Liberation Party has been at best sullen; Speaker of the Assembly Orlando Upton (L-Adenauer) said that the demands of the Peripheral Alliance were "frivolous at best and treasonous at worst." Continuing, Upton declared that the Peripheral Alliance was "an collection of pawns of the AIC, New Jefferson, and the Gemini."


Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, April 2593

NEW BATTLESHIP NAMING CONTROVERSY AMID REBELLION ON OLYMPIA, PERIPHERY

SAVERY SHIPYARDS - A battleship of a new class, the F.M.S.S. Gavrilo Princip, has finished construction on the forge world of Savery, owned mostly by the Union Financial subsidiary Adrestia Shipworks, to mass public protests.

The ship is named after Gavrilo Princip, the Bosnian Serb extremist who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, which put into effect a sequence of events that began the First World War. Commentators from all over the Union have been debating the appropriateness of such a name, given the fact that said war sent Earth down the course that would eventually lead to the oppression of all of human liberty on Earth. Ophelia Semprebon, a member of the Union Assembly from McEarney, has said the following on the issue:

"Mars has no reason to be naming a ship after a man who brought to the human race no end of tyranny and of injustice, from the old empires to the newer oligarchies whose successors still dominate Earth under Mars' watch."

However, the defenders of the naming, such as Speaker of the Assembly Orlando Upton, have countered. Upton declared in a speech to the press outside the capital building in Locke Hive that "Princip cannot be blamed for the misfortunes of the twentieth century, for he had no direct say in the situations that followed. It was rather the elites, the oligarchs, that controlled the fate of Earth, leading it to the fate that we know."

The Chief Executive Officer of Union Financial, Paula Driggs, has stood by the man who named the ship, Admiral Dragotin Vukoja, of Serbian descent. "Princip was a man who acted for his country and for human liberty," said Vukoja, "and completely in concord with the founding principles of the Martian state."

Controversy over the naming of the ship comes at a time when the ILF is losing ships to rebels at least weekly. Admiral Vukoja is a decorated ILF commander who was responsible for the incorporation of Bielefeld and Mundo de los Labradores into the Union twenty years ago, and now serves as the ILF's leadership's public image to encourage enlisted men and women to remain loyal to Locke Hive. Vukoja has appeared on hypernet repeatedly to denounce the terrorist leader Daniel Torvald, currently leading an insurrection of ILF forces on Olympia.

[spanishspy]

Excerpt from a widely circulated hypernet video from the UFMR peripheral world of Tixter.

Brothers and sisters of Tixter, I believe that it is self-evident that Locke hive cares little for your lives, for your property, for your homeworld. Our sole representative on Mars is powerless to the well-established Liberation Party, no matter how noble his compatriots in the Peripheral Alliance are.

The Peacekeepers that are stationed on our world are their lackeys, and do not keep the peace, but are used to violently crush peaceful demonstrations. We all lost brothers, sisters, children, parents, family, friends, in their slaughter in Setif Square. They wanted peace, and the paradoxically named Peacekeepers are now raiding the houses of those who dare speak up on hypernet.

How desperate is Locke Hive? They are doing the best they can to keep the periphery under their command, and for what? To protect the core worlds from the AIC, or from New Jefferson, or from whatever foreign bogeyman they think is the next threat.

The truth of the matter is that none of these powers is of any major threat. They may be unsavory but they are not trying to keep us in chains.

We must rebel, with arms. Raid their armories and bases, kill their peacekeepers, and join the militias. It is the only way to throw them off their worlds.

I am a part of several deployments of the ILF around Tixter, formerly their own force after the incorporation of this world into the Union. Now, the Union serves us no benefit, and only takes from us, taxes us, exploits us. These ships, led by our leader Alina Sultan, a former ship captain, is leading the charge against the Peacekeepers.

However, we need more soldiers, more navy men and women. We cannot stop the inevitable inflow of loyal ILF into this system if we do not grow. We are winning against those oppressors that live close to us, but we cannot go against the full might of the Union in our current state.

Let me ask you this, for those who hesitate, who still cling to the falsehood that the Union means well. Would the Bureau of Civic Ordnance order the Setif Square massacre if it meant well? Would it order the chaos on Olympia, on Meridian? On the other worlds of the Periphery?

No. It would not. Hence, Dioso and Cheung and all the other higher-ups in the Union government are not in your best interests. They do not represent you.

The Army of Tixter does.

Stand up for your rights.

Resist.


Excerpt from A History of Galactic Diplomacy by Pierre Newland, published 2579, Pendleton, New Jefferson.

The end of the Consortium War in 2384 led to what was understood to be the necessity of a "New Galactic Order," in the words of Martian President Isabel Ferlauto, who was elected President after the humiliating resignation of Rigoberto Confer-Vining after the destruction of the F.M.S.S. Thomas Jefferson over Fuzhou. The defeat, despite the ultimate Martian-Sandhurst victory in the war, was one that made the Martian people decidedly not inclined towards another massive war, with the shocking losses of thousands upon thousands from the Core Worlds, easily the most powerful voting bloc in the Assembly. Assemblywoman Hanna Kindlmuller of Adenauer, one of the influential core worlds, encapsulated the sentiment eloquently:

"To send more and more of our sons and daughters off to die in unknown worlds is treason to the ideals of Rigby. Let a war of this scale never happen again."

Novaya Russia, Asgard, and the Quetzal were all defeated, but their home systems were not invaded; they could have continued the war had they not agreed to the Treaties of Palanudu and Monde de Traore. The latter was a favorite of the likes of Kindlmuller; the former was despised. Nevertheless, there was enough support for peace for the Assembly to promote the peace that the growing New Dove Movement of the Liberation Party to begin the creation of an interstellar organization to guarantee the continued existence of peace. "The stars are no longer the unbridled frontier that it was two centuries ago," said Kindlmuller. "They are now subject to regulation."

Such a proposal was, to the mixed feelings of the New Dove Movement, also backed by the military and political upper class of the UFMR, including the large corporations that provided the financial backing for the government's endeavors. Ormond Nakamura, the CEO of Union Financial, in particular supported it and funded campaigns for the creation of some sort of organization. Admiral William Gautam, a decorated, cynical veteran of the Consortium War, led the military support of the proposal, for reasons starkly different than the New Dove Movement:

"The creation of such a League would allow Mars to act in the liberation of humankind militarily with a diplomatic credence, a diplomatic permission, and a diplomatic acceptability to the rest of the nations of the galaxy. Ares will no longer conquer with the hatred of the other gods, but with their loving endorsement."

And so Martian Secretary of State Teodoros McCrae went to the Sandhurst capital of Rossport to propose such an idea to Victor Carlisle, their Commandant, and their Assembly. Sandhurst agreed to such an idea, offering their armed forces to serve as the "purveyors of peace." Other Martian allies, such as New Innsbruck, offered to join, as did the members of the Interstellar League of Albion.

In 2385, Kindlmuller presided over a gathering of delegates of several nations on the Martian world of New Harbin, another core world. There, a treaty was signed. The Treaty of New Harbin would go down in history as the creation of the first interstellar forum for peace: the Orion League.


Excerpt from A History of Galactic Diplomacy by Pierre Newland, published 2579, Pendleton, New Jefferson.

The foundation of the Orion League in early 2385 was intended first and foremost to be a signal from the UFMR and Sandhurst that their governments were not inherently warlike. "We seek peace, not murder," said Kindlmuller in a speech on New Innsbruck. Neutral worlds, who were wise enough to stay out of the carnage, were tentatively supportive of the new League; however, comparisons to the League of Nations of the early twentieth century were frequent, as well as the demise of the United Nations on Earth in the 2090s, with the rise of the superstates and the decline of the 21st century order. The New Jefferson Confederation was among the states that did not join; Corina Ozturk, a Congresswoman from Markham on that world, was a leader of the isolationists, saying the following in a subcommittee debate:

"The League of Nations only permitted tyranny to take root in Germany and in Italy and in the Soviet Union and in Japan. The United Nations allowed for far worse atrocities to take place; Rwanda for example, Afghanistan another, Cambodia yet another. Such international organizations are only halfhearted at best attempts to give the illusion of goodwill towards humanity; the United States and the Soviet Union, and China and the European Union soon afterwards, under its auspices, intervened in overthrowing democratic governments in the name of their own commercial or political interests. We have no reason to join such an organization; none at al."

And yet many did join. The Martian allies were the first to join; the first neutral state to join was Shandong after its parliament accepted the Martian ambassador's invitation to do so. Others soon followed, expecting economic and political benefits from the arrangement. By 2390 there were one hundred and sixteen states that were neutral in the Consortium War that had now decided to join the Orion League.

In 2386, the internal politicking in Novaya Russia reached a startling conclusion: their Duma had elected to apply for Orion League membership after rebuffing Kindlmuller's advances; she had even spoken at one of their sessions some years beforehand. Novaya Russian President Lizaveta Vasilyeva had been elected on a platform that rejected the warmongering of the administrations before her that had instigated the war, and her party supported accession to the League. "It is in the interest of peace that we join this arrangement," Vasilyeva said to Kindlmuller in a conference on New Smolensk. The New Smolensk Agreement, in which Vasilyeva, Kindlmuller, and Sandhurst Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeremy Addington attended, brought in Novaya Russia into the League, as well as giving the precedent for the Asgard Protectorate and the Republic of the Quetzal to join later on.

Soon afterwards, the Interstellar Ummah joined the League, as did several former Consortium worlds. The League soon began to control the majority of human states during this time and would do so until the end of the decade.


Excerpt from A History of Galactic Diplomacy by Pierre Newland, published 2579, Pendleton, New Jefferson.

Despite the jump for many states to join the new League, one clause in the Treaty of New Harbin, which provided the framework for the new organization, was immediately divisive. This clause was Clause 16, which stated the following (in its English version)

"The Orion League may, with the consent of a majority of members, authorize a military expedition against a state, within or without the League, which is abusing human rights or proper conduct of states in the galactic community."

This was proposed by Admiral William Gautam of the ILF, who on the surface described it as primarily humanitarian nature but in reality fully intended to use it as an instrument of Martian imperialism. This had been met with unease during the first few sessions of the General Council. Kindlmuller had been promoted to the role of Secretary General of the Orion League, and was torn about it; she wanted a common defensive structure as to lessen the likelihood of war but simultaneously understood its wide potential for abuse. Delegate Lecia Solis-Arce of the mostly agrarian world of Porto Velho gave a motion for its repeal, but it was rejected in a slim majority vote led by Martian delegate Edmundo Ganbaatar. Many smaller nations, neutral in the Consortium War, had large contingents opposing joining the league on the basis of Clause 16, but had ultimately joined due to a hope that said clause would eventually be repealed.

This issue came to be tested in 2387 when a former Quetzalese Admiral, Samuel Quinteros, took his fleet and began bombarding the world of Crovella Landing, which had been settled during the Second Great Exodus as a refueling depot for ships heading towards the periphery. Quinteros had refused to accept the treaties of Palanudu and Monde de Traore and had effectively mutinied along with his crew and a few subordinate officers. Quinteros had spoken of the need to "reinstate an effective opposition to the dawning Martian-Sandhurst hegemony" and build a new Consortium. Distress signals from Crovella Landing were detected by Martian ships in the area, and Admiral Gautam attempted to invoke Clause 16 when he, under the explicit orders from Locke Hive, sent an armada of the ILF to fight against Quinteros.

However, what was known to various delegates to the Orion League at its emergency session and conveniently ignored by Gautam was the fact that Crovella Landing happened to have large deposits of uranium and plutonium, needed for large-scale industrial projects that the Martians tended to make. Seeing that this was a blatant grab for resources, Hemming Olander, a delegate from the Asgard Protectorate, proposed a motion that would forbid the usage of Martian forces in the liberation of Crovella Landing due to a "conflict of interest." Martian delegates firmly opposed such a measure, as did the allies of Mars. Novaya Russian delegates and the delegates of neutral states sided with the Asgardians. The delegates of the Republic of the Quetzal, however, were decidedly for intervention alongside Mars; Quinteros' treason was seen as a great dishonor to the Republic and so he must be taken down by any means possible.

The motion passed in a very close vote, and soon forces from throughout the League nations that had supported the resolution came zooming towards Crovella Landing. Mars and its allies provided the most forces and thusly were enabled to destroy most of Quinteros' forces before the Quetzalese and other forces arrived. Shortly thereafter, a proclamation was signed by the Crovellan government formally accepting admission into the Union of Free Martian Republics.


Excerpt from A History of Galactic Diplomacy by Pierre Newland, published 2579, Pendleton, New Jefferson.

The annexation of Crovella Landing by the Union of Free Martian Republics, after the pacification of the world using forces from the Orion League, alerted the rest of the members of the League that Mars' intentions were far from the noble ones espoused in the treaty of New Harbin. In that regard, Corina Ozturk, the famous isolationist Congresswoman from New Jefferson was very much correct in that such organizations are conducive to tyranny and not much else.

History has not been kind, and certainly should not be kind, to the Martians in this period of their history. Even Admiral Gautam, in his memoirs published during the era of the New Ulundi crisis, said the following in his role in the creation of the Orion League:

"The League was first and foremost an instrument of expanding Martian hegemony to ensure a lasting peace. If there is no enemy, there is no war. The Consortium War was enough for this species."

The Republic of the Quetzal was outraged that their armed forces had been used in a planetgrab by the Martians, and was so offended that the Congress of the Quetzal voted to withdraw totally from the Orion League. Foreign Secretary of the Quetzal, Oswaldo Clemente, announced that "we will no longer be deceived by the charlatans in Locke Hive." The Quetzal pulled its ambassador from Mars proper, and Mars did the same, recalling their diplomatic mission on its capital world of Tenochtitlan.

Shortly thereafter, Novaya Russia and the Asgard Protectorate announced their withdrawal from the League, making it such that all the former major Consortium worlds withdrew from the League. The neutral worlds, that had flocked to the new organization only years beforehand, were now abandoning it like crew on a drifting ship. The only ones that remained were the staunch Martian allies and the tinpot dictatorships backed by the Martian government for a variety of reasons, from resources to testing areas to military bases.

Even larger states, such as the Interstellar Ummah, withdrew. "It is obvious that there will be no peace from this organization, only conquest under a new banner," said a member of the Ummah Parliament from the forge world of Damascus. The membership in the League plummeted, and it was left as a Martian-led defense pact.

This was codified in the 2393 Waltonshaven Agreement, signed on that world, where the charter of the Orion League was amended to "defend the common interests of the member nations against foreign threats." Understandably, this coalition was led by the Martians. However, the Martians would not be above using such an agreement to use the forces of other states as their missile shields; the clauses added by the Waltonshaven Agreement were invoked during the Second and Third Galactic Wars to support Martian invasions of alternatively Manualist International and AIC positions.


Excerpt from A History of Galactic Diplomacy by Pierre Newland, published 2579, Pendleton, New Jefferson.

Throughout the 2390s, the Orion League, now firmly the tool of the Union of Free Martian Republics on the diplomatic stage, was the dominant international organization despite a fair amount of powerful states not being a part of it. People like Kindlmuller and Gautam were frustrated; there would be no peace under this arrangement for any long amount of time, they declared (only the New Ulundi Crisis would seriously challenge the coming galactic order, however), and so an alternative bloc to the League would have to be formed.

However, there was the question of what form a new association of nations should take. Many, such as those in Novaya Russia, advocated for a defensive pact; many former Consortium worlds, such as Mombasa or Mulholland (with an anti-Martian government taking control by the end of the war; it had joined the Orion League and withdrawn after Crovella Landing), wanted something more neutral, less aligned with either the former Consortium or the UFMR. However, voices on Asgard and the Quetzal, the latter in particular, were strongly in favor of the defensive nature of a new organization.

It was Asgard, in 2397, that proposed the formation of a new defensive organization. Arne Nielsen, a member of the Thing from the world of Bornholm, had proposed the creation of a "new alliance to counter the imperialists that want to overtake us on Locke Hive." With flying colors, the proposal passed through the Thing with flying colors. Soon, Egil Oliversson, the Foreign Minister of the Protectorate, was dispatched to New Smolensk, the capital of Novaya Russia, to meet with the Duma and Foreign Minister Petia Sokolova, for discussion of the foundation of a new bloc to oppose the growing strength of the Orion League.

During discussions on New Smolensk, the Galactic Order had been shocked when Sandhurst, in conjunction with its puppets in the Interstellar League of Albion, unilaterally withdrew from the Orion League. A minor world, of mostly English ethnic stock, by the name of Kidderminster, had been annexed by the UFMR after deposing its government after the a League declaration that its government "insufficiently respected human rights and liberties." Sandhurst had intended to bring Kidderminster into the Interstellar League of Albion, and so withdrew after the annexation.

Midway through negotiations, Secretary of State of the Republic of the Quetzal, Adriana de la Portilla, arrived with an entourage authorized by the Quetzalese Congress to join negotiations between Asgard and Novaya Russia. "The Consortium may well be reborn now," said de la Portilla, "and to counter the Martians just as it did decades ago." Soon, many more nations began sending their delegates to New Smolensk.

In what became out of something completely unintentional was the New Smolensk Conference, which gave birth to a new organization: the Alliance of Independent Colonies. Of particular controversy was the choice of "colony" as a descriptor of the various member states; that word had passed from the vogue by the 2200s and had the negative connotation of being associated with the Earth Powers that had drive such large amounts of people off of humanity's homeworld. This archaism was chosen for the sake of going back to the original settlers of Mars, who were, despite the actions of the Union of Free Martian Republics, still known as heroes galaxywide.


Excerpt from an interview from the android Capek, manufactured on Mars in 2350, and moved to New Jefferson in 2405, in 2478

Interviewer: How accepted were Androids in Martian society before 2400? Was there discrimination? Was there citizenship?

Capek: Before New Ulundi we were considered citizens. We could vote, we paid taxes just like any other Martian, and there even were a few androids in the Assembly. Right off the bat, when an android was sent off of the assembly line, they were a newborn citizen.

Interviewer: Did the Consortium War have any affect on human-android relations on Mars?

Capek: Many of my kind had already served in combat against various enemies, incorporating several worlds into the Union. We were loyal and we were patriots. However, the little discrimination against androids was still present, and the great android civil rights leaders, such as Clarke and Niven, wanted a conflict in which we could truly prove our worth. The Consortium War was that; thousands of androids marched on Locke Hive to enlist in the ILF. "Freedom for all sentients, living and mechanical," said Clarke at a speech there. I attended that rally; it was magnificent. Seeing your kind all assembled there, along with our human allies, was glorious, fulfilling.

But I digress. I served in the ILF in various worlds and there was very little hostility from the humans, with few exceptions. There was that time when a human soldier shut down our recharge stations on our ship as a practical joke; he was arrested and executed, or so I heard. We were disappointed with the peace, as were the others.

Interviewer: Did the usage of artificial intelligence have any effect on your experience in the war?

Capek: Not really, no. There was some confusion due to some of the decisions made by some of the AI, but no more than a human general.

Interviewer: How did the New Ulundi crisis change things on Mars?

Capek: [silence for about ten seconds]. It was terrible. [Silence for five seconds]. I was living in a home in Montesquieu Hive, working for the Bureau of Civic Order as a technical worker. As I was working on one of the central data centers of the Bureau on Mars Proper, I was informed of the New Ulundi incident. Cadmus was a result of poor programming by Martian officials and not due to nonbiological malevolence.

But I digress. It was a shock, to say the least. There was a flurry of conversation on the Hypernet, and the fears of those ideologues such as Karim Werstine exploded in popularity. Werstine, you see, was the leader of a faction of the Liberation Party that hated artificial intelligence and maintained that there would be an inevitable rising of the machines to kill all humans. Humans, naturally, made themselves vulnerable to this and began sympathizing en masse.

Only two days later did the results come clear. I saw an android friend of mine, Ishiguro was his name, walking down the street with supplies for his own job. A mob of humans went up to him, brandished weapons and industrial equipment, and began attacking him. He was killed shortly thereafter.

As public opinion turned against androids, I spent more and more time in my apartment. In 2402, the President at the time, Augusta Saint-Etienne, was thrown out of office in an Assembly vote caused in no small part due to android rights. The tide had turned against androids, and lynchings in the streets were common on Mars and in the other core worlds. The Assembly chose Werstine to be her replacement. That is when things took a turn for a worse.

I was called up to the Bureau of Civic Order center that I worked for and then was promptly disabled and presumably put on a truck to somewhere. I woke up in a garbage dump with several other androids unceremoniously packed in a pit.

Then I saw Peacekeepers, human of course, start dragging out androids and drag them to other pits visible from our own. There, they were enclosed in small places and melted into a mass of fiery goo.


Excerpt from an interview from the android Capek, manufactured on Mars in 2350, and moved to New Jefferson in 2405, in 2478

Capek: The only reason I was able to escape was by bribing one of the guards with some of the dollars that I had on myself; he was a peacekeeper, and then as now they were seen as corrupt. That fellow, at least, fit the stereotype. This was only moments before a truck full of peacekeeper grunts came in and took out several fellow androids.

I made my way back out to the streets was able to link myself back to the hypernet, at least for a while; they people at the Bureau of Communication were apparently looking for android signals and gutting connection to them. I was however able to see what was happening on public screens in a computer shop not far from the camp.

There was President Werstine giving a speech about the "inhuman robots that are leeching away at Martian society," to thunderous applause from the Assembly behind him and the masses of people in Locke Square in front of him. He announced a law stripping all androids of their citizenship in the Union of Free Martian Republics and mandating that they be "scrapped, melted, and incorporated into the tools that all humanity needs!" Ships were in the air, brass bands played the anthem and all other famous marches and patriotic songs, and the atmosphere was, for humans, absolutely jubilant.

But then the cameras shifted to the President once more. "If we are to maintain human sovereignty in the face of those who want us plunged into yet another war, the scourges of New Ulundi, and tools of the Manualists that want to overthrow the rightful government of the Union."

He spoke on and on, and he was horrifying to an Android. He was bewilderingly hypocritical:

"When Rigby and Tamboli and all the other great founders of the Republic landed on this planet, they were fighting for human liberty! Note: Human liberty, not the liberty of glorified servants. Rigby did not ask for the rights of his computer! He asked for the rights of his fellow man! Computers were used by the Americans and the Russians and the Europeans and the Chinese to dominate a planet. The proliferation of androids in this country only serves to bring us further to that goal of the people who brought our founders to leave the homeworld."

The irony, the hypocrisy, the doublethink. I was a Martian patriot; had Rigby lived among androids he would have fought for our rights. But he did not, and that cannot be held for or against him.


To Far-Off World For Freedom, the English version of the marching song of the Interstellar Liberation Fleet, based off of a 19th century German Lockmarsch.

Hear, all of Ares' Children,
Hear, sons and daughters of Mars,
The call sounds to all corners of the union,
The call sounds to each and everyone!
From Terra to New Antioch,
We'll give the tyrants a fateful shock!
On every ship and human world,
We strive to fight for the imperiled,
For freedom and for unity,
to put an end to slavery!
Hear! the klaxons are a'wailing,
Hear! the ships are now a'sailing!
Come, all you loyal soldiers,
Come, patriots of Mars!
The time has come, the front is now,
so do not relent, you have nothing to fear!
Mars' Brave Soldiers, never yield,
for you are freedom's sword and shield!

Off we jump into hyperspace,
for the salvation of the human race!
Your lovers, sons, and daughters
wait for heroic return!
Your fellow soldiers wait
for the enemies worlds to burn!
With the sword we'll beat them down,
with the shield we'll turn their luck around!
For the gavel, since justice is blind,
For the dove, peaceful and kind!
Now freedom will reach serf and slave,
Now fortune will reward the brave!
Our toil will be forever rewarded,
and our sloth will meet its due!
For no member of our dearest fleet,
will succumb to treason and for evil leave!

Liberty to every oppressed soul,
Justice to those in prison cold,
It is our glorious duty
to wreak vengeance on the corrupt!
It is our noble duty
to bring equality to all!
The tyrants on Earth tried to keep Mars down,
and now their oligarchy has been brought down!
The Consortium, Manualists, and AIC,
Will fall in face of our fleet!
Hear! the sound of liberty's nation,
Causing freeing conflagration!
Let no man or woman fight the truth,
that Mars has come to establish her just rule!
Onward now, there's never a time,
to fail to advance liberating strife!


Excerpt from the Martian Encyclopedia, last updated 2588. Entry by Johanna Muldoon.

Olympia: Core world of the Union of Free Martian Republics, founded 2159 by the Greater American Commonwealth ship the Pan-American.

Olympia, main world of the Washington System and the administrative world of the Republic of Olympia, its capital city is New Bigelow. The planet was named after Olympia, Washington State, Pacific Northwest District, Greater American Commonwealth, the hometown of Jefferson Underhill, the captain of the Pan-American; New Bigelow was the name of the neighborhood he grew up in.

Olympia was chosen due to the presence of minerals in the asteroid belts around the star Washington, and thusly was settled as a mining colony for the GAC. The people who settled there were, unlike the prison worlds that would eventually morph into the Gemini Hegemony, were loyal citizens who honestly wanted to better their home country. Much like the European world of Terranova, political dissidents were also encouraged to settle on Olympia (however, this role was later filled by Meridian, which was settled seven years later).

There was a small resistance during the First Galactic War, which was aided by the Martian central government. The end of that conflict sent Olympia, Meridian, and the other space colonies of the Earth powers to the Martians (although they were not all annexed, such as the case of the Novaya Russia system). For about a century, there were periodic minor rebellions on Olympia as it still regarded itself as first and foremost American (this was eventually remedied as the Martian Bureau of Education and Bureau of Defense established themselves on the world). Even today, there are traces of its American heritage; the University of Olympia, the main institute of higher learning in the system and founded before the Martian annexation, is still in function and is regarded as one of the best universities in the Union of Free Martian Republics, rivalling those like the Martian National University and Rigby University.

Today, Olympia is the site of major banking and financial sector works that are key for the systems around it; growth during the 24th and 25th centuries cemented Olympia's status as a core world and the cities of New Bigelow, New Columbia, and Ellistown as Hive Cities. There are major mining operations in the other worlds of the system, which are taken to Olympia and sent to other systems for processing.

Most of the people on Olympia have European and Latin American blood, reflecting the ethnic background of the original settlers. However, like most of the core worlds, such blood has been diluted by other ethnicities of those from other systems. Ethnic conflict has mainly been between the descendants of those from the former United States and those descended from Latin America, mainly Mexico. Peacekeepers have intermittently had to quell insurgents by one side or the other.

Excerpt from the Martian Encyclopedia, last updated 2588. Entry by Johanna Muldoon.

Meridian: Core World of the Union of Free Martian Republics, originally settled by the Greater American Commonwealth in 2164.

Meridian was founded by the GAC colonization ship John C. Fremont, and named after Captain Juliana Farrell's hometown of Meridian, Kern County, California, Greater American Commonwealth (part of the former United States of America). Meridian was the third GAC colony, after Halsey and Olympia, to be established outside of the Sol system. After the President of the European Union visited Terranova in 2166, GAC President Peter Huynh made his own state visit to the world, promising that they would prosper as part of a "new free society spanning the stars."

However, the GAC would treat Meridian very poorly in comparison with Halsey and Olympia. Mineral deposits were mainly from the asteroid belt around the system rather than from the planet of Meridian itself, and thusly it received far less support from Earth than the others did. A flu epidemic on the world, believed to be transmitted from a ship of recent immigrants from the Yucatan region of the GAC, is widely held to be the cause. The GAC government in Washington was reluctant to send any more aid, and thusly anti-GAC settlement on the planet became more common.

When the First Galactic War rolled around, Raul Carrasquillo, a Sergeant in the GAC Army stationed on Meridian, led a rebellion against the GAC. Calling themselves the Army of Meridian, they harassed GAC shipping from the world to the colonies of the other Earth powers and thusly their capability of pursuing the war. When the Martian navy arrived over the world, they gladly helped the newcomers overtake the regional government in the world's capital of Reynosa, which became the capital of the Republic of Meridian, which after the Treaty of Luna joined the Union of Free Martian Republics as a member republic.

Meridian is known for its tradition of stubborn independence from Locke Hive, a tradition that dwellers of Meridian maintain goes back to the epidemic caused by the GAC's negligence. Thusly, they support less government intervention in their world's affairs, having some of the most protectionist tax laws and other economic law in the entire Union. The Presidency of Meridian has traditionally been an office that has rivalled the President of the Union on occasion.

Meridianers make the claim that they are a separate nation from Mars proper but have joined their union out of self interest. Meridian secessionism is occasionally talked about but is not ever seriously supported by any parties but fringe parties. The Liberation Party, which has dominated Meridian politics (as well as those of most of the Union), remains steadfast in its pursuit of a "broad, multinational Union" to defend humanity from tyranny.


Excerpt from the Martian Encyclopedia, last updated 2588. Entry by Paula Kamirova.

New Babelsberg: World in the eponymous system in the Rigby (Delta) Sector, and member of the Union of Free Martian Republics.

New Babelsberg was discovered in 2231 by the F.M.S.S. Magellan, a Martian scout ship, during the Second Great Exodus. Martian military officials and members of the Assembly, mostly from the Liberation Party, were advocating the establishment of as many extrasolar colonies as possible for the sake of preventing the rise of another power to challenge what they deemed as liberty.

New Babelsburg is significant in galactic history as being the first world discovered that had extraterrestrial life on it, as well as the first world discovered with natural water. The world is in what is called the Goldilocks region of a star, and is small but earthlike. In 2245, President of the Union of Free Martian Republics Adriana Smirnova signed a bill, passed by the Assembly, that designated large swathes of the planet a nature preserve, which is still a part of Union law. Thusly, New Babelsberg has not suffered the large growth of cities and prevented it from becoming a world of hive cities.

New Babelsberg was named by Amalia Hummel, an emigrant from the Earth nation of Germany in the European Union who left in the Second Great Exodus, immigrating to Mars and joining the Bureau of the Frontier, and was assigned to the Magellan. The natural springs of the world reminded her of the town of Babelsberg, a town on the Havel River in the larger city of Potsdam in the region of Brandenburg. Used as a retreat by the Chancellor of Germany Otto von Bismarck in the late 19th century, it became known as a center of natural beauty in the country.

The naming of the world after a place on Earth, despite not being founded by an Earth power, was greatly controversial in the Assembly. Hardliner members of the Liberation Party called for Hummel to be tried for treason; being an immigrant from Earth, a group that met widespread discrimination in the 23rd century in the UFMR, her chances of being found innocent were slim to none. However, when brought to the Supreme Court of the Union of Free Martian Republics (which did, and still does, have jurisdiction over new settlements), Supreme Justice Jonathan Mazzarini declared the lawsuit frivolous, saying that:

"There is nothing inherently treasonous in naming a newly found place of natural beauty after an old place of natural beauty. The intent here is clearly discriminatory."

Settlement occurred after ships heard of its beauty, and its capital world of Landspitze was founded within a year of its discovery. Water became one of its key exports to other newly founded colonies that did not want to have to rely on Mars for direction. The territorial government became fabulously rich despite the fairly small population, and the declaration of large swathes of the world as a natural preserve capped that population at a few million. Nevertheless, the world, after the lobbying of water company executives (with generous amounts of campaign donations to members of the Assembly), was admitted to the Union in 2251.

New Babelsberg gained its current fame as a resort world in 2254 when Donia Darlington, an assembly member from a district in Jefferson Hive and a former board member of Union Financial, wanted a private resort. In cooperation with the government of New Babelsberg and the Martian Assembly, she was allowed to do so. More and more members of the assembly did so and soon the Martian government itself set up resorts, followed by large corporations.


Excerpt from the Martian Encyclopedia, last updated 2588. Entry by Paula Kamirova.

New Harbin - Core World of the Union of Free Martian Republics, founded 2168 by the People's Republic of East Asia.

New Harbin, named after the Chinese city of Harbin, in the Manchurian region, Heilongjiang Province, was founded by the colonial ship the Liao Ming, captained by An Ruan. Harbin was the commander's hometown and thusly bore the name of said town; many of the members of the crew were from that area of the country but not the majority. Brief violence broke out by crew members from the Shikoku region of the country due to claims of the PREA central government abusing the region, but were killed by throwing them out of the airlock.

The reason such a polynational crew was chosen was the intention of the PREA government to instill a sense of unity among the Republic due to the widespread discontent with the government after several insurrections in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, all subsidiary countries of the Republic. This was in stark contrast to the crew of the ships of the GAC and EU, which all used crew from populations held to be loyal to the central government. This fomenting of dissent would eventually lead to more insurrections after the conclusion of the Earth-Mars War, and then the catalyst for the Second Great Exodus after the First Galactic War.

New Harbin had already descended into warlordism when the First Galactic War broke out; Myeong Song, an ethnically Korean settler of New Harbin, was leading the rebellion. Martian Admiral Edmond Conklin arrived in the F.M.S.S. Nathaniel Greene and supported the rebellion in taking the world's capital city of Shuangcheng. After the Treaty of Luna, the newly formed Republic of New Harbin quickly agreed to join the Union of Free Martian Republics in 2229.

New Harbin is currently known for its synthetic culture, with influences from the Earth nations of China, Korea, Japan, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, and the Philippines, in addition to other influences taken from the wider Union. In particular, their synthetic cuisine is famous throughout inhabited space, and the Shuangcheng Institute of Culinary Sciences is widely ranked as the best gastronomic school in the galaxy by neutral rankers.

Economically, New Harbin depends on mining and manufacturing. PREA had been quick to establish a large industrial base on the world during its time as a part of that country. Thusly, the largest weapons factory in the Union is located on New Harbin, and is responsible for forty percent of standard-issue weaponry throughout the Martian armed services, as well as large amounts of the private market.


Excerpt from the Martian Encyclopedia, last updated 2588. Entry by Catherine Brent.

Adenauer - Core world of the Union of Free Martian Republics, founded in 2153 by the European Union.

The Einheit, the ship that founded Adenauer, was launched from the Frankfurt spaceport in 2152, commanded by Admiral Alfons Kahler. The foundation of Voltaire by the Martians and Halsey by the Greater American Commonwealth had deeply worried the leadership of the European Union, and President Marie Lejeune had stressed the need for an "expansion of our union into new frontiers." The name Einheit had been chosen, in German, as the title for such a lofty goal in honor of Konrad Adenauer, a president of West Germany during the Cold War and a pioneer of European integration.

Such a name befitted the sheer effort needed to found an extrasolar colony at the time; those of us in the 26th century sometimes find it trivial to go to other star systems; in that time it was a great endeavor. Hence the powers of the day would give ships lofty names, and the names of the core worlds are no exception to this trend. Adenauer was founded as a shrine to a man who had brought Europe to what it had become in terms of the European Union; a founding father of what would become a superstate.

Adenauer, like most core worlds, started out as a mining world where drones and people would toil away working for the government on Earth; in this case, Brussels. Gold, iron, silicon, and uranium were and still are abundant on Adenauer. However, subsequent administrations of the European Union wanted reconciliation, not hostility, to the Union of Free Martian Republics, and thusly Adenauer was opened to exploitation by Martian companies despite the rest of the worlds of interstellar humanity were not.

Choudhary Extraction was a Martian company based in Locke Hive that mined the asteroids, and was given a contract by the planetary government of Adenauer to extract minerals in a sparsely settled area of the world. This continued for some time until 2224, when the European government expelled the Martians for nationalistic purposes. This led to a declaration of war on the European Union by Mars, and subsequently the other powers joined in to begin the First Galactic War.

After the Treaty of Luna, Adenauer was ceded to Mars, where it is one of the most profitable mines in the Union. Today, most of its cities have grown to Hive City size, reflecting the growth of the Core Worlds over the centuries.

[spanishspy]

Excerpt from the Martian Encyclopedia, last updated 2588. Entry by Catherine Brent.

Voltaire - Core World of the Union of Free Martian Republics, founded in 2145, not long after the conclusion of the Earth-Mars War. President Christensen herself allowed the creation of the ship after the invention of Compressed Dimension Drive (CDD) during the War. Voltaire is hence a milestone in human species, the first world to be settled outside of Earth.

The planet was named after Francois-Marie Alouet, more famously known as Voltaire, the French enlightenment writer of the eighteenth century. Voltaire was chosen for his support of religious tolerance, something that echoed in the need for civic tolerance in the Martian republics. The newly gained settlements of the Earth Powers on Mars, despite being unified with the original settlements of the planet and fought together against Earth, were deeply skeptical of one another. The first meetings of the Union assembly were tense and often violent, with Communists from PREA, Libertarians from the GAC, and Social Democrats from the European Union sparring against the tempered classical liberalism of the native Martians.

The need for an extrasolar colony was deemed necessary after the destruction of the Wesley Clark, the American ship destroyed in deep space by the first CDD-equipped ship, the F.M.S.S. Lexington. Many in the Assembly said that if such was not done, it would be an insult to human progress. Member of the Martian Assembly Daphne Poole said that not starting a large space program would be:

"A renunciation of the progress that Mars is supposed to embody."

Poole led the charge to make the ship, and sponsored the bill that made it pass. Due to the lack of infrastructure readily available to create a proper ship on the scale of the Wesley Clark, a spacecraft carrier that had served with distinction in the war, the F.M.S.S. Denis Diderot, was equipped with the drive and loaded with large amounts of equipment and personnel to found a colony in the next star over. The commanding officer was Admiral Krishna Jain, the commander of the ship during the war, when it was used as a flagship.

The initial settlement was rudimentary and focused mainly on mining; it would grow to be very large by the time of the First Galactic War. That war would be a boon for Voltaire; by then it had become the nexus for the Martian Self-Defense Force in extrasolar space. This was a great help to the colony when a coalition of forces from the Earth Powers tried to invade it; the world survived without a single casualty.


Personal testimony of Kyle Timmons, Private First Class, Army of Meridian by Blackjack555

Subject: Battle of Sommen’s World

Begin segment

First I knew of Torvald’s Mutiny was when the ILF started shooting at the Blackguards. That’s what we called the, you know, Guardians, on account of they were Bureau Guardians and wore this, like, black armor with red eyes and lights. They built it to inspire fear, you know? It worked, they looked like some kind of demons outta some fucked up fairy tale.

Me and my friend Tom were on the line when it happened. The Blackguards were right about on top of us. We had this, like, spiderweb of trenches and bunkers set up around Millerton, it’s like the only place for factories and starports on Sommen’s World, with some big orbital defense cannons set up to keep them from nuking us into the ground, so the Blackguards and the Libs had set up their own trenches and bunkers and guns and started trying to take us. Trenches are a bitch, you know that? Anyway, me and Tom were in a bunker on the outer line. There was a big anti-tank gun set up in there, one of those Asgard lightning gun rigs, but the crew were all dead so we had just kind of jumped on the gun and opened fire. The Blackguards were pushing us hard, I had taken a few rounds to the legs and Tom had a bad cut from a saber on his arm, and we were pretty much thinking this was the end. Blackguards charging at us across the gap between the trenches, gunships raining down hell on our guys, tanks and guns blowing up everything they saw, and this ensign, her name was Keller I think (Editor’s note: This refers to Mary Keller, the officer in command at the Stand at New Dublin) trying to keep some kind of order after the whole command team got blown up by a shell. The ILF weren’t really doing much, their base was totally separate from the Blackguards and from what we could gather they didn’t get along so well, so this was a Guardians only move.

Torvald’s speech didn’t get to us, on account of we weren’t on the Martian network, but from what I hear it couldn’t have been more than, like, an hour or so after that when the ILF base started getting active. They just went crazy, our scouts said, artillery moving into positions, transports heating up, troops grabbing guns, all that stuff. We thought, this is the end. The Blackguards almost had us already, so if the ILF moved in we would be done. They started firing the artillery and moving out, and we thought, well, it’s been a good run. A Blackguard shell took out our bunker, Tom got caught under the wreckage, alive but no way he was getting away. I got pissed, I guess. I grabbed my rifle, a real nice New Jefferson piece with a shotgun under the barrel, and my fighting knife, pulled on what was left of my armor, some pieces of cera-plastic held together with space tape and a New Jefferson chest piece that’d saved my life a few times already and was scratched all to shit, plus a long armored coat they made that I’d picked up from a dead Blackguard who’d taken it as a trophy, set my helmet on my head, and just charged the fuckers. I wasn’t planning on living, looking back. I just figured, hell, if I’m gonna die out here, on this field of mud and my friends’ corpses, it might as well be on my feet with a gun in my hand and some Martian prick’s guts on my knife as hiding in a hole. I guess some other folks thought the same, ‘cause a good couple hundred others decided to join me. We must-a looked damned stupid, charging out of the trenches and straight at the Blackguards.

Then the explosions started. It took me a minute to figure out the shells weren’t landing on us. They were landing all through the Blackguards. Gunships were falling out of the sky, tanks exploding, and the ILF’s own birds were tearing up the Guardians, ILF tanks taking down the ones that were running us over, ILF soldiers crashing through the Blackguard lines with guns blazing. It was chaos, but it was still great. Keller came on the comms, told everyone to hit back, now, hard, and everyone got up and started running.

By nightfall it was over, pretty much. There were still pockets of Blackguards holding out in a few of their bunkers, but between us and the ILF, we were digging them out like Vernon Swamp Ticks, which, for the uneducated, are nasty little critters that burrow into your skin and have to be shocked or burned until they fall away. For a few days, it was looking like Sommen’s World was finally free.
There’s a picture out there of me and Ensign Keller and a few others greeting the ILF three days later.

(He pulls up a picture from IIN’s archives. Framed by the rising local star, eight figures stand atop the burned-out and smoking husk of a Guardian Stallion APC, a boxy repulsor vehicle studded with heavy machine guns resting at the end of a long furrow in the ground where it crashed. The back hatch is missing and a large hole has been punched in the side by a hypervelocity missile. Six of the figures are dressed in the bulky heavy power armor of the ILF. One is missing the arm of his armor, his own arm wrapped in a silvery nanite bandage. His other holds the standard of their unit, an ILF flag mounted on a makeshift pole with their unit banner, a snarling grey wolf, hanging below it. The leader’s helmet is off, revealing the face of Colonel Torvald himself, recently off a fast transport from Olympia on a tour of some of the worst hot spots, his gaunt, hard face, silver hair, and icy blue eyes seemingly at odds with the wide smile and the cigar between his teeth. He is shaking hands with a petite woman in a long armored overcoat and mismatched armor. Her chestpiece bears the faded insignia of the New Jefferson Marines, the eagle marred by two long scratches. The overcoat is torn at the edges and scratched up where it has absorbed shrapnel and bullets. Timmons points to her. “That’s Ensign Keller.” Then he points to a man to her right, leaning on a flagpole made from the remains of a heavy vehicle-mounted machine gun from which flies the flag of the Army of Meridian, riddled with holes and burn marks but still fluttering in the breeze. He has a similar chestplate to Keller, though the eagle is still intact and the left pauldron is completely missing. His helmet is a scavenged and slightly customized Blackguard officer’s helmet, the Guardian insignia scorched off and a replica of the ancient battle standard of the ancient Army of Northern Virginia lovingly painted over it. His other hand cradles a New Jefferson heavy assault rifle with a Guardian-issue helmet-linked scope affixed to the top with field rigging tape. A heavy ripper blade, a standard Guardian close combat weapon studded with hundreds of tiny vibrating synthetic diamonds to carve through flesh and metal, is taped to the spot where underbarrel attachment used to rest, nested into the shattered remains of the housing for use as a makeshift bayonet. At the bottom, the caption reads United we Stand: the first formal meeting of Interstellar Liberation Force soldiers and the Army of Meridian after the First Battle of Millerton on Sommen’s World.)

That’s me there. It’d been three days since the fighting started and we were about to finally get some rest when Ensign Keller requested my presence. She wanted an honor guard to go out to meet the ILF, and apparently my one-man assault on the entire Blackguard army had gone around. By now they were saying I’d personally taken on a hundred of them with a knife between my teeth and hijacked a heavy tank with my bare hands. Keller and I staggered out there, both looking like shit and feeling worse. I’d been shot twice, stabbed once, and had a nasty burn on the back of my arm from pushing aside the barrel of an emplaced light artillery piece. Keller’s left shin was in a pressure splint, shattered from a near miss from a tank shell and her arm and leg were scraped up from a grenade going off and spraying shrapnel at her. She had bandages and nanites everywhere, my side was being held together with biofoam and rigging tape, and neither of us had slept in days, so this wasn’t a fun hike. The picture makes it look like we were feeling great, but that’s just editing tricks. I wish I could tell you that we said something epic, historic, or memorable, but in reality we were all too damned tired to do anything but shake hands and offer muttered thanks for their assistance. Then we staggered back to our barracks, opened up a bottle of bourbon, a gift from Colonel Torvald, and passed out halfway through drinking it.

For the next couple weeks, we rested and rebuilt. After meeting with us, Torvald had moved on with a large portion of the 98th, his little fleet, he had his assault carrier and a few destroyers and frigates, plus a damaged battlecruiser stolen from the Guardians over Sommen’s World, heading to another world to help liberate New Salzburg and its critical munitions and vehicle depots. We were left with a few destroyers and frigates, a light cruiser, and a few orbital defense satellites, along with a company of ILF troops to help us out on the ground. The Army of Meridian reinforced us as well, planning to turn Sommen’s World into our local supply hub. (Note: It was common knowledge at the time that Sommen’s World, while not itself a particularly valuable world, rests in a system with three gas giants and is at the center of the Pearly Gates Cluster, a group of nebulae dotted with automated extractors and fuel refineries. This made it strategically critical, as the Cluster could easily supply most states’ fuel needs and Sommen’s World was the main storage and transshipment point.)

A month after we turned things around, Sommen’s World was quickly becoming a fortress. Prefabbed munitions bunkers, fuel storage tanks, refineries, foundries, and drydocks sprang up like mushrooms after a rain, Millerton expanded until it took up most of an area around ninety kilometers across, and we started installing reinforced bunkers and actual defenses, not just the holes and instant bunkers we’d built before. We were almost ready to stand off an attack when an unidentified fleet jumped in-system.

There were about fifty ships coming in. Three cruisers and nine destroyers led the fleet in an arrowhead formation, followed by a swarm of smaller transport ships and a huge monitor-class. We knew from looking that this was a planetary invasion fleet. Our suspicions were confirmed when they opened a communications channel. An immense, obviously heavily altered man in a uniform I didn’t recognize appeared on the screen in our command center.

“Attention, traitors currently occupying Sommen’s World. This is Admiral Terrence Khadir, commander of the Guardian Fleet of the Union of Free Martian Republics 19th Pacification Group. We have come to restore Sommen’s World to its rightful government. If you surrender, you will be reeducated and allowed to rejoin society. Failure to comply will mean death. I have two divisions of the new Union of Free Martian Republics Enforcement and Pacification Corps. I also have the monitor Chicxulub, with enough munitions to sterilize the planet. Your defeat is inevitable. Give up now.”

Now Captain Keller issued our reply. I stood next to her as she made her answer to the Admiral. “Admiral Khadir, this is Captain Mary Keller, in command of the Army of Meridian forces defending Sommen’s World. You claim to represent the legitimate government, but in the same breath threaten to massacre civilians you claim are your own citizens with an orbital bombardment. You promise survival, but only by accepting reeducation that would not be necessary unless free and educated people would not accept your rule. Do we accept death or do we accept a living death, permanent enslavement to a hellish dystopia, our personalities rewritten by force to serve an abomination, product of poor governance and the greed of a few monsters given power by their own mandate? I say neither. We will fight, and you will die.” As she said this, a stealthed orbital defense satellite, a gift from New Jefferson, positioned itself. It aimed at the monitor and gently coasted through the fleet on cold gas jets, taking advantage of the tight formation they had adopted. When it reached the hull, the nova weapon inside detonated. I don’t know how those things work, but it was like a little star was born for a second, then blew up. They were still about thirty light-minutes away from us, but the sky went blindingly bright when the flash reached us half an hour later. FTL imagers showed us what happened in real time, though. When it was over, the monitor was crippled and about a third of their combat strength was gone. Our ships would remove more. It would be hard, but now we had a fighting chance.



Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, May 2593

VUKOJA DEFEATS REBELS AT LA CEIBA

CIUDAD RAMIREZ, LA CEIBA, UFMR - Admiral Dragotin Vukoja, widely held as the leader of the loyalist ILF after widespread defections from the fleet, has successfully defeated a fleet of rebellious ILF over the world of La Ceiba in the periphery.

Commanded by the terrorist Ignacio Palacios, a former ship captain who backed the Peripheral Alliance in recent elections, the fleet has been completely destroyed over the world, the wreckage of the ships falling into rural areas with little civilian casualties. The President of the Republic of La Ceiba, Pedro Caballero, has celebrated Vukoja's "noble victory against traitors to homeworld and Union" in a ceremony on the world's capital of Ciudad Ramirez.

Critics of Vukoja have lambasted the fact that he took no prisoners and allowed the rebels no opportunity to surrender. Leader of the Periphery Alliance in the Assembly, Bathsheba Ezzarati, has declared that such an act was "brutal beyond any need" and a "crime against humanity." Foreign Secretary of the Alliance of Independent Colonies Dmitry Tsvetsaev has stated that "current actions by the Interstellar Liberation Fleet to the worlds it has sworn to defend cast serious doubt on the true motives and intentions of Locke Hive."

Secretary of Defense Lamia Mammadova has responded that "foreign powers have no need to interfere in our own internal affairs. You people ought to provide Mars with the same modicum of respect. I sincerely doubt that the AIC would respond otherwise when confronted with the possibility of Manualist rebellion in their worlds, nor anarchists in New Valais, nor whoever may come up in the Gemini. It is only fair that we do this."

Vukoja is hoping to use this opportunity to put an end to the rebellious ILF squadrons and platoons occurring all throughout the periphery, the logic being that the forces of the UFMR can defeat anything a rebellious faction can support. However, it has been noted that a large portion of the current Martian forces are composed of Peacekeepers and other forces loyal to the Bureaus of Commerce, Civic Order, and local republics. Vukoja has said the following:

"Any Martian that dares go against us will meet the fate of Palacios. We are the strongest nation that has ever existed and will exist after this little peripheral slugfest. Do not get your hopes up, for we will squash you like insects."


Excerpt from the Sandhurst Enquirer, May 2593

ZURITA ANNOUNCES MILITARY ALERT LEVEL INCREASE AFTER NEW DNEPROPETROVSK INCIDENT

TRUNDHOLM, ASGARD PROTECTORATE - Orlando Zurita, the Director General of the Alliance of Independent Colonies, has declared that the armed forces of the Alliance are now on heightened alert, rather than standard alert, after rebels from the Martian world of New Dnepropetrovsk attacked a diplomatic ship belonging to the Interstellar Ummah's Foreign Ministry coming to their world, a regional trade hub.

At the incident, the Ummah ship the Jibrail was seized by rebels over the world with the intention of negotiating a trade agreement between the Republic government and the Ummah Ministry of the Economy. It was captured and brought to the world's moon of Monastyrsky. The Ummah sent a small fleet under the command of Admiral Malaika Saqqah to confront the rebels, after which a fleet controlled by the UFMR's Bureau of Commerce under the command of Klavdiya Gavrilyuk met them over Monastyrsky.

It was agreed by both the Ummah and the Martian forces to cooperate in defeating the rebels and rescuing the Jibrail. The ship was freed with no casualties among its crew and the obliteration of the rebel forces on the moon of the world.

This incident, Zurita said, is deeply worrisome to the AIC executive council. "If the Martian government cannot control its own citizenry from harming the interstellar community, we may have no choice but to intervene to protect the AIC's own interests." The increase in the general alert level means that all diplomatic ships will be sent with escorts to any Martian world, and fleets from the reserves of the various AIC navies and armies will be deployed among the frontier systems between AIC and Martian space. the Interstellar Ummah has already done so, and Novaya Russia and various smaller worlds have done the same. Sandhurst, Asgard, and the Quetzal have all deployed fleets to other worlds to prevent another incident of this nature.

Many in the AIC governing bodies have called for an intervention into Martian space. Ana Habarova of Novaya Russia has called for the destruction of rebel forces on the periphery and the aiding of the UFMR central government in quelling the rebellions, a sentiment echoed by many on the Executive Council. However, a growing bloc under the leadership of Sandhurst Admiral Rupert Wharton have called for the AIC to aid the rebels.

Wharton has been controversial as he supports the usage of AIC forces to topple the current Martian control over its periphery, poor and underdeveloped since the Third Galactic War. He has even gone on to meet with the leaders of rebel factions currently fighting the Union loyalist forces in the sector. Wharton has said that "the evil of Mars' domination over humanity must come to an end by the end of this century," and that the AIC is the best equipped power to do so. Such an opportunity must be seized, he said, and that the AIC must be expanded to former Martian worlds in the periphery to promote galactic peace.

Zurita has refused to seriously bring up Wharton's proposals, saying that the AIC has no reason to be participating in "imperialism" in what he believed Wharton hoped is "the decaying husk of Mars." Zurita has stated that he personally sympathizes with many rebel groups, including the Core Worlds rebel leader Daniel Torvald, but will not aid any rebel group in a formal capacity.


Excerpt from the Terranova Herald, June 2593

POPE CALLS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, CRITICIZES MARTIAN GOVERNMENT

NEW JERUSALEM - Pope Pius CCXI has declared that the current policies of the Martian government are "completely against any semblance of human dignity and must be recanted if the ruling class truly cares about the people it rules over; if they did truly care, they would actually heed the desires of the periphery," in a press statement released yesterday on church hypernet sites.

The Pope of the Reestablished Catholic Church in Space has made its position known that the restriction of shipments of food and other important resources to the periphery is devastating to the worlds there when they are already impoverished and often starving. Most of the food on agricultural worlds is owned by megacorporations on Locke Hive and exported to the core worlds, and other worlds are neglected due to lack of any real influence on Martian politics.

"This is a deep sin that has been with the Union since the end of the barbarousness that marked the Third Galactic War," said the Pope. During the Third Galactic War, large swathes of the periphery had their infrastructures destroyed by New Jeffersonian Admiral Carla Rawlins in a campaign that would come to be known as Rawlins' Rampage. After Rawlins moved on, armadas under the command of Emperor Horace Gand the 49th of the Gemini Hegemon killed millions of civilians on these worlds. Locke Hive has consistently dubbed expenditure to these worlds as too expensive to be done en masse, and expansion of the Union has been consistently chosen in favor of reconstruction of these worlds.

Most of these worlds have governments controlled by the Peripheral Alliance, a party that represents the worlds whose poverty is a direct result of that war. Social welfare programs undertaken by these governments have led to the Pope praising them, saying that helping the poor in such a manner is "godly and noble."

The Pope has generally condemned the imperialistic character of the Union and the course it has been taking since the end of the First Galactic War. "The self-determination of peoples is necessary for the persistence of human liberty and charity to prosper. The placement of expansions and broadness of the Union government has led it to reject the welfare of its own people."

The Pope's comments have been brought under immediate fire by Martian government officials. Carlton Dioso, Secretary of Civic Order, said that the Pope's comments were "reeking of support for terrorism and disorder, and of madmen like Torvald, seeking to use the poor only to enrich themselves. New Jerusalem has its fancy churches and its priests elegant robes. Its hypocrisy is obvious."

Excerpt from The Reformed Catholic Church: a Doctrinal and Ecumenical History by Ambrosio Morreale, Published 2588, Sangre de Cristo, New Jerusalem.

During the First Galactic War, the Pope had called several meetings of cardinals to discuss the moral implications of the war, and the status of Catholics on far off worlds. Having dwindled in membership for over a century, the Church was attempting to reassert relevance in the populations of the Earth Powers and their associated states. The various governments often did not let religion have any sort of power beyond the spiritual and the charitable, and religious publications were often stamped out as treasonous and poisonous to public morality. Even in the European Union, which used so much Catholic-inspired trapping to do so, was so firmly secular in its political methodology, so anti-clerical in its policies, that the Church could have been said to be struggling.

Pope Clement XX was concerned with growing the Church, and had many events throughout the world to encourage conversion and charity. In many ways, he was a reformer; he was the first Pope to travel off of Earth, visiting the UFMR in 2214 to great applause by Martian Catholics. The Martian government mostly did not care, but large swathes of their society were, and still are, firmly anti-religion, and were deeply skeptical of the Pope. Nevertheless, membership of the Church grew throughout the first two decades of the 23rd Century.

This all changed when the Martians coopted the unified orbital defense network of the Earth Powers and brought down nuclear hellfire on the cities of Earth. Of all the cities of the world, Rome, the eternal city and the headquarters of the Catholic Church, was obliterated, as were several others. Pope Clement was killed, as was most of the Archbishops and bishops and other members of the hierarchy.

The Church was in chaos. Quickly, the remaining cardinals were gathered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the most populated city in the most populated majority-Catholic country in the world, unscathed by the destruction of the Earth powers. There, they decided that they were to help with the reconstruction of the former Earth powers, who, despite their massive losses, were still the militarily superior entities on the planet.

Initially, the Church did not move offworld. Pope Clement XXI, the former Archbishop of Caracas, insisted on remaining on Earth rather than "abandoning the people that God has ordered us to protect." He maintained this course for several years, but the usage of the Martian nuclear bombs on various Indian cities, combined with worsening Martian-Brazilian relations regarding a junior Brazilian diplomat on Locke Hive partaking in sexual activity with the daughter of a prominent member of the Martian Assembly, persuaded him and the rest of the Reformed Church's (now with that formal name given the destruction of the last) leaders to take up the offer of a colony from Virgo Interstellar.

The Pope asked for a distant world and ships equipped with CDD, to be both isolated and able to access the rest of humanity. "It is not out of vanity, but for safety," said the Pope, giving his farewell speech to many followers. This is not to say the only travelers were the Church elite; many settlers came with them. In 2261 the settlers landed on this new world, already being terraformed. The Pope named it New Jerusalem, after the holiest city on Earth, and settled there as a colony and an independent planet-state, to be the new Vatican.


Excerpt from The Peripheral Identity by Fendley Hussein, published 2578, Kabardino, UFMR

Someone from the Core Worlds coming to the worlds of the Periphery of the Union are often struck by how much of an attachment the people of this region have towards the dead of the Third Galactic War. "It was seventy years ago!" they say, and they are correct to that extent. But, with the exception of some minor raids, the Core Worlds were completely unharmed by that war.

The Periphery, on the other hand, still has people who lived through that war, saw their loved ones die at the hands at New Jeffersonians and Gemini. The Periphery does not see Carla Rawlins and Emperor Horace Gand the 49th as worthy adversaries; they are seen as bloodthirsty killers. "But they didn't attack every world in the periphery," the Core Worlders say. The ones that they did attack had the ILF bases on them, letting the smaller worlds become prey to the Gemini.

Most of the architecture of Peripheral worlds is very new, unlike the Core World structures that have lasted for centuries. The explanation is that so much was destroyed by these invaders that it had to be made new from scratch. Note that most of these structures were made by the local Republic governments, not the Martian Bureau of Reclamation. The neglect that you stereotype us as fabricating for political gain is very real; President Winfield didn't give a single damn about the Periphery, only the votes of the Core Worlds and the other large worlds; the population didn't matter, and so much of the Liberation Party is already rigged itself into power here it didn't matter anyway.

There's a reason why we vote for the Peripheral Alliance, and not Liberation, when given the chance. The Liberation Party is the party of the Core World oligarchs, the party that annually rejects appropriation bills towards peripheral infrastructure, that underfunds the Bureau of Reclamation, that never lets someone from the Periphery become Speaker, or even President. They are the reason that those in this part of the Union are so poor and so downtrodden, begging for food from passing traders and military ships.

It started with Winfield, or even with Rawlins and Horace. But it did start with that godawful war. We are not lost-causers, not romanticists. If you seek this war's monument while in the Periphery, look about you.


Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, June 2593

PERIPHERAL ALLIANCE HOLDS RALLY ON EXODUS DAY

LOCKE HIVE - The Peripheral Alliance, led by Member of the Union Assembly Bathsheba Ezzarati of Saint Lucy, has held a large rally in protest of the current policies of the Union government towards the peripheral worlds of the Union, on Exodus Day, the national holiday of the Union of Free Martian Republics.

Many commentators have said that the timing of this rally is in no small part to dispel the image promoted by Martian state media that the Periphery is unpatriotic and un-Martian. Indeed, Union flags and other insignia with the Martian Disc and Dove all throughout the spectacle, as were images of early Mars and its leaders and other national heroes, such as Giedrus Simoneit and Fathir Amirmoez. The entire event began with a mass of various peripheral wind bands playing The Red Lights of Liberty, Rigby's Children, The Disc and Dove for All of Time, Liberty's World, and other beloved patriotic classics.

At the rally, many members of the Peripheral Alliance spoke on the subject of Exodus Day and the current state of the Martian Union, and said Union's treatment of the Periphery. Ezzarati said the following:

"The founders of Mars went to escape oppression from tyrannical Earth oligarchies. The current Union tends to look dangerously like the Americans, the Europeans, the Russians, or the Chinese were in those times, governments so revolting that the founders of this nation thought that the only escape was leaving their own world for another. Unlike those from Earth, the oppressed from the Periphery have no easy escape, and the populations are simply too large for it to be in any way expedient."

Demands of the Peripheral Alliance include increased funding for the Martian Bureau of Reclamation, the government body intended to help with reconstruction of war-torn areas. The Bureau was given the mandate to repair the Periphery by President Giedrus Winfield in 2510, but has consistently failed at doing so up until this point. A common chant that supported this heard at the rally was "Rigby and Reparations," in reference to the first President of the Union.

The Martian Assembly's dominant Liberation Party, and the ruling party with few real interruptions since the First Galactic War, has made no official statement; however, Speaker of the Assembly Orlando Upton declared that the protestors were "a band of rabble-rousers who want no real change."

Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, July 2593

TERRORISTS DOWN CARRIER OVER VOLTAIRE
BCO BELIEVES TORVALD IS RESPONSIBLE

SPACEPORT LIBERTY, VOLTAIRE - Terrorists have destroyed the spacecraft carrier, the F.M.S.S. Mempsimoiria, while it was stationed over the Core World Voltaire, marking the first destruction of a ship of that size in the Core Worlds and the fourth of the Core, after Halsey, Meridian, and Olympia, to fall victim to terrorist attacks.

Dieter Muunkchuluun, the leader of the Bureau of Reclamation team sent to analyze the wreckage, said that, although they are not certain, the explosion was likely due to a bomb in the engine bloc. "Marks of this nature on the ship point to the explosion of an outside object which then caused the engines to ignite," said Muunkchuluun to MFP reporters on the scene. The entire crew of approximately three thousand men and women from the Republic of Voltaire is completely dead; not even the commanding officer, Saul Bentham, survived the blast.

Several different terrorist groups throughout the Periphery have claimed responsibility for the attacks, making hypernet releases on their propaganda sites to do so. However, analysts from the Bureau of Civic Order have said that it is likely that the group led by Daniel Torvald, the rouge ILF Colonel on Olympia, has undertaken such an attack. Secretary of Civic Order Carlton Dioso has said the following to the press:

"My senior analysts have stated that Torvald's group has likely undertaken such a heinous crime against the Union. The men and women lost to this act of treachery are testament to the depravity of the rebels."

Dioso is currently on Voltaire attending a memorial service for those lost in the attack with Voltairian President Paula Cummings. Reports from the ceremony say that at least ten thousand have shown up for the services in Spaceport Liberty to mourn the dead. Although he could not be there in person, President of the UFMR has stated that the attacks were "cowardly and evil," going on to say:

"To those of you thinking about rebelling, take a look at the dead in such an attack. Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers, Sons, Daughters, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and many other relations were lost in such an attack. Do you want to be one of these butchers?"


Excerpt from a speech of Athanasios Argyris, member of the Martian assembly from the Republic of Callas Rift, July 2593

It cannot be said that the actions of this assembly are in any way kind towards the people of the periphery; my home Republic, Callas Rift, is no exception. Elements of the Peacekeepers, deployed from worlds that might as well be foreign to those who live in the worlds of the Rift, have been engaging in violent repressing of civil dissent.

A call from one of my constituents has revealed to me the state of things on our worlds; I have been spending so much time here on Mars that it has made me forgetful of real conditions; what the Assembly here is good at doing is making real issues seem like abstract concepts that seem like they ought to be remedied eventually; the majority here believes that the problems plaguing the periphery are just the figures and nonreal issues manufactured as a game for them, a challenge to be overcome like the enemy in a hypernet game.

It is not so; it is very real. This caller told me how Peacekeepers, apparently from New Harbin, were going through the neighborhoods where suspected opponents are held to live, and raiding households and looting them for whatever valuables they could find. The suburb of our capital city, Antikythera, known as Kalamata, has had over ninety percent of its money and portable physical capital taken by the Peacekeepers. I have been told their commander, by the name of Loretta Yakovleva, has said that doing so is necessary for "having the resources to combat the extremists."

Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that the extremists are truly a threat to the well being of the Callas Rift and to the Union. If that is indeed the case, why do the Peacekeepers need to loot the homes of innocents for their own supplies? Is Locke Hive so underfunding them, so starved of cash, to be unable to provide for its own forces? Is the AIC right in that Martian power is rotting, unable to provide the galaxy with the police force that it so needs?

I doubt it. I see the large amounts of money being taken from the Bureau of Civic Order and the Bureau of Defense to fund the Peacekeepers on here; I've voted against further appropriations and for regulations to no avail. I know that the Peacekeepers are a well-funded force, even more advanced than the decades-old ships and land vehicles that the Rift's ILF detachments have been handed down from Olympia or Adenauer or Halsey or any of the other worlds in the Core.

Then why does this Assembly still treat its far off member worlds with disrespect? We certainly have the resources to be good to the Periphery, but we are decidedly not, against the will of those of the Peripheral Alliance and the other minor powers. I do not advocate for the end of popular sovereignty; if the majority of the worlds of the Union vote for Liberation, so be it. But our system in part was designed to combat tyranny of the majority. Your treatment of the Periphery is tyranny of the majority.

I am seriously beginning to question whether the members of this assembly are truly committed to the democracy and liberty that the founders of Mars came to this planet to safeguard. Are you really admitting that you are the tyrants and the oligarchs that this nation abhors?

[spanishspy]

Excerpt from an editorial of the Peripheral Purview, the official news hypersite of the Peripheral Alliance, by Ormond Malashonak, published August 2593

No Liberty from Liberation: Felsenheld's Failure

Congratulations to the President of the Republic of Port Barnaby, who sacrificed any pretense for caring for human liberty this weekend, when he formally welcomed the ILF units, under the infamous Dragotin Vukoja himself, to his world to stifle peaceful opposition. Nora Felsenheld is on the record, which can be found filmed on the hypernet, as saying that she "happily welcomes the Union's forces to this wonderful world to maintain peace and order in our Republic."

Before this, Felsenheld was a member of the dovish branch of the Liberation Party, the dominant party in our Union, the Party of Christensen and Tsukino and of all the presidents since. As such, it's quite a big tent; you have pacifists like Feihu Xi and warmongers like Jeremiah Hargreave in one party, all striving for the benefit of being part of the party of heroes. But now, she has shown herself to be part of the cabal that extorts from the Periphery every ounce of substance that it has.

She welcomed the ILF as it marched down her capital city's streets in a show of force, blared the Red Lights of Liberty for them, and then callously ignored them when they began shooting the protestors. "They started the violence, not the ILF," she said in a press conference, but so what?

Doing so, Felsenheld has given up any reason to consider herself a friend of the Periphery. All the meetings with President Cheung and the various Secretaries of whatever the hell they are, Dioso, Mammadova, all of them, are now rendered null and void. The people who so desperately wanted her to stand up for them are now met with her welcoming the bootheel upon their faces for what will seem like an eternity.

The quasi-progressive calls of my comrades are proof that their branch of the Alliance are so utterly out of touch. That utopian leader of that faction, Cassia Neureiter, met with Felsenheld and pleaded to her to not let the ILF to land (as if they are even bothering to maintain the respect of the constituent republics). She said that she would "consider the will of the people."

And look where that got us. Dead civilians, another Republic gone to Locke Hive, and a loss of further credibility.

Maybe we should just secede.


Excerpt from From Hellas to Callas: a History of Callas Rift by Paraskeve Kokinos, Published 2584, Antikythera City, Telluria, Callas Rift, UFMR

Stamatia Callas is, beyond doubt, a very interesting and very odd figure. The reality is obscured by our nationalist historians who portray her as a conquering hero who braved the odds of this world after resisting tyranny on Earth. The reality is vastly more complicated.

Callas was born in Antikythera, Greece, in the superstate known as the European Union, in 2214. She was a child during the First Galactic War and then subsequently became influenced, after the destruction of the various Earth cities at the end of the war, by a peculiar strain of quasi-technocratic meritocrats that became popular throughout the more dominant states on Earth; she was outstanding in school and was not inclined to let the circumstances of political reality in her time to stifle her. However, she found the contemporary systems of Europe and of Greece to be unworkable; her first work in the 2230s, What Next?, which discussed the complexities of a postwar social order on Earth, said that the current oligarchies were simply too entrenched to be able to be overthrown; "the current technological situation and its ability to be exploited by the elites, in combination with the Panem et Circensis in operation with the citizenry, contributes into a self-perpetuating cycle. The only future is offworld."

And yet she refused to go to Mars. "Mars is now entering the cycle that the various powers on Earth have been in for centuries. Tsukino is laying the groundwork for the destruction of political liberty in her country with the suppression of political dissent in the newly acquired worlds," she wrote in What Next? and vowed to do whatever she could to acquire her own colony worlds, with the idea that she could mold society in her image of a perfect society.

The problem with Earth, she maintained, was that rulers were elected by the uninformed masses of people from a pool of elites that was no better than the masses with the only major exception that they had large amounts of wealth and political power. "To use an example from the United States, now the Greater American Commonwealth," she wrote, "the greatest mistake of their Founding Fathers was not thinking that the average poor to middle class American was not competent to run the country, it was thinking that the average rich American was."

She had the radical proposition of abandoning democracy entirely, but also rejected the rule of one leader, which she held that allowed too many individual foibles to seep into the apparatus of government, but rather the creation of a bureaucracy that was completely meritocratic, with a strong focus on technological advancement. She was popular among scientists, among intellectuals, and among the pseudo-intellectual iconoclasts that dubbed themselves a new intelligentsia.


Excerpt from From Hellas to Callas: a History of Callas Rift by Paraskeve Kokinos, Published 2584, Antikythera City, Telluria, Callas Rift, UFMR

Callas was, however, not in any way averse to using the existing power structures to her own advantage, to the creation of her own state. During the years after the First Galactic War, she was outspoken in the need to move people from earth to a faraway world, to be free of the corrupting influence of the political cultures of Earth and Mars. Distance was essential, she held; being close to the enemy would expose their new society to the influence of false egalitarianism, of anti-meritocracy, of undeserved hierarchies.

In 2239, Callas was one of the early leaders of an expedition to a new star system beyond those charted during the First Great Exodus. She took her entourage of ideological sympathizers, numbering fifteen hundred or so, and was able to gain enough funds to buy colonial ships from Virgo Interstellar, one of the largest Martian colonial firms, to found what she felt would be the "shining light of a new humanity, a species beholden to the wholly natural state of competition, in economics and in politics." She was willing and able to pay more than twice the already staggering cost of a colony; she wanted to go far beyond the explored frontiers of the space surrounding Earth and gain a new foothold, isolated from society.

In 2242, after three years of travel to far beyond human space, she found a system that suited her. After landing, to the misfortune of the ship operators, the food sources had been taken to the planetside; she fully intended to force the Martian crew to stay with them and help them build their new society. "Ethics justifies inefficiency and sloth," she said to the captain of the expedition, Pedro Blaise; "you now have the opportunity to rebuild humanity in a new image, the image of a perfect society, of utopia, perhaps. Your choice is either that or death. Choose wisely."

A third of the crew opted to die and killed themselves with weapons onboard; the rest opted to remain with the new colony and hope for the best. Callas made a decision that would perplex many and enrapture many more, unintentionally to them but in accordance with her own intention. She named the system Callas Rift, after herself (in combination of the word 'rift', which showed the isolated nature of the settlement), and the world they settled on Telluria in the settlement of Antikythera, after her home island in Greece. She ordered the creation of a history of the world, to be updated in real time, that would idolize the founders of this new world, with herself at the head of what would effectively be a pantheon. Her own ego was held by her critics in the movement as the dominant factor in those decisions; however, her writings had a cynical albeit logical reason for it:

"People have the natural tendency to commit to acts of hero worship; in many cases, such acts of worship of the mortal and temporal were the underpinnings of nations and the explanations for moduses operandi. The United States was a shining example, but other nations could do the same. Our system, more than any other, needs it. For those who would object to our structure as unnatural and undemocratic, they will be pointed to by our descendants to a longstanding legacy, a triumphant history dominated by savants and geniuses, who justify the continuation of this social order."


Excerpt from From Hellas to Callas: a History of Callas Rift by Paraskeve Kokinos, Published 2584, Antikythera City, Telluria, Callas Rift, UFMR

Telluria, the capital world of the system, was named after "Tellurian," meaning "of Earth." This represented Callas' desire to impart to future generations that the mission of the new settlement was one of the refinement, not the rejection, of the values of Earth as a whole. "What the great enlightenment figures of half a century ago wanted was not anarchy, not ochlocracy, but rule of the wise over the uninformed masses." In the modern era, she maintained, the lack of knowledge of the masses was made clear as day due to the mass proliferation of voices on the Internet and later Hypernet.

"Look at any news site and scroll down to the comments section," she said to the newly assembled Governing Authority of the Republic of Callas Rift. "See the masses of fools, bigots, liars, fundamentalists, rabble-rousers. Do you want these people running the country? No. You do not. You get the continuation of the kleptocratic system of the European Union and of the other major states on Earth. Such a system enables a thieving elite to promise the people the best, take their votes, proceed to exploit them, and then repeat the cycle indefinitely." Perhaps paradoxically, she believed that restrictions of political liberty would actually increase personal liberty, as there would be a logically minded, specially trained staff of the government knowledgeable in decision making and in resources, to enforce a just social order, where the strong would rule, restrictedly, over the weak.

This almost immediately was translated into the creation of a state that, while not to the extent of the Earth oligarchies, was oligarchical in its own right. The state-created examinations for the civil service, the most rigorous examination in their new settlement, was created by an elite cadre of men and women personally chosen by Callas for their aptitude in education and in government. Only a portion of less then five per cent of the applicants were allowed any sort of government post. The rest were given to the overseers appointed by Callas herself (again) and thusly made to work in quickly and efficiently (or so they intended) to expand the settlement, mine, farm, and other necessary forms of labor.

Almost immediately, there was some backlash. "Callas is a tyrant," said one of the former Martian pilots. "She is nothing less than an Earth oligarch given her own world to mold and to create anew," he said. The identity of this speaker is unknown, as it was found on the local internet. Apparently, the police force was able to discern who was spreading such "inefficient thoughts;" there have been on more traces of him after that post; records of habitation are impossible to find (as police records dating back centuries were destroyed by a defiant police force when the system was annexed by the UFMR).


Excerpt from From Hellas to Callas: a History of Callas Rift by Paraskeve Kokinos, Published 2584, Antikythera City, Telluria, Callas Rift, UFMR

The development of political life in Callas Rift can be described as one of gradual democratization. Living within isolation, the population of the world, especially after Callas' death in 2298, was becoming ever more restless for change that allowed them real political and civil liberties rather than the rule of an oligarchy established by the founders. It was only logical in retrospect; such is the process of nations as humanity has observed: tyranny gives way to liberty, which itself gives way to security.

In 2301, still in isolation, an enterprising young academic from the University of Antikythera, Chrysanthos Sanna, was appointed to the status of Central Bureaucratic Coordinator of a section of Antikythera City. Sanna was paradoxically first in line to becoming one of the ruling oligarchs and yet firmly democratic, having read the ideas of the enlightenment figures as well as the works of the founders of the Free Republic of Mars, groups that were coming into vogue in the Rift as popular alternatives to the paternalistic government established by Callas.

Indeed, protests were being fomented; in 2302, in that district of Antikythera City that Sanna was assigned to, peaceful protests, combined with civil disobedience in terms of not attending their mandated work, took place in a central square. Sanna, who had since been appointed to General Security Administrator of that sector (for reference, the area of New Pharsalos), broke with established precedent and law and announced his support of the protestors. He is on record as saying the following in a rally:

"The people of the Rift have been deceived by the tyrants who established our world. The people of the Rift were betrayed when the agreed to this bizarre establishment of a state. The pilots of the Martian ships that brought us here were betrayed when they were forced to either die or join this new settlement. Thusly, the current government of our Rift is illegitimate and founded on principles that are inherently against the best interests of the people."

More and more joined in this protest, which led to the storming of the Republic Central Administrative Facility in the Governing District of Antikythera City. Such a violent act was not supported by Sanna initially; however, the mass popular uprising against the Rift Security Forces throughout Antikythera City and later its suburbs, then to other cities such as Corinth and Socrates City, forced Sanna into the position of being a revolutionary leader. The Rift Civil War can thusly be said to have begun at the storming of the Central Administrative Facility.

By 2302, after several battles between the conservative aristocracy, led by the Chief Executive Alexis Xanthopolous, and Sanna's revolutionaries, the rebels were clearly going to win after the capture of military leaders of the loyalists at Plato City. There, with their capture and the subsequent surrender of the remaining government, the Democratic Republic of Callas Rift was proclaimed.


Excerpt from From Hellas to Callas: a History of Callas Rift by Paraskeve Kokinos, Published 2584, Antikythera City, Telluria, Callas Rift, UFMR

The former government of Callas Rift was given two options: surrender and integration into the new government or being sent to prison camps with loss of citizenship. Grasping for whatever power they could, the former ruling elites chose the former option, as logic would dictate. They were permitted by Sanna to organize themselves as a political party in the coming multiparty democracy, to compete with other parties and be elected as the electorate decided.

The former government, unused to such politics, branded itself the Meritocratic Party, and continued to hold Stamatia Callas in high regard; a portrait of her was on their websites related to the party. The supporters of the Meritocrats were composed mostly of middle-class workers, such as technological workers, computer programmers, shopkeepers, other small business owners, and white collar workers. However, a large portion of the leadership came from the former class of people who worked in the civil service; they benefitted the most from the old regime and thusly wanted to see it returned. More often than not, they were scornful of Sanna and held him in contempt; they were loath to allow the rabble, the uneducated masses, to have any sort of political power.

Sanna subsequently formed the Egalitarian Party out of his revolutionary coalition, which was composed of mostly lower class workers and unemployed pensioners who had been abused by the previous system. Many in the party were suspicious of Sanna's civil service background and thusly broke away to form the smaller Anti-Oligarchy Party, which was a fraction of the Egalitarian Party's size and banned all former members of the civil service from membership. Nevertheless, such divisive class politics was unpopular with most sections of society and thusly resulted in the Egalitarian's growth despite the loss of the Anti-Oligarchs. Sanna, in a speech to the people in Plato City, promised that there would be "a free people and a free democracy, in which the rights of all will be respected by this new coming party."

The first elections throughout Telluria were held in 2303 after a period of coalition rule by the leaders of the wartime factions. The results were expected by analysts: the Egalitarians gained half the legislature, the Anti-Oligarchs an eight, and the Meritocrats a remainder. Sanna, who ran for a seat in Antikythera City, was chosen by the majority to be the new Chancellor of the Republic of Callas Rift, and confirmed by the mostly ceremonial President Helena Kostas, a wartime ally of Sanna of little real significance.


Interview with Nathaniel Cooper, Gunnery Sergeant, 2nd Platoon 1st Company 3rd Battalion 1st Regiment 2nd Division IX Corps New Jefferson Marine Corps - by Blackjack555

Subject: the first battles of the Fourth Galactic War
Interviewer: Jason deHaans, junior reporter, IIN

(The reporter’s iris-cam shows a towering man with tanned skin, lean muscles, and close-cropped brown hair, a square jaw and a clean-shaven, craggy face. With a cybernetic replacement for his left eye, a long scar across his face, and a massive cigar lit with a lighter made from a hollowed-out 15mm railgun shell, Gunny Cooper is pretty much a stereotypical Marine in every way. The prosthetic that replaces his left arm would look human if it weren’t painted silver and custom-detailed, the words “Paci-FIST” written in block letters under the insignia of the New Jefferson Marine Corps and the raven with flaming claws insignia of the IX Corps.)

You want to know about Alnitak IV? Why in the name of the ever-loving spirits of space would you want to hear about that shithole? What do you mean, crucial battle in the war? Fuck that worthless dirt-ball. Ah well, y’all are paying for my dinner, so I guess I may as well.

We hit the Alni-crap system as part of a “humanitarian relief” convoy. Humanitarian, my ass. We all knew that we were a battle fleet. We were on the carrier CNS Patton, three Marine Assault Ships with us, a full screen of destroyers and frigates, some cruisers, battlecruisers, and a god-damn battleship… What kind of bureaucratic jackass sees that and goes “Yep, that’s a relief convoy all right”? Besides, what’s there to relieve? For the further enlightenment of our esteemed listeners, I’ll explain just why anyone gave half a Nicarian rat-dog turd about this miserable system. Alnitak IV is somewhat unique in that it exists halfway between three neutron stars. Obviously, it’s a hell world. You’d think nothing could live there, but life finds a way, in this case nasty-ass life in the form of massive tunneling slug creatures that look like a tunnel boring machine got drunk and banged a leech. These things, and all kinds of other weird shit, live in the caverns of Alnitak IV. Now, this don’t sound like a place anyone would ever go, but unfortunately, this miserable shithole of a world also gets hit with enough asteroids every year that it has essentially become a giant ball of minerals that usually take a whole mess of complex gear to pick up.

Now, this ball of dust is about the size of Earth, maybe a bit bigger, and following the Union’s somewhat half-assed attempt at terraforming, the equator’s a giant desert, the poles are really fucking cold, and the twilight zones are hellish jungles full of things that want to eat you. The only part of this planet anyone might ever even come close to wanting to live in is on the polar-jungle border, a temperate zone maybe two hundred miles across on each belt in what the locals call the Evening Band. The day-night cycle, depending on where you are, ranges from three periods of absolutely blinding daylight and three periods of slightly less blinding daylight in the desert, to three periods of kind of semi-daylight and three of kind of semi-darkness in the jungle, to fast cycling day-night switches in the Band where it never really gets that bright but only rarely gets that dark, to the permanent state of mostly darkness up at the poles. It’s not helped by the swirling endless dust storm around the planet from the debris from the asteroids. The UFMR kept this shithole permanently poor by controlling the orbitals with battle stations in the network of solar-powered refineries that sat overhead to process the massive outpouring of metals and sending colonists they didn’t like and anyone who owed the big megacorporations money to work there. Naturally, this didn’t go over so well with the workers, and they figured out right quick that a mining laser goes through tank armor just as well as rock.

The ILF had been deployed there a couple years by this point, putting down the rebels the locals couldn’t handle, but when they saw the light and stopped working for Mars, the local governor called for help. What he got was a whole damned fleet from the Orion League. That’s where we came in. See, the Orions ain’t Mars, but they might as well be, and when Mars tells them it needs an army, they send fifty god-damn ships full of Guardsmen and a whole fleet of firepower to back them up. Now, Alnitak’s no vacation spot, but the tunnels do make for easy mining, what with having the tunnels pre-drilled, so it’s some pretty damned good real estate on the international scale, I suppose.

As to why we gave a shit, well, it is right on our border with the Union, so that might have something to do with it, and what with the buildup of our fleet, I might acknowledge, purely off the record, that we might hypothetically have figured the Alnitak system would be a pretty good grab, and that the higher-ups might have been looking for something people’d remember come election time. Remember, we don’t let our government shovel bullshit on the public come campaign time. Name, position, district, that’s it. Anything else is on the datanet, should people care to look, or put up by private folks at their own expense and not on anyone else’s bandwidith or time. No snowing folks under by buying out the whole damn net with propaganda bullshit that’d make most dictators puke like they do in most places. So, if a rep can attach his-self to a nice big windfall for the Confederation, come out in support of a move that goes over nice with the public, well, they get an edge on the folks that want to take their positions.

Now, we knew what was coming, to a matter of speaking. We knew our fleet was probably going to go to fight, and we knew we were probably going dirtside. That doesn’t mean we knew what had happened while we were in hyper, what the folks back on New Jefferson had decided we would do. Not that any of us would have objected, mind you. When we came into Alnitak, we were at ThreatCon Foxtrot. Weapons within thirty seconds’ reach, mag coils at pre-charge and live magazine in the receiver, armor skin suit on and helmet stowed, armor in the nearest locker, out of hyperspace lockdown, and pre-deployment checks completed. In other words, as relaxed as possible while still being able to get environmentally sealed up immediately if the hull got breached and ready for combat before anyone could take advantage of getting the drop on us.

We hit the system and got a mass of incoming transmissions. I happened to be passing by the bridge, so I got to see the shitstorm going down dirtside first hand. Here, watch the clip if you like. I’mma go take a leak.

(He forwards a file to the reporter’s neural implants. A pop-up appears, “View video file? Y/N”. The Y button flashes, an eye movement cue. A video starts. The bridge appears, an ordered space of elevated islands of computer cores surrounded by consoles. Naval personnel in their grey low-profile carbon nanotube armor, some with their hoods up and visors open, others with the hoods bunched up at the neck much like the Marine skinsuit hoods, sit at consoles, colored shoulder flashes denoting rank. While the bridge is deep in the hull of the ship, terahertz wave cameras inside the ship’s armor provide what looks like a view of the outside. A holographic display shows what looks like a command center on the ground. A battered major from the Army of Meridian stands in front of the holo-com station on their end, surrounded by AoM and ILF officers trying to issue orders and keep order. The space looks like some kind of large mining facility in a cave. Debris and dust rains down from the ceiling sporadically and the screen shudders and crackles as the command center takes heavy artillery fire. In the far background, wounded men lie on makeshift cots.

The major staggers as the entire cavern shakes violently, spraying dust everywhere, and starts to talk. “Commodore Masters! This is Major John O’Connell of the Army of Meridian Condor Division! We are under heavy assault from Orion League Guardsmen and Union Enforcer elements! We have taken severe casualties, running low on ammo and medical supplies… Commodore, they’re doing even worse to the civilian population. From what we can tell, they’re dropping kinetics on any area that looks like it might pose resistance in the hopes of pre-empting any reinforcements for us. The situation is deteriorating rapidly, Commodore! Requesting support!”

Before the Commodore can reply another carrier wave, this one from the Orion League fleet commander in orbit over Alnitak IV. A neatly dressed man in a cleanly pressed white and crimson uniform sits in a large command chair, a lower rating handing him a cup of something, which he sips before beginning. “My name is Lord Admiral George Vincent, Duke of Norcliffe and Heath, Viceroy of Cardolan, and Lord Protector of the Empire of Avalon, Commander by Royal Appointment of the 29th Fleet of His Majesty’s Interstellar Navy, seconded to the 34th Joint Armada of the Orion League Military Enforcement Section per the Calais Agreement. This system is currently held in open insurrection against the Union of Free Martian Republics and this fleet is charged with returning it to rightful control and exterminating the traitors who have brought this state of war upon it. Interference with this duty will constitute an act of war against both the Union of Free Martian Republics and the Orion League as a whole.”

The Commodore is still a moment, then begins his reply. “I am Commodore Alexander Masters of the New Jefferson Confederation Starfleet Command. This system is under the rightful control of the New Interstellar Federation, the inhabitants of which have declared their independence from the unlawful government of the Union of Free Martian Government, as is their right per the Orion League’s own Declaration of the Rights of the People and its clause regarding the right to secede rather than face state-mandated genocide. You are out of your jurisdiction, Lord Admiral. Depart this system immediately.”

The reply from the Lord Admiral arrives very quickly. “Commodore, allow me to clarify matters. The New Interstellar Federation is not a recognized body according to the Orion League, nor are the actions of the Union of Free Martian Republics genocide per a unanimous decree by the League’s Legal Committee. Furthermore, this fleet contains three hundred ships, while yours comprises only forty, and five of those noncombatants at that. It would be foolish indeed to engage in battle against your social, military, and numerical betters.”

“Foolish, Lord Admiral? Then you can inform your League that a fleet of fools blasted you from space. All ships, engage!” The Commodore cuts the video feed. The ship rocks as the main guns fire. Through the “windows” the other ships can be seen firing their own guns and launching missiles. The video ends.)

Commodore Masters had a set of balls, didn’t he just? ‘Course, it’s not like the Orions could really put up much of a fight. I ran to my Marines in our section as the alarms went off, the AI tellin’ us all, “All hands, set ThreatCon Alpha. This is not a drill.” Not like we needed it. The deck was shaking from the big railguns firing. People think it’s odd, having recoil when we have artificial gravity, but when you’re firing a piece of metal and explosives at about two thirds of the speed of light from a giant-ass magnetic cannon almost a click long and ten meters wide, and you have four of these bastards going off all at once, plus a couple dozen 340 mils, forty or fifty 155s, and God only knows how many 90 and 30mil rotaries, all on turrets on the hull, shooting thousands of metal slugs a second, that’s gonna make a fucking planet shake. Damn, is it a pretty sight, though. See, we don’t use tracer rounds, only utter fucking morons like the Orions do that, but there are random particles in space, plus the rounds have outer casings that burn off to protect them in the barrel, so you get these silvery trails of metal and ionized plasma on near the barrels, and coronas of lightning around the guns. It’s a lovely sight.

Anyway, I hit the barracks, and my Marines were already there, suiting up and grabbing their gear, joking, laughing, getting ready to drop. Our new guy, Suarez, looked damn terrified like he was gonna shit himself. He was in his armor, shaking, practically jumped out of his skin when Janacek put her hand on his shoulder and kissed him “for luck,” though he was shaking a bit less after that and even managed to ask if he’d get anything more, to which she replied, “ask me after the drop”. So, pretty much normal for Jan. Crazy chick, but damn can she shoot, and near a model to boot. Been in longer than any of us, probably been with every Marine in the squad at some point, says nothing gets her hot like getting shot at. Makes her feel more alive, can’t argue with that one. Oorah to that. I went over to him, he asked me, “Sarge, how do they do it? I mean, we’re about to jump outta this ship, land on some planet, and try to kill about ten thousand Orion League bendahos before they kill us, and they’re acting like they’re getting ready for a game of jungleball!” I told him, “You’re a Marine, son! You went through shit a hundred times harder than this just to earn the right to put that armor on! Look, what planet are you from, Private?”

“Alamagorda, Sarge!”

“And why’d you leave Alamagorda, Private?”

“Because it was a total shithole, Sarge! People killed each other all the time over stupid shit and after Papa got shot in a food riot Mama said we had to go.”

“And why’d you join the Marines, Private?”

“Well, I wanted to see the galaxy, plus they promised I’d be the baddest motherfucker around, and I figured maybe I’d go back to Alamagorda someday and show the cojons who run it why they shouldn’t mess with my family, Sarge!”

“Well then, Private, think about it this way: You survived growing up by being tough, you survived Boot by being a hell of a lot tougher. What makes you think you ain’t tough enough to get through this?”

“Thank you, Sarge!” He stopped shaking right quick. Good kid.

“Oorah, Private! Now get your gear ready, your magazine’s in backward!” I went and grabbed my own armor, full Mark XIX Marine Powered Combat Exoskeletal Armor with some custom mods in it. I’d talked to the armorer, and he’d been more than happy to put in some shit for me. Microjet flamethrower in the right arm, extra ammo pouches, and he’d bolted a grenade launcher from a busted-up AR194 to the left arm so I could shoot 40mils and still keep a shotgun under my barrel. Gotta love the gearheads who run Marine machine shops, even if they are the craziest bastards on the ship. Our own engie didn’t like hand grenades much, so he took a piece of hydraulic pipe from a Paladin mech, bolted it into the center of the mag rails from an anti-tank launcher, and tacked on an unstable fusion reactor from a broken antigrav pod for a light tank, and made himself a short-range plasma cannon that’d take out a reinforced bunker at thirty meters. Then he welded the Demon’s Dick, as he called it, onto his own exo-armor, bolted an infantry shield from a heavy machine gun emplacement to the other, and turned himself into a small artillery piece. The Lieutenant wasn’t too happy about it, but he pointed out that dismantling the gun was probably more likely to blow us all to kingdom come than firing it, which was prob’ly true. Best part is, the whole thing still fit in a drop pod. I got my kit, then strapped in my pod, which got loaded into an assault shuttle. I asked the pilot why we weren’t taking the pods from the carrier, as is our usual method of hitting planets, much safer than flying Air Marine Corps through the local air defense.

“Well, it’s like this, trooper. We’re still using the pods, but the eggheads don’t think you all would land close together if you had to go through the hurricane in the upper atmosphere, so we’re going to fly you all down through it, then shoot the drop pods out of the shuttles.” I gotta say, that scared me. See, the assault shuttles can, technically, launch drop pods by switching out the seats in the bay for pods. They’re actually roughly the same size for exactly that reason. In theory, it’s a great idea. In practice, since the shuttle doesn’t go anywhere near as fast as a drop pod fired from a mag launcher, any kind of serious ground-to-orbit defenses are going to tear the shit out the assault force. Now, the Navy figured this out pretty damned fast, and they came up with a solution that, in typical Navy fashion, takes the simple and extremely explosive route to problem solving: fire a shit-ton of rounds at anything that might possibly shoot at the assault shuttles. This would be fine, except to get concealed emplacements, the rounds have to fall pretty much just before the pods land. See where this is going? A two-stage assault landing means that the Marines unfortunate enough to be in the lead, an honor me and mine were lucky enough to receive, are hitting the ground about two minutes after the ground in question has been pulverized by fusion shells, kinetic energy weapons, HVMs, gigawatt masers, and singularity warheads, all of which are going off as the pods are falling. It’s a lot like being stuck in a small can in a tornado, except that tornado is on fire and full of things actively trying to kill you. Having done four or five or these things, I can say with certainty that no one actually enjoys them, including the complete head cases who claim they do.

“Marines,” I said. “You may recognize that our pods are currently aboard an assault shuttle. Those of you who have done this before will immediately realize what this means. For the edification of those of you who have not had the pleasure, this is going to be a two-stage drop following suppression of enemy air defense. That means we are going to land after the enemy has had a few gigatons of whoop-ass put on them by the Fleet. Remember: your armor and your pod are, in fact, quite capable of keeping the radiation and heat from killing you. As to the turbulence, remember that your armor is capable of administering anti-nausea medication. Take advantage of that if you like, no one will think less of you for not wanting to fill the vase as you fall through a hurricane of fire. Acknowledged?”

A chorus of “Let’s do this!” “OORAH!” and “Oh fuck, this again?” met my ears, as well as the odd terrified whimper from some of the new guys. Me, I grabbed a quick nap in my jump armor, as did some of the veterans. It would be a solid half hour before we actually reached the atmosphere, our shuttle cold-coasting along with dozens of others from the fleet to avoid detection as we headed toward the planet, the mag-launch catapult rails on the fleet carriers firing us like javelins at the dirtball below.

The pilot’s calm, casual voice woke me up. “Marines, we have almost reached your departure point. As you exit the aircraft, please check for any belongings you may have left behind. There will be no reboarding the aircraft. We are expecting some moderate turbulence before landing, so please buckle in. Thank you for choosing Air Marine Corps for your travel needs. We hope you have enjoyed your flight and remember us for future planetary assaults. Green light in five.” I checked the clamps quickly, making sure my gear and I were secured, as we all chuckled at the pilot’s remarks. The shuttle shuddered, shook, and twisted, dodging debris and incoming fire. On the Heads-Up Display in my helmet, I could see the whole formation of assault shuttles, dodging and weaving about each other in seemingly random maneuvers that would, to a computerized aiming system, combine with the cloud of ECM chaff and decoys around us, create too many potential targets to reliably hit actual shuttle. Here and there a particularly lucky gunner or unlucky pilot resulted in a missile or cannon round hitting a shuttle, sometimes downing the target. Generally, though, we made it through the outer atmosphere and launched from the shuttle.

There’s a certain feeling associated with a combat drop. Part of you feels the falling, another actually feels like you’re going up as you slow down after the mag rails launch you. On two-stage assaults there’s also a shitload of turbulence from the atmosphere. Then the rockets on the drop pod fire and everything shakes like crazy. Finally, you hit the turbulence layer from the bombs hitting dirtside and everything goes to shit. The pod actually turns off for a few minutes as you fall, as the decoys, two or three for every pod, turn on, along with ten or twelve unpowered ones, so the defenses can’t target you. It’s actually pretty rare to lose a drop pod in terminal phase, at least in the New Jefferson Marines. The drogue chute pops, the repulsors kick in, and you have about three seconds until it hits the ground. There’s a hell of a shock, even through the ballistic gel wrapped around you to keep your bones from shattering like twigs from the sheer force of the impact.

The explosive bolts blasted the front hatch off the pod and I jumped out. I hollered into the comm pickup into my helmet. “All right, Marines, we’re dirtside! Getchur asses in gear and move! GO GO GO!” Rifle in hand, I sprinted toward the nearest target. Our objective was a major hardened starport where the Orion League were landing their supplies and artillery, defended by Avalon regular infantry backed by heavy troops from the Athenian Republic. I was proud to see all of my Marines alive and sprinting toward the target right alongside me. We didn’t have artillery support and orbital couldn’t hit the target, as we needed it intact to land the heavier stuff, but we did have air support. SF-103 Falcon fighters screamed overhead, riding the tail of the barrage that supported our landing. The enemy were dug in in a network of trenches and bunkers all around the port, backed up by massive bunkers of artillery built into the artificial butte which supported the port itself. The first line of trenches disappeared in a fiery hell of thermobaric munitions, micro-HVM cluster pods, and autocannon fire, as explosions blossomed across the cliff face where artillery bunkers had been moments before. The return fire tore two Falcons out of the air, one pilot bailing out just ahead of the fireball while the other guided his crippled aircraft to a hard landing in Army of Meridian territory several kilometers to the west.

We advanced at a dead run, firing on enemy soldiers as they popped their heads up from the trenches and opened fire. Machine guns opened up from surviving bunkers, only to be silenced by Marine snipers and heavy weapons teams. To my right, a heavy weapons team set up their field artillery gun, a 20mm tripod-mounted anti-armor railgun, and opened fire on the bunkers, each round blowing apart a fortification and destroying whatever weapon inside it. Up the cliff, the massive blossoms of fire from heavy artillery weapons marked the launch of huge shells that landed among our charging force. With satellite telemetry and enhanced reflexes, we actually had time to dodge the incoming rounds. There are few feelings like actually ducking a 300 millimeter high explosive round as it skims the ground at head height to explode behind you to make you feel like the god of war. Still, the advance was not without casualties, and a few dozen Marines were left on the field, some dead, others too badly wounded to continue running. As we vaulted the first line of barricades that made up the wall of the first fortification line, other wounded Marines sheltered in the remains of the bunkers, including the first of ours to go down. PFC Buckley had almost managed to dodge a shell, but a wobble as it left the barrel had caused it to clip him in the arm as it passed, not enough to detonate but sufficient to rip most of his left shoulder from his body. To his credit, he had kept hold of his rifle as he ran, staggered over the lip of the trench, and only then collapsed, Suarez reaching him and half helping, half carrying him to the nearest now-empty bunker and applying a medical nanite bandage. Suarez himself had done well for a rookie, dropping four Avalon regulars and taking on an Athenian heavy phalanx trooper for the bunker. The phalanx in question lay dead, his immense spear-rifle hybrid weapon lying next to him and Suarez’s combat knife embedded in his gut, his ballistic shield stuck halfway through his throat. Suarez had taken a round to the abdomen. Over his objections, I told him to accompany Buckley when medevac came.

We pushed forward on the second trench line. Another round of air strikes tore apart the emplaced defenses. Somewhere during our charge, the Fleet had broken through the Orion League fleet overhead, and the Marine Assault Ship CNS Wolf’s Head was in low orbit with several gun platforms deployed. Now, they used data collected during our first assault run to locate all of the enemy’s artillery in the bluff and knock out their guns from orbit. The big Precision Bombardment drones dropped in and blew the guns to shit. A PBD, for the edification of the viewing public, is a big-ass heat shield can full of single-shot railguns with thruster packs. It falls through the atmosphere, breaks apart, and all the one-shot railguns aim at preset targets, orient themselves, and fire. Essentially, it’s a literal can of whoop-ass. They dropped four of them, then we charged again. This time, the enemy was at least somewhat ready for us. We suppressed them and went over the top, shooting as we ran, then jumped into the trenches. I landed on an Avalon regular, casually knocking the poor bastard aside with my rifle as I popped the bayonet blades out the sides of my rifle, two pieces of memory metal that swing out from sockets next to the barrel into the two blades of a spear flanking the muzzle and sticking about thirty centimeters out. Some folks carry actual blades, but I like the versatility of bayonets so I can stab one guy, shoot the next one, and punch the third in the face without ever having to change weapons. Two more Imperial troopers ran at me, the idiots. Never rush a guy in powered armor when you’re wearing a uniform that wouldn’t be out of place back in the 1800s and light ballistic armor. It doesn’t end well. I shot one and bayoneted the other as I moved, opening fire on the troops down the line. It must have been a few hours we went on like this, take a trench, hunker down, wait for the shells to tear the shit out of the next line, then jump over the top and hit the next trench with guns blazing. Every line a few more went down. Damn, but I can’t forget the men we lost, even though I’ve lost so many more. Jones, Alden. Corporal. KIA. Hit by a laser artillery gun, tore him right in half. Candes, Sarah. Private First Class. KIA. Stabbed by an Athenian phalanx trooper, spear punched clean through a hole left by a piece of shrapnel and into her heart, bled out before medics could arrive. Ramirez, Tony. Lieutenant. KIA. Decapitated by a minigun an Avalon team had concealed until then so the air strikes wouldn’t get it. Lannahan, Timothy. Private First Class. KIA. Critically wounded by a grenade, medevac shuttle destroyed by a heavy artillery weapon, no survivors. Al Rachman, Rashid. Lance Corporal. KIA. Sniper fire from up the bluff.

When we hit the base of the bluff, we were all burned out. Still, Command ordered us on, harder and faster. They dropped us another wave of drop troops to reinforce us, pulled back the units that were too damaged to go on, and we kept moving, up into the bluff. The bad news was that now we were in a warren of tunnels and caves pre-prepared by the defenders for just this event. The good news was that all their best troops were dead out in the trenches, a hundred dead for every new name to etch on the Obsidian Wall back on Midgard. Another five hours of brutal combat, though our squad lost no more killed in action. I can’t tell you how unbelievably good it felt to reach the top of the bluff. The last of the defenders were holed up in the terminal area of the port, claiming they had a nuclear weapon they would detonate if we attempted to storm the place. I gotta say, Commodore Masters had a pair on him. His response was one word: “Try.” Then he ordered kinetic shells dropped on the terminal, precision strikes destroying the bomb and decapitating the leaders now that they were in a structure that the strikes could penetrate. The rest surrendered in short order. I pulled off my helmet, as did my men. Janacek was holding her rifle in one hand, leaning on an Athenian lance-rifle to hold herself up on a bad leg. I had lost three fingers on my artificial hand and had a nasty round to the leg. Suarez had rejoined us with the reinforcements, patched up and apparently threatening to start shooting if they didn’t let him back down. That right there, I thought, is a man on his way to being one hell of a good Marine. Sula and Johnson sat down on the hard ground, no longer able to stand. Samuels, cold as always, sat down and started repacking his magazines, apparently unconcerned about the nanite bandage holding his arm in place.

I had just lit my cigar and broken open a field ration pack, watching the heavy lifter shuttles come to ground and disgorge Marines, supplies, and equipment sufficient to finish securing the port and set up a major FOB, when a Navy corvette roared down and set down on the platform. The hatch opened and SOCOM Marines marched out, scanning the surroundings quickly before moving toward the hangars and lift toward the cargo area, where enemy forces still held out in small pockets. A small team of EID operatives in their distinctive black armor that constantly shifted minutely to somehow reflect no light while directing the eye elsewhere formed up, followed by a man of average height in obviously customized armor. Normal Marine battledress is a sheer thickening fluid-laced skinsuit under digicam powered armor set to a pattern built for the environment from recon scans, the interlocking plates and bands of the armor covering the wearer entirely in flexible, muscle-enhancing plates of polymer. Over that, ground troopers wear an armor-enhanced overcoat with a hood that serves as additional concealment, thermal masking, armor, and protection against hostile environment wear on the armor, but fabric and drop pods don’t mix so well. This guy was wearing black and silver with a broad golden slash down the left arm and the unit crest painted on the chest. His overcoat was black as well, while his helmet was stylized texturing and paint to resemble a raven’s head. There was no mistaking him, even without the famous twin machetes and immense heavy assault rifle worn across his back: Colonel Thomas Siggismund, current commander of the 2nd Division. His honor guard lined up beside him, Marines in customized armor like his but with silver stripe rather than gold. It looked very ceremonial, but anyone who thought these boys were soft would be dead before they realized their mistake. Zero Platoon, as they were called by tradition, were handpicked Marines who had demonstrated not only bravery and skill in battle, but also an almost preternatural eye for traps and unconventional attacks. Every division had one, though no one knew who the Zeroes from other regiments were.

I stood to attention immediately as my men made motions to hastily stand to. Colonel Siggismund pulled off his helmet and motioned us to relax. “Men and women of 1st Company, today I gave you the impossible task of taking a heavily fortified position purely with orbitally dropped units. As you probably know, this is something that military theory claims is not possible. Well, fuck theory. Everyone knows that for Marines, the difficult is easy, while the impossible merely takes slightly longer. My military planners told me you could pull it off, and you have far exceeded even my lofty expectations of your performance.” There were scattered chuckles at that. The Raven of Midgard, as Colonel Siggismund had long been called since he tamed a massive raven during a survival exercise in training, was famous for his tendency to find ways for his Marines to achieve things so utterly insane that it simply never occurred to the enemy to defend against them. “The rest of our division is landing as we speak, using this landing pad you so helpfully procured for them. They will take over securing the plateau and setting up. Soon, we will join with the remaining New Interstellar Federation units on this planet in a final push to drive the Orion League off this planet, and I know damned well that I can no more keep every one of you who can still move from joining that offensive than I can wave my arms and make this planet any less of a shithole, so I am not even going to bother trying, though I will say that any Marine who is unfit for combat is to report immediately to medical personnel. No one will think less of you for taking the time to get fixed up, and there will be plenty more battles to fight. I will provide you more details as we have them, but until then, you are to relax, grab some chow, and rest. There will be time enough for battle. Pay your respects to those who did not make it this far, but remember them as they lived, and let their spirits live on in you. Company, DISMISSED!”

Excerpt from From Hellas to Callas: a History of Callas Rift by Paraskeve Kokinos, Published 2584, Antikythera City, Telluria, Callas Rift, UFMR

The incorporation of Callas Rift into the Union of Free Martian Republics, despite its founder utterly detesting it, can be linked to the newly democratic system of government instated by the revolutionaries such as Sanna; the Egalitarian Party backed the annexation most fervently. However, the Meritocrats were also willing to support it for different reasons and in a far more tempered manner.

What the UFMR offered in the 2360s was a sense of safety, first and foremost, the very same thing it offered to so many other worlds that the Union annexed. The contacting of Callas Rift by the rest of humanity in 2312 by the Sandhurst civilian explorer ship the Juilliard, and from there the opening of diplomatic relations between Callas Rift and Sandhurst, and from there other nations of inhabited space, sent shockwaves throughout the Callasian political world; their splendid isolation had been destroyed and their worldview shattered.

As they contacted other worlds, naturally a variety of ne'er-do-wells made their way to the worlds of the Rift, a name increasingly becoming an anachronism as the formerly titanic distance was being spanned by intrepid pilots. The token defense force staffed by the Rift had been expanded to three times its initial size due to fear of hostile attack, and so in 2362 this fear would become painfully true for the Callasian government. Pirates, led by Tamara Weierbach, a noted pirate captain of the time onboard her ship the Lemniscatus, attacked the world in a massive raid.

Orbital bombardment weaponry was rare among pirates during the time but contraband items for such a purpose was very possible if certain costs could be paid. Weierbach, rich as she was, was able to afford them from backers that are still being hunted for by the Martian Bureau of Civic Order. Her weaponry, seized from raided colonies Martian or otherwise were more powerful than the Callasian weaponry by a good deal more; it was then that the Callasians realized the full extent of the retardation of their scientific development and hence defense development caused by the isolation preached by their founders.

It was then the Callasian forces issued a request for help to whoever would listen; the closest fleet was a Martian one, led by the F.M.S.S. Giovanni Domenico Cassini and its Admiral Tri Agung. Agreeing to help fight pirates, widely seen as enemies of the Martian state, he brought his fleet to Callas Rift and destroyed the fleet over it. Acknowledging that the state of the Rift defenses could not withstand another attack, sentiment to join the UFMR increased substantially, beginning the route to annexation in 2402.


Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, August 2593

BREAKING: PRESIDENT CHEUNG ASSASSINATED
KILLED IN BOMB BLAST AT PRESIDENTIAL PALACE

LOCKE HIVE - President Lazaro Cheung has been assassinated by an unknown assailant who detonated a bomb in the Vanguard's Office in the Presidential Palace.

The entire Union of Free Martian Republics is now mourning the death of the nation's beloved president, who has been temporarily replaced by Vice President Fiorella Naismith until a successor can be chosen. Speaker of the Assembly Orlando Upton has declared a week's mourning throughout Union space and for all flags to be flown at half-mast for that duration. He is expected to have a state funeral in Locke Hive, and then be transported back to his homeworld of Cosmogorsk to be buried with full honors befitting a Martian President.

Responses from the international community have been profoundly sympathetic towards the loss of the President; Emperor Ulrich XXXI of New Innsbruck has declared a national day of mourning in his country, as have President Armand Sinclair of Waltonshaven and Premier Ling Wen of Zunyi. Further messages of support have come from New Valais, New Tunis, and other smaller states, and even the Executive Council of the Alliance of Independent Colonies and the Congress of New Jefferson have issued token statements. The galaxy mourns the loss of a blessed statesman.

Technicians and investigators from the Locke Hive Police have been searching for the cause, means, and planter of the bomb, but the investigation is still ongoing and the perpetrator has not been found. Blangorodna Danchevna, the chief investigator for the incident, has only said that the police will be doing all they can to "bring justice to the terrorist who did this."

Speaker of the Assembly Upton and the rest of the Assembly are currently trying to find a successor to Cheung; whoever is chosen is likely to be from the Liberation Party, but which branch, hawkish or dovish, is uncertain. Some have called for noted pacifist in the Liberation Party Tatiana Cisneros to become President while others have offered Jeremy Nyambal to do the same. Still others, including Upton himself, have thought of giving the position to either Carlton Dioso, Secretary of Civic Order, or Lamia Mammadova, Secretary of Defense, for the position. "We need a president who will bring justice to the Martian people," said Upton to the press. "It would be treason to do anything else."


Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, August 2593

DIOSO ELECTED PRESIDENT BY ASSEMBLY
PROMISES 'SWIFT PUNISHMENT OF TERRORISTS'

LOCKE HIVE - After a secret vote in the Assembly Chamber in the Union capitol in Locke Square, the Assembly of the Union of Free Martian Republics voted Carlton Dioso, Secretary of Civic Order, to replace the recently assassinated Lazaro Cheung, as President of the Union. Sponsored by hawkish members of the Liberation Party, including Speaker of the Assembly Orlando Upton, Dioso was elected in a 1571-429 vote with none abstaining.

The vast majority of the Liberation Party voted to affirm him as the President of the Union, while more peaceable members of the Party, in addition to a slew of minor parties and independents, voted against him. These minor parties include the Peripheral Alliance, the Mars First Party, the Party for Social Equity, and others. However, the dominance of the Liberation Party has allowed it to elect Dioso without serious opposition.

Dioso was formally sworn in by Supreme Justice Christina Vastano in a mass rally in Locke Hive. In his inauguration speech, he declared that he would:

"Crack down with the terrorist elements within our society. The painful truth that many here do not want to admit is that these terroristic influences have corrupted our government with direct backing from foreign powers."

The last comment is tied directly to the recent New Jeffersonian intervention on Alnitak; New Jeffersonian agents are now prime suspects in the BCO investigation of President Cheung's assassination. In his speech, Dioso demanded that the other parties in the Assembly yield to the Liberation Party line and support a "heavy-handed intervention against terrorists and foreigners in our Union."

Especially controversial is his stance that there should be no prisoners taken from rebel groups. "They must be given Tarleton's Quarter," he stated bluntly, "as they have given us. The only language that they speak is force, and so we must address them as such."

Such a heavy-handed response has been criticized by Bathsheba Ezzarati, the leader of the Peripheral Alliance in the Assembly, representing a district on Saint Lucy. She does so in direct defiance of the command by the President to follow the Liberation Party; she says that it is due to a "commitment to peace and to justice in the Periphery and throughout the inhabited Galaxy," she said in a press conference after the speech. "We will fight to the ends of known space for the Union, and we will surrender to no power bloc."

Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, August 2593

EZZARATI, OTHER OPPOSITION LEADERS ARRESTED BY PEACEKEEPERS
CHARGED WITH INCITING TERRORISM

LOCKE HIVE - All throughout Locke Hive and the Republics of Planet Mars, forces of the Peacekeepers, under direct orders from President Carlton Dioso, stormed the headquarters of the Peripheral Alliance, the Mars First Party, and the Party for Social Equity, and arrested key leaders of all of the parties in the Assembly, including their assemblypeople, such as Bathsheba Ezzarati, the leader of the Peripheral Alliance in the Assembly. This has been justified in Dioso's announcement to the press by invoking Article 32 of the Martian Constitution, which allows the abrogation of certain political and social liberties in times of crisis. Dioso said the following:

"To say that these times are something other than a crisis is tantamount to treason. It is a perfect example of the times that Article 32 should be invoked."

Early yesterday morning Peacekeeper armored and infantry formations left their local emplacements and moved to the headquarters of these parties and arrested all of those in the offices. These people include Bathsheba Ezzarati, Oleg Tomsky, Anathasios Argyis, of the Peripheral Alliance, and Peter Wycombe, Vitaly Arnold, Tamara DiLorenzo, and Stephanie Cadwallader of Mars First, and Dores Abreu, Yigit Uzun, Charles Orpington, and Lydia Villefranche of the Party for Social Equity, as well as, among others, independents Sinclair Peters, Alim Zimmerman, Clementina Kelsey, Kean Slane, and Alisa Gatti.

BCO spokespeople have said that all of these parties have direct links to foreign powers, such as New Jefferson and the AIC, as well as links to terrorist groups in the Periphery. "Ezzarati herself said that she sympathized with Torvald," said Catalina Kensit, a high ranking officer of the BCO, referring to the terrorist leader Daniel Torvald, currently leading an insurrection on Olympia. "We have uncovered links between the Peripheral Alliance and Torvald; they were scheming to take down the Union itself, breaking it into a hundred small states so New Jefferson and the AIC could feast on the remains!" continued Kensit.

Dioso invoked the emergency powers invested within the President of the Union as per Article 32 to order the arrest of these individuals, and then banned the parties from functioning within the Union for perpetuity. "This is necessary for the continued health and strength of Martian democracy and the preservation of Civic Order. There is no reason for these parties to exist any longer if they are to support the Union's downfall."

Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, August 2593

ASSEMBLY DECLARES WAR ON NEW JEFFERSON

LOCKE HIVE - The Union of Free Martian Republics is now at war. At 10:00 P.M. last night the Assembly voted, with the support of President Carlton Dioso, Secretary of Defense Lamia Mammadova, and Speaker of the Assembly Orlando Upton, in a vast majority to declare war on the New Jefferson Confederation, which has already sponsored raids on the Martian held world of Alnitak near the boundary between our two nations.

In the debate surrounding the declaration of war, the bill's sponsor, Kinsey Spellman (L-Eloper's World), gave a rousing speech to the assembly in which she decried the "appalling violation of Martian sovereignty" undertaken by the New Jefferson Armed Forces. After the conclusion of the vote, Spellman was cheered with thunderous applause from all members of the Assembly sans a few dissenters who question the right of our Union to territorial integrity.

Secretary of Defense Mammadova has announced that the Interstellar Liberation Force will be roused from the various worlds of the Union to defend Alnitak from the New Jeffersonians, who are currently engaging local ILF units as well as forces under the command of other Martian government agencies. These forces include some of the most powerful ships in the ILF. Among the more controversial aspects of the plan are the possible redeployment of the F.M.S.S. Spartacus, the command ship around Earth that is preventing the powers on that planet from going on another rampage against Mars and the rest of civilized space.

Nevertheless, popular perception of the declaration of war has been overwhelmingly positive; enlistment into the ILF throughout the Union has spiked, according to ILF statistics offices located on various worlds sent to and compiled on Mars proper. Rallies have been held throughout the Union in support of the stricken citizens of Alnitak, and these have often been recruitment drives for the ILF.

President Dioso addressed an assemblage of recruits in Montesquieu Hive today, who are due to be shipped out to the Periphery within a week. "You are the guardians of the spirit that the founders of this nation brought to this planet centuries ago. You fight for a noble goal that goes back millennia: the cause of human freedom. To the New Jeffersonians, give them no quarter, for they are the enemies of human freedom from which the founders' fled." His speech, full of praise for the armed forces, also had within it a stern warning for the rebels currently causing trouble in the Periphery:

"Any rebel who tries to interfere with the waging of this war will be killed without hesitation, and any rebel organization that tries to interfere will be hunted down tot the last lowly follower. Any world that dares break away from Mars and not participate will have any vestige of civilization on it reduced to cinders, as was Mundo de Zapata a century ago."

Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, September 2593

BREAKING - RIOTS ON TABRIZ - REPUBLIC DECLARES INDEPENDENCE

DAVACHI, TABRIZ - Rioters on the world of Tabriz in the Republic of the same name broke into an ILF encampment in the city of Tabriz when the Interstellar Liberation Force set up an operating location en route to Alnitak, the world being invaded by the New Jefferson Confederation and thusly a belligerent against the Union.

Tabriz was founded in 2276 when a group of settlers from the Earth nation of Iran bought a colony expedition from Montesquieu Astronautics and settled far from human civilization. Iran was near multiple Earth Powers and within the military grasp of all four of them, and was fearful of an invasion by the Union State or the Greater American Commonwealth. Settlers to Tabriz were desiring a life free from the carnage and war that the Earth Powers inflicted, and continue to inflict, upon the home planet of the human species. The planet was incorporated into the Union in 2421 when an ILF convoy found the world being besieged by pirates. The ILF saved the world and subsequently the world joined the UFMR in a desire for safety. Men and women of Tabriz were loyal members of the ILF during the Galactic Wars and during various other conflicts during the 25th century.

The city of Davachi is the largest city in the Republic of Tabriz, while the city of Golshahr is the capital. Tabriz, a desert world that is undergoing terraforming, is the only world with residential settlements. Within the Tabriz system there is the mining world of Mossadegh and the gas giant of Simorgh, the latter with an extraction facility run by Sunderland and Pisarenko Gases, owned by Union Financial, and a major employer in the system.

The Peripheral Alliance has a long history on Tabriz; the member of the Assembly for the world, Mustafa Lentin, has been in the Assembly for forty years and was arrested for supporting anti-Union activity by the BCI during the recent crackdown. Lentin voted against the Hargreave act, which allows for the usage of ILF units against domestic insurgencies against the government. The Republic government has been run by the Peripheral Alliance for decades and is widely seen as corrupt and a prime example of machine politics.

Rioters stormed the base after raiding a Peacekeeper armory in Tabriz, killing guards and destroying large amounts of hardware. They broke into one of the barracks of the encampment and slaughtered the soldiers in their sleep; the other barracks were altered and entered combat with the rioters, killing twelve before being overrun. The base commandant, Anatoly Crawford of the ILF, ordered an evacuation from the base, the only one on the planet, and held out until the F.M.S.S. New Harbin descended from orbit and extracted the force.

Shortly thereafter, the entire riot was revealed to be staged when the President of the republic, Faris Gocal, formally declared Tabrizian independence in a session of the Republic Assembly in Golshahr. In his address, broadcasted on hypernet channels, he spoke of the "rightful independence of our people that the Martian government has no right to question or doubt." ILF units originally stationed on Tabriz and staffed with Tabrizian crews were converted into units of the Tabrizian Self-Defense Force.

Tabriz is the second entity to break away from Mars in the recent crisis; the New Interstellar Federation, a ragtag assembly of the worlds of Alnitak, New Haverhill, Bogomolovogorsk, and Ajmer, was the first, its secession prompted by what is believed to be New Jeffersonian secret agents also responsible for the assassination of President Lazaro Cheung.

President of the Union Carlton Dioso has made it very clear that the secession of the New Interstellar Federation and Tabriz will be met with "force beyond reckoning" by the ILF, something which has been affirmed by Admiral Dragotin Vukoja, the commander of the forces sent to reclaim Alnitak from the intervening New Jeffersonians.

Excerpt from the Martian Free Press, October 2593

The Peripheral Crisis: An Overview of the Situation

The situation unfolding in the Periphery is a confusing one for the average busy Martian. Of the hundreds of Republics of the Union, including those from the outer edges of the periphery, the average Martian citizen will likely only know the one that they live in, the ones nearby, the important core worlds, and ones in the news. Hence, there exists a necessity to dispel confusion in a concise description of the situation.

The current crisis goes back to the Third Galactic War, when New Jeffersonian Admiral Carla Rawlins invaded the Periphery and destroyed military bases, spaceports, and other important military and civilian infrastructure. After Rawlins did the damage that she did, Emperor Horace Gand the 49th invaded the region and unleashed havoc upon the innocent civilians there. In subsequent years, the governments of these republics tried to rebuild their planets.

However, such plans were hampered due to the fact that the governments of the republics of the region, already poor by Union standards, could not raise sufficient funds support reclamation efforts. Many worlds experimented with higher local taxes; this had the effect of stifling local businesses. The Union Assembly was too busy with other matters, mainly with the political fallout of the Third Galactic War, and thusly the worlds continued to be backwaters in comparison to the Core Worlds.

The Peripheral Alliance, founded in 2467 to support the interests of the peripheral worlds, has made it its mission to secure funding for the peripheral governments for economic development. The Liberation Party, in charge of the Union government since the First Galactic War, has either dodged attempts for funding or openly declared hostility to the possibility; free-market types in the government have been especially opposed to the idea, while others have been simply ambivalent or concerned with the cost of possible reparations payments.

Protests began breaking out on the Peripheral worlds two years ago when the member of the Assembly for the Republic of Saint Lucy, Bathsheba Ezzarati, went on a speaking tour throughout the periphery as well as Core World locales, where she radicalized large amounts of people in favor of reparation payments. Soon, protests began breaking out on the worlds of the periphery as the issue of reparation payments began becoming more in the public conscience.

In September, the worlds of Alnitak, New Haverhill, Bogomolovogorsk, and Ajmer, four worlds in close proximity to each other and the boundary with the New Jefferson Confederation, named for a defunct agglomeration of worlds that existed in the 2300s before being defeated by pirates and then integrated into the Union, declared their independence as the New Interstellar Federation. The president of the new state, Jeremiah Berhe, said that Locke Hive's 'transgressions' "have gone on for far too long. We must secede or forever suffer under a Martian bootheel." Soon, ILF and Peacekeeper forces began engaging the NIF's military, causing the New Jefferson Confederation to invade on the pretenses of a humanitarian mission. The ILF forces engaged the New Jeffersonians, beginning the current war.

Later in September, the world of Tabriz seceded for much the same reasons after a riot forced an ILF detachment offworld. President Dioso has vowed revenge; he is particularly opposed to secessionists and the New Jeffersonians as his predecessor, Lazaro Cheung, was assassinated by either a peripheral extremist or a New Jeffersonian agent.

Excerpt from Androktasiai: a History of the UFMR's Weapons of Mass Destruction by Maynard Yohannes, published 2582, Pendleton, New Jefferson.

The great tragedy of the UFMR is not the end of democracy that so many have extolled as the great end, the tragedy of human history, that such a beautiful dream be crushed by the imperialist desires of men and women. It is the repealing of Article Sixteen of the Martian Constitution, which read:

"The Martian state shall never have control of nuclear, biological, chemical, or other weapons of mass destruction, for they are anathema to the idea that this Republic was founded upon."

Rigby and Tamboli and all the other founders were intent on the creation of a peaceful state, one that would serve as a beacon of hope for humanity. And for a while, it did. However, humans being what they are, the arrival of what would come to be the First Galactic War would cause the death of what was likely the only thing holding Martian democracy in place.

During the war it was rendered necessary for hacking into the Earth Powers' unified satellite defense system. This decision's exact circumstances are still heavily classified and likely kept in a top-secret facility in the asteroid belt in the Sol system, so an exact historical analysis of events is impossible in our time. However, it is known that it was decided to do so and use the weapons on major Earth cities. In classified sessions, the Martian Assembly voted to undertake this plan; however, comments by Supreme Court Justice Ariah Dunning said that this constituted a violation of Article Sixteen.

President Tsukino then proposed to the Assembly, through one of her loyal acolytes in the Assembly, Piotir Hil, a bill that, if passed, repeal Article Sixteen and allow for the operation to take place. Many, such as Adrian Guillemette, argued passionately against this wartime measure as they argued against other expansions of the power of the state; he gave a famous statement in a thunderous speech to the Assembly:

"Repeal this article and you will have the blood of Martian democracy on you hands. Repeal this article and you will have made the Union the very thing that it was founded to oppose. Repeal this article and you will be remembered as no better than the members of the US Congress that signed the Defense of Liberty Act. Repeal this article and consign yourselves to become masters of the slaves that were once the Martian people."

[...]

The end of the First Galactic War left the question of what would be done with the weapons now that the Earth Powers were soundly defeated. There was no question that they would fall under Locke Hive's control, but what afterwards was unsure. Many in the Martian Self-Defense Force argued for the creation of a Martian nuclear arsenal, that would be first created with newly claimed Earth orbital weaponry now mounted on ships, and later the creation of their own weapons. This was approved by President Richard Sartre, who was a member of the Assembly during the war and another supporter of Noriko Tsukino.

The first nuclear armed ship in the Martian fleet was the F.M.S.S. Sun Yat-Sen, launched from Liberty Shipyards in Jefferson Hive. Other ships soon followed, and were sent out in coming decades to the Periphery to enforce the will of the UFMR to younger nations. Rarely were nuclear weapons actually used; they were weapons of terror first and foremost.

The first exception to this rule was the world of Qaraghandy, which was run by a particularly isolationist dictator not willing to sign an economic agreement with Martian diplomats, eventually expressing his displeasure with the state of affairs by having his small fleet down a ship carrying important Martian officials, including the Secretary of State El-Hadji Norton. The Admiral defending the ship, Johanna Campellone, was in command of a nuclear ship, the F.M.S.S. Alexis de Tocqueville, and judged that the planet likely had weapons of mass destruction leftover from the First Galactic War. The planet's capital went up in flames.