Sol Alliance

General

The Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations (ASSN), commonly referred to as SolGov, the Sol Alliance, and sometimes the Alliance, is a federal union of 125 member state star systems, and 212 dependencies, which themselves can vary between undeveloped star systems, outposts on asteroids, or even micro-nation space stations. The capital of the Sol Alliance is the bustling Unity Station in orbit over Earth. 52 Alliance states and 25 dependencies are located within the Inner Colonies. The remaining dependencies are located within the Mid Colonies and outer colonies. With control of hundreds of systems and a large population of about 20.8 billion, the Sol Alliance is by far the largest nation within all of known space. It is arguably the most culturally and linguistically diverse entity within known space, owing primarily to the age of its colonies and its control over the Sol system and Earth.

Economics

The economy of the Sol Alliance is dominated almost entirely by the biggest four megacorporations: Nanotrasen, Einstein Engines, Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, and Hesphaistos Industries. Nanotrasen is the largest of these mega-corporations, utilizing its monopoly on plasma to keep the Sol Alliance firmly reliant on them for intergalactic travel.

The Alliance never fully recovered from the Second Great Depression of 2260. That economic collapse and the resulting civil war left confidence in the Alliance economy extremely shaky. The Alliance has an extremely condensed cycle of boom and bust, with a brief year of growth followed by two years of recession, on average. This is partially the reason that trans-stellar corporations are so powerful and influential: With Sol Alliance bonds or ventures radically decentralized and untrustworthy, the resilient economic strength of trans-stellar corporations makes them a much more lucrative investment.

The prosperity of the Alliance is extremely centralized to the inner colonies, most notably the Sol system, which benefit from their proximity to Earth and being the commercial and industrial centers. Farther away from Sol, the average wealth of systems gradually decrease. The frontier of the Sol Alliance territory tend to be far less wealthy than the inner colonies. In some extreme cases, travel to and from these systems can be made difficult as maintenance of bluespace beacons or shuttle services are the responsibility of individual systems. The only assurance in all Alliance systems is the presence of the federally funded Extranet post-service, allowing messages, if not people, to go from one end of the Alliance to the other, and the tax office.

Politics

Overview

The Sol Alliance operates as a hybrid between a Federal Democracy and Westminister system, while at the same time also being an alliance between systems, hence its name. Being the result of original negotiations on Earth to create a new world order between over a hundred nations, including the former United Nations, and the resulting few hundred years of development has left the Alliance government a nearly impenetrable labyrinth of complexity and seeming hypocrisies. An ongoing joke by seasoned politicians is that no one elected to an office actually knows what they're doing.

Current Ruling Parties

The current ruling party came into power after the Unathi Crisis of June 2457 sparked a snap election. The election saw a radical shift in the political climate of the Sol Alliance, with GAIA and ATLAS forming a coalition that currently holds 73% of seats in the Alliance Parliament, and 65% of the seats in the Alliance Senate. This gives it a super majority in the Parliament and Senate, effectively seizing control of the entire Alliance legislator. Their coalition appointed Miles Theodore Chater as their choice for Prime Minister, with him becoming the Prime Minister of the Sol Alliance on June 30th, 2457.

GAIA, also known as Earth and Ares Initiative Associated, holds 44% of the seats in Parliament and 33% of the seats in the Senate. A party founded by Gregory Theadore Miles on the 22th of April, 2447 with a primary agenda of furthering the prosperity and ensuring survival of humanity, concentrating on the places where majority resides. They seek to investments and regulations on Alliance economy, wanting to decrease the overall power and economic significance of mega-corporations.

ATLAS, also known as the Sol National Union, holds 29% of the seats in Parliament and 32% in the Senate. The party was founded early in the creation of the Alliance, and its mission and platform has slowly evolved. Now the mandate of ATLAS is a "human first" policy, stressing the importance of human supremacy in the galaxy for the greater prosperity and safety of mankind. They have strong grassroots support in the outer colonies, and their coalition with GAIA have given them a very strong voice in the federal government.

The Worker's Party, which holds 11% of the seats in Parliament and 15% in the Senate, is a coalition of socialists, communists, and anti-megacorporation advocates that seek radical unionization and the dismantling of the major galactic monopolies.

The Utopian Front is the last major party, which holds 16% of the seats in Parliament and 19% of the seats in the Senate. They seek equal integration of all alien species into the Sol Alliance, increased regulation on mega-corporations, and peaceful coexistance with other major galactic factions.

Branches of Government

The Sol Alliance's federal government is divided into three branches of government, and their relationship with one another is incredibly complex, but the basics have much in common with 21st century federalism.

The Executive Branch

The Executive Branch is based on Unity Station in orbit of Earth. It carries out and enforces laws passed by the legislative branch. It includes the president, vice president, the Cabinet, executive departments, independent agencies, and other boards, commissions, and committees.

Alliance citizens do not directly elect the Prime Minister. Parties appoint a representative from within their party to represent them as candidate for Prime Minister, and that representative becomes Prime Minister if their party wings the majority of seats in Parliament or, during a tie, they enter a coalition with another party to gain the majority.

The current Prime Minister of the Sol Alliance is Miles Theodore Chater, a member of the GAIA party. He won a contested election in June of 2457 during snap elections during the Unathi Crisis. He won with his platform of "humanity first", though more moderate than the ATLAS platform.

The Judicial Branch

The judicial branch interprets the meaning of laws, applies laws to individual cases, and decides if laws violate Alliance law.

The judicial branch is comprised of the Alliance Supreme Court and other federal courts.

The Legislative Branch

The legislative branch is made up of the bicameral upper Alliance Senate and lower Parliament, confirms or rejects presidential appointments, and has the authority to declare war.

The Senate is made up of 129 Senators, one from each member state, and four from the Sol System. Each member state elects a single senator to serve a 3 year term. Qualifications for senators are up to individual states. They can be the head of state of the planet or system, or be a single representative elected separate of the local government.

The lower Parliament is made up of 218 representatives, and represents the dependencies of the Sol Alliance. Each dependency has its own governing parliament, and their Prime Minister becomes a Member of Parliament for the federal Parliament, and serve as long as their term as Prime Minister in their respective system. The Prime Minister of the Sol Alliance is, confusingly, also a member of the lower Parliament, and counts as 6 representatives, one for Earth, Mars, Europa, the Moon, and Unity Station, giving him 6 effective votes in the lower parliament, because each of these locations are individual member states of the Alliance.

History

By the 2120's, after overcoming great obstacles in engineering and several nations, Primarily the United States, Russia, China, and Iran, all had managed to establish small colonies on Mars and the moon, while more nations were beginning to tap into the vast wealth of the solar system in what is now called the Second Space Age. However these advances in science had come on the heels of an immense economic crisis; the economy of Earth had collapsed in the Crisis of 2127, which saw world trade halt and the entire world GDP drop by half within three weeks.

This crisis saw many economies go under overnight and nations would cease to exist as their central governments effectively stopped functioning. Civil unrest and upheaval paralyzed what nations were still managing to limp along through crippling energy shortages. Power plants, water treatment centers, tax collection, infrastructure - almost every element of central government disappeared or found itself crippled. Fusion technology had been available for some time but was slow to integrate and miniaturize, the demands far outpaced the supply. The distant martian and lunar colonies saw themselves dragged into complex political disputes as the various nations of Earth began bickering over who owns what parts of the moon and Mars.

The discovery of warp technology in 2130 allowed the few, critically underfunded space programs to coordinate with private companies still functioning to send out probes to other solar systems. Warp technology, which is inferior to modern bluespace technology, had trips take weeks or months compared to modern days or hours. And the immense energy requirements were beyond the capabilities of most single world governments. Nevertheless, the discovery of rich, untapped resource and the startling discovery that solar systems held habitable worlds, all created a new sense of purpose and drive, but there was no feasible way for any nation to utilize this passion.

The United Nations had seen its mandate grow increasingly important and vital since the Crisis of 2127. The supranational organization had been the primary source of deliberation, peacekeeping, and humanitarian assistance to beleaguered nations of Earth. Individual nations had no way of financing their space programs to even begin to dream of colonizing Tau Ceti or expanding into space.

After years of intense negotiations it was finally decided to transform the United Nations into the Sol Alliance. Even if it was out of naked self-interest, the remaining stable governments of Earth recognized that if they didn't pool their resources and sacrifice political independence to a new world government that they would face utter extinction or a return to the iron age.

The Sol Alliance at this time was still managed primarily by the general assembly of the former united nations. Their decisions were binding for all nations in the world, and they were the only organization permitted to own and manage colonies in outer-space, and they created the Standard Credit, backed by fusion energy.

The Trans-Stellar Corporations

By 2155 Sol Alliance colonies had begun to officially become self-sufficient and even create surplus' of many types of goods. Tau Ceti itself became a hub of the limited commerce and trade that was beginning to be fostered between the system and Sol. The Alliance in its early years took an extremely lax approach to interstellar trade; regulations barely exists and those that did were rarely enforced. It was in these early years that the first interstellar corporations began to form. The first major corporations were Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals and Einstein Engines, who dominated the biomedical and industries of Alliance space respectively.

This era also saw the first elements of piracy flare up, necessitating the formation of the Sol Alliance Navy, which found its responsibilities and political clout begin to grow as it became the only source of relief from raiders and pirates from deep space. Despite these challenges, Earth found itself slowly being pulled out of poverty and unrest. The many goods and jobs provided by the growth of orbital industries and interstellar colonization had created both reliable incomes for families and a new confidence in the Sol Alliance. While many still resented the loss of their national identities and independence, major political powers had begun to recognize that their prosperity and social structures relied on this new, if precariously balanced, world order.

The Second Great Depression

New Years on 2260 saw a sudden, massive recession strike the young Sol Alliance. Withdrawing or transferring funds between star systems would take days or weeks, and the Tau Ceti Central Bank had found itself emptied out by a sudden influx of large withdrawals originating from Sol, which depleted their banks and forced them to freeze financial withdrawals. This lead to a panic and a run to the banks as news of the freeze was spread, with many media stations fanning the flames that there was a new economic collapse imminent.

The fears became self-fulfilling. The run on the banks caused the banks to become paralyzed, and the fears caused a massive drop in stock values. The incredibly fragile and complex network of interstellar economics toppled quickly, and trade between systems vanished as trans-stellar corporations couldn't find any profit in regular shipments. Dozens of corporations go bankrupt, including the titans of the time, Zeng-Hu and Einstein Engines, nearly going under themselves. They desperately use their influence to reap massive bail-outs and having their enterprises considered "too big to fail".

The government of the Sol Alliance agreed, and despite the economic contraction they loaned out hundreds of thousands of credits while giving nothing to smaller corporations, causing most of them to go under or be gobbled up by Zeng-Hu and Einstein Engines.

The economic recession soon became a full blown depression that lasted for over a decade, well into the First Interstellar War. It wasn't until after the war that the economy began to recover.

Rising Tensions

In 2265 the Prime Minister of the Sol Alliance Kambiz Entezam pushed through a bill that would place high tax rates on non-sol colonies, as well as raising trade tariffs. This leads to anger from these colonies, and questions over the credibility of the Sol Alliance's claim of representing all of humanity. Many of these systems had developed unique cultural identities for their respective systems, and resented the growing control of the Alliance and its flagrant indifference to the plight of their systems.

Many of these solar systems, primarily in the outer fringes of the Alliances' frontier, began banding together and outright refusing to pay the new taxes. Prime Minister Entezam believed that this refusal to pay taxes was an existential threat to the authority of the Alliance itself, and greatly expanded the power of the navy to arrest civilian leaders of the systems and planets refusing to pay the taxes.

This outraged many sector governments. Many outer colonies and frontier colonies never interacted with the central Alliance government save for limited postal services and semi-regular tax collection. Suddenly having military fleets warp into their system and arresting their leaders had many people fear a totalitarian Sol Alliance was attempting to impose martial law on all its colonies.

The conflict and disagreements escalated for the next 10 years, all while the economy remained in recession. On 2257 the Alliance 12th Fleet warped into the outer-colony Jamestown star system to arrest Governor Richard Hawkins, who had a month prior declared he was ceasing all trade and tax payments to the federal government. The system had only a single habitable planet with a population scattered in the rugged terrain. When military police landed just outside the capital city they were surrounded by Jamestown Militia, who demanded that they leave the planet. The military police refused and attempted to break the blockade by force. Warning shots by the military police prompted the militia to open fire, and the firefight saw the military police retreat to their shuttle after several of their number were wounded and two killed.

The Jamestown Massacre and Resulting Secessions

This incident is considered the catalyst for the First Interstellar War. Alliance authorities blasted the Jamestown system for the unprovoked murder of military officials while outer and frontier colonies applauded the firm stand Jamestown had made for its independence.

The situation escalated when the orbiting 12th Fleet declared the system to be "in secession" without contacting the federal government in New York, landing its detachment of marines to arrest the leaders of the rebellion and disarm the militia. The Sol Marines quickly overwhelmed the militia garrisoned in and around the capital building, causing over a dozen fatalities from the fighting. Governor Richard Hawkins was arrested after a firefight in the capital building, and brought to orbit, tried for treason by Admiral Melissa Martinez herself, and executed by firing squad.

Admiral Melissa Martinez would find herself stripped of command and given a court-martial for her actions but the fallout from the incident was immense and immediate. A military officer unilaterally executing a member of the civilian government confirmed the worst fears of many outer and frontier colonies of the Alliance. During the next year system after system declared its independence from the Sol Alliance, all of them banding together into the Coalition of Colonies. The vast distances involved, with both communication and travel, the entire process unfolded in slow-motion, as it common for major incidents at the time.

The First Interstellar War

The Coalition of Colonies was never recognized by the Sol Alliance, who continued to use fleets and stationed garrisons to try and enforce themselves on sectors that broke away. In 2278 the Coalition formally attacked Alliance military forces who refused to leave their systems. The Coalition fleet was drastically smaller and less equipped than the Sol Alliance, but the massive size of their territory and the slow response times of Sol means they enjoy a very successful, defensive guerrilla war.

The war dragged on until 2287. The 9 years of conflict had seen a thousand fatalities on either side, while the growing mega-corporations were accused of trading weapons and other materials with both sides.

On 2287 a formal peace accord was reached with the Alliance agreeing to recognize the independence of the seceded colonies and withdrawing its fleets from the frontier. In exchange the frontier guaranteed that it would stop attacks on Alliance shipping and systems. Skrimishes still broke out between the two factions after the accord, but formal fighting had stopped. Sol also found itself redefining what it means to represent humanity, and plans for a new capital were proposed and approved.

The Warp Gate Project: The First Mega-Corporations

The newly constructed Unity Station is officially opened. In orbit around Earth, the massive space station serves as the capital of the Sol Alliance while being large enough to accommodate its population of 250,000 permanent residents. The station was a symbolic gesture, with the capital of the Sol Alliance moved out of the former UN headquarters in New York and put in orbit, it was meant to show that the Alliance represented the entire galactic community of humanity.

At the same time, trade and travel in the Sol Alliance had become predictable and regular. The economy was slowly beginning to improve, though the entire human economy has extremely sharp recessions and rebounds that make large-scale trading and commerce complex and difficult.

In 2355 Prime Minister Nicolas Chirac began the extremely ambitious Warp Gate Project. Bluespace was still unknown at the time, and galactic travel relied on cumbersome and expensive Warp Drives that relied on immense amounts of energy. Travel between neighboring systems would take days, trips to the middle and outer colonies would take weeks, and journeys to the frontier of human space could take months.

The Warp Gate Project was an immense project in terms of sheer scale, cost, and ambition. The Alliance government rewarded Einstein Engines with the contract to design and construct the gates, agreeing to shoulder a third of the 72.3 trillion credit cost.

The massive warp gate network took 30 years to construct, and the cost quickly ballooned beyond the initial cost projections to a whopping 82.1 trillion credits. Bound by contract to take the burden of the cost, the Sol Alliance found its debt rapidly rise while at the same time the economy fell into recession and rebounded into growth over a dozen times in the 30 year period. The project began to strain the Alliance economy, and it carried many critics.

However by the completion of the project in 2390 the benefits were immediate and obvious. While the project itself has brought millions of new jobs during construction, the end of the project had also created massive economic booms for the systems it connected. Traveling through the warp gates cut travel time in half, and many systems, including Tau Ceti, became centers of trade and commerce as hundreds of thousands of travelers now regularly traveled to and through the systems.

The Warp Gates were powered by multiple fusion reactors and their usage required a small fee to be paid. With Einstein Engines controlling the Warp network and the fees they saw their profits soar, launching them forward to become the most powerful corporation in human space at the time and earning the title of the first Mega-Corporation. The growth in trade and commerce also became a boon for the whole of the Alliance economy, with the greater interconnections, communication, shared culture, and growing tax revenues began to slowly justify the immense investment the project required.