Political Organizations and Empires

The Galactic Commonwealth: The Commonwealth is a 427-year-old interstellar organization that was founded in the Earth year of 1747 A.D. after an alliance of three species emerged victorious against the aggressive Tallen Empire.

The three original charter members were the V'rni, the Zikal, and the Omina. They ratified the charter and took over the administration of the now-defunct Tallen Empire, liberating the four other subjugated species that were under their control.

These four species would go on to join the organization within the next fifty years, and the Commonwealth entered a golden age of exploration and peaceful expansion. Two hundred years after its creation, the Commonwealth had increased its membership to sixteen species and continued to thrive and expand its borders.

They enjoyed mostly peaceful relations with other interstellar polities and embarked on a new wave of colonization and expansion. In the year 236 C.E. (1983 A.D.) first contact with the Eleani Sovereignty occurred, followed by first contact with the Xenxin Protectorate in 238 C.E. After a few years of trading and cultural exchanges, the Commonwealth approached the Eleani government with a membership proposal.

The Eleani Sovereignty officially joined the Commonwealth in 240 C.E. (1990 A.D.) joining several other neighboring species that were already members and becoming the furthermost member state in the region that would come to be known as the periphery.

First contact with the Insectoid Empire occurred in 286 C.E. (2036 A.D.) when a Commonwealth expedition entered the area known as the Ralek Expanse to chart a course and scout the unknown region for prospective colonial expansion.

They were immediately attacked by unknown ships upon entering the expanse, and only two ships out of the nine in the expedition survived the encounter. The Commonwealth sent several diplomatic forays to the region to diffuse tensions and try to make contact, but every attempt was met with weapons fire and a refusal to communicate.

The first official naval battle with the new enemy occurred two months later, and four Commonwealth heavy cruisers were severely damaged before they managed to destroy the lone alien cruiser. It was only when they retrieved bodies from the wreckage that they finally realized they were dealing with a space-faring insect species, the first ever encountered.

Faced with their first real enemy in almost three hundred years, a militant faction in the parliament called for a punitive expedition to be launched as a show of strength and to avenge the deaths of their crews and ships.

In 289 C.E. (2037 A.D.) a fleet of three hundred of the most powerful ships in the Commonwealth Navy set course to the Ralek Expanse and entered it. The last series of transmissions received before contact with the fleet was lost showed the first appearance of what would later be categorized as a Hive ship.

The three hundred warships of the fleet were the pinnacle of Commonwealth military technology and were crewed by long-serving veterans. Several attempts by the fleet to communicate were ignored, and the Hive ship sent the first voice transmission ever by the Insectoids. It was a synthesized voice copied from previous communications by Commonwealth ships and was just one word: LEAVE.

The admiral commanding the task force continued to try initiating first contact protocols and ordered the fleet to condition readiness level two. Two minutes after the Insectoid transmission, the Hive ship suddenly opened fire. Within five minutes, there were less than sixty Commonwealth vessels still combat-capable, and the admiral ordered a retreat, leaving behind crippled ships and hundreds of escape pods.

The retreating fleet fled towards the edge of the expanse as their null space capacitors charged, and the Hive ship followed them, picking them off one by one. Eleven minutes after the battle had commenced, the last retreating ship managed to eject the bridge log drone before being destroyed.

The Hive ship either ignored it or didn't detect it, and the drone kept recording as it left the battlespace to safely flash into null space. Before it exited, it recorded the Hive ship going back to the site of the opening battle and capturing one of the crippled ships and numerous escape pods.

It pulled them into an opening before destroying the rest as more Hive ships and hundreds of cruisers exited null space and began to target the remaining drifting escape pods, destroying all of them without mercy.

The Commonwealth retrieved the drone and panicked, sending most of its fleet to the border that faced the Insectoids and enacting a quarantine zone to prevent any other Commonwealth ships from entering that area and antagonizing the aggressive Insectoids.

The Commonwealth stopped all further colonial expansion attempts after their disastrous first contact with the Insectoids and devoted their efforts to building up their navy and fortifying their territory. As of 431 C.E. (2172 A.D.) the Commonwealth had twenty-seven member species and controlled two hundred and eighty-six solar systems, with a combined population of 912 billion citizens.

Non-aligned Powers: These are smaller interstellar powers that are mostly single-species states and their colonial possessions. They trend towards neutrality in the interstellar affairs of the quadrant, preferring to engage in trade and the exchange of services and technology.

Most of these smaller powers tend to excel in certain areas, such as specific fields of science, medicine, and military technology, that they then sell to their neighbors or larger powers, such as the Commonwealth. These favorable exchanges of services and technology allow them to enrich their coffers and negotiate security agreements with larger powers that guarantee protection from invasion.

Their prosperity and cutting-edge research and development programs have allowed for these smaller powers to become economic powerhouses and centers of commerce, and their small navies punch well above their weight because of their advanced military-industrial complexes. The non-aligned powers control fifty-eight solar systems between them and have a combined population of one hundred and thirty billion citizens.

The Ma'lit Domain: The only survivors of an ancient interstellar organization called the Galactic Federation that existed 125,000 years ago and the only confirmed species to still exist that are of the "Old Ones." They are a quasi-religious society that has been in a long period of stagnation and decline, though their technology is still far superior and will remain so for generations.

They eschew direct contact with other alien races, and their trading and interspecies negotiations are handled on a series of automated border posts crewed by androids and control AIs. Any accidental or intentional violations of their border are swiftly intercepted, and the offending ship is hit with a beam that disables the entire vessel instantly.

The ship is towed back to the other side of their border by automated sentry vessels and left there. An emergency beacon is dropped by the sentry ships that transmits coordinates for rescue, and they are left to fend for themselves in a powerless ship as they await rescue, often freezing to death or running out of air before they are saved.

Very few Ma'lit are ever encountered outside of their space, and they wear bio-mechanical exosuits that isolate them from their surroundings when they venture past their borders. The few scraps of surviving records that have been found about the Federation in archaeological sites describe a very different species during that time, indicating that they were great scientists and explorers.

They are suspected of being the creators of the null drive and the source of the derelict "seed ships" found in numerous systems that have allowed for the primitive null drive technology to be reverse engineered by the younger races.

A fringe group of researchers and historians maintain that this was an intentional act by renegade Ma'lit, who, despite their isolationist tendencies, did not like being alone for millennia. They suspect the renegades purposefully crashed ships devoid of all technology except basic null drives to uplift neighboring races so that they could become interstellar species and bring sapient life back to the empty worlds of the long-dead Federation.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Rumors have persisted that the Federation collapsed because of wars and virulent, fast-moving plagues that swept through their worlds and wiped them out, with only the Ma'lit having some innate resistance to it. When the plague ran its course, they found themselves alone in a vast graveyard of trillions of dead and suffered a form of racial madness as a result.

They sent out massive ships and scoured all the dead worlds of any evidence and technology of the Federation, and when that was done, they withdrew back to their space and isolated themselves, fearful of still being carriers of the plague and infecting the younger races.

Only two Ma'lit warships have ever been sighted by spy drones along the border, and they are massive dreadnoughts that are twelve kilometers long and five kilometers wide. Their territory is in the Pleiades cluster, and they lay claim to a ten-light-year radius.

The Insectoid Empire: Not much is known about this highly aggressive and xenophobic species. They do not tolerate any encroachment upon their territory and periodically engage in "swarming" to seize worlds from neighboring species.

Their ships are extremely powerful, and their tactics reflect a willingness to absorb an incomprehensible level of casualties and ship losses to defeat their enemies or inflict pyrrhic victories on others. They do not engage in diplomacy or trade, and their ships do not leave their territory unless they are swarming.

The most common ships utilized by the Insectoids are cruisers, which are 660 meters long, 260 meters wide, and 120 meters in height. They are heavily armed with a thick armored hull and can singlehandedly take on three heavy cruiser warships fielded by most species. Four Insectoid cruisers can engage and destroy one of the massive battleships fielded by the Galactic Commonwealth if they can manage to separate it from its escorts.

Hive ships fill a dual role in the Insectoid Empire, fulfilling both functions as capital dreadnoughts and colony ships. They have a rounded hexagonal shape with a radius of five kilometers and a height of 1.5 kilometers. They have numerous particle beam emplacements for 360-degree coverage, thousands of flak guns, and carry a magazine of 10,000 worker drone-piloted missiles.

The hulls are extremely strong, requiring energy weapon fire in a concentrated area from multiple ships before being breached, which they counteract by rotating. Hive ships can carry up to two million worker drones and a million larvae for rapid colonization of worlds.

Hive ships are susceptible to specialized penetrator missiles, railgun slugs, and sustained plasma torpedo volleys. The Hive ships are prone to catastrophic decompressions if they suffer enough critical hull breaches beyond their abilities to isolate and seal.

As of 2172 A.D. the Insectoid Empire controlled forty-eight confirmed solar systems with an estimated population of more than four trillion drones.

The Republic of Humanity: After a devastating world war, the Republic of Humanity emerged from the ruins, and the Global Accords of 2080 A.D. unified the Earth under one government for the first time in human history.

After a massive rebuilding effort and rapid technological innovation following the declassification of advanced military technologies and the first self-aware AI, named Dawn, by DARPA, mankind went back into space and finally became an interplanetary species after landing the first colony of five hundred humans on Mars in the year 2092 A.D.

The discovery of a derelict alien ship with a primitive null drive in 2116 A.D. on the surface of Titan confirmed the presence of alien life in the galaxy and allowed Republic scientists to reverse-engineer the technology, becoming an interstellar species.

The first contact with an alien species occurred in the year 2123 A.D. when a Republic scout ship was intercepted by a Commonwealth science ship in the YZ Ceti system, twelve light-years from Earth. This was followed by the Republic embarking on a rapid and massive shipbuilding program to defend themselves against the perceived threat of invasion by far more advanced alien species.

There was also an outpouring of emigration of both Republic citizens and androids from Earth to claim as many solar systems as possible to ensure that humanity wouldn't be hemmed in and encircled by the larger, more advanced societies. By the year 2131, the Republic had made its first contact with numerous species and had taken its place among the stars as an interstellar organization.

The Republic engaged in widespread trading and cultural exchanges with other species, and their diplomats were second to none as they forged ever deeper relations. Humans were well-received by many of the races they encountered, and their endless curiosity and ability to empathize with and adapt to a variety of cultural differences endeared them to their neighbors.

Republic starships were soon found everywhere engaging in trade, scientific research, and cultural studies as they pushed ever deeper into space to try to quench their unending thirst for knowledge. The Republic quickly became an economic powerhouse thanks to their highly advanced manufacturing abilities, and the quality of the products they produced became renowned throughout the quadrant.

Earth became a regional cultural center as they welcomed all who wished to come, and their universities and research centers became nexuses of interspecies collaboration. After decades of rehabilitation and habitat restoration, Earth has turned most of the planet's surface into federal parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

By 2170, Earth had an annual average of over two billion alien visitors coming to see the "Garden World" and experience the wildlife on the surface and under the oceans. Others came to learn about humanity and immensely enjoyed the museums, art galleries, and the dizzying array of cultures and cuisines worldwide.

Many alien visits are to the dozens of memorial monoliths found all over Earth that commemorate the victims of World War 3. They are massive obelisks, with a one-square-mile base made of granite and narrowing towards the top to a height of one thousand feet. The obelisks are encased in white quartz, and the capstone is made of pure platinum with a lamp that burns with an eternal flame.

To many alien visitors, it is a pilgrimage that they make to pay their solemn respects to the billions of dead and rejoice in the survival of the human species, as most sapient, warlike species never make it through the great filter to join the galactic community.

The Republic enjoys mostly cordial relations with many races but struggles with arrogant behavior from some older races and organizations that range from ambivalent to barely concealed hostility. The Republic has excellent relations with the non-aligned powers, while their relationship with the Galactic Commonwealth has been troubled for decades.

The Republic underwent a massive uplifting of technology and advancement starting in the year 2131 A.D. that continued unabated in the ensuing four decades, reaching near-parity with the other far older interstellar societies. This, coupled with their already highly advanced automated technologies and AI capabilities, greatly contributed to the ongoing friction between the Republic of Humanity and the Galactic Commonwealth.

The growing power and prestige of the Republic led to other races speculating that a war between the Republic and the resentful Commonwealth was a foregone conclusion and a matter of when, not if. Many species and organizations have quietly let it be known that they would support the Republic if war broke out, including several disgruntled members within the Commonwealth itself.

Many of them felt that the Commonwealth had become too large and were arrogant bullies. They had a stranglehold on interstellar affairs that they often leveraged through unfair trade tariffs, sanctions, and blockades, earning them the resentment and enmity of many species.

There were rumors that the Republic had a massive war fleet and dozens of shipyards, though many species believe that these rumors were spread by the Republic itself to give pause to the Commonwealth or any other powers that might think about attacking them.

Attempts to spy on the Republic military are unsuccessful due to the impenetrable border detection network employed by the Republic and their ability to hack and take over any spy drones that approach their space without permission.

Trade goods are brought to designated border outposts and offloaded there, and alien ships entering Republic space are assigned strictly enforced transit routes to their destinations. They are escorted by automated sentry vessels that envelop them in a jamming field that scrambles all navigation and scanning sensors, effectively blinding them and preventing any spying attempts as they lead them to the Sol System.

The only military ships ever seen or detected were border guard cutters and automated sentry vessels. As a result of this, none of the other powers have any real and actionable intelligence regarding the Republic's military power and capabilities.

As of 2172 A.D. the Republic of Humanity controlled thirty-nine solar systems and had a population of over ten billion humans. There are also three Paleolithic-level sapient species inside Republic space that have strictly enforced quarantine zones around their planets and an official governmental policy of non-interference.

The combined population of these three protected species is estimated at just over 1 billion. On one of the protected worlds is a humanoid ape species at a comparable level of development to Homo Erectus. Two tribes had just recently mastered the art of fire making, and another tribe was recorded as intentionally crafting their first spears to use for hunting.

Another world has a feline species that has already mastered fire, toolmaking, and cooperative hunting to kill the much larger dinosaur analogues that roamed that world in herds of thousands for food. Republic spy drones have observed them performing ritualized burial practices, and certain packs have recently begun to purposefully make colored pigments and leave paw prints and primitive drawings of wildlife on cave walls.

The third world has a twelve-tentacled cephalopod species that builds underwater cities with the bones of marine mammals and coral that they hewed and shaped themselves. These cities extend for kilometers in an orderly fashion, and the cephalopods hunt cooperatively, using whale bone rib spears they sharpen themselves to kill much larger prey.

They also have a primitive form of agriculture that they farm to attract sea mollusks that they harvest for food during the seasonal migrations when their usual food sources are not available. Spy drones have recorded them using a rudimentary form of mathematics and currency, as they exchange certain rare seashells for food and needed materials, as well as bribing females for exclusive mating rights during breeding season.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.