United Earth politics, history, tech, etc

[Sionnach Glic]

Okay, I found the acompanying tech/politics/etc thread for my Trek story to be very useful for fleshing out the universe. So I'm going to be doing the same here. I've wrote up a history of the UE itself, so they're the first faction to go under the spotlight.
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Astro-political situation

The year is 2414, eight decades after the human race's first interstellar war. For now, the major powers are mostly at peace, but it would take little to spark a mass war between various powers.
This section will deal with the various major races throughout the known galaxy, their history, and their current affiliations.

The United Earth Government

History:
Early history:
The United Earth Government was formed nearly one and a half centuries ago, from the ruins of the failed United Nations after Earth's third world war. This was a brief, but highly destructive war which destroyed the governments of most nations on Earth, and effectively ceased all international trade. Brief power struggles flared up over the remnants of the planet, but eventually the remaining power on the planet was the pitiful shards of the United Nations, all other powers having been destroyed during the war.
The United Nations began the immense task of rebuilding the planet, and within five decades humanity had reached a new peak of technology and power. Eventually, the United Nations was disbanded, its leaders calling it pointless and powerless. In its place, rose the United Earth Government. This was one governing body that was set up to do what its predecessor could not; unite the human race under one banner. This new system merely fell into the same problems as the UN had, however, and many countries simply ignored it. Senior members of the UE called for a way to enforce their sanctions, and a new bill was passed with an overwhelming majority. This bill was to allow the creation of the United Earth Armed Forces.
The UE quickly began a campaign of enforcing its actions throughout the planet. Countries which had previously ignored its sanctions now found UE military forces setting up on their doorstep. Tensions quickly rose as accusations of tyranny were hurled at the UE, from nearly every country. This eventually came to a head when the UE attempted to invade the Republic of New Hispania, leading to a fourth world war. Military forces from all over the planet united to topple the UE government. What the leaders of Earth's countries were not expecting, however, was the UE's willingness to use nuclear weapons. Within three days of the declaration of war, the entire northern hemisphere of Earth was a radioactive ruin, within three days everything humanity had achieved since the Third World War was destroyed. In the end, the only power left standing was the United Earth Government.

Colonialism and the First Interstellar War:
In 2114, UE scientists achieved the impossible; faster than light travel. Utilising a little understood realm known as subspace, space ships could now 'tunnel' through space to reach its destination with incredible speed by using rift generators to open a portal between 'real' space and subspace. The UE government began the construction of armed warships, and within a decade had claimed over a hundred worlds for themselves. The discovery of subspace nodes, semi-permanent subspace tunnels caused by frequent travel between two points, allowed UE ships to reach areas of space that had not yet been explored hundreds, if not thousands, of light years from Earth. Then came Earth's first contact with an alien race. The Soloron.
After violently claiming several Soloron planets for themselves, the UE quickly found itself under attack for the first time since its conquest of Earth. Although the Soloron had barely been in space any longer than the UE, this robotic 'species' had major advantages over the UE; their ships were more modular, and easier to construct, they could replace losses far quicker, and their soldiers were fearless and highly resistant to UE infantry weapons.
Realising they could not hope to win this war, the UE began sending ships out to other unexplored areas of space to find allies. However, their second meeting with an extraterrestrial race would prove just as disastrous as the first. After misidentifying an unknown ship as a Soloron battle cruiser, a UE battleship opened fire on three ships of the Laithan Imperium. Believing themselves to be under attack from the UE, the Laithans allied with the Solorons to help end the war the human race had started. Within three years, the UEAF was in ruins; its last few warships fleeing back to defend Earth from an oncoming fleet of Laithan and Soloron ships, abandoning their outer colonies to the alien invaders. The human race seemed doomed to extinction, with less than two hundred barely functional warships opposing a fleet of almost five thousand ships. However, by incredible luck, the human fleet would not be the only ones opposing the Laithan and Soloron at Earth.
The Cyrvin Empire, a barely functioning dictatorial government, had been in a state of war with the Soloron for the last twenty years. The Cyrvin had struck the first blow, and in one move exterminated the Soloron race. What they did not count on, however, were the Soloron's sentient war machines; tanks, robots, gunships, even entire starships containing computerised minds. The Soloron war machines identified the Cyrvin race as hostile, and, in the absence of any other orders, the Soloron machines began a war of annihilation with the reptilian Cyrvin. The war quickly became one of attrition. Although the Soloron (the machines taking the name of their extinct creators) were able to replace losses with incredible speed, Cyrvin territory was vast, and they had a large and fanatical population. For two decades, the war continued with virtually no breakthroughs on either side, until the day a Cyrvin scout ship spotted several fleet elements breaking off from the front lines and heading towards a small blue-green planet that had never been inspected for anything of worth. The Cyrvin assumed that something major was happening, and committed virtually all their reserve forces - almost four thousand ships - to annihilate the Soloron fleet. They Cyrvin ships exited subspace just before the Soloron and Laithan ships (though at this point the Cyrvin was unaware of the Laithan involvement) around Neptune.

The Battle of Earth, and the end of the First Interstellar War:
The Cyrvin fleet commander initially cared little for the small fleet of human ships he found already in system, intending to annihilate them and set an ambush for the Soloron fleet. However, the Cyrvin commander eventually agreed to help the human fleet, after the Chancellor of the UE promised alliances, trade rights, and assured the commander of the fleet that he would be made incredibly wealthy. The two fleets now began to set up to defend Earth from invasion.
It was agreed that the UE fleet would be stationed around Earth as bait. The Cyrvin ships would hide near the sensor - scrambling radiation of the Earth - Sirius subspace node (established around the North Pole of Earth by frequent travel from Earth to the major construction facilities at Sirius) and ambush the Soloron and Laithan fleets as they flew past.
The plan worked for the most parts, the Soloron and Laithan ships did take the bait, but near to the end of the battle, several Cyrvin commanders attempted to mutiny, leading to mass confusion among the Cyrvin fleet. Despite this, the well armed ships of the Cyrvin Empire carried the day, and succeeded in saving Earth, though with many casualties: The United Earth Stellar Navy was virtually non-existent by the end of the eight hour long battle, and the Cyrvin fleet was now down to just one thousand ships. However, the battle was a complete success, all but a dozen of the Laithan and Soloron ships had been annihilated during the battle. News quickly spread that the Cyrvin and human fleets had annihilated the combined fleets of two of the most powerful races in the known galaxy. Several races that had been living in terror under the brutal reign of the Laithan Imperium began a full scale uprising. Although they would eventually be defeated, the Laithan Imperium couldn't keep up both a war away from their borders, and one right at their homeworlds, and sued for a ceasefire with the UE and the Cyrvin Empire.
The Battle of Earth was disastrous for the Soloron. The Cyrvin Empire had now completely bypassed the massed lines of defence stations and war fleets along the Cyrvin-Soloron border, and had begun launching devastating raids at the Soloron constructions facilities. After just one month of these raids, the massive strategy computer the extinct Soloron had built deep beneath the surface of their planet to orchestrate any war, calling itself 01110110 01101001 01100011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01111001 00100000 01101101 01100001 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101, reached an inevitable conclusion: it could not hope to win in the current situation. The Soloron strategy machine sent a communication directly to the Cyrvin Emperor (something the Cyrvin were unaware it could do) with an offer for a ceasefire. The Emperor, realising that a continued war would merely end in a pyrrhic victory, agreed to the ceasefire, ending the decades long war between them. From the Battle of Earth, the Soloron war machines had discovered a new concept: peace.

Reconstruction and the legacy of the war:
With the end of the war, the UE was faced with a monumental task; rebuilding its shattered empire. Hardly any planet had escaped unharmed, Earth itself had been bombed from orbit during the Battle of Earth several times.
The human race managed to land on its feet, however. Trade relations were eventually opened between the UE and the Laithan and the Soloron governments. The UE's strategic location meant they were an excellent trading faction; freighters that went through UE space could take weeks off their transit times if they were going to or from the Cyrvin Empire or the Iltrian Republic. The UE began taxation on ships moving through their territory, which gained them a surprising amount of wealth. The UE used this to rebuild their ruined economy, and within a decade the UE was an extremely rich and powerful faction. The UE placed a high importance on building a powerful military, and the blimp-shaped warships of the UE would soon become some of the most powerful in the known galaxy.
The war would raise serious tensions between many of the more powerful colonies of Earth:
People from Earth itself were seen as cowards, having abandoned the other worlds to destruction the moment a threat to its safety popped up.

People of Alpha Centauri were widely seen as traitors and collaborators, the system's leaders having defected to the Soloron during the war.

People of Wolf 359 were mostly regarded to be hardy, and tough workers.

People of Sirius were generally believed to be genocidal war-mongering maniacs. The system had been invaded at the very start of the war, but never taken, the defenders fighting ferociously for three whole years. One month before the Battle of Earth, Laithan forces began storming the last few military facilities on the planet. In a last ditch move, the Sirian military commanders began firing nuclear weapons off indiscriminately all over the planet, turning it into a radioactive wasteland. Modern Sirians generally regard anyone who isn't willing to destroy his own planet to win a war as a 'bug' (a derogatory insult, referring to the insectoid Laithan, whose cautious tactics during the war gave them a reputation as cowards).

People of Ross 128 were widely regarded as morons.

Many of these stereotypes remained after the war, some even encouraged by the natives (Sirians, for example, view their actions during the war as proof of their superiority over others).

The Modern day:
The UE is now a thriving faction, easily one of the most powerful in the known galaxy. Under the leadership of Chancellor Gerard Campbell, it has expanded more in the last three decades than any other time in human history.
Since the war, they have had a firm alliance with the Cyrvin Empire, and have assisted them through several civil wars.
Relations with the Laithans and the Solorons are more amiable than before, despite a brief decade long cold war between the three factions. The Laithans and Solorons have since abandoned their alliance due to several key differences between their policies, though they still have good relations with each other.
A new cold war has recently begun, this time with the Dacin Republic, this has many military officials in the UEAF worried, as most of the Dacin military is still mostly unknown.

Assets and military forces:
The United Earth Government boasts a large territory. They control nearly eleven thousand planets and colonies, spanning over thirty thousand light years.
Their military force is similarly impressive. The Stellar Navy contains over fifty thousand warships. The UE Army's latest records place their numbers at nearly twenty billion soldiers and officers. While the Storm Corps have close to eight hundred million personnel.

Coming soon; the technology of the UE

[Tsukiyumi]

Some nice, well-thought out work, man.

Nice to see someone else who thinks out the universe they're working in before starting.

[Sionnach Glic]

Thanks, that was one of the ground rules I try to lay down for myself: figure out what I'm writing about before I actualy start writing.

[Captain Seafort]

Have you got orbats worked up for the UEAF? It'll be interesting to see how they compare with your Laithan ones, and how they reflect any differences in UE and Laithan doctrine.

[Sionnach Glic]

'Orbats'?

[Tsukiyumi]

Coming up with groundrules and at least a basic history of your setting is definately a must for writing sci-fi. Otherwise, you end up with an Enterprise.

Practically everything I write takes place in the same 'universe', only at different times and places, and all of my stories interconnect in one way or another. As a result, I had to establish a few 'facts' before I started writing anything.

[Captain Seafort]

ORder of BATtle - the organisation of military units. Sorry, I have a habit of using lingo when it comes to military stuff.

[Sionnach Glic]

Ah, okay.

I have an overall plan worked out, and a bit written down, but nothing finished yet. I'll probably put it up tomorrow, I'm too tired to finish it now.

[Sionnach Glic]

Technology of the United Earth Government

FTL Travel

In 2114, a team of scientists on Calisto discovered what the human race had previously thought impossible; faster than light travel. The small team discovered that, by using large amounts of energy combined with then-experimental technology, they could open a 'rift' in space. Early versions of this were extremely inefficient, taking massive amounts of energy to open a single portal (as the rifts became known) into subspace, the chaotic dimension where ships could easily defy the laws of physics, and were unable to open an exit portal out of subspace again, leading to the loss of several exploration crews. Eventually, probes were equipped with portal generators of their own, allowing them to exit subspace again, though without the then-undiscovered 'tunnel' technology, their exit locations were random, and almost impossible to calculate. After many failures to create a guidance system to allow ships to navigate subspace, the UE ceased funding of subspace related projects, deciding that it was a pointless waste of money. It was unviable as a form of travel, had no practical use, and the amount of power needed to generate a portal would make spaceships three times the size they already were.
These problems were solved almost simultaneously in 2117.
The discovery and implementation of sotalon, a type of gas found in gas giants (and later found to be plentiful in many nebulae) which was extremely powerful, solved the problem of power generation. A ship with a sotalon generator could be the same size as one with a nuclear fusion generator, but with magnitudes greater power output.
The problem of guidance and tracking systems were solved by the Alpha Centauri Project, and institute of independent scientists who had continued to work on subspace travel after the UE had cut funding, who discovered the 'tunnel theory'. This theory said that by creating a corridor, or tunnel, through subspace, you could shut out most of the chaotic interference and cut travel times dramatically.
Ships could now open a portal and then, with the use of a second portal generator, open a portal inside subspace that lead back into realspace. These parallel portals would cause the massive energies of subspace to swirl around them, rather than in between them, creating a relatively calm path through subspace which ships could safely travel through to their destination. However, there is a limit to how far away a ship can generate a tunnel, and how safe they will be.
Short range tunnels are simple enough affairs, requiring minimal amounts of power, and forming an almost perfectly stable tunnel between both portals.
Longer range tunnels require more power, and get less stable the farther away the two portals are from each other. Because of this, ships going long distances will engage in subspace 'hops', rather than going through one long tunnel due to safety.

Nodes:
Nodes are an odd phenomenon. Frequent use of portal technology from one area to another would create semi-permanent tunnels in subspace, and semi-permanent portals leading to them. These nodes can cut travel times drastically, and get faster the more 'solid' (i.e., the more travelled) they are.
Nodes are often frequented by merchant ships, and civilian vessels, due to the ease of travel. They are also heavily guarded by military forces, due to their strategic value. Monitoring stations and observation satellites can be found at virtually every charted node, and the more important ones (e.g, the Sol-Sirius nodes around Neptune and the edge of the Sirius system respectively) are heavily guarded by warships.

Starship Weapons
The weapons of the United Earth's warships are many and varied. They range from massive torpedoes up to a hundred metres long to tiny micro-missiles, from massive energy cannons to small point defence chain guns.
Pulse weapons:
Pulse weapons are the most common weapons on UE ships. They range from heavy pulse cannons, to small turrets for use against fighters. These weapons are some of the most advanced in the UE's arsenal, they are high-powered energy weapons, and the heavier weapons are more than capable of shredding an unshielded ship in a single shot.
Kinetic energy weapons:
Commonly known as 'slugthrowers', these weapons have been phased out of use over the decades since the First Interstellar War. Once the primary armament on all UE ships, they have now been pushed into an auxiliary role. Most ships still use slugthrower weapons, in the form of flak guns and point defence chain guns.
Missiles:
Missiles of some description can be found on virtually every UE ship. The most common missile is the MKVII 'Cap killer' torpedo, found almost everywhere and more than living up to its name as a weapon to be feared by starships everywhere in the known galaxy. This is by no means the most powerful, however. The MKXII 'Behemoth' torpedo, a one hundred metre long missile with a sotalon warhead, claims that title. Capable of downing a fully shielded small-medium sized ship in a single hit, these are by far the most powerful weapons in the UE. Due to their size, they have only been deployed on the new Majestic class battleships, and in ground based silos.

Personal weapons
As with their space-based weapons, the UE equips it troops with a wide variety of weapons.
Most troops are armed with a pulse rifle, a bulky weapon, but one with incredible power. These weapons are more than capable of blowing an unarmoured human in two, and can be easily reloaded in the heat of battle with 100 shot energy clips.
The Shock Corps, the UE's elite ground troops, use a heavier version of this weapon, known as a blast gun, supplied with enough power for five thousand shots from a backpack mounted generator. These weapons have a lot more power, and are a serious threat to lightly armoured vehicles and bunkers.
Reserve units and the Naval Marines still use projectile weapons. They are used by the reserve units as they are not considered important enough to arm with the expensive pulse guns, and are used by the Marines as they will not puncture the hull of a vessel during combat.
Heavy squad support weapons, and vehicle mounted weapons, come in an astonishing variety. They range from energy beam weapons (beamers), plasma weapons, rockets, cannons, heavy projectile weapons, rapid firing chain guns, flamethrowers, and heavier versions of blast guns.

Massive planet based aero-space cannons and shield generators are also a common sight on most planets, allowing a planet to hold out for a short time until reinfocements arive.

[Deepcrush]

Dude I love this! It reminds me of something out of the 1980's!

[Sionnach Glic]

Thanks!
Why the 80's?

[Deepcrush]

Because the weapons remind me of the Terminator movies.

[Sionnach Glic]

Ah, okay.

[Deepcrush]

Speaking of, I would love to see a movie showing the war of the machines!

[Monroe]

My only complaint is humanity seems a little spread out. Like too fast colonization. Several thousand systems in 100 years and having a war that almost caused humanity's extinction 50 years ago. But beyond that it sounds like a cool universe.