Earth Alliance

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The government of the human race, based in Geneva, Switzerland at EarthDome. It governs twenty-four worlds in fourteen star systems.

Contents

[edit] Origin

See also: Human History

The middle years of the 21st Century saw a world in constant turmoil. Wars of varying intensity were commonplace, and terrorism became the primary tool for those nations or organizations not large enough to challenge their rivals through military force. The United Nations, which should have risen to the forefront of stability, proved not only unable to exert any influence, but to even determine what its own role should be. As a result, its power - if, indeed, it ever actually had any - was mostly ineffectual.

What the globe truly needed was a unifying force with the will to police the planet. Sadly, it took an event of truly world-shattering importance to finally bring about the necessary changes.

[edit] World War III

In 2080, growing tensions between India and Pakistan finally flared into war. While India possessed a higher population and greater resources than their smaller neighbor, the Pakistanis were better prepared and made significant advances during the opening clashes of the war. However, the front quickly stabilized and all hopes for a swift resolution began to wane, forcing both countries to call upon their allies for support. The United Nations once again proved unable to exert any influence of significance, and proved little more than a central location where diplomats could spout rhetoric and argue with each other.

At the end of the first year, no less than twelve different nations were involved in the hostilities in one form or another. Pakistan was at the forefront of a powerfull trade alliance between many of the former Russian states that earned independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union in the late 20th Century. Without exception, these countries - Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Tazikstan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, with the notable exception of Georgia - began to send troops and equipment into Pakistan to replace losses that nation's industry could not quickly construct. While individually their military power was limited, they proved quite effective when united. In response, India called upon its friends in Bangladesh and Nepal to join the fight, and began to put pressure on the Chinese to intervene.

China had no great desire to get involved in the conflict. Their economy was stretched to its limit with the task of supporting its nation's swollen population of over three billion citizens, many of whom were growing increasingly dissatisfied with their way of life. The vast majority of China's people were, effectively peasants who watched from poverty while the rest of the world lived in ever-increasing health and comfort, particularly in the United States, European Union, and most infuriatingly, India. However, China's economy depended entirely upon trade with those very nations they looked upon with a jealous eye. Without the steady flow of outgoing goods that provided the foreign currency needed to support its internal expense, China would quickly slip to the brink of collapse.

The United Nations urged China not to get involved, and indeed, the government in Beijing knew full well they could not afford it, but in the end several factors convinced them to fight. First and foremost, they could not let India lose, or the interruption of trade would weaken their economy to the point of no return. Secondly, the promise of victory would provide a morale boost to China's population, and allow for further suppression of dissenters among the citizenry - anyone who complained would be labelled a traitor and eliminated. Finally, a quick success in the conflict would give China the opportunity to seize some of the assets of the defeated enemy, as well as drain Pakistan's treasury to pay for any war reparations. In fact, if things went perfectly, China might even annex certain resource-rich areas of territory as spoils of war. The United Nations might complain, but what could they do?

To this end, China began pouring troops across the Pakistani border in early 2082. Pakistan had no chance to stop these advancing armies - if they pulled troops away from the Indian front, that line would shatter and all would be lost. In desperation, and indeed with no other choice available to them, Pakistani aircraft dropped three low-yield nuclear bombs atop the advancing Chinese spearheads, utterly annihilating them.

Reaction from the world was one of immediate outrage and panic. Global stock markets collapsed overnight as the threat of nuclear annihilation loomed. Fearing further strikes on Chinese territory, the government in Beijing ordered the launch of twelve nuclear missiles into Pakistan, but these never reached their targets. Instead, all of them mysteriously exploded at the highest point of their ballistic trajectory. A second strike also failed, as did a counterattack by Pakistan's few existing ballistic missiles.

Although long-range attacks were somehow rendered impotent, cruise missiles and tactical artillery shells were successfully exchanged, leaving the border between Pakistan and China a devastated wasteland. Limited nuke strikes also occured within India itself, on or near the front lines, but both sides resisted the temptation to start destroying each other's cities.

Within the United Nations, the use of nuclear weapons by the warring powers was the object of heated debate. The Security Council produced a resolution condemning further use of such weapons, but this was summarily ignored. In response, the United States, Britain, and Russia unilaterally cut off all trade and financial support to the entire area. China's government collapsed within days, and its people exploded into a long-smouldering revolution. With no central command left to guide China's vast armies, each field commander took the opportunity to proceed as they felt necessary to suppress the revolt. The resulting civil war was incredibly bloody, and several parts of China broke into separate nations that would not be reunited for decades, or, in the case of Taiwan, over a century.

What remained of the Chinese military blamed the UN - and particularly Russia - for the disaster, which, for all intents and purposes, was probably inevitable anyway. The generals commanding China's remaining forces came together in mid-2082 and agreed, after examining intelligence reports gathered from dubious sources, that Russia had set the whole thing up as a prelude to invasion. Thus, in a move that totally surprised nearly everyone, Chinese forces began streaming across the broad Russian border, capturing everything they could and destroying whatever they could not hold.

Once again intercontinental nuclear missiles were launched, but not a single one ever struck any target. It was at this point that the United States revealed a previously unknown array of automated global defense satellites capable of tracking and knocking down any ballistic missile within minutes of launch. This system, known as EarthShield, put the United Nations into an uproar. Every country, with the exception of Britain and Australia, argued bitterly. It was their contention that the use of such a system against active military forces was an act of war. America argued that had they not utilized EarthShield, most of Pakistan, India, and China, if not the whole of Asia, would be a devasted zone of radioactive slag. In response, Russia and China withdrew from the United Nations, effectively causing that organization to cease to exist.

Over the course of the ensuing year, the ongoing war spread throughout Asia. Chinese armies rampaged through eastern Russia, but stalled as they approached Moscow. The winter of that year, heightened by nuclear-driven dust in the upper atmosphere, was one of the worst on record. Millions of Chinese and Russians died on the steppes. Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia all became involved in the fighting to one degree or another. The United States and European Union, suffering economically under the collapse of the world's stock markets, sent in troops to try to halt the fighting, but were fired upon by the very people they were trying to help. In the end, the military might of the two superpowers remained idle, waiting in offshore task forces or within neutral countries for the fighting to die down.

World War III, as it was now known, did not officially end until 2084, although scattered fighting continued between India and Pakistan until the middle of 2085. Much of the region was devastated or entirely destroyed. The world markets gradually stabilized as China's armies retreated and resumed the goal of suppressing the revolution. Most of Pakistan's allies, their resources depleted by punishing Indian air strikes, pulled out of the war one by one. India eventually drove Pakistan back to its own border, but made no effort to advance further, fearing additional nuclear bombardment or, more likely, intervention by the United States, which was by then threatening to begin bombing both sides if the war did not come to an immediate halt. When all was said and done, very few borders changed, but over a dozen nations were left in ruins.

The world would never be the same.

[edit] Formation

Very few people on the face of Earth escaped World War III without some direct effect on their way of life. The nations involved in the fighting were but shadows of their former selves. Estimates suggested China alone lost well over a hundred million people during the bloody fighting, not to mention those who perished in the epidemics and starvation that followed, or in the terrible winter of 2084. Over half of India's territory was a smoking ruin, as was a large swath of northern Pakistan. Inflation was rampant, with the value of the Euro and American dollar dropping by as much as fifty percent during the last three years of the war.

Worse still were the lingering bad feelings left by the intervention of American satellites in preventing the devastating nuclear exchange that would have likely swept India and Pakistan off the face of the planet. The Yanks, Brits and Aussies could only shake their heads as angry nations complained that the lack of a ballistic missile threat led directly to China's collapse and the subsequent invasion of Russia. Plus, the argument went on, the existence of such a system presented a direct threat to freedom the world over. After all, if a missile could be destroyed in flight, why not just about anything else? Could an orbiting laser not be turned upon an aircraft in flight, or a factory, or an entire city.

Things seemed bleak, Russia and China refused to rejoin the United Nations as long as the EarthShield satellites remained in place. In response, the United States argued that the day of the United Nations was over. That body had time and time again proven itself ineffective in its role. What was needed was nothing less than a unified global military both willing and able to do what was necessary to preserve peace. In a move that surprised everyone, including the American people, the United States government offered EarthShield - and the American military itself - as the core of what they called the United Earth Force. This was the very genesis of the combined arms establishment that would one day be known simply as EarthForce.

Under the broad and visionary - if overly ambitious - American plan, a new organization would be created that would, at some distant point in the future, evolve into the first truly global government the world had ever seen. Obviously, this would not happen overnight, but over the course of many years, if not decades. No one was naive enough to believe the world could be united swiftly, and many felt it would simply never happen at all. However, considering not only the present state of Asia, but also the economic effect the war had on the rest of the world, some argued that national economies were already so intertwined that a world government was already necessar to ensure effective management of resources and trade.

Initially, there was much resistance to the 'Unified Earth' proposal. Russia and China in particular insisted the United States was doing little more than uniting the world under its own banner. Few nations wanted to become just another star floating with hundreds of others above the red-and-white stripes that lined the Yankee flag. Many of these countries insisted that the threat of the EarthShield weaponry was a hammer waiting to descend upon them should they refuse to join the proposed alliance.

However, not everyone was so eager to complain. Britain and most of Europe readily backed the plan, immediately grasping the benefits of open trade and unified defense. Many of the poorer nations, such as those in Africa and South America, also agreed, primarily as a means to aid their own economies, which had fallen along with the world markets during the war.

Throughout the late 2080s, the Unified Earth Alliance gradually took shape and became known as simply the Earth Alliance. In 2087, the organization was officially formed at a special conference in Geneva, Switzerland, later to become the official Alliance capital. All of North and South America, most of Europe and Africa, Israel, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and a smattering of minor Asian and Pacific Rim nations were initial signers of the Alliance charter. Notable holdouts included Russia, China, India, Pakistan, France, Egypt, Libya, North Korea, Vietnam, and the whole of the Middle East except Israel.

All nations were invited to join, and - for the moment - no sanctions were put forth against those who remained independent. As time passed, the Earth Alliance quickly grew in power and influence. The borders between its member nations began to blur as they took on the aspects of states within a confederation instead of independent countries. A single currency, the 'credit,' was created in 2095, sending dollars, pounds, euros, and the like by the wayside.

Although the individual nations would continue to retain their own standing armies for decades, the core of EarthForce was formed in 2091 and grew steadily thereafter. This multinational force standardized on English as its primary language and operated equipment primarily provided by the United States and European Union. As trust continued to build, member nations began to share secrets with each other, resulting in a significant burst of technological achievement. New and cheaper ways to reach and explore space were discovered and put to use, resulting in the creation of permanent space stations and bases on the Moon and, later, Mars. These provided stepping-stones to the outer planets and resource-rich asteroids, and this promulgation of jobs and industry created a kind of Golden Age within those nations that made up the Earth Alliance.

[edit] The World Unites

From outside the increasingly affluent Alliance, holdout nations looked on with growing disdain, jealousy, and greed. Resisting this growing power became more and more difficult. For some countries, like Russia and China, staying out of the Earth Alliance was a matter of national pride. For others, such as North Korea and France, it showed their strong independent nature. Still other nations, including India, Pakistan and the Middle East, felt the organization was too firmly rooted in Christianity to join. Most of these countries continued to remain apart from the Alliance through much of the 2090s, although Egypt and Libya entered the fold in 2093, and an increasingly isolated France finally gave in on January 1, 2096.

Each of these countries was welcomed with open arms, and although the first couple of years were difficult while integration proceeded, they soon began to enjoy the same prosperity as the rest of the Earth Alliance. Seeing this, a number of smaller holdouts joined as the century came to a close, with only China, Russia, India, Pakistan, the nations of the Middle East remaining outside the envelope. In an attempt to resist what they saw as an increasing threat of annexation, Saudi Arabia attempted to organize its Muslim neighbors into the League of Palestinian Nations, but could not convince the others to accept any form of unified government that would result in the slightest reduction in sovereignty. A similar attempt by Russia to produce an alliance with the Asian holdouts failed utterly due to long-standing antipathies between all four nations.

In respone to these unification attempts, the Alliance began to put pressure on the remaining countries to get their heads out of the sand and finally become part of the world community. Many within the Alliance saw these holdouts as a significant threat to world peace. A rearmed India and Pakistan were beginning to hiss at each other again, while Russian and China had turned their own border into a thousand miles of razor wire, mines, and gun emplacements waiting to fire at the slightest provocation. Worse still, the Middle East was fully involved in a terror campaign designed to undermine the Alliance and break up its members, particularly their ancient foe Israel.

Unlike the United Nations, however, the Earth Alliance had the power to enforce its will and the willingness to use that power. At first it began to influence the holdout countries by the skillful use of propaganda. Russia was seen by Alliance leaders as the key to all the others, so a campaign began to sway the Russian government and people to join the EA of their own accord. The benefits of membership were extolled in public displays and onair broadcast advertising, focusing primarily on the economic advantages of unlimited trade with Europe and America. Even more important, though was the promise of defense against the Chinese threat. No longer would Russia be required to hold the border on their own - should China invade, the entire Earth Alliance would come to their aid.

In the end, Russia swallowed its pride and agreed to join the Earth Alliance at the start of 2101. As soon as that announcement was made, China - convinced that Russia would rearm with Earth Alliance technology and then crush their longtime rivals once and for all - chose to jump the gun and launched and immediate invasion. The Alliance responded by declaring Russia a protected state and opened fire with advanced satellite weaponry, long-range aircraft, and other assets of a technological level well beyond anything the Chinese could deploy. The war lasted only five days before the devastated Chinese armies retreated. However, when Russia pressed to counterattack, the Alliance ordered them to stand down their forces, which they did immediately.

Shortly after the Five-Day War, China's government underwent a dramatic change. Virtually overnight, they began to put out feelers to the Alliance. The sting of their defeat was replaced with a burning desire not to let their Russian enemies enter into any arrangement that left the proud Chinese on the outside looking in. Ultimately, both Russia and China officially joined the Alliance simultaneously on the first of January 2101, although they continued to guard their mutual border for years afterward, and neither truly trusted each other for decades. Pakistan and India also took the hint and joined simultaneously, surprisely without conflict, in 2102.

The Middle East proved a more difficult nut to crack. Each country there had become a sort of island unto itself, and each operated terrorists against nearly every country in the Alliance. The problem finally came to head when a small nuclear weapon was employed against Israel in 2105. The explosion was traced to a terrorist organization operating out of Iran.

The Earth Alliance was outraged. Something had to be done, but the outright use of military force was deemed unacceptable. The Alliance did not feel that using force against Iran would solve the problem, on exacerbate it. Instead, they responded by sealing off the entire Middle East from the rest of the world, isolating them as no other nations had ever been isolated before. All land routes were closed, and all sea lanes were patrolled by a military blockade. Ships leaving the harbors were captured and interned with minimal use of force, while any citizens caught were simply returned to their home countries.

Initially, terrorism continued unabated, but over time the Alliance finally managed to put an end to the threat. The trapped countries responded as if they were under siege, occasionally running suicide bombers out to attack guards, or firing missiles and artillery at their neighbors. The Alliance responded by gradually destroying anything that could be used as a weapon. Even this would not be enough to convince the besieged nations, so with no other options available, the Alliance decided to invade each country in turn. As Earth Alliance forces crossed the border, the greater portion of the people flocked to them as liberators, happy to be rid of their oppressive leaders. The era of independent nations had finally come to an end, and while it didn't happen the way the Alliance founders hoped it would, Earth was at last unified under a single government.

[edit] Government

The Earth Alliance is a democratically elected government consisting of a:

  • Executive
    • President
    • Vice-President
    • Cabinet
  • Legislative

[edit] Colonies

[edit] Agencies & Departments

Ministry of Peace, Nightwatch, Office of Public Morale, Ministry for Public Information, Earth Special Intelligence, Earthforce, Psi Corps

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