Homeworld Confederacy
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The Homeworld Confederacy (HWC) is a human interstellar republic composed of a collection of approximately 250 member worlds and a population of approximately 1.1 trillion. In terms of both population and spatiographic area the Confederacy is the largest single human government within the Orion Spur and the area of territory governed by the Confederacy is second only to that controlled by the Collected Prides.
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History​
The Interstellar Hegemony and Early Colonization
The first human colonists set out from Homeworld around the HRU0 in the Hegemonic dating system under the oversight of the Interstellar Hegemony. Utilizing nascent compression drive technology made possible by advances in antimatter power generation, massive colony ships terraformed and settled dozens of worlds in Homeworld's vicinity. Shipping lanes opened to return vital resources strip-mined from colonized systems to Hegemony core worlds. Communication between human colonies was achieved utilizing both quantum entanglement communications for direct connection and chains of trillions of relay buoys to pass larger communique more slowly.
Beginning around HRU90, tensions rose as the demeanor of the Hegemony government became more domineering. The resource requirements of the core planets gradually increased to fuel further expansion and the production of warships to enforce Hegemony rule. As pressure on the beleaguered outer worlds increased, dissent festered between outlying colonies and the core worlds.
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Colonial Crisis and the Fall of Homeworld
As the gulf between Hegemonic colonies and their central government widened, self-sufficient systems began rising in rebellion around HRU205, overthrowing Hegemony garrisons and dismantling lines of data-courier communication that kept them tethered to the core worlds. The scale of the uprising caught Hegemony enforcers by surprise and their fleets were not sufficiently equipped to respond to an upheaval on such an unprecedented scale. Inadequate fleet deployment, long transit times between core world fleet garrisons and outlying colonies, and poor intelligence hampered any effective response.
Ambushes and ineffective leadership lead to the attrition of Hegemony fleet resources to the point of collapse. Unable to enforce its rule in outlying systems, the Hegemony central government pulled back its remaining assets to its core systems, however without the support and manufacturing capabilities of its mining colonies, also quickly began to collapse. Infighting between ruling houses and mercantile guilds broke out, fleets were commandeered or simply turned mercenary and Hegemonic order destabilized.
In HRU223; the darkest hour of the decade-long civil war, an unprecedented ingress of Volucrid migratory biovessels descended upon the Homeworld system, catching the beleaguered and undermanned Hegemony forces unprepared. According to official Confederate state history of the event, penned centuries after the incident, the remaining human forces stationed on Homeworld made a valiant final stand, evacuating billions of civilians before being overwhelmed. Rather than leave the cradle of humanity to be harvested by alien organisms, the decision was made to detonate fusion weapons deep within the mantle, ripping apart the planet’s crust and rendering it useless to the Volucrid Host. While this recollection of the event paints the system's defenders in a heroic light; evidence has since suggested that the destructive energies unleashed upon the world were not entirely consistent with nuclear weapons, and critics in some corners still question the official explanation.
Homeworld's destruction lead to the total collapse of the Hegemony. With the central government's authority broken, humanity was plunged into a century-long period later known as the interstellar dark age. With communication lines between planets gutted during the Colonial Crisis, much of the record regarding this chaotic period in human history is questionable at best. Systems founded independent governments, however most destabilized quickly. Some developed systems were able to outfit their own fleets of warships or exploratory vessels for further colonization, founding or conquering small interstellar nation-states for themselves. As the dark age progressed, thousands of small governments rose and fell and planets developed unique traditions and cultures.
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New Homeworld and the Reformation
From the ashes of the Hegemony core worlds, a new seat of power for humanity was founded on Skyshield; the Hegemony's first colony and a powerful cultural symbol. Expounding philosophies of personal freedom in the tradition of the ancient birthplace of humanity, the newly formed Homeworld Confederacy was officially ratified by the Skyshield Governing Council in HRU 334 and quickly united the core worlds under its banner, reclaiming their advanced infrastructure to construct new interstellar fleets. Utilizing new breakthroughs in differential drive technologies that would allow for even faster traversal of vast interstellar distances, Confederate fleets began the laborious process of re-discovering humanity's far-flung enclaves.
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While some conglomerates of systems remained defiant against the Confederacy's entreaties, some even banding together against what they perceived as the return of the ancient Hegemony, most joined at the promise of free trade and renewed contact with other human settlements. In exchange, member worlds would commit small tithes of resources and accept a measure of oversight by the Confederate governing council. During this period of reformation, other groups of human settlements formed independent interstellar organizations of their own, including the Konager League and Rhestran Federation. The reformation was officially declared complete in HRU297.
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First Contact Wars and Contemporary History
While tensions and resulting skirmishes between the Confederacy and neighboring governments would continue, Confederate exploratory fleets restarted the Hegemony practice of constant outwards expansion to discover, terraform and colonize new habitable worlds and planets. It was during this expansion, in HRU458 that mankind was rocked by first contact with another sentient species. Having expanded into territory under the protection of the Ativari Conclave, a Confederate exploratory mission overreacted when faced with alien ships. Assuming hostile intent, HDC escort ships opened fire on approaching Ativari vessels. Loss of contact with the exploratory fleet saw the dispatch of an HDC task force, which was subsequently eliminated.
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Despite initial setbacks, the numerically-inferior and spatiographically miniscule Ativari civilization was originally considered to be of little threat to the still-young Confederacy. The brief resulting war was a sour and bloody start to interspecies relations, but the clear technological superiority of the Warfare Directorate saw local Confederate military units quickly cowed into standing down. Political doctrine of the Conclavate Synod mandated peace and political manipulation over open war and a ceasefire was quickly struck.
The revelation to mankind of other sentient life was followed quickly by a second first-contact event in HRU 518, when courier vessels of the Collected Prides were first encountered by HDC picket ships. Eager not to relive past mistakes, Confederate agents followed new first contact protocols carefully and efforts to establish peaceful dialogue with Zhren'thrar representatives were made. These entreaties were rebuffed by the prides and the Council of Seven declared war as pride warfleets began to sally forth into Confederate space.
Mandated by the Khariphesh Temple, the war that followed was dubbed the by humans as the Khariphesh Crusade (but referred to as the Sapient Crusade in Zhren'thrar records). This decades-long conflict was the largest interstellar conflict in recorded history, and left left billions dead on both sides. While widespread and rapid redeployments of HDC task forces fueled Confederate reprisals that eventually ground the conflict to a standstill, pride warfleets were able to penetrate deep within Confederate territory and launch raids on dozens of poorly defended human colonies. While Conclave interests in the war were initially limited, a wartime agreement that allowed for more open technological exchange gave Confederate engineers access to advanced drive and shield technologies. Once the treaty had taken hold, misguided Zhren'thrar interference with Ativari escort craft plunged the Conclave into the war and the Synod quickly dispatched massive interdiction forces into pride space. Now under pressure on two fronts, pride warfleets were eventually withdrawn and an uneasy ceasefire was called.
Worlds scorched lifeless by plasma fire and fusion bombardment still stand as a monument to the billions dead on both sides of the Spur's bloodiest first contact war. While open trade between Confederate border colonies and neighboring Prides has been established, decades after the Crusade, Zhren'thrar in human space still face discrimination and hatred even while pride belief systems encourage Zhren'thrar to view humans favorably in light of their tenacity and fierce conduct during the conflict. Tensions between the Confederacy and both alien governments, while outwardly friendly, have been strained since the first contact wars, each jockeying politically to gain an edge without risking another episode of exorbitant bloodshed in this new arena of cold war.
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Government and Politics
The vast scale of the Confederacy makes a powerful central government such as that imposed by the Interstellar Hegemony impractical at best. As such the Confederate member worlds are responsible for self-government within certain humanitarian guidelines. These guidelines are passed down in the form of Mandates by the Governing Council; a body of elected representatives hailing from each member world. Executive functions are carried out by the world in question, which are able to call upon resources nominally controlled by the Governing Council, including HDC task forces, in times of need. In this process, requests for aid are reviewed by local garrison commanders and dispatched as necessary.
The founding principles of the Confederacy were the ideals of personal freedom and agency that had once supposedly created the Homeworld into a mythological utopia. The establishment of this ideal was core to the Confederacy's founding, however as the nation has aged the use of its powerful naval corps to enforce council mandates in direct violation of these concepts has become a necessity. On poorer colonies far removed from the oversight of the governing council and their enforcement task forces, these ideals of freedom are also impinged upon by less scrupulous planetary governments that open their citizens to exploitation by powerful megacorps, or become recruiting grounds for extremist religious or dissident political groups.
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Military and Law Enforcement
Maintenance of the Confederacy's vast territory necessitates the division of Confederate military into three primary branches.
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System Security & Planetary Security Corps (PSC)
The most numerous military division within Confederate Space, System Security (SSC) or Planetary Security Corps (PSC) forces are responsible for policing member worlds and their attendant systems, including law enforcement, peacekeeping and planetary defense. These units are entirely outfitted, recruited, commanded and maintained solely by the member world's government and their jurisdiction is limited to local systems. PSC forces include a range of space vessels responsible for patrolling their local system, but rarely larger, interstellar warships. Depending on the climate or culture of their native system, these units can appear distinct from planet to planet.
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Homeworld Defense Corps (HDC)
Nominally reporting directly to the Governing Council, the Homeworld Defense Corps is responsible for enforcing council mandates, rendering aid to systems in need and providing for the defense of Confederate territory. To fulfill these roles as efficiently as possible, the HDC is further divided into two distinct subdivisions; the Naval Corps and Tactical Corps.
Not governed by any single system, groups of Naval Corps task forces patrol Confederate space regularly, resupplying at dozens of orbital garrisons and defense installations. These forces are made up of volunteer, career soldiers from across the Confederacy and are outfitted with the cutting edge of military technology, operating some of the most powerful warships human space has to offer.
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Tactical Corps troops are responsible for conducting HDC ground operations. Most HDC task forces will include compliments of several hundred tactical operators that report to the task force commander via a separate operational hierarchy. This allows Tactical Corps officers to specialize in their unique theater of operations and still work synergistically with HDC fleet maneuvers. Marine troops are divided into specialized teams based on their skillset and mission requirements:
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M-TAC (Multirole Tactical Armored Corps) teams form the core of Tactical Corps troop compliments. M-TAC troops conduct standard operations and are outfitted to perform a flexible suite of operations or hold territory in support of specialist teams. A standard rifle squad is composed of 10 soldiers, divided into two fireteams of 5 soldiers - usually one fireteam leader, one specialist such as a support gunner and three riflemen, with specialists or special equipment assigned as the mission dictates, however these teams are often embedded or work alongside more specialized troops under the umbrella of the M-TAC command structure.
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SCORPEON (Scout, Covert Operation and Reconnaissance PErsONnel) teams are lightly-armored infantry units trained to operate behind enemy lines for long periods of time; often conducting covert operations and intelligence gathering where drone and orbital reconnaissance is insufficient.
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MANTIS (Mobile Assault and Nonlinear Tactical Insertion Specialists) assault cells are generally more heavily armored and equipped for close-quarter battle. These teams are made up of elite soldiers and deployed as shock troops when enemy forces are heavily entrenched or fortified.
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Councilor Guard
Elite military divisions stationed within the Confederate core worlds for the security of the Governing Council and other vital political entities and installations, the Councillor Guard are composed largely of Tactical Corps veterans and have undergone radical reconditioning to ensure their loyalty to the Confederate institution. These units include task forces of advanced warships that occasionally work in tandem with core world PSC forces.
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In addition to their status as protectors of government personnel, the Councillor Guard acts as the military arm of the Council Oversight Bureau; the powerful organization tasked with rooting out corruption from central government institutions and whose jurisdiction includes both the Governing Council and HDC. Many times councilors found guilty of crimes against the Confederacy have been escorted from the council chambers by silent, armored guardsmen, or rogue HDC garrisons disappeared under Guard "sanctions".
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Homeworld Intelligence Bureau (HIB)
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The branch of Confederate service involved with surveillance of potential threats on both domestic and foreign fronts; including covert operations, intelligence collection, and even direct action through compartmentalized sub-departments such as the Blacksmyth Corps.
