Echoes of Harmony

The Praesidium Union was one of the first powers to arise after humans departed Earth for the stars. It brought together several different star systems, initially as a rebellion against the Solar Empire, in the late twenty-sixth and early twenty-seventh centuries. The capitol of the Union was Invicem, a planet about half the size of Earth and one of the first human colonies. The Union would collapse about three hundred years later.

The stars on the flag represent four of the five main planets that formed the Union: Arcadia, Hyperia, Stariek, and Siatia. Invicem, the fifth, is represented by the eagle in the center, as it was the capital of the Union. Each of these were five of the original fifty colonies settled in the mid to late third millennium by the Solar Empire.

Reasons for Rebellion

Taxes were exponentially rising, faster than they could produce income. Earth corporations saw the profit to be had from colonies away from the Sol system, and they wanted to exploit it. They continuously rose tariffs and import duties, as well as sales tax, income tax, etc., to the point where it was impossible for the colonies to make any money. This resulted in colonial companies quickly going out of business and funneling more money and power to the top mega corporations that ran the Earth government.

No representation in the Intergalactic Parliament. Corporations refused to allow any colonies to have a voting representative in parliament, citing the fact that the constitution (written by the corporations) required a certain population before representatives could be elected. It was purposefully written to exclude the colonies, whose populations were just a small fraction of the main Empire’s. Attempts at appeasement were made by allowing them to have an observing member who could voice objections and submit bills for consideration, but they were frequently ignored as they held no real power. This resulted in the colonies having no say in their government, forcing them to accept whatever regulations and bills were passed.

Little to no protection from pirates. During the decades leading up to the rebellion, piracy ran rampant. After several pleas to the parliament, their cries for help went unanswered. What little they were able to produce was taken either by pirates or in the form of taxes, leaving them destitute. And…

Inability to form their own military. As per the Constitution of the Solar Empire, all colonies were forced to accept whatever military aid that the Empire gave them. They could not conscript or enlist armies of their own, preventing them from protecting themselves from the pirates that harassed their cargo vessels and transports. At the onset of the pirate raids, this rule was ignored, and some planets, namely Hyperia, Siatia, and Arcadia, formed their own militaries that they used to patrol different sectors of the colonies. However, when the parliament caught wind of this, they were quickly disbanded and the planets fined. This further increased the frequency of pirate attacks, as they knew there would be no repercussions for their actions.

Lack of funding for social programs, such as schools and health care. Despite the fact that Earth publicly funded education for all citizens on their homeplanet from childhood through the beginning of adulthood, those programs were not extended to the colonies. In order for them to get an education, they would need to pay an extraordinary amount of money, first for the trip to Earth and then for the education itself. Instead, families would opt to keep their children at home where they could work to try to eke out a living. Quality of health care also plummeted the further out you went from Earth, leaving life expectancy much lower away from the capitol.

Overall, the quality of life afforded to colonies was severely lacking when considering that of the Earth citizens. They were treated as nothing more than livestock raised for profit.

Beginning of the Rebellion

Rebellion against the Solar Empire was not considered until a mega corporation supposedly destroyed a civilian transport carrying five hundred Invicem citizens traveling from Invicem to Earth. The cause of the destruction is still unknown, with both sides claiming the other being at fault. However, the Solar Empire refused to investigate the cause, and that was the final straw for Invicem. In secret, they plotted with other colonies raising the same complaints as them. These included Arcadia, Hyperia, Stariek, and Siatia, among others. After much discussion, they agreed to from together as the Praesidium Union, drafting up a new constitution and forming a democracy. They chose to elect Harry Gryffin, founder and head of Gryffin Security, a private military corporation based on Invicem, as their first President for an initial six year term, with subsequent terms of himself and other presidents to be four years.

After several years of planning, the newly formed Praesidium Union filed a formal declaration of independence to the Intergalactic Parliament. Chaos briefly ensued within the parliament. After a short debate, they voted to reject the declaration, instead choosing to use force to keep them as colonies.

Upon news of this decision reaching the Union, President Gryffin enlisted his soldiers to lead the fight against the Solar Empire. However, actual battles were few and far between, with Earth preferring to fight the uprising by cutting off supply lines rather than direct confrontation, hoping when they starved they would capitulate.

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The most notable, and perhaps important, battle came three years after the initial declaration. The inappropriately named Battle of Mars took place in 2563. While designated as Mars, the battle took place within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. During the twenty-third and twenty-fourth centuries, corporations started excavating the asteroids for their ores. The biggest of these was Redy Corporation, a mining conglomerate that supplied Earth with their main source of metals for military equipment.

After three years of scraping by, food, supplies, and morale were running low. Some were on the verge of giving up. There were talks of rejoining the Empire and accepting whatever consequences came as long as they regained access to basic supplies. In a daring move, President Gryffin sent a small fleet to try to disrupt Earth supply lines, mostly as a way to boost citizens’ spirits and show that they were fighting back. The Solar Empire’s military was spread thin throughout the colonies, with a relatively small force stationed in the Sol system. The Union fleet was able to drop into the system just outside the asteroid belt, destroy the headquarters and main supply depot within, and escape before Earth could launch a defense. The Solar Empire had not expected an attack so deep within their territory; as such, they were initially surprised by it, scrambling to get defenses in place. By the time they were deployed, the Union fleet was gone, a patch of destruction left in its wake.

This disruption to the Earth supply line was rather minor. At one point, Redy Corporation had been the backbone of the Solar infrastructure. That changed drastically after intergalactic travel was made trivial and Earth was able to get materials from many different star systems.

While a relatively small loss for Earth, it was a major victory for the Union, showing their citizens that they could win their independence, one attack at a time. They used the battle to drive enlistment, recruiting tens of thousands of troops for their war effort. The tide began turning in the favor of the rebellion with them breaking the Solar blockades on the Praesidium Union planets. Soon, Earth realized that it was not worth the effort and expense and agreed to grant the planets their independence.

Achievements of the Union

The Praesidium Union prided itself on continuing the democracy that it had started with. The constitution they drafted created a system of checks and balances allowing the people to flourish and get the real representation they wanted. Because tax money now stayed within the Union, instead of being siphoned out of the planets by the Solar Empire, there was more money to go around for the social programs that they desired.

One of the most important achievements of the Praesidium Union may be the formation of the Galactic Council. Previously there had been no court system for settling disputes between empires or planets, forcing each to try to come to some sort of agreement. This rarely ended peacefully, as seen during the Centauri War. As a result, the Galactic Council was formed to help settle these disputes, bringing some semblance of law and order that was missing. Their rulings were mostly final, and its structure was based off the, now ancient, Supreme Court systems prevalent before, during, and after the Atomic Era on Earth. Different planets were able to elect Justices to the Council in different circuits, allowing for representation from all over the galaxy. However, the five founding members of the Praesidium Union were each always guaranteed at least one Justice on the Galactic Council.

Education flourished under the new government. All children received free education through high school and were given the option to continue to university at no cost. The only requirement was that if the government paid for their university, they agreed to work in the public sector, such as in the school system, health care, and government, for a set period of time (typically five years). Most chose this option, while others opted to go directly into the workforce, and some (mostly children of the rich) went to college with their parents paying the bill before going to work for the family corporation.

Health care also received massive improvements after receiving additional funding. Life expectancy drastically increased. Diseases once thought to be incurable turned into minor inconveniences. Medical robots that were fully autonomous were finally perfected and widespread through every hospital and ship. They also worked on advances that eventually led to the mass adoption of the Cerebrum Awareness Module (CAM, for short).

The only sector that suffered under the Union was the military. After the rebellion was over and their independence granted, the leaders of the Praesidium Union saw no need for their large standing military. As such, they reduced the funding the military received. They kept a small force for patrolling the Union to protect against pirates and act as a first alert of potential invasions, but mainly left the other planets to train their military however they saw fit. It was an era of peace, and most felt safe enough without one, hence foregoing the spending.

Fall of the Union

Despite its initial success in bringing the colonial planets together, the Praesidium Union would not last. After just over three hundred years of democracy and free elections, an authoritarian by the name of Alan Rezal from Hyperia was able to win the election for President, despite warnings by other politicians and military leaders of the dangers he posed. True to the warnings, his party was quick to pass sweeping reforms of the electoral process, all but guaranteeing their continued victories in Union elections. In addition, they corrupted the Galactic Council, leaving it practically useless.

Rezal also increased military spending to rebuild their armies, justifying it by making the citizens feel unsafe without it. No one alive had seen the rebellion, and it felt like a far off fantasy. Something to scare small children. He used this fact to embellish the details, making the Terran Empire out to be warmongering savages.

After fighting against the slow destruction of their peaceful way of life, other planets that once believed strongly in the Praesidium Union left, going off on their own. Rezal, seeing this happening under his rule, rewrote the constitution of the Union to outlaw secession from the Union, and reforming it as the Hyperion Empire. Thus, the once beacon of freedom for the galaxy died, not with a roar, but a whisper.

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