Among the many exhibits in the great museums of Earth, are those that depict the eras in human
history, some not so long ago, that are today as alien as any of the xenos civilizations discovered
beyond the far frontier. Behind glass displays, visitors marvel at the relics of ancient battles,
the crumbling accounts of great disasters, famine, and strife. It seems impossible
that once there had been a time when mankind turned its swords upon one another,
when greed and corruption left tens of millions to die beneath the jackboot of tyranny.
When the extinction of the human race was not only possible, but likely.
But the most beloved exhibit is always the one that shows how the Age of Despair ended.
The day that great lights from above pierced through the smoke of ruined cities and burning
fields, and brought humanity into contact with their Collaborators.
And even as centuries of progress and triumph consign that great moment further into history,
none have ever forgotten that this was the dawn of the United Terran Protectorates.
By the mid 2100s, mankind’s efforts to colonize distant stars had collapsed. Sirius, Tau Ceti,
and Epsilon Indi, sites of the first extrasolar colonies, languished, unable to provide the raw
resources that Earth so desperately needed. With the bounties of space still out of
reach and the efforts across the Solar System insufficient, the empires of Earth grew desperate.
On March 1st, 2159 the great leaders of mankind, its Kings, Queens and nobility,
declared that their subjects did not deserve them. In their hypocrisy,
they blamed their own failures on those who had suffered most under them. Together, they gathered
what little wealth and power remained, and in a grand flotilla, the Earhart Evacuation Effort,
set off for the paradise world of Antares to begin anew. All others would be left to die.
On Earth, the ever expanding ecological collapse left entire regions of the planet uninhabitable
and the ensuing refugee crisis dissolved nations. To protect what little remained from those outside
their borders, the last kingdoms went to war and only hastened the destruction of their world.
When the great lights first appeared, millions grew fearful it was some new
weapon deployed by their enemies, or perhaps even, the wrath of god.
The great forms that emerged from the lights dwarfed even the largest remaining cities,
and it was clear that whatever they were, they were not the work of man. Then came
the realization that they were neither weapons nor the divine, but travellers from across the stars.
The first representatives of the Collaborators that appeared across the world,
came not as conquerors, but as saviors. The early decades were difficult,
for mankind of that era was prone to suspicion and hatred. Many feared the Collaborators,
but through their efforts, came miracles. Almost overnight, human civilization was transformed.
Advanced technologies made gardens out of deserts, riches out of poverty and joy out of anguish.
The archaic forms of governance that for so long had hindered the development of mankind
were cast away, and democracy, the will of the people, flourished in its place.
As all of Earth was put on this great new path,
the Collaborators made their preparations to leave, satisfied that their work was now done.
But the people of Earth asked that they stay. It was clear to mankind that there was still
so much to learn from the Collaborators and the feeling that a Great Debt must be repaid.
In a profound ceremony, The Collaborators graciously accepted stewardship over the Earth,
declaring it the newest shining jewel in a great crown of starfaring planets.Humanity
celebrated as old kingdoms were dissolved, and Terran Protectorates established in their place.
With the blessing of the Collaborators, mankind again set forth on its own journey to the stars,
determined to succeed where before they had failed. One by one, the old colonies
were reclaimed, and there arose a deep feeling that justice had been done when
it was discovered that the Earhart Evacuation Effort had never reached their destination.
New star systems were charted and colonized as well, and for mankind’s efforts,
the United Terran Protectorates were rewarded. Enormous structures, thousands of years beyond
anything mankind might build were bestowed by the Collaborators. From each, came a wealth of energy
and natural resources, enough to sustain the whole of human civilization forever.
When the first Xenos species were discovered, the Protectorates looked upon them with the
same sense of sorrow and compassion that the Collaborators had displayed towards mankind.
Many races across the galaxy had been allowed to develop without a firm guiding hand,
and their ceaseless wars against one another could not be allowed to go on. When the United
Terran Protectorates petitioned the Collaborators to allow them to bring outsiders into the fold,
the patrons of mankind were pleased, and revealed that this had been their intentions all along.
Today, the United Terran Protectorates stand as a bulwark of stability and order in an increasingly
chaotic galaxy. As a self-styled “enlightened democracy” absolute power is invested in the
President of the Executive Council, the only individual permitted unrestricted contact with
the Collaborators. The Executive Council itself serves as a body of the President’s
highest human advisors, appointed from each of the 311 National Protectorates.
While various Presidents might name a few dozen amongst the Council’s number to their personal
cabinet, generally, its members are organized into a variety of committees each specializing in a
particular field. While the Executive Council has the ability to draft and implement laws,
they are ultimately subordinate to the will of the Collaborators,
which typically reveals itself through the directives of the President.
The National Protectorates, or NPs, have very little power in themselves, and primarily serve
to implement policy decided at the federal level, or individual Collaborators. Many of the NPs have
been aligned to a particular type of industry, with manufacturing Protectorates, agricultural
Protectorates, and energy Protectorates the most common. While only the Executive Council
maintains extensive two way communications with the Collaborators, many NPs have a High Advocate.
This individual, selected from among the ranks of the Collaborator’s serves as an NPs
dedicated benefactor, often issuing decrees or directives that overrule any local legislation.
While the process of how a High Advocate is selected from among the Collaborators
remains unknown, it can occur in a number of different ways.
It is not uncommon for a High Advocate to be replaced without warning, and the focus of an
entire National Protectorate drastically altered to suit the needs of their new patron. It is also
not unheard of for National Protectorates to go to war with one another on the whims of their
respective High Advocates, with the losing realm incorporated into the domain of the winner. In at
least one instance, the Terran citizens of one Protectorate were delighted to learn they had
been given to their HIgh Advocate as part of what might be described as her coming of age ceremony.
Regardless of what industry or directive each National Protectorate pursues,
their primary function is providing material towards the Armed Forces.
This material takes many forms, from ration packs and other consumables, to military hardware,
to manpower. It is directed into the United Terran Protectorate’s three primary branches;
the Protectorate Navy, Protectorate Army and the Protectorate Civil Defense Corps.
The Protectorate Navy and Army serve as the Collaborator’s expeditionary forces, granted the
authority to bring new worlds into the fold. They aid in the transition of foreign civilizations
into either new Proctorates administered directly by the UTP, or other sovereign territories under
the Collaborators. The Civil Defense Corps, by contrast, are deployed as garrison detachments
across various National Protectorates to keep local populations secure and protected.
Military service is seen as the highest form of patriotism within the UTP, the
most noble means of fulfilling a kind of social contract known informally as the “Great Debt”.
The Great Debt is one of the central tenets of Terran Civilization, and refers to an
immense feeling of obligation within the general populace to their Collaborators,
and the need to repay them for saving mankind. This payment takes many forms,
but the most famous examples are the regiments and divisions taken from the Army and Navy,
to serve immediately under the Collaborators in distant regions of the galaxy.
The campaigns undertaken by the Protectorates’s Armed Forces have brought not only a renewed
feeling of pride to humanity, but new worlds and new laborers. In every National Protectorate,
Thimodians, Tavurites,Zelvan, Jhoolians and Beldross can all be found working together
to earn their eventual citizenship. It is a concrete reminder of the Collaborators
intense desire to see all the races of the galaxy come together for the common good.
Despite these noble intentions, the wider galaxy has so far rejected
the beneficence of the Collaborators. While the United Terran Protectorates once enjoyed
a place of prominence as a council member in the early days of the Galactic Community,
it has since been shunned and denied its rightful status. Even after the
Collaborators moved to save the galaxy from the rise of a volatile Baanthurian warlord,
the various Xenos civilizations have refused to ascend above their petty rivalries and wars.
It is with a profound sense of sadness that many within the Protectorates now
see further conflict as the only way by which peace and stability might be achieved.
The failures of mankind being repeated across the galaxy by the untamed,
xenos masses has traditionally been used by the Collaborators to instill a feeling
of solace within the few humans afforded the knowledge of their place within the galaxy.
When permitted to understand the depths of suffering within alien empires,
every human President, Admiral, Administrator and Diplomat recognizes the superiority of their own
society. Education must be limited, information curated, only then will humanity be free.
It is only in private that the leaders of the Terran Protectorates express their doubts.
They do so in secluded retreats, far outside, it is hoped, the capacity of the Collaborators
to overhear. The survival of the Earhart Evacuation Flotilla was a tremendous shock,
and at the request of their patrons, contact with their lost cousins has been severed.
Yet even the brief interactions within the Galactic Community
and the reconnaissance conducted on their worlds has given rise to a troubling idea.
The history of the Earhart Flotilla and the Confederate Republics of Antares it gave rise to,
paint a very different picture than the one depicted in the museums of Earth. Where once
the leaders of the UTP would never have questioned the teachings of the Collaborators,
now they look upon the terrible craters where once stood the great
and ancient cities of mankind, with unease. New diplomats assigned to the Galactic Community are
being replaced more and more quickly, their predecessors vanishing from every record.
If the most dire theories are true, then the Terran Protectorates have been lied to
for centuries, and survive now only as captives, inside a prison that most are too blind to see.
But perhaps, in a distant corner of the galaxy once hidden within a miasma beyond even the
sight of the Collaborators, the means to be truly free, are finally within reach.