In the not so distant future, as Earth’s resources are depleted and overpopulation
threatens the survival of humanity, the United Nations come together to spearhead a great
colonization program.
Settlements and mining outposts are established across the solar system, bringing to Earth
great wealth and prosperity.
Eventually however, those who have made their homes on the off-world colonies begin to resent
the domineering influence of Earth and begin taking steps to win their independence.
As tensions rise between Earth and its colonies, war seems inevitable.
Does that sound familiar?
This scenario, or a variation of it, has been depicted again and again across alternate
worlds, with varying levels of believability.
The war between the Solar Associated Treaty Organization, or SATO, and the Settlement
Defense Front is one such example, and unfortunately it fails to answer the many questions this
type of setting immediately raises.
The first, and most important in my opinion, is how does a collection of colonists and
frontier workers possibly compete with the manpower, industry, resources, economic strength
and technical expertise of a united Earth?
The Settlement Defense Front can’t answer this question, and fails on nearly level to
present a credible, or even interesting antagonist.
While demographics or statistics are neither available for the Settlement Defense Front
or the United Nations, it can be assumed that Earth at this point has a population well
over 10 billion while Mars and other SetDef colonies have at most hundreds of millions,
and that’s if we’re being especially generous.
The disparity in relative power would be akin to Belgium going up against China.
The most likely outcome it seems to me is that at the very first sign of secessionist
movements, Earth would be able to mobilize an overwhelming amount of force that the Settlement
Defense Front would be incapable of matching.
Even economic sanctions would likely be enough to completely cripple Mars and force them
to concede without much of a fight.
For its entire existence as a manned colony, Mars would have been reliant and closely integrated
with Earth, suddenly declaring its independence would likely cause more harm than good at
least in the immediate short term.
But another question is, why would Mars or other colonies want to secede in the first
place?
What is Earth doing exactly that has alienated seemingly everyone who left it?
The common answer both in this depiction and others, is that in the eyes of the colonists,
resources and wealth that should have been going towards them is instead being sent to
fund greedy interests on Earth.
I don’t buy this.
While you can point to many examples across history of plucky colonials rising up against
their Imperial overlords after a period of repression, I’d like to think that humanity
has learned from those examples and decisions made at the highest levels of government are
a little more reasonable than those made during the 18th century.
It would be in Earth’s best interest to keep its colonies happy and I’m sure there’d
be plenty of incentives that would make life on Mars particularly appealing.
Even if you disagree with that assessment, governments make unpopular decisions all the
time, and it very rarely ends in a war of secession, especially in a modern developed
nation.
The majority of independence movements, particularly those based in democratic societies like how
the United Nations is depicted in this future, enjoy very limited support with even disgruntled
members preferring to achieve their goals through legitimate political methods.
I don’t see the justification for why the Settlement Defense Front wouldn’t be treated
the same way by the majority of the population.
Nevertheless, in this instance, the Settlement Defense Front somehow manages to obtain enough
support to declare its independence anyways.
But the other major issue SetDef immediately has is that unless every single citizen agreed
with that decision, a potentially large segment of its population is opposed to the new regime.
Surely there’s at least a few people on Mars who wouldn’t be so willing to throw
away their Earth citizenship.
So now the Front is opposed by both the forces of the United Nations and a resistance within
their own population.
Any nation in the position the Settlement Defense Front found itself in would be at
an enormous disadvantage.
But somehow, once again, the Front is able to rise above these odds, winning control
of Mars and various other territories across the Solar System.
From here, SetDef resembles a cartoon villain rather than a realistic nation.
While details on its society are scarce, the information we do get only serves to reinforce
the idea that these are the bad guys, with no nuance whatsoever.
Let's pick a couple of those details to focus on.
First, every male citizen in the Front is required to take part in 15 years of military
service starting at age 12.
This is insane.
While we can assume that some sort of additional schooling takes place during this time and
that half the Front’s population isn’t limited to 7th Grade Education, the cost to
benefit ratio of 15 years of military service is indefensible.
Mass conscription like this removes an enormous amount of productivity from the workplace
and even if no salary were paid, the cost on maintaining such a large force during peacetime
is not sustainable.
A strong economy is critical to winning any war, and the Settlement Defense Front has
essentially shot itself in the stomach.
This cartoonish approach to governance extends to the actions of the Front’s leadership.
In one of his first encounters with SATO marines, Admiral Salen Kotch executes one of his own
men to demonstrate his willingness to go to any length to achieve victory.
His intention here is to be intimidating, but he comes across like someone truly desperate
to be taken seriously.
A willingness to squander resources and potential is not threatening and not something a nation
like the Settlement Defense Front should be supporting.
Their greatest disadvantage is a lack of manpower and Kotch has wasted not only a life, but
years of training and economic investment.
And also, what was the point of this overly dramatic display?
For a man whose sole mission is to eradicate the Earth he despises, he goes through a lot
of effort to try and impress some random SATO marine he’s just going to kill a few moments
later.
Actions like this define the Settlement Defense Front, shock value is placed above self-interest
and as a result, SetDef as a society makes no sense.
How is a civilization with a fraction of Earth’s resources able to amass such a huge army and
fleet without bankrupting itself?
What is it about Earth they hate so much that they’re willing to resort to genocide?
What exactly is their goal?
What is their ideology?
None of these questions have satisfactory answers.
I have a lot of problems with this world.
No Navy would assemble every one of its warships for a fleet review, Salen Kotch is much too
young to be a credible Admiral, and everything else is full of cliches or is generally forgettable.
My biggest problem however is how the war between the Settlement Defense Front and the
Solar Associated Treaty Organization is depicted.
From the opening attack on Geneva to the death of Admiral Kotch and the destruction of Mars’s
shipyards, the entire conflict lasts just one day.
Somewhere on Earth a guy was recovering from a bad hangover and slept through an intergalactic
war.
The conflict lacks any sense of scale with warships and marines able to zip around the
Solar System instantaneously and with this in mind, many of the tactics and strategies
used by both sides don’t take this into account.
Worse still though, it reduces the Settlement Defense Front to a complete laughing stock.
A nation that was able to achieve a spectacular opening surprise attack and be completely
defeated just 24 hours later.
SATO likewise comes across as especially inept, having lost almost all their ships in the
opening attack to an enemy that shouldn’t have been able to challenge them in the first
place.
But that of course is just my opinion, and even though I am incapable of error, I’d
like to hear your thoughts.
Did I miss the point of the Settlement Defense Front?
Does it make total sense that SATO could go from the brink of defeat to victory in just
one day?
Let me know in the comments, unless your just gonna tell me I sound kinda weird, I have
a virus, it hurts to talk, it’s not my fault.
Until next time, this has been Incoming.