United Technocracies of Man

When the revolts in Europe’s interstellar colonies ended in communist victory, the revived Soviet government persecuted many so-called “enemies of the people”. Many, ironically, fled to the charred colonies of the pre-Collapse Soviet Union, which had been painstakingly targeted and destroyed by the last remnants of the Imperial American navy. While these groups had many unresolved differences, most agreed that continued infighting would only allow the communists to eventually overwhelm them. They decided instead to live in peace in separate settlements, leaving one another alone, while promising to aid one another in the event of an outside attack. Thus, they formed the Colonial Alliance

That outside attack finally came in 2462, when the Conseil of Workers’ Systems tried to rebuild its reputation after their attempt to incite a revolution in the Coalition failed. They declared these disparate states to be illegally occupying territory the Conseil inherited from the Soviets. At the time, the integrity of the alliance between the powers was being called into question, as their growth led to territorial disputes. Warlords and pirates dominated the stars, just as they had before the communist revolution. Already, limited warfare was occurring between traditional autocratic regimes and ideologically driven autocratic regimes. One group, the technocrats, was already waging a guerrilla war against the Colonial Alliance's peacekeepers. Because of this strife, the Conseil expected a quick victory, knocking down the systems quickly. However, much to the Conseil’s dismay, the Allied systems put aside their differences and united against their old foe.

Despite the Allies’ solidarity against the communist invasion, their militaries were ill prepared to face off against an enemy the size of the Conseil's. Hit-and-run tactics on the ground did not work when the opposition had ready access to orbital bombardment. System after system fell to the Conseil, but not without a heavy price. Most Conseil “victories” were pyrrhic: after taking enormous casualties on the ground, the Conseil would be forced to bombard worlds into submission, destroying the precious real estate they were fighting for. Still, the Allies knew that the Conseil would eventually eradicate them if outside help did not arrive.

Almost as soon as war broke out, the Allies desperately asked for Coalition intervention. The Coalition, just having fought a bloody war against the Conseil, was of two minds on the issue. On the one hand, it despised the Conseil and would be more than happy to sabotage its plans. The more ideological members of the Coalition government supported this plan. On the other, as the more pragmatic traditionalists pointed out, the Coalition might not be able to afford yet another war against the Conseil, and its imperial ambitions were better directed elsewhere. Faced with this dilemma, the factions compromised. The Coalition sent “volunteer units” to aid the Allies and sold anti-spacecraft weaponry at discount prices. The Conseil were furious, but it knew that attacking the Coalition would likely mean defeat. When a Conseil vessel fired upon and destroyed a Coalition merchant ship, the Coalition threatened the Conseil with a declaration of war unless it pulled back to its pre-war borders. The Conseil refused, leading the Coalition to launch an invasion into Conseil-occupied systems. Faced with an enemy of nearly equal power to itself, the Conseil soon retreated.

After the war, the territorial issues that had threatened to split the Allies apart reemerged. Technocratic groups, who were once insignificant, now had the upper hand. Having settled worlds far from the Conseil Systems, they were the least affected by the devastation of the war. The technocrats, seen by Coalition ideologues as Darwinist allies against Marxism, were allowed to occupy territory as the Coalition retreated back into its borders. They were allowed to keep massive stocks of both Coalition and captured Conseil weaponry. Lastly, the technocrats presented themselves as the “solution” to communism, an antithesis to the despised invader. Many in the former Soviet systems rallied around the technocrats as a result, but they were still inferior in numbers to the other Alliance members. Consequently, they waged a defensive war against the Alliance, willing to lose territory to the Alliance if it means losing fewer men. Large Alliance regiments were captured or surrendered, some even joining the technocrats. After five years of war, the Allies were in a desperate position, as a war largely seen as their fault was not defeating the technocrats. Eventually, the Alliance was smashed, and the United Technocracies of Man was formed.

Although initially a Coalition ally, the United Technocracies eventually began to split off from their benefactor. Although both agreed on the inferiority and eventual defeat of communism, they disagreed on the finer points of government’s role in society and with respect to morality. The Coalition was staunchly traditionalist, and as the theocratic elements in the Coalition grew it began to become more and more apparent. The Technocracies disagreed with this trend, believing that the purpose of the state is to preserve itself, and that the moral business of its citizens should not be the state’s concern as it gives them incentive to revolt. Meanwhile, the Coalition decried the increasingly strict economic controls the Technocracies imposed. Eventually, the Coalition and the Technocracies began to more openly criticize one another’s puppet states, and by the 2530s each other. Tensions would be relieved somewhat during the Cerafi War, when the Technocracies sent aid to its allies, but would later flare up again when various Neu Stuttgart IV states decided to ally with both states.

A low point in Coalition-Technocracy relations is the Laguna Skirmish. The Laguna system, colonized by Imperial America, was a member of the Alliance and hosted many fleeing Alliance leaders after the war. The Technocracies claimed that the Laguna system belonged to it, and when the Coalition officially annexed the system in 2605 the Technocracies protested and demonstrated this by sending a battlegroup to the system. The Coalition responded by sending its own battlegroup and military escorts were sent planetside to Laguna II to guard the annexation ceremony. Anti-annexationists bombing several buildings interrupted the ceremony; an action that the Coalition believed was instigated by the Technocracies. The Coalition admiral in charge of local Navy forces in the system was ordered by the system governor to open fire on the Technocracies’ battlegroup, resulting in a short battle that ended with the United Technocracies retreating. The political fallout from the skirmish was immense, with the United Technocracies threatening to enter the Conseil camp out of spite. Ultimately, the United Technocracies entered neither camp, becoming the third galactic superpower.

To this day, the dispute over Laguna is still ongoing, but with the breakout of the Galactic War it has been put on the back burner. The Technocracies are officially neutral in the war, and while they were close to entering on the Coalition side, but changed their minds when the battle of Neu Stuttgart IV began, which saw the eradication of several Technocracies allies by both Coalition and Conseil troops.