Part 8: 2820-2840-A Constitutional Revolution

A Constitutional Revolution

The Social Democrats are re-elected in 2820, and promptly begin instituting their agenda. A combination of monetary incentives and legal pressure is applied to encourage emigration, particularly by certain politically disfavored groups, from Earth and Mars, both to New Greenland and to Nieuw Vlaanderen. There is some grumbling about the heavy-handed nature of these tactics, but, nonetheless, they are successful in their objectives. The surge of investment to Nieuw Vlaanderen encourages the completion of deployment of Puppeteer technology by 2821, and, by 2825, incentives have diverted from emigration to Nieuw Vlaanderen, which now stands at over three billion persons in the population, to the establishment of a new colony on the Forge, the Vigilant by now permanently on-station in the Hut system.



Early in the 2820s, sealed governmental research teams working for the RCSPS develop algorithms using high-powered optronic processors to analyse brainwaves of suspects in real-time. Tests indicate the ability to distinguish between lies and truth via neural scanning exceeds 99.9% accuracy. By 2830, precedent has been set for defendants in criminal trials to testify under neural scanning while in court in order to establish their innocence.



In 2833, the colony on the Forge has reached over a billion persons, and the local economy has begun exploiting the planet's mineral wealth in earnest. With the colony on the Forge stable, the government once again shifts priorities to encourage settlement on the Anvil, still using Nieuw Vlaanderen as a stopover point for the persons being urged to the new colony.

Then, in 2834, scandal rocks the government.

A high-ranking officer in the RCSPS, Ji-Min Kim, testifies to the Opposition in the Great Senate under neural scanning that the ruling Social Democrat party has issued instructions to the RCSPS to target 'undesirables' for legal pressure to force them to the new colonies, in clear contravention of the requirements of the Constitution and law governing the security forces. A series of arrests of Social Democrat senators and subsequent interrogation reveals that this policy was developed on the direct orders of the Social Democratic Party Steering Committee and the Party Chairman, Sven Eriksson of the Scandinavian Bloc. The 2835 elections sweep the Liberals overwhelmingly into power, with a mandate to reform the government and the constitution to safeguard against such abuses.




The central bureaucracy of the Republic is overturned and reformed. Further Constitutional protections of the individual civil rights of the populace are enacted. Corruption on all levels of government on Earth and Mars is rooted out. By the time the reforms have been completed, the level of transparency, honesty, and restraint in government on Earth has skyrocketed, and the structure of the Republic offers more freedom for its people than ever before.

Tanus, the Revolutionary, is an amazing leader. Not only does he offer respectable bonuses to agriculture, industry, science, and morale, he comes with knowledge of the advanced government type appropriate to the government you started with, which is a late-game technology with major benefits to all government types. As he is a revolutionary, this called for a revolution, which is unfortunate for the current party in power.

Only one colony leader can be assigned per system, and shifting a colony leader to a colony that isn't your capital has 5 years of lag time, as can be seen with Ailis, en-route to Hut.



The colony fleet to establish the New Greenland colony arrives a year later, in 2836. Civilian investment on Mars and Nieuw Vlaanderen surges as the growth of the RCSPS and the old emigration policies are scrapped. Commercial shipping to and from Mars booms with the new investment, and the facilities needed to support this are rapidly completed.



The RES Leifr Eriksson dispatches a communications probe from Vij in 2839, reporting a small, hostile planet with rich metals deposits- a potentially valuable, but relatively unexciting find.



In the same year, Ankita Bhargava, an Earth-native physicist, economist, mathematician, and computer scientist, publishes a paper titled 'usage of positron/electron annihilation pairs to speed photon generation in optronic applications', then files patents for a series of applications for real-time holography, data transfer architectures, and personal computing devices that revolutionise the field of civilian optronics. She promptly retires from her university position to found Bhargava Positronics, Limited as chief executive officer, chief technical officer, and sole owner, raising all capital for its operations by sale of bonds.

"I was bored and wanted a new challenge," she states in an interview, when asked what led her to start the research project.

She is 28 at the time.

System Planetary Survey: Weg



Like the Hut system, the Weg system contains five potentially-colonisable bodies in its inner system, all but one of which exhibit promise as sites for settlement.

Weg, although a main-sequence yellow like Sol, is somewhat larger and hotter, which manifests in the climate of its innermost four planets. The innermost, Thor, is a large, searingly hot world whose thin atmosphere generated by volcanic activity is continuously stripped by the solar wind. Temperatures and radiation doses on Thor would be instantly lethal to unprotected Humans, and so colonisation must use the same sorts of insulation and protective measures currently in use on the Forge.

The next planet out, Hel, is essentially a tiny ball of sulphuric acid. It offers no reason to endure the conditions on it to establish a colony.

New Greenland, the next out, is an Earth-sized world with a thick, oxygen-rich atmosphere protecting it from lethal radiation levels, and livable, if very hot, temperatures. It has a complex ecosystem which has produced a fertile soil layer, and large seas choked with moss-like plant growths. The heat and the local mold analogues, which are very willing to grow on Earth life as hosts, have proven ongoing health hazards to populations here. Under current conditions, only relatively small portions of the surface are safely exploitable. A wide variety of metals and complex volatiles can be mined from New Greenland, bolstering local industry.

Beyond New Greenland, the next planet is Loki, an airless world also of size comparable to Earth. The surface is cold, but the lack of an atmosphere leaves it vulnerable to lethal levels of radiation from Weg.

Finally, the last planet before the outer system is Wotan. Wotan is a cold, dead planet with an inert nitrogen atmosphere, with rich and extensive titanium, iron, and manganese deposits, along with other exploitable metals and minerals. It remains a very attractive prospect for settlement.

The United Republic in 2840



With recent developments, the economy of Earth is booming. All sectors of the economy have enjoyed a more predictable and rational legal environment, and consumer uptake of the new products offered by Bhargava Positronics is in full swing. The stable population levels mean that there remains a significant pool of people willing to invest in colonial missions to new worlds to find more room for themselves and their families, despite the very good conditions on Earth. Innovation has boomed under the current Liberal administration. Waste flights to Mercury have accelerated over the past 20 years.



Mars is enjoying a boom of its own, having benefited just as much from the program of governmental reforms across the system. New port facilities have bolstered its position in trade, and Bhagarva Positronics has also extended marketing programs here. Mars, like Earth, is a reliable pool of recruits for colonial missions. Also like Earth, it faces challenges in waste disposal.



Nieuw Vlaanderen has managed to integrate the wave of new settlers relatively smoothly, and its economy has grown and diversified dramatically in the past five years. Local technology industries, shipping facilities to facilitate its role as a trade stop to the Nations, and the implementation of Puppeteer technology has caused a surge in prosperity. NordPharm, responding to growing demand on Nieuw Vlaanderen, has established a new network of medical labs across the planet. Local agriculture currently suffers from lack of bacterial soil enrichment technology, but competition is currently driving investment to modernise the agricultural sector.



The Forge has completed its first phase of industrialisation within the past year, and is currently in the process of establishing Puppeteer mining operations to truly capitalise on the mineral riches of the planet. Conditions are still harsh, but NordPharm has extended labs to the Forge to serve the medical needs of the people.



New Greenland hosts a frontier society, struggling to establish a modern industrial infrastructure. Life, for the moment, is simple and difficult, but its inhabitants are hopeful the future shall be brighter.



Trade with the Nations has continued to expand. They have taken no steps to capitalise on the scandal that rocked the government, which has led to a growing belief the Nations have no desire to aggress on the United Republic. RCSPS staffing stands at 70,000, and has been frozen since the 2835 elections. The Nations have been relatively stagnant in technology compared to the United Republic, with little evidence of new innovations beyond a ship-mounted electron stream cannon design that appears to be considerably inferior to Republican coilgun designs.



The United Republic is strong and prosperous, stretching across three systems and five worlds. Innovation and investment are healthy, transport capacity is sufficient to its shipping needs for the moment, and current logistical support is sufficient for new colonisation needs.

Five years after the pivotal 2835 elections, the United Republic once more votes.

The Conservatives wish to engage in a program of naval base-building on Mars, Nieuw Vlaanderen, and the Forge, helping to provide logistical support for expanded colonisation and naval security. They also wish to build the RNS Alert, ensuring that the United Republic has a sufficient response force to any security needs. Following the completion of the Alert, they wish to support a colonial mission to Vij to exploit the mineral resources there. They wish to support a series of improvements in shipbuilding and surface military technology, for the moment, as well as research into new waste disposal technologies.

The Social Democrats are currently in chaos after the scandal and arrests that have rocked the party. They have no coherent agenda to offer.

The Liberals wish to maintain the status quo with civilian investment, although they believe that building a naval base at Mars is something that can and should be supported on the United Republic's current budget. Research into advanced xenological studies, economics, and medicine all enjoy support from civilian R&D investment, and private colonial investors have been favoring an expedition to Laaxaayik, around Sagan.