The Terran Federation

The Terran Federation is a political union of 34 member planets, as well as roughly 140 colonial planets receiving less benefit but the prospect of joining the Federation in the future. Among these planets, the Federation maintains political and legal cohesion, unified military capabilities, and an internal market as well as a front for trading with non-Federation planets and governments. Furthermore, all Federation member planets are represented in various tiers of government, and thus have some input in the policies and laws that affect them.

## History

### The United Nations

While the Terran Federation presently controls Terra, it was not the first Terran government, nor the first attempt to unite the various Terran nation states that previously controlled sections of the planet. The progenitor the the Federation, the United Nations, was founded in 1945 after a second Terran-wide war, to attempt to usher in a new age of diplomacy and peace.

The organization that would become the Terran Federation was originally a branch of the United Nations. Called the United Nations Interstellar Assembly (UNIA), it was created in 2060 to create cohesive governments between Terra and their newly created Mars colony. Mars, at the time, had its own government, the United Republic of Mars (URM), and the UNIA contained representatives from the UMR to engage in discourse and governmental operations within the UN.

In 2100, the United Nations sponsored a mission to reach the then-newly-discovered Observation Post Trissha, located in orbit around Jupiter and observing Terran activity. The result was the Battle of Europa, in which United Nations "Peacekeeping Forces" (consisting of soldiers from both various Terran nations and the UMR) wresting control of the outpost from the Technocratic Alliances scientist stationed there.

This would prove to be a political disaster, as the Technocratic Alliance would respond with military force, destroying several early URM defensive spacecraft and launching an invasion of the Martian surface. Although the URM managed to repel the invasion, the political fallout was enough that both the URM government and United Nations were forced to dissolve, and the UNIA was reorganized into the Terran Federation.

### Early History

The Terran Federation was solidified in 2101, thirteen days after the dissolution of the UN (and eleven days after the dissolution of the URM). As a starting point, they were solidly in control of five planets: beyond Terra and Mars, they had the former Terran colony of Luna and the former Martian colonies of Phobos and Deimos. As was stated in the Federation Charter, the Federation had to approve all member planets; nonapproved planets were designated colonies. Terran and Mars were ratified into member planets on 21 February, while Luna, Phobos, and Demios were appointed the first colonies.

The next eleven years of Federation rule were fairly stable considering the circumstances, and during this time the first prototype Jump-capable craft were created from technology reverse-engineered from OP Trissha. Within the next year, the Federation would see its first proper extrasolar expedition, a Jump to Alpha Centauri, discovery of its first habitable world, and subsequent colonization of said world: Elpis.

In the mean time, Federation scientists attempted to trace the wormhole that had closed near Pluto, to trace and hopefully locate the four lost colony ships that had previously gone through it.

### The Manchurian Riots

Despite successes with technology and exploration, the early Federation was troubled by political strife at home; the remnants of various nation-states sought constantly to undermine it and return Terra to their power, as well as possibly expand to Luna and Mars. This boiled over in the first major test of the Federation: the Manchurian Riots, in which various separatist movements openly challenged Federation control. The Federation, despite its youth, managed to react fairly, and no excess force was applied in their response. The result was further solidification of Federation power.

### Formal Contact with the Alliance

In early 2114, two years afte the Manchurian Riots the Technocratic Alliance approached the Terran Federation to open diplomacy. Despite the Contact War potentially souring relations, the Zaydran ambassadors that arrived on Elpis were greeted warmly by Terran authorities, and were put in contact with the Federal Assembly, specifically General Secretary Anne Kolen.

## Government

The Terran Federation is a representative democracy, meaning that all citizens have the right to vote on leaders that represent them in various levels of legislative branches. Governmentally, it is divided into the three tiers, from smallest to largest: Planetary, Sectorial, and Federal.

All member planets of the Terran Federation are required to divide themselves into predefined zones based on rough population size, and in turn these zones each send one representative into the planet’s legislative body, the Planetary Assembly. Each member planet, in turn, sends one representative to the Sectorial Assembly (which consists of every member planet in a sector), and then each Sector gets two representatives in the Federal Assembly, which is the governing body of the entire Terran Federation. Meanwhile, the leader of whichever party holds the most seats in an Assembly of any tier is appointed Planetary/Sectorial/General Secretary, the head of that government’s executive branch.

Each tier of government is given jurisdiction to vote and pass laws and policy on issues that affect it, without moving up to issues that affect others. For example, a Planetary Assembly may vote on issues that affect only that planet; issues that affect multiple planets in that sector must be dealt with by that sector’s Sectorial Assembly.

## Politics

There are two major political parties in the Federation, who hold most of the government, divided primarily over the issues of Federation power vs planetary power.

### United Federation

Operating in opposition to Torchlight, United Federation is in support of a strong, unified Federation government, and accordingly the spread of the Federation’s ideals through diplomatic and/or military force.

In general, the party draws its support from those who wish to strengthen Federation control over its member planets, and its position in the galaxy. Although they are often accused of holding a polarized “us vs. them” view in terms to the other governments, United Federation has made specific point of opposing the Technocratic Alliance over the United Coalition of Man.

### Torchlight

Known for championing libertarianism, Torchlight sees a centralized Federation government as a threat to freedom. Accordingly, the Party has a stark political rivalry with United Federation on the issue of sovereignty - in which they support power being taken away from the Federation and given to individual member planets.

Despite holding generally non-interventionist views, Torchlight has inclined itself to view the United Coalition of Man as a bigger threat than the Technocratic Alliance, and generally acts accordingly in terms of policy.

### The Federalist Party

The Federalist Party is a moderately large political party in the Terran Federation, which was considered a non-threat for United Federation and Torchlight in the past, but began to grow rapidly in support after the Seven Hour War. Federalists hold views commonly associated with both major parties, making them an amalgam of the current political scene of the Federation.

### The Unaligned Voter Bloc

The Unaligned Voter Bloc (commonly called the “UAB”) is a political anti-faction in the Terran Federation. Members of the UAB consider themselves politically neutral, and refuse to align with any party; instead, its members vote for whoever they feel best aligns with their personal values on a by-election basis.

Due to the nature and size of the UAB, its members are heavily sought out for votes by politicians of all parties, and there have been occasions where close races between United Federation and Torchlight have been decided primarily due to one side’s ability to gain UAB voters.

### Other

There are two notable minor parties within the Terran Federation. Referred to as "Revolution Front" and "Purity First", they are socialists/communists and fascists respectively. As a rule, they do not hold "traditional" Terran Federation political views - for example, Purity First wants to completely ally with the United Coalition of Man, while Revolution Front wants the dissolution of the upper class via cooperative enterprise.