Lunar-Lagrange Alliance 1e

# Lunar-Lagrange Alliance

**Memes:** Reclaiming Earth

**Main Stations:** Erato (Luna), Remembrance (Earth orbit)

This small cluster of habitats stationed around Earth’s Lagrange points and on or in orbit around Luna formed an alliance of necessity, rather than joint political or social agendas or cultural roots. In fact, individual stations are quite diverse and sometimes polarized, as many of them cling to old Earth cultural and national identities. Due to their relative proximity, members share basic resources and services and have signed mutual assistance agreements in case of an emergency.

Before the Fall, many of these habitats were considered some of the most influential off-Earth bases. Since the Fall and the subsequent rise of the Planetary Consortium, however, the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance has become a second-rate diminished power, and is often viewed as conservative, old-fashioned, and too caught up in romanticizing the past. Lunar-Lagrange Alliance stations maintain simmering tensions and an ongoing rivalry with the Planetary Consortium, particularly those PC colonies on/over Luna and the Lagrange points. One main source of contention is the quarantine of Earth, as the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance is a stronghold for the reclaimer movement. The Lunar-Lagrange Alliance does, however, benefit from hypercorp support of its own, particularly the Go-nin Group, Starware, and the influential Lunar banking consortiums.

In addition to scientific research stations, mineral processing and refinery stations make up the majority of the Alliance’s habitats, dependent on the Lunar mining and water extraction industries. These stations took the brunt of the refugee influx during the Fall. Many remain overcrowded with strained resources, large masses of impoverished workers, and thriving criminal syndicates.

Based out of Remembrance in Earth orbit and Erato on Luna, the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance (LLA) is the coalition government of various stations and other habitats in Earth orbit, at Earth’s Lagrange points, on Luna, and in orbit around Luna. The LLA was initially formed out of necessity, well before the Fall when there were only a few extraplanetary habitats and it was too difficult to survive without sharing resources. The various stations established pacts of nonaggression and mutual support, limiting weapons proliferation and taking care of each other in emergencies. While many of the early stations were aligned with a national government, and were essentially treated as sovereign outposts of those countries, this quickly changed as the first hypercorps entered the picture, followed by some NGOs, private researchers, and similar public groups. As the orbital population expanded and this new frontier began expressing its own culture, some of these stations and personnel asserted their independence. The hypercorps especially pushed for a united front, asserting the needs of orbital projects and habitats (and other space endeavors) over ties to dirt-bound patrons. The result was a loose alliance of habitats and entities that each maintained its own structure and personality, while still all working together.

In the days just before the Fall, the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance was the most powerful organization off-world. Its stations were the most influential bases in space and were considered the perfect blend between Earth tradition and outer space innovation. The Fall changed all that, however. Many of the LLA’s member stations were devastated by TITAN attack or over- whelmed with Earth’s panicked survivors. With Earth smoking and desolate, the LLA stations no longer had favored status or location. Other, more distant colonies and stations gained popularity, and many of those newer habitats joined together with leading hypercorps to create a new political organization: the Planetary Consortium. The Planetary Consortium was far more forward-thinking, more innovative, and more technologically advanced—they encouraged transhumanity to leave Earth behind and not look back, and to free itself from the shackles of tradition and embrace its potential. The Lunar-Lagrange Alliance was one of the elements discarded, and it fell from prominence, its habitats now considered old and conservative and foolishly limited.

The LLA continued to maintain itself, however, and to work hard at keeping its members healthy and prosperous. Slowly, the Alliance’s star has begun to rise again. More and more transhumans are turning their eye toward Earth again and seeing the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance right there beside it. Hypercorps are beginning to move more operations here as the economy stabilizes and grows. As the overcrowding has lessened, many LLA stations have restored (and sometimes expanded) their facilities and once again become pleasant places to live.

## Allied Forces

The LLA is an alliance in the sense that it facilitates cooperation and working together towards common goals, but on paper it has little in the way of governmental authority. Member habitats with populations exceeding 1,000 each designate one representative to sit on the LLA’s Council. The fact that small stations have equal representation to populous ones is overshadowed by the fact that every habitat rep can cast 1 vote per 10,000 people they represent in council decisions (only embodied citizens count, infomorphs and non-citizens are not represented). This grants larger colonies much more influence over LLA affairs, though smaller stations have been known to form voting blocs. The Council votes in a new president every 4 years from its own ranks.

### The Council

The Council is responsible for handing any matter that affects one or more members equally, including arbitrating disputes among members. Because the guidelines are so loose, the LLA can justify interfering in almost any large-scale issue on any habitat within its organization, and each president has used different definitions and boundaries. Officially the LLA has only one goal: to promote peace, harmony, and prosperity among all of its members. That can be broken down any number of ways, however, and has been used to justify everything from artificially controlling cred rates across the alliance, to partitioning sections of a habitat in turmoil, to outlawing all offensive weaponry except for military and law enforcement personnel. Most often it is interpreted as ensuring the highest standard of living possible for all LLA citizens, defending the LLA against outside attack, maintaining active communication and transportation between LLA habitats, and restoring the LLA’s former status among transhumanity.

### The President: Avra Don

Avra Don is a Council rep from Remembrance and the current president of the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance. She has run the LLA for the past eight years, and despite many tumultuous years immediately post-Fall, is now considered the most successful president the Alliance has followed. Though up for re-election, her chances of winning a third term seem likely. Dubbed the Fullerene Lady for her sometimes hard-line stances, Don is determined to restore the Alliance to its heyday, bringing eyes and credits back to the Earth-Lunar system and becoming once again a leader in transhuman commerce. Though she cannot be called a bioconservative, some of her political positions stray in that direction, especially with concern to nanotechnology restrictions and AIs. Her leadership is in fact responsible for the LLA having some of the more conservative and restrictive policies in the solar system, outside of the Jovian Republic. Her distinct ideology is not easy to pin down, however, as it strays across political lines. Though she is strong supporter of the hypercorps, privatization, and free markets, she holds some strong anti-Consortium stances and actually favored the Morningstar Constellation’s independence, though relations with the latter have been strained. She is consistently criticized for promoting economic policies that have done nothing to ease the plight of the infugees and clanking masses. She has handled challenges, crises, and controversies, however, with an impressive amount of energy, confidence, and charm.

Don is a short, slight woman with pale skin, fair hair, large pale blue eyes, and a childlike beauty she claims is completely natural and utterly unmodified. She avoids resleeving when possible, though she has multiple clones of her favored morph on hand at likely destinations when necessary.

#### **Sidebar: The Fullerene Lady**

Avra Don’s notable nickname has stuck for one other reason: to date she has survived no less than five assassination efforts, two of which actually killed her. Blame for these attacks has been at various times placed on anarchists, AGIs, synthmorph separatists, criminal cartels, and Barsoomian radicals, though never with much credibility. Don has always returned to her post almost immediately, unfazed by the events, but inevitably using the attacks to justify harsher public surveillance methods and stricter security controls throughout the LLA.

### The Enforcer: Ord Brown

One advantage the LLA can claim is that it inherited a large number of military assets in the wake of the Fall. The tattered remnants of various masterless warships, military units, and security forces that did not defect to the Jovian Republic or get scooped up by the Planetary Consortium ended up in LLA hands, or at least in service to LLA-aligned stations. One of the LLA’s first actions in the wake of the Fall was to consolidate these forces under a united leadership and expend resources to boost them further, as a defense against hostilities from re-emergent TITAN threats, the Planetary Consortium, predatory hypercorps, or anything else. In practice, these military units have largely been deployed for civil unrest and population control duties, making them extremely unpopular among many of the LLA’s impoverished citizenry.

The current Senior Enforcer of the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance, in charge of both military security and law enforcement divisions, is Ord Brown. An old beat cop from Luna, Brown actively dislikes politics—he prefers straight talk and direct action, and more than once has ruffed feathers by manhandling important hyperelites. Brown is considered beyond reproach in his allegiance if not his methods, and is said to be completely unbribable. Though not outspoken, Brown is notably loyal to the bioconservative cause, and both of his adult children—a son named Tav and a daughter named Mercer—are active reclaimers.

### Sidebar: Truth Hurts!: The Truth about the LLA

*Truth Hurts! The outlaw newsfeed that uncovers the harsh realities behind transhuman history, power, and politics!*

*Sponsored by Extropia 9*

Remember back before the Fall, when the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance was the big power in outer space? They were entrenched and influential, controlling all of the stations and other habitats up there in Earth orbit and at the Lagrange points. People looked up to the LLA. Respected

them. So what happened?

The TITANs, of course. They hit the LLA, and hit it hard.

But was it really the TITANs? And even if it was, were they acting on their own, or did they have a helping hand to guide them along?

See, the LLA had a lock on space resources and space expansion. It all went through them. Certain hypercorps were making a killing, and stifling the opportunities some of the others wanted to take outside of the Earth-Lunar system. In other words, other powers—whether politicos, hypercorps, or both—didn’t have much room to expand. Not a lot of opportunity for authority or profit when there’s already a big dog on the block. In order for anyone else to rise to prominence, the LLA had to be taken down a few notches.
Lo and behold, along come the TITANs to do exactly that.

Or at least, that’s what we were told. Who’s to know, really? Who can conclusively point at a virus or a nanoswarm or a missile and say, “Yes, that is TITAN manufacture,” as opposed to “That was built by the old world militaries or hypercorps and had all identifying marks stripped away so they could claim it came from the TITANs?” Nobody.
Exactly.

It worked. Not only did the LLA receive the brunt of TITAN attacks off-Earth, but they were also swarmed by all of those infugees and refugees. Conveniently, some stations and habitats further out in the system said no to taking any more in, meaning the LLA was stuck, overcrowded with too many people. Meanwhile, some of those forces took the opportunity, while the LLA was crippled, to build themselves a new empire. To further their own interests, as usual. Sure, the LLA’s still around, but it’s a shadow of its former self. Everyone knows the Planetary Consortium is the big game in town.
Wasn’t that convenient?

Careful who you tell, though. There are plenty of people, people in power, who like the LLA exactly where it is. They don’t want to see it get strong again, and they definitely don’t want anyone to figure out how that power shift happened in the first place.
Truth hurts!