Fiction:United Bidonite Empire

"Onward and outward!"

- Popular rallying cry

The United Bidonite Empire is, all things considered, one of the smallest empires of the Andromeda Galaxy. But size isn't everything when it comes to spacefaring nations, and the Bidonite Empire is making itself known through a combination of rapid expansion and sheer lack of manners.

History
Bidonites had known space travel was possible ever since an alien energy weapon leveled the city of Nys during the Ergul Crisis. When the success of Ilba's extraterrestrial colony on Baranis became apparent, a new age of imperialism occurred as every major nation in the world tried to set up colonies of their own, seeking land to tap and territory to claim. The New Frontier was open. Over the course of six centuries, as Bidonites spread across the stars, their many nations grew increasingly powerful -- and increasingly greedy. Four thousand worlds were not enough for their needs. For every planet that they settled and developed, they desired two more. The factories demanded raw materials; the population needed food and water and shelter. Trade deepened alliances. Tariffs deepened rivalries. Hostilities grew. Not even the Iceworlder Wars, their first armed conflict with an alien race, could convince the nations to work together forever. Existing divisions along political and cultural lines began to widen further, and one by one, three great powers took shape.

The first was the Aaksar Coalition of Nations, a powerful cooperative established to strengthen its member economies, share information freely, and provide for a common defense. Its initial signatories were Orbaz, the Five Cities, Dauvat, Urd, and Niksos.

The second was the Northeastern Union, formed in response to the worrying economic and military power of the ACN. Its initial signatories were Ilba, Kukarot, Siyne, and Larais. It proclaimed, in no uncertain terms, that it would not tolerate any interference from the ACN in the affairs of its constituent nations.

The third was the Organization of Allied States, formed when a number of neutral parties banded together for mutual protection from the brewing ACN/NU conflict. The smallest and overall weakest of the three, the OAS nonetheless held undeniable economic power in the form of its rich spice geysers and control of certain important trade routes. Its initial signatories were Aargona, Nuvorid, Ayrel, Immare, and the Ergul Islands.

Decades passed and tensions grew. Minor slights, once forgiven, now infuriated. Reports of troop movements along the border led to a buildup in kind. Suspicion, resentment, posturing, fear. The three Alliances were a powder keg waiting to explode. All it took was a spark: an Ilban embargo on Niksos ores, spurred by alleged trade fraud. The validity of the claim did not matter, only the excuse it provided. In 2144, the ACN formally declared war on the NU.

The War of Alliances
The War of Alliances raged for fifteen violent years. New technology meant new weapons and new ways to wage war. It meant new words, too: coilgun and thermal lance and proxy warfare, nuclear ramjet and cobalt bomb and gamma inducer. It was, generally speaking, a bad time for everyone involved. When the OAS was inevitably drawn in, it bore the brunt of the conflict, crushed between the gargantuan military complexes of the ACN and the NU. As the Organization lost world after world, it grew desperate for some way to even the odds. Perhaps a machine-killer, to remotely disable automated weaponry? A lethal pathogen, to be seeded in barracks and water sources? It even pillaged the ruins of long-vanished alien civilizations, in the hopes of digging up and reverse-engineering their technology.

In the year 2156, a detachment from the OAS 7th Fleet responded to a distress signal on the edge of explored space. Its source was a team from the Artifact Appropriation Committee, conducting excavations on a moon made lifeless by orbital bombardment twenty millennia ago.

After making the jump to hyperspace, all contact with the detachment was lost. The missing ships made headlines back in OAS space for a few months, but there were more pressing issues at hand. The disappearances were put down to catastrophic hyperdrive failures. The logistics of war ground on.

In 2157, the exhausted OAS formally surrendered and withdrew all forces from all fronts.

In 2158, the conflict between the ACN and the NU reached its highest point.

In 2159, the missing ships returned to OAS space.

The Biomachine Plague
Three small warships, led by one of medium tonnage. None responded to any hails or inquiries. Each broadcast openly and on all frequencies a bizarre signal unlike anything ever recorded. Within minutes, every ship and installation that received it began to report glitches in their electronics: data corruption, AI and decision matrices behaving oddly. Then they, too, ceased to respond. One by one, they pointed their transmitters to the stars and began to broadcast the signal.

The buzzing cacophony silenced planet after planet. Word could not spread faster than the infection, traveling as they did along the same networks, but it could at least travel along different routes. When a handful of ships managed to escape to warn the OAS, the Organization gathered what remained of its military to respond. It instituted quarantines across threatened space: no outbound transmissions, interplanetary movement forbidden. The 3rd and 5th Fleets mobilized to investigate, hastily shielded against unauthorized communications.

They did not return. In their place came a garbled message, thankfully uncorrupted by the infection. Its contents were horrifying: a plea for reinforcements, or a simple cry for help. A record of what they found in infected territory. The forces mobilized against them. Cities become nests. OAS ships, their frames split to accommodate new biomechanical growths, fused together and remolded with flesh and metal. Inside them -- nothing living, or alive as Bidonites knew the word. Their crews not gone, but repurposed. And always, surrounding, enveloping: the signal.

The fleet named them Biomachines.

The OAS sent more ships to reinforce the borders. It had precious little left to defend themselves with, and the terms of its surrender forbade them from manufacturing more. It pleaded for aid from the ACN, the NU. Neither took it seriously. They were fighting a war across a hundred star systems. Why should they care about a provincial matter outside both of their territories?

So it was that the OAS was left to fend for itself when the Biomachine assault came.

Interregnum
Historians debate why nine worlds survived when over four thousand others did not, but how is not a mystery. Sixteen years after the Biomachines began their campaign of extermination, their signal and plague suddenly became inert, and all known Biomachine assets withdrew from the galaxy. The tattered remains of Bidonite civilization -- the four "petty empires" -- were saved.

Thirty more uneasy years passed before the first of the four petty empires tentatively reached out into space once more: the First Eastern Empire, ruled by Sovereign Aaviyak Miraya Tulin of the NU. As the years passed without infection by the plague or detection by the Biomachine scourge, Sovereign Tulin sent her fleets out on exploratory missions. Traveling in groups of two or three, a Bidonite armada took to the stars once more, cautiously probing for any sign of their destroyers. They found nothing. Nothing but hundreds upon hundreds of devastated Bidonite worlds. The Sovereign grew more confident. Following old star charts, her ships surveyed world after world, finding them all scoured clean of intelligent life. But just as it seemed they were the last Bidonites left alive, one expedition, by pure luck, detected a familiar signal in the same system -- a fellow Bidonite fleet!

The discovery of another fleet led to first contact with the Second Eastern Empire, led by First Minister Methumet Byiroche, formerly of the ACN. She had evidently had the same idea as Tulin, and had dispatched ships to search for surviving traces of Bidonite civilization. Byiroche had only one world to her name, but she commanded a significant number of spacecraft. After she formally allied herself with Tulin, casting aside all previous affiliations, their combined fleet began to comb the stars with greater intensity than before.

Over the course of twelve years, Tulin and Byiroche rediscovered and established communications with all four petty empires, and by this point had also begun recolonization efforts to reclaim the ruined Bidonite worlds.

Unification
The ACN was gone. The NU was gone. The OAS was completely gone. The weakness of the great Alliances was clear: the simple fact of their being alliances in the first place.

With roughly 99.7% of the galactic Bidonite population exterminated, the four empresses recognized that their pre-existing divisions and rivalries no longer held any significance. Indeed, those divisions had been one of the greatest contributors to the Collapse. Even the closest allies could be turned on each other -- all it took was the right provocation.

The new Bidonite civilization, therefore, would have no room for alliances. It would need to be a single nation, uniting the entire species under one banner. Every part working together and fighting together for the good of the whole.

In the year 2223, the four empresses met on their ruined but rebuilding homeworld. Tulin, Byiroche, Arinost, and Lu Gral. They spoke to a crowd of millions. Their words were recorded and relayed to billions more on other worlds, and trillions more would watch them in the future. Lu Gral spoke of survival. Bidonite civilization as they knew it was gone. The Biomachines had made it their mission to eradicate their entire species. And they had come close; perilously close. But, against all odds, the Bidonites had survived.

Arinost spoke of hope. Much had been destroyed, but still much remained. Were they not rebuilding? Were they not expanding? The Collapse would always be remembered as the darkest time in their collective history. But now they were past it. Now they were free to take control of their destiny once again.

Byiroche spoke of cooperation. The great powers of before were strong, but they had fallen. They had fallen because they had been divided, and division led to dissolution. The Bidonite race must not repeat the mistakes of the past; this time, every Bidonite must stand together, regardless of culture or affiliation.

Tulin spoke of beginnings. The long night had passed, and light gathered on the horizon. They had survived the catastrophe. Together, they would rise from its ashes, stronger than ever before. Never again would they fall.

The United Bidonite Empire was founded.

Expansion
The newly christened Tetrarchs immediately began work strengthening the Empire. Legislation was laid down. Resources were traded, personnel exchanged, eggs gifted and received. Colony ships were churned out in force. The Imperial Legions were founded, staffed by ex-ACN and NU veterans. Ruins of old colonies were cleaned up; what could be saved was repaired, what could not was recycled.

Six hundred years after founding, in the year 2802, the Bidonite Empire holds 2,400 systems, is in the process of reclaiming two hundred more, and is colonizing worlds no Bidonite has ever set foot on. The Imperial Legions have grown into the greatest standing military in Bidonite history. New innovations and technology have brought whole new weapons and tactics to the table. Bidonite civilization is rising once more.

Philosophy
"Practicality is the most important virtue."

- Bidonite proverb

The Bidonite Empire is a fascist police state. There's no getting around it. Its people live under the thumb of an authoritative government with near-unlimited power. Their every step is monitored and recorded; their lives are decided for them; their freedoms are rigidly controlled. This is because the Bidonite Empire is beset at all corners by the Alien Threat, and for every foe engaged in open war there are two more lurking unseen in the shadows. Trust in the Tetrarchs and the Sovereigns to do what's best for you, support the Imperial Legions who fight to protect you, and pay no attention to the outsiders who say that the constant threat of attack is a clever way to keep your Empire under control, I wonder which of you came up with it.

This attitude is, incidentally, entirely genuine. The Bidonite on the street really does love the Tetrarchs and believes in the Legions. He doesn't particularly mind that his life is plotted out beforehand, because how would anyone know what to do if somebody didn't tell them? How do you learn discipline if your luxuries aren't regulated? And wouldn't you be comforted by the fact that the government is constantly looking out for you?

That is how the Bidonite Empire does.

Militarism
Since its inception, the Empire has always been deeply focused on military might of a particular nature. Individual strength is of no consequence in the Empire. To it, what matters is the strength of one's armies as a whole. It prides itself on its rigidly organized armed forces and the deeply ingrained obedience and discipline of its soldiers, both of which are reinforced by the caste system inherent to the Bidonite race. The same attitude applies to the Empire's spacecraft and other vehicles -- as they function only as the sum of their crews, it is the vehicle that earns honor rather than any one person aboard it. Despite this, the Empire's philosophy is not one of rampant conquest. It is expansionist, yes, but only to reclaim the territory it lost to the Collapse. And while the Empire is certainly eager for war, it will not waste its armies on pointless battles and frivolous conflicts. It will only mobilize if there is sufficient cause for it; historically, theft of government property, firing on Bidonite craft, and attempted extortion of the Empire have all been reasons to go to war. Otherwise, diplomacy is a perfectly valid method of resolving disputes.

While the Empire shows uncommon restraint in a warrior culture in times of peace, in times of war that restraint is abandoned. The Empire is a firm believer in the concepts of total war and no quarter; in the eyes of the Empire, a war is not won until the enemy is rendered incapable of fighting. To this end, the Bidonite Empire will deploy all manner of chemical and biological weapons against its enemies as well as target civilians and other noncombatants without discrimination. Other races might see this as an atrocity. But to the Empire, openly warring with another nation (with all the hideous death that implies) yet declaring certain people and weapons off-limits is the height of hypocrisy.

This ruthlessness is tempered by pragmatism. Civilian population centers make for great hostages and bargaining chips. And destroying a planet is all well and good for shock value, but that's a serious waste of untapped resources.

Representatives of the Bidonite Empire are frequently described as "cheerfully belligerent" -- aggressive in the manner of friends competing against each other, often inappropriately so. Indeed, cheerfulness seems to be part and parcel of the Imperial Legions. The Empire is essentially impossible to demoralize. Every victory is met with celebration no matter the cost, every defeat is met with the attitude of "oh well, we'll get it right next time", no matter how shocking or severe. This applies all the way down to individual soldiers; dying horribly is a normal part of war so there's no need to get upset about it. The "old lie" is no lie at all: it is indeed sweet and glorious to die for one's country.

Security
The Empire is security-conscious to the point of paranoia. A major contributor to the excessive size of its spacefleet is its need to maintain a defensive wing of warships over each and every one of its colony worlds (those without extant orbital defenses, anyways), in addition to a Fast Response Fleet on standby within each bloc.

This formidable defense force is supplemented by a network of perimeter detection buoys, placed both in solar orbit and around all planetary bodies in a given system. No unidentified object enters Bidonite space without System Command knowing of it.

Down planetside, its cities are built like fortresses, studded with concealed weapons emplacements and armored to withstand land assault. Huge civilian shelters are buried deep underground; the population is drilled periodically on the use of them. Only lack of technology prevents the Empire from installing shield generators.

Within the cities, pairs of soldiers patrol the halls and tunnels at regular intervals, keeping an eye on trouble. Cameras are a familiar sight, as are checkpoints. Centuries of practice have allowed the Empire to streamline its security measures to the point where they hardly impede civilian movement.

Reproduction
Bidonites are strong believer in one's right to bear children, likely because so few of them are actually capable of bearing children. The death of a fertile queen, a damez, is a terrible tragedy; the murder of one is an outrage. Not only is the queen lost, but so are all of the eggs she might have laid had she lived.

As Bidonites are eusocial animals with their reproductive caste also being their ruling caste, Bidonites have unique views on child-bearing. Reproduction is monitored by the Ministry of Population, part of the Lesser Council. This Ministry regulates the ratio of each caste within a city, mandating the laying of egg types as necessary. Genetic diversity is paramount, but sexual selection is eugenic by nature: Bidonite queens are attracted to the strongest and the smartest drones, insofar as Bidonites feel sexual attraction.

For a drone, being selected for a mating is a high honor: it means he's been successful enough for his genetic legacy to be passed on to the next generation. Queens may select any drone they wish for a mating, but as there are usually several hundred drones in a given city, the Ministry of Population can present recommendations if needed.

Artificial intelligence
As a result of the Collapse, when automated systems were hijacked and turned against Bidonites by the Biomachine virus, the Bidonite Empire generally distrusts artificial intelligences and other synthetic minds. Those robots it does use are kept on a tight leash. Often, many robots are slaved to a single central computer, so that destruction of the computer results in its subordinate bodies falling inert.

Government
"All life desires leadership, but life must also desire the leader."

- Precepts of Markaz

Administration of an interstellar empire is no easy task, so the Empire's bureaucracy is necessarily gigantic.

To make governance easier, the Bidonite state is divided into galactic, multi-system, system, and planetary levels (with individual divisions within each planet being generally unimportant to galactic Bidonite politics). Star systems host one or more inhabited planets; multiple adjacent systems form a bloc, multiple blocs form a sector, and multiple sectors form the Empire. There are 211 blocs in the empire and 7 total sectors. Each bloc has a hard limit of 12 systems; past that number, adjacent star systems are formed into new blocs of their own. Given that the Empire is constantly expanding, apportionment of blocs is an ongoing debate, and some voices are petitioning for the establishment of an 8th sector.



Galactic level
The United Bidonite Empire is ruled by an oligarchy, with four Tetrarchs holding immense (but not wholly unlimited) power over the rest of the Empire. Theoretically, each Tetrarch controls a fourth of the entire Empire, and is prevented from misusing their power by the threat of retribution from the other three.

The title of Tetrarch is usually kept for life, and is passed down by Imperial edict to a suitable candidate after the death of the original (usually the closest relative). However, there have been a number of cases where a Tetrarch abdicated the throne thanks to political pressure or personal issues, and in one memorable instance, a full-blown military coup.

The Tetrarchy is served by a circle of advisers known as the Grand Council. Each is a prestigious expert in their field, ranging from economics to land development to warfare. Their job is to relay information to the Tetrarchy and present possible courses of action regarding problems in those fields. Members of the Grand Council are elected by the House of Sovereigns.

Multi-system level
Beneath the Grand Council is the House of Sovereigns, with currently about 2,400 Sovereigns holding office. Each Sovereign governs a single star system in the Empire. The House itself is divided into constituent blocs, each with a High Sovereign elected by the Sovereigns of each bloc, who represents and administrates multiple star systems at once. In general, the House is responsible for the day-to-day governance of the Empire and carrying out the will of the Tetrarchy. Barring direct orders from the Four, all policies, laws, and political decisions are made here.

Two Tetrarchs must agree on a proclamation before it can be sent to the House. Such proclamations can only be blocked if two-thirds of the House votes against it. Should three Tetrarchs agree, however, then an identical three-quarters of the House must vote against it to prevent its passage. And if all four Tetrarchs agree (which has only happened a handful of times in the past six centuries), then there is nothing the House can do to block them.

System level
The Sovereign is the ultimate authority of an individual star system, but even that can be difficult work. They, and the High Sovereigns who administrate them, are assisted by a Greater Council of bureaucratic agencies that works to ensure all system-level traffic and communication runs smoothly.

Planetary Level
The Planetary Governor administrates individual planets within a star system. While Sovereigns deal with interplanetary affairs, Governors handle intraplanetary matters.

Governors are assisted in their duties by a Lesser Council, encompassing many of the same duties as the Greater Council, simply on a smaller scale.

Each planet, in turn, is divided into multiple provinces, each presided over by a Minister. Each province itself consists of multiple hives and their surrounding lands, each governed by a Mayor.

While the capital of the Empire is Bidonis, it's rare for more than one of the High Sovereigns to be there at any given time. Even the individual members of the House of Sovereigns only convene there on scheduled council dates -- if it were possible, they would only meet through holograms, both for security reasons and for "space is very large" reasons. Decentralization is the unofficial motto of the Imperial government. Even if Bidonis itself were occupied by enemy forces, it wouldn't do too much harm to the Empire.

Imperial Legions
"We're a very small people. To keep others from stepping on us, we need to be very fierce as well."

- General Jarikov Prashka Tytim

The Imperial Legions are the armed forces of the Bidonite Empire. In many ways, the Empire exists specifically to support the Legions.

The Legions are divided into four branches: the Imperial Army, the Imperial Navy, the Imperial Aviation, and the Imperial Armada. These deal with ground, sea, sky, and space respectively. Of them, the most prominent are the Imperial Army and the Imperial Armada: the Army because the Empire needs them to claim territory, the Armada because the Empire spans several thousand planets and it needs to be able to travel to and defend all of them. For such a relatively small nation, the Bidonite Empire's armed forces are disproportionately huge. Nearly one out of every four Bidonites serves in the military in some fashion. Military service is not mandatory, but a large percentage of young males will join out of sheer patriotism, and a great deal of those volunteers wind up staying for life.

Such a massive war machine requires equally massive amounts of resources: food, fuel, guns, tanks, ships, and more -- materiel of all shapes and sizes. Whole planets are mined hollow or given over to agriculture to feed the Imperial Legions' hunger. Rationing is a way of life for the Empire's citizens. All but the necessities must be given over to the war effort, and there is always a war going on. Whether beating back a Balzer raid or defending the border against the amoral Necrox Societies, the Imperial Legions are forever in motion, in battle. The Empire has no shortage of enemies, and the Empire has no shortage of soldiers to throw at them. In the glorious, shining future of the 2nd millennium, there is always war.

Society
As to be expected from a race of eusocial insect aliens, Bidonite society is highly socialized, with a strong emphasis on the collective; specifically, that by ensuring a high quality of living for every individual, society as a whole benefits.

Allies
"You can count on our support, comrade."

Friends
"We like you. We're friends now."

Neutral
"We're keeping an eye on you."

Dislike
"You're a threat to Imperial interests."

Enemies
"We are at war. Prepare for extreme violence."

Trivia

 * The Soviet March from Red Alert 3 is thematically appropriate, as is this version of the Imperial March (as an authoritarian, militaristic Empire that is genuinely benevolent).
 * The Empire draws from popular conceptions of Soviet Russia, German efficiency, and British imperturbability, with a slight dash of the Imperium of Man and the Tau Empire from Warhammer 40,000. The Ten-Rank System and fondness for rationing comes from depictions of Earth in Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel.
 * The Empire counts in base 12. However, they measure time in base 16.