Fiction:United Free Peoples Coalition

The United Free Peoples Coalition, UFPC or FPC for short, is an emergency coalitionary government set in place by freed slaves of the Drakodominatus Tyranny in the Andromeda Galaxy. It contains thousands of former Drakodominatus colonies and a similar number of species assigned to work them. Absolute power over the Coalition is held by the Coalitionary General, a position currently occupied by its founder, Gustavus Ikeben.



History
Prior to the Tyranny's invasion in 2791, the sectors that would later become part of the United Free Peoples Coalition were as diverse as any other, harboring thousands of different species in various stages of development. None of these were strong enough to resist the Tyranny as it rampaged through Andromeda, enslaving trillions to service its massive war machine. As the defenses of these worlds fell, most of their populations were embedded with a control chip meant to make them subservient to their Dominatus overlords. Some managed to escape being chipped and formed minor resistance groups, but these were too ill-equipped to cause any real damage to their oppressors.

Revolt

 * Main Article: Attero Dominatus

The first slaves to be freed were those present at the Battle of Quaran, where the Lazeroth Unity put to use a method of remotely disabling their control chips. Days later, that technology became obsolete when the main Dominatus AI malfunctioned, causing a cascade failure of all of the control chips in the Tyranny. The result was an insurrection on a massive scale: everywhere, individuals regained their senses and rebelled against their oppressors. Quickly, resistance groups began to reach across the stars to one another, exchanging valuable information regarding the Tyranny's weaknesses and methods by which they could be exploited. The Lazeroth quickly intervened and launched an improvised offensive that came to be dubbed Operation Thrall, an effort to render aid to the revolting slaves. Salient in the subspace chaos, the Quaranians took on a leadership role, broadcasting encouragements and directing the Lazeroth to planets they might have otherwise overlooked. When the dust finally settled, the Quaranian leader, Gustavus Ikeben, contacted other resistance leaders and offered his assistance in return for theirs. Eventually, this entente would evolve into a quasi-formal alliance headed by Ikeben.

Reconstruction
Ikeben now faced the challenge of providing clothing, food, shelter, and protection for his newfound dependencies. On the subject of food, he began by organizing armed foraging parties on his homeworld and advised the other leaders to do the same. If he could teach his people how to use weapons to fend for themselves, he reasoned, he would have an easier time organizing them into an effective fighting force later. It was in this manner that they survived for a while before being secretly approached operatives from the Draconid Imperium who showed him exactly how he could repurpose and reprogram the Tyranny's machinery to provide food, clothing, weapons and ships for his people. He lost no time in sharing this information with the rest of the Coalition leaders, though he kept the means by which to make weaponry to himself for the time being. Now that the Tyranny's food replicators were back online, Ikeben was able to put his people back to work in the Tyranny's factories making starships. While he waited for the first ships to be churned out, he went about the creation of the People's Liberation Army, the military wing of his flourishing coalition. Being a former military officer, Ikeben personally attended and often conducted the training of his new soldiers. Though service was voluntary, many joined to escape their mundane lives as factory workers. The enterprise would take months. In the meantime, he bought several starship designs from the Draconis, having none of his own to rival the Tyranny's firepower, and commenced the construction of the Coalition's first carrier, the Aegis. By the time it was finished, however, Ikeben was able to crew it with competent personnel. Once the PLA was in space, Ikeben announced the official creation of the United People's Coalition and offered membership to any world formerly belonging to the Tyranny. He offered protection, supplies, and stability in exchange for their loyalty and obedience. Many many worlds flocked to the Coalition's banner, and a centralized government, presided over by Ikeben, was established. Under his direction, the Tyranny's industry was refitted with the Draconis program and put to use building starships for the People's Liberation Navy. Within months, the PLA swelled from tens of thousands of personel to billions spread out across their vast territory. Ikeben boasted that his army could now not only stand toe-to-toe with a Tyranny invasion force, but that it could join its Lazeroth allies on the offensive in those sectors of Andromeda the Tyranny had managed to hold on to.

First Offensive
When Ikeben was satisfied that his armada was ready to take the fight to the Tyranny, he issued a rallying address meant to galvanize the other nations into supporting his attack. In this speech, he tried to appeal to their sense of self preservation, insisting on the fact that "[the Tyranny] is an unstoppable war machine whose thirst for bodies and territory will never be quenched." In the closing sentences, he formally declared war on the Dominatus, and encouraged others to do the same. To show that he was a man of his word, Ikeben launched his invasion of the Tyranny. He lead his armada, composed of thirteen battlefleets, into Dominatus territory. Unbeknownst to him, spies had been feeding information about the attack to the Tyranny. They were ready for him when Ikeben came, and were preparing to close their trap around him when he realized that they were defending worthless targets. Immediately, Ikeben recalled the armada, only to be confronted with a moderately sized Tyranny attack fleet at the emergency rendezvous coordinates. In that instant, it became clear to him that he had been betrayed, as he had arbitrarily chosen the coordinates minutes before the battle started. Only an officer in the armada could have had access to those coordinates and then broadcasted them to the Tyranny during the battle. It turns out that in recalling the fleet early, Ikeben had foiled the Tyranny's plan, and had only to hold off an inferior force while he waited for his ships' jump drives to recharge. They escaped just as the Tyranny's reinforcements arrived to encircle them.

Scorched Earth Campaign

 * Main article: Scorched Earth Campaign

Having failed to destroy Ikeben's armada, the Tyranny immediately launched a two-pronged invasion of Coalition space. The first prong chased after the retreating armada with orders to destroy it, while the second remained behind to pacify coalition planets, presumably unhindered by the PLA. In response, Ikeben dissolved the armada into hundreds of small task forces which were ordered to jump back into contested space while he kept the pursuing Dominatus fleet busy with a sizable fleet of his own. The task forces were given various assignments meant to disrupt the Tyranny's movements. Some were instructed to jump ahead of the invasion force and drop off a contingent of marines specially trained in guerrilla tactics in the midst of the civilian population on a planet. Once the Tyranny invasion force arrived, those marines caused them no end of grief. Those planets whose capitulation to the enemy was inevitable had their infrastructures sabotaged, rendering them useless to the invaders. Other task forces were sent behind the Tyranny's lines to intercept shipments of fuel and supplies to the invasion force, effectively stranding them in the Coalition's territory without resources. As the Tyranny's ships began to run out of fuel, the Tyranny's Commander desperately looked for a decisive battle with Ikeben's forces. The General was careful not to accord him one. He harassed his opponents from all sides, forcing them to chase after him until they had exhausted their fuel supply. When they floated, defenseless and without power in the depths of space, Ikeben finally gathered his armada and attacked. In the ridiculously one sided battle that ensued, the Coalition was able to destroy the entire Dominatus Mark 2 fleet while taking no losses, an unprecedented disaster in Dominatus military history.

Offensives in Andromeda
After the destruction of the invading Dominatus force, the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth declared war on the Drakodominatus Tyranny. Shortly thereafter, forces from the Draconid Imperium, The Divinarium, and the Fordan Empire launched an invasion of Tyranny space, thereby monopolizing the remaining Dominatus forces in Andromeda. After having regrouped, the PLA advanced into Tyranny territory, easily conquering large swaths of it with limited casualties. At the Battle for the Katar Wormhole, the PLA 1st Armada managed to wrestle a wormhole installation from a large force commanded by Richtov Reukritz, who was captured while attempting to singlehandedly storm the Aegis. Reukritz was held and shipped back to Station 19 to be examined by Coalition scientists in an attempt to discern the Dominatus' biological weaknesses. The examinations would reveal very little, however.

The Katar Front
Instead of destroying the Katar wormhole, Ikeben led the newly created People's Liberation Army Expeditionary Force, composed of the PLA 1st, 22nd, and 23rd Armadas, into the Katar Sector. There, he established a firm beachhead and made first contact with the Drodo Empire and the other Katar powers, most of which were engaged in their own wars against the Tyranny. After a time of cooperation, the Drodo and the Coalition agreed on the creation of the Katar Sector Alliance.

Territory
The Coalition's main holdings lie in Northern Draco in the Andromeda Galaxy. With roughly 50,000 systems under their control, it is the second largest known power in the sector after the Drakodominatus Tyranny.

The Coalition is divided into thousands of administrative regions that are then grouped into blocks. Most of the population lies in the first block, a region of space previously home to a number of burgeoning stellar empires before the Drakodominatus occupation. Once one heads away from Quarania, as the first block is called, the population slowly thins until one reaches what has come to be known as "The Barrens," a desolate region of space stripped of free life during the Scorched Earth Campaign, its population turned into biodrones by the Tyranny. This region of space is strictly off limits to ordinary civilians. The Barrens remained relatively untouched until 2793, when ROUT discovered a way to take control of the Tyranny's biodrones and use them to greatly bolster the Coalition's economic capacity.

The Coalition also possesses a small amount of territory in the Katar Sector, which is currently under direct military control.

Government

 * Main article: United Free Peoples Coalition Government

The Coalition can be considered to be an absolutist military dictatorship, where all legislative, executive, and judicial powers are concentrated into the hands of the Coalitionary General, an office currently held by Gustavus Ikeben. Based out of Quaran, the Capital city, the government employs hundreds of thousands of personel to adequately manage its burgeoning territory. On Quaran, the government is divided into the Foreign Office, dealing with diplomacy and espionnage, and the Ministry, handling internal affairs.

Local Governments
The Coalition is split into sectors, each with its own capital, regional governor, and armed militia led by a Governor General. To harbor some semblance of Democracy, Regional Governors are elected by popular vote to oversee civilian affairs but de facto hold little power. The Governor General is sent over from the core worlds to head the militia and to ensure that order is being kept, that production quotas are being met, and that the Regional Governor is playing his part as the regional figurehead. Each sector is responsible for providing a given amount of production materials (namely starships, military equipment, uniforms) and drafted recruits to the Capital each month, and for raising and maintaining its own militia.

Economy
The wartime Coalition economy relies greatly on centralized planning. There are no markets and no private businesses; everything, the factories, the mines, the replicators that provide for the people, belong to the government. For the most part, essencial goods are allocated evenly to the populace, though many say it is not enough to be fed and clothed. One could say that there is no freedom: one must show up to their allocated job at a given time and toil away in dangerous conditions for long hours. To not show up is to forfeit the day's bread.

Industry
The Coalition inherited the Tyranny's massive planet-based infrastructure, though it could not be put to use until a way was found to circumvent the Dominatus AI that had everything in a stranglehold. Such a way was eventually found, allowing the Coalition to field starships with the same speed and ease as the Tyranny had before them. Thanks to recent advancements in technology, the Tyranny's biodrones were hijacked and made to work for a newly developed Coalition AI. Within a short span of time, the Coalition's economic capacity was nearly doubled.

Trade
Thanks to Dominatus replicator technology, not much is needed within the Coalition that can't be produced locally. As a result, the infrastructure necessary for intergalactic, or even local trade has not yet been constructed. The Coalition's centralized economy also does not yet allow for the amassment of capital needed for trade to start.

Military

 * Main Article: People's Liberation Army

The People's Liberation Army is the mainstay of the Coalition's armed forces. It is composed of the Liberation Marine Corps, the Liberation Air Force, and the People's Liberation Navy. Each of these are under the direct control of the Coalitionary General. Separate from the professional army, each sector is required to levy and maintain a militia of a given size depending on its population.

Thanks to the infrastructure left in place by the Tyranny, the PLA was able to acquire tens of thousands of ships within span of a couple months. These, Ikeben demonstrated, are capable of rivaling the Tyranny's firepower when used en masse, a fact that was proved multiple times during the Scorched Earth Campaign and subsequent engagements.

Since 2792, the PLA's ranks have swelled enormously. Finding conscriptable personel became a difficult task as the Coalition's industry's ability to produce ships far outpaced its ability to find new recruits. Thanks to an AI program developed by ROUT in 2793, many of the PLA's smaller starships could run without a crew. This allowed many garrisons and border outposts to move up to the front while being replaced by automated craft.

Foreign Policy
The diplomatic affairs of the Coalition are generally handled by the Foreign Office. With its headquarters on Quaran, the Foreign Office welcomes foreign ambassadors and embassies, and brokers the more mundane deals with foreign powers. The Coalition's foreign policy is, as with everything else, the responsibility of the Coalitionary General.

In the past, the Coalition has followed a policy of strict pragmatism, extending, agreeing to, and refusing deals depending on their practical value. It is generally neutral towards nations or organisms that have little to do with it. Furthermore, it considers the allies and friends of its enemies to be potential enemies, though has tended not to take military action until a formal declaration of war has been issued.

The principle of Casus Belli is an important influence in Coalition foreign policy. When declaring war, they consider it polite to state the reason for the declaration and to offer an opportunity for conditional surrender. They will think less of nations that declare war without provocation or casus belli.

They tend to take alliances far more seriously than others would, considering them to be less declarations of friendship, but a mutual agreement to help the other party if it is attacked. To refuse to answer the call of an ally in a time of war is often considered the ultimate insult and a casus belli in it of itself.

Multinational Organizations
In 2792, the Coalition co-founded the Katar Sector Alliance, a military pact between the nations of the Katar Sector in the Milky Way Galaxy. As a founder, it holds two votes in the alliance's Security Council as opposed to the average member's one. Gustavus Ikeben was named Commander-in-chief of the alliance's combined forces, and therefore holds a great deal of influence over the Security Council's decisions.

Allies
"Together, we will triumph!"


 * Green face.png Sindar Dominion - Already, you are proving to be devout and useful allies.
 * Blue face.png Drodo Empire - Together, we have created the Katar Sector Alliance. Our continued friendship, we hope, will eventually bring about peace.
 * Blue face.png United Federation of Species - We've heard great things about you.
 * Yellow face.png Farengeto Republic - Their attempts to remain neutral in the war have backfired. Perhaps their siding with us is part of a wider Tyranny plot, perhaps not.
 * Yellow face.png Miperiors Empire - They are respectable, if not odd people.
 * Yellow face.png Federation of Ezlangei - Their sudden change of heart concerning the war is interesting. An eye should be kept on them.
 * Yellow face.png Scientific Combine of Nakeimato - Their commanders seem competent. We hope that putting our trust in them wasn't a mistake.
 * Orange face.png Aeoneonatrix Empire - Is this how you conduct diplomacy?

Neutral
"What do you want with us?"


 * Blue face.png - While not always reliable and open to communication, they have proved to be valuable allies in our fight against the Tyranny.
 * Yellow face.png - ...
 * Yellow face.png - ...
 * Yellow face.png - ...
 * Yellow face.png Gargator Empire - ...
 * Orange face.png Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth - We have reason to believe they seek our destruction.
 * Orange face.png Draconid Imperium - We have reason to believe they seek our destruction.

At War
"We will destroy you, or die trying."


 * Red face.png Mardor Empire - They are pawns of the Tyranny. War was inevitable.
 * Red face.png Drakodominatus Tyranny - Even weakened, they are dangerous. They would wipe us all out in an instant given the chance.
 * Red face.png Imperum of War - An ally of my enemy is also my enemy.
 * Red face.png New Corporate Krickan Union - They are as much a danger to themselves as they are to others. Unfortunately, we might not have the luxury to wait for their regime to collapse on its own.