Fiction:Andromedan Free State

"Althron is dead, but his vision lives on. To simply give up arms, to believe the people of Andromeda are now free just because Her Holiness and His Majesty sometimes listen to a few dozen cronies in the Diet, would be to spit on his great legacy. We shall not listen to their lies, and we shall not accept their countermeasures. We shall build our own democracy, and we shall preserve it until the Highlords and their regime fall before the will of the people."

- General Keraliy Aktobis after the Great Treaty of 2799

Born from the chaos of, the Free State of Andromeda, also known as the FSA or just the Free State, or fully as the Federal Democratic Free State of Andromeda, is one of the few surviving remnants of the great that once rallied trillions of sentients against the Ecumene's power. Whereas most leaders of the Front either died in battle or surrendered after the war, the stubborn loyalists behind the Free State sought to continue their fight even after treaties were signed and governments reformed. In the outer Segmenta well beyond the Ecumene's reach, they've built their new state: a country of refugees and rebels, more democratic, at least on paper, than the Highlords' "benevolent autocracy", where all would be equal and power would belong to the people. The Free State's founders hoped that from this staging ground, the war for Andromeda could yet be won.

Since then, the Free State of Andromeda emerged as an "alternative galactic government", which rejects the Pan-Andromedan Ecumene's claim over the entire galaxy and seeks to replace it with a more egalitarian, liberal and democratic system. Citizens of the Free State see themselves as heroes fighting for freedom and equality against the iron rule of the Highlords, whose tyrannical speciecist regime is gripping the people of Andromeda under the pretense of galactic unity. To the subjects of the Ecumene, they are hateful warmongers, relics of a darker age when the galaxy was tearing itself apart: radicals out to disrupt its dearly-won peace and harmony.

The truth, perhaps, is somewhere inbetween. The Free State is, of course, far from innocent. It was founded by terrorists, and is far from the ideal democracy that it postures itself as: charismatic demagogues and military strongmen scheme and squabble for power in its government. Yet it is also not the gun-toting dictatorship portrayed by Ecumene propaganda: even the most warlike of its politicians understand that their tiny republic cannot win against a galactic superpower, and would prefer to simply keep the peace for the time being. If there's one thing that's true about the Free State, is that its people want to preserve their way of life, and are willing to fight and even die for it.