User:The Collective Mind/Bidonite Diaspora

"Meanwhile, in an alternate universe..."

The Republican Hive 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 Republican Hive 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.

Wars have a habit of expanding, and the OAS was inevitably drawn in when the NU bombed one of its colonies, which had been forcibly annexed by a battered ACN fleet seeking resupply. Weak as it was, the Organization's entry into the war caused a ferocious escalation. Whole planets were rendered uninhabitable by the conflict. It was widely believed that this was "the war to end all wars."

Then things got worse.

The Dig
The OAS was fighting a losing war. It knew from the start that it could never win against the gargantuan military complexes of the ACN and the NU, but the thousands of civilians killed by the two demanded to be avenged. In desperation, the Organization began to work through the alien ruins that dotted its planets in search of a trump card; ruins old as geology, yet improbably well-preserved. It employed tens of thousands of excavators and archaeologists and began to dig.

They might as well not have tried. The ruins were empty husks. Though their walls and floors stood, the furnishings had not been built to such exacting standards; save for those that seemed to have been obliterated by some vast weapon, where all that remained was scattered debris. One by one, the digs dug up nothing.

Except for one.

Nobody knows what exactly the Cobol 7th research team brought up from the ruins, but it was from them that the transmission first began. Every orbital installation and warship, every planetary structure with antennae pointed into deep space received the signal: a wave of screaming, senseless noise. Hours later, they reported odd behavior in their artificial intelligences and decision matrices, sickness spreading amongst their crews. Then their reports were drowned out as they began to transmit as well.

From the galactic south, on the fringes of OAS space, the noise began to spread.

The Plague
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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 individual 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 biomachine hordes. 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 loss of life and 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. This racially optimistic outlook means that the Empire is remarkably free of censorship for such a militarized police state.

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 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.

Thanks to Bidonite views on reproduction, eugenics are considered particularly contemptible. They believe all people deserve a chance at life, no matter their flaws.

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 that lives desires to be led absolutely. That is simply the nature of life."

- Precepts of Markaz

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

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.

Beneath the Grand Council is the House of Sovereigns, with currently some 2,400 Sovereigns holding office. Each Sovereign governs a single star system in the Empire. The House itself is divided into approximately 200 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.

The Tetrarchs are individually extremely powerful figures within the House of Sovereigns. A royal edict issued by a Tetrarch must be carried out unless fully half of the House votes against it. An edict backed by two of the Tetrarchs can only be blocked by 2/3 of the House. Should three of the Four demand an edict, then it can only be blocked by an identical 3/4 of the House. And if the entire Tetrarchy is in agreement, then nothing the House can do can block their decision.

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.

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
"I ask, how can a nation enforce decrees if it has no legions to do so? Without a legion, it is a knife without a blade."

- General Jarikov Minet Dynal

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 has a penchant for land assault and fortification, 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. As a result, the Bidonite military has almost as many members as there are Bidonites populating the Empire's worlds.

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."