lategaming

Human Unity, though most pacifist by most standards, does construct weapons for use by natural humans and Experts. They build weapons for their own security and defense as Human Unity has yet to commit a pre-emptive aggressive action. Despite this apparent cultural reticence, they design and manufacture weapons that would terrify and delight 20th century warmongers.

Human Unity employs Brilliant weapons. They provide accuracy and accountability even in the fog of war. Brilliant weapons totally eliminate the possibility of friendly fire and, if coded correctly, can also be prevented from inflicting more than flesh wounds. The reverse, of course, is true that Brilliant rounds can be targetted on a shoot-to-kill code.

Aboard Explorer and Battler craft, the weapons are orders of magnitude larger.

Kinetic Kill Vehicle – A high-vector attack craft armed with heavy armour, numerous point-defence weapons and a single high-yield detonation charge. The KKV is usually controlled by an Expert remotely. An Expert may also be installed within the vehicle.

Very Rapid Fire Coilguns – magnetically accelerated munitions seldom needing a warhead. A Battler may have a hundred coilguns installed in 4-gun batteries. The damage wrought by these clouds of fast-moving shrapnel are enough to shred most craft.

The most dangerous weapon in Human Unity’s arsenal is the Expert and more specifically, the Master Experts. Master Experts are artificial intelligences designed for war – that is, they are designed to win wars. Master Experts are never assigned to Explorer craft because they are the antithesis of everything Human Unity and the Exploratory Service strives for.

A Master Expert is supported by five Experts and all maintain the systems of Battler-class craft. A Battler is commonly double the size of an Explorer though it maintains less than half the crew. The remainder of the space is taken up with armour, weapons supplies and extra engines.

“In teaching there should be no distinction of classes.” – Confucius, Analects XV. 39

Human Unity is a technocratic utopia made up of 85% of Earth’s previous nations and all but two human-founded colonies.

As such, the vast majority of Human Unity is made up of natural humans and Experts from Africa, Asia and South America – the regions that were mostly ignored during the Conquest Wars. In the end they were forced to follow environmentally sustainable technologies in order to build their civilisation and using the lessons of the past, built upon the still-cooling corpse of the present, they were able to construct a society which abandoned the “Greed is Good” philosophy of Western Europe and North America.

It was not without great difficulty as huge swathes of land were ruined by the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons of the Corporate Syndicates. Oil fields, once a vital resource, were now either barren or irradiated for the next ten thousand years. Even the survivors of these regions had to be sacrificed as they carried the biological plague weapons which were, in the end, the endgame for the Conquest Wars.

Drawing down energy from the sun, tapping into the warmth of the Earth, making good use of their own arms and legs were the foundations of these new societies that would eventually become Human Unity. Nothing was wasted and eventually they found their productivity exceeded their needs and it was then that they looked outwards.

The elimination of economic and material scarcity remains the primary reason for the elimination of social evils in the modern world. There is no conflict between cultures of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ within Human Unity due to an abundance of materials, power and knowledge.

Outside of Human Unity, there are several nations on Earth who have not joined Human Unity for their own reasons. Some may be due to a fierce independence, some for economic or religious reasons. Human Unity remains constant as the global representative of humanity to the outer spheres.

The skeleton-state of the USA has declined membership as it continues to build and re-establish itself in the decades after the Conquest Wars. The USA remains a popular place for the young to visit, some for sentimental reasons, and many stay to help rebuild in the spirit of the frontiersmen who originally forged the nation.

Just north of the Western European Expanses, lie the Scandinavian nations, still bruised but not down from the Conquest War. More and more of their people are flocking to Human Unity and referendums held indicate the will of the people swings more towards joining Human Unity every day.

Culture
Human Unity is a culture of thrift. All of the people are well aware of their history and that to sustain human life on Earth, there must be sacrifices and effort.

In a society where material rewards are worse than meaningless, the only real rewards are philosophical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. That is not to say there is a lack of desire – the same emotions of old still beat within the breasts of these modern humans – but the societal norms are such that baser desires are much more despised. Social standing among your millions of peers is relevant as it fuels self-respect and respect for others. The openness of Human Unity means that deceit, greed, jealousy, theft and other ‘material crimes’ are punished thoroughly.

Human Unity has a general pacifist attitude. Having witnessed and recovered from the horrors of war, they abhor the concept and the practice of war though they recognise it has its uses especially in the face of a tyrant. As a result, service in the military is a necessary (and mandatory) chore and only a few involve themselves sufficiently in it to make a career. The use of Experts, in armed conflicts is to be expected and these Experts are considered to be very different to any other.

Human Unity is also a culture of invention. In both science and the arts, the people are encouraged to excel provide for the betterment of all. Without material promise, art is created for the sake of art, science for how it would make a positive impact on society. It is this desire for innovation, this curiosity regarding the unknown, which fuels the Exploratory Service.

In the wake of Alien Contact, Human Unity found itself well-prepared for a change in paradigm. Western religion, the last bastion of a primitive people, was almost completely thrown away and the vast majority now embrace Philosophy or Humanism as a creed. There was a new order to the universe which was embraced by the people after a short period of civil unrest which culminated in the Credo War.

Government
Human Unity leaves the governing of the society to the people and Experts best suited to it. The Experts handle the decisions of law and order and natural humans act as a second court. The government-court system is only invoked when there is a ‘national’ issue or when there is a civil issue.

Civil issues are raised when a complaint is made that someone in the society is infringing the rights of others in the society. In many cases the decisions of the Experts are sufficient and need not be referred to the second court.

National issues usually involve the entire voting population. This is, by default, every natural human individual of 15 years or older and all Experts. Voting is not private.

Desruptive Elements, on the other hand, seldom reach the people and actions are wholly decided by the Experts.

The Internal Security Department manages all aspects of security aboard an Explorer. In a 24 hour period, a security officer is expected to juggle his duties between leisure time, passive duty and active duty.

While on Passive Duty, the security officer is on standby, expected to be available for duty quickly. They will constantly receive the latest security feeds from the onboard Experts but are not expected to act on them unless there is an Emergency or Disruptive Element.

Active Duty, requires the security officer to walk the halls as well as actively monitor and respond to any security issues which may arise.

Emergencies will bring all of the security officers on board to Active Duty and require that all staff attend their stations or remain in their quarters for the duration unless instructed otherwise. Coordination of the movements of security personnel is managed by the Security Expert in accordance with Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).

Disruptive Elements also bring all security officers to Active Duty. After that, the coordination is down to the Executive Staff as all Experts on board will be deployed to contain the Element. Due to the nature of Disruptive Elements, there can be no SOP, but in the absence of guidance, Emergency SOP would be followed.

An Explorer craft typically carries 30 security personnel, consisting of 25 Security Officers and 5 support staff. There are commonly five 5-man Security teams (known as “Fives”) in operation though the deployment will depend on the preferences of the Security Expert.

The Support Staff consists of three Systems Security Officers and two Tactical Staff.

The Systems Security Officers are charged with maintaining the security of internal systems rather than the physical security of the halls, rooms and crawlspaces.

Tactical Staff are usually seasoned veterans, they take care of the training and wellbeing of the Fives acting in an NCO role answerable only to the Security Expert and Command Executive.

The role of Security Officer is physically demanding as it is required that they be in peak condition in order to be competitive with the standards set by Explorer-class crews (who in their own roles are expected to be in tip-top shape). They are expected to be the lead in defensive actions, combat-rescue and investigations. Security Officers are all well-trained, combat-hardened and are picked from the cream of all Explorer applicants. They are given all the best training in evaluation skills because they will likely be the individuals to decide whether a situation is friendly, hostile or disruptive.

Standard uniform is no different to the fatigues of other staff save for departmental colours and insignia. Manufactured from Active Cloth, the only differences with Security Officers are and additional suite of electronics woven into the systems which permit the SO to communicate with all designated staff and, to a degree, direct them. Active Cloth is a matrix of nanotubes and active electronics woken throughout the cloth, powered by the movement of the human body as well as able to obtain power from solar radiation. If all staff are wearing Active Cloth then all will be escalated to the same threat level as the SO which will automatically engage health monitors, adaptive camouflage, electronic countermeasures, temperature regulation and threat detection. The SO will feed all of this information to the Security Expert or, if out of contact, will make educated decisions based on the information.

Security Officers are armed with Brilliant weapons – homing, intelligent, stabilised, self-powered projectiles. These are aimed and fired and post-firing, controlled using a HUD display projected on the retina of the SO. An individual Brilliant projectile may be used as an armour-piercing slug, an anti-personnel flechette or an explosive depending on the deployment. While the use of Brilliant projectiles is limited in alien environments, the chances of friendly fire are down to an infinitesimally small percentage.

Explorer vessels do not commonly carry higher armament than this for individuals. The Explorer mission is not a military mission and higher level threats are expected to be noticed before they get close to personnel, permitting the Explorer vessel armament to take it to pieces first.

Though they are trained in all aspects of security, including boarding actions – they are dedicated to the security and integrity of Explorer vessels which is a massive undertaking with such a small staff and this dedication, along with Human Unity’s non-aggression policies mean they do not publicise or promote boarding actions except as a last resort.

This came in to the jabber channel from Aidan at an opportune moment. Religion survives in Frontier, writing about it now.