The Greater Commonwealth of Systems [WIP]

The history of the Greater Commonwealth of Systems dates back to the early 21st Century, in which the United Kingdom had increasingly taken steps in order to assure its own future prosperity after doubts were in place over the European Union's influence in the country. By the 2020's, the UK had all but renounced its membership and seceded from the EU and had instead decided to maintain a separate trade agreement which would allow limited immigration and commerce with EU Member States without compromising itself further at the hands of mass immigration, EU laws and so, and became further independent from the rest of Europe. In 2052, in response to the increasingly rapid formation of 'super-powers' such as the United Arab Emirates, the various member-states of the Commonwealth of Nations unified to form a union comparable to NATO between the former provinces of the British Empire including Canada, Australia and India. Whilst each state would still be able to govern its own matters, possess its own laws and its own policing forces, they would all fall under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth and its military and have a common governing body, alongside falling under the technical Head-of-State, the Ruling Monarch of the Royal Family in Great Britain, though this was an entirely ceremonial matter. This laid the basic foundations for the Greater Commonwealth.

Taking advantage of the renaissance of the Space Age, the Commonwealth quickly chose to invest in Helium-3 based fusion technology and together in a series of collaborative efforts with China and the United States, they pooled their research to develop cheaper and more efficient spacecraft capable of traversing the Solar System within a short period of time. By 2061, the Commonwealth oversaw two Helium-3 extraction facilities and a processing plant constructed on Luna and a permanent colony of approximately fifteen thousand citizens of the Commonwealth nations had been established. By 2067 it had shipped off a large number of colonists to other bodies in the solar system; first of all Mars, where the new arrivals rejoined the original Mars One initiative's colonists alongside other nations and established its first permanent settlement outside of Earth's orbit, and then the Jovian Moons of Ganymede and Europa, the latter of which becoming a major scientific outpost which laid the foundations for the Darwin Institute of Science and Technology after life was discovered in the oceans beneath the ice.

When it was time for Humanity to set its sights on places outside of the Solar System, the Commonwealth nations - in particular the United Kingdom and India  - contributed its pooled research and scientific knowledge towards the development of FTL travel by the United Nations, and pushed to have crew members from its nations onboard the UNSV Curie. When news returned home of the Curie's success, the Commonwealth celebrated with great fanfare and declared it to be a milestone in Human history. Furthermore, the encounter with the Alarei which would quickly reveal the existence of sentient alien life was the cause of much debate between the Commonwealth nations and when it came to the final debate amongst the United Nations over whether or not Humanity should join the interstellar community, the nations of the Commonwealth reluctantly supported the motion.

As it happened, the Commonwealth appeared to benefit from this decision; having opted to construct its own FTL-capable spacecraft independently of the United Nations, the Commonwealth began to explore other systems and sent down survey teams to explore the planets, hoping to make discoveries of scientific, industrial or military value to them. Seeking to curb the inevitable issue of overpopulation in the Solar System, a long search for suitable planets to colonise and exploit began.

In 2117, an exploration probe sent out to survey nearby systems found its way into the 09C system, discovering a G-Type main sequence Yellow Dwarf Star (Named Elizabeth after one of the Commonwealth's greatest rulers) of similar properties to Sol, orbited by eight planets, the first of which were uninhabitable to Humans due to their proximity to the star whilst the fourth, Elizabeth IV, was discovered to be habitable and at the same time very similar to Earth, undergoing its own Paleogene era. With oceans, an active geology, a breathable atmosphere, comfortable climate, stabilising moon and a diverse yet managable biosphere, the planet appeared to be highly ideal for colonisation, whilst the remaining outer planets which were gas giants, gas dwarves and their moons could all be exploited for their resources. In honour of what many believed to be one of the Commonwealth's greatest historical figures who had overseen triumph in a difficult time, it was named Churchill.

No sooner after the first survey teams had arrived and completed their research between 2119 and 2121 did the first colonisation ships arrive in 2124, with the first batch of approximately twenty thousand colonists ready to be released from cryostasis after the first habitation and spaceport facilities had been constructed whilst elsewhere the private and government-backed corporations launched their first probes towards the system's outer planets in search of untapped resources. In the subsequent months, further batches of colonists brought their total numbers up to just over a quarter of a million.

Yet only a few months into colonisation, an alarming report of a security outpost facing attack from a number of unknown hostiles was quickly receieved by the MoD and when analysis of what remained of the outpost indicated the use of high powered energy weaponry unlike what had been seen before, it raised an alarming question as to whether or not the Commonwealth were dealing with a terrorist cell which had acquired foreign military backing, and even a few suspected that the assault was being conducted by a Black Ops agency of a foreign nation. Several days later, it was reported that a lone humanoid individual had been wandering the desert and upon closer analysis it became apparent that the humanoid was in fact of alien injury.

Almost immediately, military forces were mobilised to capture the alien, finding little resistance from the injured captive, who responded only with silent resentment. For weeks, attempts to communicate with the captive were fruitless, as aside from the obvious language barrier which alone made things very awkward, the creature seemed to be unwilling to speak. Instead, it merely followed its captors without question and made no attempt to escape, instead appearing to have accepted its fate. Meanwhile, the equipment confiscated during its capture appeared to be incompatible with Human use, as it wore an unusual combat suit of sorts which appeared to disguise heat signatures from detection systems, whilst the weaponry it had been carrying didn't seem to rely on ballistics so much as it focussed on concentrated projecting intense heat, similar to prototype weapon projects to create energy weaponry as an alternative to traditional ballistics.

Despite the capture of the alien, another raid was conducted on another outpost in the desert over the next month and the captive remained silent until one day during an interrogation demanding to know the reason for the attacks, it addressed the personnel within its cell in simple, if somewhat poorly spoken English and remarked that the Humans had attacked first. Assuming that it had gradually learned of the language over a number of interviews, encounters with personnel and so on, the interrogator was quite eager to know what it meant, and continued the inquiry. Evidently, the captive seemed reluctant to release certain portions of information, most probably as there were details it did not wish to compromise, but otherwise it gave them a rather long description of how its people were a spacefaring race, who were then attacked first by the "Leroni Mandate", another alien 'faction' of sorts comprised of religious zealots who believed that all other races had committed blasphemy against their gods through simply existing.

The captive, who eventually termed it's own race "Ephan" as it gradually grew to trust the interrogator, went on to reveal that the Leroni Mandate had driven them from their homeworld many years ago in an attempt to systematically enslave and exterminate, waging an interstellar war which eventually forced the survivors of the xenocide to desperately commandeer a stolen and re-purposed 'cryoship' before embarking on an exodus across countless systems before eventually discovering the Elizabeth system and going into hiding on Churchill approximately fifteen years before.

When questioned as to why the cryoship had not been detected by the initial survey teams, the captive responded that to avoid leaving a trail for the Leroni Mandate to follow they had dismantled most of the vessel's vital components and used the acquired materials for various other purposes whilst the remainder of the vessel was intentionally left to be buried beneath the desert sands to prevn. Then it revealed that the Ephan had mistakenly believed the Human colonists to be associated with the Leroni Mandate and had acted out of fear that their people hiding in the desert would have been discovered. When asked why the captive had chosen to trust its captors and reveal such information, it responded that the zealot faction would have killed it already to appease their gods.

Eventually it agreed to aid in negotiating a peace with the rest of its people and after contact was officially made with the Ephan it was agreed that in exchange for the captive's release they would be willing to parlay. With few options remaining the Commonwealth agreed and made good on their promise, and within several days a negotiation party had made its presence known at an undisclosed location. Whilst heated at first due to the initial conflict between the two species, the negotiations soon smoothened out and within a month both the Commonwealth and Ephan had settled an official agreement to form a diplomatic alliance for the mutual benefit of their people.

Soon enough, diplomatic envoys between the two races were sent out; envoys came home to report of an extensive tunnel network running miles beneath the mountains where the Ephan had established a well-hidden colony for their people, who numbered in the thousands. Meanwhile, Ephan emmisaries who had chosen to embark on a visit to the Commonwealth's colonial settlments expressed their surprise at such progress having been completed within a short span of time.

With their concerns of the Leroni Mandate's return set aside for the time being, they branched out and formed surface-based settlements of their own, intially unwilling to live amongst other Humans due to lingering racial setiments on either side, but by 2137 the Ephan had agreed to join the Commonwealth and were now established as the super-state's first Non-Human citizens, and amongst one of the earliest Human super-states to grant membership to an alien species. A golden age prospered, as the network of mining facilities in orbit around the system's largest gas giant, Mandela (Nicknamed 'Madiba' by the locals of South African descent), enabled trade between other colonies and the Elizabeth system to prosper due to the increasing demand for Helium-3.

By 2140, four more colonies had been established across the system, three of which were on Mandela's largest moons, which were also being mined out, whilst the fourth was on Hawking, the Mars-sized moon of the gas dwarf Elizabeth V. Ephan and Humans were in full co-operation with each other, with the Ephan being granted independent governance over their own colony on Mandela II in exchange for sharing research into their own technology with Humanity in order to improve and expand upon current designs.

In the recent years, rumours had begun to circulate of plans by the Ministry of Defence to design and construct the Commonwealth's first combat-ready spacecraft independently of the United Nations, utilising both established knowledge and the information extracted from Ephan research and in when it emerged that the Commonwealth and followed through with these plans in 2141, it only served to exacerbate already growing tensions with the Alarei over Human militarisation and aided in pushing them towards the proposed Treaty the following year.

Around the time, numerous key figures among the Royal Family had been touring on an official visit across the system, including the second and fourth in line heirs to the throne, Elizabeth III and grandson George VIII. When reports of the attack on the Einstein Shipyards reached the Commonwealth back on Earth, the super-state was quick to respond with fury as it had a personal stake in the prototype spacecraft in construction at the facility and feared that it would lead to attacks against Human interests outside of Sol. When the United Nations proposed a retaliatory attack, there were more than a few individuals within the UK's slice of the security council who were more than willing to support the motion, despite rapid opposition from less millitant elements.

As it happened, the decision would eventually be regretted by the entirety of Humanity; only shortly after the decimation of the Alarei's homeworld and colonies, referred to by many of the opposition as a xenocide equivalent to a war crime, the Black Friday retaliation occured. Humanity had forfeited their own homeworld, and not even the Commonwealth's territories were spared. Canada was left a smouldering ruin, like most of North America, South Africa and India were rendered frozen wastelands by the nuclear winter that followed, Australia remained untouched at first but the ensuing contaminating winds which swept south killed most of populace by either poisoning them or starving them through the deprivation of crops and livestock. Worst of all, London suffered several direct hits and EMP's caused by the blasts left most of the south without any functional equipment, so many died. Only places such as the East-Midlands, Scotland and Northern Ireland were able to survive but were left in dissaray with a fractured local government.

The surviving remnants of the government on Earth and in the colonies were forced to negotiate with the other fractured nations. Yet, when these negotiations turned out to be fruitless and resulted only in numerous other colonies entering a state of self-imposed isolation, the governments were left with an ultimatum; declare independence as a new state or continue the potentially endangered legacy of the Commonwealth. The survival of two heirs to the Royal Family influenced the morale of this decision, however, and soon enough it was decided that the 'old' Commonwealth would be reformed into the Greater Commonwealth of Systems, with Elizabeth III as head of state, albeit in a ceremonious position, whilst the traditional Parliamentary Government remained mostly intact. Despite everything, the people of the Commonwealth had persevered.

By now, the Commonwealth has been allowed three centuries to recover from its losses and yet the scars remained. With the population pushing upwards as the years went by and resources slowly waning as they were exploited, the time of expansionism had begun.

Name: Major Isaac Hastings

Age: 37

Race: Human

Allegiance: Special Boat Service (Navy counterpart to the SAS)

Appearance: TBD

Backstory: A veteran military man of almost twenty years, Isaac initially joined the Royal Marine Commandos and worked his way up through the ranks, distinguishing himself in various operations across the Elizabeth system until he was eventually slated for the SBS' gruelling selection process. Against the odds, Hastings was able to graduate the harsh training conditions to become part of the legendary fighting force and later went on to prove himself an effective operative during a hostage crisis in which a pirate organisation had managed to hijack a Navy freighter carrying a payload of explosive cargo, and were threatening to crash it into a nearby colony on Mandella IV if a ransom was not paid. Despite the great risk, Hastings and his team were able to board the freighter and neutralise the pirates before they could carry out the threat, earning him praise throughout the Commonwealth as a national hero.