Prologue: Powder Keg
Many years ago, the great thinkers and scholars thought the future would bring about flying cars, cities in space, and a world much more technological than theirs. They year 2000 AD was often cited as a futuristic world where spaceships and robots would exist alongside humans, where transportation was instant and where fantasy would become reality.
Such a world would finally exist, but much longer after the year 2000. In time, the countries of Earth would expand into space and divide the Moon up much as they divided Africa and the New World into colonies. Conflict was inevitable, and threats of nuclear war grew by the day. It seemed as though the world was doomed to be plunged into a war from which it would never emerge alive.
Technology had grown by leaps and bounds. The era of traditional warfare was ending, and in its place, robotic warfare was being born. Japan had been its birthplace, when Toyota's i-foot, a mechanized mobility suit, sparked a new race among the major industrial companies. Soon, the war jumped across the seas, with American company Boeing entering commercial robot production alongside Toyota, Honda, Kawasaki and Sony. These suits were created for the good of humanity; to help the sick, to aid those in need, and to serve the public. These suits came into use in construction, rescue operations, and even daily police work. Slowly, they grew in size, becoming metallic giants, reflecting the humans that had created them. It was inevitable that these mobile suits would become part of the modern military, and countries around the world began to add them to their armies.
Around the same time, the United Nations began to experience a growth in power unlike it had ever seen before. Propelled by the desire of second and third-world nations to have a bigger say in the world's politics, the United Nations was left to die by the world's major political players when they pulled out of it. However, their vacuum was filled by the remaining nations, who came together under the banner of a new alliance: the United Earth Federation. Expelled from New York City, they centralized themselves in Singapore and began to work for the betterment of the world.
Inevitably, mankind would expand their reach into space. What had begun as exploration and study in the 21st century now began to materialize with a race between the major powers. The colonial race between the world's major nations resulted in the rapid expansion of Earth's control into space, followed by the expansion of Earth's population into the colonies. Some left because they felt the Earth was overcrowded and polluted, destined to destroy itself. Others left to escape from what they thought was oppression. Regardless, the colonies had swelled to a population of 300 million within only a few years, a drop in the pan compared to the 9 billion people still living on Earth.
The United States, fearing their superpower position was in danger, acted like a cornered animal. They struck at the loosely-held together United Earth Federation, determined to make it their own vessel, which they would use to take over the world. However, it seemed as though they were not alone, as China, Russia, the European Union, Brazil, South Africa, Iran, India and Japan all became entangled in the conflict. Falling short of the all-out nuclear war it had been predicted to be, The Great War pitted the third-world nations against their first-world aggressors.
There was no clear winner. Many casualties were had in the name of peace, but the peace was a hollow one. The European Union had agreed to join the United Earth Federation halfway through the war, and the UEF capital was moved from a bombed-out Singapore to Brussels. The remaining free nations of the world would join the UEF, with America exerting its remaining force upon the federation... much to the displeasure of the rest of the world.
In time, the United Earth Federation would become reborn as the Galactic Authority, intending to extend their rule to the colonies, the Moon, and beyond. Borders disintegrated, but ethnicities remained, and several small conflicts broke out, all put down by the new governing body. In addition, a new calendar was created: the Galactic Century, the first in a line of acts to unite the Earth under common rule. Order seemed to be coming to the restless planet, and for a while, there was a peace.
Underneath the cover of peace, though, tensions grew stronger and hotter. The colonies, subject to additional Galactic Authority law, were growing discontent. Compared to the Earth, they had been given second-class status. Left to defend themselves with what the Galactic Authority would discard, they became subject to crackdowns, suppression, and iron-fisted control. Uprisings rarely happened, due to the strength of the Galactic Authority and the deadly, bloody terror they reigned upon rebellion. The gap between rich and poor grew in the colonies and on Earth, as trade policies kept most profit in Galactic Authority hands on the planet.
It soon became clear that this would not be a conflict between the colonies and the Earth, but a war between those in power and those who were powerless. The Galactic Authority was fracturing at the seams like its predecessors, under pressure from African and Asian states. It was a powder keg waiting to blow. The question wasn't when it would explode, but what would set it off.